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From NTV:
The following is a summary transcript of the main evening news bulletin broadcast by NTV in Russia. The service is compiled by the NTV newsroom and offered free to all interested parties. For more information contact Nikolai Bodnaruk at ntv.news@mail.ru
NTV 'Segodnya', 8th January 2002, Moscow 1900
Today Russia's Far East has been struck by a cyclone, the strongest in fifty years. The snowfall continued for more than 24 hours. As a result, the region is paralyzed. The Mayor of Vladivostok City helped dig autos out of snowdrifts.
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Today the blizzard caused tragedy in the Island of Sakhalin. A huge block of snow fell from a roof burying three children aged 11, 12 and 13. They couldn't climb out from under the snow and were suffocated. The rescue team needed about one hour to recover the bodies. Due to the severe snowfall, life was fully paralyzed in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the island's administrative center. The lightning has made inoperable several city power substations. As a result, entire residential blocks have remained powerless. Due to transportation problems, many citizens of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk were two to three hours late to their working places. Due to enormous queues, the bus stops have turned into grounds for squabbling-cum-fighting. According to weather forecasts, the extensive snowfall will cease only on January 10.
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In St. Petersburg, a struggle for six lives lasted over 24 hours. These men were captured on an ice-floe in the Gulf of Finland. All efforts have been futile to perform a helicopter rescue operation, standard in such cases.
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Yet another great Russian scientist has died, Alexander Prokhorov was one of the few Russian researchers to win the Nobel Prize.
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Today one of the longest special operations was completed in Chechnya by the federal forces. For almost one week Argun, the third largest republic's city, was blocked, as the military were neutralizing a group of insurgents. All that time the city had been closed to the media.
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Today, as soon the holidays ended, the Prosecutor General office resumed its hectic activities. Today its officers raided the headquarters of Sibur, an oil, gas and chemical corporation. According to some data, the investigators performed a search, whereas others insist that it was a regular inspection. As a matter of fact, neither Sibur nor the Prosecutor General office are commenting on the situation. An emergency shareholders' meeting is to take place tomorrow, with the key issue on the agenda being election of Sibur's new board.
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Today Krasnoyarsk businessman Vilor Struganov was charged with terrorism, involving preparation of to bombings that took place in Krasnoyarsk on December 21, 2001, on the eve of the Legislative Assembly election. The entrepreneur has been transferred from temporary confinement to the remand prison. Following the Prosecutor General instructions, the investigation has been switched from Krasnoyarsk to the Kemerovo regional prosecutor's office. The Kemerovo investigation group has already arrived in Krasnoyarsk to collect materials for the case and establish Struganov's guilt. As a result of the two explosions - one in his house and the other on the porch of a school used as a voting center - two men were killed and one seriously wounded. The survivor may appear as a witness against Struganov.
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Today the man known as the organizer of the fraud of the century left the Krasnaya Presnya transit prison. Set free was Andrew Kozlenok, the key figure in the Golden Ada case that involved embezzlement of almost 200 million dollars.
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Today well-known international organization Amnesty International and the World Newspaper Association appealed to the Russian government with a request to release journalist Gregory Pasko. The statements insist that Pasko's verdict of high treason is a violation of freedom of speech. The documents qualify the journalist as the prisoner of conscience and demand his immediate release. In the city of Nizhny Novgorod a picket was posted in support of Pasko, where several men holding placards gathered in front of the Federal Security Service building. Due to intensive freezing, the act lasted just two hours. They have organized the gathering of signatures in support of the appeal launched by Pasko's defense. By the end of next week the lists will be dispatched to the Military College of the Supreme Court, demanding a fair and objective decision.
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Fleeing from US contingents, Taliban leader mullah Omar holds about one hundred million dollars. According to the Washington Post, last November banks of Kabul and Kandahar were visited by his several messengers carrying 70-kg empty flour bags. On the average, they withdrew five to six million dollars in each bank office. The newspaper says the amount is quite difficult to carry. With the account of the fact that under the air strikes Omar had to abandon his favorite Toyota jeeps and switch over to a donkey, his flight with the moneybags may turn quite burdensome, say the US paper.
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Following the Americans, the French are building up their military presence in the region. Currently they are expanding the Ainin airfield in Tajikistan that may turn into the beachhead for peacekeepers in Afghanistan. The French are doing their best to keep a low profile and avoid TV cameras.
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During this year Russia may join the World Trade Organization, WTO Director General Michael Moore said today. The greatest hindrance for Russia's entry is huge subsidizing of the farming sector. However, Mr. Moore was confident that the problem could be solved. According to the WTO Director, the matter is being handled by a group of ministers who have sufficient will and firepower.
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Today the Moscow City authorities have responded to the story of the four-month-old Pavel Belenkov which was broadcast on our channel. Due to the ban imposed by Moscow doctors the parents of the boy in need of an urgent liver transplantation have to seek the operation money abroad. At the today's sitting of Moscow City Government chaired by Valery Shantsev, Alexander Rumyantsev, chief pediatrician of the City Health Committee, denied the existence of such a ban and virtually charged our channel with misinformation. For the record - the hospital doctors who presented the story faced pressure from the Moscow City Health Committee. We will follow up the events and report further developments.
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Leo Zaikov died today at the age of 78. The former Moscow City boss was also a member of the Politburo and a former First Secretary of the Moscow CPSU organization. The politician had occupied many important positions in the Communist Party leadership and became a Central Committee member on the same day as Boris Yeltsin. It was he who replaced Yeltsin as the Moscow City boss in 1987 after the future Russian President had been disgraced. Zaikov's burial ceremony will be held in St. Petersburg on January 10.
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