A hung ceiling collapsed at NewYorker outlet of the second floor of MEGA Mall in Yekaterinburg at 12:45 PM today, Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies reports. No one was hurt. NewYorker outlet was shut down; the causes of the accident are being investigated. Yekaterinburg MEGA Mall houses the hypermarkets IKEA, Auchan, and OBI.

Ural Airlines is now helping Russian tourists leave Egypt. The company is now only going to operate chartered flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport to Hurghada and back and from Domodedovo to Sharm El Sheikh and back to Domodedovo. Starting today, under the agreements with the customer of the flights, they will only be collecting tourists to get them home. No tourists are allowed to fly to Egypt. The earliest return flights will be operated on February 3, 5, and 6 from Sharm El Sheik and on February 6, 9, and 13 from Hurghada. The decision to call off Egypt-bound flights is valid for all

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a decree on the transfer of federally owned shares of OAO Koltsovo Airport to Sverdlovsk Region. The shareholding in question comprises 34.56% of the company’s shares that are to be handed over within the course of six months. The President’s official website states the decision was taken in order to enhance Sverdlovsk Region’s air transportation efficiency and to attract investments needed for the construction, full-scale reconstruction, and upgrade of the airport facilities. For one, the share transfer is supposed to attract at least 32 billion RUR

One of the world’s largest hypermarket chains dealing in household goods and remodeling appliances Castorama intends to set up a 10,000-square-meter hypermarket in Yekaterinburg at the end of 2011 or early in 2012. The construction on the site located in the north of Yekaterinburg next to METRO’s third extension will probably start within weeks, says Vice Mayor Viktor Konteev’s press officer Ilona Starodubtseva. Castorama actually first announced it was planning to arrive in Yekaterinburg about three years ago, but all this time it was finding the right location that was preventing the

A batch of Maustaja Oy-manufactured Kevyt majonessi X-tra mayonnaise containing fractions of glass was detected in Finland; the mayonnaise in question comes in 450-gram packs. 3,324 items with the expiry date July 3, 2011 and July 4, 2011 were delivered to Russia by the Finnish company Inex Partners Oy. Food stores and caterers dealing in or using mayonnaise foods in Yekaterinburg are to report the absence of Kevyt majonessi X-tra in their stock to Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) immediately. This means they also have to inform Rospotrebnadzor’s Sverdlovsk Region