The Customs Committee summed up the results of the year On Monday, Russian customs officials announced that they, for their part, had prepared everything for the country to join the WTO in 2003. And they will continue to make every effort to ensure that during the negotiations on Russia’s inclusion in the WTO, Western countries do not have questions at least about the state of Russian customs.

Saddam invites CIA agents to visit What happened last Sunday in Baghdad is a genuine sensation. Adviser to the Iraqi President, General Amer al-Saadi, said that the country's leadership has nothing against the appearance of CIA and British intelligence officers in Iraq. They can not only point out to UN inspectors the facilities where, in their opinion, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are being developed and stored, but also take part in the inspections themselves.

Today the publishing house “New Literary Review” celebrates its tenth anniversary.

The anniversary, 75th Oscar ceremony awaits us only on March 23, but the atmosphere is already heating up. The Oscar race is a carefully constructed three-month show, the tension in which is skillfully maintained by numerous intermediate awards - all sorts of Golden Globes and other prizes established by associations of film critics and film professionals.

Air traffic controllers are increasingly hungry Negotiations between the authorities and the air traffic controllers' union, which is demanding a sharp increase in wages, finally reached a dead end yesterday. The dispatchers responded to the decisive refusal to satisfy their demands by expanding the scale of the hunger strike, which they carried out without ceasing to perform their professional duties. For now, air traffic in Russia is carried out as usual.

In the city of Kolpino, in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, on Monday night there was a mass escape from the local children's correctional colony. According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, 18 students managed to escape from there at once. The entire staff of the colony itself and the local police were sent to search for the juvenile criminals, and by evening the operatives found 13 who had escaped.

The US is going to deploy a national missile defense system in Europe The United States may deploy a second tier of national missile defense (BMD) in Europe earlier than in Alaska. Reports on this topic appeared in the American press.

Dutch residents dream of a white Christmas A Christmas tree, gifts, bells, a festive dinner by candlelight, Santa Claus - all this is just shiny tinsel that covers up the exciting and gambling competition between Dutch sellers and buyers. Stores shower the population with advertisements like a cornucopia. The Dutch take a vow of saving and try to buy only what they need.

Our biathletes continue to perform more successfully than skiers The most spectacular discipline in the next series of stages of the Winter World Cups was mixed style cross-country skiing in Ramsau, Austria.

Insurers cannot reach an agreement with the Ministry of Finance Tomorrow the government will receive tariffs developed by the Ministry of Finance for compulsory liability insurance of car owners. The day before, the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA) - a trade union that includes the country's largest insurance companies (Ingosstrakh, Rosgosstrakh, ROSNO, Military Insurance Company, Soglasie, etc.) - once again tried to explain that these rates were too low.

For 2003 I have two possible scenarios. First: the war in Iraq will be such that oil prices will rise or, at least, will not fall much, which is quite possible. In this case, we will most likely remain in the same situation as we were. The second scenario: there will be a reset in oil prices, which will inevitably entail a reset in prices for other resources.

German citizens decided to express their dissatisfaction with their leader, who introduced 50 new taxes during his reign. More than 10 thousand unusual parcels arrived at the Berlin address of the department of Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. For more than a week now, the Germans have been sending their chancellor old shirts (Schroeder receives about 1,000 pieces a day) with messages that read as follows: “Dear Mr. Federal Chancellor, dear comrade Gerhard!

Investigators took over the construction of an elite residential complex A new scandal is breaking out in the capital's real estate market. Employees of the Department for Economic Crimes of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate announced yesterday a successful operation to suppress the activities of fraudsters operating in the capital's real estate market. In two months, they allegedly managed to sell about 300 apartments in a non-existent building.

The concern's property is valued at this amount The head of Gazprom's department for property management and corporate relations, Alexander Krasnenkov, yesterday told reporters about the results of his activities in this post.

Volleyball. Russian Championship. "Dynamo" -- "Neftyanik" -- 3:0, 3:0, "Lokomotiv-Belogorye" -- "Samotlor" -- 3:1, 3:0, "MSTU-Luzhniki" -- "Baltika" -- 1:3, 3:0, "Luch" - "Uralsvyazinform" - 3:0, 3:1, "UEM-Izumrud" - "Iskra" - 0:3, 3:2, "ZSK-Gazprom" " -- "Neftyanik Bashkiria" -- 3:0, 3:0.