EMERCOM continues evacuating Russians from Libya.

MOSCOW, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Ministry for Emergency
Situations and Civil Defense, internationally known as EMERCOM, continued
its efforts on Saturday to evacuate the Russian citizens still staying in
chaos-stricken Libya.
Evacuation by air proceeds from the airport of the Libyan capital
Tripoli and by ferryboat, from the port of R'as Lanuf.
A decision was taken Saturday night to dispatch one more jet to
Tripoli for the evacuation of Russians and nationals of other countries.
"All of these people didn't manage to get out of Tripoli for various
reasons February 23," an EMERCOM spokesman said. "The jet is expected to
take off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport at around 09:00 hours Moscow
Standards Time /06:00 hours GMT/."
Some of the future evacuees are awaiting a ferryboat in R'as Lanuf.
The St Stefan 2 ferry is due to reach the port in the small hours of
Sunday morning.
Weather was not encouraging for the voyage en route from the Italian
Adriatic seaport of Bari, as a severe storm was raging on high seas.
"To ensure the safety of the evacuees' boarding, a Turkish naval ship
will escort the ferryboat," the spokesman said.


.UN Security Council to vote on draft resolution on Libya shortly.

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - Members of the UN Security
Council are expected to vote on a draft resolution on Libya at 20:00 hours
EST Saturday /01:00 hours GMT Sunday/, a source on the Council told
reporters.
The delegations of Britain, France, the U.S., and Germany have been
holding consultations behind closed doors here for more than seven hours
already, including a technical break.
The draft resolution envisions the freezing of accounts of top-rank
Libyan state officials and a ban on their trips abroad.
The document also mentions an embargo on weaponry supplies to the
Libyan Jamahiriya.

.Leopard, White Bear and Hare to be mascots of Sochi Olympics in 2014.

MOSCOW, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - Leopard, White Bear and Hare have
become official mascots of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
A decision on this was passed about midnight Saturday by the Sochi
organizing committee upon the results of a nationwide SMS and telephone
live voting, which was broadcast by the Moscow-based Channel One.
In a simultaneous voting, the audiences named the Stellar Boy and the
Snowflake as the mascots for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games.
Committee President Dmitry Chernyshenko, who announced the results,
said: "Since there are three positions at the winners' stand, we'll have
three mascots - the Leopard, the White Bear and the Hare."
"A popular Russian saying suggests that God loves Trinity and that's
why the Organizing Committee decided to leave three winners of the
audiences' preference rate," he said. "Each of them reiterates the Olympic
principles - friendship, respect and willingness for perfection."
In the outcome, the Leopard got 28% votes, the White Bear, 18%, and
the Hare, 16%.
The breakdown of votes for other mascots was as follows: the Dolphin,
12%, the Robin, 10%, the Matryoshka nesting doll, and the Brown Bear, 3%.
One of the favorites in previous rounds of people's voting, Granny
Frost, who in many ways is the Russian counterpart of Santa Claus,
withdrew from the race of its own free will, as it might become the
property of the International Olympic Committee /IOC/ then.
The legend behind the mascots imparts each creature with certain
personal qualities. It says, for instance, that "the Leopard is a
mountainous rescuer and climber who lives inside the crown of a tree
perched on the highest cliff in snow-capped mountaints of the
Caucasus."He's always ready to help and he has saved a village located
nearby from snow avalanches more than once."
"The Leopard excells in snowboarding and he has familiarized all of
his friends and neighbors with that sport. He is a merry animal very fond
of dancing, and that's why he can't live too far from people".
"The White Bear lives in an icehouse someplace inside the Arctic
Circle and everything in his dwelling -- the shower, the bed, the
computer, and even the sports simulators -- is made of ice and snow."
"Human researchers of the Arctic took part in his upbringing and
education since the time he was but a small cub. It was the researchers
who taught him to ski, to skate and to play curling. but he personally
developed a taste for bobsleigh and now his closest friends, the fur
seals, joyfully watch his victories."
"They organize competitions in these sports themselves, too,"
"The Hare is a young female creature living in the winter forest. Her
friends are always amazed at how much she manages to do every day."
"Not only is she an exemplary student at the Forest Academy, she
always finds time to help her mother about their family restaurant called
'The Forest Pond' and to take part in various competitions."
"The Hare assures her friends that she doesn't have any secrets and
she simply loves sports. One more thing she loves is singing and dancing."
As part of the televised show, the candidates who suddenly came alive
showed three-minutes-long introduction films about themselves.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with students
in Sochi he personally preferred the Leopard, whom he called "a strong,
the most quick-moving and nice-looking animal."
He said however he would trust the opinion of the majority of those
who took part in the voting.
Putin said the Leopard would be a highly emblematic image for the
Sochi Games. "The leopards as a species were exterminated in the past but
now they are being revived here."
"If the practical steps taken in connection with the Olympic project
bring about the revival of at least one segment of nature that has been
lost because of human activity, this is really very emblematic then,"
Putin said.
He stressed along with this once again the fundamental principle for
the selection of mascots is to take account of what the majority of people
think and "to avoid any connections to what Dmitry Anatolyevich or I
personally think."
-0-kle


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