The World League has started The World League started last weekend. 14 teams have already entered the competition, the matches of the first round of quartet “B” Italy - Japan are scheduled for early July, when all other participants have already completed the group stage. The Russians, playing in the four “C”, hosted Serbia at the Krylatskoye sports center in Moscow and won twice - 3:0 (29:27, 25:14, 25:21), 3:1 (25:21, 25:23, 21:25, 30:28). Our team had three debuts at once.

Computer programs used to make films deserve special nominations at film festivals The third part of “Pirates of the Caribbean” released in theaters does not raise a simple question in the public, mesmerized by the spectacle: “How was this done?” Meanwhile, this is where perhaps the most interesting thing is hidden. A twisted plot, fencing and battle scenes - all this does not really get the viewer through.

Climate conflict between Bush and Merkel threatens summit failure A year ago, numerous critics of Russia predicted that the G8 summit in St. Petersburg would end in failure. This didn't happen. This year, when the chairmanship of the club passed to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the contrary, was given large advances. And, it seems, again in vain: the shadow of impending failure has rapidly hung over the summit in Heiligendamm in recent days.

On June 1, Children's Day, the Cherished Dream Prize, awarded for the best literary work for children, will be presented. The prize was initiated precisely to stimulate children's literature, which has been just barely breathing lately, and if in the first year of the prize's existence, works for the award list were selected from those created in all recent years, then this time, when it was necessary to make do with what was written in a year, one can already feel noticeable difficulties.

Swiss Xstrata Plc did not change the terms of its takeover offer for Canadian nickel mining company LionOre Mining International, but extended its validity from May 25 to June 7, after another bidder, Norilsk Nickel, also vying for the asset, improved its offer. Xstrata offers $5.6 billion for the Canadian company. Norilsk Nickel's offer is $6.3 billion (initially the company offered $4.8 billion for LionOre).

Chronicle of sporting events Football. Spanish Championship. 36th round . "Sevilla" - "Zaragoza" - 3:1, "Gimnastic" - "Atlético" - 0:2, "Celta" - "Betis" - 2:1, "Racing" - "Levante" -- 2:3, Athletic -- Mallorca -- 1:0, Recreativo -- Espanyol -- 0:1, Barcelona -- Getafe -- 1:0, Real Madrid "-"Deportivo" - 3:1, "Valencia" - "Villarreal" - 2:3. Leading : Real Madrid, Barcelona - 72 points each, Sevilla - 70.

Poland may block Russia's accession to the WTO The problem of supplying Polish meat to Russia is gaining increasing geopolitical scope. Warsaw was unable to turn the situation around, even blocking work on the preparation of a new comprehensive Russia-European Union agreement. The intercession of German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the recent Russia-EU summit in Samara also did not lead to visible results. Therefore, President Lech Kaczynski is looking for another pain point to put pressure on.

Lately, the Cannes Film Festival has not been spoiling Russian directors, but the situation has developed that Russians were celebrated in Cannes primarily depending on their general attitude towards the country. The first Cannes Film Festival for Soviet winners was very successful, although the Palme d'Or did not yet exist. The only time a film from Russia took this most important and honorable prize happened in 1958, at the beginning of the “thaw”.

Dual power ends in Karachay-Cherkessia The federal center finally found the strength to intervene in the protracted confrontation between the judicial and executive authorities in Karachay-Cherkessia . The name of the permanent head of the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia Islam Burlakov was not on the list of candidates for this position, which the High Qualification Board of Judges submitted to the head of state for consideration.

Russians will pay for telephone calls of Europeans The European Parliament by a majority vote approved a sharp reduction in prices for telephone roaming within the EU countries. In 2008, the cost of an outgoing roaming call will be 46 eurocents, an incoming call - 22 eurocents, and a year later - 43 and 19 eurocents, respectively. What may affect Russian cellular subscribers. You and I have nothing to be happy about - for Russian tourists, prices at best will remain the same.

Italian financial police searched Eni and its subsidiaries Italy's largest oil and gas concern Eni and its director Paolo Scaroni (pictured) came under investigation by the country's financial police on suspicion of fraud. As it became known, searches and seizures of documents took place yesterday in the offices of Eni itself in Rome, its subsidiaries Italgas and Snam, as well as in small companies operating in the energy market, AEM and Arcalgas.

At the beginning of June, the President of the Association of Regional Banks, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Banking Committee Anatoly Aksakov will submit for consideration by deputies amendments to the law “On Banks and Banking Activities”, which will facilitate the procedure for reorganizing banks.

Irkutsk Arbitration refused to consider the case of revocation of the license for Kovykta TNK-BP, despite all the efforts of lawyers, is unable to stop the process of revoking the license for the giant Kovykta gas condensate field (gas reserves reach 1.9 trillion cubic meters).

The Federal Antimonopoly Service gave consent to Prana LLC to complete a transaction to acquire real estate and some other assets of YUKOS, the FAS said in a statement yesterday. As you know, this mysterious LLC won the corresponding auction on May 12, offering 100.09 billion rubles for the lot.

Moscow is talking again about limiting energy consumption Climate anomalies such as the heat wave now established in the Russian capital, as well as bitter frosts, immediately call into question the potential of Moscow’s energy system. Trying to find salvation under air conditioners and fans, Muscovites are thereby overloading the city's energy networks.