Arsenal will have a hard time retaining the league title The summer holidays have flown by, and the English Premier League starts on Saturday. The tournament promises to be very interesting, because at least four clubs will compete for the main trophy - Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. These are clear favorites. There are also hidden ones that can intervene in this dispute - Newcastle, Aston Villa and Tottenham.

The airline is being asked to pay for benefits The Prosecutor General's Office sent a letter to the government with a proposal to recover from Transaero Airlines the amount of all customs duties for foreign aircraft purchased by this company since 1999. Until now, Transaero has been exempt from these payments by government decree issued in 1999. And the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade filed an arbitration claim against Transaero demanding payment of customs duties.

Edinburgh Festival opens on Sunday The festival will last twenty days - from August 15 to September 5 - and during these twenty days it will present a not very large, but strictly selected collection of performances. Concerts and meetings between directors and the public will take place, and drama, opera and ballet will compete for the audience’s attention. Several German theaters are coming to Edinburgh this year.

China ahead of Japan in space race China will continue to move towards the stars, but exclusively for peaceful purposes and in the name of all humanity. This was solemnly stated the other day by the director of the State Space Agency (SSA) of the People's Republic of China, Sun Laiyan. He said that the launch of the Shenzhou-6 manned spacecraft is planned for 2005. Mr.

President He stated that “a significant increase in expenditures is envisaged” in 2005 to strengthen defense capabilities and the entire security component. “It will amount to approximately 40% of the current year,” Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the leadership of the security and financial departments. “For 2005, the defense order assumes an increase of 40%, which in monetary terms is about 70 billion rubles,” Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin replied to the head of state.

Yuri Trutnev is looking for “gray” oil Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev, who had just reported to Vladimir Putin on the work done to monitor compliance with the terms of subsoil use licenses, announced a new large-scale inspection. This time, all the country's oil producing enterprises, which Mr. Trutnev suspects of providing inaccurate information about the volume of oil production, became the objects of the minister's close attention.

Forecast for the coming days The latest weather news is not encouraging. One after another, with an interval of approximately two days, cold atmospheric fronts passed through the center of European Russia. And the warmth left our region for about a week. In the center of European Russia the weather will be 2-4 degrees colder than usual. The central regions will have to experience the impact of another cyclone, excessively rainy, over the coming weekend.

The government's business plan has been sent for revision The government is rapidly mastering a new method of work. From now on, ministries will plan goals for themselves in order to obtain funds for them. It remains to figure out how to evaluate the results of departments’ work in the new conditions. Every minister wants to be political, but no one wants to bear political responsibility.

Americans storm the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad's brother The dramatic events in southern Iraq resemble a cross between intervention and civil war. Iraqis are already fighting with Iraqis: yesterday, on the seventh day of the Shiite uprising, several thousand Iraqi National Guardsmen and police, trained with the help of the Americans, were thrown against the Shiites who rebelled in the south. American Marines are also participating in the operation, receiving strong air support.

CLUBS "Megapolis". August 13, Gogol' , 20.00. Vyacheslav Butusov . August 13, “B2” , 23.30. “The squeak of the reptile.” A noisy association of members of the Leningrad group - trumpeter Sashko , drummer Mitya , accordionist Romero and double bassist Ochkan . August 13, Bilingua , 21.00. Nikolay Arutyunov (vocals). Jazz. August 13, Le Club , 20.00. Sergey Manukyan (vocals), Miriam (vocals), Neo Swing . Jazz. August 13, Cool Train , 21.00. “Paper TAM.” August 14, “Chinese pilot Zhao Da” , 23.00.

Gold Fields will absorb Canadian Iamgold The world's fourth largest gold producer, South African Gold Fields Ltd, announced on Wednesday it would merge with the Canadian gold mining company Iamgold (which owns mines in Ghana and Mali). As a result of the transaction, according to Russian experts, the value of the 20 percent stake in Gold Fields, which currently belongs to Norilsk Nickel, may increase. The scheme of the deal between Canadians and South Africans is as follows.

Yuri Luzhkov is seeking to host the 2012 Olympics in Moscow The capital's mayor, who has spent too much effort and money preparing Moscow for the 2012 Olympics, does not seem to intend to wait idly for the results of the International Olympic Committee competition. The mayor did not even spare his vacation time to lobby for one of his largest projects. Like many other Muscovites, Yuri Luzhkov decided to vacation in Greece.

"Alien vs. Predator" on American screens Paul Thomas Anderson's Alien vs. Predator hits theaters today. For the first time, the two sacred monsters of the Fox studio will collide mouth to mouth on wide screens - a battle will begin that people of good will and specific tastes have dreamed of for a very long time: until now, the Alien and the Predator have entered into confrontation in comics and very popular computer games.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein will set the price for Yuganskneftegaz The Ministry of Justice announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement on the assessment of OJSC Yuganskneftegaz with the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW). The block of shares of the main oil-producing enterprise of the Yukos company will go up for sale after receiving an independent opinion on its value.

Korean archers set two world achievements This coming weekend, 25 sets of medals will be awarded at the Olympics. Athens' first gold medal winner will be announced around noon on Saturday when the women's air rifle competition concludes. Russians Tatyana Goldobina and Lyubov Galkina are among the world elite in this discipline. The first world record at the Games was set yesterday, the day before the official opening ceremony.