The American President apologized for the sadism of his soldiers Washington is forced to apologize for the actions of its soldiers in Iraq. Yesterday, US President George W. Bush himself carried out an unprecedented PR campaign. In order not to lose the votes of American Muslims in the upcoming presidential election in the fall, outraged by the brutal treatment of Iraqi prisoners by the American military, he gave two ten-minute interviews to the Arab television channels Al-Hurra and Al-Arabiya.

The Greek intelligence services were shown their inconsistency Yesterday morning, exactly 100 days before the start of the Summer Olympics in Athens, in the Greek capital, in the Kallithea area, where the hotels for the Games participants are located, three small bombs exploded next to the police station. This exemplary terrorist attack was carried out, so to speak, in a mocking manner.

Grozny "Terek" wants to play in the UEFA Cup While the country is sluggishly resting for the May holidays, life is in full swing in Russian football. Some hire coaches, some negotiate record-breaking transfers, and some dream of winning the Russian Cup in the intervals between tours. There are four contenders for the trophy, which gives the right to compete in the UEFA Cup.

Yesterday marked the 1060th day of Silvio Berlusconi's work at the head of the center-right cabinet in Italy. Thus, the prime minister broke the record for being in power set by the socialist government of Bettino Craxi 18 years ago. In total, after the Second World War, the country changed 59 prime ministers.

Alexander Zhukov was appointed chief controller of expenditures of ministries and departments Yesterday, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov formed a government commission to improve the effectiveness of budget expenditures. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov was appointed its chairman. From now on, he will ensure that budget money is spent by ministries and departments as efficiently as possible.

Cheap cigarettes may disappear As part of the government tax package, immediately after the May holidays, the State Duma intends to increase excise taxes on all excisable goods, including vodka, gasoline and tobacco. The annual and generally ordinary procedure for indexing excise taxes, carried out by the government for many years in a row, this time became the arena of a clash between tobacco lobbyists.

In the Russian Championship among men's teams, three of the four participants in the semi-final series have been determined - Kazan UNICS, Ural Great (Perm) and the capital's Dynamo. In another pair of the first round of the playoffs, the winner will most likely be known today or, at the very least, tomorrow. It is unlikely that Lokomotiv from Rostov-on-Don, which previously lost twice to CSKA away, will be able to resist the army team at home.

World War II veteran, anti-fascist partisan and Russian citizen Vasily Kononov was found guilty of war crimes by the Supreme Court of Latvia and sentenced to prison for one year and eight months. Last weekend, Kononov was released right in the courtroom, having served his sentence while under arrest in 1998-2000. Russia regarded such a sentence against the 81-year-old veteran as a public insult to all fighters against Nazism.

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation became interested in the London offices of disgraced oil workers The English newspaper The Independent reported on Sunday that Russia allegedly turned to the British Interior Ministry with a request to conduct searches at the office of the Yukos representative office in London.

Our hockey players failed the next world championship The Hockey World Championship in the Czech Republic continues, but, alas, not for everyone. After three consecutive defeats in the second stage from the teams of Slovakia (0:2), the USA (2:3) and Finland (0:4), the Russian team was also among those cut off from the passenger train heading to the playoffs.

Liberal idea in Russia Both liberal and socialist ideology were born in the era of Enlightenment, the era of the Great French Revolution, and under the same slogan: “Liberty, equality, fraternity.” Liberals emphasized the first word - "freedom". Socialists emphasized the idea of ​​equality. Modern civilization daily seeks and finds a balance between these goals. Individual freedom, which opens up ways for a person to achieve a worthy position in society equal to those around him.

Aslan Abashidze offered to share Shevardnadze's fate The era named after Abashidze in Adjara, which lasted since 1991, has come to an end. All that remains is to reach the final point: to achieve the voluntary resignation of the head of the 400,000-strong autonomy, 65-year-old Aslan Abashidze. The export of the Tbilisi “Rose Revolution” to the territory of the autonomy can be considered successful.

Life like in Europe means, first of all, high prices Latvia greeted its entry into the European Union on May 1 with the largest-scale demonstration in defense of the Russian-speaking population. Riga that day was divided into two parts. On the right bank of the capital, in the historical part of the city, festivities took place on the occasion of EU enlargement. On the left bank, at the monument to the liberators of Riga from the fascist invaders, a protest took place.

For the upcoming holidays, the German Day of Liberation from Fascism and the Russian Victory Day, the famous monument to the Soviet liberator soldier with a rescued German girl in his arms was returned to the memorial complex of Berlin's Treptow Park. It took about seven months to overhaul the 11-meter steel figure weighing 45 tons. The monument was erected in Berlin on May 8, 1949, the team of its creators was led by architect Yakov Belopolsky and sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich.

The captain's armband obliges you to do a lot, not only during the game, but also after it ends. And this duty is not always of a pleasant nature. Especially on days of failure, when the captain is supposed to take upon himself the whole barrage of critical arrows and unpleasant remarks flying towards the team.