21:20
Today on FunReports.Com
Naked Men Get Excited Over Dressed Salesgirls in the South of France, Grandmother Has Grandson Attack Census Agent, Double Gender-Swap for Hungarian Couple. These are the headlines of the funny articles that you can read on PRAVDA.Ru's project today FunReports.Com

21:00
Terrorist Bombs in the Philippines
150 victims in two bomb attacks on shopping centres
Two bombs exploded in separate shopping centres in the Filipino city of Zamboanga, on the island of Mindanao, on Thursday, killing six people outright and injuring 143, 20 of whom are in critical condition. Islamic fundamentalist groups are suspected of being behind these attacks. More details...

20:47
No wine for Khatami
Iranian president to refuse dinner if wine is served
Mohammad Khatami, the President of Iran, has declared that he will refuse to sit at the same table as King Juan Carlos of Spain if wine is served during the meal. His initiative has caused a flurry of diplomatic activity. More details...

20:37
Ivory Coast: Ceasefire
Peace deal comes into effect at midnight on Friday
Representatives of the Ivory Coast government and rebel soldiers signed a peace agreement in Bouake on Thursday, putting an end to three weeks of bitter fighting. More details...

20:25
Tension on India/Pakistan Border Lessens
India and Pakistan pull back troops
Tension is decreasing on the border between India and Pakistan. Islamabad and New Delhi have announced their intention to pull their armed forces back from the border region. More details...

20:24
France: Adieu to the Jacobine centralised state
New laws to decentralise France to be presented to Senate and Deputies
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has wasted no time in bringing in revolutionary new legislation which will change the institutional map of France. Sweeping new powers are to be transferred from the central authority to the regions and the individual is to be given more rights. More details...

20:00
Russia Will Have to Support the War Against Hussein Anyway
Iraqi oil is more important that the American steel
The Russian government and their Western colleagues have been rejecting a certain economic motive in negotiations pertaining to the Iraqi issue. However, it is obvious that Vladimir Putin’s agreement with the new resolution of the United Nations definitely means something More details...

18:53
Governor of the Magadan Region Killed in Center of Moscow
The assassination was allegedly taped by security cameras
The governor of the Magadan region, former member of the Fedration Council, Valentin Tsvetkov, was killed in the center of Moscow today. The happened at about 9 a.m. on Moscow’s Novy Arbat street. The criminals managed to escape More details...

18:05
Grandmother Has Grandson Attack Census Agent
As any large-scale action, the All-Russian population census couldn’t avoid interesting and aggressive incidents. For instance, one pensioner suffering from sclerosis set her grandson against census agents. The young man’s sclerotic grandmother demanded that a repeat census be taken of her, as the old woman decided to make a few changes More details...

17:26
French President Dares to Challenge America
France might veto America’s resolution on Iraq
The White House has finally finished pressing Russia and China (two permanent members of the UN Security Council) regarding the Iraqi issue. Russia and China made it understood they will not put obstacles in America’s path to pass the resolution on Iraq in the UN More details...

17:12
UFOs in Russia: Witness Statements and X-Files
The situation concerning documents on governmental research connected with UFOs is similar in Russia and the USA
Unfortunately, if classified documents about UFOs actually exist, it is highly problematic to obtain them in Russia. In fact, researchers today have of just few official materials. At that, it is generally admitted that the UFO question has been studied for a long time by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Hydrometeorology Committee, and the Defense Ministry. A couple of days ago, I downloaded from the Internet documents on official UFO research held by the CIA and the Agency for National Security. Being extremely enthusiastic about it, I opened the first files but became extremely disappointed when I saw just official headlines and stamps on perfectly white sheets of paper More details...

16:15
Russia Refuses to Obey West
Wall Street Journal: Russia will not join the World Trade Organization
The Wall Street Journal wrote today that Russian plans to join the WTO are under the threat of failure. Russia is being too uncompromising. No one is going to grant the WTO membership to Russia on such conditions More details...

14:41
World Oil Exchanges Burning Up
Islamic terrorists have reached Saudi Arabia
It seems that the image of this country as the most respectable and stable Arab country was shaken yesterday. As it became known, a conspiracy by Islamic radical terrorists was unveiled in Saudi Arabia yesterday More details...

14:15
Lithuanian Lobby Must Be Stopped
Viktor Alksnis, RF Duma deputy representing the Russian Regions spoke at the parliamentary hearings devoted to the Kaliningrad problem
Last week, an influential Danish newspaper close to the governmental circles, published an article dedicated to the Russia’s city of Kaliningrad. The newspaper suggests its conclusion saying that Russians should go back to Russia, so that the Kaliningrad region could be turned into an autonomous district of the European Union; at that, Poland, Lithuania and probably Germany may establish unified control over it. No matter what they say, the Baltic republics are in the sphere of Russia’s vivid interests. Does it mean that if Russia voluntarily gives its sphere of interests to its economic rival, the European Union, it is quitting the sphere itself? More details...

11:43
Russian Capital to be Repatriated
The National Investment Council compiles a black list of Western banks profiting from laundering Russia’s dirty money
When Russia was removed from the FATF list of countries that take no measures against money laundering, the country decided to look at the money laundering problem closer and find the institutions involved in money laundering, not only domestic, but even foreign ones. It was probably the effect of President Putin’s warning to Russian oligarchs when he promised a crack down on money laundering and unfair business tactics More details...

20:27
Russian Scientists in America. Part II
Former Soviet dissident talks his scientific life in the USA after the Soviet Union.
Those scientists who were invited to come to the USA by firms, or those that had rare knowledge, are basically luckier. Firms sometimes do that, since emigrants very often agree to lower wages, in comparison to what Americans want. I know two such specialists; they have been working in the States for a very long period of time. Their major problem is to find new contacts when old ones are over with. A company can experience a lack of specialists if it is a company that deals with new industrial fields (for example, new software development). This lack of specialists is a temporary inconvenience, basically More details...

17:50
Dignitas: Suicide Solution
People in the West are shocked when their relatives decide to commit suicide with the help of institutions like Dignitas
Dignitas, an organization that helps people who suffer from fatal illnesses commit suicide, is rather active in Zurich, Switzerland. Dignitas rents an apartment in the center of the city, where clients come to take a lethal doze of barbiturates and die listening to their favorite music. Dignitas is strictly criticized in Switzerland and abroad; very soon, the Swiss parliament will consider the question of Dignitas More details...

17:14
Iraq: Debate in UN Security Council
Wider base for debate as Annan asks for unanimity
The UN Security Council began a debate yesterday among the 15 Members of the Security Council along with 48 other countries, one third of the 191 members of the UNO, to find a broad base for a resolution on action to be taken against Iraq, described by Kofi Annan as “the last chance” for Saddam Hussein to avoid war. More details...

17:13
Tuesday Night Fever in Rio
Grenades, bombs, machine-gun fire, all in a policeman’s night-shift
When a group of friends of the main drugs barons of Rio de Janeiro, incarcerated in the famous Bangu III high-security jail, decided to free them, they woke up the whole city with a fireworks display of diversionary tactics. More details...

16:18
Nuclear Reactors Existed on Earth Two Billion Years Ago
Natural nuclear reactors found in Africa’s Gabon
Nuclear physics is a relatively young science. Humans created the first man-made nuclear reactor only about 60 years ago, in 1942. However, nuclear reactors existed on the planet two billion years ago. So far, science knows of 17 nuclear reactors located in Gabon, an African country More details...

16:06
Moscow Interested in EU-Russia Summit Success
All parties are interested in the settlement of the Kaliningrad problem
A RIA Novosti correspondent informs that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says that Russia is interested in the success of the upcoming Russia-EU summit. More details...

15:00
Soyuz-U Carrier Rocket Blew Up at Plesetsk Cosmodrome
Investigators think that it was the fuel. Was it an act of terrorism? The carrier rocket Soyuz-U blew up at the Plesetsk cosmodrome (in the Arkhangelsk region) on Tuesday, 29 seconds after launch. Twelve such rockets have been launched into space from Plesetsk since 1985. This was the 13th rocket. Thirteen is a “lucky” number More details...

14:57
Indonesia: The Bali Bombing
Former Indonesian Air Force member was not involved in the Bali explosion
Indonesian Military (TNI) Headquarters spokesman Lt. Col. D.J. Nachrowi denied on Wednesday that a former member of the Air Force was involved in the Bali explosion, which claimed nearly 190 lives on Saturday night. More details...

14:31
“I Felt Morally Obliged…”
Pentagon official accused of spying for Cuba
Ana Belen Montes, the former senior analyst at the US Defense Intelligence Agency, who had been in charge of the Cuban case, was sentenced to a 25-year imprisonment. In eager rivalry, the Western media are discussing the unprecedented action of the American citizen. Confessions of Ana Belen Montes were a shock for liberal American law-makers More details...

13:23
The Man Who Finds Money Even Where There Is None Part Two
Nicholas Greene: We hope to get the biggest piece of the pie
In September, Russia’s Rosbank announced the creation of a Structured Finance Group which would focus on attracting foreign investment to Russian enterprises and on the development of securitization, a very popular financing system in the West. Rosbank Senior Vice-president Nicholas Greene is the head of the project. More details...

12:29
Mario Soares: Agreement to not Extradite US Personnel to the ICC “a shame”
Ex-President of Portugal and ex-Vice President of the European Parliament horrified at spinelessness
Mario Soares declared in the Portuguese Parliament on Tuesday that the decision not to extradite US personnel to the International Criminal Court to be tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity is “senseless” and “defenceless” More details...

10:30
Africa, Land of Conflicts
In Ivory Coast, Sudan and DR Congo, violence rages between armed ethnic groups
Violent battles rage in Ivory Coast as the rebels are driven out of one city, while in Sudan the government troops take the offensive against the People’s Liberation Army in the south and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ex-Zaire) Rwandan-backed Congolese Union for Democracy forces contain the government-backed militia which support Kinshasa. More details...

21:10
Support Independent Media! Support PRAVDA.Ru!
PRAVDA.Ru now offers T-shirts and other items with the PRAVDA.Ru logo. More details...

20:17
AIDS Ahead of Economics
The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan made his long tour to China not for the sake of getting a doctor mantle or talks about the HIV danger. However, AIDS is a pressing problem for China. The Chinese media confirmed Annan’s forecast, saying that the number of HIV-infected people will reach 10 million people by 2010 in China. As of now, the number makes up about one million More details...

19:34
Serbian Synod to Fight for Serbian Culture
EU members don’t reject their national self-determination, culture and, language
The Synod of the Serb Orthodox Church says that the situation with the Serbian national written language, the Cyrillic alphabet, is threatening. Serbian clergy addressed the Serbian community with an appeal to preserve their native written language. The appeal says that the Cyrillic alphabet is disappearing from the public and cultural life in Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian people’s traditions and customs are becoming more and more obsolete; there are lots of borrowed words in the language; the Serbian written language and literature are disappearing. Together with them, the Serbian nation is dying off and comes fading away from the political scene More details...