An oil refinery owned by BP Amoco is burning in Texas, producing 447,000 barrels of fuel per day. The explosion and fire started on Tuesday evening local time (Wednesday morning in Europe). According to AP, 4 powerful explosions thundered at the plant. As a result, 5 people died. According to preliminary data, the explosions occurred as a result of a gas leak. However, the version of the attack is not ruled out.

The State Duma on Wednesday adopted in the third reading amendments to the law "On the status of a member of the Federation Council and the status of a deputy of the State Duma", clarifying the status of an assistant to a deputy, RIA Novosti reports. With the necessary 226 votes, 302 deputies voted for the adoption of the bill, 102 - against, 1 - abstained.

A ferry with 107 people on board sank off the coast of Somalia in the Strait of Aden. The ship was bound for Yemen. According to preliminary data, only five managed to escape. Among them are two members of the ferry crew. According to one of the survivors, the ship's engine stopped working, and water began to flow into the hull. The ferry overturned. Representatives of the Somali authorities have not yet commented on this information.

On Wednesday morning, an Afghan citizen Abdul Vosie died of injuries after being beaten by a group of skinheads last week, Gazeta.ru reports citing Interfax. On March 23, in Moscow, more than a dozen young people attacked Vosiya and brutally beat him. According to the Afghan embassy in Russia, the Afghan was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state with a serious head injury. For several days he was in a coma, and at 7.50 on March 31 he died.

Last weekend, the general director of the open joint-stock company "Votchina Ded Moroz" Anatoly Shevtsov wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will. After consideration, the resignation was accepted by the board of directors of the enterprise, Vremya Novostey reports . The enterprise of the main winter wizard cannot boast of fabulous wealth.

The widow of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl, who was killed in Pakistan by Islamic extremists, has been denied her request for compensation from the 9/11 Terror Victims Fund, CNN reports. Mariana Pearl filed a formal request on the grounds that her husband was the victim of terrorists associated with al-Qaeda. He was abducted while studying the extremist movements in Pakistan. Mariana Pearl is sure that he was killed in order to intimidate.

In the village of Ust-Donetsk, Rostov Region, unknown persons stole documents from an office in the premises of the local traffic police department. As Rosbalt reports with reference to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the robbery took place over the weekend. Attackers, squeezing the window bars, entered the office, from where they stole 8 forms of vehicle registration certificates, 20 passports, 3 forms of technical inspection and a server.

The State Duma called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to consider at a meeting of the Security Council the issue of "deploying additional defensive weapons" on Russia's western borders. This call is contained in the statement "In connection with the expansion of NATO", adopted by the State Duma at a plenary session on Wednesday (305 - "for", 41 - against), the parliamentary correspondent of Graney.Ru reports.

The investigation into the case of the disaster in the water park in the south-west of Moscow will proceed only from the conclusions of the forensic examination, said Deputy Moscow Prosecutor Vladimir Yudin. This is reported by the Newspaper news feed with reference to Interfax.

The remains of one of the foreigners blown up in the El Falludge. Photo by ar In El Falludge, local residents set fire to two cars similar to those that Americans drive, reports Reuters. The foreigners who were inside were brutally killed, and their corpses were dragged through the streets. First, the cars stopped and threw grenades, and then set fire.

The leader of Adzharia, Aslan Abashidze, intends to propose to the local parliament to hold a referendum on whether the population supports the current authorities of the autonomy, Interfax reports. "Such a referendum could determine exactly who was supported by the population in the March 28 parliamentary elections," Abashidze said in an interview with Ajarian television.

The deputy chairman of the Yabloko party, Sergei Mitrokhin, and his associates, who were detained in the morning at the State Duma building during a picket, were released from the Tverskoy Court. According to Ekho Moskvy, Mitrokhin himself spoke about this. According to him, the court has so far decided to return the case to the Tver police station, since the event of the offense was poorly described in it. Therefore, already on the agenda, we can again be summoned to court," Mitrokhin said.

On Tuesday, a rescue helicopter crashed in the Canaries, evacuating three tourists from the scene of a bus accident, AlertNet reports. A bus with 50 tourists crashed earlier, a helicopter was supposed to pick up three wounded from the crash site. Rising from the ground, the helicopter hit a live cable and crashed. Everyone on board was killed - three tourists and two crew members. According to the Spanish agency Europa Press, the tourists were Dutch.

Rolandas Paxas. Photo by ar The chairman of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, Egidius, Kuris announced that the court considers the actions of President Rolandas Paxas to contradict the constitution, Interfax reports. The presidential actions were considered at the request of the Sejm, which listed the conclusions of the parliamentary commission for the preparation of impeachment of the president.

The Church is ready to help the Ministry of Education in educating the younger generation, said Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II at the first official meeting with the new Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Andrei Fursenko. According to RIA Novosti, the meeting began at noon at the working residence of the patriarch in Chisty Lane in Moscow.