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SITUATION IN LIBYA
RABAT – After talks in Benghazi on Monday with members of the opposition Interim National Council, United Nations Libya envoy Abdel Ilah Muhammed al-Khatib goes to Tripoli to hear the government position concerning a plan to settle the crisis in the country.
ROME – Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and Russian Presidential Representative for Africa Mikhail Margelov, who arrives in the Italian capital on Tuesday, will discuss the situation in Libya.
LONDON – Muammar Gaddafi must step down, but must not leave the territory of Libya, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said here on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – A plane of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situation airlifts to Libya another batch of Russian humanitarian aid.
USA-STATE DEBT
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Barack Obama has expressed confidence that despite fierce differences, the government and the U.S. Congress will reach a compromise on the issue of raising the government debt ceiling and reducing colossal deficit of the federal budget.
PATRIARCH’S TRIP TO UKRAINE
KIEV – Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill begins a visit to Ukraine, the main aim of which is to participate in festivities marking the Baptism of Rus Day, which has been celebrated in Kiev starting from 2008.
UNITED NATIONS-AFRICA
PRETORIA – The United Nations opens an air bridge to Somalia to deliver emergency humanitarian aid to the starving population.
JUSTICE
VELSK (Arkhangelsk region) – The Velsk district court of the Arkhangelsk region begins considering a motion for parole of former MENATEP head Platon Lebedev. He has served over half of the sentence, which gives him the right to appeal for parole.
MOSCOW – The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation considers reversing the sentence to Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, convicted for the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova.
CUBA-CELEBRATIONS
HAVANA – Cuba marks on Tuesday one of its main state holidays – National Uprising Day. This year the ceremony marking the holiday is held in the city of Ciego de Avila, the capital of the same name province in the central part of the country.
IN CIS STATES
TBILISI – During his first visit to Tbilisi, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski discusses ways to deepen cooperation of the two countries as well as Georgia’s integration into the European Union.
IN RUSSIAN REGIONS
CHELYABINSK – A large-scale forum devoted to the role of energy services in Russian-German partnership for modernization of the Russian economy opens in Chelyabinsk.
CULTURE NEWS
MOSCOW – A Japanese film festival opens on Tuesday in Moscow. The program of the festival includes three films of Takeshi Kitano and films by New Wave filmmakers.