Negotiations between India and Pakistan ended in failure The three-day Indo-Pakistani summit in Agra, from which both countries were expected almost a breakthrough capable of ending the long-standing Kashmir conflict, ended in a crushing failure.

The creation of a unified stock exchange is postponed The consolidation of the technological and information capacities of three exchanges - MSE, RTS, St. Petersburg - and the National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR) is postponed. As the Vremya Novostey newspaper learned, this is hampered by a protracted dispute between Gazprombank and the Moscow Stock Exchange (MSE) regarding the organization of trading in shares of Gazprom OJSC.

One of the strongest Russian defenders, Vasily Karasev, returned to the Russian championship after a year-long break. In the coming season, the former CSKA basketball player will defend the colors of Perm Ural Great. Karasev signed a contract with the Ural club for two years. Ural Great, debuting in the Euroleague, lost Sergei Chikalkin from its last year squad, but in addition to Karasev, it has already managed to get Valery Daineko into its ranks.

Vladimir Putin thanked Jiang Zemin for his knowledge of the Russian language Yesterday, in the assembly hall of the main building of Moscow State University on Vorobyovy Gory, a ceremonial presentation of the Russian-Chinese agreement signed the day before took place. Chinese President Jiang Zemin made a 40-minute speech on the topic “Together to create a wonderful future of Chinese-Russian relations” in Russian.

A fire officer in the city of Zheleznogorsk, Kursk region, was shot and killed by his former colleague on Sunday. In the morning, the fire department driver, who had been fired the day before for violating official discipline and alcohol abuse, burst into fire station No. 5 of Zheleznogorsk. He came to his colleagues with a Saiga carbine wrapped in a camouflage jacket.

A meeting of the board of directors of Mosenergo, held yesterday in absentia, decided to convene an extraordinary meeting of the company’s shareholders on August 31, at which General Director Alexander Remezov will be fired and a new leader will be elected. Until this time, members of the board of directors decided to significantly limit the powers of the general director, RAO UES of Russia reported.

Performances of the Mariinsky Theater in London continue The final series of extensive tours of the Mariinsky Theater began in London's Covent Garden. After the ballet, the London audience is presented with the Mariinsky Opera. They brought a mono program entirely dedicated to the music of the hero of the day, Verdi (this year marks the hundredth anniversary of the composer’s death).

The police operation “Weapon” has ended in the Khabarovsk Territory. Residents of the region were asked to hand over illegally stored weapons, ammunition and explosives. Everyone who disarmed voluntarily was not only exempted from criminal liability, but also received a decent monetary reward for the weapons they brought. Citizens handed over “barrels” and grenades in the hundreds, TNT in the centners, and cartridges in the hundreds of thousands.

In the center of Stavropol, at a bus stop near the large Passage store, yesterday at about five o'clock in the evening an improvised explosive device went off. Four people - two women, a man and a five-year-old child - were injured. Two victims escaped with minor injuries, while doctors assess the condition of the rest as more serious. According to preliminary data, the infernal machine was in the trash can. Experts believe that the bomb's power was approximately one hundred grams of TNT.

The chances of the Russian men's team to participate in the World Volleyball Championship look increasingly illusory. The next qualifying tournament ended in Spain, where all the matches were won by the hosts, who received the right to play at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Argentina. The second-place volleyball players of Croatia beat the teams of Austria and Norway with a score of 3:0 and lost to Spain 2:3.

Rules of the game taking into account minerals The construction of the power vertical is nearing its end. The Presidential Commission headed by Dmitry Kozak should clarify and divide between the various levels of government - federal, regional and municipal - the responsibilities and funds due for their implementation. Vladimir Putin gave a farewell speech to the commission yesterday.

Kakhetians and Chechens began exchanging prisoners Early yesterday morning, two hostages were released from Pankisi captivity without paying a ransom - 80-year-old pensioner David Bazerashvili, the father of the owner of one of the Tbilisi restaurants, and 30-year-old security officer of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline Mamuka Arabuli. They were extradited under pressure from armed Kakhetian militias, who have been picketing the Pankisi Gorge since the end of last week.

Russian Sergei Ivanov, representing the Italian cycling group Fassa Bortolo, won the ninth stage of the most prestigious stage race Tour de France, covering 185 km between the towns of Pontallier and Aix-les-Bains in 3 hours 57 minutes 48 seconds. In cycling, winning at least one stage of the Great Loop is valued no less than, say, winning the Grand Slam tennis tournament.

MAP wants to deprive VEB of its monopoly on servicing military exports to China The Ministry's Commission for Antimonopoly Policy yesterday accused Vnesheconombank, through which China pays Russian arms suppliers, of monopolizing this market and setting unreasonably high commissions for the bank's clients.

Russian clubs are looking for cheap foreign players The summer pre-application campaign for the 2001 football season was not eventful. If it were not for the activity of the army team and the return of Beschastnykh, then one could generally talk about hibernation that has gripped the Russian transfer market. It is no wonder that even those acquisitions that the clubs managed to make before the start of the second round are in no hurry to please the fans with a bright game.