EVENT

Great Britain and France agreed on the common development and testing of nuclear weapons. According to the plans of the governments, the center responsible for research will be located in Britain, while the French party will be responsible for testing. The center for nuclear modeling will be built 45 kilometers from the city of Dijon in eastern France, Agence France-Presse cites the statement of Sarkozy’s administration. The center is expected to start operations in 2014. Both countries, as before, will control their nuclear forces independently. Moreover, it is reported that the governments are not going to share their nuclear secrets. What this means in practice is not quite clear. The head of the British government David Cameron and the president of France Nicolas Sarkozy will sign only two agreements: one on cooperation in the military sphere and another one on nuclear weapons. The first agreement will deal with creating common expeditionary forces, which, to all appearances, will consist of a brigade of about 5,000 servicemen from each side.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers the EU summit held last week in Brussels a success. She managed to obtain support from her colleagues for the plan on the long-term stability of the European currency, which was submitted by Germany. “Our currency, the euro, will become more stable. We are committed to doing everything so that the crisis which we are experiencing will never repeat itself,” said Merkel. She also considers the fact that European Union leaders unanimously decided to introduce “limited amendments” to the Lisbon Treaty, to create a permanent mechanism for crisis management in the EU in general and in the Euro zone in particular, to be a success. The new regulations are designed to replace the “rescue umbrella” which was created to stabilize the Greek economy, and which will expire at the end of 2013. Merkel also managed to persuade her colleagues to adopt procedures defining the mechanisms to be used in cases of Euro zone states getting into trouble. According to what EU President Herman Van Rompuy said during his speech at the press conference, the final decision on the amendments will be taken at the EU summit in December in order to complete the amending process by mid-2013. It should be noted that the second part of the Franco-German initiative that proposes to create, and include in the Lisbon Treaty, a mechanism to punish countries guilty of serious violations of fundamental principles of the Euro zone financial and economic policy, has not yet received the necessary support.

A third of Ukrainians do not have medical examinations

Only 4 out of 10 Ukrainians have medical examinations annually. Slightly over 14 percent of those surveyed confirmed that they follow the doctors’ recommendations, and undergo medical examinations twice a year. 40.6 percent do it once a year. Over 13 percent of those surveyed do not have medicals regularly, and a third of Ukrainians (31.9 percent) do not have them at all, Ukrinform reports, referring to the STADA CIS Holding official press release. Ukrainians are in no rush to the doctors for regular consultations. 46.4 percent of those surveyed stated that they visit a doctor only in case of emergency. What is more, 54.6 percent in the southern regions and 57 percent in cities with populations between 101 to 500 thousand, share this view as well. In general, in those regions, 16.2 percent of people go see a doctor once a year, 15 percent do it twice a year, and 12.2 percent do it quarterly. Around seven percent of those surveyed said they never visit the doctors. At the same time over a half of respondents agreed that regular medical consultations help reveal serious diseases at an early stage (51.4 percent). GfK Ukraine conducted the research, ordered by STADA CIS Holding. 1,000 people were surveyed in different parts of Ukraine.

Ukrainian grand master Vasyl Ivanchuk won the prestigious championship in France. On his way to the finals, the Leopolitan won the previous championship by scoring 5.5 points in seven games and later beat Judit Polgar from Hungary (2:0) and Boo Sanji from China (2:0). In the final Ivanchuk defeated Hikaru Nakamura from the USA (1.5:1.5). The championship took place in Cap d’Agde and finished on October 31, turnir.ua informs. Let us remind that Vasyl Ivanchuk is a well-known Ukrainian chess player and international grand master. He has won the Linares tournament three times. He also won the Chess Olympiads in 1988 and 1990 in the USSR team, and in 2004 — in the Ukrainian team. He got to the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002. As of 2007 he was rated 2787 by FIDE (second place). In 2008 he participated in the Tal Memorial tournament (classic blitz). Last year the Ukrainian grand master won the last round game of the fifth Jermuk FIDE Grand Prix.