The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Sunday dismissed Health Minister Zhang Wenkang from his post as Secretary of the CPC Leading Group of the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China due to the rise in SARS cases. According to observers, this may indicate that Zhang Wenkang will leave the post of minister in the near future.

In Volgograd, 93 children and four adults were hospitalized, who were poisoned last Thursday as a result of a gas release at the LUKOIL-Volgogradneftepererabotka LLC plant. The condition of the victims is assessed as stable and does not cause concern, the operational duty officer of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation told Interfax on Sunday.

The director of the Kondrovskaya paper mill, a major local businessman, Mikhail Glazunov, has been put on the wanted list by the Dzerzhinsky District Court. At the court session, at which Glazunov was present as an accused of tax evasion on an especially large scale, he suddenly asked the judge to stop the process and announce a break in order to prepare for his speech. The court went forward and complied with the request of the accused.

A daring crime was committed in the Kovrovsky district of the Vladimir region, not far from the village of Dmitrievo. Unknown people robbed a gas station under construction, owned by the Vladimir company Coliseum, reports REGNUM. At night, the criminals broke into the gatehouse, tied up the guard, and then dismantled and took away by car 5 gas stations of the brand "Adast". According to the owners of gas stations, the stolen equipment is estimated at one million 200 thousand rubles.

Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov believes that the murder of State Duma deputy Sergei Yushenkov can be solved, Interfax reports. “Today we do not believe that this crime cannot be solved. There are clues. There is information about the weapon used. We managed to read its number, despite the fact that it was erased. be found," Gryzlov said.

The Syrian authorities express their readiness to expel from the country eight high-ranking Iraqi officials who were part of Saddam Hussein's inner circle. This is with reference to information received by Washington through Russian intelligence channels, according to the Debka File website, cited by Lenta.ru.

Mahmoud Abbas, appointed by the Palestinian Prime Minister, walked out of talks on the formation of the PA cabinet on Saturday evening. At the same time, according to Reuters, he threatened Yasser Arafat with resignation due to disagreements over the post of the autonomy's interior minister. Abbas favors the appointment of the former head of the Palestinian security services, Mohammed Dalan, while Arafat intends to leave the chair for Hani al-Hassan.

Elections of the mayor of the united municipal formation "City of Norilsk" are being held in Norilsk on Sunday. According to Interfax, four people are running for the post: Vitaly Tolstov, editor-in-chief of the SNEG TV company, Sergey Shmakov, chairman of the Norilsk City Council, Valery Melnikov, chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of JSC MMC Norilsk Nickel, and lawyer Alexander Gliskov. The elections will be declared valid if the voter turnout exceeds 25%.

On Saturday morning, a ship with 45 tourists on board sank in Brazil, AP reports, citing GloboNews TV channel. Eleven people were killed, according to The Guardian. This happened in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in the Itajur canal near the city of Cabo Frio. According to some reports, many passengers still cannot be found. The wounded were taken to the hospital in Cabo Frio. Police officers with scuba divers and a fire service helicopter are on the scene.

The office of the socio-political movement "Amtsakhara" was blown up in Sukhumi. According to ITAR-TASS, no one died in the explosion. It is not yet known if there are any casualties. The investigating authorities of Abkhazia are working at the site of the explosion. The socio-political movement "Amtsakhara" ("Ancestral Lights") mainly unites veterans of the Georgian-Abkhazian war of 1992-1993.

On Saturday, a fire broke out in a house in Manchester, reports the BBC. Both floors of the house were on fire. 15 firefighters fought the fire, two of whom suffered facial burns. Firefighters found the body of a woman in her 30s and three children, the oldest of whom was about ten, in a bedroom on the second floor. An investigation is underway.

This, according to Interfax, said the head of the main department of the Ministry of Natural Resources for the Moscow region Nikolai Garankin. According to him, all necessary measures have been taken to prevent fires.

On Sunday, the billing system (payment accounting system) of the mobile operator Beeline failed. This was reported to a REGNUM correspondent at the central office of VimpelCom. Employees of the central office found it difficult to say when the system would be brought back into working condition.

The funeral of Sergei Yushenkov will take place on Sunday, April 20, at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow. According to ITAR-TASS, on Saturday before the closing of the plenary session of the State Duma, the deputies were informed by the vice-speaker of the chamber, chairman of the funeral organization Artur Chilingarov. "This is the will of the family of the deceased," he explained.

The investigation into the murder of deputy Sergei Yushenkov became aware of the signs of the alleged killer. Sources in law enforcement agencies told Interfax on Sunday that the investigation was able to obtain evidence, on the basis of which an identikit of the killer has already been compiled, which will soon be distributed among the operatives.