The house where John Lennon spent his childhood and youth is open to the public from today. Lennon lived in this house on Menlove Avenue in Liverpool from the age of 5 to 23. According to BBC News, the widow of musician Yoko Ono transferred the rights to the house to the National Trust, which protects historical and cultural monuments.

On March 26, the largest checkpoint in Grozny, located on the bridge over the Sunzha River, was dismantled, Interfax reports . The military commandant of Grozny, Major General Grigory Fomenko, said on Thursday that this was the seventh checkpoint eliminated in the city. “In the future, all checkpoints will be removed from the roadway in Grozny,” the general said.

A DVD version of a satirical film about Saddam Hussein is being released in the United States, in which the Iraqi dictator is presented as a man obsessed with personal hygiene and fishing. Moreover, according to Reuters, Hussein fishes in a completely appropriate way - using hand grenades. The film, called Uncle Saddam, was made by French journalist Joel Soler back in 2000. It was well received by critics and even won awards at several festivals.

American troops as part of the anti-Iraq coalition will receive reinforcements of more than thirty thousand people, reports the British newspaper Times. The strengthening of the group was partly a consequence of changes in military tactics.

The Baghdad market was not among the targets of American aviation, CNN reports, citing an official statement from Pentagon representatives. US Army Major General Stanley McChrystal said on Wednesday that the US military does not know anything about the reasons for the deaths of Baghdad residents in the city market area. Coalition forces did not conduct any strikes in the area, McChrystal said.

American Marines conducting reconnaissance in Nasiriyah discovered a mural on the wall of one of the houses depicting the September 11 terrorist attack, CNN reports. A photo of the mural was distributed by the Getty Images news agency. The houses painted on the wall of an Iraqi house vaguely resemble WTC, but the plane that crashes into one of the buildings has the logo of an Iraqi airline painted on it.

An Iraqi rocket exploded in the capital of Kuwait, CNN reports. At least one more was shot down by a Patriot air defense system on approach to Kuwait. A correspondent for the British television channel Sky News claims to have heard several explosions in the city center. In addition, air raid sirens sounded in Kuwait City. A battery of Kuwaiti air defense forces spotted a missile flying from the direction of the border with Iraq. This happened at approximately 8:30 GMT.

The sandstorm, which for several days hampered the operations of anti-Iraqi coalition aircraft and slowed down the movement of ground units, began to subside early on Thursday morning, the Associated Press reports. Meanwhile, a large column of Allied troops and armor continued to move towards Baghdad. The length of the convoy along the six-lane highway is about 16 kilometers.

The Russian company Energopromstroy-1 filed a lawsuit in the Moscow Arbitration Court against the American authorities. The amount of the claim is $19 million, RIA Novosti reports . As company president Vladimir Semago explained to reporters on Thursday, Energopromstroy-1 has concluded a number of lucrative contracts with Iraq for the construction of power plants near Baghdad.

The results of the referendum in Chechnya provide an opportunity to begin a new stage of political settlement in the republic, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the head of the Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov on Thursday in the Kremlin. As Interfax reports , the head of state announced the need to begin preparing an agreement on the division of powers between the federal center and Chechnya.

On Thursday, allied aircraft carried out more than 600 bomb attacks on various parts of Iraq, the Associated Press reports. Targets included Republican Guard positions near Baghdad. Speaking at a briefing at US Central Command headquarters in Qatar, General Vincent Brooks said coalition aircraft had carried out a number of successful attacks, destroying enemy armored vehicles and soldiers.

American troops on Thursday mistakenly fired at their convoy south of the city of Nasiriyah, Europa Press reports , citing one of the journalists accompanying the military. The attack wounded 37 Marines. The condition of the three wounded is assessed as critical. The Marines also suffered losses in equipment. Under American artillery fire, they lost six vehicles: three vehicles for transporting personnel, two all-terrain vehicles and one tow tractor.

On Wednesday, a Kuwait Red Crescent aid convoy carrying food to farming families north of the Iraqi border was looted shortly after leaving Kuwait, BBC News reported on Thursday. This happened near the Iraqi border town of Safwan. Some 45,000 portion packages of rice, oil, sugar and cereals were looted by young Iraqi men, said Hilal Al-Sayer, vice president of the Kuwaiti Red Crescent. "We did not expect such aggression.

On March 26, the first deputy chairman of the State Fisheries Committee, Yuri Moskaltsov, was charged with fraud and abuse of power, the website of the daily newspaper Kommersant reports . On Thursday, the court will choose a preventive measure for him: arrest or being under recognizance not to leave for the period of the investigation.

A North Wales man killed four of his children before committing suicide. The bodies of those killed were discovered at about 1:30 local time on Thursday in a car parked on a street in the city of Llangolen, Ananova reports. “At this stage, the investigation is inclined to believe that no one else was involved in the incident,” a police spokesman said. The suicidal father lived separately from the mother of his children, but had the legal right to meet with them.