Dagestan leader reports to Medvedev on fire situation in highlands.

MOSCOW, August 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had
a telephone conversation with Dagestan's republican President Magomed
Salam Magomedov on Thursday evening.
Magomed Magomedov reported about the fire situation in the republican
highland districts, where major fires damaged several settlements, the
Russian presidential press service reported.
The Dagestani president reported to Dmitry Medvedev about the measures
taken to localize the fire and help fire-affected people.
Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Russian government to allocate
compensations to Dagestani residents, who were left without housing in the
fires, the press service said.
Dmitry Medvedev is to hold a meeting on socio-economic development
of Dagestan next week, the press service reported.

.Working group to pave ways to fulfill anti-drought govt decisions.

MOSCOW, August 6 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian interdepartmental working
group formed to overcome the drought aftermath chaired by First Deputy
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov will meet here on Friday to discuss with the
chiefs of several regions the ways to fulfil the decisions, which Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin had taken at a meeting of the government presidium
on Thursday.
The working group will discuss the financing of the measures to
support the drought-affected regions and to use the reserves of the grain
intervention fund, a source in the government told reporters on Thursday.
The interdepartmental working group will meet in the traditional
format of a videoconference.
At the Thursday meeting of the government presidium Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin stated that the grain export should be banned. The grain
embargo will be in effect from August 15 through December 31, 2010.
Alongside, the federal financial support of agricultural producers
affected in the drought will make 35 billion roubles. The fire-hit regions
will also receive the grain supplies from the intervention fund.
Vladimir Putin instructed to set up this interdepartmental working
group. The working group included officials from the Agriculture Ministry,
the Finance Ministry, the Transport Ministry, the Ministry of Economic
Development, the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of
Emergency Situations, the Energy Ministry, the Federal Service of
Insurance Supervision, the Federal Service of Hydrometeorology and
Environmental Monitoring, the Federal State Statistics Service, the
Russian Railways Company, the banking sector and experts. The working
group meets every week in a videoconference involving the chiefs of the
regions, where a state of emergency was declared over the abnormal heat.

.Russia, US urge to pool efforts for Mideast soonest settlement.

MOSCOW, August 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia and the United States called
for pooling international efforts for the soonest stabilization of the
crisis situation in the Middle East, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported
on Thursday after a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"The ministers discussed several topical bilateral and international
problems. Specifically, they voiced concerns over the escalation of
tension in the Middle East in the last few days," the ministry said.
"Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton noted the importance of pooling
international efforts for the soonest stabilization of the situation in
the region and the launch of Palestinian-Israeli direct negotiations with
the support of the Middle East mediating Quartet and the League of Arab
States," the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
-0-baz


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