Passengers evacuated by helicopter from ice-covered ship in FE.

VLADIVOSTOK, January 23 (Itar-Tass) -- A Mi-8 helicopter of the
Sakhalin company Aviashelf airlifted eleven passengers from the Smolninsky
transport refrigerator ship in the Sea of Okhotsk to the city of Nogliki
on Saturday.
The helicopter with the rescued people landed at 15:56 local time
(08:56 Moscow time), a Nogliki airport source said.
Twenty crewmembers remained aboard the Smolninsky. The ship slowly
moved to the ice edge at a speed of 2-2.5 knots to take shelter there from
the storm. Waves in the area are five metres high. The wind speed is 15-18
metres a second, and the air temperature is about 20 degrees below zero.
The Smolninsky was 220 kilometres northeast of the Sakhalin coast at
the time. It lists less than before, the press service of the Russian
Emergencies Ministry's Sakhalin regional department said. The ship had a
30-degree list to the left side.
One more helicopter Mi-8 of the Emergencies Ministry's Far Eastern
regional centre arrived in Sakhalin from Khabarovsk to join the rescue
operation. The helicopter is based in the city of Okha and is ready to
take off at any time. A supplier vessel belonging to the oil company
Sakhalin Energy remains near the Smolninsky to ensure its safety. It is a
large 2,000-tonnage icebreaker-type vessel.
The Smolninsky got in distress in the Sea of Okhotsk on Friday when it
was on the way to a fishing area to take a cargo. The severe storm,
20-degree frost and waves caused icing of the ship. It was faced with a
threat of sinking.
The ship is from the port of Nakhodka. Its length is 85 metres, and
its carrying capacity is 2,483 tonnes. The refrigerator left Vladivostok
on December 22, 2009, for South Korea, and supposedly from there it came
to the Sea of Okhotsk where it got trapped in the situation.




.Russian president congratulates new Serb Patriarch Irinej.



MOSCOW, January 23 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
has congratulated Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, Archbishop of Pec and
Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, on his election as head of the Serb
Orthodox Church, the Kremlin press service said on Saturday.
Medvedev noted in the congratulation that Irinej had high authority
among believers and great pastor experience and there were no doubts that
he would carry out his mission honourably.
The president expressed the hope that following the example of
Patriarch Pavle and many other predecessors Irinej would make an important
contribution in the cause of consolidating centuries-old brotherly ties
between the nations of Russia and Serbia.




.Over 100,000 people left without electricity in N Caucasus reg.





YESSENTUKI, Stavropol Ter, January 23 (Itar-Tass) -- Over 105,600
people were left without electricity in more than 30 residential sites in
the Stavropol Territory, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia and Chechnya (the
North Caucasian Federal District) on Saturday because of breaks of
ice-covered electro-transmission line wire.
Snowfalls and the low temperature during the week caused forming of
ice on wire, a source at the North Caucasian inter-regional distribution
network company told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
In the past two days electro-transmission lines stopped working
because of breaks of wire under the weight of snow and ice, spokesman
Gennady Vykhristyuk said.
Electricity was cut off to a total of about 3,000 residents in the
Stavropol Territory, about 65,000 people in 28 residential sites in
Kabardino-Balkaria, about 35,000 in Chechnya and 2,640 people in
Ingushetia, he said. Seventy teams, more than 260 specialists, were
working to repair the lines. They used 48 units of special machines, he
added.
All the forces and means of the North Caucasian company's branches
were mobilised for the repair work.
Meteorologists forecast no change in the weather in the regions soon.
A state of emergency is declared in some regions of the
Kabardino-Balkarian Republic due to the emergency, the press service of
the republic's head told Itar-Tass.
Operational headquarters are set up to coordinate the repair work.
According to the press service information, 548 people were mobilised for
the work.
Teams of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's regional department, the
North Caucasian distribution network company, the Nalchik electricity
network, the water and gas supply companies and other services are working
day and night to resume the electricity supply, the press service said.
The government asked residents to be patient. The main work to repair
the damaged electricity lines and resume the water and heat supply was
planned to be completed by Saturday night.
Heavy snowfalls, the cold weather, icing of electro-transmission
lines and damage from falling trees caused electricity cutoffs to many
areas in Kabardino-Balkaria.
-0-pan