Hockey -- Russian team wins Belarussian Pres Prize tournament.

MINSK, January 8 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian team won the seventh
Christmas international hockey lovers tournament for the Belarussian
president's prize.
The Russians defeated the Belarussians 3:2 in the final penalty
shootout.
In the Belarussian team was the country's president himself.
Russian goalkeeper Maxim Mikhailovsky, Belarussian defenceman Vladimir
Tsyplakov and Belarussian forward Andrei Astashevich were named the best
players.
The bronze winner in the tournament, which began on January 4, is the
team of Finland.
Teams of hockey lovers from Austria, Germany, Russia, Slovakia,
Ukraine, Finland, Switzerland and Belarus competed for the Christmas Cup
this year.
In previous years, the Belarussian team won the tournament for five
times, and the Russians defeated the hosts once in 2007.
The chairman of the Belarussian Hockey Federation, Yevgeny Vorsin,
noted that the tournament became more and more prestigious with each
passing year and more former successful professional hockey players were
included in the teams applying for the participation.


.Icebreaker leads trawler out of ice trap.


MOSCOW, January 8 (Itar-Tass) -- The icebreaker Admiral Makarov has
begun the operation to lead the trawler Bereg Nadezhdy out of the ice trap
in the Sakhalin Bay, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Russian Transport Ministry's
press service told Itar-Tass.
The Admiral Makarov at midnight Moscow time came to the trawler and
after completing the preparation at 02:00 began the operation to lead the
trawler out of the heavy ice zone, a press service official said.
Earlier the Admiral Makarov led the scientific research vessel
Professor Kizevetter to the zone of light ice and handed over the vessel
to the icebreaker Magadan, which accompanies the ship to the clear water.
The mother ship Sodruzhestvo remains blocked in the ice. According to
specialists, it is the most difficult to bring this ship to the clear
water. The Sodruzhestvo is wider than the icebreakers. The icebreaker
Krasin is on the way to help the Admiral Makarov to make the canal wider.
The Krasin is expected to arrive to the site on Saturday night.



.Port tugboat without crew lost in Sea of Okhotsk.


VLADIVOSTOK, January 8 (Itar-Tass) -- The port tugboat Progress
without a crew is lost in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Another tugboat, the Konstantin Bondarenko, led the vessel from
Magadan. Two days ago, when the convoy passed along Sakhalin's western
coast, 32-mm-diametre towing rope wound onto the propeller unit of the
Konstantin Bondarenko, stopping the vessel. Storm waves broke the tie
between the two vessels. At first, the Progress drifted near the
Konstantin Bondarenko, but disappeared on Saturday.
The ship Irbis of the Far Eastern rescue centre is on the way to help
the Konstantin Bondarenko. An operator said the task for the Irbis was to
lead the tugboat to the town of Poronaisk located on the coast of the
Terpenia (Patience) Bay, central Sakhalin.
The Irbis is moving through heavy ice. Rescuers expect it to come to
the Konstantin Bondarenko later in the day and begin to lead it to
Poronaisk.
Search for the Progress is not launched yet.
-0-pan