PACE to focus on South Caucasus conflict at autumn session.

STRASBOURG, September 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE) will focus on the debates over the report
"War between Georgia and Russia: one year on" at its autumn session that
will open at the Strasbourg Palace of Europe on Monday.


The Council of
Europe consistently interprets in such terms Georgia's military operation
in South Ossetia. The second important item on the agenda of the PACE
session is the election of a new Secretary General of the Council of
Europe.
In the context of the conflict in the South Caucasus the PACE intends
to discuss a request of 72 parliamentarians to revise the powers of Russia'
s delegation, because the country does not fulfil the provisions of the
relevant resolutions on "the consequences of the war between Russia and
Georgia." The initiators of the request, primarily the deputies from
Lithuania, Georgia and Poland allegedly have "sound reasons" to raise such
a question.
Two ex-prime ministers of Poland and Norway - Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz
and Thorbjorn Jagland are nominated as candidates for Council of Europe
Secretary General. The PACE will debate the reports on the functioning of
democratic institutions in Moldova and on a UN reform involving Council of
Europe member-countries.
Among other issues for debates are proposals to conclude Monaco's
monitoring and to draft a protocol to the European Convention of Human
Rights for the right to 'live in a healthy and viable environment.'

.Nizhny Novgorod governor to present region at France embassy.

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, September 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Governor Valery Shantsev
will present the investment potential and the socio-economic development
of the Nizhny Novgorod region at the French Embassy to Russia on Monday.
Fifty representatives of French business quarters will participate in
a presentation of one of the most industrially developed Volga regions.
The government of the Nizhny Novgorod region and an office of the
French Commerce and Industry Chamber in Russia will sign an agreement on
cooperation at the presentation, the press service of the regional
administration told Itar-Tass.
Business ties with France are developing dynamically and productively,
the press service said. The bilateral trade amounted to 111.5 million
dollars in 2008. This figure exceeded 12.3 million dollars for the first
quarter of 2009.
Major French companies are implementing successfully investment
projects in the region. Onduline Group commissioned the first Russian
plant for the production of roofing products in July 2008. Investments in
the first line of the plant designed for an output of 14 million square
metres of roofing products annually reached one billion roubles.
Saint-Gobain intends to implement a large-scale project in the Nizhny
Novgorod region. The French company is planning to invest more than 70
million dollars in the construction of a plant for producing construction
materials.