In the Donetsk region in Ukraine, a fire continues at the Dzerzhinsky mine. Three miners were killed, several people with burns were hospitalized. In total, more than 70 miners are evacuated from the mine.

In Iraq, the UN experts today visited at least nine objects - in search of weapons of mass destruction. Yesterday, the Iraqi authorities expressed their readiness to discuss any issues related to inspections - with the head of the UN Commission on the disarmament of Iraq with Hans Blix and Mohammed El Baradey, director of the IAEA. According to representatives of the UN, both leaders intend to visit Baghdad at the end of the week. Blix and El Baradey put a number of conditions.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met today with the leader of the labor party Amram Mitzna in an attempt to convince him to enter the ruling coalition. The results of the meeting are unknown. Sharon needs coalition partners, since the Bloc of Likud, who won the election, has no absolute majority in parliament. Sharon would like to form a wide -based government, but the MITSNA repeatedly stated that the labor party would not enter the coalition with Likud.

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not exclude that the UN Security Council will soon have the need to adopt a new resolution on Iraq. During negotiations in Moscow with Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Putin specified that the resolution will be required if the UN inspectors do not satisfy the working conditions in Iraq. In response, Berlusconi said that the use of force against the Saddam Hussein regime is inevitable if evidence of Iraq disarmament is not received.

Irina is worthwhile , Rome: Silvio Berlusconi arrived in Russia to talk with Vladimir Putin with a hard mission - to bring the positions of Moscow and Washington on Iraq. A visit to Russia ends a series of diplomatic meetings by Silvio Berlusconi, in the center of which was a possible war against Iraq. Over the past 5 days, the Italian Prime Minister had a meeting in London with the Prime Minister of Great Britain Tony Blair and in Washington with President George Bush.

The situation in Chechnya is the focus of the negotiations that the Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, Jacop -Heisberg de Hoop Cheffer conducts in Moscow. On Tuesday, his meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Igor Ivanov will take place.

"Vladimir Putin appointed Leonid Kuchma as a successor." Under such a heading, the newspaper Kommersant spoke last Thursday about the results of an informal summit of member states of the CIS countries. The point is that the new leader of the Commonwealth was the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. In this regard, the Kyiv newspaper "Day" asked several questions at once. "Why exactly the Ukrainian leader? What goals was pursued by Vladimir Putin, making such an offer to the Ukrainian colleague?

The Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi spoke out for the rapid entry of Russia into the European Union. At a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Berlusconi announced his intention in every possible way to contribute to this process during the chairmanship of Italy in the EU - since the second half of this year. According to Berlusconi, the EU countries and Moscow should be created by the constant advisory body of the EU-Russia.

Georgy Kobaladze , Tbilisi: in Georgia with great excitement, and not only in power structures, but also in society, they were waiting for the next meeting of the UN Security Council, which was supposed to discuss the situation around Abkhazia.

In the Black Sea near the Bosphorus Strait, rescuers discovered the bodies of seven dead sailors from the Russian ship "Sagittarius", which sank this morning. So far, only two out of the fourteen managed to save. There are seven Russian and foreign ships in the area of the death of the ship. All rescue rafts that the Sagittarius had was found empty. A strong storm interferes with the search.

Maryana Torocheshnikova: In the studio guest - Viktor Ilyich Shubin - lawyer of the newspaper Moscow News, a specialist in the field of judicial disputes regarding the protection of honor and dignity. It is about such matters that we intend to talk today. And immediately the question. Victor Ilyich, can we talk about any trends in this area. Who is judging more often, citizens among themselves or citizens and the media?

US President George Bush sent a draft budget for the 2004th financial year to Congress. The deficit laid in it is over three hundred billion dollars. Defense expenses are proposed to increase to $ 380 billion, and to allocate over 36 billion to the new internal security department. The costs of expenses do not include the cost of a possible military operation against Iraq, which, according to officials, can cost more than $ 60 billion.

In the south of Ukraine, due to abundant snowfalls, an emergency remains. In 87 settlements - including the entire peninsula of Crimea - the third day there is no electricity. In Simferopol, Odessa, Zaporozhye, airports are still closed.

The Prime Minister of Turkey may become Record Erdogan, the leader of the ruling party of temperate Islamists. The party won the universal election on November 3, but Erdogan could not lead the office, because he was convicted at one time for inciting religious enmity. After the parliament accepted the appropriate amendment to the Constitution, the only obstacle remained on Erdogan to power - only a parliamentary deputy can lead the office.

US Secretary of State Paulin Powell will present irrefutable evidence for the UN Security Council this week that Iraq is hiding prohibited weapons from inspectors. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency - Mohammed El Baradey - said that the patience of the world community is drying out, and again called on Baghdad to actively cooperate with the UN experts. The Iraqi leadership continues to deny that it has a weapon of mass destruction.