The program is conducted by Peter Vile. Participation: Afghan historian and political scientist Aziz Aryanfar - Radio Liberty correspondent Maria Rasner, and an American specialist in Afghanistan, a former high -ranking Pentagon Eli Krakowski, talked with him - the Radio Liberty correspondent in New York Yuri Zhigalkin spoke with him. Peter Vail: In Moscow, a meeting of Afghan intellectuals took place, whose participants discussed the problems of restoration of the country.

The host of the program "Themes" Peter Vail: the man of the day of Radio Liberty on August 16 - singer Muslim Magomaev, who is 60 years old. Muslim Magomaev was born in Baku in 1942. He has been engaged in singing from the age of 13. At 18 he became a laureate of the World Youth and Students Festival in Helsinki. Since 1963 - soloist of the Baku Opera and Ballet Theater. He went through an internship at the La Scala Milan Theater. From 1975 to 1989 he led the Azerbaijani pop-symphonic orchestra.

The program is conducted by Peter Vile. The head of the OVR faction in the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin and radio observers Freedom Mikhail Sokolov and Ivan Trefilov participate. Peter Vail: The Russian government approved the draft federal budget for 2003. Priorities announced an increase in financing of defense, law enforcement and social sphere.

In Afghanistan, about six million people need food. This is stated in a joint report of the food and agricultural organization of the UN and the World Food Program. As noted in the document, among the reasons for hunger - war, many years of drought, insufficient irrigation and underdevelopment of agricultural infrastructure.

Evgeny Bovkun , Bonn: The flood in the east of Germany, although it shifts to the northwest, is not behaving unevenly. In some cities, the water has subsided, in others it continues to advance. After new precipitation, the situation in Dresden unexpectedly complicated. The elbe level rises at a speed of 5 centimeters per hour, beaten all historical records. At night, the flood mark of the 1845th year was exceeded, and now the city is flooded almost completely.

In Germany, the police conducted searches in two departments of the Arab Al-Aksa charitable organization, suspected of supporting terrorists. This was reported on Friday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany. In early August - after the German government included Al -Aqsu in the list of groups supporting terrorism, the police confiscated a large number of organization documents. Al-Aksa leaders say that their goal is the supply of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.

The US authorities may not yet disclose the names of about 1,200 people captured during the anti -terrorist operation in Afghanistan. Judge Gladys Kessler ordered to temporarily suspend the execution of his own decision obliging the government to announce the names of the prisoners within a month. The US Department of Justice is now an opportunity to appeal.

Musa Khasanov , North Caucasus: in a number of settlements of the Vedensky and Urus-Martan districts of Chechnya, army units of the United Group of the Russian troops together with employees of the Internal Affairs Directorate and the central military commandant’s office are conducting large-scale special operations to eliminate fighters of Chechen armed groups.

- The ruble is Russian and Belarusian. - August 14 - a test for corporate America. - under the heading "Economics of the region" - "Russian folk crafts - yesterday and today": "Lacquer miniature Palekh", "Kaslinsky art casting" and "Fluffing of Orenburg". (Folk crafts: Palekh, Kasli, Orenburg) - Materials of the heading "Changing the world: countries and markets." - A review of the publications of the next issue of the British weekly "Economist".

Natalya Golitsyna , London: a law proclaiming racial and national equality and punishing for manifestations of discrimination was adopted in Ireland in 2000. A special organization entitled "Office of Discrimination Investigations" observes its compliance.

Four Russian citizens - Chechens by nationality - turned to the Lithuanian authorities today with a request to provide them with political asylum. According to Lithuania, the Chechens left the Moscow-Kaliningrad train during a parking in Kaunas. All four are men, the youngest - 14, the eldest is 55 years old. Now refugees have been delivered to the Center for Registration of Foreigners near Vilnius, where they will be in the case of their case by the authorities.

In the Czech Republic, the floods of the outside world were cut off the Terezin memorial complex, where during the Second World War there was a Nazi concentration camp. According to rescue services, residents of the nearby village are evacuated. Terezin is the largest concentration camp created by the Nazis in the Czech Republic. About 35 thousand of his prisoners, mainly Jews, were killed.

Alexey Dzikovitsky , Warsaw: Tonight begins the four -day visit of the Pope John Paul the Second to Poland. This time, the Pope will stay all four days in the medieval capital of Poland - Krakow and its outskirts. It was in this city that an ordinary priest, and then Bishop Krakow Karel, took his first steps on the way to the Vatican throne. In Poland, John Pavel the Second was already eight times.

One of the channels, obtaining information about the mood of citizens, is the per lustration of letters, in other words, the illegal opening of private correspondence by special services. In pre -revolutionary Russia, employees of the police department did this. "An extract from a letter without a signature, from Yekaterinoslav, dated August 1, 1883, to the student Moses Markovich Davidovich, to Kyiv, the university.

The host of the St. Petersburg hour of the Liberty Live program Viktor Rezunkov: The other day, the chairman of the Commission on Human Rights under the President of Russia Ella Pamfilova, harshly criticized the existing system of human rights protection. We will talk about this and much more with our guest today, chairman of the St. Petersburg human rights organization "Civil Control" by Boris Tustyntsev.