An exhibition of artist Vladimir Yakovlev is open at the NCCA It is intolerably vulgar to justify the artist’s work by his physical illness. If the master is epileptic, then so be it, we will forgive him for the inaccurate color and uncertain composition. After all, we are all people, we are all human! What if the artist is blind? Then the vocabulary of the compassionate critic drips with flattering lisp: about foresight, intuition, chosenness...

Scientists and enthusiasts announced the discovery of the remains of an alien spaceship A sensational statement that in the area of ​​the Lower Tunguska River blocks of an alien technical device that crashed on June 30, 1908 were found was recently made by members of the expedition of Krasnoyarsk researcher Yuri Lavbin.

Tomorrow the final tournament of the European Handball Championship among men's teams starts in Slovenia. Winner of Olympic gold in Sydney, the Russian team arrived at these competitions with a light heart - a ticket to the Games in Athens is already in their pocket, it was won a year ago following the results of the 2003 World Championships.

Forecast for the coming days On the European territory of Russia, summer has only a few days left to rule. The combined efforts of the southern cyclone and small wave disturbances, which will roll into the center of European Russia from the North Atlantic, will establish cold northeastern winds. In the second half of the week, at an altitude of approximately 1.5 km, the temperature will drop to +5°C. Such high altitude temperatures are typical for our latitudes only in September.

In cases where even non-lethal weapons are unsuitable, there is no need to turn to a traditional machine gun. Secret laboratories already have groundwork and developments, both intellectual and cruel. Let's give just two examples. Chip soldier The program for reorganizing the weapons of the American army based on the latest achievements of science and technology is called “Future Combat Systems”. The first fundamentally new units should appear by 2010.

Megafon subscribers will pay not for time, but for the number of calls The Moscow cellular operator Megafon came out yesterday with another initiative that had no analogues on the market before. In the new FIX tariff plan, unlike existing tariffs, you need to pay not for every minute, but for every telephone connection made, regardless of its duration. True, analysts and competitors believe that Megafon miscalculated the potential audience for the new tariff.

Terrorists blew up two hotels in Istanbul In Turkey, terrorists staged another bloodshed. Yesterday, at least two people were killed in two explosions that rocked two Istanbul hotels. One of the dead is Turkish, the other is Iranian. 11 wounded are reported - four Spaniards, two Dutch, two Chinese, a Turk, a Ukrainian Magdalena Vageko and a Turkmen Jennet Babekova. It is known for certain that Russians are not among the victims, the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul reported.

Human rights activists and local authorities disagreed on the situation in Ingushetia and Chechnya An unusually sharp reaction from the regional authorities of Chechnya and Ingushetia was caused by three reports by human rights activists from the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), which were presented last Monday. The reports talk about the deteriorating situation with respect to human rights in the “counter-terrorist operation zone” and its environs.

The eighth round of the major chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee further fragmented the leading group, and far from being in favor of the Russian participants. Viswanathan Anand won the third victory in a row. This time his victim was the noticeably “floating” Evgeniy Bareev. The Muscovite is clearly out of shape and does not justify the advance payment from the organizers who invited him to the tournament for his old services (Bareev won Wijk aan Zee in 2002 and was third in 2003).

Watch from August 12 in Moscow cinemas “Just not on the lips” (France-Switzerland, 2004, Alain Rene). A comic musical based on the popular French operetta of the early last century about a man rushing between his wives, old and new. A completely unnecessary and frivolous spectacle, which received three Cesars this year in minor categories such as sound and costumes, attracts attention primarily by the name of the director.

United Russia members will tell people about replacing benefits with money according to a cheat sheet United Russia deputies, who approved the government law on the monetization of benefits, are preparing to meet face to face with voters who did not react very positively to this legislative initiative.

The trial of an accomplice to the September 11 tragedy is on the verge of collapse The Hamburg Higher Regional Court resumed hearings in the case of Munir al-Mutassadiq yesterday. The Prosecutor General's Office has again charged a 30-year-old native of Morocco with complicity in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Basketball. NBA. Regular season. "New York" - "Toronto" - 90:79, "Washington" - "Chicago" - 93:83, "Philadelphia" - "Seattle" - 81:90, "Atlanta" - " Indiana" - 97:100, "Detroit" - "San Antonio" - 85:77, "Orlando" - "Milwaukee" - 106:99, "Clippers" - "Sacramento" - 100: 125, Minnesota - New Orleans - 97:90, Memphis - Houston - 88:83, Golden State - Utah - 101:85, Lakers -- Phoenix -- 85:88. Andrei Kirilenko was unable to take part in the Golden State-Utah match.

Two hundred years ago Prince Vladimir Odoevsky was born Vladimir Odoevsky prefaced his first book with an unusually ornate title - “Motley fairy tales with eloquent words, collected by Irinei Modestovich Gomozeyka, master of philosophy and member of various learned societies, published by V. Bezglasny .” A bizarre title should hide the author's face, but like almost any hoax, it reveals quite a lot about the hoaxer himself. Let's start deciphering with the second, “publishing” name.

Tarpischev will not help our tennis players in Athens Some foreign tennis players view the Olympic Games as passing competitions, but our big racket masters have a special attitude towards this tournament. Four years ago in Sydney, Yevgeny Kafelnikov became an Olympic champion, winning the German Tommy Haas in the final, Elena Dementieva brought our team a silver medal at the Games.