The NBA is in the midst of a campaign to sign contracts for the next season. Traditionally, there is a hunt for players who are free agents. However, few clubs can boast of having free money, and great basketball players demand high salaries. In this case, the increased attention to Europeans does not seem surprising. Thus, the Detroit Pistons began an active campaign to attract new players with an eye on Europe.

Australian teenager sets third world record 18-year-old Ian Thorpe became the main sensation of the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. Yesterday he set another world record - 1.44.06 seconds. at a distance of 200 meters freestyle. As a result, Thorpe not only won the duel against Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband, who finished second in 1.45.81 seconds, but also became the second swimmer after American Tim Shaw to earn three freestyle golds at one championship .

In the Moscow region, authorities spent the whole day yesterday assessing the scale of the destruction that occurred due to the squally winds with downpours that swept over Moscow on July 24. In the capital, 2.5 thousand trees were knocked down, three thousand square meters of building roofs were damaged, two gas pipelines were damaged, and 190 trolleybus and tram lines were broken. Five people were killed, 36 were injured of varying severity.

Director of the Federal Tax Police Service Mikhail Fradkov will meet with Vladimir Putin today. The head of the Federal Tax Service announced this on Wednesday after a meeting of the heads of the tax police of the Central Federal District. “It is difficult to predict the issues that will interest the president,” Mr. Fradkov said.

The White House did not ignore the zeal that a whole group of officials showed throughout the spring and half of the summer, persuading the Duma and the Federation Council to approve a voluminous package of priority laws for the president and the government.

A state prize for a first novel is a rare occurrence. But it was this award that was awarded to “Khurramabad” by Andrey VOLOS, even earlier - before the full book publication - it was awarded by Anti-Booker (1998). A bright and powerful (at times very scary), reliable book is focused on the most pressing problem - the tragic exodus of Russian-speaking people from Central Asia. “Khurramabad” was followed by the novel “Real Estate” (New World, No.

The list of “seeded” tennis players at the final Grand Slam tournament, the US Open, which starts on August 27, will be headed by Americans Jennifer Capriati (pictured) and Venus Williams. Capriati has already won the French and Australian Open championships this year, and showed her best result at the US Open 10 years ago, when at the age of 15 she reached the semi-finals, although she lost to Monica Seles.

Workers at the Novosibirsk station had to face an unusual technical problem on Wednesday night. One of the empty trains standing on the tracks unexpectedly set off without a driver. The electric train moved off on its own when the driver and his assistant moved along the train to the cabin of the last car to send the train to the depot. The trackmen noticed the uncontrolled “escape” of the train from the station and managed to move the switches so that the train came to a dead end.

Tomorrow's government meeting will be devoted to the restructuring of the Russian military-industrial complex, otherwise called the reform of the defense industry. Initially, the government's discussion of the future of the defense industry was scheduled for May 5, but the issue was postponed several times.

Stock market rise delayed The prospects for economic growth, which experts were talking about a few weeks ago, have been pushed back indefinitely. The season of corporate reports of the world's leading companies, now in its third week, has not met the hopes of analysts and players for a quick revival of business activity. The Russian market is hiding. The players became quiet and waited, looking first at America and then at Argentina.

Siberian UWC will voluntarily part with Smolensky's money The Agency for Restructuring of Credit Institutions (ARCO) is looking for new ways to return the assets of SBS-Agro Bank. Yesterday it became known that the auction scheduled for July 27 for the sale of rights of claim to SBS-Agro under a loan agreement with the Siberian OVK bank in the amount of more than 63 million rubles. will not take place.

Oslo tackles its fuel and energy complex Norway, Russia's main competitor in the European gas market, after heated political debates, began reforming its fuel and energy complex. The ideologist is Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who has just visited Moscow, and argues that without reforms in the fuel and energy complex, Norway will find it difficult to compete in the global energy market in the context of its liberalization.

Renting apartments in Moscow is becoming more and more popular Over the past six months, the Moscow rental housing market has picked up pace. Muscovites have become more active in renting apartments on the outskirts in order to rent out their own, located in more expensive areas, and “live on rent.” This is due to the growth in the effective demand of employers in general and the increase in the number of visitors among them.

The flagship of Moscow hockey is eager to return the championship title Without exaggeration, the upcoming season will be a landmark one for Dynamo Moscow hockey players. Never before in their history have the “blue and white” received such a solid personnel supply on the eve of the next championship.

MDM Bank will have an outpost in Murmansk MDM Bank's extensive development of the North-West should culminate in the purchase of the Murmansk Social Commercial Bank (MSCB). MDM is acquiring a strong middle peasant with good connections with the directors of state-owned enterprises and a stable clientele among companies related to the fishing and port industries. Murmansk residents see MDM as a strategic investor, whose appearance will allow them to dramatically increase their loan portfolio.