Burdzhanadze says she went to Russia for normalizing relations.

TBILISI, March 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Georgia's former parliamentary
speaker, currently leader of the Democratic Movement United Georgia party,
Nino Burdzhanadze, has said that she went to Moscow not to yell about
Russia's occupation of part of Georgian territories.

Burdzhanadze, interviewed in Moscow on the Rustavi-2 television
channel, said that "Russian troops should not be present in the Abkhazian
or Tskhinvali regions of Georgia, which I have stated more than once."
"The territorial integrity of Georgia must be restored, but this will
not happen, if we keep yelling that Russia is an invader," she said.
In her opinion, "Georgia must conduct an intensive dialogue with
Russia."
"I have come to Moscow not for shouting aloud Russia is an invader. I
have arrived here to try to create conditions for the normalization of
relations with Russia," she said. "In the process of settling relations
with Russia nothing should be done for the sake of a PR campaign. Points
of agreement are to be looked for in this no easy matter."

.Sverdlovsk Region to elect Woman of the Year - 2010.

YEKATERINBURG, March 6 (Itar-Tass) -- The Sverdlovsk Region will held
a Woman of the Year 2010 contest, timed for March 8, the day some
countries mark as International Women's Day.
This is going to be the region's 12th such contest in a row. This time
about a hundred ladies applied, the press-service of the Sverdlovsk Region
Health and Social Protection Ministry told Itar-Tass.
The contest's mission is to draw the attention of the public to
eminent women who have displayed their outstanding potential in different
pursuits and spheres of activity.
"What makes our contest so different from other such events is that we
take a look not at the contenders' appearance in the first place, but at
their personal and professional qualities, their achievements in rearing
children, and in public activities," the press-service said. No age
restrictions apply.
Each woman contender is to do some "home work" first - her own unique
project, most preferably, a socially oriented one, that she plans to
translate into reality. At the contest the participating ladies will be
defending their projects.
The winners will be nominated in three categories - The Keeper of the
Family Hearth (for those who have dedicated themselves to rearing children
and making their house a home), Woman the Manager (for ladies boasting
exceptional professional achievements) and Woman the Public Figure and
Defender of Rights and Interests of Women.
One of the three finalists will be named as Woman of the Year - 2010.
The results of the contest are to be announced on March 11.

.Ice Fishing Chkalov Style contest due in great pilot's birth place.

CHKALOVSK, March 6 (Itar-Tass) -- An international get-together of ice
fishing devotees, called Ice Fishing Chkalov Style, will open in the home
area of the great air pilot of the 1930s, Valery Chkalov, on Saturday.
The contest is to be held at prime time and at prime fishing places -
on the Sanokhta River and the Gorky Water Reservoir measuring over 1,500
square kilometers, on the Volga River. Fishers love this place, where the
perch, the ruff, the pike, and the sterlet are in abundance.
About 500 ice-fishing fans from the regions of Vladimir, Kirov,
Moscow, and Ivanovo and the Chuvash Republic have said they will
participate.
The Chkalovsk district administration has said the fishing contest was
named after the great air pilot for a good reason. Chkalov, a future Hero
of the Soviet Union, was a great fishing enthusiast himself, and at a
local museum one can see his photograph with a basket of fresh-caught
fish. Also, Chkalov was also an athlete with a keen sense of sportsmanship
and love for speed. He was also the one who pioneered and participated the
Soviet Union's first-ever motor and yachting races.
Chkalov-style fishing requires fast reaction, quickness of the mind
and good physical shape. The contenders will be asked to drill holes in
ice that is 1.5 meters (five feet) meters thick against the clock,
participate in a 100-meter spurt in full winter fishing gear and in a
blitz fishing contest and take a swim in ice-cold water.
The main prize - a motorboat - will be awarded to the one whose catch
proves the greatest.
The spectators will have their bit of fun, too. They will be invited
to try their good fortune in contests for the title of the best chastushka
(humor rhyme) singer and joke teller (an unmistakably fishing flavor will
be a must, of course), and treated to winter bathers'
Tea-Party-in-the-Ice-Hole show.
Valery Chkalov, to who whom the contest owes its name, was born in the
town of Vasilyevo, near Nizhni Novgorod. He was the son of a boilermaker.
His mother died when he was six. Chkalov studied in a technical school in
Cherepovets, but later returned to work as an apprentice with his father
and as a stoker on riverboats. He saw his fist plane in 1919, during the
years of the Civil Warm, and decided to join the Red Army's Air Force. He
trained as a pilot and graduated in 1924 to join a fighter squadron. In
the early 1930s he became a test pilot.
Chkalov developed several new figures of aerobatics. In 1936 and 1937,
he participated in several ultra-long flights, including a 63-hour-long
voyage from Moscow, the Soviet Union to Vancouver, Washington, the United
States via the North Pole on a Tupolev ANT-25 plane (June 18-20, 1937), a
non-stop distance of 8,811 kilometers (5,475 miles).

.Yamal reindeer breeders to hold dog sled, wrestling contests Sat.

TYUMEN, March 6 (Itar-Tass) -- The city of Nadym on Saturday will host
a customary sports festival of the Yamal Peninsula's reindeer breeders.
By tradition there will be a skiing relay race, tug-of-war, lasso
throwing (the local word for lasso is 'tynzyan' - this tool is made of
woven leather stripes), sled jumping and dog sled racing, the city
authorities told Itar-Tass.
This is the first year the dog sled races are on the contest's
schedule. Russia's national team has arrived in Yamal especially for the
purpose. It has brought with it three teams of Siberian Husky and Alaskan
Malamute dogs. Racing against them will be seven teams from Yamal's
villages of Nori and Kutopyugan.
There will be a Nomadic Family contest, and an imitation of the Nenets
wedding folk ritual, a contest for young girls the Precious Stone of the
Nadym and school students' meeting with the families of indigenous
residence The Dialogue of Cultures.
This year's festival is timed for the 80th anniversary of the
Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District.

-0-str