Main News of August 17

Top stories of the day

RUSSIA:

* A passenger ship with at least 56 people on board has collided with a barge in Siberia on Saturday, killing eight people and injuring 47, including eight children, Russian emergency services said.

* A “pasta procession” by the Russian followers of the not-so-serious Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was dispersed in Moscow on Saturday by riot police and Orthodox activists, the prankster movement said.

* Russia’s latest military invention – a tank biathlon pitting ex-Soviet states against each other – is an assault on the senses, especially on hearing.

* The number of populated areas affected by flooding in Russia’s Far East has risen to more than 120, affecting more than 32,000 people, the Emergencies Ministry said Saturday.

* Six people died in a fire in a non-residential building in the northwest Russian city of Pskov on Friday night, the Emergencies Ministry said Saturday.

* Fugitive Russian real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky has left Israel out of fears for his safety and is now heading to Cambodia, his lawyers said on Friday.

WORLD:

* The bassist of the Bloodhound Gang band who allegedly urinated on a Ukrainian flag at a show in Kiev last month, apologized for the incident that already got him banned from entering Ukraine for five years.

* Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was not interrogated by special services after his arrival to Russia, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said on Friday.

 

SPORT:

* Usain Bolt continued his crushing dominance of sprinting Saturday with a record third straight world 200 meters gold, but the surprise star of the eighth day of the world championships was Russia, which shot to the top of the medals table with two more golds.

* A debut goal from Cristian Ansaldi capped a comfortable 3-0 win for Zenit St. Petersburg over a depleted Anzhi Makhachkala in the Russian Premier League on Saturday.

* Vitezslav Vesely of the Czech Republic won the gold medal in javelin at the world athletics championships in Moscow on Saturday.