Search for Russian divers missing in Egypt stopped till morning.

CAIRO, August 18 (Itar-Tass) - Search for four Russian divers who went
missing in Egypt was stopped at night and will resume on Tuesday morning,
the MENA news agency reported referring to the emergency response centre
at the governor of Red Sea Province.

Four Russian divers were among a group of 23 tourists from Russia on
board a yacht belonging to a Russian national, which put to sea early on
Monday heading for an island off the resort of Marsa Alam. They were
accompanied by two professional divers, also Russian nationals.
After 19 tourists returned on board, search began for the missing
divers. Boats sailing in that area as well as a private plane were used in
the search. According to Egyptian officials, three men and a woman went
missing. They also reported that a strong underwater current was in the
area where they dived.
Sources from the Russian Embassy to Egypt confirmed to Itar-Tass that
they knew about the missing divers. "Diplomats work together with Egyptian
authorities, taking all necessary measures," they said.
According to available information, only volunteers are engaged in the
search, combing the area on boats.
This is not the first accident with Russian divers in Marsa Alam,
situated 800 kilometres away from Cairo. In 2007, two Russian divers went
missing there. They were among five divers, including a citizen of the
Netherlands and an Egyptian instructor. Several hours later one Russian
diver was found in a shock condition 15 kilometres away from the site.
Four other divers were never found.

.Death toll at Russian hydropower station stands at 11 - ministry.

KRASNOYARSK, August 18 (Itar-Tass) - The death toll in the accident at
the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower station stands at 11 one day after the
accident which took place at 4:13 am, Moscow time, on Monday, the press
service of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations' Siberian centre
told Tass. Fifteen people were injured, it said.
"By the present moment the death toll has not changed and still makes
up 11 people, while the number of injured stands at 15. They are all
hydropower station's staffers," sources said.
Meanwhile, several dozen people working at the hydroelectric plant are
still unaccounted for. According to the prosecutor's office, nothing is
known about the fate of more than 50 people, who could have been at the
hydroelectric plant at the moment of the accident.
According to the Siberian centre, their number exceeds 60, while the
Khakassian department of the emergencies ministry reports about 30 missing
people.
Three units were destroyed in the accident at Khakassia's biggest
hydropower plant early on Monday. There are 10 units at the hydropower
plant with a combined capacity of 6,500 megawatts. One of the possible
causes of the accident is a breakdown of hydro mechanisms and hydro units,
Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant Director Nikolai Neboiko said.
The Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant is located in Khakassia on
the river Yenisei, 180 kilometers from Abakan and is the biggest
hydropower plant in Russia. A special commission is investigating the
causes of the accident.

.Russia asks UN General Assembly to consider UN-CSTO cooperation.
18/8 Tass 31

UNITED NATIONS, August 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russia has asked the United
Nations to put on the agenda of the 64th session of the U.N. General
Assembly an additional item, which concerns cooperation between the United
Nations and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
This was said in a letter of Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin,
circulated here on Monday. The message was sent to the U.N. secretary
general on behalf of the ambassadors of other CSTO member states -
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
It said that political weight of regional and sub-regional
associations of states is growing at the present stage of the development
of international relations. This process is particularly manifested in
such key spheres as cooperation in the sphere of military-political
security, adequate collective reaction to new threats and challenges,
which include first of all international terrorism and extremism, illegal
drug and weapons trafficking as well as organized transnational crime, the
letter stressed.
It drew attention to the fact that efforts made in these directions by
the United Nations and interstate associations, including the CSTO, become
closely interwoven.
The letter stressed that in order to attain a more efficient level of
cooperation between the CSTO and the United Nations, they should
strengthen relations. With that in view, CSTO member states offer to adopt
a draft resolution of the U.N. General Assembly on cooperation between
these two organizations. That would help strengthen their cooperation as
well as contribute to peace, security and cooperation on the regional and
global scope.
-0-zhe/