The appeal in the case of the bombing of a Pan American plane over the Scottish city of Lockerbie may reveal a number of shortcomings in the work of prosecutors. In January 2001, Libyan citizen Abdul-Basset al-Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing the bombing of an airliner with 270 passengers on board. However, the Libyan's lawyer Bill Taylor is still trying to overturn the verdict handed down by members of the Scottish court in the Dutch city of Kamp van Zeist.

The destruction of Enron documents by accounting firm Arthur Andersen clearly indicates a catastrophic failure in the utility's business. This was stated by the chairman of the US House of Representatives committee investigating the circumstances of the bankruptcy of the largest US energy company Enron, Jim Greenwood, opening hearings on the Enron case.

Hewlett-Packard and a research laboratory at the University of California have patented a new technology that, according to experts, will make it possible to produce powerful computers no larger than the size of a pinhead with the possibility of further reduction, reports Reuters. The constant need to further increase the power of computers and reduce their size has faced a serious problem.

Last night, unknown persons fired grenade launchers and machine guns at the Galyugaevskaya village of the Stavropol region. As told RIA Novosti , the fire came from the territory of the Naursky district of Chechnya. Andrey Alexa, deputy head of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Stavropol Territory, The criminals fired 5-6 shots from grenade launchers and fired several bursts from automatic weapons. By a lucky coincidence, none of the residents of the village were injured.

In eight years, Russia will create new generations of combat vehicles for all types of armed forces. Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov stated this to Interfax on Thursday , commenting on the “Arms Program until 2010” signed the day before by the president. Klebanov said that within the framework of this program, the development of fifth-generation combat aircraft and tanks will be completed, and the production of new armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles will be launched.

The Russian government has adopted a resolution to reduce the period for exchanging old-style passports for new ones. As ITAR-TASS reports, by decision of the Russian government, all passports must be exchanged for new ones by December 31, 2003. It was previously reported that the passport of a USSR citizen must be exchanged for a Russian one before December 31, 2005. Now, from January 1, 2004, the old passport will no longer be valid.

The Ministry of Press denied reports from some media that the regional distribution network of the sixth meter channel will be put up for competition separately, RIA Novosti reports . Let us recall that on Thursday, the head of the press service of the Ministry of Press Affairs, Yuri Akinshin, said in an interview with Gzt.Ru journalists that the TV-6 license could be sold in parts.

In the military hospital of Severomorsk, the body of captain-lieutenant from the Kursk submarine Oleg Nosikovsky was identified. As the military prosecutor of the Northern Fleet, Vladimir Mulov, told Interfax on Thursday , Nosikovsky was drafted into the Northern Fleet from the Kaliningrad region. On the Kursk he commanded a classified communications group.

Black actor and director Sidney Poitier became the first Oscar winner in 2002. According to BBC News, on Wednesday the Academy announced that he would receive an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. Poitier, 74, was born in Florida and served in the medical unit during World War II. After the war he began his theatrical career, and in 1950 he starred for the first time in the cinema in the film “No Way Out”.

Kenneth Lay, chairman of the company's board of directors, has resigned amid ongoing investigations into bankrupt energy giant Enron. Lay said the Enron investigation was taking up a lot of his time, preventing him from focusing his efforts on solving the company's most significant problems. Lay, who has led Enron since 1986, will remain on the board. Currently, a search is underway for a restructuring expert who would temporarily act as head of the company and try to lead it out of the crisis.

US President George W. Bush said on Wednesday that Washington envisages the possibility of applying sanctions against Iraq, but does not intend to rush into this matter. The head of the American state again issued warnings to Saddam Hussein, who is preventing UN arms control inspectors from entering Iraq. Baghdad imposed a ban on inspectors in 1998, reports the Associated Press.

On Thursday, January 24, a number of delegations of officials from the Commonwealth and non-CIS countries are expected to arrive. Prime Minister of Belarus Gennady Novitsky and President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev will arrive to conduct negotiations with the Russian leadership. In this regard, movement on the streets of Moscow will be difficult.

Five embassies in Moscow have closed due to debt for renting space, Interfax reports. These are the embassies of Uganda, Niger, Burkina Faso, Rwanda and Togo. “Many embassies have chronic debts to us, and therefore we are reducing their needs: we are transferring them to smaller areas, including apartments,” the head of the Main Production and Commercial Directorate for Services to the Diplomatic Corps said on January 24 at a press conference in Moscow Ivan Sergeev.

The new Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Peter Schieder, received Alan Maskhadov's emissary Akhmed Zakayev at the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg. As RIA Novosti was told in Shider's secretariat, Zakayev congratulated Shider on his election to the post of PACE chairman and conveyed congratulations to him from Aslan Maskhadov. Then a 20-minute conversation took place between Zakayev and Shider.

Former deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, now chairman of the Dagestan branch of the Russian Peace Foundation, Nadirshakh Khachilaev, has been charged. As Khachilayev's lawyer Rashid Jafarov told the Interfax agency , the prosecutor's office charged his client with illegal possession of weapons and explosives (Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).