Four-point earthquake shakes Kamchatka, no damage.

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, September 16 (Itar-Tass) - An earthquake
with a magnitude of 4.2 points occurred in the east of the Kamchatka
Peninsula. No one was hurt and there was no damage, an official at the
Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of
Sciences has told Itar-Tass.

The earth tremor was recorded at 08:04 local time on Wednesday. The
epicentre of the quake was at a distance of about 263 km northeast of
here, in the area of Volcano Kizimen. The focus of the earthquake was at a
depth of 4.2 km. The populated localitites did not feel the earth jolt.

.US special envoy to visit Lebanon Wed in MidEast tour.

BEIRUT, September 16 (Itar-Tass) - George Mitchell, US president's
special envoy for the Middle East, is to visit Lebanon on Wednesday in his
regional tour. The visit to Beirut will be a short one: Mitchell will meet
with President Michel Suleyman to discuss the explosive situation on the
Lebanese-Israeli border.
According to diplomatic sources, the American emissary will arrive in
Beirut at the close of the second round of talks with Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. So far, Mitchell's efforts to set the peace
process in motion have been to no avail. The Israeli government refuses to
agree to full freeze to the construction of settlements in the West Bank
and in East Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, during a meeting with Mitchell in Ramallah on Tuesday,
Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, reiterated
that without Israel's fulfilment of of that obligation, which arises from
the roadmap peace plan, the Palestinians would not go to a resumption of
peaceful contacts that had been interrupted in December last year.
Saeb Erekat, leader of the Palestinian delegation, for his part,
pointed out that reports about a probable tri-partite meeting among US
President barack Obama, thePalestinian leader, and the Israeli Premier in
New York within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly
session were premature.

.Duma to hear govt, CB info on anti-crisis measures Wed.

MOSCOW, September 16 (Itar-Tass) - The principal item on the agenda of
Wednesday's plenary meeting of the State Duma lower house of the Russian
parliament will concern a report by the government and information by the
Central Bank (CB) on the implementation of measures in support of the
financial market, the banking system, the labour market, branches of the
economy of the Russian Federation, social security of the population, and
other social policy measures taken in the first half of 2009 and the
fourth quarter of 2008. Reports on the subject will be delivered by First
Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov and CB chief Sergei Ignatyev.
House Speaker Boris Gryzlov specified in a talk to journalists, "The
House members will then ask them questions, three ones from each faction.
This will be followed by deliberations, with speeches to be made by
members of factions and four committees -- on budget and taxes, on the
financial market, on economic policy, and on labour and social policy."
"A wide-ranging consideration of the report will enable the House
members to judge the extent to which the programme of anti-crisis
measures, which were drawn up with the parliamentarians' participation, is
being carried out," Gryzlov said.

.Japanese govt resigns in a body Wednesday.

TOKYO, September 16 (Itar-Tass) - Japan's government, headed by
Premier Taro Aso, resigned in a body on Wednesday on the strength of a
decision taken at a Cabinet meeting here.
The resignation of the government is ushering in a long chain of
parliament procedures during which Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), will be elected to the premiership later
in the day.
The DPJ was earlier in the opposition but emerged victorious in the
country's generail elections on August 30.
Also Wednesday, Hatoyama is to announce a list of his Cabinet members.
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