The commander of the American armed forces in the Middle East, General John Abizid, sent a Pentagon a request for sending to suppress resistance in Iraq two additional military brigades. It is reported by Financial Times . Recently, the American defense department has been actively preparing to reduce the military contingent in Iraq by transferring functions to maintain stability to national power structures.

The head of the RAO “UES of Russia” Anatoly Chubais approved the composition of business units No. 3 and No. 4, which are created as part of the internal reorganization of the company. According to RAO UES, business units No. 3 will be responsible for the creation and activities of wholesale company generating companies N1, N2 and N4, and it will be headed by a member of the board of energy holding Vladimir Avetisyan. At the head of the business unit No.

The Georgian authorities are ready to open in Adjaria the points of reception of weapons and pay 500 Lari ($ 250) for each unit of surveyed firearms. “For us, this weapon has a much greater price than the indicated amount,” said Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhivani. He noted that this action will probably cost almost a million Lari, but this money will not be transferred from the budget.

Yuri Savenko The Moscow Helsinsky group undertook monitoring of psychiatric hospitals throughout Russia to comply with human rights recorded in international agreements and in Russian legislation. The results of monitoring in the near future are published in the form of the book "Human rights in psychiatric hospitals in Russia (2002 - 2003)", which collects reports, statistics and thematic articles.

The “Independent Gazeta” believes that in the tender for the construction of a new left -wing opposition, secretly declared after the next electoral cycle, the Duma faction “Rodina”, which is now experiencing “the time of extraordinary mental upsurge”, is strongly intended to participate - especially after the victory in the Ryazan region of Georgy Shpak. Recently, right before our eyes, the rhetoric of its deputies is becoming more and more tough and opposition.

Today, the Moscow City Court sentenced the defendants in the so -called “crab case”. According to RIA Novosti, the court recognized the former deputy chairman of the State Medical Science of Yuri Moskaltsov guilty of fraud on an especially large scale (part 2 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and abuse of power (part 3 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

After a two-day truce in the Iraqi city of El Falluja, located 50 km west of Baghdad, the battles between the coalition forces and supporters of the Shiite spiritual leader of the Muktad of As-Sadra resumed. This was reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the Katar television channel Al-Dzhazira. The American armored vehicles entered El Falluj, the cannonade is heard. Several shells exploded near the hospital building.

Eight Russian citizens were captured on Monday evening in the southern suburbs of Baghdad. This is stated in the information received by the ITAR-TASS in El-Kuwait. Earlier, the Katar television channel Al-Juzira reported 11 Russian hostages, and the Arab information service of Al-Bavaba-about 12. The information also does not confirm the shooting during their capture, during which two Iraqis were killed. The Russians worked as repairmen-repairmen at the “South TPP-Dora”.

Seven citizens of the PRC, stolen on Sunday near the city of Falluja, were liberated in Iraq. This was announced on Tuesday was announced in the Chinese capital by the official representative of the China Foreign Ministry. According to him, all seven are placed in temporary housing in Baghdad. The health status of the released is normal, Chinese sources said.

In connection with a sharp exacerbation of the situation in Iraq, the Russian Foreign Ministry again strongly recommends Russian citizens to refrain from traveling to this country. This was reported on Tuesday by RIA Novosti in the Department of Information and Press of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

In our time, there is a place for miracles, especially economic ones. That is, of course, we do not mean a doubling of GDP, a focus appreciated by the chosen ones, and the miracles are somewhat more mundane, which everyone can see if desired. For example, when in a huge foundation pit, dug and then abandoned many years ago, life starts to boil again - concrete mixers are fussing, construction workers swear and blue power welding lights flash.

Terrorist Shamil Basayev on April 12 through the militant website took responsibility for the failed attempt on the president of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov, which was committed on April 6 in Ingushetia. In addition, in his message, Basayev actually calls the date of the next attempt on Zyazikov - May 6, 2004. According to him, the execution of the sentence is delayed for exactly a month.

The governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko asked Vladimir Putin with a request to provide financial support for the construction of the subway, a ring road and protective structures of the city, RBC reports. “We must accelerate construction, because then we will invest more,” Matvienko said. “I would ask your support in this matter,” she added. The President promised to discuss this issue with the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexei Kudrin.

Yukos intends to continue to allocate 1.5-2% from the company's net profit for the implementation of social projects, the first vice president of the company Mikhail Trushin said today. According to him, every year the board of directors approves the budget for charitable activities, which annually increases by about 10-15%. According to Monitor , in 2003, tax revenues from the Yukos NK in budgets of all levels amounted to 165 billion rubles. or about $ 5 billion.

The new information continues to arrive about the prepared attempt on the life of President Israel Moshe Katsava. It was still known that the Hungarian police detained three Arabs suspected of planning a terrorist attack against a politician who is on a visit to the country that the detainees were interrogated by the police. Now there was a statement that the arrest of the three Arabs was not directly related to the discovery of a plan for an attempt on Moshe Katsava.