Major fire breaks out in downtown Moscow, 3 people saved.

MOSCOW, November 1 (Itar-Tass) -- A major fire broke out in downtown
Moscow overnight to Monday. The fire broke out at 00.30 Moscow time at a
two-storey nonresidential house at 70, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street, the
press service of the Moscow branch of the Ministry of Emergency Situations
told Itar-Tass.
"The fire spread on the first and second floors of 1,000 square
meters," the press service reported. The major fire is highly dangerous.
Fifteen fire engines are involved in the firefighting efforts.
"Despite the fact that the building is nonresidential three people
were saved from the house," the press service said.

.RF, Germany FMs to agree on int'l agenda ahead of RF-NATO summit.

MOSCOW, November 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle will discuss here on
Monday the issues of the international agenda ahead of a Russia-NATO
summit due in Lisbon on November 20. This will be the first meeting of the
Russia-NATO Council on the top level after the armed conflict in South
Ossetia in 2008 that prompted some temporary cooling in the Russia-NATO
relations.
"The ministers will exchange views on a broad range of topical issues
on international and bilateral agenda," spokesman for the Russian Foreign
Ministry Andrei Nesterenko said. "The ministers will focus attention on
the coordination of the approaches ahead of forthcoming multilateral
meetings involving the Russian president and the German chancellor,
including a G20 summit in Seoul, a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on
the top level in Lisbon and an OSCE summit in Astana," Nesterenko said.
"The ministers will give close attention to updated security
architecture on the Euro-Atlantic space, disarmament and nonproliferation
of mass destruction weapons, counteraction to international terrorism,
ensuring strategic stability, missile defense problems, interrelation and
sequence of steps in the control and reduction of weapons," the Russian
high-ranking diplomat said.
The sides will discuss the promotion of the Russian-German initiative
to set up a Russia-EU committee at the ministerial level on foreign policy
and security as the key instrument of cooperation in Russia-EU relations.
The ministers will also discuss in detail an easier visa regime on the
mutual basis and the promotion of the Russia-EU visa-free talks.
The negotiations will highlight "bilateral relations, particularly
prospects of trade and economic cooperation, the measures to put it on the
innovative path of development, promotion of major investment projects,
the shaping of modernization alliances of Russian and German companies,
primarily in the high-tech spheres."
The ministers will also discuss broader humanitarian and legal
cooperation.
Guido Westerwelle will also meet with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor
Shuvalov.

.URGENT - Medvedev arrives on South Kuriles.

THE KUNASHIR ISLAND (the Kurile Islands), November 1 (Itar-Tass) --
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived on a working visit on the Kurile
Islands on Monday. His airplane landed at the Mendeleyevo airport on the
Kunashir Island. The Russian president visits the Kuriles for the first
time in the history.
Dmitry Medvedev will visit a geothermal station and will speak with
the islanders. He will also visit construction sites.

.Japan PM regrets strongly over Medvedev's visit to South Kuriles.

TOKYO, November 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan
voiced "a strong regret" Monday over Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's
visit to the South Kuriles, which he called the Japanese Northern
Territories again. The prime minister has made a statement in reply to a
question of a deputy of the budget committee of the lower house of
Japanese parliament.
"Four northern islands are the territory of our country, and we stick
consistently to this position. The trip of the Russian president there
causes a strong regret," the prime minister said.
"It is common knowledge that it is our original territories," Japanese
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said in reply to a question in the
parliamentary committee. "The trip of the Russian president there wounds
the feelings of our people and causes a strong regret," he said.

.Russian captain of tuna boat goes on hunger strike at Vietnam port.

VLADIVOSTOK, November 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian captain of the tuna
boat Phu Hai-1 Alexander Onufriyenko went on an indefinite dry hunger
strike at the Vietnamese port Vung Tau.
"I go on an indefinite dry hunger strike until the full salary
repayment to all Phu Hai-1 crewmen and the delivery of all crewmen to the
place of residence," the captain said in a statement sent to the Russian
Prosecutor General's Office. The statement copy was also emailed to an
Itar-Tass office in Vladivostok on Monday.
The tuna boat Phu Hai-1 belongs to the Russian company Antel
Investments Ltd. The captain noted that the wage arrears to the crew
exceeded 143,000 dollars.
Five Russians, a South Korean citizen and a Vietnamese citizen are
staying aboard the vessel. The Phu Hai-1 has been staying idle at the
southern Vietnamese port for more than a year, before calling at this port
the tuna boat was fishing in the Oceania.
-0-baz


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