The United States bought five portable anti -aircraft missile systems "Stinger" from the Taliban in the vicinity of Kandagar, paying $ 1,000,000 for each of them. This newspaper The Boston Globe was reported by two informed sources from among the American military. Thus, the United States strives to ensure the safety of American military helicopters and transport aircraft landing at Kandahar airport.

The United States intends to seriously fix its military presence in Central Asia. This is written on Friday by the USA Today newspaper. Next week, American aircraft will begin to arrive at the air base under construction in Kyrgyzstan, and this will be the first obvious evidence of the United States’s intentions to linger in the region and after the end of the Afghan campaign, the publication reports with reference to the high -ranking Pentagon.

There are no disagreements between the US and Russia about the situation in Chechnya. About this, as reports "Echo of Moscow", said the official representative of the State Department Richard Bucher. According to him, the American administration supports the approach of the Russian government to solve the Chechen problem, which is that, along with the destruction of militants and terrorists, to achieve the settlement of the situation in a political way.

The strike of banking workers in India is far from the same as protests in Europe . The Air Force reports that more than 600 thousand (!) Working in the country's banking sector are striking. The reason was the decision of the largest bank of the country of Standard Chartered about the change of work of 30 managers.

Belgian coins of the euro more often falls up. Two Polish mathematicians came to this conclusion. Tomash Glishzhitsky and Vaclav Zavadovsky conducted a study during which it turned out that one side of the Belgian euro is heavier than the other. The blame of the Belgian king Albert II, depicted on the front side of the coins, is too convex. By imitating the Rosencrantz and Guildenster, scientists threw a coin 250 times with a dignity of 1 euro. In 140 cases, she fell upward.

In the Voronezh region - a flash of hemorrhagic fever . After the celebration of the New Year, residents of several villages of the Verkhnekhavsky district began to contact doctors with complaints of severe headache. The assumption that all those who applied for medical help suffer from a hangover syndrome immediately discarded the doctors. In many, a hemorrhagic fever was found, usually distributed by rodents.

In Moscow, employees of the operational-search bureau of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District in Moscow detained a killer, Interfax reports. It is assumed that he is related to attempts on large entrepreneurs. The 38-year-old Stanislav S., whose last name was not disclosed in the interests of the investigation, was detained on December 29, 2001, but until now the information about his arrest was kept secret.

The first batch of 10 Russian T-90 tanks was delivered to India. As RIA Novosti reports with reference to sources in the Ministry of Defense of India, 310 such tanks will be delivered to the country in accordance with the agreement reached last year. In addition, India will be provided with a license and technical documentation for production in the country T-90.

In the end year, growth rates in the Russian stock market turned out to be the highest in the world. During the year, the RTS index increased by 60%. Economic growth exceeded 5%. On Wednesday, responding to optimism in the market, the rating agency "Standard and Poor's" increased the long -term local and external currency credit ratings with B to+ and revised the forecast from stable to positive.

A passenger located in the back seat of a car and not fastened with seat belts, in an accident becomes the main source of danger to the driver and the front passenger. This conclusion was reached by scientists from the University of Tokyo . They conducted a truly grandiose study, analyzing 100 thousand car accidents. It turned out that if the rear passenger ignored the seat belt, then the risk sitting in front of him to die during the accident increases five times.

The Office of the Federal Security Service for the Penza Region is going to monitor the development of internal contradictions among the Muslim associations of the region in 2002. This was stated by the head of the Department of Major General Alexander Grishin at a press conference held in Penza on December 19, the Blagovers-info agency reports.

January 3 at 20:40 In one of the houses on Talalikhin Street, Pervomaisky district of Vladivostok, a family drama was played, reports "Duta. RU" . For so far the reason, the husband strongly quarreled with his wife. During a quarrel, the woman jumped out to the neighbor and called the police officers to calm the raging wife. However, after that she had to return to the apartment, as their seven -year -old child was there.

Former representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization Javid al-Hosein, accused by the Arafat of assigning $ 7 million from the Palestinian National Fund, was stolen from the hospital in Cairo, where he was treated with liver cancer. This was reported to journalists by his wife, reports Mignews.com .

In Moscow this winter, more than 280 people died from the cold, but these are victims of not only terrible frosts. 14 people died only in the first three days of the new year. Hundreds of people were forced to consult doctors about frostbite. The noise around this is not raised. As a rule, victims are alcoholics or people “without a specific place of residence”, that is, homeless people, those that few people recall during life.

In one of the prisons in the south of Mexico, the rebellion of prisoners began, Gazeta.ru reports with reference to the France-Presse agency . According to local authorities, the rebellion was raised by convicts in the prison of the city of Tapachul, Chiapas on the border with Guatemala. According to preliminary data, at least a thousand prisoners take part in the uprising. Relatives of prisoners and activists of local human rights organizations gathered at the entrance to the prison.