Applicants for Yasnaya Polyana announced The newborn Yasnaya Polyana literary prize (see Vremya Novostei, July 29) from the very beginning made a mysterious impression and raised a number of puzzling questions. Now the high jury, chaired by prose writer Anatoly Kim (it also includes the director of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum Vladimir Tolstoy and critics Lev Anninsky, Pavel Basinsky and Igor Zolotussky) announced a short list of applicants, but this did not make the plot clearer.

Vakhtangovites at the start of the season The foyer of the Vakhtangov Theater was filled with excitement before the troupe gathered. When the actors met, they hugged as if they had not seen each other for at least twenty years. Laughter, delight, kisses...

Yesterday, American commandos did not earn a dime from the former Iraqi leaders. In the suburbs of Baghdad, they stormed a house where, according to an informant, Saddam Hussein could be hiding. He was not among the five Iraqis arrested. The Americans say they are following Saddam's trail, forcing him to change hideouts every three to four hours. But in the north of the country, Ali Hasan Al-Majid At-Tikriti, the cousin of the ousted president, was arrested.

Old methods of combating vagrancy are being revived in England The British fear that the hunt for beggars may begin again in their country. Manchester County Judge Richard Holman announced a surprise ruling Thursday in the case of "professional vagabond" Leonard Hockey. The court not only once again handed down “public censure” to the homeless man, but also threatened that next time the beggar would go to jail for a couple of years.

Schoolchildren will attend electives under consumer contracts The Ministry of Education has decided to take control of the shadow income of teachers. From now on, additional paid educational services at school - electives, clubs, excursions and trips - will be provided only under strict reporting conditions. They will need to draw up contracts with the families of students on the organization’s letterhead in several copies with all the necessary stamps and signatures.

The environmental map for Muscovites will be marked “Secret” The Moscow authorities were going to please the residents of the capital by creating a publicly accessible environmental atlas of the city, but during the work on the maps it turned out that half of the information about the state of the environment in the Mother See must be classified.

It turned out to be a ruble The government discussion about the financial course of our state has revealed another problem: monetary policy today has become hostage to two departments - the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, each of which does not want to take responsibility for the excessive and therefore dangerous for the economy strengthening of the ruble.

The UN building in Baghdad was blown up with Soviet explosives The investigation into the August 19 terrorist attack against the UN office in Baghdad is revealing more and more surprising and at the same time alarming facts. Firstly, the Provisional Administrative Council of Iraq (IGC) received information about the impending sabotage five days before the tragedy.

The UN is asked to take control of the Pichugin case Russian human rights activists are asking reputable international organizations to provide assistance to one of the defendants in the YUKOS case - former company security officer Alexei Pichugin, who is in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center on charges of double murder.

Palestinians and Israelis are tearing the Road Map for Peace to shreds Yesterday, one of the leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), Ismail Abu Shanab, was killed by Israeli troops in a residential area of ​​the Palestinian city of Gaza. Israeli helicopters fired five shells at his car, taking advantage of the moment when the driver slowed down slightly near a stone on the road. Two of Shanab's bodyguards were killed and 15 bystanders were injured.

“Theatre.doc” talked about the tragic outcome of the “Moldavian War for the Cardboard Box” The story is basically real, it was told to the author by a police officer, and as a curiosity: there is life everywhere, they say, and among the Moldovan refugees there was a bloke who stabbed to death his fellow countrymen, who spent the night in a cardboard TV box behind the fence of the market.

Today and over the weekend, the weather in the center and north-west of European territory will be determined by Atlantic cyclones; good weather cannot be expected from them. On Saturday afternoon, with the approach of a new cyclone, there will be short-term rains, the temperature will remain the same. On Sunday the weather will completely deteriorate, rain at times, thunderstorms are possible, daytime temperatures will be +16...+21oC.

The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs exposed another gang in uniform The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov yesterday announced the completion of another special operation, as a result of which another criminal group of “werewolves in uniform” was identified and detained.

Yabloko pledged to conduct an honest election campaign The Yabloko party refused to take part in the signing ceremony of the “Elections 2003” agreement scheduled for today on maintaining a fair election campaign. Deputy Chairman of the Party Sergei Mitrokhin told reporters about this yesterday. Most likely, Yabloko will be the only party that has a chance to enter the State Duma who will ignore the ceremony.

Ukraine invites Central Asia to the consortium Having failed to agree with Russia and Germany on the rules of the game within the consortium for managing its gas transportation system, Ukraine decided to “mix the cards” and invite new participants to it. The Minister of Fuel and Energy of the Republic, Sergei Ermilov, after a meeting of the board of his department, said that Kyiv proposes to include Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the consortium.