Two people died as a result of an explosion in the city of Rafach, located in the south of the Gaza sector. A car, parked near the house used as the base of Palestinian militants, took off into the air. The causes of the explosion have not yet been established, but the witnesses report that they heard the sound of rotation of the helicopter blades. Perhaps we are talking about the next action of the point destruction of Palestinian terrorists.

Traces of fatal venom of ricin were found in jars with baby food by Gerber Products in the California city of Irwin. On Wednesday, the official representative of the FBI Laura Eimiller confirmed the fact of an investigation of two cases of intentional infection of food products. She refused to inform how much ricin was discovered and how many packages with baby food were infected. In Washington, representatives of the FBI rejected the assumption that we are talking about mass food infection.

In Tatarstan, they hope that until the end of August, a list of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God will return from the Vatican to their homeland. This was announced today in an interview with Interfax agency President of the Republic Mintimer Shaimiev. He recalled that the icon was in Kazan from the 16th century until 1904, after which she disappeared and was subsequently discovered in the Vatican.

Ukraine began negotiations with the United States and Poland on the deadlines for the stay of the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent in Iraq. This was announced on Thursday at a press conference by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Yevgeny Marchuk. "With our partners - both the Poles and the USA - we started negotiations that we need to determine the time. We cannot be there for a long time, without determining the time," Marschuk said.

Terrorists from the so -called Islamic Army Iraq executed two Pakistani hostages captured last Friday. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the Qatari satellite television channel Al-Jazeera.

In the afternoon, the Ford-Escort was found on the parking lot of the St. Petersburg hotel on Wednesday, owned by the missing journalist Maxim Maksimov , on Wednesday. According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, the car was identified by a former police officer who remembered the car number from media reports.

The state structure and defense system of Israel are the subject of imitation for Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters at the end of the meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "For us, Israel is an example to imitate in terms of state system, military system and national security system," the President of Georgia said. He emphasized that Georgia has to go through a difficult path of state construction.

The Islamist group "Brigade of Abu Hafs Al-Masri", which declares its connections with the Al-Caida terrorist network, threatens a wave of violence of European countries. The terrorists chose the first goal for their blow to the Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi. "We will make the cities of Europe tremble and start with you, Berlusconi. We will do it bloody until you return on a direct road," the group said in one of the Islamist sites.

On Thursday, the Olympic village opened in Athens on Thursday, which the first athletes of the upcoming games have already begun to settle. The modest opening ceremony was held in the Olympic village with the participation of representatives of the Athena-2004 organizing committee and officials of the International Olympic Committee, RIA Novosti reports. “Greece coped with this task.

The budget of the training program for Russian national teams for the 2004 Olympics amounted to $ 109 million. According to RIA Novosti, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (OKR) Leonid Tyagachev announced a press conference on Thursday. "Of this money, the okr spent $ 9 million, and $ 100 million was allocated from the state budget," Teragachev explained.

In Moscow, a rally of protest is held on the Revolution Square against the bill on replacing benefits with monetary compensation. According to the police, about 3 thousand people gathered in the square. The organizer of the rally was the Russian Union of Chernobyl, however, representatives of other organizations and parties came to the rally. In particular, the protesters hold the flags of the Communist Party, LDPR, Yabloko, ATP and others, Interfax reports.

General Svyatoslav Nabzdorov leaves the post of commander of mixed forces to maintain the world (SSPM) in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. The general himself announced this on Thursday "Interfax." According to Nabzdorov, the planned replacement is prepared, and most likely will take place within a month. The new commander will probably become the commander of the 19th division, deployed in North Ossetia, Marat Kulakhametov.

In Chechnya, on Wednesday, there was a clash of police officers with militants. During the battle, three police officers died and five were injured. This was announced on Thursday by a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic. He said that at noon in various parts of the city with bandits opened firing from automatic weapons. At the same time, two employees of the Argun city department of internal affairs were injured.

The shares of the NC Yukos sharply rose immediately after the start of trading on Thursday. According to Interfax, on the Moscow Interbank Monetary Exchange in the first 7 minutes of trading, Yukos increased in price by 12% - to 93 rubles per share. On Wednesday, after a sharp drop in the trading, Yukos shares were suspended, but today the auction is held as usual, MICEX reports with reference to the relevant resolution of the Federal Financial Market Service.

The head of the world -famous fashion house Donatella Versace has been in a specialized clinic in the United States for almost a month in connection with problems caused by the use of narcotic substances. It became known to journalists from informed sources in Milan.