The opposition again demands the resignation of the German Defense Minister Tomorrow, the German Constitutional Court will convene for an emergency meeting to urgently answer the question of whether Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping had the right to use extra-budgetary funds at his own discretion on a particularly large scale - even when it comes to issues of national importance and relations with partners in NATO and the EU ? The background is this.

Rushing to the doctors for help The traffic accident that happened yesterday in the Zugdidi region of Georgia may have unpredictable political consequences. A UAZ of the Russian peacekeeping forces, moving at high speed, hit two passers-by in the village of Natsuluku. As Zugdidi police chief Mamuka Shonia told your correspondent, the officers in the car tried to provide first aid to the victims, but one of them died on the spot, while the peacekeepers took the other to the hospital.

The first games of the European Championship among men's teams took place in Sweden. The Russian team started the preliminary stage inexpressively. In the opening match, Vladimir Maximov's team barely achieved a draw against the Danes - 25:25, in the second game their advantage over the debutants of tournaments of this rank, the Israelis, turned out to be minimal - 27:26.

Energy companies turn off satellites and locators due to debts On Saturday, due to the debts of the military to power engineers in Kamchatka, one of the most important facilities of the Russian space forces - the Separate Control and Measuring Complex - was cut off. Such decisive actions by power engineers almost led to the loss of a dual-use satellite worth several hundred million rubles. The shutdown was carried out by decision of Kamchatenergo, the regional branch of RAO UES of Russia.

Alexey Miller changes the management structure of Gazprom The head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, is trying to debug the executive vertical in the concern. Having fired almost all the top managers from Rem Vyakhirev’s team and appointed his own people to the vacant positions, Mr. Miller spent quite a long time preparing for structural changes in the company’s management.

12 days until the start of the Winter Olympics Although there are less than two weeks left before the Olympic Games, those wishing to purchase tickets to the Olympic competitions do not have any problems. With the exception of the figure skating competition and the final hockey match of the men's teams. By the way, fans do not have to fly to the Olympic capital to buy tickets. They can order tickets online. Sales on the World Wide Web began two years ago, in May 2000.

Fashionable leather In the leather sector, one of the main trendsetters is TFL (Together for Leather), a multinational center specializing in the production of chemicals for the production and processing of leather. It is TFL that is the main supplier to Italian leather goods manufacturers; The center also supplies its products to other countries. Currently, the TFL center is preparing for the fall-winter 2002/03 season. What new awaits us?

The White House is beginning to prepare for annual shareholder meeting season. On Friday, Mikhail Kasyanov signed a government decree identifying candidates from the state to the boards of directors and audit commissions of companies in which there is a state stake. The range of such companies is wide - from the ORT television company and the national carrier Aeroflot to the diamond monopoly ALROSA and key enterprises of the fuel and energy complex.

The Chamber Musical Theater under the direction of Boris Pokrovsky celebrates three anniversaries this week. The first two are directly related to the head of the theater - Pokrovsky recently celebrated his 90th birthday, which coincided with the 70th anniversary of his creative activity. By this time, the troupe had released two new performances at once (performed on the same evening) - these are practically unknown in Russia one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini “The Cloak” and “Gianni Schicchi”.

Because we still haven’t learned how to make quality shoes The Russian shoe market, according to employees of the National Shoe Union, is currently relatively saturated. However, the market structure looks very deplorable. According to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, shoes are produced at 260 large and medium-sized enterprises, and about 90% of the total shoe production is produced by 50 shoe companies.

Rosneft was offered to buy shares of Kuzbassrazrezugol At one of the largest coal mines in the country - Kuzbassrazrezugle - a redistribution of property is possible. As it became known on Friday evening, one of the holding’s shareholders, Transrail (famous for its closeness to ex-Minister of the Ministry of Railways Nikolai Aksenenko), intends to sell a 27.52% stake in the coal company Rosneft.

All night on Sunday a strong fire raged on the territory of the AST clothing market near the Izmailovo sports complex. At about 7 pm on Saturday, a household chemicals warehouse located in the basement of the stadium caught fire. More than two dozen fire crews were brought to the scene, but they were unable to enter the burning building.

Foundation Day of the Soviet Army - January 28 For the first time this year, the male population of Russia will be able to fully enjoy the “men's holiday”. According to the new Labor Code, February 23 - Defender of the Fatherland Day - has become a day off. Previously, this holiday was called the Birthday of the Soviet Army. However, the real name day did not happen on February 23, 1918, but almost a month earlier.

A decision regarding the future of the Prost Grand Prix Formula 1 team is due to be announced today. But the fate of Prost’s subsidiary team, which competed in the international Formula 3000 championship, has been decided. The commercial court of Versailles decided on Thursday to legally liquidate the Prostar company, which was the owner of Prost's junior team.

The powers of the President of Uzbekistan will be extended by the people themselves Yesterday, a referendum was held in Uzbekistan, in which 13 million citizens with the right to vote were asked to answer two questions: whether they agree to the introduction of a bicameral parliament (professional) in the country and to increase the presidential term from 5 to 7 years.