Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who is accused of nine kidnappings and murder, was allowed to bail on Wednesday. The Santiago Court of Appeal set bail at $3,500. In addition, the judges rejected the Argentine judge's request to lift Pinochet's immunity in order to interrogate him in the 1974 Argentine assassination attempt on the dictator's predecessor.

The Paris Club of creditor countries on Wednesday reached an agreement to freeze debt payments by countries affected by the tsunami. This was announced by club president Jean-Pierre Jouyet, reports Reuters. "The suspension (of payments - Ed.) takes effect immediately," Jouyet said at a press conference following the meeting. The Club's proposal is addressed to all countries affected by natural disasters.

On Thursday, the Moscow City Court left Finance Ministry official Denis Mikhailov in custody, accused of disclosing state secrets and taking a large bribe. Thus, the court rejected the cassation appeal of Mikhailov's lawyers, who asked the higher authority to change the measure of restraint to any other, not related to deprivation of liberty.

The lawyer of Zara Murtazaliyeva, who is accused of preparing a series of terrorist attacks in Moscow, asked the court to appoint a psychological examination for her client, RIA Novosti reports. "On Wednesday, during the court session, we filed a petition for a full comprehensive inpatient psychological and psychiatric examination of Murtazaliyeva," said lawyer Zoya Usmanova, who represents the interests of the defendant.

Basaev and Mashadov. Photo from the website ld.mil.ru The veteran of the Chechen war, ensign Gennady Uminsky is going to file a lawsuit against the government of Ichkeria, the newspaper reports. To this, a contract fighter prompted the decision of the Oryol Regional Court, which canceled the decision of the district court on compensation.

In Vietnam on Thursday, doctors confirmed information about the fourth case in the last month (and the 24th since the outbreak in the country) human death from bird flu, RIA Novosti reports. A new victim of "bird flu" was an 18-year-old resident of Hauzyang province, who died in Can Tho city hospital on January 10.

US authorities have banned the landing of a British Airways plane carrying a man suspected of involvement in terrorism. One of the passengers on the London - New York flight, upon check-in, presented documents in the name of a person allegedly included in the Moroccan terrorist organization, Reuters reports citing a representative of the US authorities. A US Department of Homeland Security official said the passenger was on Flight #175 from Heathrow Airport.

The inspection point. Photo from the site of Autogazet.com In Moscow, an experiment will begin to attract private vehicles and car services to instrumental state technical inspection. The order was signed by the mayor of the city Yuri Luzhkov. According to Avtarvert, the experiment will last six months.

The merger between Gazprom and Rosneft will be completed no earlier than March 2005. This, according to Vedomosti, was stated by the head of the Federal Property Management Agency Valery Nazarov. According to him, "the best time for the merger will be the first quarter of 2005." Officials have repeatedly stated in the past that the Gazprom-Rosneft merger is planned to be completed in January 2005.

Zara Murtazalieva. Photo "newspapers" “For the third time I am flying Moscow -Odessa,” the familiar voice of Vladimir Semenovich sounds from the boombox. Then a few buttons presses, and again Vysotsky. Judge Komarova blushed and seems to be ready to burst into laughter. The prosecutor of Safin, who presses the buttons, is completely serious. She is looking for what the investigation was called "songs of extremist content", which was listened to by the 21-year-old Chechenka Zara Murtazalieva.

Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Mykola Golomsha said on Wednesday that he had been fired for refusing to open a criminal case against Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko. It is reported by ProUA.com with reference to Interfax-Ukraine. “A conflict broke out between us on the grounds that on November 25 Vasilyev (Procurator General - Ed.) gave me the command to initiate a criminal case against Yushchenko and Tymoshenko for seizing state power,” Golomsha said.

77 workers of the Ivdel hydrolysis plant in the Sverdlovsk region, who were protesting against wage arrears accumulated since 2002, on Thursday night ended the hunger strike that began on Monday. Viktor Poglazov, head of the plant's CHP shift, told ITAR-TASS that the action was terminated due to the fact that the workers were given the promised money. They were brought on Wednesday at 22.00 local time, and by one in the morning they were distributed.

OTRK '' Iskander ''. Photo from the site '' rocket technique '' The United States warns Russia against weapons to Syria. Such a statement was made on Wednesday, the official representative of the State Department Richard Bucher, AFP reports, in connection with the reports of the intention of Moscow to put the Iskander missile (SS-26).

Leonid Nevzlin, the new largest shareholder of the Menatep Group, intends to act in the interests of all co-owners of Yukos, using the most effective mechanisms to protect them. This is stated in a special statement by Nevzlin, which is quoted by Ekho Moskvy. Former head of Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky , announced in court Wednesday that he had transferred all of his 60% stake in Menatep to Leonid Nevzlin, fully switching over to building civil society in Russia.

The Central Election Commission of Abkhazia recognized the elections of the President of the Republic as valid. This was stated at a briefing in Sukhumi on Wednesday evening by the head of the CEC, Batal Tapagua. According to him, 55.28% of voters of the unrecognized republic, or more than 68,000 people, took part in the elections, IA REGNUM reports. Tapagua said the commission has not yet received any complaints about electoral irregularities from presidential candidates.