Russia 110712 Basic Political Developments

Basic Political Developments

11:29 12/07/2011ALL NEWS

12/7 Tass 139

MOSCOW — Divers have reached a children’s room at the lower hold of the sunken Bulgaria cruise ship, where they expect to find from 30 to 40 children, head of the Volga regional emergencies centre Igor Panshin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. The children were said to have been gathered there to play.

MOSCOW — Divers have examined three decks of the sunken cruise ship Bulgaria that went down on the Volga River on Sunday, July 10, a spokesman for Russia’s Emergencies Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. Now divers are searching through the ship’s lower hold. “As many as 30 divers worked all through the night. They made 56 dives and are now through with the examination of the ship’s main deck.

KUIBYSHEVSKY ZATON, Tatarstan — Divers have recovered the dead bodies of the captain of the sunken MS Bulgaria and his wife, a spokesman for the headquarters of the search-and-rescue operation told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. According to the spokesman, divers examined the ship’s main deck overnight and now are inspecting the lower hold. As of now, a total of 58 bodies have been recovered from the sunken vessel.

MOSCOW — A total of 66 dead bodies, including ten children, have been lifted from the sunken cruise ship Bulgaria that went down on the Volga River on Sunday, July 10, head of the Volga regional emergencies centre Igor Panshin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. The data are as of 10:00 a.m. Moscow time, he added. In his words, the rescue operations involve 76 divers. Automated devices are also used to examine the sunken ship.

BISHKEK — Kyrgyzstan’s President Roza Otunbayeva presented on Tuesday her condolences to Dmitry Medvedev over the wreck of the Bulgaria boat. “I was very sorry to learn the news about the Bulgaria boat, which sank on July 10 in the Kuibyshev pool of the Volga River, and where over a hundred were killed,” her telegram reads. “On behalf of the people of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and of myself please let families and friends of the victims know that we condole with them.”

MOSCOW — Suspected organiser of the mass clash in the Sagra Village of the Sverdlovsk Region is detained, spokesman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “Investigators have detained a local, who is known as Krasnoperov /Sergei the Gypsy/, who is suspected of having organised the mass conflict in the Sagra Village,” he said.

BRUSSELS — Russia and the EU are rounding off agreement of a list of joint steps to turn to a visa-free regime. The final round of talks on this document will be held in Brussels by director of the European cooperation department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Voronkov and director of the European Commission general directorate for home affairs Stefano Manservisi. This document “will be officially approved by the coming Russia-EU summit late this year, Itar-Tass learnt at the European Commission press service.

MOSCOW — A shell-less explosive device went off in the official of a deputy head of Moscow’s northwestern district administration of the Russian Investigations Committee, a source in Moscow police told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. According to earlier reports, the blast occurred near the building of the prosecutor’s office in Moscow’s northwetsren at Zhivopisnaya Street 42. This building houses the district investigations administration as well. No victims have been reported so far.

MOSCOW — Criminal proceeding have been initiated over the blast that occurred in the office of a deputy head of Moscow’s northwestern district administration of the Russian Investigations Committee, a spokesman for the Russian Investigations Committee told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. According to Vladimir Markin, the criminal case was opened on charges of hooliganism and illegal possession of explosives.

AHGABAT — Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and St. Petersburg’s Governor Valentina Matviyenko participated on Tuesday in an opening of two flyovers at the Turkmenbashi-Avaza highway, which connects the airport of the Caspian port with the national tourist zone. The flyover bridges of 1,300 and 1,400 metres cost 121 million dollars. They were built by St. Petersburg’s Vozrozhdeniye Company.

MOSCOW — Moscow’s investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee is probing into the attempt to set on fire a synagogue in the Otradnoye District. “Investigators check all circumstances of the incident and recordings from cameras,” a source in the department said. On Tuesday night, two unidentified persons threw four bottles with combustible liquid into the building of the synagogue of the Darkei Shalom religious community.

GORNO-ALTAISK — Four persons are still missing after a Volga hydrofoil accident on Teletskoye Lake in Russia’s republic of Altai on Monday, a spokesman for the local small vessels inspection told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. According to the spokesman, the accident took place late on Monday when the hydrofoil, which was making a pleasure voyage, overturned and sank some 30 kilometers off the settlement of Artybash. There were 13 persons onboard the vessel, nine were taken by nearby motor boats.

GORNO-ALTAISK— Search and rescue operations for the four missing in a hydrofoil wreck on Teletskoye Lake in Russia’s republic of Altai have been suspended over bad weather conditions, a spokesman for the republican emergencies administration told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. According to the spokesman, strong wind has caused two-meter-high waves, which hinder rescue operations.

NOVOSIBIRSK — Criminal proceeding have been initiated over an accident with a Volga hydrofoil on Teletskoye Lake in Russia’s Republic of Altai, in which four persons were missing, a spokeswoman for the West Siberian transport prosecution office told Itar-Tass. According to the spokeswoman, the criminal case was opened on charges of violations of safety rules.

09:44 12/07/2011ALL NEWS

Itar-Tass news outlook for Tuesday, July 12.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/183819.html

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SHIP-WRECK

MOSCOW – On Tuesday, Russia mourns for the people drowned on the cruise ship Bulgaria that sank on the Volga River in Tatarstan on July 10. As many as 79 out of 200 people, which were onboard the ship, have survived.

MOSCOW – Divers have examined three decks and now are examining the lower hold of the sunken cruise ship Bulgaria.

PRESIDENT-PARTIES

MOSCOW – Leaders of the four parties represented in the lower house of Russian parliament will by tradition meet with President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss election campaign themes.

CUSTOMS UNION-CONFERENCE

MOSCOW – Prime Ministers Mikhail Myasnikovich of Belarus, Karim Masimov of Kazakhstan, and Vladimir Putin of Russia will take part in the conference entitled “From the Customs Union to the Common Economic Space: Business Interests” organized in the framework of the Russian-Belarussian-Kazakh business dialogue.

EU-RUSSIA-VISAS

BRUSSELS – Talks on the list of joint step to abolish visas between Russia and the European Union will be held in Brussels by director of the European cooperation department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Voronkov and director of the European Commission general directorate for home affairs Stefano Manservisi.

SWITZERLAND-RUSSIA

CENEVA - Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey begins her two-day visit to Moscow to discuss closer cooperation with Russia in trade, finance, investments and energy.

EGYPT-GOVERNMENT

RABAT – Egypt’s Essam Sharaf will make a number of government reshuffles in the context of growing popular unrest over the government policies.

ISRAEL-LEBANON-ANNIVERSARY

TEV AVIV, BEIRUT – Israel and Lebanon are marking the fifth anniversary of The beginning of the latest Israeli-Lebanese war.

US-SPACE

NEW YORK – U.S. astronauts from the Atlantis shuttle docked to the International Space Station will make a space walk, the only one during Atlantis’ current flight that is to be the last one in its history.

BRITAIN-ASSANGE

LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will begin his appeal against his extradition from Britain to Sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct.

CULTURE AND RELIGION

MOSCOW – Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill will serve a Divine Liturgy in Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral, which marks its 450th anniversady.