Chronicle of sporting events Matches of the first round of the preliminary stage of the Grand Prix, a commercial competition among women's national teams, took place in Italy, Japan and China. This tournament is a kind of analogue of the men's World League. The Russian national team is not participating in the current competition, as last year it was unable to pass the continental selection.

Is it possible to do without intermediaries when looking for housing in the capital? Two new sources for searching for housing have appeared on the RuNet - the social network VKontakte.ru and Live Journal. Users are trying to bypass intermediaries to resolve housing issues in Moscow and St. Petersburg. All roads lead to realtors Hundreds of websites post thousands of advertisements for housing sales and rentals every day.

The PACE Chairman is impressed by the new Russian President Yesterday the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) opened in Strasbourg. Over the course of five days, representatives of 47 member states of the Council of Europe will discuss current international problems. The Russian delegation in Strasbourg is headed by the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev.

In Russia prices are increasing and the population is decreasing On Monday, Rosstat published summary economic statistics for the five months of 2008. Although the figures for the year - from May 2007 to May 2008 - are generally good, in recent months the growth rate has begun to slow down in some places. And where the growth of indicators is precisely undesirable, they nevertheless grow.

Natalya Bekhtereva died Russian medical science has lost one of its patriarchs. In Hamburg, at St. George's Hospital, Natalya Bekhtereva, a famous physiologist who had headed the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1990, died at the age of 84. The list of discoveries and scientific achievements of Natalya Bekhtereva is almost endless.

Bankers belong on the street Major financial corporations continue to lay off their employees amid the crisis. According to Western media reports, Citigroup, which suffered the greatest losses among American banks, may cut about 13 thousand people. Other companies will lose an even larger percentage of their workforce. Even Goldman Sachs, which is believed to have been largely unaffected by the mortgage crisis, will resort to significant cuts.

VTB borrowed almost $5 billion in a month VTB Bank yesterday attracted a syndicated loan in the amount of $1.4 billion. This is the third loan from a financial institution in a month. In total, during this time, VTB borrowed just under $5 billion on international markets. Such a large-scale fundraising indicates the high interest of investors in the largest Russian banks. VTB will use the received borrowings to refinance previous debts, as well as to develop the group’s business.

Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church will condemn church “independence” and same-sex marriage As expected, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, opening today in Moscow , intends to officially respond to the messages of Bishop Diomede of Anadyr and Chukotka, who, on the eve of the highest church-wide meeting, again criticized Patriarch Alexy II and the top leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church for contacts with the “anti-people” authorities and dialogue with other faiths.

The FTS will propose to limit gas prices from rises and falls By the end of summer, the Federal Tariff Service (FTS) will finally agree on new principles for calculating the formula for equal-income gas prices , the head of the department, Sergei Novikov, told reporters yesterday. According to him, the FTS proposes to introduce restrictions on the minimum and maximum price changes.

More than a third of Russians consider themselves poor Last week, data from two sociological surveys were published characterizing the Russian population’s perception of their social status. From the first survey it follows that 39% of Russians call themselves poor people (according to official statistics, there are less than 15% of them in Russia), and 57% of participants in another survey spend more than half of their income on food.

The ban on alcohol and energy drinks did not stop graduates from organizing mass celebrations One large youth party, which the streets of the capital turned into yesterday on the occasion of a graduation party in Moscow schools, can, perhaps, be compared in the intensity of emotions with the recent celebrations of the Russian football team's entry into the semi-finals of Euro 2008.

The thieves specialized only in domestic cars The Moscow City Court yesterday sentenced those accused of a series of thefts of Zhiguli cars from Muscovites. As the court found, the thieves had established their “business” so well that for five years they could easily transport stolen cars across the border to Kazakhstan, where they sold them using forged documents. According to the verdict, the creator and leader of the organized crime group is a native of Omsk, Andrei Bolshakov.

The President of Zimbabwe will be re-elected on an uncontested basis Zimbabwe's ruling regime expects increased international pressure following opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's refusal to participate in the second round of the presidential election on June 27.

The Deputy Prime Minister will have to start developing the Talakanskoye field Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin will closely deal with the problems associated with the construction of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline .

For the first time, a verdict was handed down for the illegal activities of a tour operator In Russia, for the first time, a verdict has been passed on charges of illegal business to the head of a travel agency. The Vremya Novostey correspondent was told about this at the Main Investigation Department (GID) of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate.