Illustration from the site www.army.lv The State Duma rejected the draft appeal to the President of Russia with a request to postpone the date of celebration of the defender of the Fatherland from February 23 to September 8. With the necessary 226 votes, the document was supported by only 3 deputies, RIA Novosti reports.

The state defense order for 2003 is 113 billion rubles, of which 45 billion will be directed to research and development (R&D). Compared to 2001, the state defense order has grown three to four times. This was reported to Krasnaya Zvezda by Colonel-General Alexei Moskovsky, Chief of Armaments of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Deputy Minister of Defense.

On February 7, in Tbilisi, at the age of 42, the famous Georgian football player Mikhail Meskhi Jr., the son of the legendary Mikhail Meskhi, died. It is reported by Kommersant. In 1982-1986 and 1988 Meskhi Jr. played for Dynamo Tbilisi, in 1987 he played for Spartak Moscow, in which he became the champion of the USSR. Meskhi Jr. completed his career as a player in the Guria team. Then he headed one of the sports schools in Tbilisi.

In the capital of the Philippines, a human foot in a plastic bag was found in the trash can of a McDonald's restaurant, reports Ananova.com. The representative of the Manila police, Jerico Jimenez, explained that the cut on the fabric is fresh, the owner of the leg is unknown. The investigation considers various versions of the origin of the mysterious find.

Vladimir Putin noted that Russia and Moldova have a unified position on the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, Interfax reports. "It is important that in this issue the leadership of Russia and Moldova proceeds from a common opinion on the need to continue the negotiation process between Chisinau and Tiraspol," Putin said on Friday in the Kremlin after the Russian-Moldovan talks at the highest level in a narrow format.

On Friday, the captain of the Prestige tanker that sank off the coast of Spain, Apostolos Manguros, was released from a Spanish prison on bail of 3 million euros, RIA Novosti reports. The pledge was made by the London company Steamship, which insured the wrecked ship.

The Accounts Chamber checked the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Federation and revealed a violation of budget legislation in 2001-2002, RBC was told in the information and public relations department of the chamber. The results of the audit were sent to the government, the Ministry of Property and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, as well as to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Nicole Kidman has been approached by Warner Brothers to play Catwoman in the next Batman sequel. In this picture, it is the Catwoman, and not the bat-man, who will become the main character. That is, the heroine. For the first time this role was played by the magnificent Michelle Pfeiffer. The director of the new film will be the mysterious Frenchman Pitof, who directed the thriller Vidocq. A start date for filming has yet to be determined.

Photo by AR from the site Ananova.com The organizers of the auction in the House of Sinva (Japan) appreciated the unknown picture of 50 yen. According to AR, experts found that this is the picture of Van Gogh, painted in the period from 1884 to 1885. In a picture of 16 by 14 inches, a middle -aged peasant is depicted in profile. The organizers noticed that the picture resembles some work of Van Gogh, and sent it to Amsterdam for examination to the appropriate museum.

The plane carrying Health and Labor Minister Juan Luis Lodondo de la Cuesta has gone missing in Colombia, AP reports. Communication with the plane was interrupted shortly after its departure from the airport in Ghiradot. The plane was heading to Popayan and on the way had to fly over the mountain range. Later, near the city, Ibagu found the wreckage of some aircraft, but it is not yet clear whether it was the minister's aircraft or some other.

Three militants from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam blew up their boat, which was trying to smuggle weapons from India to Sri Lanka. According to BBC News, the incident occurred near Jaffna after Scandinavian inspectors from the Sri Lankan Conflict Monitoring Mission discovered the ship. A few hours after the incident in Berlin, the fifth round of negotiations between the government of Sri Lanka and the rebels was to begin.

The Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Vitebsk fined local oppositionist Vladimir Pleshchenko 1 million 850 thousand Belarusian rubles (about a thousand US dollars). It is reported by PRIMA . He was convicted for organizing an unsanctioned anti-Russian picket on January 20, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Minsk.

On February 7, the Russian Union of Journalists hosted the annual awards ceremony "For Professional Excellence", ITAR-TASS reports. According to the results of 2002, about 40 journalists and editorial teams from Moscow and the regions received awards.

Employees of the military registration and enlistment offices independently struggle with the lack of money caused by low salaries. This fight almost always results in violation of Russian law. As RBC was told in the press service of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office (GVP), the day before, while receiving a bribe, employees of the military prosecutor's office and the local FSB detained an employee of the Soviet district military registration and enlistment office of Ryazan.

Grigory Krichevsky was invited to take the post of Deputy General Director of the NTV channel Nikolai Senkevich, Ekho Moskvy reports. Krichevsky's reaction is still unknown. Last week, the board of the NTV television company unanimously expressed no confidence in the new management of the channel due to its "obvious incompetence." This decision was made at the first meeting of the board after the appointment of Nikolai Senkevich as acting general director of NTV.