Horrid summer

BY THIS August's wretched standards, it could have been a lot worse. After the bomb in a Moscow underpass that killed 12, and the wreck of the Kursk nuclear submarine, which cost 118 lives, a fire on August 27th in the city's most prominent landmark, the 540-metre (1,770-foot) Ostankino television tower, seemed almost anti-climactic. It killed three people—a fireman, a lift attendant and a plumber—rather than the dozens who might have died had the blaze caught people in the tower's scenic but grubby restaurant. The fire went out after about 24 hours. And the tower did not fall down, although there are still fears for the stability of its topmost segment, which is tilting slightly.