Earthquake of 6,1 points occurs in south Pacific.

VLADIVOSTOK, December 2 (Itar-Tass) - There was an earthquake
measuring 6.1 points in the south of the Pacific Ocean in the area of the
Fiji islands overnight (19:01 MSK, Wednesday).
According to the US National Earthquake Information Centre (Denver,
Colorado), the epicentre of the earthquake was recorded at 185 kilometres
northeast of Lambasa on the Vanua Levu Island that us part of the Fiji
Islands, and its focus was at a depth of 15.2 kilometres under the seabed.
There have been no reports about any significant effects of the
tectonic cataclysm.
This remote areas of the World Ocean lies within the so-called Pacific
Ring of Fire - a chain of seismically active zones and volcanoes,
including underwater, stretching for 40,000 kilometres from the coast of
Mexico through the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines and Indonesia to the
south as New Zealand. The Fiji Islands, as the neighbouring Solomon
Islands, Tonga and Kermadec, are towering over a vast underwater plateau,
framed by a belt of volcanic mountains. Therefore, earthquakes occur there
frequently. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75
percent of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. It is sometimes
called the circum-Pacific belt or the circum-Pacific seismic belt. About
90 percent of the world's earthquakes and 80 percent of the world's
largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. The next most seismic
region (5-6 percent of earthquakes and 17 percent of the world's largest
earthquakes) is the Alpide belt, which extends from Java to Sumatra
through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic. The
Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the third most prominent earthquake belt.
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.Russia-EU relations need not 'reset,' but acceleration-Chizhov.

BRUSSELS, December 2 (Itar-Tass) - Relations between Russia and the EU
do not need a "reset," they need acceleration, Russia's Permanent
Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said on Wednesday at a press
conference that precedes the EU-Russia summit to be held in Brussels on
December 7.
According to him, unlike relations with the United States or NATO,
Russia's relations with the EU "haven not worsened so that they needed
resetting."
"They need the accelerator pedal, and the Partnership for
Modernisation Programme launched this year should become such pedal,"
Chizhov noted. "This programme is a common response of Russia and the EU
to challenges of the global world in which there is a shift of economic
and political balance." It will be one of the central themes of the
upcoming summit.
According to Vladimir Chizhov, the negotiations at the summit will
cover three "thematic layers": the global, international and bilateral.
At the global level, the summit participants will discuss the
development of a coordinated strategy for overcoming the global financial
crisis on the basis of discussions at the G20 summit in Seoul. They will
also consider problems of combating global climate change and preparations
for the Cancun conference.
The main topics of talks on international issues will be the Middle
East peace process, situation in Iran, the results of the OSCE summit in
Astana, and possibly the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Vladimir Chizhov said that the Russia-EU summit will be held
immediately after the talks of EU High Representative for Foreign and
Security Policy Catherine Ashton with the Iranian side, which are
scheduled for December 6-7 in Geneva, so "we expect to receive the latest
first-hand information."
As for the bilateral issues, the summiteers will give an assessment to
the negotiating process on a new framework agreement on partnership, on
which the parties art now completing the 12th round of talks. They will
also discuss the liberalisation of the visa regime, cooperation in joint
response to crises and issues of the energy dialogue.
The summit will also officially announce the completion of
negotiations between Russia and the EU on Russia's accession to the World
Trade Organisation (WTO).
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