Men's tennis tournament. Indianapolis (USA). August 18-20. Women's tennis tournament. Montreal (Canada). August 18-20. A series of “lead-up” tournaments to the US Open continues in North America - the US Open, which starts on August 27. The women are playing in Montreal, Canada this weekend, while the men are in Washington and Indianapolis. At the last tournament, our Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin continued to fight, who in the next round beat the Israeli Harel Levi - 6:4, 6:2.

The conflict between Guta Bank and the Moscow region is widening New participants are being drawn into the conflict between Guta Bank and the administration of the Moscow region. Yesterday at a press conference, the president of Guta Bank, Alexander Petrov, said that the bank filed a lawsuit to impose a fine on the Central Bank due to the fact that the Odintsovo RCC of the Central Bank prevents the transfer of seized funds from the administration to the accounts of bailiffs.

An improvised explosive device went off early Thursday morning in the center of Moscow. At 4.10 an unknown man threw the infernal machine onto the road not far from the entrance to the Sibneft company office on Sadovnicheskaya Street. As a result, none of the rare passersby at this time of day were injured, and a small crater formed on the road. Experts who examined the scene of the incident came to the conclusion that the power of the homemade bomb was about 200 grams of TNT.

Courts want to make money on their own Strengthening the judicial system - an important component of federal government reform - faces a traditional Russian problem: lack of funds. Over the past years, the judicial system has received no more than half of the amount necessary for its normal functioning.

What's happening at the Edinburgh Festival and its Fringe The two largest European festivals, Avignon and Edinburgh, arose in the same year, 1947, but they differ from each other like ice and fire. Compared to sun-drenched Avignon, where tireless theatrical barkers await you at every turn, the gloomy and always rainy capital of Scotland seems a city reserved and full of its own dignity. This does not mean that she is not hospitable.

Ship captains and airline crews who illegally deliver foreign citizens to Sakhalin will now send them back at their own expense. This decision was made on August 17 at a meeting in the department of consumer market, trade and services of the Sakhalin region. The event took place after the administration of the Sakhalin region received complaints from entrepreneurs in the city of Dolinsk.

Russians have less money for vacation The second half of August is the peak of the tourist “high season”. Now it’s clear to see how fair the spring expectations of travel agencies were, and what a fairly wealthy Russian can afford. The Red Telephone information service, which provides free information about available travel packages, compiles a rating of the popularity of destinations based on requests from its clients. The last of them revealed an unexpected picture.

Scuba divers search for Jewish gold from Thessaloniki Another almost detective story related to gold stolen by the Nazis is nearing its end. For more than half a century, the minds of adventurers have been worried about the fate of the treasures of the Jewish community of the Greek city of Thessaloniki, robbed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

The Achinsk Alumina Refinery received new equipment for the first time in 10 years Recently, for the first time in many years, the Achinsk Alumina Refinery received new equipment for mining operations. Only the Moselle mine received three BelAZ dump trucks, an excavator, a grader and a drilling rig. For the plant, which was declared bankrupt almost three years ago and went through serious troubles, this is quite an event.

The Novosibirsk prosecutor's office dropped the criminal case against Evgeny Rychagov, who was accused of organizing an attempt on the life of the head of the main department of the Central Bank of Russia for the region, Ekaterina Zhabotinskaya. According to the official version, the case was closed due to lack of proof of the guilt of the accused. The assassination attempt took place back in May 1994, immediately after Ms. Jabotinskaya was appointed to this high post.

The former leader of Southern Rhodesia gave his first ever interview to a Russian newspaper Even those who were not very interested in international politics in Soviet times could not help but hear this name.

The final “exemption” of the Russian military from tax benefits can hardly be considered something completely unexpected. The decision on this was prepared by the cabinet of ministers of Viktor Chernomyrdin about three years ago.

After Vladimir Putin ordered Russian sailors on Wednesday to “accept help, no matter who it comes from,” the military has become very active. Yesterday, an agreement on cooperation was reached even with the NATO bloc so disliked by our generals. However, Moscow’s clearly belated agreement to accept the help of leading naval powers to save the lives of the Kursk crew, alas, is unable to change the situation directly at the scene of the accident.

The City Duma of Yekaterinburg refuses to link city laws with federal ones Deputies of the Yekaterinburg City Duma, who gathered after the summer holidays, refused to make changes to the city charter, which the prosecutor’s office has been insisting on for more than four months. Guardians of the law believe that part of the articles of the charter, which establishes municipal ownership of land, contradicts federal law.

The capital's education committee decided to wait with reforms Moscow is in no hurry to implement the Center for Strategic Research program in the field of school reform. The scheme of educational districts, consisting of four secondary schools and one gymnasium or lyceum, recommended by CSI analysts, will not be introduced in the capital this academic year. The transition to a per capita school financing system, envisaged by German Gref's plan since 2001, will also not be implemented.