Ten killed in road accident in Dagestan - police

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ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 28 (Itar-Tass) - According to fresh reports, ten
people were killed in a road accident in Russia's southern republic of
Dagestan on Monday. Six people are in hospital, an officer on duty at the
republican State Road Traffic Safety Inspection told Tass on Tuesday.
The accident occurred on the Terekli-Mekteb-Kizlyar highway 170
kilometres north of Makhachkala, in Dagestan's Nogai region. Nine people
died instantaneously when three Zhiguli cars collided, and one more died
in hospital later. There were two children among the casualties.

.Election campaign ends in Moldova.

CHISINAU, July 28 (Itar-Tass) - The election campaign ended in Moldova
at midnight local time ahead of the second early parliamentary election on
Wednesday. On the last day before the voting, when campaigning is
forbidden, a wave of mutual accusations from eight parties fighting for
seats in parliament has subsided, and streets decorated with party red,
green and yellow flags have calmed down.
All summer long Moldova has lived with an impression of dejа vu:
meetings, slogans, debates, and campaigners. All this was already seen at
the election in April, after which the opposition contested the victory of
Communists and staged riots. After riots the country plunged into a
political crisis - for almost two months Moldova was waiting for a new
president, who was to replace Vladimir Voronin after his second and last
presidential term.
However, two attempts to elect the new president by the new parliament
failed. The opposition twice refused to vote for the ruling party's
candidate Zinaida Greceanii and thus forced the president to dismiss the
parliament. The Party of Communists had 60 out of 101 seats in the
dismissed parliament, yet it took 61 votes to elect the president. The
opposition did not conceal that it sought revenge for the April election
in the new ballot.
This election campaign was the shortest and the most aggressive in the
history of Moldovan elections.
For six consecutive weeks, all television channels showed the footage
of the disturbances in April, with scores of police and protesters running
blood. However, the same videos had different comments.
The Communists' slogan was "For Defense of the Motherland against
political chaos," while the Opposition claimed that the protesters had
become victims of "the secret services' provocation and police
lawlessness."
According to pre-election polls, the upcoming voting will hardly
introduce visible changes in the political landscape.
Although the parliament has decreased the election threshold from 6 to
5 percent, only four political parties are able to gain seats in the
parliament.
The Communists remain clear favourites, and are expected to net 30 to
40 percent of votes, followed by Liberal, Democratic and Liberal
Democratic Parties. The last three parties may gather 13.2, 9.6 and 7.2
percent of votes, respectively.
Therefore, the trend of 2005 persists, as the Communists continue to
control almost half of the electorate, while the re-distribution of votes
in the Opposition traditionally benefits new players.
According to some forecasts, Democratic Party is likely to win seats
in the parliament this time. Analysts explain its increasing popularity by
the admission to its ranks of former parliament speaker Marian Lupu, who
quit the Communist Party in June.
However, opinion polls are vague on whether the Communists will gain a
majority in the parliament, to enable them to elect the president of their
choice.
This depends on 24 percent of voters, who remain undecided, according
to opinion polls.
One thing is clear, however: the election will take place regardless.
According to the election law, they will be valid even if just one-third
of voters turns up at polling stations. Even if this turnout fails, a
repeat voting will take place in two weeks without consideration of any
turnout results.

.Session on construction of railway to Kyzyl held in Tuva Republic.

GORNO-ALTAISK, July 28 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Minister for Regional
Development Viktor Basargin chairs on Tuesday a session in Tuva on the
implementation of a project to build the Kyzyl-Kuragina railway line worth
98.6 billion roubles, sources from the economics ministry of the Russian
Tuva Republic told Tass on Tuesday.
Leadership of Tuva and the Krasnoyarsk region, the Yenisei Industrial
Company (private investor of the project), Vnesheconombank, the
Sevzaptransproekt company - general designer of the project, as well as
the Tomgiprotrans transport company will take part.
Money from federal and local budgets will be used in work on
engineering, social and cultural infrastructure of the project.
Participants in the session will examine the route of the future railway
and will take part in a ceremony to install a commemorative sign at the
site of the construction of a 700-meter-long tunnel on the border between
Tuva and the Krasnoyarsk region. The minister will also visit Elegest
coalfield, the development of which is linked to the railway construction
project.
It is expected that agreements on creating conditions for
state-private partnership for the implementation of that major project
will be signed after a session between the governments of Tuva and the
Krasnoyarsk region with the Yenisei Industrial Company. Earlier reports
said that the project would be financed in equal shares by the state and
the company.
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