North Korea begins conversation with US Next week, on April 23, consultations on Pyongyang's nuclear program with the participation of North Korea, the United States and China are due to open in Beijing. This event and President Bush's approval of the negotiation plan were reported by the American administration. The US delegation will be headed by Deputy Secretary of State James Kelly - the same one after whose visit to Pyongyang in October last year the escalation of the Korean crisis began.

Reports that appeared yesterday in news agencies about the end of the protracted conflict between the owners of the two largest Tula metallurgical enterprises - Tulachermet OJSC and Vanadium-Tula OJSC - should be considered premature.

Deputies will not allow Yuri Luzhkov to change the color of the city flag At yesterday's meeting of the Moscow City Duma, the capital's legislators decided to postpone all pressing city problems in order to finally take care of government affairs. Or rather, state symbols.

The largest Russian oil company has not approved a development program for the next ten years LUKOIL almost disrupted the development of the Russian Energy Strategy until 2020. At yesterday's meeting of the board of directors, the company presented a development program until 2013, according to which oil production should increase to 110 million tons per year. It turns out, experts believe, that almost LUKOIL alone will be able to ensure an increase in all-Russian oil production.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov approved the list of enterprises that should be privatized in 2003. According to a source close to the government, the corresponding decree has been signed, but has not yet been assigned a number. The list of enterprises has hardly changed compared to the list considered by the government in February of this year.

The city authorities of Naples want to name their stadium after Diego Maradona. It was with the help of the legendary Argentinean that the local Napoli managed to win gold in the Italian championship twice and become the winner of the UEFA Cup. Neapolitans strongly support the city council's proposal, but there is one hitch. Italian law prohibits naming public buildings after people who died less than ten years ago.

Alfa Bank yesterday presented a retail project, which, according to Alfa Group President Mikhail Fridman, is the only option for the group’s banking business to compete with Sberbank. The bank decided to rely on high quality service and, consequently, high costs. The network of new Alfa-Bank Express retail branches will give clients the opportunity to manage their accounts by phone and apply for a loan in 25-30 minutes, but will cost Alfa $52 million.

Shareholders will announce the creation of a management company Already today, at a meeting of the board of directors and the board of shareholders of TVS, a decision may be made on new personnel changes at the TV channel. Two opposing groups of shareholders - Oleg Deripaska and Roman Abramovich, on the one hand, and Anatoly Chubais and Oleg Kiselev, on the other, managed to agree on a new strategy for managing the channel.

Mortgage operators share future profits Tomorrow the Federal Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML) will hold a presentation of the first issue of its corporate bonds. Invitations were sent to 150 representatives of large Moscow banks and investment companies. Considering the thoroughness and solid preparation of the issue, even today experts confidently predict that the presentation will be successful.

Latvian Prime Minister Einar Repse, as well as Ventspils Mayor Aivar Lembergs, received a proposal to build a large oil refinery on the territory of the Ventspils port. The cost of the project is estimated at $1 billion. The design capacity is 175 thousand barrels of oil per day. The product range includes AI-98, AI-95 and AI-93 gasolines, jet fuel and diesel fuel.

The State Duma will adopt the Customs Code in the second reading On Friday, the lower house will consider the new Customs Code in the second reading. Almost none of the deputies doubt that the code will be adopted in the form in which the budget committee recommended it to the chamber. The compromises reached in previous months finally satisfied the Duma members, the government, and business.

A strong fire, accompanied by a series of explosions, occurred yesterday at the Pigment paint and varnish materials plant on Oktyabrskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg. Fortunately, there were no casualties; all 70 workers from the duty shift were evacuated. According to eyewitnesses, the plant caught fire at about 5 p.m. after an explosion in the boiler room, then the roof of the three-story building collapsed and the column of fire shot up almost 100 meters.

World auto giants are ready to create alternative races Last week a business meeting was held in Munich, attended by Wolfgang Reitzel (Jaguar), Burkhard Goetschel (BMW), Jurgen Hubbert (Mercedes), Paolo Cantarella (FIAT), Patrick Fore (Renault). , Luca di Montenzemola (Ferrari). Not all the names are known to readers, but these are all people who directly influence the activities of the leading Formula 1 teams.

A special commission of the Ministry of Defense has completed an investigation into the circumstances of the crash of two Mi-24 attack helicopters of a separate Ussuri helicopter regiment, which occurred in Chechnya a month ago. On the morning of March 20, both vehicles disappeared while performing a combat mission in the Vedeno region. A pair of Mi-24s were accompanied by two Mi-8 transports, delivering food and soldiers to one of the mountain outposts.

Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov yesterday carried out a large-scale purge of the police forces of St. Petersburg. The head of the North-Western Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the heads of local police departments of the St. Petersburg districts and the head of the Vyborg Internal Affairs Directorate left their positions. An internal investigation is underway against another district chief.