New ground public transport rules

■ MOSCOW (MN, RIA Novosti) - Moscow government has banned passengers of ground public transport from leaning out of the windows of the transport, carrying out professional photography in the vehicles, and pasting up notices in the transport without permission, RIA Novosti reported. Moreover, the passengers of public transport now have the right to carry caged animals and other luggage in buses, trolleybuses, and trams as long as the size  does not exceed that of hand baggage.  Drivers of public transport were also ordered to provide safe boarding and deboarding of passengers, and to provide conditions to help the disabled to ride. They now have the official right to use the doors of carriages - which are not equipped with turnstiles - when boarding. Before this decree the disabled would often be refused entrance by the drivers when unable to use the main entrance.

Communist Party resists renaming their street

■ MOSCOW (MN, RIA Novosti) - The faction of Russia's Communist Party in the Moscow city Duma oppose the government's order to rename Bolshaya Kommunisticheskata street into Alexandra Solzhenitsyna street, citing the order as unlawful. The faction refers to the city's legislation, which states that names and surnames of well-known Moscow townspersons and citizens of Russia (or foreign countries) can be assigned to newly- built streets after no less than ten years have passed since the death of the persons in question. Moscow state Duma speaker Vladimir Platonov told journalists earlier that an amendment removing the ten-year restriction would be enforced in September.

Writer, Nobel laureate, and public figure Alexander Solzhenitsyn died last month on the night of August 4.

Moscow goes underground

■ MOSCOW (MN, RIA Novosti) - New public transport stops, highways and sidewalks for pedestrians are going to be built right under the Russian capital in the upcoming years, according to a program aimed at developing the expanse of space underground within 2009-2011, which was discussed and approved at a city government session on Tuesday. The program also foresees the building of unloading platforms,  warehouses, shops, cafes, civil defense units, and other elements  under the above-ground residential areas. Mayor Luzhkov considers the program to be sufficiently thought-out and hopes it will be sanctioned in the near future. The approximate cost of the project is 544,7 million rubles (22.2 million USD).