Three quakes fixed in southern Chukotka, on Kuriles.

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - Three moderate quakes
have been fixed in the southern part of Russia's Chukotka and on the Kuril
Islands, specialists from the seismic station in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk have
reported.

A quake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale was registered on the
border between Chukotka and the Koryak Autonomous Area. Four settlements
are situated in that zone. There have been no reports about casualties or
destruction. The quake was fixed at the depth of 33 kilometres.
On Sunday, two quakes rocked the Kuril Islands. A 4.8-point jolt was
fixed in the area of the uninhabited Onekotan Island, and another jolt
measuring 4.2 was registered in the area of the South Kuril Islands.
Reports on one more quake came from Japan. It was fixed on the
Japanese island of Hokkaido near the Kuril Islands. It measured 5.1. No
reports about destruction came from that island.

.Grenade goes off in elevator injuring man.

MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - A man was injured when a grenade
went off in the elevator of an apartment house in Moscow's Yuzhnoe Butovo
district, a law enforcement official has told Tass.
The incident happened at about 1 am, Moscow time, on Monday.
"According to early reports, a grenade carried by the man went off in the
elevator. The man received injuries of different severity and was
hospitalised," the source said.
Bomb specialists and police work at the site.

.Belarus, Petersburg to analyse economic, scientific ties.

MINSK, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - Belarus and Russia's second biggest
city of St. Petersburg will analyse on Monday the results of trade and
economic cooperation this year and will coordinate plans for the
development of cooperation in the economic, scientific and trade spheres.
These issues will be considered at a next session of the Belarus-St.
Petersburg Business Cooperation Council, which will be held on Monday in
Minsk.
A heavyweight delegation is expected to arrive from St. Petersburg. It
will be led by Governor Valentina Matviyenko, the press service of the
Belarussian government reported. It is expected that the guests will hold
talks at ministries and state concerns of Belarus, as well as will visit
some enterprises and organizations. Besides, Matviyenko will meet with
Belarussian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky.
According to the Belarussian Foreign Ministry, the session will focus
among other issues on directions of cooperation between scientific
organizations of Belarus and St. Petersburg. The sides also plan to
discuss prospects for cooperation in the development of corporation ties,
supplies of vehicles, municipal vehicles and road-building hardware,
agricultural products, food and consumer goods.
Besides, they will discuss the development of exhibition and fair
activity, a network of Belarussian commodity producing enterprises in St.
Petersburg, the opening of the Belorussky Gostinets network of Belarussian
neighbourhood retailers in the Russian city.
The Business Cooperation Council was set up in October 2007. It has
made it possible to visibly boost bilateral trade and economic ties.
However, as a result of the global crisis, economic cooperation between
Belarus and St. Petersburg has visibly declined this year. In the first
ten months of this year trade dropped 1.8 times as compared with the same
period last year, and made up 802.3 million U.S. dollars.
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