Private Evgeny Salov, who left his unit at 6.00 local time, appeared on his own in the unit stationed in the suburbs of Khabarovsk time on Wednesday. This is reported by Interfax. Salov ran with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, which belonged to his colleague, and thirty rounds of ammunition for it. However, he returned to his unit after 7 hours of absence without the weapon he had stolen and with a penetrating gunshot wound to the thigh. Now he has been admitted to the hospital.

Georgia rejected Russia's proposals to conduct a joint operation against terrorists in the Pankisi Gorge, RIA Novosti reports.

On Tuesday at 18.10 Moscow time in the area of ​​the Kerigo pass from the territory of Georgia, a group of unknown persons fired at the Russian border detachment. There are no losses among the Russian military.

Diego Maradona has released his first CD, on which he sings with his daughters, Dalma and Janina, RIA Novosti reports. Maradona performs the composition "Hand of God", dedicated to the goal he scored against the British with his hand at the 1986 World Cup. Ananova.com recalls that this song was composed for an Argentine band. Maradona, hearing it, came to an indescribable delight and burned with a desire to sing it. The disc was released for charity purposes.

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit reiterated on Wednesday that his country opposes a possible US military operation in Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime. It is reported by EFE. "We have taken every opportunity to inform our American friends that we oppose any military action. against Iraq," the head of the Turkish government said. The Turkish air base in Icirlik is used in as a starting point for US warplanes patrolling the so-called "no-fly zone" in northern Iraq.

Georgia is withdrawing about 500 police officers from the Pankisi Gorge as excess forces, Interfax reports. The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia made such a decision, since it turned out that "information about the presence of a large number of armed terrorists in the region is not true.

Palestinian Refugee Group seized the office of the UN Refugee Committee on Tuesday in southern Lebanon. This action was held in protest against reducing their medical care, the EFE agency reports. In addition, the refugees are demanding the lifting of the authorities' ban on the import of building materials to their camps. Recently, the UN Refugee Committee has cut aid to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. In total in this 350,000 Palestinians live in the country in 12 camps.

Siobhan Cawthon, 14, from Yorkshire, claims a meteorite fell on her leg . Siobhan was standing near the house when some small and hot stone fell from above, hit her toes and bounced off. It was on a flat terrain, and the stone clearly had nowhere to come from, except from the sky. The girl picked up the stone and decided to independently determine its origin.

The Georgian Embassy in Moscow denies the fact of the bombing of the Pankisi Gorge by a Georgian attack aircraft. In an interview with RIA Novosti, Teimuraz Gamtsemlidze, minister-counselor of the Georgian Embassy in Moscow, said that the surname "Rusteli" - namely, according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, was the name of the lieutenant of the Georgian Air Force, who was at the helm of the attack aircraft, "does not exist in Georgia at all" .

The publishing house " EKSMO-press " published the book "Tanya Grotter and the magic double bass", Russified variations on the theme of the adventures of Harry Potter. The author of the book, candidate of philological sciences Dmitry Yemets, made a girl the main character of magical adventures. "Tanya somehow manages to avoid death, but a mysterious mole remains on the tip of her nose for the rest of her life," the annotation to the book says.

Law enforcement officials in Moscow continue to search for Iraqi embassy technician Jamal Abdullah Albjeburi, who disappeared on August 24, Interfax reports. According to the investigation, the locksmith of the embassy Iraqa Albjeburi, born in 1954, went to a restaurant on Mantulinskaya Street with his friend Mahmoud Khalid Anwar on Saturday. Anwar said that there Albjeburi met a woman who was about 35-40 years old and who was wearing black trousers and a red blouse.

On Wednesday, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said there was still time for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict with the United States, Reuters reported. At the same time, Baghdad is preparing for war, since Washington clearly does not want peace, Ramadan stressed. "We believe that there is still an opportunity to start a dialogue, but this opportunity is being reduced to nothing under pressure from the United States," Ramadan said.

Despite the scandal surrounding the possible rigging of the results in the figure skating competition in Salt Lake City, figure skating will remain in the Olympic program. This statement was made in Lausanne, where the IOC Executive Committee now sits, was made by the Director General of the International Olympic Committee Francois Carrar.

In Batumi, on the territory of the Russian military base stationed here, an employee of one of the security forces of Georgia was detained while trying to steal an armored personnel carrier, Interfax reports. This was announced by the leader of the deputy group of Adzharia in the Parliament of Georgia Jemal Gogitidze at a press conference on Wednesday in Tbilisi. According to Gogitidze, the incident took place a week ago.

Two-year-old Willempier de Maar found his grandfather's car stolen a week ago, writes De Telegraaf. The car was put on the wanted list, but a week of searching led to nothing. While walking in the city park, the kid suddenly pointed to the parking lot and shouted: "Grandpa's car!" The grandfather who was with him looked closely, and indeed, it turned out to be his car. He had to give his grandson a reward in the form of ice cream. The police continue to search for the hijackers.