Chief doctor calls on Russians to eat domestic food over dioxin fears

Chief doctor calls on Russians to eat domestic food over dioxin fears

Russia's chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko has called on Russians to eat only domestic food over the dioxin scandal in Germany.

Last week, German sanitary authorities discovered dangerous levels of dioxins in domestic livestock and bird feed, forcing Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor to strengthen monitoring of food products of animal origin imported from Germany and some other EU countries.

"Our recommendations to use domestic food for nutrition remain in force for Russians," Onishchenko said.

On Friday, the German authorities banned the sale of products from more than 4,700 farms because of fears eggs and meat may be contaminated with dioxins.

Experts have said the closure of farms and a ban on product sales may cost Germany about 100 million euros (over $129 million). Dioxin could have been contained in pesticides used to grow plants later processed into fodders.

The European Union says that although the dioxin levels in affected eggs are five times the legal level, a human would have to consume vast amounts of them for his health to be affected.

Earlier Onishchenko quoted the German Agriculture Ministry as saying it had not exported products believed to be contaminated with dioxins.

MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti)

Russia may ditch winter 'clocks back' practice

10:00 13/01/2011

The Russian government may in 2012 put an end to the practice of putting the clocks back an hour at the end of October, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta paper said on Thursday.

The move was proposed by the Trade Ministry, which cited a recent research showing that time changes negatively affect human health.

Russia, in line with mainstream European practice, currently puts the clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday of March and back one hour on the last Sunday of October.

Experts have already calculated that if the Trade Ministry's proposal is adopted, Russians will receive from 7 to 17 percent of "additional" daylight time.

MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti)

Russia to resume halted Okhotsk Sea rescue efforts

Jan 13, 2011 09:27 Moscow Time

Rescue operations to free the mother ship Commonwealth trapped by ice in the Sea of Okhotsk will resume in the afternoon. Repair works, which are currently under way following a rupture of the tow rope used to escort the ship to ice-free waters, are most likely to be completed within the next few hours.

 The icebreaker Krasin, which navigates the sea platform, still has some 100 miles to cover until it reaches the area where the Coast of Hope refrigerator vessel is already waiting to join the convoy. The voyage may take a total of 12 hours.

 Rescue efforts by the icebreakers Krasin and Admiral Makarov started on January 11^th.

 Meanwhile, meteorologists warn against possible weather deterioration, with wind speeds reaching 20 meters per second, as well as lower visibility and temperatures.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15851473&PageNum=0

13.01.2011, 06.04

VLADIVOSTOK, January 13 (Itar-Tass) - The operation to take the Sodruzhestvo floating factory from the ice in the Sea of Okhotsk has been suspended due to the breakage of the tow cable. The Krasin and Admiral Makarov icebreakers have been engaged in this work, but on Wednesday, the towing cables broke off and the mechanisms of their attachment were damaged 1.5 miles after the caravan started its movement. The repair of these mechanisms is underway on the Sodruzhestvo and Admiral Makarov on Thursday. After the repairs are completed the caravan will continue to move to ice-free waters that are about 100 miles from its current location.

The Krasin icebreaker during the previous night was cutting a channel in the ice for the caravan, the vessel on Thursday will continues this work, the Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) reported.

The Sodruzhestvo floating factory, transport refrigerator Bereg Nadezhdy and the research vessel Professor Kizevetter stuck in the ice in the Gulf of Sakhalin in the Sea of Okhotsk on the New Year’s eve. The two latter vessels have already been moved to the loose ice zone. The Sodruzhestvo vessel will also be guided there, after which the convoy of two icebreakers and two fishing vessels will sail to ice-free waters.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15851708

13.01.2011, 09.37

VLADIVOSTOK, January 13 (Itar-Tass) - One of three dead seamen, found near Sakhalin, has been identified as a crewmember of the missing schooner Partner. His body was found at the port of Kholmsk on January 11. The seaman, whose name is not disclosed, was identified by relatives, an official at the Far Eastern transport investigating department of the ICRF (Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation) has told Itar-Tass.

Investigating agencies are taking active measures to identify yet another dead seaman found on January 10, 2011, and find out the circumstances of those people's death.

At the same time the search for the other seamen is being continued. Russian emergencies ministry rescuers, in a search for the crew of the fishing schooner Partner that disappeared in the Tatar Strait, the northern area of the Sea of Japan (East Sea), on Thursday began to inspect a 20-kilometre sector on the western coast of Sakhalin Island from Kostromskoye Village to Kholmsk.