Russian schooner sinks off Sakhalin, crew rescued.

VLADIVOSTOK, February 1 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian schooner Hoshi-maru
sank on Sunday off Russia's Sakhalin. The crew of eight people was
rescued, the Vladivostok sea rescue centre reports.

According to its source, the Hoshi-maru sank at 21:30 local time
(14:30 Moscow time) off the southernmost part of Sakhalin. The crew
escaped in a life raft. They were picked up by another Russian schooner
and were brought to the port of Korsakov.
The source said the schooner sank because of a leak in the hold. The
crew tried to stop the leak, but the ship took a list. The fishermen had
to quickly evacuate, and soon after that the schooner turned over and sank.

.Russia-USA talks on new START treaty in home stretch.

GENEVA, February 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russian and U.S. delegations will
resume in Geneva on Monday talks on a new START treaty. This will be "a
new full-format round of talks," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei
Nesterenko said.
Time will show whether it will be the last one, but over the past
half-a-year the sides have come close to finishing work on the treaty that
is to replace the previous one, which expired on December 5.
"A next full-format round of talks will begin in Geneva on February
1," Nesterenko said. He said on January 27 the presidents of the two
countries had a telephone conversation in which they agreed to instruct
their delegations to shortly finish coordinating technical details of the
new treaty.
"Intensive work proceeds continuously in accordance with presidents'
instructions," the diplomat stressed.
"Everything is normal at the talks, and 95 percent of issues in the
new treaty have been coordinated," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said
on January 24. He said he was quite optimistic about the agreements.
Several days after that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said
following talks in London with his U.S. counterpart Hillary Clinton that
work on the new agreement could be finished "literally within the next few
weeks". He said the delegations in Geneva have new specified parameters on
the issues that are yet to be coordinated. However, the items that have
already been coordinated still need some technical, legal and linguistic
work on them, he added.
"Major steps have been done towards ending talks on the new START
treaty as a result of recent contacts in Moscow," Lavrov stressed,
referring to a visit to Moscow by U.S. president's National Security
Adviser James Johns and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral
Michael Mullen.
Admiral Michael Mullen said upon his return to Washington that he was
pleased by his trip to Moscow, the talks on a new strategic offensive arms
reduction treaty held in the Russian capital.
On January 27, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President
Barack Obama discussed in detail and at length pressing issues of
Russian-American relations, including the signing of a new START in the
near future.
"The heads of state expressed satisfaction with a serious progress in
preparations for the new START treaty reached during the recent Moscow
round of talks, and agreed to instruct their delegations to shortly finish
technical work on the document," the Kremlin press service reported.
The Soviet Union and the United States signed the START-1 treaty on
July 31, 1991, and the treaty entered into force on December 5, 1994. The
treaty was concluded for 15 years until December 5, 2009.
The treaty can be replaced with a new agreement or extended for five
years. Negotiations on an extension or replacement of the treaty should
begin not later than a year before the START-1 treaty expires.
The START-1 treaty obliged both sides to reduce more than 40 percent
of their nuclear warheads (to 6,000 warheads) and about 30 percent of
their strategic carriers (to 1,600 pieces). Russia and the U.S. had
fulfilled these liabilities by 2001. On July 6, 2009, Medvedev and Obama
agreed to sign a new legally binding START shortly. They set a clear goal
of reaching an agreement in December. Russia and the United States agreed
to reduce strategic offensive arms and to sign a new legally binding
strategic offensive arms reduction treaty to replace the existing START
treaty that expired in December, according to a document entitled "Joint
Understanding on Further Strategic Offensive Arms Cuts and Reductions"
that was signed by Medvedev and Obama in Moscow in July.
The Joint Understanding commits the United States and Russia to reduce
their strategic warheads to a range of 1,500-1,675, and their strategic
delivery vehicles to a range of 500-1,100. Under the expiring START and
the Moscow treaties the maximum allowable levels of warheads is 2,200 and
the maximum allowable level of launch vehicles is 1,600.
These numbers reflect a new level of reductions of strategic offensive
arms and delivery vehicles that will be lower than those in any existing
arms control agreements. The new treaty will include effective
verification measures drawn from the experience of the Parties in
implementing START. The new agreement will enhance the security of both
the U.S. and Russia, as well as provide predictability and stability in
strategic offensive forces. A follow-on agreement to START directly
supports the goals outlined by the President during his speech in Prague
and will demonstrate Russian and American leadership in strengthening the
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"We are ready to reduce the number of nuclear weapon carriers several
times against that required by the START-1 Treaty. As for the related
warheads, their number should be lower than the level provided for in the
2002 Moscow Agreement, just as we agreed with President Obama," Medvedev
said.
-0-zhe/


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next