On Wednesday, January 3, in the morning, Israeli artillery opened fire on some areas in southern Lebanon. BBC News reports this with reference to Israeli state radio. The shelling of Lebanese territory began after Israeli army positions in this area came under mortar fire from Lebanon. According to the Israeli military, the mortar fire was carried out by militants from the Hezbollah group, the Associated Press reports.

In Belarus, Father Frost was killed on New Year's Eve. The corpse of a man dressed as this fairy-tale character was found on the morning of January 1 in one of the settlements of the Smorgon district of the Grodno region. As Interfax was told in the press center of the regional police department, the man died from a stab wound to the heart. According to the Belarusian Ministry of Emergency Situations, between December 31 and January 2, 107 fires occurred in the country, in which 20 people died.

According to polls conducted on leading news servers on the Israeli Internet, the right-wing candidate in the upcoming February 6 elections, leader of the Likud bloc Ariel Sharon, is far ahead of the current head of government, Ehud Barak. In a survey currently taking place on the server of the daily newspaper Maariv, 58% of respondents reported their intention to vote for Sharon. Only 37% of respondents plan to support Barack.

US President Bill Clinton's second meeting in a day with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ended in Washington. It turned out to be half as long as the first one and lasted only about an hour, CNN reports. Both sides did not comment on the outcome of the negotiations. The parties are discussing the details of the proposal, with the help of which the US President hopes to revive the stalled peace process in the Middle East.

American banks Chase Manhattan Corp. and JPMorgan & Co. completed the merger and began operating as JPMorgan Chase & Co. on January 2, 2001. Associated Press reports. The new bank has total assets of $705 billion, more than Bank of America Corp. Bank of America had assets of $679.5 billion as of June 30, 2000. Thus, the new bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. became second in the United States after Citigroup Inc., whose assets as of mid-2000 were estimated at $792 billion.

In the Ulyanovsk region, three law enforcement officers were convicted of bribery. As reported to RIA Novosti in the press service of the regional police department, under investigation were a specialist from the operational service department of the Federal Tax Service for the Ulyanovsk Region Valery Makarov, a senior detective of the Organized Crime Control Department, police major Dmitry Malyshev, and a senior detective of the Federal Security Service, Major Alexander Burdin.

On Wednesday, a federal forces Ural was blown up by a wire-controlled landmine in the center of Grozny. Two soldiers were wounded, but continued to fire back at the militants until reinforcements arrived. ITAR-TASS reports this with reference to the press service of the United Group of Forces in the North Caucasus. The emergency occurred on Lenin Avenue between the bridge over the Sunzha and the former Dudayev palace. The wounded were taken to the hospital, where they received medical care.

On Wednesday, January 3, a train accident occurred in southeastern Spain. According to Reuters, at least 13 people were killed in this disaster and more than 15 were injured of varying degrees of severity. All the dead were immigrants from Ecuador who worked on one of the local farms. The disaster occurred early in the morning near the city of Lorca. On the Aguilas - Lorca section, a passenger train collided with a van.

In the USA, two twin brothers were born with a difference of 8 minutes, during which one millennium managed to give way to another, reports the UPI agency. Twin brothers Aaron and Luke Hegenberger from Weymouth, Massachusetts, were born on the night of December 31 to January 1 at the local South Shore Hospital. Their parents expected them to be born only in February, but on the last day of the outgoing year, the mother went into labor and was taken to the hospital.

Indle King, 39, was arrested on charges of murdering his Russian wife, whom he met through a marriage agency that provided American grooms with the addresses of Russian brides, the English newspaper The Times reports. The dismembered body of 20-year-old Anastasia Solovyova-King, who disappeared in September 2000, was found in a forest in northeastern Washington state. An anonymous person reported the location of the body to the police by phone.

On Wednesday, January 3, an explosion occurred at the representative office of the Israeli airline El Al in Zurich. As Zurich police told Reuters, no one was injured in the explosion and minor damage was caused to the office premises. According to the Jerusalem Post, the office resumed receiving visitors that same morning. The Revolutionary Perspective group took responsibility for this action.

Inflation in Russia at the end of 2000 amounted to 20.2 percent, reports the Financial Information Agency, citing a source in the Ministry of Finance. This is a good indicator, which almost completely corresponds to the government’s forecasts, said a representative of the financial department. Let us recall that in the 2000 budget the inflation rate was set at 18 percent.

On Wednesday, January 3, Israeli troops fired at a Palestinian security post near the city of Ramallah from tank guns, Reuters reports. As the Israeli military told reporters, the shelling of the post began after Israeli soldiers were fired upon by Palestinian police. According to the Palestinian side, the Israelis fired at least four shells. At least one police officer was wounded in the shooting. Local residents quickly leave their homes.

The first trading on Wall Street in the new millennium ended on January 2 with a drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) by 140.70 points (1.3%). The Dow stopped at 10,646.15 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.8% (37.01 points) to 1,283.27. The greatest trading activity was observed in shares of General Electrics, which fell in price by 8.74%. The fall in shares of this corporation is associated with press reports about defects in the jet engines that it produces.

The stock indicator of the Russian Trading System and the RTS-Interfax composite indices (RUX) by 17:00 on Wednesday, January 3, fell to their lowest values ​​since the end of December 1999. The fall in the Russian index followed a sharp decline in the American Nasdaq stock index (the indicator fell by more than 7 percent on Tuesday).