18:59
TALIBAN'S AIR FORCE BOMBS NORTHERN ALLIANCE'S POSITIONS
Taliban's Air Force bombed the village of Mandara, in the Ishkamysh district of Afghanistan's Tahar province, in the course of a hitherto unsuccessful counter-offensive launched to win back control over twenty-odd villages located in the part of Ishkamysh bordering Tajikistan, according to the Northern Alliance's spokesman Mohammad Habil. More detail...

17:36
HENRY L. MARCONY: ORTHODOX MONK MURDERED BY PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS IN ISRAEL
Media reports coming from Israel say an Orthodox monk, Rev. Gur Pzipokatsatakis from the Christian monastery of Wadi Kelt, was murdered by Palestinian terrorists around 10:30 this morning. More detail...

17:19
TOP STORY OF THE DAY: RUSSIA-US SUMMIT
Trying to cover the meeting between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and US President George W. Bush in every possible detail, PRAVDA.Ru has opened a new rubric, “SUMMIT.” From it, our readers can learn all information on how the meeting is progressing.

16:31
INDONESIA: TROUBLE CONTINUES
In a surprise move aimed at regaining influence in Jakarta, the U.S. administration decided to restore military contacts with Indonesia yesterday. Nevertheless, the move will not include the lifting of an arms embargo unless Indonesia complies with U.S. demands for dealing with 'human rights abuses'. More detail...

15:26
PROBE INTO SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC CASE OVER
A probe is over, into the case of Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan Milosevic and vice-premiers Nikola Sainovic and Jovan Zebic as well as customs committee director Mihal Kertes, charged with fraud and office abuse. On receiving the results of the investigation on June 18, the district prosecutor's office will become responsible for decision-making on further activities. More detail...

15:03
NATO COUNTRIES READY FOR MILITARY INTERVENTION IN MACEDONIA
According to British sources, NATO member countries, in spite of all, are getting ready for a military intervention into Macedonia. The plans of the military interference are, first of all, being hatched by Germany, as Great Britain has reportedly promised to take part in it, The Daily Telegraph says. According to the newspaper, British special-purpose squads are already operating in Kosovo’s southern areas More detail...

14:31
AN EXTRAORDINARY MEETING OF THE YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT OVER COOPERATION WITH HAGUE MAY BE HELD WITHIN 3-8 DAYS. COLLECTING SIGNATURES “AGAINST” STARTS IN THE INTERNET
An extraordinary meeting of the Skupshchina (the Yugoslav parliament) may be held soon, Dragoljub Micjunovic, the Skupshchina chairman has said. According to him, if the federal government or a certain number of the deputies demand it, the extraordinary parliament meeting will be held within 3-8 days. More detail...

12:34
ANOTHER ACT OF VANDALISM IN LATVIA
The monument to the liberators of Latvia from Nazi occupants has been desecrated in Latvian capital Riga. “Russians out,” has been painted with red letters in Latvian on the pedestal on the monument to the Soviet soldiers. Also, a swastika was painted there. More detail...

12:14
TWO TERRORISTS ARRESTED IN NEW DELHI
Two agents of arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden suspected of scheming to blow up the US Embassy in India have been detained here. More detail...

11:41
KYIV: ST. PETERSBURG’S GOVERNOR INVITED, BUSINESSMEN EXPECTED
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Anatoli Kinakh has handed a formal invitation for Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev to visit the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv in late-June this year. At that, the Ukrainian premier has mentioned that Mr. Yakovlev has never been to Ukraine. More detail...

11:36
PUTIN, BUSH TO DISCUSS PRESSING ISSUES IN LJUBLJANA
President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation and President George Bush of the United States will negotiate for the first time in Ljubljana today, discussing US plans to deploy an NMD (National Missile Defense) system, as well as some other serious issues. More detail...

11:18
NEW STRATEGIC ALLIANCE ON EVE OF PUTIN/BUSH SUMMIT
On the eve of his historic meeting with the President of the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin takes a firm stand at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. More detail...

02:50
LJUBLJANA SUMMIT TO TURN OVER NEW LEAF IN RUSSIA-USA DIALOGUE, SAYS RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENTIST
Tomorrow's summit of Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in Ljubljana, Slovenia, can be regarded as an opportunity to start the Russian-US dialogue anew, Sergei Rogov, Director of the Moscow-based Institute of US and Canadian Studies, said to newsmen. More detail...

01:51
PUTIN HIGHLIGHTS BASIC RUSSO-U.S. SUMMIT TOPICS
Vladimir Putin looks forward to debating global strategic stability and Russian-US trade and economic partnership as he meets with US President George W. Bush in Ljubljana, Slovenia, tomorrow, said the Russian President as he was addressing newsmen at Moscow's airport Vnukovo 2 upon return from Shanghai. More detail...

00:52
JOHN ASHTEAD: CORRECTING THE MYRIAD OF MYTHS ABOUT MOSCOW
John Ashtead presents a frank and sincere eye-witness account of Moscow today, as seen by a foreigner who lived as a Russian for one week More detail...

20:48
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT SEEMS TO BECOME MORE EDIBLE
Bakery N 7 in the city of Chelyabinsk has decided to bake a new fancy cake – with a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the head of Chelyabinsk association “Khlebprom” and the vice-president of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk region Semion Mitelman, everybody can now eat the President. More detail...

20:01
YELTSIN EXPELLED FROM KOLKHOZ
Boris Yeltsin has lost his allotment in economy of joint-stock company “Melnikovo”, which is situated in Kaliningrad region. It was a decision of stockholders meeting to exclude Yeltsin from theirs rows. More detail...

19:23
LIFTING SUBMARINE “KURSK” IS THE QUESTION OF SEVERAL HOURS
A special expedition is being formed now by Northern Fleet, which will be sent to the place of crash of atom submarine “Kursk”. According to the official of Northern Fleet, captain Vladimir Navrotski, several military ships will take part in expedition: heavy missile cruiser “Peter the Great”, missile cruiser “Marshal Ustinov”, anti-submarine ships “Admiral Kharlamov” and “Severomorsk”, rescue ships “Rudnitski”, “Altai” and “Pamir”, and some auxiliary ships of different classes. More detail...

18:32
FATE OF OUR TUBERCULAR PATIENTS IS NOT INDIFFERENT FOR WESTERN PHARMACISTS: IT IS A QUESTION OF MONEY
Last week, Russian Government locked the 150-million-dollar credit of World Bank for AIDS and tuberculosis treatment. Now this scandal between Russian Health Ministry and World Bank is still developing. Russian Government worked out a 5-year programme of tubercular patients treatment and asked a credit for this programme, though suddenly froze this credit. More detail...

17:13
CHINA: SUCCESSFUL SUMMIT MEETING IN BEIJING
Chinese President Jiang Zemin met Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shanghai.
Mr. Putin was in China for the sixth 'Shanghai Five' summit, which was convened to upgrade the 'Shanghai Five' mechanism to the 'Shanghai Cooperation Organization' More detail...

16:45
ALEXEI ALEXEYEV: NEW LAW WILL REFLECT CONSOLIDATING FUNCTION OF OUR LANGUAGE
Next week, State Duma will give the bill “About Russian Language as a State Language of Russian Federation” its first reading. The head of the working group, which is preparing this bill, is the member of Committee for Culture and Tourism, State Duma deputy from group “Yedinstvo” Alexei Alexeyev. More detail...

15:12
RUSSIAN WOMEN SHALL NOT FLY TO MARS SO MEN WOULD NOT QUARREL
According to Russian scientists, women should not be included in crews aboard spaceships flying to the planet Mars in the foreseeable future. The scientists put forward plausible grounds – a woman onboard means a risk of conflicts arising between the crew members. More detail...

14:10
KARIMOV TALKED INTO IT: UZBEKISTAN JOINS SHANKHAI FORUM. WHO’S NEXT?
Yesterday, the leaders of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, and Uzberistan signed a joint statement of incorporating the latter into the forum as a full member. Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov has to for several years tried to put off entering the forum. More detail...

13:09
TALIBAN RAGES IN YAKAVLANGA
The Taliban militants are destroying residential houses in the city of Yakavlang (Bamiyan Province) seized by them last Sunday. Pillars of smoke are reported to be spiralling all over the place. The bulk of the city residents (totalling about 60,000) have already left the city in fear of a revenge from Taliban, More detail...

12:14
CHUKOTKA GOES BANKRUPT
Roman Abramovich, the governor of Russia’s Chukotka administrative district (Russia’s north-easternmost area) and oil mogul, has declared the region bankrupt. At that, he called on the residents “not to give way to despair.” In his message to the local Duma deputies, he called the current year “the error and trial year.” More detail...

11:20
EU-US SUMMIT: THE THEMES
As President George W. Bush makes his first visit to Europe and meets the EU heads of state at the European Union/USA summit in Stockholm, Pravda.Ru analyses the main issues, many of which point out the differences in opinion between the USA and the European Union. More detail...

10:24
RUSSIA’S NORTH CAPITAL HOSTS ECONOMIC FORUM
5th economic opened yesterday in St. Petersburg, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov taking part in it. This forum is devoted to the questions of the economic cooperation between EU countries. More detail...

19:45
RIFT IN NATO : EUROPEAN ALLIES AGAINST USA
George W. Bush failed to convince his European allies to give their backing to his Nuclear Missile Defense (NMD) system and to give their support for an alteration to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. More detail...

17:32
CHECHNYA’S IMAMS OF THE MOSQUES TO BE ARMED WITH MAKAROV PISTOLS
Sensational security measures are being taken in Chechnya. After earlier statements by Ahmad Kadyrov, the troubled republic’s administration head, asserting that the police only defend themselves without providing security for the people, it has been decided to arm not only local administration heads, but also the clergy. More detail...

16:55
TAIWAN: AN EARTHQUAKE ROCKS TAIPEI
A strong earthquake measuring 6.5 degrees on the Richter scale struck Taiwan this morning at 10:35 a.m. (0235 GMT). While office building in Taipei were swaying, immediate casualties were limited to four people injured by falling advertising billboards. More detail...