Why did you kill me, mother?

Abortion is not something to be proud of. Abortion is not the best thing that can happen to a woman, no matter whether she treats it as a common medical procedure or a sinful action that kills an innocent life inside her.

Abortion is a social phenomenon. It is very simple to accuse women of this problem, although it is the society that should carry responsibility for it. One can dwell upon the ethics of abortions, about women destroying their own lives, about problems with the public morality, etc. However, nothing can cancel the right of a woman to take her decision, to receive high-quality medical and psychological aid and become a happy person in the future.

Russian model Ruslana Korshunova died because of 500,000-dollar lawsuit

A 20-year-old model, a native of Kazakhstan, Ruslana Korshunova (pictures), died in New York several days ago. The police believe that the girl committed suicide when she stepped out of the window of her apartment on the 9th storey in Manhattan. The answer to the question of what pushed Ruslana towards such a decision has not been found yet. It is not ruled out, though, that there was someone in her apartment who helped her make the deadly jump.

The US and Russian media discuss several versions of the tragedy. One of them says that Korshunova was suffering from depression because of problems at work and in her personal life. Investigators did not find a suicide note, although the files in her computer can easily replace it. Ruslana wrote shortly before her death that she was terribly missing her home and family. She also wrote about her problems in personal life.

Russians listed one of world’s cleanest nations

Russian citizens take the third place in the world among clean and neat nations, following the Hindus and the Americans.

The majority of Russians (35 percent) take a shower or a bath on a daily basis. Eleven percent of Russian citizens take a shower twice a day. Residents of Europe turned down their medieval habit of washing themselves twice in a lifetime. However, they still prefer not to take a shower too often. The Britons and the Germans usually wash themselves twice a week.

Russia to develop new generation of tanks by 2020

Russia’s armored troops will consist of T90 tanks and tanks of the new type by 2020.

The Director of the Federal Service of the Russian Defense Order, Sergei Mayev, did not disclose the name of the new armored machines, but unveiled some of their constructive differences.

“The new tank will have better fire and range capabilities and a higher weapon yield. In addition, it will be outfitted with 7-kilometer range missiles,” the official said.

An average Russian tank develops the speed of 30-50 km/h, whereas the tank of the new generation will be able to travel at the speed of 50-60 km/h. To crown it all, the crew of the new tank will be able to conduct battle actions for 24 hours without leaving the machine.

It is worthy of note that there is only one enterprise left in Russia which deals with the production of tanks.

T-90 is a Russian main battle tank derived from the T-72, and is currently the most modern tank in the Russian Ground Forces and Indian Army arsenal. The successor to T-72BM, the T-90 uses the gun and 1G46 gunner sights from T-80U, a new engine, and thermal sights. Protective measures include Kontakt-5 ERA, laser warning receivers, the EMT-7 electromagnetic pulse creator for the destruction of magnetic mines and the Shtora infrared ATGM jamming system.

Poland says ‘No’ to US missile defense plans

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk did not accept Poland’s offer to deploy elements of the US missile defense system in the country. The talks between the USA and Poland have been going on for 18 months already. However, Washington failed to convince Warsaw of the need to welcome US interceptor missiles in Poland.

Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister of Poland, stated Friday that the deployment of the US missile shield on the Polish territory could only result in higher risks for Poland. Mr. Tusk added that he was striving for political and defense guarantees from the USA to strengthen Poland’s security. The official is perfectly aware of the fact that Russia will aim its missiles at Poland in the event the latter gives the green light to the US missile defense system.

However, Poland is still ready to negotiate with the USA.

The decision about the deployment of the US missile defense system in Poland (which is supposed to down Iranian and North Korean nuclear missiles) has to be taken before the end of George W. Bush’s presidency. The missile defense plans may find themselves in a wastebasket in the event Barack Obama is elected president of the United States.

USA virtually takes mankind back to barbaric medieval ages

The recent visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Georgia, a former Soviet republic, became quite a surprise. Ms. Rice visited the country against the background of the escalation of conflict between Georgia, Abkhazia and Ossetia. It is not ruled out, though, that she may put forward an idea to Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili to deploy elements of the US missile defense system, which Poland previously declined.

Miss Beauty …

A series of explosions occurred in Abkhazia several days before Rice’s visit. The administration of Abkhazia publicly accused Georgia of organizing the terrorist acts. The conflict continued in South Ossetia, where Ossetian military men took four Georgian artillery officers captive as a result of the skirmish in the capital of Tskhinvali.

The President of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, promised to grind “Ossetian separatists to the dust.” Furthermore, Georgia captured a 14-year-old boy from South Ossetia, whom they subsequently exchanged to the four Georgian artillery officers.

Surprisingly enough, many Russians still miss Stalin’s strong hand

The Russian Television Channel, the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Public Opinion Fund currently conduct an online poll within the scope of the project titled “Russia’s Name. Historical Choice-2008.” The project was launched to determine the most outstanding persona in the history of the nation.

Preliminary results of the online voting have proved to be very unusual. Joseph Stalin takes the lead in the poll with 160,000 votes. The project currently determines 12 most popular and significant historical personas of Russia. The final stage of the project will start in September. Aside from Stalin, the top 12 of Russia’s historical leaders currently include: Vladimir Vysotsky (singer and actor), Vladimir Lenin, Nicholas II, Ivan the Terrible, Sergey Esenin (poet), Azexander Pushkin, Anton Chekhov, Peter the Great, Yuri Gagarin and even Boris Yeltsin.

It is worthy of note that many modern-day communists have a negative attitude to Joseph Stalin as a historical figure. Specialists say that the preliminary results of the online poll most likely mirror Russian people’s need in a strong hand. In addition, the goals which Russia faces nowadays are similar to the goals which Stalin solved during his stay at power. In addition, people closely associate Stalin with the USSR’s victory in WWII. Many Russians believe that the victory would not have been possible without Stalin.

Russian cosmonauts make risky spacewalk to fix Soyuz

Two Russian astronauts aboard the International Space Station have made a daring spacewalk to repair their Soyuz descent capsule, Russian mission control said on Friday.

Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko managed to remove an explosive bolt from the capsule, one of 10 used to separate two parts of the module during reentry, fixing a problem that had led to rough landings for two previous crews.

Russian engineers believed that the bolt had failed to fire during previous descents.

Volkov and Kononenko put the bolt, which could have blown their hands off, into an onboard blast-proof container. “It is in!” one of the Russians called out.

The astronauts’ landing scheduled for this October should now go smoothly.

Siberian court extends Yukos founder’s custody to Nov.2

An East Siberian court ruled on Friday to extend pre-trial custody for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the founder of bankrupt oil company Yukos, until November 2, 2008, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the court.

Last week, Russian prosecutors brought new charges against Khodorkovsky, 45, and his business partner Platon Lebedev, 41, of stealing 350 million metric tons of oil and laundering $28.3 billion.

The previous custody period was due to expire on August 2, 2008.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were found guilty of tax evasion and large-scale fraud by a Moscow court in May 2005 and sentenced to nine years in prison. The Moscow City Court later reduced their terms to eight years.