Only pilgrim hospitalised after bus accident in Leningrad region.

MOSCOW, August 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Pilgrims, who got in a bus accident in the Leningrad region, were not seriously injured, a patrol traffic police officer, who rushed in the incident site told Itar-Tass by phone on Sunday.

Meanwhile, 17 pilgrims asked for medical aid after the Sunday bus
accident in the Leningrad region, but after a medical examination it was
decided to hospitalise just one pilgrims, a source at the Russian Interior
Ministry's road safety department told Itar-Tass.
"There is nothing serious. They have bruises," the source noted.
Meanwhile, a source at the St. Petersburg and Leningrad region traffic
police department informed Itar-Tass about the accident details.
"The female driver that flagrantly breached traffic rules was
responsible for the accident. She was coming from a secondary road and
took the main lane without letting the bus pass. The woman was driving a
Daewoo Matiz together with her husband and a small child from her dacha.
She told the police that she was driving at 20-25 kilometers per hour and
did not see the coming bus. She also said she tried to avoid collision and
took the opposite lane. The bus driver also tried to avoid collision and
moved to the curb. As a result, the bus fell down on its side," the
policeman said.
"The woman who caused the traffic accident received the driving
license in 2000 but had a long pause in driving because of child birth.
Probably, the insufficient skills prevented her from reacting quickly to
the particular road situation," he said.
The police cordoned traffic accident site, and the examination goes on.
The accident occurred at the 108th kilometre of the Novaya Ladoga -
Zuyevo road at 7:35 p.m. Moscow time. The Volvo bus was carrying pilgrims
from a monastery to St. Petersburg. In all, the bus had 45 people onboard.

.Russia's plant of Ford motor giant to resume production.

NAZRAN, August 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian plant of the Ford motor
giant will resume the production in Vsevolozhsk (the Leningrad region)
Monday after the scheduled collective vacations, which were held from July
20 to August 9. The motor plant will continue operation under the cut
schedule - four days a week in three shifts, public relations director of
the Ford Russia Company Yekaterina Kulinenko told Itar-Tass.
The motor plant will go on two shifts of work as of September 22,
2009, the public relations director said. According to Kulinenko, the
plant has made some changes in the working schedule for the adaptation of
the production to a falling demand on the Russian motor market in order to
avoid layoffs at the Vsevolozhsk plant. "All employees working in the
third shift will be transferred to corresponding posts in the first and
second shifts," she said. The motor plant will keep a 4-day workweek from
October 6, 2009 to February 5, 2010.
The Ford Vsevolozhsk motor plant was put into operation in the
Leningrad region in 2002 and became the first foreign motor works in
Russia that the world motor concern owns completely. The plant is
specialized in the production of Ford Focus cars and is the only European
motor plant, which produces the foresaid cars in all four modifications:
universal, sedan, 5-door and 3-door hatchback. Ford Mondeo cars are
assembled since the previous year.
More than 2,000 people work at the motor plant now.

.Putin to chair government commission meeting in Kislovodsk.

KISLOVODSK, August 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Inter-budget relations in
2010-2012 and optimisation of federal budget expenditures will be the key
items on the agenda of the 4th meeting of the Russian Government
Commission for Regional Development on Monday. Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin will arrive in Kislovodsk to chair the government commission
meeting, the government press service told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
The commission will also consider a scope of anti-crisis measures
being implemented in federal constituent territories, the development of
sanatoria and holiday homes and the creation of special tourist recreation
zones in Russia.
The policy of inter-budget relations in 2010-2012 is expected to
pursue the following trends:
- adjusted mechanisms of the financial aid to regional bodies of state
power and local self-government;
- further development of incentives to increase the revenues in the
budgets of Russian regions and municipalities;
- more incentives for better budget management in regions and
municipalities.
Advanced budget management techniques should be a priority in the
period of financial instability. Thus, it is planned to monitor the
quality of budgetary processes in regions, award the best workers and
reprimand slack work.
The timely fulfilment of public commitments of regional authorities
will be another focus at the meeting.
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Prime Minister and
Head of the Government Office Sergei Sobyanin, Deputy Prime Minister and
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Minister of Health and Social Development
Tatiana Golikova, State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Regional
Development Yuri Osintsev, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Oleg
Savelyev and regional chiefs will attend the meeting, the government press
service said.
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