Hamid Karzai is going through troubling times. It was the first time he was scolded by Washington. But the All-Afghan Assembly did not heed the president’s advice to postpone the decision on the formation of parliament. Yesterday, the chairman of the loya jirga, Ismail Qasimyar, announced that the deputies would be elected as follows: two people from each of the 32 provinces and another person from every 20 jirga delegates, with 200 women delegates choosing 15 deputies from among their ranks.

The St. Petersburg Economic Forum can truly become economic The international St. Petersburg Economic Forum will begin today in the northern capital for the sixth time.

A major accident occurred yesterday at the Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine. At the height of the work shift, around noon, in one of the workshops there was an unexpected release of molten metal from the smelting furnace. In total, several tons of hot metal spilled out. Fortunately, all the nearby workers managed to get out in time, and there were no casualties. Plant employees and rescuers also managed to prevent the fire. What caused the accident is still being determined.

A number of Italian clubs are showing serious interest in the forward of the Russian national team and the capital's Spartak Dmitry Sychev. This, in particular, is reported by the unofficial Milan website. Among the potential buyers, along with Milan, are Inter and Parma. True, none of these clubs have yet made an official offer to Spartak - the Italians still prefer to act through agents.

The Tretyakov Gallery made a gift to the Tchaikovsky Competition Radio DJs constantly say: “Stay with us! Lots of music awaits you!” Even as a trope, “a lot of music” is too much of a thing in itself. It is absolutely impossible to imagine visually. The employees of the Tretyakov Gallery, led by Galina Andreeva, do not agree with this. That’s why we collected a bunch of exhibits reminiscent of sounds and melodies. The project was called “Sound and Image.

19-year-old forward Alexander Svitov signed a three-year contract with the NHL club Tampa Bay Lightning, which selected the Russian hockey player third overall in the draft last season. Svitov became perhaps the most scandalous figure of the past season. Viktor Tikhonov, who played in the CSKA major league last season, called up Svitov and his Avangard teammate Chistov for military service. Both players completed military service while playing for Avangard.

At the very end of May, President of the European Commission Romano Prodi met with Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin. The topic of the negotiations was quite specific: opening the Russian insurance market to foreign insurance companies. Mr. Prodi, who lobbied for the removal of all restrictions on the access of foreign insurance operators, did not find understanding from Alexei Kudrin.

At least on the tickets Contrary to forecasts that predicted record attendance at the World Cup in Japan and Korea, fans do not fill the stands of Asian stadiums to capacity. According to FIFA, a total of 1,451,698 people attended the 48 group stage matches, meaning the stands were just over 80% full. Compared to the World Championship in France in 1998, when the first round games were watched by nearly 2 million viewers, a drop in interest in the championship is obvious.

Palestinian student blows up bus carrying students Eighteen Israelis, mostly schoolchildren and students, died on bus number 32A in Jerusalem on their way to classes. Their killer, 22-year-old Muhammad al-Ghul, was also a student. He was born in a Palestinian refugee village and studied at the University of Nablus. Recently, Muhammad moved from the north to the south of Israel, to the Bethlehem area, from where it is a stone's throw to Jerusalem.

There was a competition between the teams of the countries organizing the championship. “This is the end of our beautiful adventure. I am very proud to have coached this team for four years. I want to thank all those who helped and supported me, the players and all the staff.” Japan head coach Philippe Troussier said these words when he resigned after his team lost to Turkey in the 1/8 finals.

The State Duma is due today to discuss in the second reading the latest bill from the pension reform package: on investing money intended for funded pensions. “Both state structures and non-state pension funds approached funded pensions completely unprepared,” said Sergei KALASHNIKOV, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Non-State Pension Funds, to Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent Viktor KHAMRAEV.

Deputies will again discuss the law on AGS The fate of the law on alternative civil service will be discussed today in the second reading by Russian parliamentarians. But heated debates on the problematic AGS project began yesterday. A number of representatives of public and human rights organizations are ready to file a complaint with the Constitutional Court if the law on alternative civil service does not give conscripts the opportunity to choose their place of service.

The post-war decade did not solve Moldovan problems Today in Pridnestrovie there is a mourning date - the tenth anniversary of the Bendery tragedy. On June 19, 1992, Moldovan troops entered the city of Bendery, and an armed conflict began on the Dniester, the consequences of which have not yet been eliminated. About 500 people died in Bendery at that time, 130 of them were children, old people, and women. Adult men were mostly in militia units.

Air traffic controllers go on strike in Europe Representatives of a small but absolutely necessary professional caste in aviation - air traffic controllers - decided today to paralyze air traffic in Western Europe. From the morning of June 19, air traffic controllers in France, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Hungary will quit their jobs in protest against the so-called “single sky”, which is planned to be organized within the European Union.

The other day in Kursk, at the Memorial to the Fallen, Yevgeny Nosov, a good Russian writer, last year’s Solzhenitsyn Prize laureate, was buried. Nosov complained at the ceremony that today’s publishing houses had “buried” him long ago and that he perceived the award as a sign of “the resurrection of Lazarus.” Fate decreed otherwise - he passed away at the age of 77.