Armenian worker stabbed to death in downtown Moscow.

MOSCOW, January 12 (Itar-Tass) - An Armenian worker has been killed on
Novy Arbat Street in downtown Moscow, Arkady Bashirov, an officer on duty
at the city police headquarters department for information and public
relations, has told Itar-Tass.

Bashirov said the crime had been committed on Monday night in the area
of 15, Novy Atbat, not far from the Moskvichka trading center.
"Building operations are currently under way there. Migrant workers
also dwell there. A quarrel broke out between them. As a result of the
conflict, the citizen of Armenia received a stab would and died on the
spot," the duty officer said.
Bashirov said police had detained five men suspected of involvement in
the commission of the crime." "The detainees are men from CIS countries
(post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States), general workers. They
are now kept at the Arbat police center for the necessary operational
investigative procedures," Bashirov said.

.Medvedev to present City of Military Glory certificates.

MOSCOW, January 12 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
will present the City of Military Glory certificates to Arkhangelsk,
Kozelsk, and Pskov at a ceremony here on Tuesday.
In the year of the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great
Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the three will be added to the list of Cities
of Military Glory. The list now mentions 22 cities awarded this title.
Arkhangelsk, Kozelsk, and Pskov have been awarded the honorary title
"for the courage, tenacity, and mass heroism displayed by the defenders of
the cities in the battle for the freedom and independence of the
Fatherland". Relevant Decrees were signed by the Head of State early in
December 2009.
The City of Military Glory title was instituted in 2006 and is awarded
to cities "in the territory of or in direct proximity to which, defenders
of the Fatherland manifested courage, staying-power, and mass heroism
during fierce fighting, among them the cities which were awarded the title
of Hero City>. The following cities of the former Soviet Union are Hero
Cities: Leningrad, Volgograd, Kiev, Sevastopol, Odessa, Moscow, Kerch,
Novorossiisk, Minsk, Tula, Murmansk, Smolensk, and Brest (Brest Fortress).
The title of City of Military Glory has already been awarded to
Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol, Vladikavkaz, Yelnya, Yelets, Malgobek, Rzhev,
Voronezh, the city of Polyarny (polar) (Murmansk Region), the place of
origin of Russia's Northern Fleet, Luga, Vyazma, Kronstadt, and
Naro-Fominsk. Special steles have been erected in each of them with a
representation of the city's coat of arms and the text of the Presidential
Decree awarding the title to the city.

.Russian KAMAZ-Master team leads in Dakar Rally.

KAZAN, January 12 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian KAMAZ-Master team is
confidently in the lead in the Dakar Rally. Kabirov-headed team scored a
second win during a stage, Erik Khairullin, press attache of the team,
told Itar-Tass on Tuesday by telephone from Chile.
Khairullin related, "The lifeless Atacama desert is now covered in a
dense fog. Therefore, for safety considerations, organizers have
transferred the starting time and shortened the special area by half. So,
the ninth stage of the Rally, Copiano-La Serena, with an overall length of
547 km got a high-speed section of only 170 km long".
The current champion of the Dakar Rally, Firdaus Kabirov, in the
second half of the special section of the route, overtook Vladimir
Chagin's KAMAZ and finished the first, clocking 2 hours, 32 minutes, and
20 seconds. Chagin was second (2 hours,37 min, and 1 sec), Frenchman
Joseph Adua riding Iveco placed third (2 hours, 47 min), edging the third
KAMAZ team of Ilgizar Mardeyev out into the fourth place (2 hours, 50 min,
25 sec).
As a result of nine stages, Chagin, five-time winner of the Dakar
Rally, is in the lead. Kabirov is second, one hour 11 min and 31 sec
behind the leader. Dutchman Marcel Van Vliet (Ginaf) is third, 8 hours 21
min and 7 sec behind the leader, and Mardeyev is sixth, 13 hours behind
the leader.

.Over 800 officials prosecuted in RF for corruption.

MOSCOW, January 12 (Itar-Tass) - Top officials of state administration
bodies and local self-government have been called to account for
corruption-related offences in Russia increasingly often in the recent
period, Yuri Chaika, RF Prosecutor General, told Rossiiskaya Gazeta in an
interview published on Tuesday.
Chaika emphasized, "Over the nine months of last year alone,
law-courts examined 806 corruption-related criminal cases against such
persons".
The Prosecutor General said proceedings had been also instituted
against top officials of executive power bodies, the chiefs of municipal
entities and local administrations.
"For example, unlawful activities of the following officials were cut
short: Penza Region chairman of government, acting vice-premier of
Karelia, vice-governors of Kurgan Region, Kalmykia's minister of natural
resources, Chairman of the Stavropol Territory State Duma legislature,
deputy governor of Oryol Region, chiefs and deputy chiefs of
administrations from Adygeya, Stavropol Territory, Kaliningrad, Moscow,
Orenburg, and Rostov Regions," Chaika pointed out.
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