Today in Pyongyang, for the first time after a long break, negotiations between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun are due to begin . They discuss issues of ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula and helping the southerners to the northerners. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (he is South Korean) promised full support for the second inter-Korean summit, which will last three days.

A volcano erupts in the Red Sea On Sunday, the Yemeni island of Jabal al-Tair was rocked by an explosion. A column of flame, ash and smoke appeared above the 1200-meter mountain, rising 300 meters, and streams of hot lava rushed down the slopes. In principle, this all looks completely ordinary: an average, not particularly high volcano, not a very strong eruption, and the picture of the natural phenomenon itself is very standard, you could even put it in textbooks.

The Russian President conferred with his new government for the first time Before going to the United Russia congress to agree to head the party's list in the Duma elections and, possibly, become the country's next prime minister after the presidential ones, Vladimir Putin held a traditional Monday meeting with members of the cabinet. Yesterday it was held for the first time with a renewed composition.

British Film Week opens with Jane Austen British Film Week is taking place in Moscow for the eighth time, and for the second time in a row it is opened by a film directed by Julian Jerrold.

A unique project is being implemented in the Kemerovo region - the extraction of methane gas from coal seams , which has no analogues in Russia both in technology and in scale. The governor of the region, Aman Tuleyev, at a recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, proposed starting industrial production of this gas in 2009.

The presence of women on the board of directors improves a company's financial performance The role of women in the leadership of large corporations must be radically reconsidered. The public organization Catalyst Inc, specializing in the protection of women's rights in labor relations, addressed American shareholders and business owners with a call to more actively “dilute” the weaker sex with traditionally male boards of directors.

The President will head United Russia's election list and may head the Cabinet of Ministers The United Russia congress resolved yesterday one of the main problems of modern Russian politics - the problem of Vladimir Putin's employment after the presidential elections in March 2008. The head of state gave his consent to head the list of the party in power in the upcoming State Duma elections in December.

Scientists have experimentally tried to prove some mental differences between the sexes A popular aphorism says that men and women are so different from each other that they resemble two different biological species.

Rodion Shchedrin’s opera “The Enchanted Wanderer” was performed in Moscow A person unfamiliar with the essence of the subject hears something autobiographical in the title of Shchedrin’s “Enchanted Wanderer”: Shchedrin is a wanderer himself, in his rare visits to Moscow he brings some kind of otherworldly charm, and his music, so Russian in spirit, nevertheless, it could not have been written here, in this thoroughly noisy and bustling metropolis.

The Japanese Prime Minister has no time for Russia yet Yesterday, the new Prime Minister of Japan, 71-year-old Yasuo Fukuda, gave a keynote speech in parliament. This speech was awaited with special attention in the country, because Fukuda became prime minister on September 25 after a serious crisis, when his predecessor Shinzo Abe, who unexpectedly resigned on September 12, actually admitted his inability to govern the state. Fukuda did not change Abe's cabinet much.

Anti-Semitic brawl at a ten-kilometer altitude The Aeroflot flight Moscow-Munich last Friday was marked by a fight in the business class cabin at an altitude of several thousand meters. The passenger, who drank “for courage,” at the end of the flight decided to get even with the citizens whom he considered Jews, while introducing himself as a “Don Cossack” and a relative of a famous army general.

Vladimir Potanin will manage Interros and its assets alone Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov agreed yesterday on how they would divide assets in the future . First, they decided that Mr. Potanin would now be the sole owner of the Interros management company and would buy out Mr. Prokhorov’s share in it. And secondly, they decided to create a board of directors in the KM Invest fund, which owns the group’s main assets totaling $11 billion. Mr. Potanin became the chairman of the board.

Because of a dispute between TV companies, Spanish football is not watched in Europe Watching the start of this year's Spanish Football Championship is a special pleasure. Over the years of digital television and cable channels, we have become accustomed to convenience: pay and see. However, any habits are temporary, unlike Spanish irresponsibility, which, of course, is eternal.

The government abolished quotas for domestic air transportation The new procedure for licensing air transport, approved by government decree in June, came into force yesterday. As the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation) Evgeny Bachurin said at a press conference on this matter, now the subject of licensing will be air transport activities as such, and not the right to operate on certain routes , as before.

The State Duma simplifies the procedure for registering dachas as property More than a year after the law on the “dacha amnesty” came into force, the State Duma is finalizing the “gardening” legislation . Today, the lower house will consider a bill designed to facilitate the transfer of amnestied hacienda by inheritance. “This will significantly simplify procedural issues,” State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov promised on Monday.