St Petersburg governor to go on Latin America tour.

ST. PETERSBURG, April 5 (Itar-Tass) -- St. Petersburg Governor
Valentina Matviyenko will visit several Latin American countries to
discuss economic and cultural cooperation.
The St. Petersburg delegation involving members of the city
government, businessmen and top managers of the enterprises will go on an
official visit to Brazil, Argentina and Chile on Monday.
"These major Latin American countries are very interesting as rapidly
developing centers of world economy," the press service of the St.
Petersburg government reported.
In Brazil Valentina Matviyenko will meet with the governor of the
Rio-de-Janeiro state and the Rio-de-Janeiro prefect. A joint memorandum
will be signed upon results of the meetings.
In Argentina the St. Petersburg governor will meet with the Buenos
Aires mayor to sign an agreement on cooperation. The St. Petersburg
delegation will also visit the city-partner Mar del Plata, with which an
agreement on cooperation was signed during the St. Petersburg visit of
Mayor Gustavo Pulti.
In Chile the Russian delegation will meet with the leaders of this
country, to which Valentina Matviyenko will present a certificate on
transferring 100,000 dollars from St. Petersburg to the charitable account
for the support of the earthquake victims. The sides are also planning to
discuss an opportunity for St. Petersburg companies to participate in the
restoration works at Chilean facilities damaged in a devastating
earthquake.
The visit will focus on the economic aspect. "St. Petersburg is
interested in attracting investments for economic development, as well as
for the promotion of its goods and services on the foreign market. This
issue will highlight a conference between Brazilian and Russian
businessmen at the National Confederation of Commerce, as well as numerous
meeting between businessmen in all three countries," the governor's press
service said. "Latin American companies can be invited for the financial
participation in implementing major investment projects in St. Petersburg,
and Petersburg businessmen - in Latin American countries," the press
service reported.
This visit will also focus on contacts with compatriots. Meetings with
representatives of the Russian diaspora are expected in Brazil, and the
St. Petersburg delegation will attend an unveiling ceremony to Russian
explorers in Argentina and will visit a church in honour of the Holy
tsarist martyrs under construction by the Russian Orthodox community. In
Mar del Plata Valentina Matviyenko will participate in the opening of an
exhibition of the archive documents about the relations between St.
Petersburg and Argentina.

.US space shuttle Discovery with 7 astronauts aboard to fly to ISS.

NEW YORK, April 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The U.S. space shuttle Discovery will
be launched from the spaceport on Cape Canaveral (Florida) to the
International Space Station (ISS) on Monday. The launch is scheduled for
06.21 EST (14.21 Moscow time) on Monday.
The Discovery will bring to the ISS more than 12 tonnes of various
cargoes, including a sport simulator, scientific equipment, additional
equipment for the block Dome, food stuffs and many other things,
Specifically, the shuttle is carrying a module designed for experiments to
study the space influence on the human organism and the growth of plants.
Commander Alan Poindexter heads the Discovery crew. Pilot James P.
Dutton Jr. will steer the shuttle. Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, 35,
Stephanie Wilson, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko
Yamazaki, 40, will make their first spaceflight. NASA astronaut Clayton
Anderson, 51, Stephanie Wilson, 44, and Rick Mastracchio, 50, are already
experienced astronauts.
The Discovery crew will meet with six ISS colleagues, three of whom
arrived on the orbit by the piloted spaceship Soyuz on April 4 - Alexander
Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Tracey Caldwell-Dyson.
Oleg Kotov, Timothy Creamer and Soichi Noguchi have been working at the
ISS for several months.
An upcoming flight will be the 131st mission under the space shuttle
program launched in 1981. Alongside, this will be the 33rd flight of the
space shuttle after the ISS construction launched in December 1998. For
the Discovery this spaceflight will the 38th spaceship since its first
launch in August 1984.
Until this autumn, when the space shuttle program will be completed
Endeavour, Discovery and Atlantis are to make four more flights, including
the current one.
-0-baz