In Kyrgyzstan, residents of the village of Kara-Su took 12 employees of the local administration hostage, demanding the release of a prominent human rights activist, deputy of the parliament, Azimbek Beknazarov. According to the Radio Liberty correspondent, the administration building surrounded about two thousand people. Among the hostages is the head of the district administration.

In Tbilisi last night, the office of the independent television company Rustavi-2 was fired. There are no victims. The bullet pierced the window in the office of the journalist Akaki Gogichashvili - the host of the program “60 minutes”. The leadership of the television company considers what happened - another attempt to intimidate journalists writing about corruption in the highest echelons of power.

The second round of Russian-American negotiations on strategic stability was held in Moscow. Speaking after a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Georgy Mammadov, Deputy Secretary of State John Bolton did not rule out that the parties would not have time to sign an agreement to reduce strategic offensive weapons in the spring of this year. According to Bolton, they remain disagreed mainly by technical issues of monitoring the reduction of weapons.

The Turkish police announced today about the arrest of three people on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. Two Palestinians and citizen of Jordan were detained when they tried to get from Iran through the territory of Turkey into Israel. The representative of the Turkish police said that the arrested are members of one of the groups associated with the al -Qaeda terrorist organization. They fought in Afghanistan on the side of the Taliban.

Several leading Russian businessmen formed a consortium that will provide financial support to former TV-6 journalists, creating a new television company. The head of the Impex-Bank, Oleg Kiselev, representing the interests of the consortium, in an interview with the Radio Liberty correspondent, said that for them a project related to TV-6 is, first of all, a business. According to him, former TV-6 journalists will also include future shareholders of the new television company.

One of the leaders of the Turkmen opposition, the former Foreign Minister Boris Shikhmuradov, said that in Turkmenistan, about three hundred opponents of the President Saparmurat Niyazov have been arrested in Turkmenistan. The arrested, according to him, are tortured. Shikhmuradov, located in Paris, said this in an interview with France Press. The authorities of Turkmenistan issued the warrant to his arrest, accusing of the assignment of state funds.

The outcome of surgical operations to improve blood supply to the heart depends on the patient's gender. This is stated in an article by American doctors published on the pages of Circulation magazine on February 19. University professor Emory Viola Vakkarino and her colleagues analyzed the medical history of more than fifty thousand cardiological patients who, in the nineties of the last century, were played by the coronary arteries.

The Czech authorities were transferred to the Russian law enforcement agencies Yuri Biryuchenko and Viktor Kudryashov, accused of committing a number of murders. The defendants were delivered to St. Petersburg. Earlier it was reported that Biryuchenko and Kudryashov were involved in the murder of Galina Starovotova in 1998. Vadim Reznikov said the head of the criminal investigation department of the Pyteburg police on Monday that "criminals have nothing to do with the murder of Starovoitova."

US President George Bush arrived in South Korea. Today, completing a visit to Tokyo, Bush spoke in the parliament of Japan, where he stated that the American military presence in the Asia-Pacific region would remain unchanged. Bush emphasized that Washington would, as before, ensure the safety of his allies in the region and support Australia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Tatyana Albut, Novosibirsk: On February 19, relatives of the passengers of the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk flight, who died in a plane crash on October 4, 2001, announced the filing of court claims to the Siberia Airline. Until now, relatives of passengers of the blown up aircraft have not heard the truth about the plane crash and did not receive insurance payments and moral compensation due to them in connection with the death of loved ones.

In the Southwestern District of Moscow, the deputy head of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Viktor Mordvinov was killed. An unknown criminal shot Mordvinov from a pistol and disappeared. According to police officers, the crime is likely to be ordered.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov himself will head the government commission on the military-industrial complex. Kasyanov announced this today at a press conference in Ulyanovsk, adding that Ilya Klebanov will be his deputy in the commission-as the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology. Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday relieved Klebanov from the post of Deputy Prime Minister, appointing him as a minister.

The Chairman of the United Committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces Richard Mayers and the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov discussed the issues of bilateral military-technical cooperation on Tuesday in Tashkent. After negotiations, Mayers said that Washington and Tashkent plan to conduct joint military exercises. According to Mayers, the United States is ready to deliver various military equipment to Uzbekistan, as well as assist in the protection of borders.

Program editor Oleg Kusov Oleg Kusov: The Russian military, according to human rights activists, has switched to new tactics in Chechnya. They are trying to force civilians to start fighting Chechen armed groups. For these purposes, civilians are subjected to terror, and so-called “death squads” operate against them. “The smart guys, you know, the smart guys with huge shoulder straps ask: why doesn’t the local population take bandits?

The program is maintained by Andrei Shari. Radio Liberty correspondent Mikhail Sokolov, who visited the All -Russian Democratic Meeting, and Leonid Sedov, participate in the radio, the leading researcher of the All -Russian Central Executive Committee. Andrey Sharry: Together with me in the studio, historian and sociologist Leonid Sedov, leading researcher at VTsIOM.