The funeral of Heydar Aliyev gathered post-Soviet presidents Yesterday Azerbaijan said goodbye to Heydar Aliyev. Tens of thousands of people walked past his coffin, installed in the Republic Palace in Baku. It was in this palace that he took the oath twice, in 1993 and 1998, when taking office as president. There, for the last time, in April, the country saw him alive at the time of a heart attack.

Sentence to Ossetian terrorists The Supreme Court of North Ossetia announced yesterday the verdict in the case of four local residents accused of preparing and carrying out a series of terrorist attacks. 23-year-old Adam Tsurov was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was found guilty of participation in an illegal armed group, possession of weapons and explosives, banditry, terrorism, murder and kidnapping.

The conversation about finances in the Belarusian parliament took less than an hour The lower house of the Belarusian parliament yesterday adopted the budget for 2004 in the second and final reading. It took about 40 minutes to discuss the document and vote. “We are having a sprint discussion of the bill,” noted deputy Ivan Pashkevich. Now the budget will undergo an equally formal approval procedure in the upper house of parliament and the president.

The American army was drawn to warm seas American emissaries traveled to Eastern European countries to test the possibility of the global redeployment of US military bases on the European continent announced by President George W. Bush. The delegation was headed by US Deputy Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith.

Terrorists want to intimidate Pakistani leader Yesterday, the Pakistani authorities put anti-terrorist intelligence services on alert and launched a hunt for militants of extremist groups with renewed vigor. The nationwide operation followed a failed assassination attempt on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally in South Asia in the fight against international terrorism. The incident occurred on Sunday evening.

Transmash managers want to return the engines to the warehouse Tomorrow the Omsk Arbitration Court will resume the trial of the claim of the Transport Engineering Plant (Transmash) against the Russian Federal Property Fund. Defense experts believe that the Russian Federal Property Fund illegally sold four monoblocks (engines) from T-80 tanks, seized by bailiffs, for a total amount of 1.5 million rubles. to secure claims from workers of the enterprise who demanded repayment of wage arrears.

On the eve of a meeting of the tripartite commission to develop an agreement on the delegation of powers of state authorities of the Tyumen region to the authorities of the Khanty-Mansiysk (KhMAO) and Yamalo-Nenets (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), which will take place today, the speaker of the regional Duma Sergei Korepanov, elected from Yamal, sharply criticized the plans of the Tyumen Governor Sergei Sobyanin on the merger of these three regions. According to Mr.

Wesley Clark testifies against Slobodan Milosevic Today, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe Wesley Clark finishes testifying in the case of Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The speech in The Hague, which interrupted for two days the general’s fight for the right to become the Democratic presidential candidate in the United States, could turn into a traveling election rally if events develop favorably.

President Signed the law on currency regulation and control. “This is a new edition that gives a more transparent and direct interpretation of many of the most important provisions in this area,” Vladimir Putin noted.

Chinese Defense Minister checks fulfillment of orders Yesterday evening, Colonel General Cao Gangchuan, Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Council and Minister of Defense of China, arrived in Moscow. This is already the second visit of the head of the Chinese military department, although he was appointed to this post only in March of this year.

Spain and Morocco are planning to dig a tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who arrived on a visit to the capital of Morocco, Rabat, invited his neighbors to create a new wonder of the world. Two parallel railway tunnels, which will connect Europe and Africa for the first time in history, are to start at Punta Palomas on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula and end at Cape Malabata near Tangier, a Spanish port in Morocco.

Sergei Rozhkov almost got into a fight with a Ukrainian At the second stage of the Biathlon World Cup in the Austrian town of Hochfilzen, our shooting skiers brought only one medal to the team’s treasury, won by Olga Zaitseva in the 10 km pursuit race, where she took third place on the podium. At the start of the season in Kontiolahti (Finland) a week ago, the Russians had two medals - silver and bronze. Nevertheless, there is progress in the performances of the national team’s athletes.

Zidane named the best football player in the world The International Football Federation has named the best player of 2003. The honorary title was awarded to the midfielder of the French national team and Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane. Second place in the survey of representatives of 142 national federations was taken by Zidane's compatriot Thierry Henry from the English Arsenal, and another Real Madrid footballer, Brazilian Ronaldo, took third place.

"Media Committee" could not decide who will determine the popularity of television programs The attempt of the leading Russian television channels and the Ministry of Press, united in the “Media Committee”, to name the most objective television viewer in the country ended in failure.

A presentation of Rosneft took place in London. As reported by ITAR-TASS, the head of the European representative office of the company, Alexander Karpushin, spoke about the structure of the company, its production indicators, regions of activity and investment projects. “The purpose of our company presentation in London is to demonstrate our capabilities to British businesses. We will be glad to see British companies as partners,” said Mr. Karpushin.