The oral message of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin was today transferred to the President of Egypt Hosni Mubaraku, the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Russia Evgeny Primakov. "This message emphasizes that Egypt is a central partner and ally of Russia in the Middle East," Primakov said. "The Russian leader noted the desire of Russia to develop ties with Egypt in various fields.

Several strong explosions were heard on Monday evening in the center of Baghdad, reports Reuters. After that, in the area of ​​the "Green Zone", where the American administration is located, sirens sounded. “Everything is in the shelter, everything is in the shelter,” came the voice from the loudspeakers above the “green zone”. Recently, the residence of the Americans on the western bank of the Tiger is regularly subjected to mortar and missile fire.

In the Zhambyl region of Kazakhstan, as a result of a major accident that occurred on Sunday evening, seven people were killed. The incident occurred on the 548th kilometer of the Alma-Ata-Tashkent highway. The KamAZ car collided with the VAZ-2106 car. As a result, the driver of the car and all its passengers were killed, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the press service of the Kazakh Emergency Agency. Among the dead-a boy aged 5-7, said in the press service.

The oldest robber of banks in the USA, 92-year-old J. L. Hunter Rountry, will be punished for a period of 12 years after he pleaded guilty of robbing a bank in Texas and abduction of $ 1999 in August 2003. Rountry said on the process that he first went to robbery when he was 80, as he wanted to take revenge on the banks for his personal financial collapse, which he then suffered. Rountry was sentenced to 151 months of prison. There he will be under the constant supervision of doctors.

The Islamic Hamas resistance movement is ready to conclude a 10-year-old truce with Israel if he returned to the 1967 borders, one of the leaders of the movement of Abdel Aziz Ar-Eranti said on Monday. "We agree to create a Palestinian state on the western bank of the Jordan and in the gas sector and accept the phased liberation of our lands. We offer a 10-year truce in exchange for the withdrawal of troops and settlements," Ar-Atisi announced.

Today there are 415 years since the patriarchate was introduced in Rus'. In connection with this date, the Interfax agency spread a historical certificate, which refers to the role of this institute in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church). The introduction of the patriarchate in Rus' dates back to 1589.

In the German city of Gelsenkirchen, a double murder occurred on Monday on Monday. According to the German news television channel N-Tfau, the 59-year-old killer shot two men here. According to the representative of the local police, the criminal fired at his victims immediately after the end of the morning prayer. Then he calmly left the premises of the mosque. According to the DPA agency, one victim is 48 years old, the other man is older.

The Brazilians celebrated the 450th anniversary of the third largest city in the country of San Paulo, eating a giant cake. The giant cake was baked in honor of the Jesuits, who founded San Paulo in 1554. Its weight was 8 thousand kg, and the length was 450 m, AP reports. In order to deal with this miracle of cooking, the inhabitants of the city took only a few minutes.

Russia and Europe are beginning to a joint experiment "Matryoshka-R", within the framework of which the data necessary for the manned flight to Mars will be obtained. Two mannequins filled with detectors will be set at the ISS. They will determine the doses of radiation that receive vital human organs during a long stay in space. This was told by ITAR-TASS by the head of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems (IMBM) of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladislav Petrov.

In Moscow, unknown criminals shot two immigrants from Azerbaijan. According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, the police received information about shots in the Chertanovo-Yuzhnoye microdistrict. The police officers who arrived at the place discovered a Mercedes car on the house of the Podolsk cadets near the house of N2, and near it were the corpses of two men.

The euro fell significantly at the auction in Russia on Monday. The weighted average of the unified currency during trading on the MICEX decreased by 69.59 kopecks compared to the result of previous morning trading and amounted to 35.7652 rubles. The price of the last transaction amounted to 35.78 rubles per euro, and earlier a transaction was concluded 35.735 rubles. In total, 157 transactions in the amount of 4.4 million euros were enclosed on the ETS.

The General Prosecutor's Office of Russia completed a preliminary investigation in a criminal case against an employee of the Security Service of the NK Yukos Alexei Pichugin. About Tom was reported to Interfax on Monday in the management of information and public relations of the Prosecutor General. "Pichugin is accused of a number of crimes, including the organization of murder, attempted murder and threat of murder," said the representative of the Prosecutor General.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Monday in the Kremlin with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. During the meeting, Powell and Putin discussed a number of issues devoted to the relations of the two countries, Interfax reports. Vladimir Putin said that Russia will pursue a stable and predictable policy against the United States.

By the five years of imprisonment with a general regime colony, the former lieutenant of the Ministry of Security of Tajikistan Farskhod Rakhmatov was sentenced by the Dushanbin Garrison Court. According to the garrison court, Rakhmatov was an employee of the security department of diplomatic missions of the Ministry of Security of the Republic.

Toyota replaced Ford from second place in the global automobile market. On Monday, the largest Japanese Corporation Toyota Motor will submit final data on its sales in 2003. According to preliminary data published on Friday, last year Toyota sold 6.78 million vehicles on the world market. This is 9.9% more than in 2002 and 600 thousand more than that of the Ford Motor traditionally in second place.