Arctic may have giant oil and gas reserves - French experts

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PARIS, October 4 (Itar-Tass) - The Arctic region and its polar zone
may contain giant oil and natural gas reserves, believe experts who are
taking part in the International Geography Festival underway in Saint Die,
France.
Scientific Director of the energy corporation Total Jean-Francois
Minster believes that the "Arctic oil reserves may reach 60 billion
barrels." He added that some natural deposits may be located in the
international zone, outside the sea economic zones of nearest states.
Experts also noted that the legal status of the Arctic region is not
determined by international treaties, which allows seven countries of the
zone and even separate indigenous peoples to advance their territorial
claims.
In the view of the former French industry minister who also takes part
in the forum, "30 percent of the world's natural gas and 15 percent of oil
may be deposited in the Arctic."
He also drew attention to the fact that the Arctic remains relatively
unexplored - at present there are depth maps of only one-fourth of its sea
bottom.
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.Sport ideals should be consolidated in public mind-UNESCO chief.

PARIS, October 4 (Itar-Tass) - The International Convention Against
Doping in Sport has been ratified by 124 states at present, UNESCO
Director General Koichiro Matsuura said on Saturday. He urged the member
countries to carry out the work further to put into practice clauses of
the document.
Sport is a powerful instrument of strengthening social contacts, the
UNESCO head stressed. It is important now to consolidate its values and
ideals in public mind, he added.
Matsuura whose office term expires this month stressed that during the
whole 10 years on the UNESCO chief post he sought to strengthen the role
of sport in the development of the dialogue between civilisations. He
called UNESCO a partner of the international sport and Olympic movement.
Russian People's Artist Sergei Prisekin presented at the UNESCO
headquarters in Paris on Saturday his new work - a portrait of Koichiro
Matsuura for a gallery devoted to public figures who contributed to the
consolidation of Olympic values.
The artist told Itar-Tass that he worked on the painting with major
emotion. "I wanted to portray the spirituality of this man who displayed
high professional and moral qualities," said Prisekin. "The UNESCO
activities over the past decade have been marked by special consistency in
the consolidation of humanistic ideals," he noted.
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.Gryzlov hopes EU Parliament Games to become traditional.

MOSCOW, October 4 (Itar-Tass) - Speaker of the State Duma lower house
of Russia's parliament Boris Gryzlov believes that European Parliamentary
Games that are underway in Moscow these days will become traditional, and
the number of sports and participating countries will increase. He made
this statement on Saturday at a meeting with his European colleagues who
visited the State Duma for an excursion after sport competitions.
Representatives of EU countries' parliaments visited an exhibition of
Russian parliamentarianism history, a plenary meeting hall and offices of
deputy factions at the Duma building in Okhotny Ryad Street.
"I hope that such games will become traditional, in 2010 Russia is
ready to assume the organisation of the events again, and we would like to
increase the number of sports and participating countries," the speaker
noted. In this connection he said that there are "many Olympic champions"
in the Russian parliament.
European parliament members for their part proposed to add to the list
of competitions basketball, volleyball, swimming and rowing, and thanked
the Russian side for the high level of organisation of the first games.
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.Petersburg Philharmonic Hall to give concert for oncology patients.

ST. PETERSBURG, October 4 (Itar-Tass) - Petersburg musicians will
become on Sunday participants in a charitable action named "Art - a Path
to Recovery" in aid to oncology patients. The concert under the motto
"Oncology. Help: ourselves!" will be given at the Grand Hall of the Dmitry
Shostakovich Philharmonic Society. The funds raised by the concert will be
transferred for the purchase of diagnostic equipment for the city's
oncology centres.
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.Samoa tsunami death toll rises to 170.

SYDNEY, October 4 (Itar-Tass) - The death toll of the devastating
Samoa tsunami has risen to 170. Ten people are reported missing,
spokeswoman for the Samoa government Vaosa Epa said.
According to her, 129 people died on Samoa, 32 - in the territory of
American Samoa and another 9 - on the Tonga Islands. They were mainly
people who were washed by giant waves into the sea or who were buried
under the wreckage of buildings.
An earthquake measuring 8.3 points that triggered the tsunami was
registered at the ocean bottom 200 kilometres off the Samoa Islands at a
depth of 35 kilometres on Wednesday. The quake lasted three minutes.
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