Sirena and Venus Williams became laureates of the traditional, fourteenth Essence Awards, awarded in the United States. The wording is: “For bravery, courage and perseverance.” The laureates were honored in New York City. Along with the tennis players, tribute was paid to several other worthy Americans, including, for example, a neurosurgeon, a human rights activist, two educators and a journalist.

From May 1, the average pension benefit will be 1 thousand 13 rubles. According to RIA Novosti, the Decree on increasing pensions was signed on April 17 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The presidential decree will affect 18 million pensioners. In accordance with it, the ratio of the average salary of a pensioner and the average salary in the country will be increased, used when calculating the pension using the individual coefficient of the pensioner.

27 people, according to ITAR-TASS, were sent to a hospital in one of the cities of the Moscow region with suspected food poisoning. Now they are being examined by doctors, according to whom, of all those who were poisoned, 23 were children who studied in a kindergarten in the city of Ozyory. The rest of those who were poisoned were teachers of the same kindergarten, and all of them were diagnosed with salmonellosis.

Four people were injured on Tuesday afternoon as a result of a traffic accident when a horse-drawn cart on which the victims were riding overturned in the center of Moscow, the MK-Novosti agency reports. The reasons for the incident are still unknown, but according to police information, among the victims were two children; Now doctors are helping them.

The Bank of Russia will issue its bonds if the State Duma agrees not to tax them. This was stated by First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Tatyana Paramonova, who was part of the Russian delegation at the spring session of the governing bodies of the IMF and the World Bank. “If we are exempt from taxation, we will, of course, use this tool,” she said.

This evening, reports of a special military operation to destroy the group of the famous field commander Arbi Barayev were confirmed. It has been going on for two days now and now, according to official information, most of the militants have been destroyed. Barayev himself reportedly managed to escape. The operation involves special forces, the FSB and the army.

Georgy Menglet, one of the most famous actors of the Soviet Union and Russia, died in Moscow. He was 87 years old. According to Alexander Shirvindt, head of the Satire Theater, where Georgy Menglet served, he died on Sunday, and the place and date of the funeral have not yet been determined. “He was an artist to the core, a knight of the theater and played until the last day of his life. When he appeared in the play “Mad Money”, the audience stood up.

Police in South Africa on Sunday evening arrested a 35-year-old resident of the small town of Nkonka while he was eating the remains of a man he killed the same day.

The Chechen Republican riot police showed themselves in the first campaign. His fighters took part in many operations and literally terrified the enemy. It was one of the most combat-ready and irreconcilable units of the Chechen Republic, fighting on the side of the federal government. After the fall of Grozny in August 1996, the Chechen riot police were disbanded and re-created about a year ago. His first commander, Musa Gazimagomadov, was invited to command him.

Participants in demonstrations organized by the M1 Alliance, named after May Day, blocked streets and stock exchange buildings. As ITAR-TASS reports, a particularly large number of people, the number of which is rapidly growing, gathered at the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney. The demonstrators are holding red flags and banners with the slogans “Free education”, “We will defend justice throughout the world”, “For the needs of people, against the greed of corporations” and others.

Police in Moscow arrested a man who stole 136 tulips from a flowerbed near the Golyanovo pond, MK-Novosti reports. “The total damage from this person’s actions amounted to 6,800 rubles,” the police told the agency. According to representatives of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, the suspect - a 30-year-old unemployed Muscovite - was arrested on Saturday evening when he was carrying stolen tulips to his home. However, it is not yet known whether he will be formally charged with theft.

George W. Bush is going to give a speech on Tuesday afternoon about the creation of a US National Missile Defense, but according to statements by representatives of the American president, he will not directly announce the start of work on missile defense, CNN reports. The speech will be given at the National Defense University, in the Pentagon building.

During a May Day rally in Hamburg, one of the demonstrators threw red paint on the mayor of the city, Ortwin Runde. At the same time, as RIA Novosti reports, the attacker was armed with a water pistol, into which paint was poured. As a result of the “shot,” liquid poured onto the burgomaster’s face, and at the same time into his ceremonial suit. The police immediately arrested the “sniper,” who turned out to be an amateur dog breeder.

George W. Bush gave a speech in Washington on Tuesday evening about the new US nuclear concept, in which he said that America considers it necessary to create a missile defense system. NTV.ru provides some quotes from this speech. The translation of Bush's remarks was carried out during a live broadcast by CNN and is approximate. About the USSR and Russia. The Soviet regime kept most of Europe behind the Iron Curtain. We didn't trust them - and we had reasons for this.

Moscow police have identified the attacker who threw two bottles of black liquid into the Latvian Embassy building this morning. As reported by the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, this is 20-year-old mechanic of Ural OJSC Alexey Gushansky. The hooligan was detained by embassy security officers and handed over to officers of the 46th police station.