Oleg Kalugin will never return to Russia again. On Wednesday, the 68-year-old retired KGB general was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in a maximum security colony.

The euro is breaking all records, and the dollar is losing ground. It cannot be said that this news pleased Russia. On Wednesday, the dollar-euro exchange rate fell by almost two more cents, to its lowest level since February 2000 and amounted to 99 cents per euro. This trend is observed both in the international Forex market and in the Asian markets. The day before, US President George W. Bush spoke about the fall of the dollar.

Scientists have identified a protein that is to blame for all the bad inclinations and vices of a person - from addiction to drugs and cigarettes to sexual perversions and excessive love of sweets. The discovery of the famous American professor of neurology Paul Greengard in the field of slow synaptic transmission this time, oddly enough, has direct practical significance.