In London on the Thames, the traditional eights race of two famous universities - Oxford and Cambridge - was held for the 149th time over a distance of 6 km (4 miles 374 yards). The competition has been held since 1829, and the British interest in it is still enormous.

Former world champion Anatoly Karpov leads the rapid chess match against the winner of the European Championship gold medal, Pole Bartolomew Maciej - 2:0. Every day two matches take place in Warsaw, and a total of eight games are planned. Karpov won the opening match with white pieces on the 48th move, and when the opponents switched colors, the Russian achieved victory even faster, doing it on the 35th move. Vladimir ILYIN

Proposals from Alfa Bank and Merill Lynch outraged minority shareholders of RAO UES of Russia An attempt by the management of RAO UES of Russia to submit to the board of directors the “Five Plus Five” program on the company’s strategy for the next five years failed. State representatives at the evening meeting on April 8 silently listened to proposals and comments and agreed to continue the discussion.

James boutique displays photographs by David LaChapelle David LaChapelle's exhibition is the highlight of the Fashion and Style in Photography festival. Not only are his works softly called provocative, and harshly hooligan, but the maestro also brought Playboy magazine to Moscow. For shootings that correspond to the loose format of the magazine, the exhibition at James has nothing to do with these shootings. It is quite public, decent and open to everyone.

Yesterday morning, the management of the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera announced the withdrawal of its staff from the Iraqi city of Basra. Al-Jazeera Moscow bureau chief Akram Khuzam said: “There is real chaos and looting in Basra, and it makes no sense to keep journalists in this city. All our other journalists, six people, continue to work in Iraq, including Baghdad, where our correspondent died the day before yesterday, as usual.” "TIME FOR NEWS"

This year, French President Jacques Chirac will also join the traditional “St. Petersburg dialogue” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The summit will take place on Friday. As it was announced in the capitals of these three states, the first exchange of views “on all aspects of the current situation” since the beginning of the American-British aggression in Iraq is to take place.

Denis Molchanov is confident that watching Russian films in Los Angeles will bring abundant results The newspaper “Vremya Novostey” in its issue dated April 8, 2003 published an article entitled “Rudinshtein exposes” , which discussed the money allocated by order of the First Deputy Minister of Culture Denis Molchanov for the holding of the Russian Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Famous Ukrainian journalist died Deputies of the Ukrainian parliament yesterday observed a minute of silence in memory of one of the most famous Ukrainian journalists, President of Public Radio Alexander Krivenko, who died in a traffic accident on the night of April 9. The influential and independent Public Radio has had friction with the authorities. The name of the 40-year-old journalist is associated with the creation of rating publications and television programs in the late 90s.

The largest shipment of cocaine in recent times was seized in St. Petersburg during a joint operation by employees of the State Committee for Combating Drug Trafficking under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and city intelligence services. On Sunday night, they arrested a courier who delivered 10 kg of the drug from South America, and two recipients of the “goods”. Experts estimate that the retail value of the seized cocaine is about a million dollars.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is alive and may be in his hometown of Tikrit, according to British intelligence. He escaped through an underground tunnel from a bunker in Baghdad minutes before the Americans dropped bombs capable of destroying armored shelters deep underground on the block where the Iraqi leader was hiding on Tuesday. Hussein's current whereabouts are unknown. In a number of districts of the capital, widespread looting began, in particular, the UN office was completely looted.

The escape of the militants provoked the resignation of the Cabinet of Ministers Late on Wednesday, the President of Abkhazia, Vladislav Ardzinba, was supposed to sign a decree appointing a new prime minister of the unrecognized republic due to the fact that the day before, the cabinet of Gennady Gagulia, which had been functioning for four months, resigned in its entirety. It is expected that the new prime minister will be the current first vice and parallel defense minister Ruslan Khadzhimba.

“The Road Home” on Moscow screens Seven-year-old Sun Woo is sent by his exhausted mother to the village to live with his grandmother. Grandmother lives alone: ​​mute, illiterate, bent over the years into a slowly moving hook, a comma before a quick final ellipsis. Sun Woo grew up in the city, his small and greedy world consists of fast food, postcards with Transformers and a pocket computer game, which with its alien liquid crystal gurgling disturbs the original silence of the countryside.

Moscow investors have a chance to become its owners Yesterday, amendments that were fundamental for investors and owners of capital companies appeared in the bill “On Land Use and Development,” on which the Moscow authorities have been working for more than a year. This document, adopted by Moscow City Duma deputies in the third reading, establishes the maximum land lease period - 99 years.

Yaroslavl retained its status as the hockey capital In Yaroslavl, for the second year in a row, public festivities have been announced on the occasion of the “golden harvest” holiday. Yesterday Lokomotiv became the national champion. The Railwaymen retained the Russian crown, writing a new chapter in the annals of Russian hockey. Last season, the ancient Volga city decided to undertake a daring experiment, which caused a lot of gossip.

Ilya Yuzhanov does not want to give away 100 million rubles Minister for Antimonopoly Policy and Entrepreneurship Support Ilya Yuzhanov had a sharply negative attitude towards the decisions of the government commission to optimize budget expenditures and even wants to complain to the president and prime minister about its head - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin.