Polish MPs to cut short holidays to help flood-hit regions.

WARSAW, August 10 (Itar-Tass) - Deputies of the Polish lower house of
parliament will have to cut short their holidays in order to help the
south-western regions of the country hit by devastating floods, Seim
Speaker Grzegorz Schetyna said on Monday.
According to the speaker, an emergency parliamentary session will be
held on Thursday. "It is a vital matter, and the parliament cannot turn
its back on the Polish people and their problems," the speaker said,
expressing hope that despite the holiday season the turnout of deputies
will be high.
The parliament must quickly adopt amendments to the law on aid to the
regions flooded during two waves of floods hitting Poland in May and in
June. The authorities want to add to the list the regions that have
suffered from floods over the recent days.
So far, the residents of underflooded houses are entitled to only
2,000 dollars. For this aim, the Interior Ministry has earmarked an
equivalent of 2.5 million dollars.
The speaker also said that President Bronislaw Komorowski would head
for the towns of Bogatynia and Zgorzelec most badly hit by flash floods.
Two towns and several villages were flooded last weekend amid heavy
rains and a sharp rise of the water level in rivers of south-western
Poland. Dozens of people were evacuated and three people died. The town of
Bogatynia on the border with the Czech republic was most badly damaged.
Powerful torrents of water hit the city with the population of 18,000
people and in several hours they destroyed bridges, roads and some houses.
As the highway connecting the town with the rest of the country was
flooded, aid is delivered via the Czech republic and Germany, as well as
by air. Local residents feel the shortage of drinking water and food.
Dozens of firemen, police, military and even prisoners take part in rescue
operations.
A total of 24 people were killed during powerful floods in May and in
June, and 11,000 buildings were destroyed. A total of 31,000 people had to
be evacuated.

.Abbas ready for talks with Israel on basis of Moscow agreements.

CAIRO, August 10 (Itar-Tass) - Palestinian National Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas signalled on Monday his readiness for direct talks
with Israel within the framework of the agreements reached at a meeting of
the Quartet on the Middle East (the European Union, the United Nations,
Russia and the USA) in Moscow on March 19.
Palestine news agency WAFA quoted him as saying it at a meeting with
reporters in Ramallah on Monday. "If the Quartet calls for direct
negotiations on the basis of its decisions of March 19, we are ready to
begin them immediately, as they include all that we ask for," the
Palestinian leader said.

.Yakutia allocates 1 mln rbls to Mordovia hit by wildfires.

KHABAROVSK, August 10 (Itar-Tass) - Yakutia has allocated one million
roubles from the reserve fund of the republican government as aid for the
residents of the Zubova Polyana region in Mordovia hit by wildfires.
An instruction to allocate money was signed by the prime minister of
the Republic of Yakutia, Galina Danchikova, the press service of the
republican government told Tass on Tuesday.
Earlier, five million roubles were allocated to three regions in
Central Russia at the instruction of President of Yakutia Yegor Borisov.
Meanwhile, enterprises of the Khabarovsk region continue raising money
for fire victims.

.NKorea, UN Command begin 4th round of talks.

SEOUL, August 10 (Itar-Tass) - The fourth round of talks between
military officers from North Korea and the U.N. Command began on Tuesday
in the border village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarised Zone dividing
the Koreas, to discuss the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship blamed
on Pyongyang.
The participants in the talks are to discuss certain issues connected
with the sinking of the Cheonan corvette and prepare discussions at the
level of generals. Since 1998 such meetings at the level of generals have
been used to reduce tensions around the Korean peninsula, the Yonhap news
agency reports.
At the previous meetings at the colonel level, North Korea repeatedly
denied its involvement in the incident. A South Korean commission with
participation of experts from Australia, Great Britain, Canada, the USA
and Sweden came to the conclusion that the ship had exploded and sunk as a
result of a torpedo attack from a North Koran submarine. North Korea
dubbed this as a provocation of Seoul and Washington.
The issue has raised tensions on the Korean peninsula and has
complicated efforts to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table on
its nuclear program.
These talks proceed in the situation when the official Seoul is
concerned about the fate of the crew of the squid fishing boat Daeseung 55
carrying four South Korean and three Chinese crewmen, seized by a North
Korean patrol boat. It was captured in the East Sea on Sunday and has been
under investigation of the North, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper wrote. South
Korea has demanded from North Korea to release the crew, but there has
been no reply as of yet.
Seoul does not deny the fact that the fishing boat was captured in the
North's so-called exclusive economic zone, the Chosun Ilbo wrote.
-0-zhe/


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