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Four drown as ship sinks

The Russian ship Agan sank off the coast of South Korea on the night of Feb. 11 and 12, killing four crew members, according to the Vladivostok Coordinated Rescue Center. A bow leak aggravated by a storm reportedly caused the accident. The Agan, owned by the Nakhodka-based private shipping company Kozerog, was carrying nearly 1,000 tons of scrap metal en route to South Korea. The ship, though designed for inland waterways, was sailing the open sea.

Hospital releases patients

Due to delinquent funding from the city administration, the First River Tuberculosis Hospital recently began releasing patients after lunch every day. Nearly seven months of funding arrears have left the hospital with few basic necessities, including ample food and medicine, soap, sanitary supplies, and general disinfectants.

Radioactive panels nixed

The Kamchatka Sanitary and Epidemiological Monitoring Center in Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky has prohibited the sale of certain South Korean construction panels found to contain high levels of the radioactive isotope radium-226. The panels, which were initially distributed throughout the Russian Far East by Vladivostok-based Ness-Pacific and certified by the Primorye Sanitary and Epidemiological Center in Vladivostok, have been found to have twice the Russian allowed limit for radioactivity.

Sakhalin cops seize ammo

Law enforcement agencies in Sakhalin oblast recently confiscated from residents on the Southern Kuril islands a sizable amount of military ammunition and supplies, left behind by military units re-deployed from the islands to the mainland, the Sakhalin Oblast Internal Affairs Administration reported. Police confiscated ammunition cartridges, electric detonators, mines, and even radio equipment found at one residence.

Fleet crime declines

The Pacific Fleet reported recently that the crime rate in the fleet had dropped by 19 percent while incidents of hazing had decreased by 16 percent in 1997. Corruption among officers had increased in 1997, however, with officers stealing more cash, fuel and other valuables.

Diabetes center opens

An 80-bed, state-of-the-art diabetes center opened in Vladivostok last week as a part of a Krai-level program to fight increasing rates for the disease caused by declining living standards, according to the Vladivostok. The center, unique to the Russian Far East, will allow local, high-quality treatment for patients who had previously been forced to travel to the western Siberian cities of Tomsk or Novosibirsk to receive treatment.

Two cars plunge through thin ice

Two ice fishermen driving a Nissan-Terrano jeep fell through ice in the Second River area but managed to get out of the car before sinking. The car sank 300 meters from shore. The owner hopes to have a rescue team lift the jeep. The job costs three to five million rubles. Another person driving a Toyota-Corolla from Perevoznoye to Peschanoye village along the western shore of the Amursky Bay lost his car in the water. He decided to take a shortcut and plunged in an unfrozen patch of water. The driver swam up and got out on the ice but couldn’t afford a car salvage operation.

Man dies on tram tracks

A man died recently after he fell between cars of a double-wagon tram and being dragged for a few meters along the tracks. The 65 year-old man died of skull and brain trauma. The No. 7 tram was turning around at the line end by the railway station when the accident occurred. Traffic police report the victim slipped or was shoved by teenagers.