When Ramzan Kadyrov celebrated his birthday in early October, Chechnya’s leadership had to fork out. To all those who, in the Chechnya destroyed by the war, holds revenue positions, from the minister to the director of the collective farm, had to make their contribution to buy a gift for the son of the president. As a presentation, they offered to buy an American jeep Hummer, the last squeak of fashion among the Russian rich.

The former Australian diplomat, sentenced to 13 years in prison for raping two minor boys, hanged himself in a cell in a prison on Bali Island. The body of the 52-year-old William Stuart Brown was discovered by the guard of prison Ida Bagus Oka, reports AP. Brown was sentenced to prolonged imprisonment on charges of pedophilia and molestation of minors. On the Indonesian resort island of Bali, he raped two children: one boy was 12, another - 16 years old.

The State Duma agreed to the appointment of Mikhail Fradkov by the Prime Minister of Russia, RIA Novosti reports. At the plenary meeting of the State Duma on Wednesday, with the necessary 226 votes for making such a decision, 356 deputies voted, and 72 against - 8. Against the candidacy of Fradkov, deputies of the Communist Party faction and Rodina voted.

The deportivo trainer Javier Irereret was rewarded for the team’s access to the Champions League semifinals - the club extended the contract with him for another year, UEFA.com reports. The 56-year-old mentor headed the “Vidopa”, the eighth team in his career, in 1998. Two seasons after Ireret, together with the Galicians, won the first title of champion of Spain in the history of the club, and in the 2001/02 season, won the national cup.

Iraqi athletes will take part in the summer Olympics 2004, which will be held from August 13 to 29 in Greece. This was announced today by representatives of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. According to ITAR-TASS, in competitions in light and weightlifting, boxing, swimming and taekwondo, six Iraqi athletes will participate.

At the end of this week, a cooling is expected in the capital, the representative of the Hydrometeorological Unit of Moscow and the Moscow Region told Interfax. From Friday to Sunday, night temperatures in the city will fluctuate from minus 2 to plus 3 degrees, during the day 10-11 heat is expected, without precipitation. On Thursday, May 13, in Moscow, the minimum air temperature will be 5-7 degrees of heat, in the region-3-8 degrees of heat.

The Stavropol Regional Court sentenced two killers of the deputy prosecutor of Pyatigorsk Vyacheslav Zhukov to 18 years in prison of everyone. Such a sentence was issued on Wednesday at the hearing in Essentuki, said Tatyana Kostyleva, spokesman for the press service of the Stavropol Regional Court. “Two members of the group - Valery Kasyanenko and Zaur Kazharov - were sentenced to 18 years in prison with serving a sentence in a maximum security colony.

A group of UN experts on the organization of elections arrived in Iraq, a representative of the UN told reporters on Wednesday. It is headed by Karina Perelli, director of the UN unit to provide assistance in conducting elections. Last month, the Perelli group had already visited Baghdad. Then speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters, she said that preparations for elections scheduled for January next year were more successful than expected.

In Istanbul tonight, the opening ceremony of the most prestigious song marathon Europe will be held - the 49th Eurovision Song Contest. It will pass under the motto - "under one sky." For four days, the Ipeki Ipekchi Ipekchi Sports Palace, turned with the help of designers known in the country into a huge musical Hall, will become an arena of hot fights in the field of not sports, but vocal skill.

Since the beginning of May, the Sumatran tigers attacked six people in the Indonesian province of RIAU, and two of them were biting to death. As the head of the Directorate for the preservation of the natural resources of the province of John Kvenedi told Jakarta Post , the tigers went beyond their usual habitats in the reserve located in RIAU. As Kiendi said, the vast majority of victims are people involved in the illegal cutting of the forest.

The so-called "Mahdi Army", led by the radical spiritual leader of the Iraqi Shiites by the Muktada al-Sadr, announced the decision to stop armed resistance to coalition forces in Iraq and create its own political party. As the Katar television channel Al-Jazeera conveyed, the supporters of the AS-Sadra intend to take part in the general free elections scheduled in Iraq for 2005.

On the eve of Los Angeles, the fourth match took place as part of the quarterfinal series of the playoffs of the National Basketball Association. Locom Lakers, who lost in both guest fights, San Antonio Opers, managed to restore the balance in the confrontation-2-2 on their site. The next match in the framework of this quarterfinal series will be held on May 13 in San Antonio.

The US military admitted to the Iraqi prisoners and "egregious acts of sadism." This is stated in the 53-page internal report of the US Armed Forces on the abuse of Abu Graib prison, located about 19 km from Baghdad. This report was authorized by the commander of the US Armed Forces in Iraq, General Ricardo Sanchez and was held in February this year. The author of the report is Major General Antonio Taguba . The report was not intended for publication. It stands on a secret/for official use.

In a residential building in southern Moscow, 400 grams of TNT and electric depositors were discovered, RIA Novosti told the Novotny MUECHD agency. "On Tuesday evening, the residents of the house 11, the building 1 on the walnut boulevard found in electrical panel on the third floor two two hundred -hundred -gram Trotilly checkers and eight electric locomotives," the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate said.

The human rights activists and the Ministry of Justice still managed to bring patients with drug addiction from the threat of inevitable criminal prosecution for storing a single dose of potion.