Russian law allows freezing bank accounts on suspicion of laundering illegal funds or involvement in terrorism, but Russia has no information on this regarding Saddam Hussein yet. This was stated on Friday in an interview with Interfax by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, commenting on the US administration's demands to freeze Hussein's financial accounts around the world.

Coalition forces are in full control of the Faw Peninsula, IRNA reports citing the Lebanese Al-Manar TV channel. Explosions are heard from there.

The third squadron of the 7th motorized regiment of the 3rd infantry division of the US Army is moving to the north of Iraq in the direction of Baghdad. According to CNN, the 7th regiment, which advanced from the territory of Kuwait, has been moving towards Baghdad, bypassing Basra, for about two hours. A column of heavy armored vehicles moves under the cover of Kiowa helicopters. According to the military, the regiment does not encounter organized resistance from Iraqi forces on its way.

More than a year and a half will be spent by testers in the model of a Martian ship at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP). The 500-day experiment will begin in 2005, ITAR-TASS reports. This was announced today at a press conference by IBMP Deputy Director for Science, cosmonaut Valery Polyakov. According to him, since the mid-1960s, the institute has accumulated vast experience in preparing and conducting long-term orbital flights, which will be used in preparing a flight to Mars.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced a cash reward for each downed coalition aircraft, as well as for each killed or captured enemy soldier. It is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the Iraqi state agency INA. 100 million Iraqi dinars (approximately $33,000) will be paid for a downed enemy warplane. The downed helicopter is estimated at 50 million dinars ($16.5 thousand). Saddam also promises 50 million dinars ($16,500) for a captured soldier.

Photo AFP The American military crossed the desert in the south of Iraq. In the northern part of the oil fields, the Reuters correspondent, who accompanies the army units, noted the clubs of fire and smoke. In the south in the Rumail region, lights were also seen. “In the sky, an orange glow,” said the correspondent of the agency. The American and British military confirmed that several foci of fire were noticed on the oil fields of Iraq. However, they refused to comment on why a fire occurred.

At the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, a joint declaration on Iraq was adopted, according to which the EU promises humanitarian assistance and calls for the preservation of the integrity of the territories of Iraq. According to Interfax, the text of the declaration emphasizes the importance of the UN continuing to play a central role during and after the Iraqi crisis.

As part of the fight against political opposition, Cuban authorities arrested ten independent journalists, most of whom published their stories on online news sites. Arrests of journalists and political activists were carried out on Tuesday, Wired News reports citing Reporters Without Borders. Computers, books and papers were confiscated from the detainees.

Terrorists have sunk a Chinese fishing trawler off the coast of Sri Lanka, reports Reuters. The attack was carried out by members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. According to the Ministry of Defense of Sri Lanka, the Chinese ship sank, 17 crew members were missing. According to the Sri Lankan military, the separatists attacked the Chinese ship by mistake, mistaking it for a boat of the Sri Lankan Navy.

More than half of UK employees do not trust their colleagues or IT departments. In a survey conducted by Yahoo, it turned out that 61% of respondents believe that IT employees regularly intercept and read personal emails, and 50% of respondents believe that overly curious colleagues do the same. The survey involved 18 thousand office employees of various companies.

Due to unfavorable weather conditions the night before and last night, 65 aircraft were unable to land at Moscow airports and left for alternate airfields. It is reported by ITAR-TASS. All metropolitan airports were forced to stop receiving and departing aircraft. The reason for this was the impact of several factors at once - insufficient visibility, strong gusts of wind, low friction coefficient of the aircraft landing gear with the runway.

The United States has closed more than a dozen of its consulates and missions around the world to the public. This, according to CNN, was reported by representatives of the US State Department. They were closed for security reasons, as American consulates are a good target for terrorists. However, the decision to close them was not lowered from above by the State Department, but was made by local ambassadors.

The Pentagon does not rule out that the Iraqis may flood the Tigris River to stop the advancing coalition forces, CNN reports. According to the Pentagon, Iraq used such tactics during the Iran-Iraq war. In this case, the American command is developing a detailed plan of action. The Iraqi military can blow up dams at reservoirs in the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, then the water can flood the space between Baghdad and Kut.

Iraqi Ambassador to Moscow Abbas Khalaf said he shot down three American helicopters on Friday night, RIA Novosti reports. According to the ambassador, 12 British and 4 American servicemen were killed in one downed helicopter. The diplomat said that "both the British and the Americans confirm this fact." The Command of the Coalition Forces confirms the crash of only one helicopter, however, according to the preliminary version, it fell due to a technical failure.

In Russia in 2004 another rocket and space corporation (RKK) will be created. Its formation will be carried out on the basis of the Siberian enterprise "NPO Applied Mechanics" (NPO PM) named after M.F. Reshetnev, located near Krasnoyarsk. This was reported to RIA Novosti on Thursday in the press service of Rosaviakosmos. NPO PM will head the vertically integrated structure of RKK, which will include enterprises related to the production of spacecraft, primarily satellites.