They don't believe that a series of misfortunes can be accidental The Afghan administration will ask for an expansion of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mandate if violence in the country continues. Hamid Karzai stated this after several incidents that occurred in the country in recent days. Let us recall that on Thursday the Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism of the interim government, Abdul Rahman, was killed at Kabul airport.

Tehran newspaper claims The leading Iranian newspaper Hayat-e-Nou reported the sensational news yesterday. According to her, the closest ally of Osama Bin Laden, Egyptian Ayman Az-Zawahiri, was arrested in Iran and is in one of the Tehran prisons. True, the Foreign Ministry denied this report, but observers point out that the newspaper that published the information is headed by Hadi Khamenei, the brother of Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Tambov" and special forces share Kapysh's inheritance A serious struggle is breaking out over the assets of the once largest fuel operator in the North-West, the Baltic Financial and Industrial Group (BFIG). Two groups, consisting of management and shareholders of the company, are fighting for the right to own the holding's inheritance - a network of 54 gas stations under the Balt-Trade brand. Last Friday, this company had two rival CEOs.

Although dad was sick of him US President George W. Bush arrived yesterday in Tokyo, where he begins a week-long tour of the Far East - Japan, South Korea and China. Each of these countries is very important to Washington. Seoul is an American outpost on the border with North Korea, one of the states declared by Bush to be the “axis of evil,” and Beijing is its largest rival partner, relations with which promise to become one of the defining directions of American foreign policy.

Lisin and Abramov call for the closure of inefficient metallurgical enterprises The leaders of the Russian Steel consortium, which unites a number of enterprises in the coal and metallurgical industries, decided to contact the government with a proposal to develop a program for restructuring the ferrous metallurgy industry. The result of its implementation should be the closure of almost a third of the 1,400 enterprises operating in this industry.

The willingness of Russians to once again entrust their money to banks has exacerbated the problem of competitiveness of the banking sector. Today, the picture in this market is completely peaceful and it would seem that nothing threatens Sberbank’s monopoly: among Russian banks, very few can afford to engage in retail, and foreigners so far mainly serve clients from national diasporas.

Relations between the European Union and the United States have returned to their previous state The European Union reacted negatively to measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions proposed at the end of last week by US President George W. Bush. This initiative was supposed to be an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, which Washington refused to implement.

The State Duma extended the licensing of arbitration managers Last Friday, in three readings at once, deputies adopted an amendment to the law “On Licensing”, which allowed the Federal Service for Financial Recovery (FSFR) to continue issuing licenses to arbitration managers until July 1, 2002.

66 people are ready to help the governor govern the Krasnoyarsk Territory The first stage of the competition to fill the vacant positions of Deputy Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Alexander Lebed has ended. A total of 99 applications were submitted . 28 candidates were eliminated immediately - they did not have the required work experience in government bodies (at least five years). Under a plausible pretext, the “city madmen” were also turned away.

Alexey Yagudin won a duel against Plushenko Life in four and a half minutes on one breath - you exhale, it will fall. You can’t breathe: in these more than four minutes his whole life, which shrank under the “iron mask”, and then hung as if over a blind abyss, while the firm hand of a judge signed his sentence. He tore off the iron mask with the last chords of music, and we saw his exposed nerves. And it doesn’t matter that his tears are the property of millions: he ascended to Olympus.

“Team Canada” entered the tournament for the prize of the Russian market The visit to Russia of a solid delegation of Canadian politicians and businessmen led by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, which ended yesterday, was simply overflowing with symbols of sports rivalry. Pre-planned events in honor of the 30th anniversary of the famous USSR-NHL super series bizarrely overlapped with the story that excited both countries with the Olympic medals of Canadian figure skaters Sale and Pelletier.

The Duma calls not to give Russian visas to Vatican representatives Russian legislators decided not to stand aside and joined the conflict that erupted last week between Orthodox Christians and Catholics. State Duma deputies devoted one of their meetings to the defense of the original Russian religion at the end of last week.

Tagmet faces dual power In the fight for the Taganrog Metallurgical Plant, Alfa-Eco seems to have found a serious ally. The third (largest stake) shareholder of Tagmet, Vladimir Verba, manager of the Taganrog branch of Petrovsky Bank, turned up missing. Apparently, Mr. Verba, who until recently maintained neutrality, will now take the side of Alpha against the current general director of the plant, Sergei Bidash.

Nizhny Novgorod alternative artists may be drafted into the army In Nizhny Novgorod, the experiment on alternative civil service may fail. At the end of last week, the Nizhny Novgorod regional court canceled the order of Mayor Yuri Lebedev to create a municipal detachment of alternative workers, who were sent to work as orderlies in one of the city’s hospitals.

Russia almost lost its chance for first place in the group “It was a fantastic match in which the best hockey players showed a fantastic game,” this is how the captain of our team, Igor Larionov, commented on the meeting between the Russian and US national teams, which ended in a draw (2:2).