Transcontinental tobacco company Philip Morris, one of the world's largest tobacco companies, is accused of tax evasion. The Interfax agency reported today that the Milan prosecutor's office has accused Philip Morris of tax evasion for a huge amount of $8 billion. The investigation into this case lasted three years, 40 thousand volumes of materials were collected on it. The results of this gigantic work must now be considered in court.

Muslims of Mordovia strongly refute rumors about the presence of Wahhabis in the republic. According to the chairman of the Muslim religious society of the city of Saransk Ali Kitaev, the "hype" around this topic began after a performance at the ORT of the head of the spiritual department of the Muslims of the European part of the CIS and Siberia (Duma) Mufti Talgat Tajutdin that the terrorist camps of the Wahhabis were located in Mordovia.

Today in the USA, the ATLANTIS space shuttle has successfully started from Cape Kanveral, NTV reports. The crew of 7 people, including two Russian astronauts √ Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Marukov √ flying to a new international space station (ISS). The new international space station is the most grandiose project in the history of astronautics. Its cost is 60 million dollars. Russia, USA, Canada, Great Britain and Japan take part in the creation of the station.

The NTV television company suggested Boris Berezovsky and Alexander Voloshin to meet on the air of the Voice of the People program today at 19:45. Personal invitations have already been directed. The presenter Svetlana Sorokina expects to discuss the topics that go beyond the situation around the ORT, together with the program participants.

The shooting of the continuation of the film "Silence of the Yagnit", which will be called "Hannibal" ended. Anthony Hopkins again starred in the title role, and Jolian Moore became the successor to Jodie Foster, who refused to take part in the picture. According to the producer Dino Di Laurentis, she more corresponds to the appearance of the heroine - employee of the FBI of Clarissa Sterling, who has matured for 10 years.

Since the fall of 1999, Russian troops lost 15 tanks. This is much less than in the last Chechen company, today said Colonel General Sergei Mayev, head of the Main Autro -ron-Directorate (GABTU) of the Russian Federation. Losses in 1994-1996 demanded a review of ways to protect armored vehicles. In the current company, tanks were used only as an increase in the main forces. Installation of protective screens on tanks allowed to reduce the amount of losses to a minimum.

NTV correspondents managed to visit the ship during the exercises. According to Alexei Veselovsky, on the ship in full swing training is underway to work out deep -sea dives. The technique and interaction of the team is checked. "Epron", despite the fact that he was already 41 years old, the only special ship in Russia, capable of providing divers at great depths √ up to 200 meters. All other ships of a similar class in the early 90s were cut off and sold in scrap metal.

France's foreign minister has warned Sydney Olympics organizers to be mindful of their obligation to use French at the Games' opening ceremony. The press has already reported that Governor General Sir William Dean, who will open the Olympics, does not plan to use the language of Dumas and Maupassant. “French is one of the two official languages ​​of the Olympics,” says the press secretary of the head of the French Foreign Ministry.

A year after the terrorist attacks in Moscow, 16 people are considered missing on the street Guryanov and Kashirskoye Shosse. This was reported in the All-Russian Center for the Forensic Medical Expertise of the Ministry of Health of Russia. Initially missing were 26 people. To conduct special studies on the identification of the remains and the establishment of the individuals of the dead from the places of explosions, 75 fragments of tel were collected.

Priest Vladimir Nikolsky addressed Boris Berezovsky with an open letter, in which he proposed to transfer the ORT shares not to reporters and the intelligentsia, but to the Russian Orthodox Church. The letter was published today in the newspaper Izvestia. Over the years that have passed after Berezovsky the Holy Baptism, it was said to be addressed, he could not confirm his faith with righteous affairs.

According to NTV correspondent Denis Soldatikov, in early July of this year, employees of the regional department for combating organizational offices in the Moscow region in one of the villages of the Khimkinsky district detained three Tajik citizens who were suspected of storing and trading in drugs. In the village where Tajiks were detained, a whole settlement of immigrants from Tajikistan lives.

My colleagues and I would like to inform you about our impressions of working at the summit and its results as we see them. We can say with full reason that the Millennium summit has become a milestone, not only for the United Nations, but also for the history of international relations. Our generation really had the honor and high responsibility to summarize the results of the historical path traveled by the world community, to outline the landmarks of further development.

The international human rights organization Amnesty International has protested against the arrest of a Sikh activist in the Indian state of Punjab. Rajeev Singh Randhawa was detained near the Golden Temple, the main shrine of Sikhism in India. He tried to deliver the petition to the British Home Secretary Jack Straw, who was on an official visit to India. The petition alleged violation of the rights of the Sikh population of Punjab.

France, Great Britain, Germany are countries where the population is taking desperate measures to combat the rise in price of fuel caused by an increase in oil prices in world markets. German entrepreneurs called on the Government of Germany to take urgent measures to prevent the "gasoline crisis" in Germany.

The Kommersant newspaper writes that the balance of power in the foreign exchange market is changing. Dealers hope that the appointment of Vladimir Sokolov to the post of head of the Central Bank's foreign exchange operations department will make the exchange rate policy less rigid, leaving more room for speculation. Until today, the country's main bank controlled the foreign exchange market and held the course quite rigidly, carrying out alternate currency and ruble interventions.