The offender, who extorted more than a million dollars from the Auchan hypermarket administration, was detained during a joint operation by employees of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate, as well as the FSB in Moscow and the Moscow Region. According to law enforcement agencies of the capital, 50-year-old Muscovite Sergei Demidkov demanded that the store managers pay him $ 1.2 million.

In Israeli cities, plastic wiltering points are organized, rented from the windows of apartments and houses equipped with the Israelis at the direction of the rear service. On Sunday, Israeli Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz made a statement to cancel the state of increased combat readiness in connection with the possibility of missile shelling by Iraq.

The leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) Ahmad Chalabi came to the south of Iraq from London, where he lived in exile. It was reported that Ahmed Chalabi, whom the United States would like to see Saddam Hussein, was secretly delivered to Iraq a week ago. The day before, this Iraqi oppositionist held consultations in Washington, where he has many influential friends. The Pentagon reads Chalabi for the main role in the temporary Iraqi government.

Several dozen people in the city of Usinsk of the Komi Republic, which were hospitalized in mid -March with suspicion of ornithosis, really transferred this disease, reported on Monday to journalists in the center of the State -Epidemiological Supervision of the Komi. According to the state of state -owned supervision of the republic, patients studied by specialists from Syktyvkar and Moscow confirmed this diagnosis.

Currently, it can be assumed that large clashes in Iraq have ended. This was stated at a briefing in Washington on Monday, a representative of the United Committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Stanley McCrystal. At the same time, he emphasized that the Pentagon expects "smaller, but more stubborn clashes." The general also said that in the past days the number of sorties of American-British aviation decreased to 700-800 per day.

According to the forecast of Roshydromet, a hurricane is expected on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus at night. In the first half of the night from April 14 to 15, in the Anapa Gelendzhik area on the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory, the north-eastern wind of a hurricane force is expected-up to 35 m per second. The press secretary of Roshydromet Natalya Ershova said that the wind in Novorossiysk would be the strongest. There, its speed can reach 40 m per second.

In the center of Baghdad, the Palestine Hotel on Monday night took an active shootout between the American Marines and Iraqi snipers, AP reports. According to journalists, the shootout is fierce. The parties use machine guns and machine guns. According to the American military, the Iraqis opened fire, who took refuge in one of the buildings near the hotel. Their number is definitely not known, but the soldiers suggest that at least five people shot.

The deputy chairman of the department of external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPC MP), Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, said today that "the Moscow Patriarchate did not receive an appeal from the Vatican that the Pope would stop in Russia to Mongolia," where he was going to pay a visit in August.

The US marine infantrymen found several air defense missiles in Baghdad, on which the 2002 labeling stood. Judging by it, the missiles were made last year in France or Great Britain. During the searches, marine infantry also found 80 missiles of a close radius of FroG Earth-Earth-Earth in large yellow trucks parked in a shopping center.

In the light of the increased scandals related to refereeing, the football functionaries of Bulgaria proposed to involve foreign arbitrators in important matches of the championship and the Cup of the country of football. In particular, this idea was made on Monday at the Constituent Council of the Professional Football League (PFL), PFL Chairman Valentin Mikhov, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the Topport Bulgarian edition.

Pope John Paul II intends to introduce the last emperor of Austria Karl Habsburg, who died in exile in 1922. This was reported by RIA "Novosti" with reference to the press service of the Holy See. According to the press service, on the eve of the chairmanship of John Paul II, a meeting of the congregation was held to canonize the saints, which determined the "heroic virtues" of the former Austrian emperor.

At the Kama Automobile Plant, serial production of armored vehicles has begun. According to the chief designer of KAMAZ OJSC on special vehicles Ramil Azamatov, the armor of the car is able to reflect large -caliber bullets. At the same time, a car weighing 9 tons is maneuverable, with a crew up to 11 people can develop speeds up to 90 km per hour. In addition, it is 4 times cheaper than analogues, while complies with international standards and can move around the city.

The Swedish Riksdag (parliament) canceled the latest legal privileges of the Swedish nobility. From now on, Swedish laws will no longer be mentioned the expression 'first estate', Rosbalt said on Monday. For the abolition of privileges, the ruling Social Democratic Party and representatives of the Left Party spoke, thus gaining the majority of votes to make a decision. The Christian Democratic Union spoke out against the abolition of privileges.

After a long absence on the carpet in connection with the disqualification, the term of which, by the court decision, expired on April 8, the Russian gymnasts Alina Kabaeva and Irina Chashchina returned and proved that they are legislators of the mod in modern gymnastics. The proof of this was the convincing victory of the Russians at the international tournament "Baltic hoop", which was held in Riga last weekend.

On Monday, American marine infantrymen took control of the center of Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, reports the Katar television channel Al -Jazeera. On the frames shown by the television channel, American marines, with the support of tanks, went through the whole city and took positions on the central square of Tikrit.