Cypriot President Thassos Papadopoulos rejected a UN peace plan to unify the island proposed by Secretary General Kofi Annan. According to RIA Novosti, Papadopoulos called on the citizens of Cyprus to vote against the UN plan, which implies the confederal autonomy of the two communities of the island - Greek and Turkish - while maintaining a single representation of Cyprus in the international arena. "Greek Cypriot people, I urge you to reject Annan's plan!" Papadopoulos said.

Favorable foreign economic conditions significantly distort the idea of ​​the real state of the Russian economy, says Andrey Illarionov, economic adviser to the president. According to him, "GDP growth in 2003 amounted to 7.3% in real terms, while the share of the external economic factor was at the level of 9.6%. The economist called this figure a "gift for our country," PRIME-TASS reports. "We have been living with a budget surplus for four years.

On Wednesday, the provisional coalition administration of Iraq released Abo Ganizhev, head of the representative office of the Russian company Interrosagro, from arrest.

From June 1 to June 15, Sochi will host the XV-th Russian and XI-th International festival "Kinotavr". According to RIA Novosti, the competition program of the Russian part of the festival includes such films as Andrey Proshkin's "Moth Games", Vladimir Khotinenko's "72 Meters", Vladimir Mashkov's "Papa", Karen Shakhnazarov's "The Horseman Called Death".

On Thursday morning, 6 explosions thundered in Baghdad, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera. According to him, the explosions took place in Haifa Square in the center of the Iraqi capital. Data on the victims and injured is not yet available. Later, Reuters, citing the coalition command, reported new "uncontrolled" explosions.

The director of Fallujah's main hospital, Tahir al-Isawi, says 280 Iraqis have been killed in the city since last weekend and about 400 more have been injured. AR reports. The city has been blockaded by US Marines after the brutal killing of four US contractors, and has been a massive military operation since Wednesday. The head physician does not rule out that the death toll could be much higher.

Moscow hopes to reach agreements with Georgia on the timing of the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgian territory. This was stated on Thursday by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko at a press conference at RIA Novosti. According to him, there have been eight rounds of negotiations, the last one took place in November. The negotiations, Yakovenko assured, would be continued.

The Moscow City Court announced a break until April 12 in the trial of the terrorist attack near the McDonald's in the south-west of Moscow. This was reported to RIA Novosti by the lawyer of one of the defendants, Zoya Usmanova. According to her, on Monday the debate of the parties will continue in court and the lawyers of the defendants in the case will express their position before the court. "I will insist on the full acquittal of my client Akhyad Mezhiev," the lawyer said.

Commander of the Group of Russian Forces in Transcaucasia, Major General Alexander Studenikin, has returned to his duties, Gazeta.ru reports with reference to Interfax. The representative of the headquarters of the GRVZ explained that Studenikin had recovered from a wound received on Tuesday evening during the assassination attempt.

In St. Petersburg, 2 sailors from Turkey were hospitalized with stab wounds, . Gazeta news feed reports with reference to Interfax In one of the bars of the city on Thursday night they were attacked by an unknown person. HE stabbed them several times with a knife. The circumstances of the attack are currently under investigation. An operational-investigative group is working at the scene of the incident. The victims are in critical condition.

On Wednesday morning, a Mi-8 helicopter of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation crashed in the Chita region. As a result, one person died and ten more were injured. This was reported to Interfax on Thursday by the press service of the military prosecutor's office of the Siberian Military District (SibVO). Of the ten injured, nine received minor injuries. The Mi-8 was on a training flight as part of a personnel training program.

In Iraq on Wednesday late in the evening near the camp of the Japanese military, located near the city of Es-Samava, three explosions thundered. As a result, no one was hurt. This was reported to Reuters by a spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry. According to Kyodo, the approaches to the Japanese camp are blocked by the US military. Japan's grouping in Iraq consists of 550 infantrymen. They perform non-combat missions related to the reconstruction of Iraq.

The government approved the Finance Ministry's proposals to reduce the unified social tax (UST) and increase taxation of the oil industry through export duties and the mineral extraction tax (MET), Finance Minister Kudrin said after a government meeting. The change in taxes will take place from 2005, while new export duties may come into force as early as 2004 after the adoption of the relevant bill, reports Reuters.

Mosenergo announced its intention to turn off electricity in the houses of the DON-Stroy company for debts, REGNUM news agency reports . Moscow power engineers claim that the debts of OAO DON-Stroy for the supplied thermal energy have reached 13 million rubles. The last time DON-Stroy paid a fee was in February 2004 for the energy supplied back in December last.

The interests of people affected by the pogrom in the Volgograd market are ready to be represented by a lawyer, an employee of the Institute of Human Rights Alexander Fedulov. According to Graney.ru's correspondent, leaders of three Russian human rights organizations defending the rights of Muslims in Russia announced this at a press conference on Thursday entitled Human Rights Defenders Against Nationalism and Pogroms.