The situation around the presidential elections in Abkhazia remains unclear. Opposition candidate Sergei Bagapsh calls himself the winner; representative of the party in power, Raul Khadzhimba, insists on holding a new vote. All this slows down the negotiation process between Tbilisi and Sukhumi. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the Georgian-Abkhaz settlement, Swiss diplomat Ms.

Another Arafat dies in Cairo Another Arafat died yesterday. In any case, Israeli sources announced that his younger brother Fathi died in an Egyptian hospital, four days after the death of 75-year-old Yasser Arafat. The Egyptians have not confirmed this, but it is known that the chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 71-year-old Fathi Arafat, suffered from cancer and, on the recommendation of doctors, was not even informed about the death of his famous brother.

The refusal of Kramnik and Karpov lowered the rating of the national championship super final From today, for two weeks, the attention of the chess world will be focused on Moscow. Here at the Rossiya Hotel the super final of the Russian Championship starts with the participation of the country's strongest chess players.

The Russian company ABBYY is the market leader in character recognition programs and one of the few domestic software companies operating successfully in the West. Every second scanner in the world is sold together with software from ABBYY. Vremya Novostey correspondent Andrey ANNENKOV talks with the head of the company, Sergei ANDREEV, about the problems facing the industry. -- The programming industry should help get rid of the predominance of raw materials in the structure of Russian exports.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has begun to modernize itself The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation announced on Saturday that the head of the department, Rashid Nurgaliev, signed a number of orders regulating the new structure and staffing of the central apparatus of the ministry. Thus, police reform, the need for which has been discussed at all levels of government over the past few years, has finally begun.

Exhibition of Vladimir Velichkovic in the M'ARS gallery If anyone plucks up the courage and decides to visit the exhibition “Bursts and Wounds” by Vladimir Velichkovich in the M'ARS gallery, I recommend taking validol - it is possible that you will need it. Two huge floors of a respectable gallery are devoted to the art of this artist, unknown in Russia. The viewer receives the first blow upon entering. A huge picturesque polyptych with dozens of heads is on display.

Forecast for the coming days The atmospheric fronts of the Atlantic cyclone will determine the weather in the northwestern and central regions of European Russia over the next two days. In Moscow and the region at night it will be cloudy, with clearings, in the first half of the night there is light precipitation, at the end of the night there is icy conditions on some sections of the roads, the minimum temperature is -1...+1оС, in the region -3...+2оС, westerly wind, 3 --8 m/s.

The case “IPOC investment fund versus the Russian company LV Finance” continues to be considered in international arbitrations. The subject of the litigation is a blocking stake in the third largest Russian cellular operator, Megafon. IPOC is trying to regain its shares, which, according to company representatives, are illegally owned by Alfa-Eco (part of Alfa Group).

Novell continues to sue Microsoft No sooner had Microsoft finished one legal battle with Novell than it was embroiled in another. Last Friday, another lawsuit was filed against Bill Gates Corporation in the US District Court in Salt Lake City. According to Novell's lawsuit, Microsoft violated competition rules in the desktop software market from 1994 to 1996.

A new leadership team is being formed at the Ministry of Defense The new Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Colonel General Alexei Maslov, appointed from the post of Chief of Staff of the North Caucasus Military District (NCMD), began to perform his duties. This happened last Saturday, when Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov introduced the appointee to the leadership and presented him with the personal standard of the commander-in-chief of this branch of the armed forces.

Punk rock fans are ambushed A mass brawl occurred on Saturday in Moscow, not far from the Palace of Culture named after. Gorbunov, where the punk group “Civil Defense” (abbreviated as “Grob”) celebrated its 20th anniversary. Before leaving the park where the cultural center is located, the youth coming from the concert were escorted by a police cordon, but for some reason there was not a single law enforcement officer from Bolshaya Filevskaya Street to the Bagrationovskaya metro station.

The lion Goleo became the mascot of the World Cup in Germany The FIFA World Cup, which will take place in Germany in 2006, has acquired a patron. The mascot of the competition was a lion named Goleo VI. The king of beasts was also presented in a new capacity by persons of “royal blood” - the king of football Pele and the chairman of the organizing committee of the World Cup Franz Beckenbauer, who in Germany is called only Kaiser Franz.

The Russian gas monopolist Gazprom, which did not apply for the purchase of part of the gas subsidiaries of the Hungarian energy concern MOL, is trying to become their shareholder. As Gazprom told Vremya Novostey, relevant negotiations are already underway with the winner of the tender - the German company E.ON-Ruhrgas. Last Friday, Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Alexey Miller enlisted the support of MOL Chief Managing Director Zsolt Hernadi, who came to Moscow.

Russia is in a hurry to solve border problems Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the public about Moscow’s desire to “draw a border and conclude a peace treaty” with Japan. On NTV, the minister recalled the 1956 declaration, “which proposed giving Japan two southern islands and calling it a day.” The Russian Foreign Ministry has previously proceeded from the fact that the declaration ending the state of war between the two countries was ratified by parliaments and is valid.

No discussions are expected at the RSPP forum Tomorrow, Russian industrialists and entrepreneurs will gather for the next, fourteenth congress of the RSPP. Unlike last year, preparations for the forum are proceeding quietly, as they say, at home. Maybe because the congress is not a reporting-elective one, like last year, but an ordinary one. Even the main guest - President Vladimir Putin - is eagerly awaited, but without last year's anguish.