Montserrat Caballe arrived in Moscow to take part in the first spring festival "A Thousand Cities of Russia", which will be held from March 6 to 9 in the restored Gostiny Dvor as part of the "Stars of the World for Children" movement. The great Spanish singer will perform together with other stars of world art and the UNESCO World Children's Choir. Her daughter Montserrat Marty will also perform with Caballe.

The C-23 Sherpa light military transport aircraft was flying from Florida to an air base in Virginia. There were three crew members and 18 National Guard troops on board. Air traffic control officials say they were in constant contact with the plane and there were no reports of problems during the flight. Aircraft of this type are designed to transport cargo. “Sherpa was performing a routine flight. There were cargo escort personnel on board,” a spokesman for the US Air Force said.

Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Mutawakil today rejected Iran's offer to ransom and remove Buddhist statues from Afghanistan that are in danger of being destroyed. "We told Iran that preserving cultural heritage is indeed our responsibility, but destroying idols is a religious duty," Mutawakil said in a statement.

In the south of Moscow, a complex fire that broke out on Sunday morning in an underground sewer under the Moskva River on Danilovskaya Embankment has been extinguished. The source of the ignition was in the collector, where high-voltage cables and communications of the thermal power plant pass, Ekho Moskvy reports with reference to Interfax. Firefighters had to approach the collector from both banks of the Moscow River - from Danilovskaya Embankment and Avtozavodskaya Street.

Green has the fastest time in the 60m sprint. At the US Athletics Championships, Maurice Greene repeated his personal best, running 60 meters in the semi-finals in 6.39 seconds. At the first serious competition of this year, the Olympic champion and world record holder repeated his record, which he set on February 9, 1998 in Madrid. He will compete in the final race on Saturday evening. “I have something special in store for the final,” Green said.

Today's overnight police operation "Makro" in Bosnia and Herzegovina freed 177 women from Romania, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine who were forced into prostitution. This was announced in a statement issued today by the head of the UN mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Jacques-Paul Klein.

Russia may have violated a moratorium on nuclear explosions several times over the past five years by testing new weapons on the island of Novaya Zemlya, The New York Times reports. Officially, these tests, according to the newspaper, were declared nuclear-free by the Russian military. “Russia conducted low-yield nuclear tests on Novaya Zemlya, some scientists and intelligence experts say,” the newspaper writes.

Prince William has begun a tour of African countries, British newspapers write today. The purpose of his trip was to participate in a safari and study the environment. "For three and a half months, the 18-year-old prince, along with a group of adventurers, is enjoying himself before starting his studies at Scotland's St. Andrews University, which begins in September," the newspapers note. "We are not disclosing where he is now or where he will be moving," a spokeswoman for St.

Former Australian soldier Rod Millner is going to make the longest parachute jump, AP reports. To do this, he will need to rise to a height of 40 thousand yards (about 36 thousand m) above the ground in a balloon. The agency notes that Rod Millner will be wearing an astronaut suit during the flight. It is planned that the future record holder after the jump will fall at a speed of 1800 km per hour for seven minutes before his parachute opens.

The Russians won the first half with a score of 15:13, but were unable to maintain their advantage in the second half. According to the team coach, the main reason for the defeat was the injury of a large group of rugby players after previous meetings with Portugal and Spain. Before this, Russia and Georgia played each other three times in official matches, and twice luck favored the Georgians.

The Moscow authorities allocate 478 million rubles for the creation of domestic television films. As reported by the Moscow City Hall, the program approved by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov provides for the shooting of 40 films in 2001. Financing will be carried out from the funds of enterprises and organizations that are partially exempt from income tax.

Police in London this afternoon, as reported by AFP, "blew up a suspicious car near the city's central Victoria station, which authorities said may have contained a bomb." Details about whether a terrorist attack was being prepared at the station or whether it was a false alarm have not yet been reported, but according to police representatives, they “had serious reasons to suspect that there was a bomb in the car, and therefore a so-called controlled explosion of the car was carried out ".

284 pilgrims from Chechnya today safely reached the tent camp in the Mina Valley, ITAR-TASS reports citing a representative of the Russian Consulate General in Saudi Arabia. The pilgrims have already joined the praying Muslims. In total, over 3,500 pilgrims from Russia make the hajj to the holy places of Islam.

In London tonight, one person was injured in a bomb explosion that occurred near the BBC television center, reports Reuters. Now the London police are working at the scene of the incident, and, according to the first statements of representatives of the special services, the bomb was planted in a taxi near the television center, and Irish extremists carried out the terrorist attack. “The police knew that an explosion would occur and tried to defuse the bomb.

Today, the annual Muslim pilgrimage - Hajj - reaches its culmination. About 2 million pilgrims will travel to Mount Arafat. It was here, according to legend, that the Prophet Muhammad delivered his last sermon. At exactly noon, pilgrims will begin the central rite of the Hajj - standing at the Arafat Rock, which continues until sunset. During this time they listen to sermons and pray. Then hundreds of thousands of people run to the Mosdalifa Valley, where evening and night prayers are said.