The first case of atypical pneumonia has been recorded in Switzerland, Ekho Moskvy reports. This was announced on Wednesday by the Swiss Ambassador in Moscow. The ambassador did not say who the sick man is and how he contracted pneumonia. SARS was suspected to have reached Switzerland on April 21, according to the WHO. The patient underwent a thorough examination, after which the diagnosis was confirmed.

By order of the Government of the Russian Federation, Vitaly Usov was appointed Chairman of the Gosstandart of Russia. As RIA Novosti was informed on Wednesday by the press service of the Gosstandart of Russia, he previously held the position of secretary of state - first deputy chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Standardization and Metrology.

At the Kamensk railway station in the Rostov region, a passenger with suspected SARS was removed from the train. The patient was admitted to the hospital of the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky. The station duty officer told Interfax that the signal about the patient came from the foreman of the train on the way to the station. An ambulance was already waiting for him at the platform. In the hospital, the patient was placed in a separate box.

The BBC has received 174 complaints from viewers about a recently screened documentary, The Virgin Mary, which presents the main character in an unconventional way. The authors of the film decided that Maria is an illiterate girl of 12-13 years old, who was sold to a rich groom and who unexpectedly became pregnant before the wedding. The film was shown shortly before Christmas, which further outraged the lyrically inclined audience.

Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Javier Solana arrived in Moscow on Tuesday evening. He is expected to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Wednesday. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko, these talks will focus on preparations for the Russia-EU summit on May 31 in St.

Days off for Russian citizens every year becomes more and more. Officially, Russia has 11 non-working holidays. However, this year the Russians rested two more days, as some holidays (February 23 and March 8) fell on the weekend.

The East Timorese authorities accuse the Indonesian military, who have been stationed on the peninsula for 24 years, of using local women as slave concubines. According to the AP, hearings on this topic have now begun in East Timor, organized by the "reconciliation" commission. The former governor of the formerly occupied peninsula, Mario Vekas Carascalao, who ruled East Timor from 1982 to 1992, made accusations against the military.

Seventeen students of the Omsk Medical Academy were hospitalized with suspected meningitis, ITAR-TASS reports. In seriously ill patients, the diagnosis was confirmed, but their condition is stable, said Yury Basov, chief physician of the center of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance of the Omsk Region. In the hostel of the university, where the sick lived, strict quarantine and preventive measures were introduced.

Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev went to work on Wednesday afternoon. This was reported to Interfax in the press service of the presidential administration. At present, the head of the republic is receiving the Ambassador of Ukraine to Azerbaijan, Boris Alekseenko, the press service noted. On April 21, Aliyev's health deteriorated and he was treated at home.

Russia's re-election to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN Commission for Social Development "testifies to the high authority of our country, as well as to the interest of most states in seeing Russia as an active and active partner in the international arena." According to RIA Novosti, such a statement was made on Wednesday by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko. Elections to these commissions were held on April 29-30.

On Tuesday, a Turkish Air Force Cougar helicopter crashed in the southwestern province of Isparta. According to the "Khurriyet" newspaper, to which ITAR-TASS refers, 4 officers were killed, including two pilots who were on board the combat vehicle. The accident occurred at the moment when one of the two helicopters, completing a training flight, crashed into a power line and crashed to the ground.

A new exhibit has appeared at the exhibition of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., which is celebrating its tenth anniversary - a book by British writer JK Rowling about the young wizard Harry Potter, reports Mignews.

The SARS epidemic is a severe and long-term problem for China, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said, according to the BBC. He spoke at a meeting of ASEAN leaders held in the Thai capital of Bangkok. During the meeting, the leaders agreed on measures to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The World Health Organization says that the peak of the epidemic has already been passed in all countries where cases have been reported, with the exception of China.

State prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin. Frame '' Vesti '' The former State Duma deputy Alexander Shokhin, a former deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on Wednesday, spoke about the details of the disaster in an interview with the Echo of Moscow radio station and in an interview with the NTV television company. However, these versions are very different from each other.

On Wednesday, the balcony of a residential building collapsed in St. Petersburg. As RIA "Novosti" was informed in the press center of the Main Directorate for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of the Northern capital, two passers-by were injured as a result. One of them was hospitalized, the second refused hospitalization, the press center noted. The report about the collapse of the balcony of the house number 38 on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt was received at 8.15.