A senior Palestinian representative Saab Erekat said that his today's negotiations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel Shimon Perez were ended to no avail. According to Erekat, the parties could not even agree on the next meeting. The Palestinian side unsuccessfully tried to achieve from Israel to remove the blockade of the western coast of the Jordan and the Gaza sector.

US Minister of Justice John Ashcroft stated the need to improve American legislation - for a successful struggle against terrorism. He expressed satisfaction that the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress is completing work on a bill designed to help in the work of American law enforcement agencies. In particular, it will be easier for them to obtain permission from the judicial authorities to establish monitoring of persons suspected of terrorist activities.

In Kyiv, the heads of government of Russia and Ukraine Mikhail Kasyanov and Anatoly Kinhin signed an agreement on the restructuring of Ukrainian duty for the supply of Russian gas. The debt size is one billion four hundred million dollars. In accordance with the agreement, it will be repaid for 12 years. A three -year grace period is provided.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze expressed decisive support for a military operation against international terrorism. Speaking at Harvard University, Shevardnadze said that the world community is unlikely to avoid the use of force. This week, Tbilisi allowed the US aircraft to use the airspace of Georgia for an anti -terrorist operation. Shevardnadze supported Washington's plans to create a new missile defense system.

British experts in human genetics first proved the existence of a local area of hereditary information directly related to the development of speech abilities and language knowledge. Professor Anthony Monaco and his colleagues performed a detailed analysis of the chromosomal structures of representatives of three generations of blood relatives suffering from a rare speech defect. As a result, scientists were convinced that this defect is explained by the mutation of a single gene known as Foxp2.

The Minister of Defense of Iran Ali Shamhani, who is on a visit to Russia, is today arriving in St. Petersburg. Here he will visit, in particular, the North Verf shipbuilding plant and discuss the possibility of building warships for Iran. On Tuesday, the defense ministers of Russia and Iran Sergey Ivanov and Ali Shamhani signed an agreement on military-technical cooperation in Moscow.

One person died as a result of a powerful hurricane, which fell into the South Kurilsky district of the Sakhalin Region. According to the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia, in less than a day in Yuzhno-Kurilsk, half of the monthly precipitation fell. On the island of Shikotan, the wind speed reached 37 meters per second. Several kilometers of high -voltage lines were destroyed, the roofs of about two dozen houses were torn. Recovery work is underway.

Vladimir Morozov, New York: Possible military actions in Afghanistan - this topic does not leave the screens of American TVs. They are watched with special attention today - 20 thousand former Afghans live in the New York district of Kuins. The area is full of immigrants from Pakistan, India, Iran, Bangladesh. It is not easy to find Afghans among them. I go at random in Bachelor on the corner of the 73rd streets and Maine.

The Russian government will allocate 102 and a half million rubles and 400 thousand dollars to finance the supply of humanitarian assistance to the population of Afghanistan. This was announced today in Moscow by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin. In Dushanbe, the fourth plane of the Russian Emergencies Ministry with a load of food and tents arrived in Dushanbe for residents of the northern provinces of Afghanistan.

British journalist Ivonna Ridley, detained last week in Afghanistan, will appear before the Islamic court on charges of "violation of the laws of the country." The representative of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Abdurrahman Zahid, said today that the investigation in the case of a journalist was ongoing. Ridley - a correspondent of the British newspaper "Sandy Express" - and two Afghan conductors were arrested in the area of the city of Jalalabad in the east of Afghanistan.

In Moscow, the second day continues the shares of the left opposition, dedicated to the eighth anniversary of the 1993 October events. About 2 thousand people took part in the organized commander in the Communist Party at the metro station of the 1905 metro station. Then the Manifestants headed to the government of the government, next to which the memorial to those killed in October 1993 is located.

US Secretary of Defense Donald Ramsfeld continues a trip to the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia. Today he holds negotiations in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Yesterday, in negotiations with the leadership of Saudi Arabia, Donald Ramsfeld did not make an official request to use military bases in this country for a possible anti -terrorist operation.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that the Air Defense Forces of Ukraine were not involved in the disaster of the Russian Tu-154 airliner over the Black Sea.

Pakistan considers the evidence of the involvement of Bin Laden’s involvement in the US terrorist attacks “convincing” to Washington. According to the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, the results of the investigation are enough to attract bin Laden to the court. The Pakistani authorities said that they do not intend to introduce the Taliban movement ruling in Afghanistan to the information transferred by him by the United States.

Hundreds of thousands of children can die from hunger and cold this winter in Afghanistan, if new large batches of humanitarian aid are not sent there in the near future. This was stated today by Nigel Fisher, a special representative of the UN children's fund (UNICEF) in Afghanistan.