IN BRIEF

Published: February 6, 2013 (Issue # 1745)

Typhoid in City

 ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A child has been diagnosed with typhoid fever in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported.

The child’s mother, reportedly a citizen of Tajikistan who lives in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, took the child to a children’s hospital, where the diagnosis was ascertained.

According to data from the Russian Consumer Watch, at least 41 cases of typhoid fever were registered in Russia in 2011.

Free Wi-Fi in City Center

 ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Free Wi-Fi will appear in parks in the center of the city and on Nevsky Prospekt, Andrei Kibitov, spokesman of City Governor Georgy Poltavchenko said, Interfax reported.

The issue was discussed with Poltavchenko at a meeting of City Hall’s Youth Council.

The area of free Wi-Fi coverage will later be expanded to include the main streets in the city center, Kibitov said.

More Mondeos

 ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Ford Motor Company plant in the Leningrad Oblast resumed production of Ford’s Mondeo model on Feb. 4, Interfax reported.

The production of the Ford Mondeo was temporarily halted last fall due to a shortage of parts for that model, Delovoi Peterburg newspaper reported Feb. 4.

Hermitage Hikes Price

 ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The entrance fee for Russian visitors to the State Hermitage Museum has increased from 200 rubles ($6.70) to 250 rubles ($8.30), beginning Feb. 1.

For foreign citizens it remains 400 rubles ($13.30).

Earthquake in Finland

 ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Minor earthquakes in the suburbs of Helsinki that occurred on Sunday and Monday won’t affect seismic activity in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Karpinsky, chief geophysics engineer at the Russian Academy of Sciences, was quoted as saying by website Fontanka.ru.

The magnitude of the earthquake in Finland was only 1.7 points on the Richter scale, Karpinsky said, adding that nobody but experts had noticed it.

The border between the Karelian Isthmus and Karelia is known as the Ladoga-Bothnian tectonic zone, and similar phenomena occur there sometimes, Karpinsky said.

Finnish media said it was the first time an earthquake on that scale had been registered in the Helsinki area for 90 years.