"Arctic Sea" lawyer disappears in Moscow.

MOSCOW, December 13 (Itar-Tass) - The lawyer of one of the defendants
charged with capturing the Arctic Sea cargo ship has gone missing in
Moscow.

Elena Lebedeva-Romanova was last seen on Wednesday evening when she
left her office. After that she disappeared, and no one knows anything
about her whereabouts.
"Today, her mother submitted an application that he daughter is
missing to Moscow's interior department of the Tverskoy district," Omar
Akhmetov, the lawyer of another participant in the Arctic Sea case, told
Itar-Tass.
He added that Lebedeva-Romanova was working on many cases. For
example, she was supposed to go on a business trip to Vladimir where she
had a murder case.
The Moscow interior department confirmed that the mother of the
missing lawyer had submitted an application on Saturday. According to
Russia laws, a person is considered to be missing if he or she doesn't
show up at home for three days.

.Perm commemorates ninth day of nightclub fire tragedy.

PERM, the Urals, December 13 (Itar-Tass) - All Orthodox churches in
Perm will hold memorial services for the souls of those who died in the
Perm nightclub fire nine days ago.
The city is in mourning. A mountain of red and white carnations, roses
and golden daisies is piling up close to the tragedy site - near the burnt
nightclub. The relatives and friends of those who died in the Lame Horse
nightclub fire come here every day. They bring flowers and light up
candles. Several stairs at the exit from the nearby public garden opposite
the former club are strewed with flowers. They are also lying on the
public garden's fence. In the hours and days after the tragedy people were
forced to leave the flowers there because that was the closest place to
the nightclub they could reach because the area was sealed off the police.
Now, these few stairs have turned into a spontaneous memorial.
Police cordons in the neighborhood have now been removed but police
cars are still on duty near the nightclub's building.
A fire in the Lame Horse nightclub occurred early on December 5 as the
nightclub was marking its 8th anniversary. Cold fireworks fired during the
show set the plastic ceiling ablaze. The blaze spread quickly and soon cut
off the way to the exit. Many visitors suffered from severe burns and got
poisoned with carbon oxide.
According to the latest reports, the nightclub fire death toll has
risen to 146 people. Eighty-four patients remain in hospitals in Moscow,
St. Petersburg, Perm and Chelyabinsk. Doctors say that only thirteen of
them are showing slight signs of improvement.

.Day of Memory of Andrew the First Called to be marked in Russia.

MOSCOW, December 13 (Itar-Tass) - A day of memory of Andrew the First
Called will be marked in Moscow on Sunday. All Russian Orthodox Churches
will hold services in honor of this saint. Russian citizens who have made
a major contribution to the glory of Russia will receive "For Faith and
Loyalty" award, a source at the Andrew the First Called Foundation told
Itar-Tass.
The award presentation ceremony will be held at the State Kremlin
Palace. There are nine laureates this year.
"For Faith and Loyalty" award will be presented for the 17th time.
Generals and pilots, surgeons and composers, Mother Superiors, nuclear
physicists, entrepreneurs and actors have been among the winners.
Maestro Valery Gergiyev was one of the laureates last year for giving
a concert in the bomb devastated Tskhinval shortly after the Georgian
aggression.
The award was instituted in 1992 by the Andrew the First Called
Foundation. No money comes with it. The award is considered to be a symbol
of public recognition of merits to Motherland. The winners get a diploma,
an icon of Apostle Andrew, a blue ribbon as well as an ensign imitating
the symbols of the Order of Andrew the First Called instituted by Peter
the Great.
Andrew the Apostle was one of the first disciples of Jesus Christ. He
is of special importance to Russia because he was the first Christian
missionary in our lands.
Andrew the Apostle was executed on the Greek island of Patra when he
was returning from a missionary trip. He was crucified on an "X"- shaped
cross, which is depicted on the St. Andrew's flag of the Russian Imperial
Navy.
The Order of Andrew the First Called instituted by Peter the Great was
re-established in 1998.

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