Ten miners find alive in emergency coalmine in China.

BEIJING, April 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Ten miners were found alive in the
small hours on Monday in an emergency coalmine in northern China, where
they spent more than a week, the Chinese state television reports. Rescued
miners were hospitalized.
Several more miners remain alive in the shaft, the Chinese television
said. According to available reports, the rescuers noticed the light
signals coming from a remote section of the coalmine.
The coalmine in Shanxi Province in northern China was flooded on March
28. At the moment of the disaster 153 miners were in the shaft. The rescue
operation is still in progress. The rescuers are pumping water out of the
coalmine in order to get to the non-flooded section, where people may stay
alive.

.EU Visa Code to enter into force.

MOSCOW, April 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The European Union's Common Code on
Visas, also known as the Visa Code, will enter into force on Monday. The
period of time during which Schengen visa applications from Russian
citizens should be considered will reduce to ten days.
The document envisages several novelties and clear-cut procedures.
Under the Visa Code a personal visit of a visa applicant to get a visa is
compulsory, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry elaborated.
Alongside, Russian citizens should have the approved package of documents.
This is a correctly filled application form, a document identifying
the personality and granting the right to cross the border, several
photos, a document verifying the goal of a trip, a medical insurance
certificate, as well as information verifying that a visa applicant
intends to leave the Schengen zone before the visa expiry date. "If
necessary consular officers can demand to produce additional documents,"
the Russian diplomatic source said.
"When considering a visa application special attention will be given
to the authentication and validity of the documents. The risks of illegal
migration and security threats will be studied attentively," the source
said.
"If a visa application is denied a country is to explain the reason
for such decision. Since several EU states will have to amend the national
legislation for this procedure, such provision will come into effect as of
April 5, 2011," the Russian Foreign Ministry's source said. Meanwhile, a
visa applicant "will have the right to lodge an appeal versus a concrete
country in compliance with the country's national legislation."
After a common visa information system has come into effect at the end
of 2010 people will face the requirement of their fingerprints. "This
requirement will enter into force in Russia starting from 2011," the
source said.
"The maximum period of time during which Schengen visa applications
filed by Russian citizens should be considered will make ten days with the
visa fee to remain 35 euros," the source said. "This provision is
specified in the Russia-EU agreement on facilitation of issuance of visas
for Russian citizens. In some other countries the visa fee will reach 60
euros, and the period of time during which a visa application should be
considered will make 15 days," the Foreign Ministry source said.
Press attache of the Moscow office of the European Commission Denis
Daniilidis noted that the new visa rules are seeking to simplify and make
the visa issuance more predictable.
According to the European Commission official, Russia and the European
Union are advancing gradually on the way to simplify the visa regime. He
cited as an example a Russian-French agreement under development on easy
terms for issuing a permit for a long stay in the country.
The list of the countries, which apply the common visa policy,
includes the EU states, except for Great Britain and Ireland (Bulgaria,
Romania and Cyprus will join the EU Visa Code, as soon as they turn in
Schengen zone states without internal borders), as well as the countries
included in the Schengen zone, but are not EU states (Iceland, Norway and
Switzerland).

.Two adults, child died in car sinking under ice in Sea of Okhotsk.

MAGADAN, April 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Two adults and a child died in car,
which sank under the ice in the Sea of Okhotsk off the coast of Kolyma,
the press service of the Far Eastern regional center of the Emergency
Situations Ministry reported on Monday.
The tragic incident was reported in the Bay of Gertner on Sunday. A
foreign car was driving at a high speed on ice ignoring the stop signs.
The car got into the ice crack and sank about 1.5 kilometers away from the
shore. The drivers found the sunken car on the sea bottom and raised three
dead people: the driver and a woman with a child.
The Magadan Mayor's Office issued a resolution a week ago to ban the
driving on the sea ice for all types of vehicles, but some drivers ignore
the ban. The Sakhalin authorities acted in a simpler way, police posts
blocked all approaches to angling sites. For the last ten days no
accidents with people going on the ice have been reported on the island.
Three weeks ago an ice floe with 15 anglers was torn off from the shore
and drifted in the high seas. Four anglers died in the rescue operation.
-0-baz


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