In Israel, a scandal is unfolding around the Minister of Justice, 56-year-old Haim Ramon, who resigned yesterday. The reason is the decision of the government's legal adviser, Menachem Mazuz, to bring the minister to trial on charges of sexual harassment. Two young women immediately accuse the minister of forcibly kissing them. Ramon denies the accusations and states that in the first case the girl flirted with him, and he doesn’t remember the second case three years ago at all.

CSKA, Spartak and Lokomotiv pushed aside Nalchik At the beginning of the second round, the Russian championship standings begin to take on a predictable form: CSKA is first, Spartak Moscow is second, Lokomotiv is third. In turn, the main troublemaker “Spartak” from Nalchik began a progressive downward movement.

The Russian Finance Minister decided to scientifically substantiate the danger of unnecessary spending of petrodollars Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, having found understanding among his government colleagues on the issue of reducing the expenditure of oil windfalls, decided to look for allies among the scientific community.

Swiss trader RosUkrEnergo withdrew its ultimatum to Kyiv after Naftogaz of Ukraine paid off part of its multimillion-dollar debt. As RUE reported, the Ukrainian concern transferred $49.6 million at the end of last week for gas supplied in the first quarter. The scheme and repayment period for the rest of the debt - more than $320 million - have not yet been agreed upon, but the trader is no longer going to collect it in court.

Russia received a response from the United States to the “chicken ultimatum” The “chicken issue” could make it much more difficult for Russia to join the World Trade Organization than Economic Development Minister German Gref expected, threatening to cancel all preferences for meat supplies for Washington (see Vremya Novostey, August 18) .

A grain crisis has broken out in Kamchatka The grain crisis that broke out in Kamchatka on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the August putsch turned out to be artificial.

FOOTBALL. August 21-27. World Championship among girls under 20 years old. Moscow, St. Petersburg. August 22-23. Champions League. Third qualifying round. Replay matches . August 24. UEFA Cup. Second qualifying round. Replay matches . Premier League. 17th round. August 26. “Torpedo” - “Saturn”, “Lokomotiv” - “Luch-Energia”. August 27. "Moscow" - "Rostov", "Spartak" (M) - "Spartak" (Nch), "Dynamo" - "Tom", "Shinnik" - CSKA. A crucial moment has arrived for the capital's clubs Spartak and CSKA.

Chileans test copper's strength Chilean miners are shaking up the global copper market. Demanding an increase in wages and compensation, they staged a strike, as a result of which metal prices went up. On Friday, management of the world's largest copper mine, Escondida (57.5% owned by British-Australian BHP Billiton), closed the plant due to an ongoing workers' strike, foreign agencies reported.

“He, Me and His Friends” on Moscow screens The film by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo quickly reminds us that the word “friendship” can be interpreted in different ways. This is not only “the mutual affection of two or more people, their close connection” - when it comes to Randy Dupree and his “mutual affections,” you can’t help but remember that this wonderful word was once used to describe both processed cheese and a chainsaw.

World record in 100m dash repeated for third time At the fourth stage of the Golden League commercial series of starts, Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell ran the 100-meter dash in 9.77 seconds. This is the third repetition of his own world record, set on June 14, 2005 at the Athens Olympic Stadium. Powell shares the highest achievement with American Justin Gatlin, who showed exactly the same result this season, on May 12 in the capital of Qatar, Doha.

Dreams sometimes come true. And this is the saddest thing that can happen to them.

Palestinian Prime Minister loses his subordinates The Israelis continue to do everything to ensure that the Palestinian government, formed at the beginning of the year by the radical Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which won the elections, could not begin to work normally and ingloriously resigned. For the Palestinian Authority, such a scenario means plunging into complete instability. For the rest of the world, this is a signal that no state of Palestine will emerge in the coming years.

The North European Gas Pipeline was subject to elections At an informal meeting with Vladimir Putin in Sochi last Friday, the vice president of the German chemical giant BASF, Eggert Voscherau, said that the partners in the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) had finally agreed on the text of the final agreement. “Today, agreements on the gas pipeline between the partners participating in the project are being initialed. They will be signed at the end of August,” he said.

Since the flight to America after the 1988 Olympics by the young talented forward of the USSR national team Alexei Mogilny, the fate of no Russian player has caused such a stir as the escape to the NHL of Magnitogorsk Metallurg striker Evgeni Malkin in August 2006. Although high-profile escapes have happened.

They began to protect Russia from unnecessary parties and non-profit organizations The head of the Rosregistration department for political parties, public, religious and other organizations, Alexey Zhafyarov (pictured), last Friday told reporters about the situation with the registration of non-profit organizations (NPOs) under the new law.