In an interview with F1 Racing, the president of the International Motorsport Federation (FIA) Max Mosley said that now Formula 1 could have existed without Bernie Ecclestone. It was Mosley and Ecclestone for 20 years that made Formula 1 the "most television" sport on the planet. The President of FIA answered the question of what will be Formula 1 without its current leader. “Max Mosley:“ Better than you might think.

Two NASA astronauts began open space work. This was reported to "Interfax" in the Russian Center for Flight Management (TsUP). The output is organized from the Discovery, attached to the international space station of the American space “shuttle”. At 17:58 Moscow time, the spacesuits of astronauts were transferred to autonomous food. This moment in NASA is considered to be the beginning of work in outer space.

A fierce shootout between the Palestinians and the Israeli army occurred today in the city of Hevron (El Khalil) on the western bank of the Jordan River, ITAR-TASS reports. Arab sources claim that the Israeli tanks were the first to open fire on the post of Palestinian elite republican guard "Sila-17". Palestinians tried to prevent the army invasion of their territory and opened fire to defeat. A fierce shootout ensued, as a result of which five Arabs were injured.

Conflicting reports of the fate of three Russian sailors from the Virgo tanker come from Canada. Earlier, agencies and television companies reported that the City of St. Jones decided to issue sailors to the United States, but, according to the latest data, this issue has not yet been completely resolved. In particular, the Reuters correspondent reports that the outcome of the court session was the release of three members of the Virgo crew on bail.

More than 30% of Belarusian citizens are ready to vote for opponents of Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election. About a quarter of potential voters have not yet decided on their choice. This was reported to RIA Novosti at the Institute of Social and Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAPI RAS), which conducted a survey together with the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. During the study, 1,500 people were interviewed.

In Yekaterinburg, two former police officers were caught in Heroin trading, the regions.ru agency reports. The criminals were arrested this afternoon on Repin Street. The operatives carried out the so -called control purchase of the drug, paying for swept bills. For 20 grams, former colleagues took 5 thousand rubles from them. During a further search, they seized another 85 grams of heroin.

More than 350 supporters of prohibited extremist groups have been arrested in Pakistan over the past day. According to ITAR-TASS, massive security forces were carried out in a number of provincial cities. Almost all those arrested belong to the Sunni organization "Lashkar-i Jhangowi" and Shiite Sipa-i Muhammad. Their activity was banned by President Peresa Musharraf on Tuesday in accordance with the new law on the fight against terrorism.

Today, the International Space Station has lost management and began to drift in space, reports Reuters. The cause of the accident was a failure in the software of a computer, which controls the four heroes that support the station in a stable state. It is reported that on the eve of this computer new software was installed, after which there was a failure. The crew was forced to urgently launch engines of Discovery, attached to the station of the Discovery ship in order to balance the ISS.

In Tatarstan in the evening of August 15, the rector of the Kazan Veterinary Academy was arrested on suspicion of bribery, exceeding official powers and assigning money, RIA Novosti reports. The investigation of the case of Gazim Idrisov was carried out by employees of the department for combating the economic crimes of the Sovetsky district of Kazan. Currently, a non -departure subscription has been taken from the rector.

A wide range of issues relating to the relations of the state and the church was discussed in Yerevan, Armenian President Robert Kocharian and the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Garein II , Gazetasng.ru reports. As the President’s press service, Robert Kocharian and Garen II, also spoke about events in Armenia as part of the celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity as a state religion.

In the Vedensky district, federal forces conduct reconnaissance and search operational-search measures to destroy disparate groups of militants. As ITAR-TASS reported today in the apparatus of the Assistant of the President of the Russian Federation Sergei Yastrzhembsky, "the situation around the led and adjacent settlements is controlled by federal forces." According to the apparatus, over the past few days, three troops of the federal forces have died in Chechnya.

Riga and Savelovsky Stations of Moscow can be brought to the periphery of the city. The appropriateness of consideration of this issue was announced by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov on Thursday at a meeting of the Town Planning Public Council, which discussed the concept of development of the Northern District. According to Luzhkov, the territories occupied by stations could be used for urban needs, in particular for housing construction.

The transfer of the British avant -garde of the NATO troops in Macedonia will begin on Friday, August 17, and will end by August 20. This was announced by ITAR-TASS representative of the British Ministry of Defense. The transfer will be carried out in two stages. The commander of the 16th airborneist brigade of the British Armed Forces Barney White-Qanner confirmed that the first group of his subordinates would arrive in Macedonia on Friday.

On Thursday, August 16, the premiere of the film "Luzhin Protection" will be held in the Moscow Cinema "35 mm".

The Interros holding earned about 1 billion on the sale of its stake in Sidanko, said the head of Interros, Vladimir Potanin. “Maybe it sounds a little unusual, but there is such a saying that when you marry, we must think about the conditions of divorce. And when we bought Sidanko, we, including, thought over the strategy of further movement up to the exit,” he said in an interview with the newspaper Vedomosti, published today.