Rescue operation at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP almost completed.

SAYANO-SHUSHENSKAYA HPP, Khakasiya, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - A rescue
operation at the damaged Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant in Siberia
is almost completed. It's time for power engineers to step in.

Almost all water was pumped off from the turbine room on Sunday. Pavel
Plat, the chief military expert of the Russian Ministry of Emergency
Situations, said the working conditions at the station were difficult
because the rescuers and other workers had to remove a new kind of rubble,
which they had never seen before.
Plat said that experts of the Russian Emergencies Ministry would stay
at the station for as long as it is needed.
In the meantime, more and more power engineers are arriving. Its owner
- the RusHydro Company - is planning to restore it in three years.
The death toll from the August 17 disastrous explosion reached 69 on
Sunday. Six people are still missing, and Mr. Plat doesn't rule out that
their bodies may never be found.
More victims were buried in the nearby village of Cheryomushki in
which the station's staff lives. The government of Khakasiya has covered
all funeral expenses from its budget.
The RusHydro Company will pay one million rubles to each family who
lost someone in the tragedy or whose relatives went missing. The same sum
will be allocated from the federal budget in accordance with an executive
order, which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed on Saturday.
The hydropower plant's employees who were injured in the accident will
receive a lump sum payment worth 100,000 rubles.


.Ukraine marks 18th anniversary of independence.

KIEV, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine is marking its main national
holiday - Independence Day - on Monday, August 24. Eighteen years ago the
Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic proclaimed the
country's independence that led to the creation of an independent
Ukrainian state.
A military parade will be held in Kiev on Monday. Almost 3,500 troops
will march on Kreshchatik, Kiev's central street, where military hardware
will be put on view. The Ukrainian Falcons aerobatics team will fly over
Kiev. The group was created in 1995 but was disbanded seven years lbecause
of financial problems. Now it has been recreated. Eighteen military
orchestras will play at the parade. President Viktor Yushchenko will
address the Ukrainian people after the event. Prime Minister Yulia
Timoshenko congratulated the Ukrainians on Independence Day on Sunday.
"No one will ever question the existence of Ukraine and the Ukrainian
people," Timoshenko stressed. She said that the past 18 years had been
marked not only by achievements but also by failures, disappointments and
losses. The prime minister said she was sure that the people of Ukraine
would not lay down their arms until a free, independent, happy and
powerful European Ukraine doesn't emerge on the Ukrainian soil. Timoshenko
said that was her longest dream, which she would never give up.
A total of 4,500 policemen and interior troops will guard law and
order during the celebrations.
A recent public opinion poll in Ukraine shows that only 52% of
Ukrainians would have voted for independence had a referendum been held in
August this year. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they would have
voted against independence while the rest hesitated or said that they
wouldn't have voted at all. In the 1991 December referendum 90.3 percent
out of 84.3 percent of those who took part in the voting or 76.1 percent
of Ukraine's adult population supported Ukraine's independence.


.Young people from all over Russia gather for forum on the Volga.

VOLGOGRAD, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - More than 1,800 youngsters from
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan and other Russian cities gathered for a
forum on the Sarpinsky island - one of Europe's biggest river islands- on
the Volga River last Sunday.
The 'Volga-2009' forum is an analogue of the All-Russian national
forum 'Seliger' which is annually held on the banks of Lake Seliger in the
Tver region. Special attention will be paid to educational programs.
Schools of youth parliamentarianism, regional journalism and a PR club
will work on the gathering's sidelines. The young people will play
intellectual and sport games, go on excursions and tourist trips.
The 'Volga-2009' youth forum will work until August 28. It was
organized by the Volgograd city administration with the help of the
Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and the United Russia Party.