More than 1,500 people have been employed to repair a heat supply station breakdown in Russia's Tuva region, officials said Tuesday.

The breakdown forced the evacuation of 3,000 people from the settlement of Khovu-Aksy, ITAR-Tass reported.

Investigators said the breakdown happened Dec. 20, due to defects in the station's steam boilers.

Its not surprising that a town located at the exact geographic center of Asia has special psychic energies. Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva republic, is 3,700 kilometers to the east of Moscow. But as far as its style of business is concerned, it might as well be on another planet.

"If a person decides to move to Kyzyl to start a business," said Otkun Dostay, the head of the Tuvan branch of UNESCO, "he will gain mental and spiritual equilibrium. Finding himself in the middle of the taiga, a person becomes placated by the energy and the breath of nature. It is like recharging a battery."

Throat singer Kongar-ool Ondar from Tuva, the tiny region of Siberia just outside of Outer Mongolia, was supposed to have been singing out in three-part harmony — by himself — atop a horse equipped with a stereo amplifier in Tuesday's Rose Parade.

The sound equipment was designed to prevent a repeat of his first appearance in 1993, when Ondar, singing without amplification, couldn't be heard over the din of the crowd.

Two famous wrestlers "Arzylan moge" Seden-Ochur Kara-Sal and "Nachyn moge" Eres Kara-Sal, together with the director of Center of Tuvan Culture, National Khoomeizhi of the Republic Kongar-ool Ondar will represent Tuva in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. On 1 January, thousands of roses, platforms and music orchestras, as well as more than half a million people will take part in a parade of 9 km length.

This ceremony will be on direct broadcast to many millions of spectators.

December, 15, the commander of legendary mine-thrower detail WWII veteran Alexander Terentievich Shumov celebrates his 99^th birthday. Six brothers Shumov, Tuvan strong men, have entered all artillery encyclopedias of the world for their feats, fearlessness, accuracy and speed of shooting.

Alexander Prokofiev wrote the poem "Rossiya" about them - this work was awarded Stalin's Prize. The heroes spoke in their own "Tannu-Tuva" language, as the military journalist Pavel Luknitskiy, who spent time at the Leningrad front where the Shumovs fought, noted in his reportage. We present some fragments from it to the attention of our readers.

Results of complex expedition research of therapeutic and touristic-recreational use of natural arzhaan complex "Choigan mineral waters" will be presented today at a scientific seminar at the National Museum of Tuva.