Moscow authorities hope to preserve ownership of the historical city center The capital's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, announced yesterday his intention to sue the Ministry of Culture for the unauthorized seizure of premises in one of the mansions considered a monument of federal significance.

The Israelis carried out another liquidation The Arabs are shocked. International mediators trying to reconcile Israelis and Palestinians, too. Yesterday, the Israelis, with another act of retaliation, generously added fuel to the fire of a long war in the Middle East. To kill one man, albeit a very dangerous one, F-16 fighter jets bombed a five-story apartment building in the Palestinian city of Gaza.

The traffic police personnel did not pass the test according to the Code of Administrative Offenses An unexpected statement was made yesterday by the head of the Main Directorate of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (GAI) Vladimir Fedorov. He admitted that the inspection staff were not ready to work “in the new conditions.” That is, local traffic cops simply did not understand the main provisions of the new Code of Administrative Offenses and continue to punish drivers in the old way.

Russian pentathletes performed extremely poorly at the World Championships that ended in the USA - they only had one bronze medal to their credit. One of the reasons for the failures was the absence in our delegation of the head coach, Olympic champion of Sydney 2000, Dmitry Svatkovsky, who did not manage to obtain an American visa. The Russians won the only medal in the women's team competition.

Transneft is studying the possibility of issuing Eurobonds and first-level ADRs on preferred shares, Richard Strawn, head of the company's corporate finance department, said yesterday. Eurobonds, he said, may appear in 2003. And the issue of issuing ADR will be considered by the board of directors, which must decide on the advisability of such an placement. “Our shares are not yet as widely known as Gazprom’s shares. Our plans are to send a message to investors,” he said.

US replaces top UN human rights activist Career Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello has become the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Yesterday, his candidacy, proposed by Secretary General Kofi Annan and actively supported by the United States and Great Britain, was approved by the UN General Assembly. The 54-year-old official, who has worked in the UN system since 1969, will soon head the human rights commission established in 1994.

It was decided to consider a Central Bank employee an official The criminal saga surrounding the deputy head of the main department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for Moscow, Alexander Alekseev, went into a “second round” yesterday. The Prosecutor General's Office accuses the official of exceeding his official powers when the Central Bank issued a scandalous stabilization loan of 5.8 billion rubles to SBS-Agro Bank at the end of 1998, a significant part of which disappeared.

Gluttons from all over the world competed in New York Last week, the next World Eating Championships took place in New York. According to the International Federation of Competitive Eaters (IFCE), "athletes" from Canada, Germany, Thailand, Great Britain, Japan and Russia took part in the competition. At this, as stated in the official IFCE statement, “a celebration of strength, beauty and courage,” several world records were set.

Generations change at the IMF The process of personnel renewal continues in the IMF leadership. Following the former first deputy director of the Foundation, Stanley Fischer, 60-year-old Yusuke Horiguchi, who in recent years held the position of head of the department of Asia and the Pacific region, left to serve private business. Yesterday, IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler announced that Mr.

Russians Nikolay Davidenko and Andrey Stolyarov successfully passed the first round barrier at the ATP tournaments taking place this week. In the Austrian Kitzbühel, at the “International Series” competition with a prize fund of 880 thousand US dollars, Davidenko beat the Armenian Sargis Sargsyan, who permanently resides in the USA, on clay - 7:6 (7:5), 6:3.

Tallinn honors the memory of the “liberators” from the SS Estonia, which, apparently, will be the first of the former Soviet republics to join the European Union, is experiencing a period of creeping rehabilitation of the Nazis.

Investors realized that they trust the dollar more The situation on the foreign exchange market changed yesterday, and radically. The American dollar has again become more expensive than the European currency. By the time markets closed in Europe, the euro was valued at $0.9904, and after trading opened in the United States it was valued at $0.9919. Analysts explain the depreciation of the euro by the decline on the stock exchanges of the Old World.

Completely massive anti-police riots almost broke out yesterday in broad daylight in the very center of Moscow, near the Novokuznetskaya metro station: two policemen mercilessly beat a young man in front of dozens of passers-by. This scene, which lasted at least 5 minutes, quickly attracted a crowd. After watching how the police, not paying attention to anyone, kicked and punched an ordinary-looking guy, people began to be indignant.

The Third International Theater+TV Festival is taking place in Novosibirsk The homeland of the festival of television programs about the theater is Omsk, but with the move to Novosibirsk of the initiator and chairman of the forum’s organizing committee, Boris Mezdrich (he became the director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater), the festival also changed its registration.

Sober “Mitki” sailed to the “Slavic Bazaar in Vitebsk” Artists and poets in vests brought an exhibition of their paintings and books to the city of Marc Chagall. The “Mitkovo” exposition took place in the city hall. The ideologist of the most famous Russian informal movement, the big bearded artist Dmitry Shagin, said that the “Mitkovs” were invited to Vitebsk under the patronage of a Belarusian journalist. It’s quite unexpected to see such artists at such a festival, but the St.