Photo by ar Unloved business: for the first time in history, the president of France, breaking the protocol, came to meet the guest at the airport. He gallantly kissed Lyudmila Putin's hand, greeted her husband cordially and did not move away from him anyway. In a car, in a helicopter - only together. Similar to each other like sisters, Russian and French panels fluttered on the Champs Elysees ...

On Tuesday, the leader of the terrorists who blew up a nightclub on the island of Bali last October showed reporters the device of a homemade bomb used in the attack, AP reported. The explosion of such a device caused the death of more than 200 people. Ali Imron, dressed in a blue prison uniform, became a participant in a press conference at the police. He showed the press a dummy of an improvised explosive device made from an iron tube filled with explosives.

US President George W. Bush congratulated the head of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, and all the inhabitants of the republic on the Eid al-Adha holiday, RIA Novosti reports. The text of congratulations was distributed on Tuesday by the American embassy in Baku.

Police officers near Moscow are searching for a missing five-year-old girl, Interfax reports with reference to the Moscow Region Main Department of Internal Affairs. On Monday, a 63-year-old pensioner applied to the duty unit of the Shcherbinka police department with a statement. She said that in the evening her 5-year-old granddaughter left her house at 9 Vysotnaya Street and did not return. They are looking for a girl.

James Newman, director of NASA manned programs in Russia, said at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday that the American astronaut could soon be included again in the space expedition sent to the ISS on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. It is reported by Gazeta.Ru. NASA has already begun consultations on this issue with Rosaviakosmos.

One person died and two others were injured in the crash of an An-28 aircraft of the Estonian airline Enimex on Monday evening in Tallinn. This was reported by the press secretary of the Estonian Rescue Department, Interfax reports. According to him, the plane crashed almost immediately after taking off from Tallinn Airport. Meanwhile, Andrey Kisly, CEO of Enimex, told BNS that the Tallinn-Helsinki flight was carrying World Wide Express cargo.

A Saudi Arabian airliner veered off the runway while landing at Sanaa Airport in Yemen and collided with a light tower. The plane was flying from the city of Jeddah. According to RIA Novosti, the Yemeni news agency Saba, reporting on the incident, notes that the Boeing 747 aircraft, carrying 429 passengers and 17 crew members, went 27 meters beyond the runway and hit the left wing in lighting tower. Passengers were urgently evacuated. None of them made a fuss.

In the event of a war in Iraq, Romania will participate in the collective defense of Turkey. This, according to RIA Novosti, was announced on Monday by State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense George Christian Mayor. Bucharest is ready to send special forces there, including elite mountain infantry units and defense units against weapons of mass destruction.

Nominees for the Golden Raspberry Award have been announced for the worst actors and film events of the year, AP reports. Candidates for the role of the worst actress are good as a selection: this is Madonna ("Swept Away" - "Lovers"), and Britney Spears ("Crossroads"), and Jennifer Lopez ("Enough" - "Enough"), and Angelina Jolie ( "Life or Something Like That"), and Winona Ryder ("Mr. Deeds").

The end of the operation to unload fuel from the Kursk nuclear submarine is scheduled for February 25. Mustafa Kashka, head of the nuclear fleet department of the Murmansk Shipping Company, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday about this. According to him, the unloading of fuel assemblies from the bow reactor to the Imandra specialized floating technical base was completed on February 5. Since Monday, nuclear fuel has been unloaded from the second, aft reactor. Work is progressing according to plan.

The leaders of six districts of the Kurgan region announced their refusal to sow grain this spring, ITAR-TASS reports. They believe that this is unprofitable, since grain prices have fallen and energy tariffs have risen. For every kilogram of diesel fuel, farmers have to pay two liters of milk or ten kilograms of grain.

The Mexican military hijacked a plane carrying 2.2 tons of cocaine. On Monday, the plane made an emergency landing in northern Mexico City due to technical problems. The plane flew in from the Colombian island of San Andres. He was heading to an airport in western Mexico City. The landing plane was inspected by the military with specially trained dogs, which found packets of drugs on board. Two Colombian pilots and a Mexican passenger were arrested.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said that Moscow positively perceives the idea of ​​international monitoring of the referendum on the constitution and elections in Chechnya. "We will welcome international monitoring of both the referendum on the constitution in Chechnya, which, as you know, is scheduled for March 23, and the subsequent elections in the Republic," Yakovenko stressed.

The US Department of Commerce has imposed prohibitive duties on Russian silicon, PRIME-TASS reports. New customs duties range from 55 to 77% of the cost of silicon. The US Department of Commerce believes that Russians sell their products in the US at prices "below fair market value." The subject of the anti-dumping investigation were deliveries made in 2001. At that time, Russia was considered in the United States as a country with a non-market economy.

Vladimir Putin met in Paris with the descendants of the first wave of emigrants, RIA Novosti reports. According to the President of Russia, many of the descendants of emigrants told him that they represent the old Russia. Vladimir Putin, he said, did not agree with such a statement and said that "we must all be united." "We all want Russia to be a powerful, vigorously developing country and be a country that we would all be proud of," the president said.