Russians aboard sunk boat in Vietnam – Embassy

2 Russians aboard sunk boat in Vietnam – Embassy

Feb 17, 2011 11:27 Moscow Time

The Russian embassy in Vietnam has confirmed that there were two Russians aboard a tour boat that sank in the Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam.

There were between 25 and 30 people aboard the sunken boat, according to various sources, among them tourists from Japan, Italy, the United States, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Switzerland. At least 12 people died and 15 others were rescued. The rescue operation continues.

One of the world’s most scenic travel hubs, the Ha Long Bay has more than 3,000 islands and attracts up to 3 million tourists annually.

Putin to visit Krasnodar Territory

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15963409&PageNum=0

17.02.2011, 11.30

MOSCOW, February 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will make a working trip to the Krasnodar Territory on Thursday, where he will see how his instructions on the elimination of consequences of the October 2010 flood in the Tuapse District are being fulfilled, the government press service reports.

In October 2010 the flood in the Tuapse District strongly damaged 1,491 houses. 250 houses were totally destroyed and were found not liveable. A total of 7,500 people were affected by the natural calamity; 17 of them died and six were reported missing. The flood damaged 267 social facilities and engineering communications, 74 automobile roads, 58 passage and 27 automobile bridges, 99 communal and cultural facilities. An approximate value of the damage done was 2.5 billion roubles.

The government press service reminded that Putin had visited the flood-stricken areas on October 22. He had promised the rebuilding of the destroyed houses on the money from the federal budget and ordered the payment to flood victims of 150,000-rouble allowances, 125,000 roubles for the repair of dwellings and another 10,000 roubles for urgent needs. The families of the dead will receive one million roubles each. The federal centre rendered financial assistance to the budget of the Krasnodar Territory amounting to 1.6 billion roubles for the elimination of consequences of the natural calamity.

According to the government press service, “by today the flood victims have been given new dwellings in the Dzhuba and Novomikhailovskoe populated localities. 44 cottages and three apartment houses – a total of 118 flats – were built in the town of Dzhuba. 16 cottages and an apartment house were built in Novomikhailovskoe. All the dwellings were given to the people, whose houses had been destroyed by the flood. Playing grounds for children and sports grounds were created in the new residential areas.

Commenting on the restoration of the engineering infrastructure, a representative of the press service said that “about all the water intake facilities, trunk waterways, sewage pumping substations and collectors, boiler rooms, supports of power transmission lines, transformer substations, gas and electricity distribution networks have been restored. The transport infrastructure is functioning normally.”

Putin will visit on Thursday Secondary School No.30 of the Tuapse district, which was also seriously damaged by the flood. 49 million roubles were spent on its rebuilding. By today all the damaged structures have been restored and fitted with equipment worth six million roubles, which were allocated from the territorial budget, the government press service reports.

Russian govt to discuss demographic policy concept up to 2025

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15962627&PageNum=0

17.02.2011, 07.05

MOSCOW, February 17 (Itar-Tass) -- The presidium of the Russian government will meet on Thursday, February 17, to discuss a demographic policy concept up to 2025.

An unprecedented amount of money – more than 1,600 billion roubles – will be earmarked for this purpose in the next five years, including 876 billion roubles in 2011 and in the projected period of 2012-2013.

“The implementation of the programme will make it possible to stabilise the population at 142 million by 2015” and “life expectancy should reach 70 years”, the government said. This indicator was 69 years in 2010.

“By the end of 2015, the birth rate should grow by 30 percent from 2006,” the government said.

Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina will present amendments to the law on energy saving and energy efficiency that postpone the mandatory use of gas meters in private households until 2015.

Minister of Health and Social Development Tatyana Golikova will propose funding for the treatment of Russian bobsledder Irina Skvortsova who was seriously injured during a competition in Germany.

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov will present amendments allowing army personnel and their families abroad to receive free medical aid in their units’ medical institutions.

Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev will speak on the Water Strategy up to 2020.

Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko will present a draft law on computation of time that streamlines the application of law in this field.

Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik will report on amendments to the regulation on her ministry, and Deputy Transport Minister Sergei Aristov will put forth amendments to the regulation on the Federal Service for Transportation Supervision.

Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu will propose budget appropriations to Tyva, Stavropol Territory, Leningrad region, and Altai Territory for dealing with the consequences of natural calamities.

Bright minds talk modernization in Siberia

A forum involving almost 2,000 scholars and businessmen from Russia and abroad has opened in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, to address economic modernization in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and discuss ways to improve the investment climate in Russia.  

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/16/world-scene-833482346/

8:06 p.m., Wednesday, February 16, 2011

STRASBOURG, France | Prime Minister Vladimir Putin killed democracy in Russia and replaced it with a mafia state, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov charged on Wednesday.

Mr. Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister of Russia, compared Mr. Putin to a younger version of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president ousted last week after three decades in power.

“Putin looks like a young Mubarak. He believes that his future will be better than Mubarak‘s future. I don’t think so,” said Mr. Nemtsov, who was speaking at a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

“Putin killed the democratic state in Russia. He built a corrupted mafia state, but he killed the democratic state,” added Mr. Nemtsov, who served as deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin.

Domodedovo blast suspects convoyed to Moscow

Moscow - All of the people accused of helping arrange the January 24 explosion at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport have already been convoyed to the Russian capital, except for Bashir Khamkhoyev, who is suspected of acting as a messenger for North Caucasus militant leader Doku Umarov, a source in law enforcement services told Interfax on Feb.17.

"The suspected accomplices of Magomed Yevloyev, who committed the terrorist attack at Domodedovo, were convoyed to Moscow, where investigators have already started to work with them," the source said.

Khamkhoyev is still being held in a jail in the North Caucasus, he said.

Doku Umarov has been accused of masterminding the Domodedovo Airport bombing.

The explosion at Domodedovo Airport occurred at the international arrivals section on January 24. The bomb with a power equivalent to about five kilograms of TNT, filled with metal parts and attached to the suicide bomber's body, blew up. As a result 36 people were killed and more than 100 injured.

The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on charges of terrorist attack, murder and arms trafficking.

The Domodevo terrorist attack perpetrator was Yevloyev, a native of Ingush village of Ali-Yurt.

A court in Ingush capital Magas ordered to arrest Akhmed and Fatima Yevloyev, the terrorist's siblings, on suspicion of their assistance to the suicide bomber.

The court in Magas also arrested Umar Aushev, who lives in the same village as the bomber, suspecting him of taking Yevloyev from the village to Nazran two days before the Domodedovo attack.

The fourth arrestee is Ingush resident Khamkhoyev, who, as investigators believe, is one of the gang leaders in Ingushetia's Sunzha district.

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/97371/#ixzz1ECssns7c

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15962743

17.02.2011, 08.49

MAKHACHKALA, February 17 (Itar-Tass) -- As a result of two blasts which occurred in one of the shops of the city of Kyzlyar, one man is wounded.

As sources at the city's law enforcement bodies told ITAR-TASS, “two blasts occurred at the shop ‘Ideal’ in Tsiolkovsky Street; the first blast occurred at 00.10 Moscow time on Thursday, another blast occurred twenty minutes later; the shop’s guard was brought to hospital with injuries.”

According to the preliminary information, the blasts occurred inside the shop, the building is seriously damaged.

An investigation team, which included representatives of the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Security Service, left for the site of the incident.