GM plant in St Pete resumes operation after three-week break

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ST PETERSBURG, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - General Motors' car assembling
plant outside St Petersburg resumes operation after a three-week mandatory
vacation of employees linked with preparation for a commercial launch of
the all-new Chevrolet Cruze sedan.
On Monday, employees will return to their workplaces and begin to
assemble Open Antara crossover and Chevrolet Captiva SUV, Sergei
Lepnukhov, PR director of GM CIS, told Itar-Tass.
GM maintains its plans for launching commercial production of its
compact sedan Cruze. According to preliminary estimates, the new model
will be on sale already in autumn. After a serial production of new sedans
is launched, GM plans to return to a five-day working week, he said.
However, the plant's management will have a final say judging by "the
current market situation," Lepnukhov said.
GM opened its plant in Shushary on November 7, 2008. The investments
into the plant's first stage with the annual production of 60,000 cars
exceeded 300 million U.S. dollars.
The plant is expected to switch to designed capacity in late 2010.


.Five quakes hit Kurils over past weekend.

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - Five earthquakes were
registered on the Kuril Islands over the past weekend. The ultimate
magnitude was 4.6 points on the Richter scale.
According to the geographic service of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, the epicentre was in the region of the uninhabited island of
Simushir at the depth of 70 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean.
Tectonic activity was registered near the islands of Shikotan,
Onekotan and Shiashkotan. In this region magnitudes ranged between 3.8 and
4.1 points on the Richter scale. Tremors were at the depth of 33-60
kilometers.
Tremors were not felt in populated settlements.

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.Yakutia, Magadan region to develop Yana-Kolyma gold province.
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MAGADAN, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the
Magadan region have signed an agreement to jointly develop Yana-Kolyma
gold-bearing province with estimated reserves from 5,000 to 8,000 tonnes.
"This is a great project that will help to extract up to 100 tonnes of
gold a year and to create 120,000 new jobs. We set up a working group that
will have to resolve many issues at the level of Russian government.
Probably, this project will lay the groundwork for our joint work within
five years to come," Yakutia President Vyacheslav Shtyrov said on Monday.
Shtyrov and Magadan region governor Nikolai Dudov also discussed
joints efforts in using the regions' energy potential, building new
electric power plants, transmission lines and road infrastructure.
They admitted that to attract private investments it is necessary to
introduce tax breaks for gold-mining companies that will explore
Yana-Kolyma gold-bearing belt that runs across Yakutia and the Magadan
region.



.Tokyo stocks open flat Monday.

TOKYO, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - Stocks opened almost flat on Monday at
the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the biggest in Asia and the second largest stock
exchange market in the world by market value.
According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, in the first 15 minutes of
trading, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 6.10 points, or 0.06
percent, from Friday to 9,883.49 after a negative start.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock
Exchange was down 0.13 points, or 0.01 percent, to 926.67.
Japan's government data released early on Monday morning showed the
country's industrial production in May rose by 5.9 percent - for the third
month running, but investor sentiment was slightly dampened as it fell
short of the average market forecast.

.Kazan hosts international conference on Hajj security.

KAZAN, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - Security of Muslim pilgrims during their
journey to Mecca will be high on the agenda of an international conference
on the past and present of Hajj that opens in Kazan on Monday.
"This conference is organized by the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, the Hajj council under the Russian government and the
Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Tatarstan," Tatarstan's mufti Gusman
khazrat Iskhakov told Itar-Tass.
Over 25,000 Russians make pilgrimage to Mecca every year. Following
the reconstruction of Mecca's residential area the issues of pilgrims'
accommodation, food provision and security in the Valley of Mina, some 5
km to the east of Mecca, where millions of pilgrims gather, become urgent.
"To ensure security and comfortable pilgrimage of believers it is
necessary to develop the unified standards of work for Hajj operators," he
said.
The conference brings over 200 delegates from 20 countries, including
Greece, Belarus, Iraq, Indonesia, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

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