On February 15 in Los Angeles, Russian Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko will take to the court as part of the Western Conference team. He was selected to the NBA All-Star Game by a vote of all head coaches in the association. Let us remember that before this Kirilenko took part in the “star newcomers” fights twice. A call from a correspondent for the Vremya Novostei newspaper literally woke the basketball player from bed.

The State Duma has determined the procedure for transferring land from one category to another Deputies made another attempt to streamline land relations yesterday. The State Duma adopted in the first reading the bill “On the procedure for transferring land from one category to another.” Deputies hope that a clear procedure for changing land categories will reduce corruption associated with the allocation of land for construction.

The number of victims of the terrorist attack committed on Tuesday in Vladikavkaz has reached two people. Yesterday morning, cadet Timur Tsarikaev of the North Caucasus Military Institute of Internal Troops, who was in the cockpit of a military ZIL, which was driving down the street at the moment of the explosion, died in the hospital. According to the North Ossetian authorities, nine more victims of the terrorist attack on Gorky Street remain in city hospitals.

The tenth expedition of the ISS will fly into orbit out of turn NASA specialists suggested that their Russian colleagues not take risks and replace the crew of the ninth main expedition to the International Space Station, the launch of which was scheduled for April 19.

Forecast for the coming days In the next 24 hours, Atlantic cyclones will prevail in the center of Russia. This means that there will again be precipitation and gusty winds. The arrival of a cyclone will be accompanied by a sharp drop in pressure. The temperature, on the contrary, will rise at night to -5...-10°C. But already on Friday the north moderate wind will bring a slight cooling to the center of Russia.

During this time, the deposit insurance fund will grow to 70 billion rubles Alexander Turbanov yesterday held his first press conference as head of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). This event was preceded by another discussion about the viability of the insurance system being created. Mr. Turbanov reported how his new department intends to form and invest the funds of the insurance fund - the main source of compensation for bank deposits.

Yesterday, news agencies, citing the US Department of Energy, reported that the American Marathon offered Rosneft to create a joint venture. As the reports say, Marathon proposes to include in it, on the one hand, the assets of Northern Oil, and on the other, “an asset purchased by foreigners in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug plus their refining and sales capacities in America.” Rosneft is still considering this proposal.

The big “Caucasian week” begins in Moscow Today, with the arrival of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Moscow, the big “Caucasian week” begins in the Russian capital. Following the Azerbaijani leader, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will come to Russia on February 11. Thus, in Moscow there will be a “presentation” of a new generation of post-Soviet leaders who have replaced the veterans of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.

Six chemical weapons destruction plants are being built in Russia At a meeting of the state commission on chemical disarmament held yesterday, its chairman, plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the Volga Federal District, Sergei Kiriyenko, said that Russia is today forming a unified federal system of environmental monitoring in areas where chemical weapons are stored and destroyed. The system includes mobile control tools and regional information and analytical centers.

Igor Ivanov promotes the interests of domestic business in Mongolia The development of business contacts and interaction in the field of security are the main goals of the two-day official visit to Mongolia of Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, which begins today. He will discuss these problems with the country's President Natsagiin Bagabandi, Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar and the head of Mongolian diplomacy Luvsangiin Erdenechulun.

Bush's rival could be his classmate Senator John Kerry won five of the seven states where Democratic primaries were held on Tuesday. In the other two states, John Edwards (South Carolina) and Wesley Clark (Oklahoma) were the first. Without winning anywhere, Joe Lieberman withdrew from the race. There are six Democratic candidates left. Kerry has the greatest chance of defeating Bush in the November 2 elections (opinion polls indicate this). His rivalry with Bush is long-standing.

The elected President of Georgia began forming a government with the Prosecutor General Mikheil Saakashvili yesterday announced his first appointment in the government since being elected president of Georgia. The candidacy of Irakli Okruashvili, who is now the governor of the Shida Kartli region, adjacent to the unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia, will soon be presented to parliament for approval for the post of Prosecutor General.

Yesterday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco FRATTINI, who was in Moscow on a working visit, was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin. After which Mr. Frattini answered questions from the Vremya Novostei newspaper. -- The extraordinary scale of our bilateral relations is confirmed by 12 agreements signed during President Putin’s November state visit to Italy.

Akhmed Zakayev was not noticed in Germany The State Duma Committee on International Affairs addressed the Prosecutor General's Office with a request in connection with the Berlin blitz visit of the European representative of the Chechen separatists, Akhmed Zakayev. Mr Zakayev spent three days in Berlin last week.

NATO lost Radovan Karadzic again The several-day operation of the International Stabilization Force in Bosnia (SFOR) to capture Radovan Karadzic suffered a final fiasco yesterday. The 58-year-old ex-president of Republika Srpska as part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague of organizing the massacres of Bosnian Muslims and Croats in 1992-1995, disappeared into thin air.