UBS Bank begins selling Norilsk Nickel ADRs The European investment bank UBS AG announced yesterday the start of the sale of bonds exchangeable for ADR of MMC Norilsk Nickel. The company said in a statement that the issue, organized by a unit of UBS AG Jersey, has an approximate value of $250 million, based on the value of Norilsk Nickel's ADR. At the same time, approximately another $250 million worth of Norilsk Nickel ADRs will also be placed among institutional investors.

Tbilisi offered Moscow a “zero option” Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and acting Georgian President Nino Burjanadze “exchanged smiles and friendly handshakes.” This is the message about their meeting from the Interfax agency, transmitted yesterday from Maastricht, where a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers of the 55 OSCE member states ends today.

Group C: Norway, Denmark, Italy, Bulgaria Group C has all the ingredients to give the world a couple of memorable matches from the first round. Ambitious Italy will cross swords here with talented Scandinavians from Denmark and Sweden, and the “dark horses” Bulgarians will do everything not to lose face in the dirt. When there are only 16 teams playing at a key continental tournament, then each of the four groups can be called, excuse the cliche, a “group of death”.

The festival “Vladimir Spivakov invites” has opened The second Moscow music festival under the artistic direction of the head of the Moscow House of Music, the new National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia and the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra Vladimir Spivakov opened with a concert with the almost sensational participation of the black prima donna Jessie Norman.

The government has changed customs rates for new cars The government has closed the channel for importing cars at reduced prices. From January 1, 2004, a new procedure for applying customs duty rates is introduced in relation to the import by individuals of cars classified as new (no more than three years have passed since their release). The rate will be determined as a percentage of the customs value, but not less than a certain amount in euros, depending on the engine size.

The bank itself spoke about financial fraud in its branch Alfa Bank had to fire the heads of its branches for the second time in a month due to financial irregularities. Less than a month ago, Vitaly Ryabov, the head of the St. Petersburg branch, which was being investigated by the local FSB department for participation in illegal VAT refund schemes in favor of clients, was dismissed.

At the Finnish stage of the World Cup, Russia has only one award In the international calendar, the ski tournament, held at the end of November in the Finnish subpolar town of Kuusamo, is designated as the opening of the winter season. This prestigious status is only partially true. The racing skiers gathered in Finland for the third meeting of the 2003/04 World Cup program, and the combined skiers and ski jumpers really opened up the scoring.

Kazan UNICS beat a competitor from the “Big Three” Last game weekend of the Russian basketball championship among men's teams, the centerpiece was the match between teams from the so-called “Big Three”. In the meeting between Kazan UNICS and Perm Ural Great, which was directly witnessed by seven thousand spectators gathered in the stands of the Basket Hall in the capital of Tatarstan, the Volga residents celebrated the victory - 87:72.

The Ministry of Railways will increase fares for wealthy citizens by a quarter Russian Railways OJSC announced new tariffs for travel in compartment and luxury cars next year. The price increase was unprecedented - an average of 25%. As this year, passengers can expect a “flexible system of tariff regulation”: the fare will depend on passenger traffic (very expensive before the holidays and in the summer and a little cheaper in the off-season).

President Met with Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova. During the meeting, Galina Karelova told the head of state about the meeting of student construction teams that took place in Yekaterinburg, which was dedicated to the 45th anniversary of this form of work. According to Galina Karelova, this year 102 thousand students took part in the work of student teams.

CLUBS Timo Vaananen (Finland). The best kantele player in the world. Kantele is the Finnish version of the gusli, some of them have up to 34 strings. “Chinese pilot Zhao Da” , 23.00. Alex Rostotsky Trio (bass guitar). Rostotsky is a famous Moscow jazzman, composer, arranger and successful producer, who, together with Mikhail Green, headed the organizing committee of the first and second open-air festivals “Jazz in the Hermitage Garden”.

The traces of Igor Klimov’s killers led the detectives in different directions The investigation into one of the most notorious crimes of recent times - the murder of the general director of the defense holding Concern Almaz-Antey Igor Klimov - is becoming increasingly scandalous. According to the newspaper Vremya Novostey, a split has occurred between the operatives involved in this case.

FSUE VO Technopromexport will complete the construction of a hydroelectric power station in Angola, which began in 1985, by January 2004. The Russian-Brazilian consortium for the construction of the Capanda hydroelectric power station in Angola has decided to begin acceptance tests. The official launch of the hydroelectric power station will take place in January. Construction of the hydroelectric power station was interrupted twice due to military operations in Angola.

The intelligence services received information about Basayev’s new plans Shamil Basayev once again sent several groups of trained female suicide bombers to Russian cities. Unofficial information about this leaked yesterday from the Chechen intelligence services. It is assumed that the fighters of the Riyaadus-Salihiin brigade (Black Widows), which is under his personal command, received orders to carry out a series of sabotage on the eve of parliamentary elections and the New Year holidays.

On Monday, Georgian State Minister Zurab Zhvania and Acting Speaker of Parliament Georgy Tsereteli personally took part in the dismantling of the metal fence around the State Chancellery building. As the new head of the presidential press service, Georgy Arveladze (an activist of Saakashvili’s United National Movement), said, everything that happens in the highest echelons of power must be transparent, so the removal of bars is symbolic.