Oleg Turov Saddam Hussein is seriously ill and is preparing to transfer power to the youngest son Kusya The first steps to power Kusyu are easily given. He feels his father's support. (Photo: ar ) Joint pain, shortness of breathing, sharp deterioration of vision, memory failures, illogical, sometimes incoherent speech. Is all this - about Saddam Hussein, the invulnerable Baghdad dictator, which seemed to be forever rule in Iraq, despite all the sanctions and bombing?

Vladimir Abarinov Against the backdrop of Pushkin: Republican Cox and the US Vice President argue about how to deal with post-Yeltsin Russia The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry at the opening of the monument to Pushkin. Ivanov does not agree with the thesis about the deterioration of relations between Russia and the United States.

Ilya Kukin The beginning of the Olympics deceived the expectations of many of our athletes and spectators "Gold miners": Pavel Kolobkov (in the photo) and the Russian women's team in a sword. (Photo: ar ) Ours could count on more. Although the first week of the Olympiads, the main competitions in those sports where we have little strong athletes are not enough, all the same, the “catch” was too insignificant.

Galina Kovalskaya The Kremlin will not figure out what to do with the conquered Chechnya There are enough people in Chechnya who do not want their children to join the ranks of militants or prisoners of Chernokozov in the future. However, they agree to tolerate the Russian government only on the condition that it follows its own laws. (Photo: Dmitry Belyakov ) Rashid Chitaev worked in the Ministry of Emergency Situations under Maskhadov.

Boris Zhukov The ambitious project to completely decipher the human genome cost $6 billion, but has not yet led to a breakthrough. Still to come Decoding the human genome means no less than going to the moon. “We are learning the language that God spoke when he created life,” the US President noted at the presentation of the genome map. Meanwhile, the circumstances of this discovery make us think not only about the prospects of science.

O.T. The transfer of power from father to son in the republics of the Arab world is already becoming the rule. Syria was the first to open its account to the “new monarchies” - after the death of Hafez Assad, his youngest son Bashar, a former eye doctor and a person far from politics, became president.

Nikita Maksimov The Soviet Human Genome program started almost simultaneously with a similar international one - in 1988. Its initiator, academician Alexander Baev, managed to captivate Mikhail Gorbachev with his idea, and over two years more than $20 million was allocated for the program.

Irina Rosenberg Russia may become an exporter of cigarettes (Photo: Max Novikov ) This year, the Russian tobacco industry did not have to live in peace. In the spring, new licensing rules were introduced, according to which market participants must obtain licenses to produce and wholesale trade in tobacco products. The idea of ​​licensing itself is quite sound, allowing it to squeeze out illegal goods on the market and at the same time identify malicious tax evaders.

Dmitry Khitarov Elections of deputies of the Russian-Belarusian parliament as a testing ground for the Central Election Commission (Photo: AP ) The moment when the Russian and Belarusian peoples can finally legally merge in fraternal embraces is inexorably approaching. The Council of Ministers of the Union State has already approved an agreement under which, from 2005, the Russian ruble will become the single currency, and from 2008, the same ruble, but this time a union one.

I.K. (Photo: ERA ) Frenchwoman Marie-Josée Perec, a three-time Olympic champion in the 200 and 400 meters, who was considered one of the main contenders for gold, left Sydney two days before the start of the competition. The Frenchwoman explained her sudden flight by fear. It was as if an unknown man had burst into her hotel room and threatened her with physical harm.

Vladimir Mau Although tax reform creates the basis for the revival of social democracy in Russia Over the past decade, approximately once a year (or even more often) articles by leading moderate political scientists have appeared, who began to vehemently prove that the potential of the liberal economy has been exhausted. I emphasize: it was not the Red authors who made such forecasts - they hated liberalism, as they say, by virtue of their position - but, rather, the centrists.

Ivan Yezersky House. St. Petersburg, Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 54 Residential building with 12 apartments. Architects Evgeny Gerasimov, Zoya Petrova with the participation of Oleg Kharchenko. (Photo: " Evgeniy Gerasimov and partners ") “The classics,” as one cynic said, who himself, however, later became a classic, “are those whom everyone respects, but no one reads.” It’s a similar story with architectural classics.