The former Minister of Defense of Iraq, Sultan Hashim Ahmed, who voluntarily surrendered to the Americans, will be appointed commander of the new Iraqi army. According to the Saudi newspaper "Decree" on Friday with reference to American and Iraqi sources, the purpose of this purpose is to eliminate or weaken the armed resistance of the Iraq to the forces of the Western coalition. The newspaper accuses Sultan Hashim Ahmed of conspiring with the Americans while capturing Iraq.

The US Research Service has published a report on the world trade in weapons, in which it underestimated $ 900 million last year, but overestimated the volume of Moscow newly concluded contracts for 700 million. According to the experts of the Congress, last year Russia exported weapons by 3.1 billion, which is $ 900 million less than officially declared data from Rosoboronexport.

The governor of the Tver region Vladimir Platov is called on Monday to the Tver Regional Prosecutor's Office to charge him, Interfax reports. "Governor Vladimir Platov at 9 a.m. on September 29 should appear in the regional prosecutor’s office, where he intends to charge him to exceed powers with the causing consequences," the Prosecutor General's Office of the General Prosecutor General said on Friday.

The children's book "English roses", written by the famous singer Madonna, has become the most quickly sold children's illustrated book in history. In the UK, in the first week alone, the literary creation of Madonna was sold in the amount of more than 10 thousand books, according to Puffin Publishing House, which has the right to sell.

In 2004, the school bus program, developed by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, should come into force. On Friday, at a conference on the problems of competitions for state supply of goods, works and services for the needs of education, said Deputy Minister of Education of Russia Elena Chepurny. According to her, the purpose of the program is to provide schools, especially rural, vehicles.

The Tu-160 strategic bomber, who suffered a disaster near Saratov on September 18 , collapsed in the air for several seconds from the moment of sunlight in one of the engines; The crew did not have time to catapult, a source in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, close to the Commission for the investigation of the plane crash, said on Friday Interfax.

Last night, the vandals caused significant damage to the famous Vienna Palace Shenbrunn - the former summer residence of Kaiser Austria -Hungary, located on the outskirts of the Austrian capital. The so-called "fountain-cone", which the criminals tried to defeat using road construction equipment, was especially affected. The damage in the Schenbrunn Park, caused only to this fountain, amounted to about 40 thousand euros.

Between the United States and its long -standing partner, alienation came. The country, experiencing economic difficulties, behaves arrogantly, its government is becoming more authoritarian, and among intellectuals are pseudo -thinking, the point of view of which is rarely different from the official one. It is ruled by the president who does not tolerate manifestations of disagreement, and his rating is growing directly proportionally to the expressiveness of anti -American statements.

In St. Petersburg, the traffic police detained the KAMAZ truck with Moscow numbers, transporting the MiG-31 disassembled plane. According to Interfax with reference to the press center of the traffic police of St. Petersburg, the car was detained last Thursday. The load in it was listed as a scrap of non -ferrous metal, but the traffic police officers had doubts about the authenticity of these documents. During the search, they were confirmed.

The leaders of television companies agreed to pay up to 160 thousand dollars for ensuring police supervision of crowds of violent onlookers, regularly gathering to look at the public self -torture of the illusionist David Blane. At the time of the weekend, Scotland Yard increased the number of police officers serving at the Tower Bridge in London from two to seven.

On Friday, the legendary American company Levi Strauss, the inventor of the blue jeans, reported that for the sake of reducing costs it would close all the remaining factories in the United States and the factory in Canada. About 2,000 people engaged in the production of jeans at the factory in San Antonio (pcs. Texas), which will be closed before the end of the year, will be lost. In Canada in March 2004, 2 enterprises will be closed, 1180 employees will be reduced.

In Moscow on Friday, the awards of the IX National Television Award "TEFI-2003" will be presented. The traditionally solemn ceremony of the awarding of the winners will be held in the GCZ "Russia". For the first time in the history of TEFI telepremia, the definition of winners will be held directly during the ceremony of presenting prizes. Using the electronic voting system, members of the Academy will vote directly in the hall.

In an interview with Interfax, on Thursday, Ilyumzhinov said: "I urge the Russian Foreign Ministry not to mix religion with politics. Dalai Lama was invited this year not by the Kalmykia authorities, but by the supreme lama of Kalmykia and the Buddhist community of the republic." "I have never invited the Dalai Lama to visit Russia. In 2002, he was invited by Buddhist communities of Tuva, Buryatia and Kalmykia," he said.

On one of the islands off the coast of Sicily, busts of Caesar and a mysterious woman were discovered in Panelleria. According to experts, they are about 2 thousand years old, but they have been perfectly preserved: white, untouched by time, two marble busts belonging to the 1st century. N.E. The busts were found by several archaeologists at the bottom of the rainwater container hidden in the mountains under the lump of earth.

Over a dozen Russian banks take obligations to consult Russians for free on the effective disposal of their pension savings. The relevant agreement was signed on Friday by the Pension Fund with 12 leading banks of the country, the chairman of the board of the PFR Mikhail Zurabov said at a press conference.