Russia 110721 Basic Political Developments

Basic Political Developments

10:08 21/07/2011ALL NEWS

21/7 Tass 76

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LIFTING THE BULGARIA BOAT

MOSCOW/KAZAN – The operation to lift the Bulgaria boat, which wrecked on the Volga River, continues. The experts pushed under the bottom of the boat three of four ‘towels’ – metal strips necessary for the lifting.

RUSSIA’S GOVERNMENT

MOSCOW – Presidium of Russia’s government will discuss fulfilment of the state programmes on formation of the budget expenses from 2013. Russia’s Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina will make a report on the topic.

ASEAN MEETING

BALI ISLAND – Agenda of the ministerial meeting in the format ASEAN plus 3 will feature topics on regional stability, including situation in the Korean Peninsula, as well as reaction to natural calamities, and food and energy security in the Asian-Pacific Region.

RF FOREIGN MINISTRY

MOSCOW – Spokesman of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich will participate in a briefing on current agenda of Russia’s foreign policy.

PRIMERIES OF UNITED RUSSIA

MOSCOW – The United Russia Party begins the procedure of primaries to form its list of candidates for the elections to the State Duma.

EU SUMMIT

BRUSSELS – Formation of the second programme of aid for Greece and overcoming of the system financial crisis of the euro zone will be key topics of the emergency EU summit.

JUSTICE

NEW YORK – Last pre-trial hearings of the case of Viktor But, who is accused by the USA of arms smuggling.

SPACE

NEW YORK – The Atlantis space ship will land at the Cape Canaveral for the last time, thus finishing the Space Shuttle programme.

KRASNOYARSK – Over 400 reporters from Russia’s regions will participate in the Yenisey.RF-2011 media forum.

CULTURE

MOSCOW – Five Russians will be among 23 competitors in half final of the Operalia contest, organised by Placido Domingo.

ST. PETERSBURG – Opening of a memorial board devoted to Galina Ulanova, a great Russian ballet dancer of the XX century.

ST. PETERSBURG – The Mariinsky Theatre will have a first night of an extravaganza opera staged by Benjamin Britten and based on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night's Dream.

BARNAUL – All-Russian festival called Shukshin’s Days in Altai begins.

11:31 21/07/2011ALL NEWS

21/7 Tass 106

MOSCOW — Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev signed a federal law on additional prevention of selling alcohol to children, the Kremlin’s press service said on Thursday. The law introduces criminal and administrative responsibility for selling alcohol containing beverages to children. First time punishment may be limited to fines from three to five thousand roubles for individuals and from ten to 20 thousand for officials and from 80 to 100 thousand for legal entities, the law reads.

MAKHACHKALA — Gunmen have been blocked in a private house in Makhachkala on the Tarki-Tau mount slope. A source in the Interior Ministry of Dagestan told Itar-Tass that there was an exchange of gunfire. There was no immediate information about the number of the blocked militants. Automatic gunfire has been heard in the city since 05:00 MSK.

MAKHACHKALA — Special operation to neutralise members of illegal armed groups has been underway in Makhachkala Thursday morning on Mount Tarki-Tau. According to preliminary data, injuring one law enforcement officer has been wounded in an exchange of fire, a source in the Interior Ministry in Dagestan told Itar-Tass. At around 05:00 MSK Makhachkala residents heard submachine-gun fire and grenade explosions.

MAKHACHKALA — Three militants have been liquidated and one detained during a special police operation in Makhachkala, sources in the republic’s law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass. According to the source, at around 04:00 MSK on Thursday morning, police special task force blocked a group of gunmen in a private house on Mount Tarki-Tau. The gunmen offered armed resistance.

MOSCOW — Russia’s Emergency Situation Ministry /EMERCOM/ has forwarded another portion of humanitarian aid to Libya, the ministry’s information department said on Thursday. “At 09:00 Moscow time, an Il-76 plane left the Ramenskoye airport in the Moscow Region for Benghazi,” the source said. “The special flight will deliver 36 tonnes of humanitarian aid.” In early July, EMERCOM planes delivered to Tripoli and Benghazi 72 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

VLADIVOSTOK, the Far East – Ports located in the Nakhodka city district in Russia’s Primorye region transshipped 27 million tons in the first six months of 2011. They’ve set a new freight traffic record among all the ports on Russia’s Pacific coast by increasing the freight turnover by almost two million tons since 2010. Oil, petroleum products and coal formed the bulk of transshipped cargoes – about 22 million tons, according to the eastern branch of the Rosmorport Company.

KHABAROVSK — As many as 14 of forest fires at an area of 1,728 hectares were extinguished in the Russian Far East on Wednesday. “However, by Thursday morning, 36 fires are still burning, their total area is 8,136 hectares,” the Forestry Department of the Far Eastern Federal District told Itar-Tass. “The situation is the most difficult in the country’s east in Yakutia, where more than 6,700 hectares of forest and 757 hectares of non-forest land are affected by fires,” the department said. In the Olekminsky district the forest fire area has grown to 3,000 hectares, there are large spots of fire in the Yakutsk and Gorny districts.

BISHKEK — Fifteen people were injured on Wednesday as an earthquake hit the southern Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, the press service of the republic’s Ministry of Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass on Thursday. The earth tremors were recorded by seismic stations on July 20 at 01:35, local time (23:35 MSK). The force of the earthquake the epicentre of which was located near the Sovetskaya village, reached 7-8 points on a 12-point scale. According to the Institute of Seismology of the National Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kyrgyzstan, a few dozen buildings were damaged.

MOSCOW - The Moscow employment department will provide Muscovites with information on vacancies in electronic form as of August 1, 2011, the agency’s head, Oleg Neterebsky, told journalists. He believes that this new form of work will cut the time for selecting the right vacancy and will make job searching more convenient for the Muscovites. The Moscow Department of Employment will provide e-services to Muscovites who search employment and to employers who want to hire employees.

ST.PETERSBURG – The St. Petersburg League of Hitchhikers, a sport tourism club, have set out on the first round-the-globe tour by hitchhike. This is an international project titled “Everybody has the right to see his planet.” Alexei Vorov, the founder of sport hitchhiking in Russia, told a news conference in St. Petersburg that over 33 years of its existence the League had transformed hitchhiking from being a simple and spontaneous way of moving by passing cars into an independent kind of sport tourism, which has its own rules and standards, ethics and traditions.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2011/Jul-21/Lebanons-Arabic-press-digest---July-21-2011.ashx#ixzz1Sj7prcA3

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2011/Jul-21/Lebanons-Arabic-press-digest---July-21-2011.ashx#axzz1Sj7d10T4

Government achieved Wednesday a "breakthrough" in life by approving a Memorandum of Understanding between the Energy and Water Ministry and Iran's Petroleum Ministry, which gives Lebanon an opportunity to take advantage of Iran’s skills.

The session witnessed discussions – on some occasions debate was heated – on how to approve spending in the absence of a state budget.

As Cabinet holds its next meeting at Baabda Palace on Aug.2 after Mikati’s return from a private trip to south France, Berri called for general legislative sessions for Aug. 3 and 4.

Meanwhile, MP Walid Jumblatt made significant comments from Moscow, particularly on Syria, describing the uprising there as a “revolution.”

Jumblatt said after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Lebanon was committed to decisions made by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon “but that does not allow any external interference in internal affairs.”

“There are forces in Lebanon that believe STL decisions are a conspiracy directed against them. Among them is Hezbollah which has representatives in both Parliament and government,” Jumblatt said, stressing the need to take these factors into account.

On Syria and the possibility of foreign intervention, Jumblatt said Syrian President Bashar Assad “should resort to reforms as soon as possible and release prisoners.”

Jumblatt rejected any foreign meddling in the Syrian uprising and stressed the need to “understand that what is happening in Syria is a revolution, and accept the idea that the Arab people want freedom.”

As Jumblatt also met with Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Bgdanov, a source close to the head of the Progressive Socialist Party said the STL was no longer in the hands of the Lebanese state. Yet, the source added, justice must not overshadow stability.

He noted that it would be very difficult for Lebanon to hand over any “Lebanese” [suspect in the Hariri murder case] no matter what the results were.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2011/Jul-21/Lebanons-Arabic-press-digest---July-21-2011.ashx#ixzz1Sj7ivEO4