The completion of the tax reform will be divided into two stages, reports Vedomosti . The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development agreed to lower the upper limit of the unified social tax from 35.6% to 26% from the new year, and its effective rate - from 29% to 24%. Decreasing the value added tax from 18% to 15-16% has been postponed until 2006.

Alexander Kvasnevsky. Photo AFP President of Poland Alexander Kvasinevsky said that his country was misleading about the threat coming from Iraqi weapons of mass defeat. It is reported by the Air Force. However, the president still believes that the decision to join the Anti-Saddam coalition was true and does not blame specific countries in deception. Now Polish generals are commanding the 9.5,000th coalition contingent in Iraq.

On Thursday in Bahrain, about a hundred Islamists broke into a French restaurant. According to Reuters, the Islamists, shouting "God is almighty", threatened the restaurant guests with knives. The owner of the restaurant told the news agency that the attackers - who opposed the consumption of alcohol prohibited by Islam - shouted "Why are you drinking?" and acted as if they had every right to do so.

On Friday, Moscow's Basmanny Court will resume hearings on the case of writer Kirill Vorobyov, accused of illegally distributing pornography, RIA Novosti was told in court. Earlier, the court, at the request of the prosecutor's office, appointed a new examination of the novel "Medium Pilotage". Hearings on the merits of the case began on 2 March. Kirill Vorobyov, known under the pseudonym Bayan Shiryanov, said he did not admit his guilt.

In St. Petersburg, seven suspects were detained in the murder of a Tajik girl committed in St. Petersburg. This was reported to RIA Novosti on Friday by the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Valery Gribakin. "In the course of operational-search activities in St. Petersburg, seven people were detained who were involved in the attack on Roma from Tajikistan," Gribakin said. He said that this crime was committed on September 21 last year.

Due to a sabotage in the Tsaledjikh region of Georgia on the Kavkasioni high-voltage power line, the start of electricity supplies from Russia to Georgia has been postponed indefinitely. Shota Maisuradze, General Director of GruzRosenergo JSC, informed Novosti-Georgia about this. "The stretch marks were removed from one of the power transmission poles, due to which the pole itself failed. Repair of the damage will begin in the near future," Maisuradze said.

A burnt arena. Photo AP In the burnt building of the Moscow arena, the remains of gasoline canister were found, the Echo of Moscow reports. The chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Union of Artists, vice-president of the Academy of Artistic Criticism Alexei Klimenko told about this on Friday on Friday. According to him, the find may indicate that the building was set on fire.

On Friday in Rome, an Italian street vendor, a mother of two, climbed the outer wall of the Colosseum and said she would remain there until the authorities gave her a permit to trade. According to Reuters, firefighters, police, tourists and work colleagues of the woman watched with dismay as 34-year-old Rosa Gangiano walks along a stone ledge about 25 meters high. The strike is still going on.

The court of the Mtatsminda-Krtsanisi district of Tbilisi sentenced the former head of the civil aviation administration of Georgia, Zurab Chankotadze, to three months of pre-trial detention, RIA Novosti reports. "Zurab Chankotadze is suspected of illegally setting special fees from private companies operating in the aviation sector, which caused damage to these firms, the amount of which amounts to hundreds of thousands of lari," Georgian Prosecutor General Irakli Okruashvili told reporters.

The State Duma insists on urgent intervention in the Kosovo conflict by international organizations, including the OSCE and the Council of Europe, as well as the preparation of a special UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo. According to RIA Novosti, this requirement is contained in the statement adopted by the deputies at the plenary session on Friday.

Washington police are searching all the schools in the city after they received an Internet warning about bombs planted in five schools. According to Reuters, police spokesman Quentin Peterson said that the police are now searching all schools in the American capital, including private ones.

The Estonian police have put on the wanted list the director of the Rakvere granary, Vladimir Semyonov, who is suspected of stealing a third of the country's state grain reserve, reports Delfi . Semyonov confessed to stealing grain. In an explanatory note, he indicated that the grain was missing due to violation of storage rules, and also because he used it for "personal economic purposes", and disappeared.

On Friday, an American helicopter OH-58 Kiowa made an emergency landing near the Iraqi city of Fallujah as a result of technical problems. There were two crew members on board the helicopter. According to Reuters, citing the US military, the pilots were not injured. However, earlier on Friday, the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera reported that the helicopter exploded in the air. In addition, on Thursday there were unconfirmed reports of a military helicopter crash in the Fallujah area.

The new school standards stipulate that two hours a week will be devoted to teaching the Basics of Military Service in grades 10-11, RIA Novosti reports, citing Boris Mishin, chief specialist of the former Russian Ministry of Education. Mishin is one of the developers of a new generation of school standards, recently approved by a departmental order of the ministry. It is planned that the new standards in school education will be introduced from 2005.

The Ministry for Antimonopoly Policy of the Russian Federation initiated a case against NK "Yukos" and OAO "Sibneft" on the grounds of violation of article N6 of the law "On protection of competition and suppression of monopolistic activity in commodity markets." This was reported to RBC by a source in government circles. According to the source, a meeting of the commission of the ministry on this issue has been scheduled for March 25, 2004.