All jets bound for Moscow, but delayed in Geneva, fly to Moscow.

GENEVA, January 11 (Itar-Tass) -- All airliners bound for Moscow, but delayed in Geneva on Sunday over drastic breaks in the operation of the local airport due to heavy snowfalls, flied to the Russian capital.

The last airliner, which took off at 11.28 p.m. local time (01.28
Moscow time on Monday) from the Geneva Cointrin International Airport, was
a Swiss Air jet that departed for the Moscow Domodedovo Airport with a
90-minute delay. This information was posted on the airport website. It is
noteworthy that this delay was not the longest at the Geneva airport on
the final day of the Russian winter vacation. For comparison, another
Swiss Air jet flied to Moscow with a delay exceeding eight hours, and a
Yak Service jet - with a delay of more than four hours.
All in all, eight flights were made in the Russian capital on Sunday
that is fourfold larger than usual. Additional flights were caused by the
fact that Switzerland is the traditional attraction for Russian tourists,
who go in for winter kinds of sports. So, many air carriers increased the
number of flights in this direction.
However, Russian holidaymakers were not alone to wait for their
flights from Geneva on Sunday. According to the preliminary reports, some
50,000 passengers had to wait for their flights from Geneva or to Geneva
on Sunday.
Heavy snowfalls, which hit Geneva on Sunday night, paralyzed the
operation of the Geneva Cointrin International Airport since Sunday
morning. The first airliners departed from Geneva or landed in Geneva just
on Sunday afternoon, that is to say, six hours after the planned delay.
Some 70 flights (45 flights for departure and 25 flights for arrival) were
cancelled or delayed for this period of time. Though the Geneva air
harbour started operating at full capacity later, it failed to meet the
schedule.
The snow blanket on the airport runways grew to ten centimeters over
the past night. The previous case of similar precipitation happened in
1985. About 60 workers of the airport services were cleaning up the runway
through the Sunday night but that was not enough.
There were no delayed flights at the second major Swiss airport in
Zurich on Sunday.

.Center for disabled children established in Adygeya's Maikop.

MAIKOP, January 11 (Itar-Tass) -- The Maikop city public organization
"Mercy", which had won a Russian presidential grant, has established a
center for the creative development of children with disabilities.
"Our project is seeking to enhance the communication between children
with disabilities and their agemates, develop their creative capabilities
and to bring them closer to the world of healthy children," chief of the
center "Mercy" Rita Beretar told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
Along with experienced psychologists and pedagogues students from the
faculty of psychology and social pedagogy of the Adygeya State University
will give lessons to children with disabilities at the daytime center.
"This will be the perfect practice for young specialists," the center's
chief said.
The local branch of the All-Russian Society of the Disabled and the
Adygeya Republican Committee for the Youth Affairs will help the center
"Mercy" to work with the children, who were deprived of the full-fledged
communication and creative development.

.Chechnya to restore ancient ancestral towers in highlands.

SHAROI (the Chechen Republic), January 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Chechnya will
launch the restoration of ancient monuments - unique combat towers, which
are considered the masterpieces of Chechen architecture in the highlands
of the republic. About 20-30 towers are situated in the villages of the
highland Sharoi district alone, merited builder of Russia and the Chechen
Republic Magamed Akhmetov told Itar-Tass.
"From the ancient times two combat towers and a mosque built later
adjacent to them preserved in Sharoi at the altitude of Alpine meadows -
3,010 meters above sea level. The towers were deprived of their military
functions a long time ago, but were preserved as the most important
ancestral values - the symbols, which new generations of the highlanders
cared for to keep them in all their magnificence," Magamed Akhmetov
underlined.
According to him, the towers in Sharoi were initially 23 meters high
that is rare for the Caucasus, where many similar buildings were
preserved. "Some historians say the towers were built in the twelfth
century, the others - in the thirteenth century. The mosque was built
later adjacent to them, when the Islam was rooted in the North Caucasus -
about in the seventeenth century," Akhmetov said.
According to him, one tower fell down without proper care - after the
deportation in 1944 the local residents were permitted to return in the
highland villages only in 1988, the top of the second tower was destroyed
in the 1999 hostilities.
Akhmetov with the support of his sons and village fellows have
restored the mosque that can admit 450 believers in 2009. "We just begin
restoring the towers preserving all their historical features," Magamed
Akhmetov pointed out.
For Magamed Akhmetov, 70, who spends all his money for the restoration
of the towers, this work is the fulfillment of the will made by his
grandfather, who was the Imam of the district and in the years of the
Stalinist repressions refused from the proposal of his sons to immigrate
and instructed to take proper care for the Sharoi district. Magamed
Akhmetov has reconstructed the grandfather's house next to the towers and
the mosque just in 2007. Currently he hopes for the assistance of the
federal authorities, which supervise the historical monuments in the
republic.
-0-baz