The Pentagon plans to launch up to 800 cruise missiles on targets in Iraq in the first two days of the expected military operation. The CBS television company reported this with reference to the plan of the American military operation. A massive air blow is expected to be so destructive that the ability of the regular troops of Saddam Hussein will almost completely undermine, RIA Novosti reports.

In Kyrgyzstan, two defeated military soldiers took two people hostage. This was reported in a press release from the Ministry of Defense of Kyrgyzstan, distributed on Monday. According to the Ministry of Defense, on the night of January 27, 2003, in one of the military units of the Naryn garrison, two military military personnel from the military guard arbitrarily left a part. The escape was made by ordinary mambets Rustam and Osmonaliye Dzhumabek, who had been serving for more than a year.

The US embassy in Baku members of 11 families of Baku residents without housing as a result of the expansion of the territory of the American diplomatic mission threw his building with eggs.

The boss 'Formula 1' Bernie Ecklstone said that this year the last Grand Prix of Austria will be held in Spilberg. Such a decision was made, despite the fact that the contract with the owners of the route expires only in 2006.

In the village of Izluchinsk, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug on the weekend was a tragedy. A 17-year-old schoolboy, heated by quarrel with his parents, grabbed an ax and inflicted their mortal chopped wounds to his father and mother. After that, the teenager dismembered the corpses of the dead and buried them in the basement of the garage in the Garden-Hogodnight Partnership "Energetik". Currently, the suspect has been detained, an investigation is underway.

Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Metropolitan of Kharkov and Bogodukhovsky Nicodemus, today Interfax was told in the press service of the head of the Russian state. "At the disposal signed by the president, it is said:" For a great personal contribution to the expansion of spiritual ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church , strengthening friendship and cooperation between peoples to declare gratitude to Metropolitan Kharkov and Bogodukhovsky Nicodemus.

In the second half of the coming week, a little cooling is expected in the capital, they reported on Monday at the Hydrometeorological University of Moscow and the Moscow Region. On Monday afternoon, the city will be from 0 to 2 degrees of heat, in the region minus 1 - plus 2, small precipitation in the form of wet snow or rain will fall. The upcoming night - at times light snow, can fall up to 1 mm of precipitation, reports Interfax.

112 pilgrims from Kabardino-Balkaria go this morning to the pilgrimage to saint for Muslims. From Nalchik, buses will take them to Krasnodar, from where believers will fly to the United Arab Emirates, and then by buses they will get to the shrines of Mecca and Medina . This year, the trip rose from 750 to 1 thousand dollars per person, because this time it was not possible to find sponsors to pay buses to Saudi Arabia and vice versa.

The first European presentation of Nord-Ost will be held in Bulgaria on the day of Slavic writing and Bulgarian culture on May 24 under the motto "Art against terrorism." This was reported on the eve of the press conference in Sofia by the managers of the musical and the leaders of the Bulgarian Radio-NET, who were initiators of the Nord-Ost tour.

This season, the Indiana meeting with the clubs of the Western conference of the NBA is quite prosperous. And even more so at home, on Conseco Fildhaus, where the Pacers does not know the defeats of 14 matches in a row. As a rule, the leader of the East is victory in the last seconds. So it was in the match with Seattle, so it was with Toronto. A similar situation was today, reports NTV+ . Prior to the start of the final quarter, it was impossible to give preference to any of the teams.

In the United States, cigarettes with genetically changed tobacco are on sale, which will allow smokers to choose the level of nicotine themselves. The most entertaining is that the manufacturer is going to advertise the new brand of Quest as a good remedy in order to quit smoking. Smoking of such cigarettes, as the manufacturer assures, will reduce the level of nicotine in the blood - which forms the need to smoke.

The traditional chess super tournament in Vake-An-Tse ended with the victory of the Indian grandmaster of Vishvanatan Ananda. In 13 batches, Anand scored 8.5 points without defeats. The second prize winner was Hungarian Judit Polgar, who lagged from the winner by half a glass. The three leaders were closed by last year's winner of the Russian Yevgeny Bareev. Only two parties in the final 13th round became productive, and draws were recorded in the rest.

In Germany, events began in connection with the international day of memory of the victims of Nazism. It is celebrated on Monday, since it was precisely on January 27, 1945 that the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz (Auschwitz) were released in Poland, where, according to various data, the Nazis destroyed from 1 to 4 million people. In total, over 11 million citizens of many countries were destroyed in the concentration camps of the Third Reich.

The “golden” final touch of the European Figure Skating Championship - demonstrations last Sunday - could be lubricated due to the annoying incident that occurred with the Russian champion Tatyana Totmyanina. According to ITAR -TASS, in the evening on Saturday Tatyana, its coach Oleg Vasiliev and a group of their friends and colleagues decided to celebrate a double holiday - Gold in Paria Katania and Tatyana's Day - in one of the prestigious clubs of the Swedish city of Malma.

The number of unemployed in the world reached a record level of 180 million people. Over the past two years, 20 million people have remained without work due to economic recession in the world, and in the future there will be even more. In addition, the international organization of labor, speaking of a catastrophic situation with employment in the world, reports that the number of "working poor people" is extremely rapidly increasing - whose position is slightly different from the unemployed.