Gaps have appeared in the schedule of the Paris Saint-Lazare station. This means a strike has begun. The first protest of this year by French railway workers will last 36 hours: from 8 pm on Tuesday to 8 am on Thursday and will affect all types of railway transport in the capital and regions. Four railway workers' unions are demanding higher wages and are opposing government plans to cut 3,500 jobs in 2004.

This year, according to the publishing program, a number of new books about Tomsk are being prepared for the 400th anniversary. A special competition commission, which included well-known representatives of the creative intelligentsia in the city, has already recommended several projects for publication. Some of them will be financed from the city budget.

The tension between the White House and Russian Utility Systems has been resolved. Victor Kress and Chairman of the Board of Directors of RKS Mikhail Abyzov unanimously stated this today. We remind you that before this our officials were extremely negative, even to the point of leaving the RKS. And today the parties signed another protocol on cooperation. At the same time, the timing has not yet been discussed when the RKS subsidiary Tomsk Utility Systems will begin to fully operate in our city.

“New technologies for children!” - under this motto, a new online class opened today at a school in the village of Kaftanchikovo. The schoolchildren appreciated it - although they live in the village, they are already quite advanced users. Unlike the city, the residents of Kaftanchikov consider themselves not a village, but a suburb. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, the idea that computers and the Internet are akin to a miracle for villagers is apparently long outdated.