Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Russian Officials Fear Toxins Already In Amur River

Water pollution in China (AFP)

28 November 2005 -- The head of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said contaminated river water from a toxic spill in China may have already flowed into Russian territory.

TEXT SIZE - +

November 28, 2005

Sergei Shoigu told journalists in Novosibirsk that the contaminants may have entered Russia's Amur River on 28 November already. Earlier estimates indicated it would take more than a week for the toxic slick to arrive in Russia via China's Songhua River.

The Songhua was coated with a 100-kilometer-long toxic slick after an explosion on 13 November at a Chinese chemical plant spilled poisonous nitro-benzene into the river near the city of Harbin.

Officials from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry say drinking water and filtering charcoal are being stockpiled in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk.

The spill has the potential to affect 70 Russian cities and villages with a total of over 1 million residents along the Amur.

(INTERFAX/RIA-NOVOSTI/AP/ITAR-TASS)

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Protesters gather behind a banner reading "Honest Elections" during a demonstration in Moscow on February 4.

How To Rig An Election

A whistle-blower in Samara explains how the authorities fixed the Duma elections in December -- and plan to do the same in the presidential vote in March. More