The Georgian government approved the draft Decree of President Eduard Shevardnadze on the protection of the rights of representatives of religious minorities, Interfax reports. E.

The Jewish religious association of Belarus appealed to the State Committee for Religious and Nationalities of the Republic with a request to petition the National Bank for the release of a memorable coin for the 200th anniversary of the Volozhinsky Yeshiva. As the President of the Association Yuri Dorn told the Blagovet-Info agency, it is planned that the coin will be cast from the 925th silver, about 39 mm in diameter, in the amount of 5 thousand pieces.

More than 100 works of the famous French artist Henri Matisse and other 20th century painters were transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York . This donation was one of the most significant acts of giving the museum over the past 50 years, said the official representative of Metropolitan Museum of Art Harold Holzer.

Since the end of September 2000, when a crisis erupted, the coordinator of the government in the administration of territories, using a simplified scheme, allowed to import into areas that are controlled by the Palestinian administration, more than 1000 cargoes with donations from international charitable organizations and from individual countries.

As part of the All -Russian Congress of Forestry on February 26, by decision of the meeting participants, a coordination council was formed on the interaction of the State Forest Service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia and the forestry complex.

The police of the capital of California Sacramento are looking for a cyclist who attacks women. According to police officers, a cyclist, passing through the deserted areas of the city, searches for passers -by women and beats them in the face. Four similar incidents have already been recorded. One of the victims told the police that the criminal acted so rapidly that she did not manage to use the gas spray she had.

The carpentry workshops burned on the territory of the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow as a result of a fire that occurred on Thursday morning. Sources in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the capital reported that the fire in the monastery, located on peasant squares, broke out at about 9:40. Its area was approximately 500 square meters. meters. 20 fire crews were sent to the scene. Firefighters took measures so that the flame would not spread to a nearby gas station.

The UN Security Council today began closed consultations on the project of the Anglo-American resolution on Iraq. Voting on it is expected no earlier than mid -March, after the next quarterly report on the work of inspectors in Iraq is submitted to the SB. The draft resolution, introduced on Monday of the United States, Great Britain and Spain, states that "Iraq did not take advantage of the 1441 resolution granted to him by the last opportunity to" disassemble and thereby avoid war.

The Hague Tribunal sentenced the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs to Bilyan Plashich to 11 years in prison. The tribunal found Plashich, guilty of crimes against humanity. From the general term of imprisonment, 285 days that Plashchch spent in prison during the investigation will be deducted.

The deadly AIDS epidemic and the falling rate of birth rate prompted the UN demographers to reduce their forecast of the Earth’s population by 2050 from 9.3 to 8.9 billion people. Now 6.3 billion people live on Earth. The authors of the forecast prepared by the Department of Economic and Social issues of the UN Secretariat, argue that in the coming decades the birth rate in most developing countries will fall below 2.1 children per woman below.

In Moscow, thieves penetrated the apartment under the pretext of distributing gifts to the International Women's Day on March 8. According to law enforcement sources reported on Thursday, a 23-year-old Muscovite turned to the police on the eve of the police. The girl said that in the afternoon, when a grandmother was in her apartment on Solnechnogorskaya Street, born in 1924, two unknown people called the door.

The DPRK brought its nuclear reactor to the work mode in the town of Enben, located 100 km from Pyongyan. This was announced on Wednesday evening by a representative of the US administration. According to him, the launch of the reactor has occurred in the last 24 hours. We are talking about a 5 megavatt of an essential reactor, which was frozen in 1994 by agreement with the United States.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Thursday was hospitalized with a diagnosis of flu, Interfax reports with reference to the Department of Government Information. The department explained that usually in the absence of the prime minister, the government meeting is held by Deputy Prime Ministers Viktor Khristenko or Alexei Kudrin. Since Khristenko is now on vacation, the meeting will be held by Alexei Kudrin.

Two military personnel were killed, three were hospitalized with various wounds, as a result of the incident at the Pondboa training ground near Volgograd. According to ITAR-TASS in the commandant’s office of the Volgograd garrison, a mortar exploded during educational shooting. At about 12:30 Moscow time during company tactical exercises with combat firing, which were carried out in one of the parts of the 20th motorized rifle division, a mine exploded in the barrel of the mortar.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to prepare for war and dig trenches to create reliable shelters in case of the start of American bombing. Hussein announced this the day before during a meeting with 18 governors of the Iraqi provinces. “Tell people,” he turned to the governors, “so that they dig trenches and take refuge in them during air raids.” According to him, Iraq does not want a war, but he should prepare for the worst scena, RIA Novosti reports.