Itar-Tass news digest for Wednesday, January 12.

12/1 Tass 141

MOSCOW - The Committee on International Affairs of the State Duma
lower house of the Russian parliament, at its first meeting in the new
year on Wednesday, will consider amendments for the second reading of the
START-3 Treaty ratification bill. In point of fact, this signifies the
introduction of Russian terms and "provisos" to the new Treaty in reply to
the ratification resolution passed by the US Senate.

SUKHUM - Sergei Stepashin, Chairman of the Audit Chamber of the
Russian Federation (AURF), arrives in the Republic of Abkhazia on
Wednesday. Stepashin is to meet with the republic's President Sergei
Bagapsh and then tour a second Russian school and a Russian drama theatre
that are being repaired in Sukhum on funds provided by Russia. Financial
resources for the rehabilitation of these facilities have been allocated
by Russia within the framework of the Comprehensive plan for the promotion
of socio-economic development of the republic.

MOSCOW - On Wednesday, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) is to
make public the results of investigation into the crash near Smolensk of
the Tu-154M airliner that carried a Polish delegation headed by President
Lech Kaczynski, an official in the IAC press service has told Itar-Tass. A
report on the final results of the investigative work is to be presented
to journalists by IAC Head Tatyana Anodina and Alexei Morozov, Head of the
IAC Technical Commission,

SOCHI - An exhibition on the theme of "Health Resorts and
Tourism-2011" opens here on Wednesday to usher in a new tourist season.
This annual tour industry exhibition is held within one and the same
period -- from January 12 to14 -- and draws the leading enterprises of
both the Southern Federal District and other regions of Russia, as well as
post-Soviet countries, an official in the administraiton of the health
resort has told Itar-Tass.

GENEVA - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive opens a
two-day session in Lausanne on Wednesday. Members of the Executive are to
hear reports by the organizing committees of the London-2012 Olympic
Games, Sochi-2014, Rio de Janeiro - 2016, and the first Youth Games - 2012
in Innsbruck (Austria). Other subjects for discussion at the session will
be sanctions against non-recognized national Olympic committees and the
sale of rights to TV coverage of the Olympics.

ASHGABAT - Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and commander
of United States Central Command, General James Mattis expressed readiness
to step up cooperation and resolve problems of drug trafficking and
terrorism in the Central Asian region. Prospects for stronger partnership
in the context of pressing security tasks topped the agenda of the Tuesday
meeting, local mass media reports. The U.S. government plans to further
develop multifaceted cooperation with Turkmenistan that the United States
considers a reliable partner, he said.

VLADIVOSTOK - The icebreakers Krasin and Admiral Makarov on Wednesday
morning began to pilot the fishing factory ship Sodruzhestvo to a loose
ice area. The factoryship has been trapped in the ice in the Sakhalin Gulf
of the Sea of Okhotsk 11-12 miles off the Khabarovsk Terirtory shoreline.
Weather in the area of the rescue operation in the Sea of Okhotsk is
expected sharply to deteriorrate in the coming two days: wind velocity is
expected to increase and visibility get limited. This may greatly hamper
the pilotage of ships across the ice, Tatyana Kulikova, head of the press
center of the Far Eastern sea shipping company, has told Itar-Tass.

MOSCOW - Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said the situations in
the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, and the town of
Gus-Khrustalny, Vladimir region, had developed because of insufficient
efforts by police. Chaika said so in an interview to the newspaper
Rossiiskaya Gazeta, published on Wednesday. "The situation in
Gus-Khrustalny [whose business people complained to the country's
leadership about the pressure from criminals and the inaction of
law-enforcement bodies - eds Itar-Tass] is a striking example of the
merger between criminals and government; specifically, local self-rule
bodies," the prosecutor noted.

HANOI - The 11th congress of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam
(CPV) opened at the National Congress Center here on Wednesday. About
1,400 delegates representing more than 54,000 primary party organizations
are taking part in the congress work. Nong Duc Manh, General Secretary of
the CPV Central Committee, addressed those present in a speech of
greetings. He pointed out that the congress is to consider a number of key
matters and adopt draft documents that are designed to ensure a further
stable development of the Vietnamese State in all fields.

ROME - A Russian skier died being buried by an avalanche in the
Italian Alps on Monday, the Italian ANSA news agency reported. The
incident took place in the Valle d'Aosta region in northern Italy, which
borders on France and Switzerland. According to ANSA, the dead body of a
34-year-old resident of Moscow was recovered by rescuers. The man and his
three friends, who managed to survive, were skiing at an altitude of 2,200
metres in an area where skiing is prohibited. Presumably, the skiers had
provoked the avalanche themselves.

KHABAROVSK - Vyacheslav Shport, Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory,
has approved the concept of a project for a "Comprehensive Development of
the Large Ussurian Island (LUI)", an official in the Territorial
government press service told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. Project developers
emphasize, "A tourist recreation complex of international importance is to
be established on that border island, a half of which has been turned over
to the People's Republic of China (PRC) within the framework of the
demarcation of the Sino-Russian border. The main condition is to combine
economic efficiency with principles for a steady use of the island in the
interests of Russia and China".

TBILISI - Three top-ranking servicemen have been detained on suspicion
of being involved in the Tuesday explosion at a Defence Ministry training
centre in the town of Krtsanisi that killed three and wounded 13
servicemen, the Georgian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. According to
the ministry, the blast was caused by the breach of safety rules. "Now the
task is to call to account those who were responsible for the control over
safety rules," the ministry said.
-0-gor