Kamchatka's Koryaksky Volcano spews gas, steam and ash.

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, August 18 (Itar-Tass) - The plume of steam,
gas and ash that Kamchatka's Koryaksky Volcano has shot into the air has
stretched 210 kilometres north-east of the volcano and has reached
Kronotsky Peninsula, sources from the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response
Team told Tass on Tuesday.

There is no danger for the local population, the sources said.
Koryaksky Volcano is situated 28 kilometres from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Starting from August 13, ash has appeared in its emissions of steam and
gas. Specialists believe this happens because water and melted snow have
got into its "channels" in nasty weather.
There is no increased activity and no signs of the start of an active
eruption are registered as of yet, specialists say. Volcanic ash fell on
Monday in the suburbs of regional centre Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
However, its amount is insignificant and poses no danger.
Ash plumes can pose danger for planes. All concerned services have
been warned about it.
Volcano's activity has been registered since the end of 2008. The
previous period of volcano's activity was at the end of 1956-the beginning
of 1957. The 3,456-meter-high giant erupted steam and gas with a small
amount of ash to the height of up to 600 meters over its top, but no major
eruption followed. Scientists believe that this year it will behave the
same way.
However, they keep monitoring its activity, as well as the activity of
other active volcanoes on the Kamchatka peninsula.
Powerful eruptions of Koryaksky Volcano happened 3,500-7,000 years
ago, scientists believe.

.APEC summit 2012 expected to boost Vladivostok economy.

VLADIVOSTOK, August 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Far Eastern city of
Vladivostok will be developing in the coming few years owing to
manufacturing activity in connection with the construction of facilities
for an APEC summit in 2012, said a forecast for Vladivostok's development
drawn up by specialists of the city administration.
These projects are already influencing the economy of the city that
will host the summit. The previous year and the first months of the
current year show a stable development of the economy and the social
sphere, and the crisis is manifested only in the sphere of housing
construction and on the labour market.
Specialists consider two variants of the city development. The first
one is conservative, demonstrating a moderate pace of the economic
development. The second one is moderately optimistic. The document
concerns, in particular, forecasts for the development in such spheres as
demography, industrial production and construction, the market of
commodities and services, foreign economic activity, the development of
small and medium-size businesses, the level of incomes of the local
population.
Some economic branches of the city are already demonstrating a visible
growth. Growth rate in the chemical industry made up 190 percent in the
first five months of this year. Production of machinery and equipment grew
by 180 percent. The amount of work done in the construction sphere is 10.3
percent higher than in January-June 2008. The number of people arriving in
Vladivostok for domicile exceeds the number of those who left the city by
349.

.Up to 1,200 specialists to work at hydropower station Tuesday.

SAYANO-SHUSHENSKAYA HYDROPOWER STATION (Khakassia), August 18
(Itar-Tass) - About 1,200 specialists will be engaged by the end of
Tuesday in the operation to eliminate the damage caused by the Monday
accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower station, a source from the
emergency headquarters told Tass.
"The group of people working at the site is to be increased by 900
within the day," the source said. He said specialists would include
rescuers and fire fighters from the whole Siberian Federal District.
At the present moment work is made to locate oil spots that could have
appeared because of oil leakage as a result of the accident. "Absorbents
have already been delivered and oil-spill booms have been put in the area
of the Mainskaya hydroelectric power station," the source said.
Besides aircraft will fly over Yenisei River to locate oil spots, he
added.

.EU condemns terrorist act in Nazran.

BRUSSELS, August 17 (Itar-Tass) - The European Union has condemned the
terrorist act in Nazran early on Monday, said a statement of Sweden, which
holds the rotating EU chairmanship.
The statement received by Itar-Tass said the European Union condemns
the barbarous act and expresses deep condolences to the families of the
killed and injured, as well as to the people and the government of Russia.

.Plane with 9 victims of terrorist act in Nazran lands in Moscow.

MOSCOW, August 18 (Itar-Tass) - A plane of the Russian Ministry for
Emergency Situations with nine people seriously injured in the Monday
terrorist act in Nazran on board has landed in Moscow, sources from the
ministry's information department told Tass.
They said an Il-76 transport plane, which took off from the airport of
Beslan (North Ossetia) at 00:10 Moscow time on Tuesday, landed in Moscow
at 2:25 am. The plane is equipped with four special ambulance modules. The
wounded passengers were accompanied by medics. They were transported from
Domodedovo airport to Moscow clinics.
Twenty people were killed and 136 were injured when a suicide bomber
rammed a light truck into a police station in the capital of Russia's
southern republic of Ingushetia.