The first month of the NBA regular season has passed Now we can follow the games of the strongest professional basketball players with special interest - for the first time a Russian is spending a full season in the NBA. Andrei Kirilenko plays an increasingly prominent role for the Utah Jazz with each game, with his contribution to the final result approaching that of current club legends Karl Malone and John Stockton. At first it seemed that Andrey was not very lucky with the team.

Russian generals invited to plan NATO operations Leading European NATO member states responded to Vladimir Putin's recent statement that “we are ready to develop relations as far as the Alliance itself is ready for this.” The alliance confirmed its readiness to go even further than Russia could have hoped until recently.

Laws on alternative service may appear in the regions In Moscow, only 10% of young men of military age are sent to the army. The new military commissar of Moscow, Vasily Krasnogorsky, announced this yesterday. According to the military commissar, the rest receive a deferment due to studies, health conditions and family circumstances. Of those who manage to be put under arms, 60% remain on the territory of the Moscow Military District.

New government bonds will appear no earlier than January The Ministry of Finance yesterday carried out the last stage of the exchange of OFZ series 30, frozen during the restructuring in 1998. Their owners were offered another issue of state bonds for 4 billion rubles, but investors remained indifferent. As a result of the auction, it was possible to place bonds for only 2.06 billion rubles. The weighted average yield was 14.92% per annum.

African gold demonstrates its magical powers at the Pushkin Museum The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's exhibition "Gold of Africa" ​​opened yesterday at the Museum of Fine Arts. In the gloomy dark showcases, which have seen the gold of Troy, 126 objects are presented: crowns and amulets of leaders, ceremonial whips, staffs of advisers, women's combs, made in the late 19th - early 20th centuries in West Africa.

The World Women's Handball Championship has started in Italy. In the first match, the Russians were able to defeat the Japanese team with some difficulty - 31:23. The opponents were noticeably inferior to our handball players, but successfully compensated for this disadvantage with a quick play of the ball and the ability to penetrate through the opponents’ defensive redoubts.

The Champions League goes on winter break After the games of the second group stage of the Champions League were played last evening, there is a break in the tournament. The next matches will take place only at the end of February, and now the teams have time to work on their mistakes and focus on the games of the domestic championships. Real Madrid is leaving for the winter holidays with the best mood and prospects.

They want to take away the Peace Prize from Yasser Arafat Celebrations dedicated to the centenary of the planet's main prize, the Nobel Prize, begin today in Oslo. More than three dozen Peace Prize laureates - famous politicians and human rights activists - arrived in the Norwegian capital. Among them are the Dalai Lama, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, former Polish President Lech Walesa and many others.

Pianist Evgeny Kissin will take part in “December Evenings” As you know, in addition to the North, South and two poles of cold, there is also a point on the globe that is most difficult to reach: it is called the “pole of inaccessibility.” There is a similar point at the “December Evenings” festival, to which, however, the entrance to “mere mortals” is already practically blocked.

Russia, France and the United States stood shoulder to shoulder in Dushanbe Yesterday in Dushanbe it was officially announced that the Tajik authorities have agreed to the deployment of military contingents from the countries of the anti-terrorist coalition - the USA, France and Italy - on the territory of the republic. Tajikistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Sattarov said that 36 Italian, 40 French and 21 American military personnel have already arrived in the country.

Russia reminded the EU that it wants to join the WTO on a common basis The European Union now better understands the position of Russian businessmen regarding accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, there is no progress. At least this is the conclusion that can be drawn from the visit of EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who held intensive negotiations in Moscow. The parties repeated their already well-known positions. According to Mr.

The Rosneft Board of Directors yesterday summed up the company's activities in Chechnya. According to Rosneft press secretary Alexander Stepanenko, in ten months of this year its subsidiary, Grozneftegaz, produced 518 thousand tons of oil against the plan of 386 thousand tons, and by the end of the year the production volume will reach 700 thousand tons. Since, by government decree, all Chechen oil is exported, the company received 1.8 billion rubles.

Experts from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Defense completed yesterday search work at the crash site of the Il-76 transport plane of the Russian border service, which crashed on Sunday morning in the Khabarovsk Territory. They managed to find the remains of all 18 pilots and passengers on the plane, as well as all three “black boxes” of the airliner.

The Ukrainian census has become a political event Yesterday the first population census since independence began in Ukraine, the results of which will be announced in March 2002. More than a dozen questions will help to detail the face of the average citizen “in the national portrait of Ukraine,” the propaganda leaflets say. The event is apparently timed to coincide with the parliamentary elections next March.

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