Russia: January 20, 2004

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Russian troops know their mission priorities. The army has been dispatched to assist in rescuing ten tons of beer trapped under the frozen Irtysh River in Siberia. A truck carrying the beer sank when trying to cross the river and a rescue team of six divers, 10 workers and a modified T-72 tank from the Emergencies Ministry have so far failed to save the load. The week-long effort to cut a 100 yard corridor to the river bank to pull the truck to dry land failed when the vehicle was swept away from the rescue site. 

Despite temperatures around minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit in the region near the Siberian city of Omsk (around 2,200 kilometers miles from Moscow), the soldiers think it will only take them a day to retrieve the cargo. - Adam Geibel