Seven killed in Japanese fishing boat accident
A Japanese fishing boat capsized Jan. 10 off the Kuril island of Iturup killing seven. The rest of the crew were picked up by Japanese ships and delivered to Nemuro port on Hokkaido Jan. 11. Cold and stormy weather hampered the search for the missing crewmen.
Unpaid miners threaten to block Trans-Siberian
Coal miners plan to block the Trans Siberian railway Jan. 27 protesting eight months of back pay. Primorskugol owes the miners 160 million new rubles ($27 million). Their wives, children and state workers will join them. The protests will take place near Partizansk and Artyom.
Cat eats dog in village
Timber factory workers shot a lynx in northern Primorye early this month after it entered a village, killed a dog and started to eat it. Workers from Verkhny Pereval shot the animal and found that its forepaw was smashed by small shot, preventing it from feeding itself in the wild. The case is unusual because the lynx is known to be careful and to avoid people.
Cherepkov slashes staff
Vladivostok Mayor Victor Cherepkov tightened his belt early January abolishing several committees and cutting the staffs of others. The committees for entrepreneurship, trade and services, for transport, for economics and forcasting, as well as the organizing and communications committees have disappeared. Staff at the general affairs and youth affairs departments have been cut in half. Smaller divisions will be created to assume the functions of the axed committees and all the dismissed employees will be placed elsewhere. The reform is intended to make the city’s management system more efficient and reduce expenses.
BBC makes tiger movie
A group of BBC reporters flew into Vladivostok Jan. 8 to make a movie on the preservation of the Ussury tiger and taiga in Primorsky and Khabarovsky krais. The trip is arranged by World Wildlife Fund, an organization funding Ussury tiger protection in the Far East. The British journalists plan to visit a station with the Biology and Soil Institute that keeps two grown-up tigers and three 18-month-old cubs.
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Koreans missing on raft
Four South Korean travellers went missing in the Sea of Japan after they cast off from Vladivostok for Pusan on a makeshift five-by-15-meter sailing raft. They sailed off Dec. 31, and have not been heard of since. A Russian State Inspectorate for Small Vessels boat tugged it to the open sea.
Governor backs ginseng
Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko has thrown his weight behind a new program to restore the growth of ginseng in Primorye. The program hopes to increase ginseng stocks by 2005 so it could be a regular source of income for the krai. Funding will come from the krai and federal budgets and extra-budgetary sources. Federal and krai ecological funds and the Far Eastern Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences will also donate a portion of money.
Transport boss heads FEZ
Nikolai Fyodorov, 38, has become the new head of the Nakhodka Free Economic Zone, replacing Sergei Dudnik, who was recently elected as speaker of the new Krai Duma. Fyodorov was previously transport programs director with the FEZ, where he placed particular importance on reviving the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Before that he worked as chief engineer of Nakhodka’s Commercial Sea Port.
Port starts Web server
Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port recently became the first port in Russia to start a Web server of its own. Clients can track down their cargos by the consignment number or place an ad about shipments, as well as reach essential data on the port’s activity. The port’s audit information is also available.
Crime Watch
January 9-22
Tiger skin found in Hunter’s Castle
The Tiger Task Force and the Primorye Environmental Prosecutor’s Office found an Ussury tiger skin hanging on the wall of the Hunter’s Castle restaurant recently when doing routine check-ups of companies and organizations.
Inspectors will investigate how the skin of an endangered species got where it was. Tiger hunting is prohibited, and a criminal case may be filed.
Police catch robber
Police caught a man shortly after he robbed a Promstroibank exchange office in Svetlanskaya Street Jan. 9. He unlocked the door and stole $4,700, but he was nabbed shortly afterwards by a police rapid response unit, officials said.
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