We present a concise review of the theoretical status of the rare
semileptonic B -> X_s l^+ l^- decays in the standard model. Particular
attention is thereby devoted to the recent theoretical progress concerning, on
the one hand the next-to-next-to-leading order QCD calculation and, on the
other hand the analysis of phenomenological important subleading electroweak
effects.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; Talk given at XXIXth Rencontres de Moriond
Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Aosta Valley,
Italy, March 21-28, 200