East Timor gained full independence At exactly midnight from May 19 to 20, the independence of East Timor was officially proclaimed. The newborn country was under Portuguese colonial rule for almost 400 years, was annexed by Jakarta for 24 years (from 1975 to 1999), and was ruled by the UN for the last two and a half years. Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of the UN administration, surrendered his powers to the country's first president, Xanana Gusmão.

Next up is Garzelli. A major doping scandal preceded Saturday's Giro stage. A doping test of four cyclists at once showed the presence of the substance NESP, which is classified as a drug that masks the use of erythro- and darbopoietin. Among those caught were the Russian Faata Zakirov and the Italian Stefano Garzelli, who was leading in the overall standings at that time.

"Azazel" came to life on stage So, let's take it in order. The Central Youth Theater staged a play - not bad and not good. Normal. Children's. If I were twelve years old, I probably would have liked it. And what - an exciting plot, a charming hero, love-carrots in place, romance in abundance. All literary reminiscences—both obvious (“Poor Liza” by Karamzin) and disguised (“The Idiot” by Dostoevsky)—are discarded.

Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian cannot forget his meeting with Vladimir Putin Today marks two years since the inauguration of Taiwan's new president, Chen Shui-bian, whose rise to power symbolized the end of half a century of Kuomintang rule. The beginning of his presidency was not easy - the economy began to decline, relations with mainland China worsened, and parliamentarians almost dismissed Chen Shui-bian.

The Moscow City Court on Friday found guilty former Russian Foreign Ministry employee Platon Obukhov, whom the FSB accused of spying for the British intelligence service MI6. At the same time, the court declared Obukhov insane and sent him for compulsory treatment to a psychiatric clinic. According to the prosecution, Obukhov, the son of the Russian ambassador to Denmark, was recruited by British intelligence services in mid-1995 during a business trip to Switzerland.

The EU Agriculture Commission, according to the SovEcon center, decided to provide export subsidies in the amount of 5 and 4.99 euros/t for the export to third countries of 234 thousand tons of wheat and 32 thousand tons of barley, respectively. Subsidizing European exports will not only increase them, but also avoid large-scale purchases of grain for intervention funds in anticipation of the expected high harvest in the EU.

Thousands of passengers spent the weekend at airports A computer glitch at the air traffic control center in Swanwick, Hampshire, which controls much of the airspace over England and Wales, caused chaos at UK airports on Friday. Thousands of passengers gathered waiting for flights. British Airways was forced to cancel 87 flights, including several to Moscow.

Perestroika is being imposed on Arafat The Palestinians surprised the world with their thirst for democratic reforms in their autonomy. Permanent leader Yasser Arafat admitted for the first time that he made mistakes. The local parliament, which has scheduled elections for a new Palestinian president for early 2003, will prepare a draft change this week. The number of ministries will be reduced and a prime minister will appear. This is very unusual.

Nineteen people were injured in a major car accident that happened in Krasnoyarsk on Saturday morning. At one of the intersections, a KamAZ loaded with gravel crashed into a regular Ikarus at full speed. There were 15 passengers on the bus at that moment, including two children. All of them, as well as the driver and forwarder from KamAZ, were sent to the hospital with bruises, fractures and a concussion.

Anti-globalist Manu Chao played globally in “Gorbushka” Promoters and the press were preparing intensely for the arrival of “the first European superstar of the 21st century,” as Manu Chao is called in the West. The anti-globalist musician made such demands to the receiving party that just hold on.

He has no serious rivals left in junior welterweight Luckily for us, Saturday's fight ended without surprises in the ring of the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas. Russian welterweight boxer Konstantin Tszyu, although he was unable to give the African Ben Takki a horizontal position, nevertheless won a convincing victory on points, retaining the title of absolute world champion. Bets before the fight were accepted at a ratio of 5 to 1 in favor of our boxer.

Changing Taiwan seeks rapprochement with Russia "Visit Taiwan - the last frontier of the Cold War" - such a slogan may well appear in the future in travel agencies offering travel to East Asia. This idea was expressed a few days ago by Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian during a visit to the Kinmen Islands, located a few kilometers off the coast of mainland China.

Russian judoka became four-time European champion The European Judo Championship, which takes place in the Slovenian city of Maribor with the participation of athletes from 41 countries, brought the Russian women's and men's teams only five medals out of a possible 16. It is quite difficult to explain such an inexpressive performance of both our teams, since with the exception of three weight categories out of eight for men and two for women, in all others two or more candidates were declared.

LUKOIL will pay Greece $400 million Oil company LUKOIL is completing a deal to acquire a 23.17% stake in Greek Hellenic Petroleum. Although the size of the stake offered for sale is small, the Greek government expects to find a “strategic investor” in this way. So LUKOIL may get the right to manage the largest company in Greece.

Russia has started its game in world markets Russia unilaterally withdrew from an informal interstate agreement on joint actions in the oil market. The government on Friday lifted all oil export restrictions imposed on January 1 at the request of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and independent producers Norway, Mexico, Oman and Angola.