Powerful cyclone pounding Far-Eastern island of Sakhalin.

VLADIVOSTOK, November 2 (itar-Tass) - A powerful cyclone that has
moved on to the Russian Far-Eastern island of Sakhalin has caused
suspension of ferryboat services between Sakhalin's port of Kholmsk and the port of Vanino on the continental coast of the Sea of Japan.

The four specialized ferries that transport cargoes and passengers
between Sakhalin and the continent have temporarily taken shelter in
Vanino and in the port of Sovietskaya Gavan.
Officials at the maritime rescue and coordination sub-center in
Sakhalin's capital Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk say The Ostrov Moneron tanker has
gotten into distress in the Sea of Okhotsk due to the failure of the main
engine.
Rescue ship Rubin is moving from the port of Korsakov to the distress
area to help the crew of the tanker, which is drifting at a distance of
around 20 nautical miles away from Sakhalin's northeast coast.
Weather forecasters say gale may reach 25 to 30 meters per second
there shortly.
The Ostrov Moneron has a 22-strong crew.

.Research conf to discuss exodus of Russian emigres in 1920.

MOSCOW, November 2 (Itar-Tass) - Researchers and descendants of the
Russians who fled abroad in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and
the Civil War of 1918 to 1920 are expected to meet in Moscow Tuesday at an
international conference titled 'The Russian Exodus as the Result of the
National Catastrophe'.
This gathering, which is dedicated to the 90th anniversary since the
end of the Civil War, has been organized by the Russian Institute of
Strategic Research and the public association called the Solzhenitsin
House.
The organizers of the event also see its significance in the fact that
it is taking place on the eve of the National Unity Day. This public
holiday, which is marked November 4 and which coincides with the
veneration of the Icon of the Virgin Mary of Kazan by the Russian Orthodox
Church, was introduced five years ago to substitute for the Soviet-era
October Revolution Day, which was marked November 7.
Russian Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev and representatives of the
Russian President's commission for counteraction to the attempts to
falsify history will be among the attendees of the conference.
France will be represented, among others, by Prince Alexander
Trubetskoi, Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoi, and Count Sergei Kapnist, a distant
offspring of poet Vassily Kapnist who lived in the early 19th century.
Views will be aired by the editors of the Paris-based Russkaya Mysl
journal founded by Russian emigres in the first half of the 20th century
and by scholars from France, Ukraine, Belarus, and Serbia.
The theme of the 90 years since the exodus of the pro-monarchist and
traditionalist White Guard is drawing intensive attention this year.
In a commemorative action this summer, representatives of the emigre
community made a sea cruise along the route of last stops of the Russian
ships that had brought thousands upon thousands of post-revolutionary
Russians abroad.
The cruise spanned a distance from the Tunisian port of Bizerte to
Greece to Turkey to Sevastopol in the Crimea where from the actual outflow
of Russian emigres began in 1920.
The action brought together the fellow-Russians of three generations.

.Modernized Soyuz-2 carrier rocket lifts off from N Russian space
center.

MOSCOW, November 2 (Itar-Tass) - A carrier rocket in the family of
modernized Soyuz-2 carriers lifted off from the Plesetsk space center at
03:38 Moscow Standard Time /00:38 GMT/ to bring into space the Meridian
probe.
The latter has been launched in the interests of the Russian Defense
Ministry, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, an official spokesman for
the Russian Space Troops said.


.Crewmembers of arrested sea liner to return from Canada to Russia.

OTTAWA, November 2 (Itar-Tass) - Departure for home of crewmembers of
the Russian sea liner Lyubov Orlova, who have had to stay aboard the ship
for more than a month after its arrest by the Canadian authorities in the
port of St Jones, will be organized later this week - possibly Saturday, a
diplomatic source told Itar-Tass here.
In Toronto, the crew will take a flight to Moscow.
Their return home became possible after the Russian government had
allocated funds from the federal budget necessary for the seamen's release.
"They are our citizens and we'll help them to get back home," Deputy
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said at a recent conference.
The Lyubov Orlova sea liner, named after a star of the Soviet movie
industry of the first half of the 20th century, sails under the flag of
the Cooke Islands.
Upon return from a regular cruise in September, it was arrested on a
court warrant in connection with a commercial dispute over demands by the
haulage contractor that it be paid $251,400.
Two weeks later, the crew filed a lawsuit against the ship owners with
a demand to pay off the back wages.
Simultaneously, the seamen turned to the Russian embassy in Canada
with a request to render help for their return home.
-0-kle