French musician faces up to 15 years in prison The trial of French musician and vocalist Bertrand Canta, accused of the premeditated murder of his compatriot, famous theater and film actress Marie Trintignant, began in Vilnius yesterday. On July 27 last year, Kanta brutally beat his girlfriend in a Vilnius hotel after another day of filming the film “Colette.” Two neurosurgical operations did not help. On August 1, the actress died, leaving four sons orphans.

Europe doesn't recognize our tricks with passports Yesterday in Munich, at a meeting of the special commission of the continental branch of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA-Europe), the appeal of the Yekaterinburg UMMC against the decision to expel the team from the Women's Euroleague was discussed. The protest was rejected.

The verdict against 25-year-old ethnic Serb Mihailo Mihailovic, who brutally stabbed to death Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh on September 11, 2003, right in front of shoppers at a central department store in Stockholm, will be pronounced on March 23 at exactly 1:30 p.m. local time. So yesterday the Stockholm District Court ruled, rejecting the defendant’s defense request for a second psychological examination.

“Russian” gangsters had to get even with the Swiss border guards The Swiss Prosecutor General's Office recently officially appealed to the Russian authorities with a request to find and arrest a certain Alexander Bakuev. This man, as it turned out, is involved in another scandalous story about the “terrible Russian mafia” (more precisely, Russian-speaking), which stirred up quiet Switzerland a year and a half ago.

Yesterday, the head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Medvedev, officially introduced the new plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District, Vladimir Yakovlev, in Rostov. As Dmitry Medvedev said at the ceremony, “the experience and knowledge acquired by Vladimir Yakovlev as governor of St. Petersburg and deputy prime minister will undoubtedly help him effectively and professionally solve the tasks set by the president.” Mr.

Alfa Bank gets rid of employees and bureaucracy Today, Alfa Bank management will announce plans for business development in the near future, changes in the management structure and personnel changes at the top management level. One of the key news is that board member Maciej Lebkowski, head of the Retail Business block and creator of the Alfa Bank Express project, is leaving Alfa.

More and more Americans are beginning to doubt whether the military campaign against Iraq was really necessary? The weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that sparked the war were never found in Iraq. What does this war threaten for President Bush? Joseph CIRINCIONE, an American expert on WMD nonproliferation issues from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, answers questions from the Vremya Novostei newspaper.

Yuri Luzhkov went “to his brother” in Batumi The crisis around Adjara seems to have frozen for now at the “point of blockade” to which the central leadership of Georgia has subjected the obstinate autonomy. The center of gravity in resolving the situation is shifting towards peacemaking. Obviously, a telephone conversation between the presidents of Georgia and Russia, Mikheil Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin, made a certain contribution to this.

Yesterday, in the center of St. Petersburg, the general director of the defense enterprise JSC Electromechanical Plant Zarya, Anatoly Ivanov, and his security driver were killed. The murder, which has all the hallmarks of a contract killing, took place around 3 p.m. in the courtyard of a house on busy Kazanskaya Street, a stone's throw from Nevsky Prospekt.

Transvaal Park designers are looking for traces of external influences The capital's architects and builders fear that it will be their authorities who will appoint those at the extreme end of the Transvaal Park tragedy. In just a few days, the capital commission investigating the circumstances of the roof collapse in the entertainment complex should familiarize the public with its findings.

German Gref may lose some powers Before the ink had even dried on the presidential decree on reforming the structure of government, voices began to be heard from the high offices of the White House and individual ministries about the unmanageability of some departments. In this case, the name is mainly given to the Ministry of Economic Development. Ill-wishers whisper that German Gref will not be able to manage either the economy he inherited or the one he won in a difficult apparatus struggle.

Ethan STIFEL was the main star of the Mariinsky Festival. The premier of the New York City Ballet, who moved to the American Ballet Theater several years ago, gave an interview to Ekaterina BELYAEVA before his debut in the reconstructed Mariinsky La Bayadère (which ended with a standing ovation). -- Where were you born? Are your parents from ballet classes? - I was born in Pennsylvania. My dad is a simple employee, he changed jobs every now and then.

Today in Nizhny Tagil the semi-final matches will be held as part of the “Final Four” of the Russian Championship. Ekaterinburg “Uralochka” will play with Belgorod “University”, and “Dynamo” near Moscow will play with “Balakovo NPP”. The second stage, in which six of the country's strongest teams played, ended on Monday in Nizhny Tagil.

RTCOMM summed up its activities The largest Russian Internet operator RTCOMM reported yesterday that at the end of last year it managed to double its income compared to 2002, to $54.7 million. Moreover, $35 million of this was revenue from data transmission. RTCOMM plans to continue upgrading the network and providing new services. The main shareholders of RTCOMM are RTK-Leasing (49.8%), Rostelecom (31.1%) and the Center for Research on Telecommunications Development Problems (13.7%).

A year ago, on March 17, US President George W. Bush offered Iraqi President Saddam Hussein an ultimatum from a gangster movie: another minute and either your signature or your brains will be on paper. The Americans demanded that Saddam give up power and leave the country he led for 24 years with his family. Qusei, Saddam’s youngest son, whom his father was grooming as his successor, also had to leave. The ultimatum expired on the night of March 20. Saddam chose brains.