In the second round of the US Open Tennis Championship, two unexpected outcomes were recorded . The defeat was affected by last year's winner of the tournament, the first seeded athlete, American Andre Agassi, who lost to the Frenchman Arno Cleman. The Argentine Franco Shirder, who lost to the Korean Tayk Lee, had also dropped out of the struggle.

The amount of pensions in Russia in 2001 is expected to be increased by 19 percent. According to the draft law on pension provision, next year, on average, pensioners will receive about a thousand three hundred rubles monthly.

In Hamburg, an armed criminal shot a woman and her two daughters, after that he took another woman hostage. The police stormed the room where the criminal was barricaded and seriously wounded him. The woman freed as a result of this operation received slight injuries. The motives of the crime and the identity of the criminal have not yet been reported.

US Energy Minister Bill Richardson participated today in the opening of two new storage facilities for liquid radioactive waste atomic submarines in the bays of Chazhma and Konyushkov in the Primorsky Territory. According to the Radio Liberty correspondent, the storage facilities are built at the funds allocated by the American government (several hundred million dollars) under the contract for limiting strategic offensive weapons.

Three people who tried to illegally get from France to Great Britain were discovered in the Eurotunnel. All three - refugees from Bangladesh - jumped in the tunnel from a freight train and received injuries. One is heavily wounded. The movement of trains along the Eurotunnel was stopped for an hour and a half.

The American congressman John Peterson said that relations between the United States and Russia may suffer if the Russian authorities do not release US citizen accused of espionage Edmund Pope. Peterson made this statement upon his return from Moscow, where he visited the Poup - Schelil. Peterson believes that the POP, which is sick with a rare form of cancer, does not receive the necessary treatment in the Russian prison. PRU was arrested in April, he rejects the accusations of espionage.

Ingushetia will receive 400 thousand dollars from the UN for the implementation of the water supply program - the UN Supreme Commissioner of the UN High Commissioner said in the Moscow representative office. This is due to the fact that more than 100 thousand refugees from Chechnya will remain in the republic. More than a third of the 70 thousand Russian schools need overhaul, and hundreds are in disrepair , the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Oleg Mironov said.

Kyrgyz aviation strikes the detachments of Islamic extremists in the mining regions of the republic border with Tajikistan. According to the Ministry of Defense of Kyrgyzstan, last night, armed groups did not attempt to break into the territory of Kyrgyzstan. According to Russian news agencies, government troops carry out the so-called “cleaning” in the area of the Zhailuu-Suu gorge in the Batken region.

In Dushanbe, the photojournalist of the National Information Agency of Tajikistan "Hovar" Alexander Alpatov was killed. Alapatov’s body with gunshot wounds was found on Friday night near the house where the journalist lived. The investigation is conducted. About whether the murder is related to the professional activities of Alpatov is not reported.

Mikhail Sokolov: The culprits of the disaster with the Kursk submarine have already been appointed by the president. These are not generals who failed the reform of the army. Vladimir Putin announced that the owners of newspapers and the others who robbed the country, the army and the navy were settled with the authorities. It is amazing that the Ostankino fire was not guilty of the Ostankino fire.

One of the former leaders of the coalition opposing the Afghan movement of Taliban - General Abdurashid Dustum, expelled by the Taliban from Afghanistan, was invited to Moscow quite unexpectedly at the end of last week. He flew to the Russian capital from Iran, where in the south of the country Dustum, like many other famous Afghan Mujahideen, found a refuge after the Taliban of their armed detachments defeated.

In Chechnya near the village of Bachi -Yurt, Kurchali district - according to the military, Russian artillery destroyed the Chechen detachment. On Wednesday, a combat clash of the Russian unit with Chechen fighters occurred in this area. The military called artillery to the aid. In the village of Chernorechye, 98 people were detained on the southwestern outskirts of Grozny on suspicion of participating in illegal armed groups.

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that Moscow and Tokyo occupy similar positions on many international issues, including in matters of the struggle against terrorism and the reform of the world financial system. In an interview with Asahi Simbun, an interview with the newspaper, Putin said that Russia and Japan will be easier to resolve a territorial dispute about the four Kuril Islands if both countries develop cooperation in the field of economics and other areas.

Hasin Raduev, North Caucasus: The so -called "continuous stripping" continues in the suburbs of the formidable Black -Rech. The village is still blocked by units of Russian internal troops. The road to Urus-Martan is closed. In the village, the movement of vehicles and the male population is prohibited. According to reports, several dozens of people who are suspected of involvement in the Chechen armed detachments have already been detained in Chernorechye.

President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma believes that Russia's withdrawal from an agreement on a visa -free regime with the CIS countries will negatively affect the economic development of the Commonwealth. Kuchma emphasized that the decision of Moscow question the existence of the free trade zone of the CIS, which involves the free movement of people, goods and capital.