Yesterday, at a new trial in Baghdad presided over by Shiite judge Abdullah al-Amiri, Saddam Hussein refused to plead guilty to the genocide of the Kurds. So did Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed Chemical Ali, Saddam's cousin and ex-head of the Northern Iraq Committee in the Revolutionary Command Council.

Kenya urged to ensure the safety of Russian diplomats The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that the Kenyan authorities ensure the security of the Russian Embassy in this country and its employees. A statement about this was made yesterday after last Sunday’s attack on Valery Egoshkin, the Russian Ambassador and concurrently its permanent representative to international organizations in Nairobi, and the embassy attaché Pavel Strelkov.

Israeli reservists criticize commanders for indecisiveness and lack of professionalism “We were not allowed to win,” was the statement yesterday made by reservist soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who fought in southern Lebanon. In an open letter to Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Chief of General Staff Dan Halutz, they speak of a deep crisis of trust between soldiers and senior political and army leadership.

Pakistan will hold a new tender for the sale of Pakistan Steel, taking the plant away from MMK and its partners The government of Pakistan will reassess the value of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation Limited and announce new tenders, which, as the government of the country hopes, will bring more income to the treasury than the $360 million proposed by MMK and its partners last year.

Manchester United and Chelsea started the championship with defeats From the first round, the favorites of the English Premier League made it clear who will compete for the championship title this season. Manchester United and Chelsea, having defeated their rivals, clearly demonstrated the validity of their ambitions. Moreover, the rest of the contenders for the championship started the season ingloriously.

Sakhalin-2 faces a fine of 10 to 200 thousand rubles Rosprirodnadzor completed an inspection of the Sakhalin-2 project and found that the project operator Sakhalin Energy in March-November 2005 allowed water discharges into the sea from the Okha production oil storage facility and the Molikpaq platform in excess of the maximum permissible concentrations of petroleum products.

CLUBS Brad Leali (saxophone, USA), Miki Hayama (piano, USA), Andrey Dudchenko (double bass), David Tkebuchava (drums). Brad Leali, the famous American alto saxophonist, Grammy Award winner with the Count Basie Orchestra under the direction of Grover Mitchell for the 1999 album Count plays Duke, lives in New York, performs with jazz masters, and leads his own organ quartet (Brad Leali Organ Quartet) and is engaged in teaching.

Alain de Botton. The art of travel. Translation from English Petra Favorova. M: Poster. 2006. It so happened that a collection of essays by Alain de Botton, printed on newsprint as a bonus to the Afisha-Mir magazine, became almost the most current hit of this summer, so many of my friends specially bought packs of this “World” in order to take out from plastic packaging the treasured blue book.

Marat Safin was outside the first hundred The Association of Tennis Professionals' new secondary rankings, which take into account the top 18 results over the last 52 weeks, are painful to look at. Two-time winner of Grand Slam tournaments Marat Safin left the first hundred of the ATP classification. This happened for the first time since the Russian found himself there on June 8, 1998, reaching the fourth round of the French Open at the age of 18.

The next trial of Captain Ullman is delayed again Yesterday, after a long break, the trial of Captain Ulman resumed in the North Caucasus District Military Court. Eduard Ulman and his colleagues, accused of shooting six Chechen civilians, were acquitted twice; certain aspects of this process were considered by the Constitutional Court, and the case itself will be heard by the fourth panel of judges. However, there is still no end in sight to the litigation.

Chronicle of sporting events Football. Spanish Super Cup. “Barcelona” – “Espanyol” – 3:0 (first match – 1:0). Spanish champion and Champions League winner Barcelona won the first trophy of the new season. It became the Spanish Super Cup, the matches for which turned into a Catalan derby. Barça made the groundwork already in the first meeting, beating Espanyol with a score of 1:0, and by the 12th minute of the return match the fate of the Super Cup was decided.

The leadership of the Chelyabinsk region declared itself a victim of a political order The team of Chelyabinsk Region Governor Petr Sumin considers itself a victim of a political order - for several weeks now, negative materials about the work of the South Ural authorities have been appearing one after another in the central media. First Vice-Governor Vladimir Dyatlov publicly announced that all this was not without reason.

Russia has paid off the Paris Club and is preparing to become a creditor country Russia no longer owes a cent to the countries of the Paris Club of creditors.

The ex-president of Russia was going to Latvia Today, the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin arrives in Latvia for a three-day visit. In Riga, he will be awarded the Order of Three Stars, 1st class, awarded to Mr. Yeltsin by the Latvian parliament in 2000 for his contribution to the Latvian Republic gaining state independence in 1991. The Order of Three Stars will be presented to Mr. Yeltsin by Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

Viktor Yanukovych reached an agreement with oil workers Yesterday in Kyiv, the Ukrainian government signed a memorandum of partnership with Russian and Ukrainian companies, under which the parties undertake to ensure stable and transparent operation of the oil market.