The United States announced that the former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein has a prisoner of war status, Interfax reports. The Pentagon representative Major Michael Shevers said on Friday that the decision regarding his status was made "this week." This means that the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war extends to the former dictator.

In the Murmansk region, the vandals were de -energized the substation of OJSC Colennergo, which supplies the strategically important object of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Interfax reports. According to the department of public relations and the media of the JSC, unknown criminals on Friday plundered the substation of the northern electric networks of OJSC Kolnergo, supplying electricity to the 82nd shipyard of the Ministry of Defense and the boiler house of Roslyakovo.

In the second "racket" of the UK, Greg Russian Russian During testing, a forbidden drug Nandrolon was found. This was reported on Thursday by the British television company Sky News . The test was taken on July 23 during the tournament in Indianapolis. According to the television company, Russian expressed confidence that after considering this issue in February in Montreal, he would be justified.

The College of Criminal Cases of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court, chaired by Judge Vladimir Makeev on Friday, sentenced the former head of the criminal investigation department of the Criminal Police of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Ermakov, who was accused of creating a gang, by 14 years in prison in a strict regime with property confiscation.

The international space station again recorded a slight decrease in air pressure. "Specialists of Russian and American Tsups continue to record a pressure reduction inside the ISS by 1 mm Hgol of Enteri -elaboration per day," NASA representative said on Friday. He explained that at such a pace of pressure reducing the astronauts, they will be able to work at the station in full security for about six months. “During this time, we will cope with the situation,” he said.

Japan announced on Friday the intention to adopt “retaliation measures” against the United States for the legislation in force there, violating the norms of the World Trade Organization. Specifically, we are talking about the introduction of punitive imported tariffs against a number of American goods, the Japanese Minister of Economics and Industry Sioi Nakagawa said at a meeting in Washington with a representative of the United States at trade negotiations by Robert Zelelik.

The euro, taking into account the auction on Friday, demonstrates a weekly growth for the ninth time in a row after the statement of the head of the ECB Jean-Claude Trish that a sharp increase in the course of the European Unified currency does not prevent economic growth, Bloomberg reports. On Thursday, Trish rejected the fears of some EU officials that euro growth could slow down export growth from Europe.

Two inhabitants of the Georgian village of Sagaedgio, on the outskirts of which is located in the warehouse of engineering ammunition of the group of Russian troops in Transcaucasia, were blown up by a mine near the territory of this warehouse on Friday. According to Interfax in the military prosecutor's office of Georgia, the victims were alive, but they were amputated in the hospital.

The Italian football club "Parma" will be sold at the end of the season, and two of its players will be put on the transfer in the near future, the government of Italy decided. Playing in the "A" series - the Higher League of Italian football - the team was in a deep crisis as a result of the bankruptcy of the Material company Parmalat .

The Georgian authorities intend to seek the development of clear rules for the movement of Russian military personnel around the country, Interfax reports.

At least 6 people were killed and 37 more were injured as a result of an explosion of a bomb in the Shiite mosque Hajja Banin Banin of the Iraqi city of Baacuba. The explosion occurred during Friday prayer. This was reported by representatives of the local police. The terrorists attached a cylinder from under household gas, filled with explosives, to the bicycle, which was left near the entrance to the mosque.

A 16-year-old girl was stolen in Moscow. According to the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate, on Thursday, 36-year-old Muscovite Magaramova Matanat Shakhmrat Kyzy, who stated that unknown people abducted her daughter, turned to the police in the afternoon. According to the mother, the criminals forcibly put a student of the 10th grade Gulnar Magherramov in the VAZ-2110 car and took her in an unknown direction. As a woman suggests, everything was arranged to marry.

The Moscow CSKA lost at the exit of the Italian "Siena" in the match of the eighth round of the Basketball Euroleague with a score of 73:79. This defeat was the second in the current drawing of the main European Cup for the army. Prior to this, the Dushan Ivkovich team lost to another Italian club - Skipper (70:71). The beginning of the meeting remained for the Italians, but the army team managed to quickly catch up with the opponent.

The bill to reduce the term of military service on conscription will be submitted to the Government of the Russian Federation in December 2004, RIA Novosti reports. As reported on Friday in the Department of Government Information, this period is determined in the plan approved by the Government of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the provisions of the program of socio -economic development of the Russian Federation for the medium term (2003 - 2005).

The universal 24-hour strike of public transport workers paralyzed Italy today. Half of the country's inhabitants could not get to workplaces or educational institutions due to stopped buses, metro and trams. Many government agencies do not work in the midst of the day, there is no one to accept customers in private companies, classes in schools and universities have been canceled, ITAR-TASS reports. Over the past 12 months, a whole series of transportation strikes swept through Italy.