US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the fact that employees of his department had secret contacts with the Iranian arms dealer Manusher Ghorbanifar, known for the scandalous Iran-Contra deal in the mid-1980s. According to the Washington Post, the minister explained the incident by a desire to obtain information about Iran's military projects. According to Rumsfeld, the contacts took place more than a year ago and had no continuation.

For the first time after a long break, Russian films will be presented in the competition program of the Venice Film Festival, Marina Blatova, deputy head of the department for external relations of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, told Interfax.

Yuri Luzhkov wants to settle in the metropolitan zoo of Antarctic penguins. On Saturday, the Moscow mayor told reporters about plans to create conditions in the zoo for keeping these birds, living only at sub-zero temperatures, RIA Novosti reports. According to Luzhkov, the experience of using artificial snow refrigeration units, which have proven themselves well in polar bear enclosures, will make it possible to realize these plans.

After the parliamentary elections on November 2, 2003, the President of Georgia does not rule out the introduction of a bicameral parliament and the post of prime minister, RIA Novosti reports. "Now introducing amendments to the Constitution before the parliamentary elections will be a hasty step. After the elections, it is quite possible to implement these legitimate demands of the society," Eduard Shevardnadze said live on Georgian state television on Friday evening.

Six people were injured as a result of a collision between a city tram and a shunting diesel locomotive on the access road of the Koksokhimzavod in Donetsk. The victims were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, Interfax was told on Saturday at the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations. The collision occurred in the place where the tram tracks intersect with the railway. According to preliminary data, the cause of the collision is a violation of traffic rules by the tram driver.

On Friday, American billionaire George Soros announced that he is launching a campaign against current US President George W. Bush. He gave $10 million to the work of a political movement whose goal is to defeat Bush in the next presidential election, according to AP. Soros has long been in opposition to Bush Jr. Soros has funded the Democratic Party in the past. Now he is going to provide financial support to the America Coming Together movement.

Mussa Khadzhimuratov, the former head of Akhmed Zakayev's bodyguard, was killed in Chechnya, RBC reports. In the village of Chernorechye, Grozny District, federal servicemen noticed two suspicious people who were trying to hide. When trying to detain them, they began to shoot back and were killed. One of those killed is Islam Sapdariyev, the second is Mussa Khadzhimuratov, who in 2000 was the head of security for Akhmed Zakayev.

Two people died on Friday in a plane crash near the town of Schonried (Bern canton). According to the cantonal police of Bern, shortly after taking off from the Saanen airfield, a two-seater private plane, under circumstances not yet established, lost control, crashed to the ground and caught fire. Despite the fact that local firefighters quickly arrived at the crash site, the car burned down completely, RIA Novosti reports.

In Spain, two people died in a plane crash. According to RIA Novosti with reference to the National Radio of Spain, a light plane crashed into the sea on the coast near the town of Ribadeo in Galicia. According to the witness of the incident, she heard an explosion, after which the plane suddenly entered a dive and fell into the sea. The accident occurred immediately after the plane took off in dense fog from a small airfield located near Ribadeo.

Chesterfield, Illinois resident Kevin McAfee has been charged with raping a horse by Macupin County prosecutors, zwire.com reports. Earlier, the courts of another district of the state of Illinois - Green - filed against him a charge of violence against animals under aggravating circumstances. Complaints against McAfee were brought by two horse owners last Wednesday, when the accused turned 43 years old. Many horse owners in the area claim that McAfee abused their pets for as much as 20 years.

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, has begun checking the readiness of the Pacific Fleet for the upcoming large-scale exercises in the Far Eastern Federal District. As RIA Novosti was told on Saturday at the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet, Vladimir Kuroyedov will first check in Vladivostok a division of high-speed missile ships, a division of marines, formations of surface and submarine ships of the Primorsky flotilla. Then he will go to Kamchatka.

Vladimir Putin signed the Decree "On the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the entry of the Republic of Tuva into the Russian Federation and the 90th anniversary of the founding of the city of Kyzyl." The presidential press service told RIA Novosti that the document reads, in part: "1.

On Saturday, CSKA fans threw eggs at the army team's club bus in protest against the recent defeat in the Euroleague match against the Macedonian "Vardar". As eyewitnesses told a RIA Novosti correspondent, a group of about 30-50 fans dressed in red and blue colors threw a bus at the entrance to the Dynamo stadium, where the army team will play the next match of the Russian Championship with Spartak-Alania at 19.00 ".

50 employees of the Mozdok hospital who survived the terrorist attack wrote a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, the Prosecutor General and the Minister of Defense. Military doctors are asking to release the arrested head of the hospital, Artur Arakelyan, who, in their opinion, is not guilty of anything, Kommersant reports. They believe that the lieutenant colonel should be immediately released from custody and put back in charge of the hospital.

Saddam Hussein. Photo by ar In Iraq, the conspiracy plans for the implementation of a series of murders of members of the temporary ruling council of the country acting with the support of the United States were disclosed. According to the Egyptian news agency MeNA with reference to the Arab "Radio Sava", special top -secret teams associated with the overthrown President Saddam Hussein were to hold actions to physical liquidation of persons included in the new leadership of the country.