The saving expedition of the Tuvan Ministry for Emergency keeps searching for Andrei Bogomolov, a 18-years-old tourist from Moscow. He got lost 2 weeks ago when the group of 15 muscovites, aged 10 to 61, having unregistered on their arrival to Kyzyl, went off on catamarans down the Yenissei river. Flowing down at a very high speed one of the catamarans with 5 people in crushed against a big water stone. Tatiana Smirnova is reported dead, Dmitriy Bogolubov - lost. The rest of the tourist group have left for Moscow.

More than 3 million roubles be transferred to Tuva September this year within the framework of the federal Anti-TB programme. The money will go on to the further construction work of the TB clinic's building. A KAMAZ truck equipped with the modern X-ray apparatus will be supplied also to Tuva in the last months of 2001.

One of the Magnum photographers Mr Abbas came to Tuva on August, 9. From that time on he has been staying mostly with the tuvan shamans from the "Tos teer" (Nine heavens) society taking pictures of shamanic rituals, their everyday life. Next week he is going to the countryside to stay several days in a yurt with a shaman. Magnum is found at www.magnumphotos.com

Tuvan folk-group "Chirgilchin" has taken part in the International Festival "One thousand morin-khuurs" (a two-stringed type of a Mongolian violin), which was held in China. One thousand morin-khuur players greeted by 30,000 spectators performed at the stadium in the city of Huhu-hoto. The final gala-concert was held in Peking. The performances given by Igor Koshkendei, Aldar Damdyn, Andrei Mongush and Mongun-ool Ondar opened the phenomenal beauty of Tuvan throat-singing to the Chinese public.

The children's ensemble "Oktai" from Kyzyl took part in the festivities dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Ulangom, the capital of the Uvs aimak. The spiritual verses of Siberian old believers performed by the young singers from Tuva aroused a storm of applause. On coming back to Tuva children went to Erzhei, an old believers' village, where every year they go on an ethnographic expedition.

4 Tuvan sportsmen will take part in the European Championship in Sumo wrestling, which will be held in Amsterdam 5-6-7 September. Two of them Ayas Mongush and Kan-Demir Kuular have already been winners of the European tournaments.

The film "Masters of the Steppe" (director Peter Oud), devoted to the problems of self-rule in Tuva, a joint project of the European Council and the Tuvan Parliament (Supreme Khural), after a series of screenings in Tuva (Kyzyl, Turan), Belgium, Holland, has had International Premiere at the Annual Meeting of the United Nationas Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva (Switzerland) The meeting was attended by indigenous and non-indigenous people from all over the world. Some 120 persons from dozens of different countries acquired a copy of the film and the brochures; for many of them it was the first time they saw and heard something from the Republic of Tuva! The film on the modern life of Tuvan nomads has been recently on show in Halle (Germany). Kater this year, screenings are planned in Canada (October), at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (November) and at a congress of legal anthropologists in Nepal (December)

Two out of 18 alexistrative districts of Tuva - Sut-Khol and Oviur - are going to celebrate their 60th anniversary in September this year with a week's interval. The sports competitions dedicated to the jubilee have already started in Oviur. Valery Kuular has become the winner of the festive chess tournament and got 1,500 roubles' premium. On the 1st of September teams, representing all the 6 Oviur sumons (villages), are going to compete for the Great Football Cup. A week later an International volley-ball match between Oviur sportsmen and mongolian players from the frontier Ybsa-Nur aimak will take place in Khandagaity, the Oviur district's centre. But the main festivities including wrestling and the horse-races will be held on 13-15.

The work of the Ministry for Internal Affairs was one of the questions on the Governmental session's agenda. It was stated there that the criminal situation in Tuva is constantly getting worse. The number of crimes committed during the first 7 months of this year is 20 per cents over than that of the last year. The measures undertaken by the Tuvan militia are estimated as insufficient. Interesting is the fact that the work of minister for internal affairs Sergei Mongush became so scrupulously analyzed in the Government right after he made public his decision to run for the Gosduma deputy's position. The Gosduma election in Tuva is to be held on 14, October.