A meeting scheduled for yesterday with Vladimir Putin on reforming the gas industry with the participation of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development German Gref and the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller (see Vremya Novostey on January 15) did not take place. According to our information, it was canceled shortly before it began, and the new date is still unknown.

The first quarter was successful for the oil industry, as follows from the US GAAP reports, which were published simultaneously by LUKOIL and YUKOS yesterday. In principle, LUKOIL was supposed to get ahead of its competitor and be the first to submit its reports, but the current situation did not allow Mikhail Khodorkovsky to concede the championship. According to the results of the trading session on the stock exchange, the growth of LUKOIL quotes amounted to 2.14%, and YUKOS - 4.85%.

LUBS sdfsdf asdfasdf asdf asdfasdf Chris McNulty (USA) and Paul Bollenback (USA) with the participation of Russian musicians. McNulty is a remarkable jazz vocalist, performing ballads, post-bop compositions, and her own interpretations of old and modern jazz standards with equal success. Paul Bollenback is a very prominent figure in jazz, an excellent guitarist, partner of the famous organist Joey De Francesco.

The first wave of strengthening of the dollar against the euro on world currency markets this year has reached Russia. The Central Bank yesterday again lowered the euro exchange rate to 34.6951 rubles/euro. Thus, over the last month the European currency has lost more than 1.7 rubles in value.

A slow-moving cyclone, which over the next two days will be located over the southwest of the central region, and its atmospheric fronts will determine the weather in the center of the European territory of Russia. Therefore, on Tuesday and Wednesday in the central regions there will be rain, heavy in places, with thunderstorms and increased wind with thunderstorms up to 15-20 m/sec. The established heat will subside, the temperature in the daytime on July 8 will be +22...+28oC.

CIA hands over files on all Stasi employees to Germany Yesterday there were reports that the CIA had transferred files with the names of 50 thousand employees of the main intelligence department of the GDR MGB (Stasi) to the German authorities. This action will make the hearts of previously unofficially undisclosed former non-staff Stasi employees, sitting, for example, in the Bundestag or in public service, beat faster.

Moscow Cellular Communications announced the election of a new board of directors, which included: deputy general director, financial director of Rostelecom Vladimir Androsik, chief accountant of Rostelecom Alexander Lutskoy, first deputy general director of the Sistema Telecom holding Alexander Vronets, first deputy general director for finance and investments of Sistema Telecom Vasily Sidorov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of RTDC Timur Khusainov, General Director of Gamma Capital Dmitry

America improves financial reporting rules The National Financial Accounting Standards Board and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have taken another step to tighten accounting rules. Representatives of these major U.S. financial reporting watchdogs announced Wednesday new rules designed to prevent firms from hiding debts and assets from shareholders, the New York Times reported.

Doctors separating conjoined twins express 'cautious optimism' Yesterday in Singapore, a unique operation to separate conjoined twins - 29-year-old sisters Lala and Ladan Bijani from Iran - continued all day. The sisters have a rare anomaly: their skulls are fused at the ears, but in the common head there are two fused but separate brains. This means two personalities, two characters, two destinies.

Samsung employees were banned from using the handsets they produce In South Korea and Japan, as well as in a number of Western countries, a mobile phone with a lens has long been a part of everyday life, just like the Internet or digital format in electronic technology. The popularity of these “toys” alarms particularly vigilant citizens of these countries.

Yesterday, the first group of American military specialists - 20 people - arrived in Liberia to assess the situation. The Americans are deciding whether or not to send troops to this African country where there is a civil war. The Americans declared the voluntary resignation of Liberian President Charles Taylor as a condition for their participation in peacekeeping. And just yesterday he announced that he would still leave power and leave the country.

Gazprom wants to continue working in South Pars Participation in the gas project in Iran has not yet brought material dividends to Gazprom. As you know, negotiations are currently underway on the form and volume of return of funds that were invested by the participants of the consortium to commission the second and third stages of one of the world's largest gas fields, South Pars. Its reserves are estimated at 12.6 trillion cubic meters of gas (almost half of Gazprom's reserves).

Finally, we have Michel Houellebecq's first novel out. In domestic book publishing, everything is topsy-turvy. “Expanding the space of struggle” (Foreigner-BSG-Press, translation by Nina Kulish) is the work with which the scandalous talk show under the name “Houellebecq” began. The Russian reader, as usual, watched it in the recording, and first “ate” the ending, and then figured out what the point was.

Yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with President of the Republic of Korea Roh Moo-hyun, who arrived in China on a state visit. The Chinese leader proposed intensifying contacts so that in five years the annual trade turnover would reach $100 billion. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Seoul in August 1992, over the course of a decade, trade turnover increased from $6.37 to $41.2 billion in 2002.

The hero of the “diamond business” will be sent to Israel to reform The Israeli government recently turned to the Russian authorities with a request that the prominent international businessman David Rafaelov serve his sentence in their prison. He is a citizen of Israel, was detained in the Russian Federation (the head of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, personally spoke about this arrest at one time) and was sentenced to eight years in prison for scams in the diamond market.