There is reason to believe that Sunday's Mi-8 helicopter crash in Chechnya was due to shelling from the ground with automatic weapons. This was stated to Interfax-AVN by a source close to the commission of the Russian Defense Ministry working in Chechnya. "When examining the wreckage of the helicopter, several dozen holes were found from automatic weapons of 7.62 and 5.45 caliber," the source said.

The first US military contingent landed from a helicopter on Monday in the Liberian capital Monrovia as part of a peacekeeping mission. It is reported by Reuters, citing eyewitnesses. A larger US military contingent will arrive in Liberia following the 20 US troops operating as part of the Humanitarian Assistance Inspection Team.

Reports have been received from Turkey about the release of 11 Turkish soldiers detained by the Americans in northern Iraq, BBC reports. Reports that Turkish soldiers have been detained by US forces in the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah have sparked outrage in Turkey. Hundreds of demonstrators held a protest on Sunday in front of the US embassy in Ankara.

In Prokopyevsk, Kemerovo region, three miners were killed at the Krasnogorskaya mine last Saturday. The PR department of the Prokopyevskugol coal company told RIA Novosti that the roof collapsed at the mine. Under the collapse, three miners of the stope were killed - Sergey Guryanov, Evgeny Polezhaikin, Boris Ilchuk. Currently, all work at the mine is suspended. Mining rescue teams and a commission are working at the accident site, which is investigating the causes of the accident.

Vladimir Putin, at a meeting in the Kremlin with members of the government, called for "picking out of the basements and caves of the bandits operating in Chechnya, where they are still hiding, and destroying them." "The main task of the terrorists today is to disrupt the political settlement in Chechnya," the president stressed, opening a meeting with members of the government on Monday. "Those who want restoration and social rehabilitation in Chechnya can do it.

In Corsica on Monday night, four houses belonging to immigrants from mainland France were blown up. This came after the inhabitants of the island voted narrowly against granting limited autonomy to Corsica on Sunday, Interfax reports. Separatist attacks have been taking place on the island for several decades. Before the referendum was held at the end of last week, the famous Corsican separatist Ivan Colonna was detained.

The icebreaking fleet of the Murmansk Shipping Company has been replenished with a new vessel. On Friday, July 4, a solemn ceremony of raising the Russian flag on the Vladimir Ignatyuk icebreaker took place. According to murman.ru, the icebreaker was purchased in Canada and built in 1983, but the technical condition of the vessel fully satisfies the new owner. Previously, the icebreaker bore the name "Arctic Wolf".

Archaeologists working this season at the Nikitsky excavation site in Veliky Novgorod found a Prague penny and a Revel artig. The Reval artig is made of silver, and the copper Prague grosz was probably silver-plated, but traces of silver have not been preserved on it over the past 600 years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the federal law "On Amendments to Article 218 of Part Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation", adopted by the State Duma on June 20 and approved by the Federation Council on June 25, 2003. According to RBC with reference to the press service of the head of state, the federal law expands the right of taxpayers to receive standard tax deductions for personal income tax.

The car "Mercedes" was blown up by an unidentified criminal on Sunday in the suburban village of Vasilkovo, Kaliningrad region. The owner of the car, 27-year-old Mikhail Boikov, died on the spot. As the Rosbalt correspondent was told in the regional department for civil defense and emergency situations, the explosion occurred when the driver got into the car and started the engine. According to preliminary data, the power of the explosion is equivalent to 400 grams of TNT.

Eight people were injured in an accident in the north of Moscow. As reported by law enforcement agencies of the capital, a major accident occurred on Sunday around 19.10 on the 27th kilometer of the Leningrad highway. According to preliminary data, three cars collided. Currently, traffic police officers, rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are at the scene. The circumstances of the incident are being investigated.

One of the escort vehicles of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is on a visit to the Ivanovo region on Monday, July 7, got into a traffic accident. The duty unit of the regional traffic police department confirmed that the accident occurred in the Shuisky district, where the minister visited parts of the local garrison, REGNUM reports . The number of participants in the accident and its circumstances are being investigated. The traffic police refrained from commenting.

Secretary General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Jalal Talabani arrived in Russia at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Shorsh Said, the representative of the PUK in Russia and the CIS countries, told Interfax that Talabani will meet with Ivanov in the afternoon on Monday.

In Chechnya, the court issued the first amnesty decision for a member of illegal armed groups. Sergei Prokopov, head of the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office in the North Caucasus, told Interfax, quoted by Gazeta.Ru, that the Leninsky District Court of Grozny granted amnesty and released former militant Kharon Magomadov from criminal responsibility.

The trial in the case of the murder of MK journalist Dmitry Kholodov will resume on July 22, 2003. According to Gazeta.Ru, citing the press service of the Moscow District Military Court, on July 7, 2003, the judge of the Moscow District Military Court, Colonel of Justice Yevgeny Zubov, ruled on the date for the start of the retrial of the criminal case against the main accused in the murder of Dmitry Kholodov, Pavel Popovskikh and others.