Royal racing enters the new season with a new look Almost everything is ready for the opening of the 60th anniversary Formula 1 car racing championship. It’s been a long time since the championship started so late, when it’s almost April. The fans, who had missed the big prizes during the long winter break, anxiously followed the news coming from the team offices. After the self-liquidation of Honda and several waves of crisis that overwhelmed the world economy, this is not surprising.

The festival “Fashion and Style in Photography 2009” opens The festival is ten years old. Together with the traditional Photobiennale, it constitutes the main exhibition programs of the first photo museum in Russia - the Moscow House of Photography. For obvious reasons, the anniversary year is not the easiest for MDF.

Lokomotiv became the first participant in the KHL super final The first finalist in the Continental Hockey League, which is the Russian Open Championship, has been determined. Yaroslavl "Lokomotiv" beat Magnitogorsk "Metallurg" in the fifth match of the series - 2:0, the total score in this confrontation became 4-1. Now the team of Finnish coach Kari Heikkilä gets precious days of rest and in any case becomes the “number one” favorite of the championship.

Ex-president accuses authorities of colluding with Beijing The trial of former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian began in Taipei yesterday. Chen, 58, his wife Wu Shuzhen, 55, members of the presidential family and former aides are accused of embezzling public funds, forging documents and money laundering.

The caravan in Sudan could have been bombed by the Israelis and Americans Yesterday, details of a high-profile military operation allegedly carried out by the Israeli and American Air Forces became known. In January, several bombs were fired into Sudan during Israel's Operation Cast Lead against Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip. The target was a convoy of trucks with weapons heading to Egypt for further smuggling of cargo to the Gaza Strip.

The Supreme and Supreme Arbitration Courts upset trademark owners The country's highest courts did not pursue the “gray” importers. The plenums of the Supreme and Supreme Arbitration Courts adopted a joint resolution yesterday explaining to lower authorities exactly how to apply the provisions of Part 4 of the Civil Code - the last section of this fundamental document that has come into force, which regulates issues of intellectual property and the use of trademarks.

IAEA elects director general Today, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will continue the election of a successor to the organization's director general, the Egyptian Muhammad ElBaradei, whose term of office expires on November 30. ElBaradei, 66, has held office since December 1, 1997. He was re-elected in 2001 and 2005, but this time he announced his reluctance to serve another four-year term. Yesterday's vote ended in failure.

Details of new financial control rules released in the US Yesterday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking at regular anti-crisis hearings in Congress, announced details of planned changes to financial regulation rules. Contrary to the forecasts of some observers who still hoped for the triumph of the traditions of American economic liberalism, the proposed measures are extremely harsh.

Washington does not want to be friends with Moscow at the expense of the North Atlantic Alliance A few days before the meeting in London between the Presidents of Russia and the United States, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, scheduled for April 1, the topic of NATO came to the fore in relations between the two countries. Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled Moscow's wary attitude towards plans to expand the alliance.

The Ministry of Defense is trying to find employment for dismissed military personnel Secretary of State and Deputy Minister of Defense Nikolai Pankov told reporters yesterday how military personnel are being reduced as part of army reform. “Implementation of social guarantees for military personnel discharged from military service” is the name of the departmental target program, which was approved by Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on February 14.

Chechnya is ready to officially end the war The National Anti-Terrorism Committee of Russia received a proposal to officially stop the counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya. If this decision is accepted, the second Chechen war, which began in September 1999, will receive an official end date. To date, such a formal end to this tragic story has not been put, although colossal changes have occurred in Chechnya itself since then.

Estonian theaters at the Golden Mask It’s an amazing thing: in the non-competitive program of the “Golden Mask”, where theaters from the CIS and Baltic countries came, there were only three puppet shows, and all of them were staged by Russian directors.

Western banks extended the company's $1.5 billion bridge loan repayment period The Mechel Group managed to extend until May 15 the repayment period for a bridge loan of $1.5 billion taken for the purchase of the British Oriel Resources Ltd. An agreement was reached on March 25, and now the company will have to negotiate with the banks participating in the syndicate to refinance this loan using long-term instruments.

The Duma will adjust its anti-crisis plan to the government's The State Duma continues its attempts to help the government combat the crisis with useful advice. A month ago, the chamber adopted anti-crisis recommendations developed based on the results of the speech at the Duma plenary meeting of the ministers of the financial and economic bloc.

Some professions will be in demand in any crisis Enterprises have irreplaceable employees even in the most crisis times. The recruiting company Empire of Personnel has summed up the results of a study of the most in-demand specialists who have minimal chances of being laid off. It turned out that even if the crisis continues and deepens, sales managers and specialists whose work is related to the main activities of industrial enterprises will remain the least likely to be fired.