Passengers on a Russian bus heading to Western Europe were robbed in Poland on Friday. According to RIA Novosti, the bus was attacked in the morning near the Polish-German border, on the Moscow-Warsaw-Berlin highway near the town of Swiebodzin. According to the representative of the city police Miroslav Vishnevsky, the bus was stopped by a man dressed in a police uniform. He and two of his accomplices burst inside, threatening the passengers with a gun.

The Israeli military on Friday shot dead a Palestinian militant from the Islamic Jihad extremist organization. According to Reuters, this happened in the village of Tabra in the vicinity of Bethlehem. According to IDF sources, 32-year-old Jadallah Shoka was killed during the ensuing firefight. However, according to Palestinian officials, the militant was shot inside the house where he was hiding. Three other Palestinians were arrested in the same building.

On Friday morning in St. Petersburg there were two explosions of gas cylinders. According to RIA "Novosti" with reference to the statement of representatives of the main department for civil defense and emergency situations of St. Petersburg, at 6.55 a message was received about the explosion of a propane cylinder in a change house on the Moscow highway. The explosion killed a 30-year-old man. In the Kalininsky district of St.

US Secretary of Defense Donald Ramsfeld. Photo by ar US Secretary of Defense Donald Ramsfeld said that it is necessary to wait for the results of the international inspection in Iraq before deciding on the next stage of action.

Renowned American actor Sean Penn arrived on December 13 for a three-day visit to the Iraqi capital to, in his words, feel "this frightening conflict" from the inside. "As a father, actor, producer and patriot, I consider my visit to Iraq a natural and obligatory act," said Sean Penn. The program of his stay in Iraq, which is of a charitable nature, includes visits to hospitals, schools, orphanages.

Vagit Sharifov, vice-president of the Russian oil company LUKOIL, flew to Tbilisi from Moscow to attend his father's funeral on a charter flight on Friday. According to RIA Novosti, he was met at the airport by Guram Akhvlediani, chairman of the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who is a relative of Georgian President Edurd Shevardnadze.

The leaders of the states of the European Union reached an agreement on a financial package for the EU candidate countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia). They, according to BBC News, are provided with more than 40 billion euros. The EU summit in Copenhagen late on Thursday also approved Denmark's proposal to the top 10 EU candidates as the basis for a subsequent final enlargement agreement.

The bodies of several women who were killed with particular cruelty were found near Minsk in the period from late November to December, a source in the Belarusian Interior Ministry told Interfax. According to police officers, several corpses were dismembered, one was burned. Also reported are two corpses of women born in 1980 and 1983, which were found near the village of "Zelenoe" and the city of "Cherven" in the Minsk region.

A representative of the headquarters of the UGA stated that an employee of the Oktyabrsky District Department of Internal Affairs, Said Sardalov, was detained in Grozny, suspected of having links with militants. This is reported by Interfax. A representative of the headquarters, who wished to remain anonymous, added that a large number of blank forms of documents were confiscated from Sardalov.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced that the leaders of the EU member states agreed to increase subsidies to Poland by one billion euros if Warsaw agrees to the proposed conditions for joining the European Union, BBC News reports. Schröder made the announcement at the EU summit in Copenhagen, which was due to end on Friday afternoon, but dragged on longer than expected as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic still have not agreed to the proposed terms.

Pope John Paul II on Friday accepted the resignation of the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Low, implicated in a pedophilia scandal in the American Catholic Church, reports AFP. Low expressed the hope that his resignation would serve to reconcile with the Catholic priests all whom he had personally hurt. Lowe will be temporarily replaced by Cardinal Richard Lennon.

Russia has submitted its proposals to the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) on Iraq's declaration on armaments. Sergey Lavrov, Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, informed ITAR-TASS about this. The diplomat explained that it was about which pages and chapters of the declaration should be kept secret.

Two servicemen were killed, two others were injured as a result of a terrorist attack in Grozny. According to ITAR-TASS, citing military sources in the Chechen capital, the incident took place the day before in the Zavodskoy district of Grozny, not far from intersection of Industrialnaya and Chemists streets. An armored tractor was blown up, which accompanied a car for transporting water.

The Moscow government has approved a program for celebrating the New Year. As sources in the city administration told Interfax, on December 20 a group of Moscow children will go to Veliky Ustyug (Vologda region) to meet with the main Russian Father Frost. A solemn meeting of Father Frost in the capital will take place on December 26 at 11:30 on Tverskaya Square in front of the city hall.

A nuclear reactor in northwestern Japan was shut down after the coating of one of its turbines caught fire several times. This is reported by AP with reference to the words of representatives of Japan Atomic Power Co. The fire broke out on Thursday evening at a nuclear power plant in Tsurug, 330 kilometers from Tokyo. According to company representatives, the flame was localized in the building where the ignited turbine is located, and there was no leakage of radioactive materials.