Medvedev Lifts Fire Emergency

Moscow, Aug 20. -Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday lifted the state of emergency declared over wildfires in the regions of Moscow, Nizhegorod, and Mordovia, but maintained it in Riazan.

After hearing a report by Emergency Situations Minister Serguei Shoigu, the Russian statesman decided to lift the emergency status declared on August 2 in those regions and three others, but to maintain it in Riazan due to the critical situation of burning peat bogs.

He previously lifted it in Vladimir, Varonizh, and the Mari-El Republic.

Under the state of emergency, the Russian government used federal resources to fight the widespread forest fires, fed by unusually high temperatures in the last three months that caused an intense drought.

Some 28,000 forest fires were registered this summertime over about 857,000 hectares of woodland, although some foreign organizations say more than 10 million hectares were affected by the flames throughout the country. (Prensa Latina)