Evgeny Mironov plays Lopakhin in Nyakroshus’s play “The Cherry Orchard” Yesterday, the play “The Cherry Orchard” staged by Eimuntas Nyakrosius took place for the last time on the stage of the Taganka Actors’ Commonwealth theater. The next episode can be expected no earlier than December.

Pop diva wrote a book of fairy tales for aunts Millions of Madonna's fans are somewhat amazed by the new hit of the settled pop diva. Instead of a new video or song, born Louise-Veronica Ciccone decided to please the audience with a fairy tale of her own composition. The singer, who in recent years has been mainly involved in raising her own children and housekeeping, wrote a book called “English Roses” - the first of a series of five volumes.

Vladimir Putin will travel from Sochi to Yalta Today, as the Vremya Novostei newspaper learned the day before, the Russian President will travel from Sochi to the country's largest children's health center, Orlyonok. It is located on the Black Sea coast in the Tuapse region, between the city of Tuapse and the resort village of Dzhubga. From Sochi to Orlyonok is about four hours by car, but the president will fly there by helicopter.

May appear in the Moscow region LUKOIL may build an oil refinery in the Moscow region. True, a final decision has not yet been made - during 2004 the company must prepare a feasibility study for the project and only then decide whether it is worth starting. However, if LUKOIL nevertheless approves the construction plan, the Moscow Refinery will have a strong competitor, especially since the enterprises’ capacities will be comparable.

You can't take Arafat with your bare hands Yesterday, at a Security Council meeting, a draft UN Security Council resolution was considered, proposed by a group of Arab countries, which calls on Tel Aviv to ensure the security of the head of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Yasser Arafat.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs found an underground exchange of rare metals in Moscow Employees of the Investigative Committee (IC) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation completed the investigation and sent to court a criminal case about illegal transactions with the isotope osmium-187, a rare platinum group metal.

Bronze was little consolation The Italian national team, after a four-year break, regained the title of the strongest team in Europe. Under the leadership of new coach Gianpaolo Montalli, the Italians beat the French team in a dramatic match - 3:2 (25:18, 40:42, 25:18, 27:29, 15:9). Both finalists received the right to play in the World Cup, which will be held in the second half of November in Japan, from where the top three will advance to the Olympic tournament.

The Kremlin Cup prize fund will not be divided equally From September 29 to October 5, the traditional international tennis tournament Kremlin Cup starts in Moscow, which this year, according to the President of the All-Russian Tennis Association Shamil Tarpishchev, promises to be special.

The bill on deposit insurance has reached its first reading Tomorrow the State Duma will consider a bill on insurance of deposits in banks, which has become the personification of the entire banking reform - broadly conceived and almost failed by the authorities. The government believes that the law will easily pass at least the first reading.

The government allocates additional money to victims of “Nord-Ost” A little over a month before the anniversary of the Dubrovka tragedy, the Russian government remembered the victims of “Nord-Ost” - the other day, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed a decree to pay the victims almost a million rubles.

Oleg Pavlov, a famous prose writer (novels “The State Tale”, “The Matyushin Case”, “Karaganda Nineties”), winner of the Booker - Open Russia Prize, published a collection of journalism in the Moscow publishing house “Russian Way”. It is called “Russian Man in the 20th Century” - just like the article, where Pavlov co- (and more so counter-) puts Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn, Platon Karataev and Ivan Denisovich.

Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko showed each other their backs The presidents of Russia and Belarus ended yesterday tired and dissatisfied. Hours-long negotiations between Putin and Lukashenko on the future of the union state were unsuccessful - unless, of course, you consider it a success that the presidents clearly and unequivocally separated “their” cutlets from “other people’s” flies.

The final stage of the “Teacher of the Year” competition has begun The Ministry of Education announced preparations for the finals of the annual main school competition “Teacher of the Year”, which will be held in Moscow from September 25 to October 6. One of these days, the best teachers from 80 regions of Russia will come to the capital, having received positive reviews of reports on their work and creative projects from the jury.

Megafon will not merge with VimpelCom The Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy (MAP) will not allow the merger of the mobile companies Megafon and VimpelCom. Answering a question on this matter, the head of MAP Ilya Yuzhanov said yesterday at a press conference that the merger of any two of the three federal GSM cellular operators existing in Russia is impossible.

A photo exhibition of Sergei Golovach INTRO opened at the Fine Art gallery In the former Efremov and now Tabakov Moscow Art Theater there was such a play “Equus”. Based on the play by the creator of the famous “Amadeus” Peter Schaeffer. The action took place in a psychiatrist's office. He was played insinuatingly and nervously by Innokenty Smoktunovsky. A guy from the working-class outskirts of an American town was brought to a psychiatrist.