The Common Economic Space is lost in time The full functioning of the Common Economic Space (SES) is a matter of the very distant future. This recognition was made yesterday by the head of the department of international cooperation of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, Dmitry Sukhoparov. “We won’t live in it for a long time,” he told reporters, recalling that the formation of the European Union took more than thirty years.

The government has set a price for 7.59% of LUKOIL shares The sale of the state's remaining 7.59% stake in LUKOIL will take place at noon on September 29. This was announced yesterday by the acting head of the Russian Federal Property Fund (RFFI), Kirill Tomashchuk.

WHO sees a new epidemiological threat in China The World Health Organization has “set up” China again. As in the case of SARS, WHO experts suggest that neighboring countries be more careful with goods and tourists from the Middle Kingdom. The fact is that, according to the organization’s experts, some Chinese pigs fell ill with bird flu, which, according to doctors, can lead to quite unpleasant consequences for people.

The famous icon never helped the Pope visit Russia The icon of the Kazan Mother of God, kept for 11 years in the chambers of Pope John Paul II, will finally be brought to Russia today on a special flight. The shrine will be delivered to the homeland by a delegation led by the Chairman of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper.

Russia is rushing for second place in the overall standings Yesterday, after Russian Andrei Moiseev won the modern pentathlon competition and unexpectedly brought another “gold” to our country, the intrigue of the last three days of the Olympics became quite clear. Will Russia be able to overtake China, which was in second place at that time, in terms of the number of highest awards? Today in Athens 20 sets of medals are being played out, tomorrow - 34, on Sunday - another 20.

The Moscow Department of Education has calculated the optimal weight of textbooks For the first time, the Moscow government decided to literally weigh the knowledge that students in city schools receive. And I came to the sad conclusion that they are too much for children.

The former dictator of Chile, 88-year-old General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled the country for 17 years, has a restless old age. Chile's Supreme Court yesterday stripped Mr. Pinochet of the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed as a former head of state. Now he can be convicted of human rights violations. We are talking about crimes committed as part of the sinister “Plan Condor”.

The city authorities promise an increase in real estate prices The capital's authorities advise Muscovites not to count on a decline in housing costs, which some analysts are predicting in the near future. The head of the Moscow construction complex, Vladimir Resin, said yesterday that housing prices will only rise, despite the constant increase in construction volumes. “Today we cannot talk about a reduction in housing prices.

FIRST AUGUST 30 , MONDAY 6.00 Good morning 9.00, 12.00, 15.00, 18.00 News 9.20 "RIGHT DUDLEY." Comedy 10.40 “Children of the Kremlin.” Doc. movie 11.40 Disney Club 12.10 “COLLECTOR’S BAG”. Hood. movie 14.00 “WOMEN IN LOVE”. Series 15.20 “ANGEL ON THE ROAD”. Series 16.30 “The Raskolnikov case.” Doc. detective 17.00 Weak link 18.20 Laughing panorama 19.00 “CLONE”.

TABLE OF MEDALS Position of leaders (224 sets of awards awarded) Country W M B Total USA 25 29 23 77 China 24 16 12 52 Australia 16 11 16 43 RUSSIA 15 19 22 56 Japan 15 9 10 34 France 10 7 9 26 Germany 9 11 13 33 Italy 9 6 8 23 Romania 8 5 4 17 Ukraine 8 4 6 18 Note: Excludes soccer (women's one set of medals), field hockey (women's 1), diving (women's 1) and track and field (men's 3), which ended late in the evening. August 26, Thursday WATER POLO. Women. 1. Italy. 2. Greece. 3. USA.

The Ministry of Finance proposes to bring the debts of the USSR to the Paris Club countries to the market Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced yesterday that Russia is ready to exchange its debt to the Paris Club for marketable securities. He did not disclose the details of this initiative, but referred to the experience of Germany, which had already taken a similar step to cover its budget deficit (in June-July Berlin issued papers against payments to Russia on the Soviet debt).

The timing of children's holidays will depend on the climatic conditions of the region Russian regions may gain the right to independently determine the timing of school holidays next year. This was agreed upon yesterday during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko. The experiment will most likely begin in Yakutia, where the 2005 academic year will begin on September 15.

CSKA and Chelsea are in the same group in the Champions League It's finished. The CSKA - Chelsea match, which the president of the army club Evgeniy Giner and the owner of the English team Roman Abramovich have been talking about for so long, will take place. Moreover, everything will be arranged to the highest standard: the teams will have to fight in the same group of the Champions League.

VimpelCom will sell a blocking stake in the newly acquired Kar-Tel VimpelCom yesterday fully confirmed the information reported by Vremya Novostey on Wednesday about the purchase of the second largest GSM operator in Kazakhstan, Kar-Tel. For 100% of the shares of Kar-Tel, the Russian operator paid $350 million, taking on the Kazakh company's debt in the amount of $75 million.

In Latvia, on the eve of September 1, protests against the education reform resumed, in which the Russian-speaking population sees the “Latvianization” of Russian schools. Vremya Novostey special correspondent Katerina LABETSKAYA talks about this with the head of the naturalization department of the Ministry of Justice of Latvia, Ms. Eizhenya ALDERMANE. -- The Russian-speaking population of Latvia considers the reform in national schools to be “revenge for the Soviet past.” - I don’t agree.