Russians hold rallies against pension plan

RUSSIANS have held rallies throughout the country to protest against a government plan to raise the age for receiving state pensions.

Several thousand people gathered in central Moscow for a protest organised by the Communist Party.

Another Moscow protest organised by the A Just Russia party attracted about 1,500 people.

Other demonstrations were reported in at least a dozen cities throughout the country, including Vladivostok in the far east, Simferopol in Russiaannexed Crimea and Omsk, Barnaul and Novosibirsk in Siberia. No arrests were immediately reported. The plan was introduced in June and has passed first reading in the lower house of parliament. But widespread opposition has persisted and President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings have fallen notably since the plan was announced. Mr Putin last week conceded that the pension age for women will be raised only to 60 rather than the proposed 63. The current pension age for women is 55. The plan would retain the raising of the men’s pension age from 60 to 65, implementing the steps up over five years. AT LEAST six people have been killed, including two children, after a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a district headquarters in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. Three soldiers were killed instantly and the three others killed were civilians.