The Council of Europe and the OSCE have decided to send a joint mission to Chechnya ahead of a constitutional referendum scheduled for March 23 there. This was reported by the press service of the Council of Europe, Interfax reports.

Poster from the site www.inservice.ru Yuri Luzhkov presented on Thursday the partybilers of United Russia to artists of art, education and sports. Party tickets from the hands of the Moscow mayor were received, in particular, the People's Artist of the USSR Gerard Vasiliev, People's Artists of Russia Mikhail Derzhavin, Roxanne Babayan, Valentina Tolkunov, Larisa Luzhina.

An accident occurred on the Shchelkovo highway, Gazeta.Ru reports. In the Moscow region, a fuel truck overturned 5 km from the Moscow Ring Road. About 6 tons of gasoline poured out of it. Traffic on the highway is blocked, a detour is organized.

In the Palestinian Authority, an attempt was made on the life of the head of the Al-Jazeera TV channel's office, Wail Abu Dhaka. It is reported by RIA Novosti. An explosive device was placed in the journalist's car, it worked, but he himself was not injured. "Al-Jazeera" notes that this is the first attempt on the life of a correspondent representing a foreign media in Palestine.

During landings in 1989 and 1995, the Columbia shuttle experienced problems similar to those recorded seconds before the disaster on Saturday. About this, according to RIA Novosti, the newspaper USA Today writes. When returning to Earth in 1989 and 1995 due to damage to the thermal insulation plates of the lower part of the shuttle's wings, a rise in temperature occurred due to air resistance, according to a newspaper citing reports from NASA engineers.

New scanners make it possible to clearly see how brain cells are steadily and rapidly disappearing in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. According to Reuters, this dramatic statement was made by an international research group of neuroscientists based at the University of California (UCLA). The brains of patients were scanned using the previously known nuclear magnetic resonance, but scientists observed the loss of cells over certain periods of time for the first time.

The 73-year-old Japanese man drank a lot, was very tired and - it so happened - fell asleep on the sleepers exactly between the rails of the existing track. According to Interfax, a fast train swept over the vacationers. Frightened eyewitnesses took the still sleeping old man to the hospital, where he woke up alive and well.

The grand film marathon will begin on Thursday evening at the Five Stars cinema in the capital, Ekho Moskvy reports. The program of the "Big Film Maneuvers" includes 40 best foreign and Russian films, which will be shown non-stop in 24 hours. The marathon will open with Vera Storozheva's "Sky. Airplane. Girl" - a remake of Georgy Natanson's film "Once Again About Love" based on the play by Edward Radzinsky.

In the village of Andrianovichi, Sverdlovsk region, pathogens of acute intestinal infection were found in samples of drinking water. This was reported to RIA Novosti at the center of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Russia. The check was carried out after 6 local schoolchildren were admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of Flexner's dysentery. Sanitary and epidemiological investigation found that the children were poisoned with drinking water at school.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze instructed the country's Prosecutor General's Office to study the sources and reasons for the appearance of information about the intentions of his closest associates to achieve early resignation of the head of state from his post. It is reported by ITAR-TASS. "It is necessary to find out the truth and in two weeks to consider this issue at a meeting of the Security Council, then inform the population about this," Shevardnadze said.

Garry Kasparov's fifth chess game against the Deep Junior computer ended in a draw, Reuters reports. The players made 19 moves. At the moment, the players have an equal number of points - 2.5 each, and they will face the decisive, sixth game. If he wins, Kasparov will receive $300,000, and if he loses, $200,000. If the match ends in a draw, Kasparov will be awarded $250,000.

In the south-west of Moscow, an armed attack was made on a grocery store. According to RIA Novosti, at about ten o'clock in the evening a man armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle broke into the store on Leninsky Prospekt. He demanded that he be given all the proceeds. Employees of the store managed to press the alarm button, a few minutes later the raider was detained. The circumstances of the robbery attempt are being clarified, and an investigation has been launched.

A fire broke out in the first city hospital in Novosibirsk on Thursday. As a result, 435 patients were evacuated, of which about 80 were severe. According to the propaganda department of the Office of the State Fire Service of the Novosibirsk Region, the fire occurred on Thursday at about 02:00 am in the ultrasound room. Despite the small area of ​​the fire (about 15 sq. m), it was assigned an increased category of complexity precisely in connection with the specifics of the hospital.

On Thursday, a serviceman of the Azerbaijani army, who has been in Armenian captivity since January 8, will be transferred to the Azerbaijani side through the mediation of the mission of the International Red Cross in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to RIA "Novosti", this is an ordinary conscript Elmeddin Abiyev. The extradition procedure will take place on the line of contact of the Armenian-Azerbaijani armed forces in the Agdam region of Azerbaijan.

In the event of a US attack on North Korean nuclear facilities, Pyongyang will respond with a "powerful counterattack" that will lead to "general war." About this, according to Reuters, writes the newspaper Rodong Sinmun. "If the US tries to destroy our nuclear reactors built for peaceful purposes, it will lead to a general war ... It is foolish for the US to think that we will sit back and wait for an attack," the newspaper commentary says.