Rssn Navy escorting 7 commercial ships in areas of high piracy risks.

MOSCOW, September 3 (Itar-Tass) - A detachment of Russian naval forces with the antisubmarine ship 'The Admiral Tributs' in the lead continues performing a combat task for ensuring safe commercial navigation in the area of the Horn of Africa, the Russian Navy's public relations service said Wednesday.

Currently, the Admiral Tributs is escorting seven ships in the zone of
high risks of pirate attacks.
Cruising under protection of the antisubmarine ship at the moment are
the Ocean Winner /waving the Liberian flag/, the BBC Denmark /the
Antilles/, the Koshnev /Cyprus/, the BBC Greenland /Antigua and Barbuda/,
the Alpine Moment tanker /Hong Kong/, the Scandia /Malta/, and the
Mogicarrlien /Liberia/.
Most of these ships have Russian citizens among crewmembers.

.Earthquake registered on Kurile, Commander's Islands.

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, September 3 (Itar-Tass) - Earthquakes were
registered in the small hours of Thursday in the Kurile and Commander's
Islands, the two Russian archipelagoes in the Pacific area.
The magnitude of the 10-seconds-long quake registered on the island of
Iturup /southern Kuriles/ reached 5.4 points on the open-ended Richter
scale, the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
Experts at the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismic surveillance station said a
quake measuring 3.0 points was felt in the township of Malokurilskoye on
the island of Shikotan and its strength in the town of Yuzhno-Kurilsk on
Kunashir /one more island of the Southern Kurile chain/ was between 1.0
and 2.0 points.
The quake on the Bering Island, which is part of Commander's Islands
archipelago, totaled 4.6 points. The earth crust shifts occurred at a
small enough depth and did not have any bad impact on the islands.
One more quake measuring 4.6 points occurred Wednesday night in the
Sea of Okhotsk to the northwest of the Kuriles. The tectonic cataclysms
took place 250 kilometers below the surface of the earth and people in the
Sakhalin region, which embraces the entire Kurile chain north to south,
did not feel them.

.Moldova's Communists set up faction in parliament.

CHISINAU, September 3 (Itar-Tass) - Moldova's Communist Party said
Wednesday night it had set up a faction in parliament.
"The faction has 48 MPs and the parliament's former deputy speaker
Maria Postoico has been elected faction leader," MP Vladimir Tsurkan said.
He indicated that documents on the setting up of the faction will be
submitted to the parliamentary Secretariat.
"As of this moment, the Communists are ready to take part in the
parliament's sessions in line with effective legislation," Tsurkan said.
Last Friday, Communist MPs refused top take part in the parliament's
works and walked out of its first session. They demanded that a break be
called in parliamentary activity so that they could form a faction, for
which purpose the law allots ten days.
The new parliament was formed upon the results of an early election
where the Communists, who had ruled Moldova for eight years, lost the
parliamentary majority, getting 48 seats in the 101-seat parliament.
The Communists' opponents - the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal
Party, the Democratic Party, and Alianta Moldova Noastra - received 53
mandates altogether and formed the ruling coalition called the Alliance
for European Integration.
The latter fact made it possible for them to elect the parliament
speaker.
The Communists challenged their voting in the Constitution Court that
is expected to consider their petition September 8.
It is still unclear how the MPs will elect the national President
given the current layout of parliamentary forces.
For the election to take place, the ruling coalition needs to secure
61 votes, which means it will have to strike an agreement with the
Communists.
The coalition plans nominating the Democratic Party leader Marian Lupu
for presidency and the Liberal-Democratic Party leader Vlad Filat, for the
post of Prime Minister.
If the parliament fails to elect the President at two attempts, it
will be disbanded automatically and an early election will be called.
Under law, it cannot take place earlier than next year this time.
Experts fear that a diarchy of some kind may emerge until the next
election in this case, as the Communists will retain the posts of
President and Prime Minister while legislative power will be concentrated
in the opposition's hands.
-0-kle