Medvedev, Halonen to discuss preparations for 2014 Winter Olympics

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HELSINKI, August 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Finnish President Tarja Halonen
will pay a brief, one-day visit to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi
on Tuesday at the invitation of her Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
The Finnish presidential office has told Itar-Tass topical
international problems and preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi will top the agenda. During the visit Halonen will review the
projects to be implemented for hosting the Olympics.
The presence of the Olympic theme on the visit's agenda is not
accidental. Finnish companies have taken much interest in building
projects in Sochi. The issue was considered at last June's talks between
the Russian and Finnish prime ministers in Sochi. There will be more
discussions of the outlook for cooperation by the two countries in this
field when Finland's Foreign Trade and Development Minister Paavo Vayrynen
will visit Sochi for an investment forum in autumn.


.Rogozin to discuss Russia-NATO Council, SOssetia with Rasmussen.


BRUSSELS, August 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry
Rogozin plans to discuss ways of reforming the Russia-NATO Council (RNC)
with the alliance's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday.
Rogozin told Itar-Tass in an interview his first meeting with NATO's
secretary-general would last for about half an hour.
"I would like to discuss two issues of fundamental importance,"
Rogozin said. "Firstly, how we should go about the business of
transforming the RNC, which is now a briefing center, where we inform each
other about our positions, into a mechanism of achieving unanimity on
controversial themes in world politics. Secondly, how we can ensure the
Russia-NATO Council should not play down differences, but develop the
ability to analyze those disagreements, discuss them and overcome them."
The forthcoming meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the ambassador
level is due in Brussels when the holiday season is over, in the second
half of September. Rogozin says the RNC will focus on such priorities as
the Russian initiative for concluding a new treaty on European security
and military-technological cooperation.
Also, Rogozin is hopeful there will be a chance at the RNC sessions to
discuss the emergence of the conflict over South Ossetia.
"I would like to put the emphasis on this theme at my meeting with
Rasmussen on Tuesday. Mr. Scheffer evaded a substantive dialogue on this
subject, and Mr. Rasmussen looks more open to analyzing at last the
lessons of the August 2008 events," Rogozin said.
"Rasmussen made a good start. He positioned himself from the outset as
an up-to-date person, starting from the opening of his own blog (on NATO's
website) and his first public statements, in which he made an attempt to
present himself not just as the alliance's functionary, but as a political
leader of world scale. This is of interest and it is very new for NATO."
Rogozin remarked that for Russia there existed the same problem in
relations with the European Union and NATO - "it is unclear who we are to
talk to."
"If it is true that Rasmussen positions himself as a political leader
of world level, then he assumes a very serious responsibility and his
ambitions are proportionate to this responsibility. If he succeeds in
perpetuating this new status, if he does act on his words, then he is
exactly the partner worth talking to," Rogozin said.
Denmark's former prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, took office as
NATO's secretary-general on August 1 to succeed Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Rasmussen is the alliance's 12th secretary general and the first
politician to have moved to this post from a prime minister's seat. Before
this position was considered as a ministerial level one and in most cases
it was occupied by NATO's defense or foreign ministers.
After the inauguration in his new capacity Rasmussen said that
restoring and strengthening strategic relations with Russia was one of his
priorities. He declared he hoped to persuade the Russian public and
leadership NATO was not an enemy and that the alliance was not targeted
against Russia. He acknowledged that certain differences between Russia
and NATO remained, but he called for discussing them and finding solutions
in order to not let problems spoil the entire range of relations, based on
common interests in the sphere of security.


.First case of A/H1N1/ infection registered in North Ossetia.


VLADIKAVKAZ, August 11 (Itar-Tass) -- The first case of A/H1N1/ flu
has been registered in North Ossetia, the republic's Health Ministry has
told Itar-Tass.
According to the source, the patient - a ten-year-old girl -
contracted the virus during a holiday in Indonesia, where she had been
with her mother.
Laboratory tests have confirmed that the teen-age girl, a resident of
the northern city of Norilsk, who had arrived in South Ossetia to stay
with her relatives, had gone down with the new virus. The girl was taken
to hospital last week. A set of prophylactic and treatment measures helped
stabilize her condition.
Doctors say complications have been avoided and the patient is now far
better. However, she remains in a separate ward.
The North Ossetian government has allocated 65 million rubles for the
struggle against the new virus, in part, for purchasing the necessary
medicines and creating proper conditions for likely patients. The consumer
rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, the Health Ministry and the Emergency
Situations ministry have held an exercise to practice essential measures
to prevent the disease from spreading in the republic.

-0-str