CLUBS Jean-Loup Longnon Quintet : Jean-Loup Longnon (trumpet, vocals), Kirill Bubyakin (tenor saxophone), Vladimir Chernitsyn (double bass), Alexey Cheremizov (piano), Alexey Shikhov (drums). Le Club , 20.00. Kid Andersen and Rock Awhile Band (Norway-USA). Blues. June 2 at “Fort” , 21.00. June 3 at R&B Cafe , 22.00. “Fruit kefir” (Rostov-on-Don). The group plays punk and hardcore and, perhaps, will conquer Moscow very soon, like the Kharkov 5`nizza a year and a half ago.

Pakistani leader promises to punish criminals Speaking in Islamabad yesterday at a conference of scholars from 40 countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that the terrorists who blew up the Shia Ali Raza Mosque in Karachi on Monday had nothing to do with Islam, the religion of peace and harmony. General Musharraf promised to find and punish the criminals.

ZhZL published a book about D'Artagnan D'Artagnan was not invented by Alexandre Dumas. And not even Courtille de Sandra, who in 1770 published the forged memoirs of the Chevalier D'Artagnan, which fell into the hands of the future creator of The Three Musketeers in time.

The fight against inflation makes it difficult to increase economic growth rates Despite the bravura statements by government members about the possibility of doubling GDP by 2010 and reducing annual inflation to 3% by 2008, it is becoming increasingly clear that the economic goals set by Vladimir Putin in his address to the Federal Assembly are difficult to achieve, to say the least.

Kakha Bendukidze has long wanted to change his profession Kakha Bendukidze spoke about his intentions to leave the business last year. In private conversations, according to sources of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, Mr.

TNK-BP's total proven reserves in 2003, according to the criteria of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), increased by 4.8%, to 4.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent, including proven developed reserves by 6. 2%, to 3.4 billion barrels, the company said in a press release.

Igor YURGENS, executive secretary of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs: — Both as the vice-president of the RSPP, and purely from a human perspective, I am very sorry that Kakha Bendukidze is leaving us. He is the smartest, wittiest person and a very strong, adequate expert. I am happy for Georgia, but I feel sorry for Russia. People like Bendukidze could be in demand in the Russian government.

The Anti-Corruption Commission, created in the Duma of the fourth convocation, has only just begun its work. Its main task is to examine legislative acts for their “bribery potential” and check the corruption component of bills. At the same time, the very concept of “corruption” in Russia still does not have a legal definition.

Deputies want to toughen penalties for salary delays Russian parliamentarians decided to settle on the toughest way to deal with the heads of enterprises who delay wages. Yesterday, at a meeting of the chamber's council, they confirmed their intentions to establish serious criminal and administrative penalties for directors of debtor companies. This was announced by the Chairman of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy Andrei Isaev.

Krasnodar region was the last in Russia to lower bread prices Until June 1, Kuban remained the only region of the country where the authorities set a ceiling on the price of bread. It remained here the cheapest in Russia. Tin bread made from first-grade flour, the so-called “gray”, cost 8 rubles on May 31 throughout the Kuban territory. for the "brick". No one could say for sure how much it would cost after the price release.

Oil prices on the New York stock exchange reached new record levels. Yesterday, the cost of raw materials exceeded the level of $42 per barrel. Prior to this, the historical maximum on this trading floor was recorded at $41.85 per barrel. The main reason for the rapid growth of quotes, according to experts, is still the unstable situation in the Middle East.

The Prime Minister approved the regulation on alternative service The heated debate surrounding the right of Russians liable for military service to alternative civilian service has finally come to an end. Yesterday, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed the Regulations on the procedure for passing the ACS in pursuance of the new federal law “On Alternative Civil Service” recently adopted by deputies.

Music dominates the Moscow radio airwaves On June 1, the place of the “talk” “Radio Online” was taken by the musical “Radio Disco”. The replacement was a logical consequence of the processes taking place in the Moscow market; in recent years, not a single talk station has achieved any significant success here. Even the great advertiser David Ogilvy called radio “the Cinderella of the advertising world” - in most countries the radio share in the total advertising pie does not exceed 10%.

President Held a working meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. At the meeting, Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Fradkov discussed various issues of the country’s economic development, as well as the results of the State Council meeting. He said that representatives of the regions would be included in the commission on fishing quotas.

Gerashchenko attacks tax authorities as the future head of Yukos For now, YUKOS does not need to look for $3.4 billion and return it to the budget. A week ago, the arbitration court made a decision to recover this money from the company based on the claim of the Ministry of Taxes, but yesterday it decided to suspend the execution of the tax authorities’ demand until a decision on the merits is made in the case on the claim of YUKOS, which is trying to protest the claims of the tax service.