Phosphorus cloud leaves Ukraine Yesterday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said that the fire at the accident site in the Lviv region had been extinguished, and its perpetrators “will be punished.” On Monday, 15 tank cars carrying yellow phosphorus derailed while traveling from Kazakhstan to Poland. Half of the tanks exploded, and a cloud from a phosphorus fire covered a 90-kilometer zone around the accident.

Prosecutor Del Ponte will travel to Argentina The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, will be able to celebrate the New Year in South America. To do this, it is only necessary that her native Switzerland receive the appropriate agrement from Argentina. Carla Del Ponte's second four-year term as prosecutor in The Hague expires in mid-September.

The ongoing crisis in the US mortgage market has a negative impact on investor attitudes towards the US currency. Yesterday, the dollar updated its multi-year low against many currencies, including the ruble. The official exchange rate set by the Central Bank decreased by 0.04%, from 25.45 to 25.44 rubles/dollar. The last time the American currency was this cheap was in September 1999.

The Italians themselves don’t want to buy their company anymore The last serious contender for the purchase of the state stake in the Alitalia airline, AP Holding, which represents the interests of the second air carrier on the Apennine Peninsula, Air One, yesterday left the competition held by the Italian government. A few hours later, the Italian government closed the competition.

Documentary films are in vogue now. This type of art is becoming increasingly in demand primarily thanks to television, which is the main customer and broadcaster of documentary films, but at the same time imposes serious restrictions on it. In August, two new issues of the St. Petersburg cinema magazine “Seance” will go on sale with the general subtitle “Reality is not enough.” Both of them are entirely dedicated to documentary films.

Mikhail Zurabov briefed the President on the intricacies of DLO The Supplementary Drug Supply Program (DLO), which has caused so many problems for officials and worries for beneficiaries, will radically change next year. There will be no trace left of the former negative image associated with queues at pharmacies and billions of dollars in debt. And for the remaining six months, DLO will behave quietly and modestly.

Russia, despite the suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) , is ready to discuss this topic with the United States. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated this yesterday in a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Georgia refuses the “Ossetian side” Yesterday, Georgia demonstrated its determination to unilaterally change the status quo in the frozen South Ossetian conflict . President Mikheil Saakashvili was personally present at the government meeting, where it was announced the creation of a commission to determine the status of the former autonomous region, which declared independence 17 years ago. This commission will be headed by Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli.

The hunt for police officers continues in Dagestan In the Dagestan city of Kizilyurt today they will say goodbye to four employees of the private security department (OVO), who became victims of the most daring separatist terrorist attack since the beginning of the year. On Wednesday morning, militants blew up policemen who came to the school stadium for physical training.

Rospotrebnadzor gave a positive assessment of the products of two Moldovan wineries The moratorium on the import of Moldovan wines into our country, announced a year ago by the Russian sanitary department, will be lifted in the very near future .

Lokomotiv won without Dmitry Loskov Anatoly Byshovets will be in a good mood preparing for the fundamental and in many ways determining Sunday's championship match with CSKA. Yesterday, in the rescheduled match of the 19th round, his Lokomotiv beat Khimki near Moscow (2:1) and rose to fifth place in the standings. And he did it without Dmitry Loskov, who was sold to Saturn. Lokomotiv played the match of the 19th round in advance because of the Russian Railways Cup.

Cyclones have done a good job on the European territory of Russia. Another Atlantic cyclone will come to the Russian North. Because of it, in the northwestern regions there will be short-term rains, thunderstorms are possible, temperatures at night will be +11...+16°C, and during the day +17...+22°C. And on Friday there will be short-term rains in places, thunderstorms are possible, temperatures at night will be +9...+14оС, during the day +19...+24оС.

Thierry GARRELL has been director of documentary broadcasting of the La SEPT channel since 1986 and the ARTE channel, which was then formed on the basis of La SEPT. -- How was ARTE created on the basis of the La SEPT channel? -- I started working for La SEPT more than twenty years ago, at the very beginning of 1987. The channel was then only eight months old.

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has published an updated ranking of national teams. In it, Russia now occupies 23rd position. This is one line higher than last month. During this time, Guus Hiddink's team did not play matches, but since the rating takes into account the performances of national teams over the past eight years, some old merits were written off from the teams that were ahead of Russia.

Russian industry responded to the investment boom The Russian economy seems to have absolutely no intention of following the forecasts. Yesterday, Rosstat published data on industrial production for the first half of the year, which leaves no doubt that the government will have to revise all calculations for this year. Moreover, to the satisfaction of officials, as in the case of GDP growth rates, upward.