Sibneft was again not allowed to receive its trader's money YUKOS and Sibneft have a row again. After YUKOS yesterday failed to show up for an extraordinary meeting of shareholders of the Siberian company, initiated by its current management (acting in the interests of Roman Abramovich), it was declared invalid due to lack of quorum.

The commander of the Group of Russian Forces in Transcaucasia (GRVZ), Major General Alexander Studenikin, was slightly wounded last night as a result of an assassination attempt. An explosive device was installed by unknown persons on the corner of the house in which GRVZ employees live, and went off at the moment when the major general passed by. According to preliminary data, TNT was used for this. The general was placed in the Tbilisi hospital of the Group of Russian Forces in Transcaucasia.

Alexander Sokolov promises to consult with the public All five already approved leaders of the new Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications appeared before reporters yesterday. Minister Alexander Sokolov, his first deputy Leonid Nadirov and the heads of federal agencies Mikhail Shvydkoy, Mikhail Seslavinsky, Vladimir Kozlov decided to jointly give their first official press conference.

The G-14 begins legal proceedings against FIFA Over the weekend, the Swiss Sports Dispute Commission launched a preliminary investigation into the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). This was done after a complaint from leading European clubs united in the G-14 organization. FIFA's headquarters are located in Zurich, so the case will be handled by the Swiss authorities.

The President of Ingushetia was saved by a Mercedes from a Zhiguli terrorist car. The President of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, was attacked by kamikaze terrorists yesterday morning. On the federal highway "Caucasus" at the exit from Nazran, when the head of the republic was heading to work in Magas, unknown saboteurs (or saboteurs - the number of criminals was still unknown yesterday) in Zhiguli cars loaded with explosives tried to ram his motorcade.

MTS caught up with Megafon and Bee Line A new service has appeared in the Moscow network of the Mobile Telesystems (MTS) company - “They called you,” a kind of remote caller ID. MTS subscribers will be able to find out who called them while they were outside the service area or their phone was turned off. Thus, MTS has caught up with its competitors - VimpelCom (Bee Line trademark) and Megafon, which have been providing a similar service for a long time.

Bank of America lays off employees The second largest bank holding company in the United States - Bank of America - is going to significantly replenish the army of American unemployed. On Monday, the bank's management announced plans to cut 7% of its staff - 12.5 thousand jobs. In addition, a number of offices will be liquidated. All this will save about $650 million a year. Layoffs will begin in April and will mainly affect technical staff.

The Caspian Five can't even get their foreign ministers together Yesterday's meeting in Moscow of the foreign ministers of the Caspian five countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) was dynamic and ended much earlier than scheduled. The victims of such intensive work were journalists, a significant part of whom discovered that by the hour at which the final press conference was scheduled, it had long since ended.

Czech forward of the NHL club New York Rangers Jaromir Jagr is almost sure that he will spend the next season in the Russian Super League. Naturally, one of the brightest stars of today's hockey will come to Russia only if there is a lockout in the NHL. Jagr has already signed a contract with one of the Moscow clubs. With which - CSKA or Dynamo - the Czech did not specify. “There is a high probability that I will go to Moscow—about 95 percent,” Jagr told the New York Daily News.

The Roman Ballet comes to Moscow again A year ago, the ballet troupe of Rome's Teatro dell'Opera already performed in Moscow with a program dedicated to Diaghilev's “Russian Seasons”. (Then they brought “Scheherazade”, “Games” and “The Rite of Spring”). On April 16 and 17 in the Kremlin, Italians will dance again in honor of the famous Russian enterprise - and at yesterday's press conference at ITAR-TASS, Andris Liepa, who restored Fokine's ballets in Rome, spoke about the upcoming tour.

The government has set a course for competitiveness The fifth scientific conference “Competitiveness and Modernization of the Economy” opened yesterday. And although it is being held by the Higher School of Economics, which is far from political battles, despite its purely theoretical status, the conference unexpectedly became an arena of conflict.

Today in Brussels, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will present his country's individual partnership program with the North Atlantic Alliance to 26 NATO countries. Back in 2002, Tbilisi, under the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze, announced Georgia’s desire to join the Alliance.

The Olympic year for a sports director of any rank largely determines the quality of his work. The Chairman of the Federal Agency for Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, Vyacheslav Fetisov, understands his responsibility very well, but cannot afford to think only about the results of the 2004 Games. Therefore, the conversation between the Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent and Vyacheslav FETISOV touched upon the whole variety of matters that the head of our sport has to monitor.

The government refused to pay fines for overdue debts on defense orders Exhausted by chronic non-payments for manufactured military equipment and weapons, defense enterprises yesterday took another step to extort debts from the Russian military department. This time, the legislative assembly of the Chelyabinsk region, on the initiative of local defense workers, introduced a bill to the State Duma, which, if adopted by parliament, would significantly amend the current law on state defense orders.

Kumaratunga outplayed the undesirable prime minister Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga yesterday appointed 58-year-old Mahindra Rajapakse, the leader of the Freedom Party with extensive parliamentary experience, as the country's new prime minister. The appointment took place following the results of early elections to the legislative assembly, which were won by the president’s People’s Alliance party.