Speaker Pelosi Talks to Syria Against President Bush's Will Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi dealt a powerful blow to President Bush's Middle East policy. An influential Democratic politician arrived in Syria, with the authorities of which the Republican US administration completely refuses to talk. Mrs.

Only politicians can resolve the conflict Yesterday, alarming rumors spread in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the decree on its dissolution was announced by the country's president on Monday evening . Viktor Yushchenko is allegedly about to introduce direct presidential rule, and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is already forming blacklists on his orders.

An accident occurred during the construction of the accelerator due to an error in calculations The completion date for the largest facility for physics experiments, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, is under threat. The European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that on March 27, one of the accelerator magnets partially collapsed during testing.

Veto of US resolution For the first time in 35 years, Moscow and Beijing jointly prevented the UN Security Council from adopting a draft American resolution criticizing the authorities of Myanmar (formerly Burma) for human rights violations. A grateful Myanmar said the US had "failed in its ill-conceived attempt" to interfere in the country's internal affairs.

An unexpected proposal for Condoleezza Rice There is a new conflict in the Israeli government . The aggravated situation in the Palestinian territories has pitted members of the cabinet against each other, and perhaps this will not be the end of the matter. The reason for the verbal battles was a harsh statement by the Israeli Minister of Strategic Planning, Avigdor Lieberman.

On Tuesday, April 10, a meeting of the UN Security Council on Abkhazia will take place, which has already provoked a dispute between Moscow and Tbilisi. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the unrecognized republic, Sergei Shamba, wants to attend the meeting, which Russia insists on. But Georgia opposes the invitation of the “separatist” and intends to use the meeting to criticize Moscow.

Afghans don't want to get their fingers dirty on the border with Pakistan Where is the elusive international organization Al-Qaeda hiding?

The US offers Russia its anti-missile umbrella The Americans “want to cooperate” with Russia in the field of missile defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs Eric Edelman stated this desire of the US leadership. He assures that the State Department and the Pentagon are preparing for intensive consultations with Russia on missile defense. First of all, according to plans to deploy a dozen interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.

The President of Belarus is ready to move closer to the West in retaliation against Russia The President of Belarus made an unexpected and sharp attack yesterday after a compromise had just been reached with Moscow regarding Russian oil supplies. Alexander Lukashenko, during voting in local elections, sharply criticized Russia’s actions in the oil conflict with his country and promised to move closer to the West.

Europe is looking for ways to rapprochement with the SCO A meeting of German experts with representatives of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held at the German Society for Foreign Policy in Berlin, in which SCO Secretary General Bulat Nurgaliev took part. Europe's economic and political breakthrough into the Central Asian region has become one of the priorities of Germany's EU presidency. And here a “cautious rapprochement” with the SCO is important.

ENI and Enel bought Yukos assets - a little for themselves, a lot for Gazprom A consortium of Italian energy concerns - ENI and Enel - won yesterday the auction for the sale of Yukos gas assets, offering $5.83 billion. Moreover, just hours before the auction, the future winner signed a special agreement with Gazprom, which provides for subsequent resale to the Russian concern the main part of the purchased assets.

The Accounts Chamber is again dissatisfied with the decision of the National Banking Council regarding the audit of the activities of the Bank of Russia. Auditor Nikolai Tabachkov, who took part in the NBS meeting, said yesterday that the council decided not to include, at the request of the Central Bank management, an audit of transactions with government securities, securities and bills of foreign countries.

Chronicle of sporting events At the second category BTA tournament with a prize fund of 600 thousand dollars, the matches of which take place on green clay courts in Amelia Island (USA), last year's winner of the competition, Nadezhda Petrova, reached the third round, defeating Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) - 6 :4, 6:0. Dinara Safina will also continue to fight in the 1/8 finals. The Muscovite defeated the Dutch representative Mikaela Krajicek - 6:4, 7:5.

The Spanish Prime Minister will continue negotiations with the separatists More than a million Spaniards took part in demonstrations yesterday against the terrorist attacks of the separatist organization Basque Homeland and Freedom (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, ETA). The demonstrations, supported by more than 500 parties, were carried out on the initiative of trade unions in Spain.

The Davis Cup quarter-finals kick off on the Luzhniki stadium On Friday in Moscow at the Small Sports Arena of Luzhniki in the quarterfinal match of the Davis Cup, the Russian team will compete with the French team. In the past six matches, Soviet and Russian tennis players won four times and the French twice. It is noteworthy that for the third time the teams will play each other in the quarterfinals.