7 point 8 magnitude earthquake shakes Indonesian Sumatra.

VLADIVOSTOK, April 7 (Itar-Tass) -- A 7.8-magnitude earthquake has
shaken the northern coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The quake focus at the depth of 46 kilometers was located 205
kilometers off the city of Sibolga, 230 kilometers off the city of Medan
and 525 kilometers of the Indonesian capital of Kuala-Lumpur. The Pacific
Tsunami Center has issued a tsunami warning.

.More than 10 documents to be signed during Medvedev's visit to
Slovakia.

BRATISLAVA, April 7 (Itar-Tass) -- More than ten documents, including
on cooperation in the area of nuclear power engineering, will be signed on
Wednesday during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's official visit to
Slovakia, Russian president's aide Sergei Prikhodko told Itar-Tass.
According to Prikhodko, the documents will include an
intergovernmental agreement on protection of rights to intellectual
activity results used and produced in the course of bilateral military
technical cooperation, an agreement between the Russian Drug Control
Service and the Slovak Interior Ministry on cooperation in counteracting
illegal trafficking of drugs, psychotropic substances and their
precursors, an executive protocol to the Russia-EU readmission agreement,
and a memorandum of understanding between the Russian Ministry of Energy
and the Slovak Economics Ministry on the Russian-Slovak Cyclotron Centre.
It is also planned to sign a number of commercial agreements,
including a framework contract between Russia's TVEL corporation and
Slovak Electricity Networks on nuclear fuel supplies to the third and
fourth units of the Mochovce nuclear plant, agreements between the Russian
Railways Co and Slovakia's Tatravagonka on a joint venture for designing
and construction of railway freight cars and on research cooperation, and
an agreement between Russia's TMKh Vagonostroenie and Tatravagonka on a
joint venture to manufacture articulated platforms.
"Considerable attention during President Medvedev's talks with Slovak
President Ivan Gasparovic will be paid to trade and economic cooperation,
restoration of its positive dynamics after the decline caused by the
global crisis," Prikhodko said. He reminded that the trade turnover had
shrunk more than two-fold in 2009 from the record level of 9.6 billion
U.S. dollars in 2008.
"In these conditions the sides see their common goals in diversifying
their ties, including through investment partnership, building up
cooperation in hi-tech, science-intensive industries," he noted and added
that "in the area of high technologies, the sides have such successful
projects as the International Laser Centre build by Russian and Slovak
specialists in Bratislava, a proton therapy centre in the Slovak town of
Ruzombekok, which will be unveiled during the visit." "The program for
opening a Cyclotron Research Centre in Bratislava has entered a final
stages," he added.
Prikhodko called cooperation in the energy sphere a basic area of
cooperation between the two states. Russian energy carries (some six
million tons of oil a year, more than six billion cubic meters of natural
gas, nuclear fuels) are supplied to Slovakia under long-term contracts and
satisfy virtually the entire Slovak demands.
According to Prikhodko, Slovakia is a major transit link in Russian
hydrocarbon exports to Europe. More than 50 billion cubic metres of gas
are annually piped via the Slovak territory. "Currently, a number of
large-scale joint projects are being developed, including Russian
companies' participation in building the 3rd and 4th units of the Slovak
Mochovce nuclear plant, construction of new facilities at the Jaslovske
Bohunice nuclear plant, decommissioning of its old units, developing
infrastructure for supplying gas and petrochemical products to Slovak
consumers," he said.
The Russian-Slovak cooperation in the area of transport has a mutually
beneficial character and common European importance, he said. "Among its
most promising directions are extending a broad-gauge railway from Kosice
to Bratislava, and establishing a big logistics centre on the Danube," he
noted.
The sides are also expected to exchange view on acute international
issues, the Russian president's aide went on. "In the focus of attention
will be issues of strengthening security and cooperation in Europe in the
context of the Russian initiative on a European security treaty, the
Russia-European Union relations, various aspects of Russia-NATO
cooperation, and a number of regional issues," he noted.
-0-ras


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