Nicolas Sarkozy flouts conventions and socialists French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took office in May 2007 and during this time has become the hero of gossip columns in Europe, never ceases to amaze the public. While recently in Saudi Arabia , 52-year-old Sarkozy, in a speech to the advisers of King Abdullah, said something that almost had the effect of an earthquake in France itself.

London has come to terms with Moscow's demands The British authorities considered it best to comply with the demands of the Russian Foreign Ministry and stop the work of regional branches of the British Council . At the same time, the essence of the matter has not changed: in London they consider the demands of the Russian side to be unjustified and they are not going to curtail the work of the British Council. The decision is explained solely by pressure from Moscow.

The Germans invite Lavrov to a conversation about sanctions The foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council may come to Berlin on January 22. The topic of discussion is Iran's nuclear dossier and the related issue of tightening sanctions against the Islamic Republic . Western countries that are members of the UN Security Council insist on this, but Russia and China object.

Yesterday's brief visit to Moscow by Israeli Foreign Minister Ms. Tzipi Livni amounted to an exchange of views with her colleague Sergei Lavrov and a number of other meetings. But during the visit, the main thing did not happen, for which it was started in advance: the parties did not sign an agreement on the mutual abolition of tourist visas , work on which had been going on for about two years.

Residents of Cuba saw on TV a rare story with the participation of the country's leader - Fidel Castro talking and taking photographs with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who recently visited the island. Before this, Fidel was shown in the news in October 2007; he did not appear in public for more than a year and a half .

And Akezhan Kazhegeldin is confident in the political resources of the Kazakh president The leadership of Germany, whose chief of diplomacy Franz Walter Steinmeier, during his country's presidency of the European Union last year, developed the EU concept in relation to Central Asia, continues to demonstrate an active interest in the region.

Kostunica's supporters will judge Tadic and Nikolic On Sunday, Serbian residents will go to the polls to elect their president. There are nine candidates, but the real fight is between the current head of state, 50-year-old Boris Tadic (Democratic Party) and the candidate from the opposition Serbian Radical Party, 55-year-old Tomislav Nikolic. Most likely, the final choice will be postponed until the second round on February 3.

Moscow is convinced that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is doomed to degradation if reforms are not carried out in it. But the problems are not limited to politics - the OSCE annual budget has not been adopted, although it should have been approved before December 20, 2007. Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexey BORODAVKIN told Vremya Novostei special correspondent Katerina LABETSKAYA about the reasons for the crisis in the organization.

Belarusian individual entrepreneurs intend to hold another unauthorized protest on January 21. They oppose a presidential decree allowing them to hire only close relatives. Those who need more employees can register a business. But then they will have to pay higher taxes . The previous demonstration took place in Minsk on January 10. It lasted about five hours, 2-3 thousand people took part in it.