* A representative of the Emergency Situations Ministry said a toxic slick in the Amur River would reach the Russian city of Khabarovsk on December 21
* The Russian ambassador to North Korea said the local authorities had promised to make a decision on a Russian ship detained in its waters since December 5 in the next few days
* A senior member of the local legislature said the deputy speaker of Chechnya's new parliament, Sultan Bilikhmanov, was recovering in hospital after a traffic accident at the weekend
* A local official said tests taken in the Amur River had shown that the level of potentially lethal benzene in the water after an industrial accident in China was falling steadily
* Prosecutors said two unidentified assailants in police uniforms had robbed and assaulted a U.S. citizen in the northeast of Moscow
