To consider yourself a Christian, must you believe in the Virgin Birth, or that Jesus walked on water, healed the sick, and rose triumphantly from the dead?

CNN: Seeking the truth about Jesus

Although the population as a whole was no less healthy, the number of long-term sick rose from about 300, 000 in 1992 to more than 750, 000 last year.

ECONOMIST: The economy

So Russian folk-wisdom advises, and so Boris Yeltsin has been doing in the days since he rose from his sick bed to resume a semblance of work.

ECONOMIST: The master of Russia returns