* Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon underwent an operation to reduce intracranial pressure following a severe stroke, the chief doctor of the Jerusalem clinic where he is being treated said
* An accident which took place during the loading of an oil tanker docked at the Caspian port of Aktau in western Kazakhstan caused a metric ton of crude to be spilled into the sea, the Kazakh Emergency Situations Ministry said
* The toxic slick in the Amur River passing through the Khabarovsk region in Russia's Far East now stretches over 200 kilometers (124 miles) and is 60 km from the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a source in the Emergencies Ministry said
* Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his government for the consensus reached on bilateral cooperation in the natural gas sphere
