Record big number of aspirants contending in Lithuanian elections.

VILNIUS, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - Voters in Lithuania go to the polls
Sunday to elect 1,526 deputies of sixty local councils.
This is the sixth local election in the history of Lithuania after its
secession from the former USSR in 1991 and it has a record big number of
contenders.
The chairman of the country's Central Electoral Commission, Zenonas
Vaigauskas told reporters the polling stations will open at 07:00 hours
and the electorate will be able to vote through to 20:00 hours.
The list of candidates aspiring to elected offices contains 16,404
names.
That the competition is really tough can been seen from that fact that
more than 20 candidates per seat have been entered in the ballots in the
national capital Vilnius alone. This marks an increase of seven candidates
per seat versus the previous elections held in 2007.
Apart from the 670 people of Lithuanian ethnic origin, the seats in
Vilnius are clamed by 136 Poles, 75 Russians and four Belarussians.
On the nationwide plane, the MPs represent 29 of the 40 officially
registered political parties.
A novel development in the current elections is that self-nomination
of nonpartisan candidates has been admitted for the first time.
A total 505 such candidates have been registered. Lithuanian experts
believe the presence of the independents on the ballots may make the
average voter more interested in the election.
The latter is a point of concern, as the 2007 elections were marked by
a record low turnout of voters standing at 36.5% only.
In line with the European Union norms, Lithuanian government
guarantees the right to franchise in the local elections to all the
permanent residents of an administrative entity regardless of what country
they are citizens of.
About 30,000 foreigners have permits for permanent residence in
Lithuania.


.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.
A total of 1,126 persons, including 124 Russian citizens, are awaiting
evacuation in R'as Lanuf. The other 1,002 individuals are nationals of
other countries who worked under contracts with Russian companies in Libya.
The future evacuees are staying on a special camp until the arrival of
the ferryboat. Officials at the Russian state railway corporation RZD,
which is engaged in the rescue efforts along with EMERCOM, claim the
situation on the camp is quiet and the people have all the necessary
supplies.
"Everyone should be ready for evacuation by 01:00 hours GMT Sunday in
R'as Lanuf so that the embarkation could be over an hour after the arrival
of the ferryboat," Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a
process meeting at EMERCOM.
A political turmoil spearheaded at the longtime leader of the Libyan
Jamahiriya, Muamar Gaddafi, broke out February 15. Some sources allege
that about a thousand people have died since then in clashes between the
opposition and the forces loyal to the government.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued an instruction to EMERCOM and
the RZD February 21 to draft plans for evacuation of Russian citizens from
the Libyan territory.
The people who are being evacuated worked on contracts with the RZD
and Russian oil companies in three cities - Tripoli, Sirt and R'as Lanuf.
EMERCOM jets evacuated almost 500 individuals from Tripoli and Sirt
February 23 and February 25.
The number includes more than 330 Russians. Among the foreigners,
there were 52 Turks, 43 Serbs, 33 Ukrainians, nine Belarussians, four
Australians, three Armenians, two Kazakhstanis, two Thais, a Bulgarian, a
Montenegrin, a Finn, and Uzbekistani, and a Tunisian.

.UN Security Council bans foreign trips for Muamar Gaddafi.

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - UN Security Council passed a
resolution Thursday night introducing sanctions against Libya's top
political leadership.
The document bans, among other things, trips abroad by the leader of
the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Muamar Gaddafi, nine members of his family,
and six closest assistants.
The draft of the resolution was proposed by the U.S., Britain, France,
and Germany February 25. Sunday, it became the subject of consultations
behind closed doors that lasted more about nine hours.
The document was endorsed at an open session of the Council with UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attending
The resolution also envisions the freezing of bank accounts opened by
Muamar Gaddafi, his sun Seif al-Ismail Gaddafi and another four members of
the family.
The document also makes mention of a possible embargo on arms supplies
to Libya.
-0-kle


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