Shinto deity. Photo from the site www.cdo.com.ua The Japanese prime minister arrives in the Russian capital on a visit for the first time in five years. This fact reflects not so much stagnation in bilateral relations as the collapse of an unofficial approach to their development.

Four members of the Taliban movement were killed during a clash between the Taliban militia and soldiers of the Afghan government army in the south of the country. This was reported to Reuters by a representative of the Afghan government. According to him, the collision took place on Wednesday evening in the vicinity of the village of Loy Karez. On Thursday night, two more Taliban were arrested in the area of ​​the battle.

People who are born with fewer microscopic filters in their kidneys are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure later in life, reports Reuters. These are the findings of specialists from the University of Nuremberg. Even transplantation can affect a person's pressure - the kidney recipient soon has the same pressure as the donor. Scientists examined the kidneys of 10 hypertensive patients and 10 people with normal pressure - all of them died in various accidents.

Adyghe farmer killed three neighbors and then shot himself in the head. As reported on Thursday in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Adygea (Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation), the incident occurred the day before in the village of Bolshoi Sidorov, Krasnogvardeisky District. A local resident decided to challenge the distribution of land in the village. To clarify the circumstances of the case, he went to a neighbor, but he did not even want to listen to him.

Russia has handed over to the United States a draft of a new political agreement in the area of ​​missile defense, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said.

Abdullah Khamzaev. Photo from Newsru.com The parents of Elsa Kungaeva on Wednesday appealed the decision of the North Caucasus District Military Court, issued on December 31, 2002. This was reported to the ITAR-TASS agency by the lawyer of the victims Abdullah Khamzaev.

Two F4 military aircraft collided in the skies over Turkey, Reuters reports citing Turkish N-TV channel. No casualties have been reported so far. It happened in the south-east of the country, so far nothing has been reported about the victims. The collision happened during an exercise.

On Wednesday, the Vatican released its first report on crimes committed in the microstate. Last year, 608 violations of the law were recorded, AP reports. The report was submitted to the papal court by the Attorney General of the Vatican, Nicola Picardi. There are 455 citizens of the Vatican. Picardi writes that, on a per capita basis, the crime rate in the Vatican is more than 20 times higher than in the surrounding city-state of Italy. Most of the crimes were not solved.

On Thursday, police in Newwerk, New Jersey, found and detained a woman who was supposed to look after the three Williams brothers. Two of them were found on Saturday in a locked room, where they spent several days without water or food, and their 7-year-old brother Fahim was found dead only on Sunday. The boy suffocated in a closed plastic tank, reports AP. The boys' mother, Melinda Williams, has been imprisoned since March 2002 for assaulting a man.

In Lebanon, 32-year-old Lebanese Ali Musa and his 31-year-old Ukrainian wife, Elena Petrushenko, killed the owner of a supermarket Khalil As-Sotri in the town of An-Nama, 20 km south of Beirut. It is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Liva. According to the newspaper, Al-Sotri left the house in December last year and disappeared. A few days ago, body parts of the murdered man were found in a cellophane bag in a landfill.

Vladimir Putin discussed with Minister of Railways Gennady Fadeev and Commander of the Railway Troops Grigory Kogotko the problems of structural reform of transport, RIA Novosti reports. At the meeting held on Thursday, the head of state noted that the laws regulating this sphere are in the process of being passed and asked about the opinion of the heads of the two departments in this regard.

The Tverskoy Intermunicipal Court of Moscow accepted the lawsuits of 9 former hostages of the Nord-Ost and their relatives, Lyudmila Trunova, the victims' lawyer, told RIA Novosti. It was decided that the court's consideration of claims relating to the payment of compensation for moral damage to victims in the total amount of 7 million 62 thousand rubles will begin on January 17. According to the lawyer, 45 lawsuits have been filed by the victims so far.

In Udmurtia, three railway tanks with fuel oil derailed. This was reported to RIA Novosti on Thursday at the republican department for civil defense and emergency situations. At the Bugrysh station of the Gorky railway, located in the Sarapulsky district of the Udmurt Republic, on Wednesday evening, for an unknown reason, three tanks with fuel oil, which were part of freight train number 2488, derailed.

Filming NTV 25 thousand 140 people are left without heat in 19 cities and villages of Russia due to accidents on heat supply systems, RIA Novosti was told in the information department of the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation. Most of them are 23 thousand 241 people - residents of the North -Western region. In Karelia, Komi, the Leningrad and Novgorod regions, 157 residential buildings in eight settlements remain without heat.

Moscow "has not considered and is not considering" the issue of the possibility of Russia granting asylum to Saddam Hussein, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko. Recently, there have been statements in various Western media about the alleged possibility of Russia providing asylum to Hussein in the event of his voluntary renunciation of power in Iraq.