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The News in Brief

Thursday, August 26
Financial violations at Education Ministry

The internal audit of the Ministry of Education has revealed serious financial violations in the work of the ministry. The audit inspected the procurement activities of the ministry in 2008, when the minister was Gia Nodia.

The head of the internal audit department Irakli Andriashvili announced at the briefing yesterday that the violations were very serious.

"The audit revealed that 170,000 GEL was spent on the purchase of balls for schools. In total 600,000 GEL was simply stolen from the state budget for sport inventory," Andriashvili said and added that the results of the audit were sent to prosecutor's office for further investigation by order of the Minister.

'The internal audit department will continue similar inspections and we'll never allow anybody to embezzle resources intended for the education of our children,' Andriashvili said. (Rustavi 2)



Disabled children holiday in Ureki

140 disabled children have left for the seaside resort of Ureki, where they will stay for 12 days. Tbilisi municipal government has completely sponsored the holidays of the disabled children. Besides the intensive activities, the children will be provided with medical recreational services.

The municipal authorities say the project of assisting the disabled children has been implemented during the past five years and about 1400 children have already enjoyed their holidays at various resorts. A second group of children will go to the Kobuleti resort in two weeks time. (Rustavi 2)



Experts, authorities discuss hydro-energy development projects

Representatives of Ministry of Energy and hydro energy resources experts discussed the prospects for hydroelectric power network development in Georgia, together with the proposed projects and attracting of investments for implementing these projects. The meeting was held yesterday at the German Development Bank office in Tbilisi. The experts emphasised the high potential of Georgia's natural resources for hydro energy development and proposed ways for effective use of these resources to solve energy problems in the country.

The participants of the discussion reviewed some of these projects and promised to give their conclusions in near future. "This is a good motivation to attract additional resources, funds and give useful recommendations to investors to make investments in micro energy projects in Georgia," Mariam Valishvili, deputy minister of energy said.

The project of energy security is supported by the Norwegian foreign ministry. (Rustavi 2)



Kokoity Meets Russian Families of War-dead

Tskhinvali regime leader Eduard Kokoity met with Russian families of those soldiers who died during the war, agency ‘Res’ reports. The meeting was held in the ‘Svetlana’ Guest House in Sochi. ‘You lost the most valuable people and we lost our battle companions. Their heroism will always remain in the memory of the brotherly Ossetian people,’ Kokoity stated. Kokoity ordered the South Ossetian de-facto government to cover the cost of their stay in Sochi together with travel expenses for the Russian families of military servicemen. They thanked Tskhinvali regime leader. (Interpressnews)



Dmitry Medvedev Awards Georgian Film Director Giorgi Danelia

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev awarded Georgian film director Giorgi Danelia who turned 80 today, with the order of merit of the homeland. The Kremlin press office reports that the film director was awarded for his role in the development of cinematography and creative works over many years.

Russian agencies write about Giorgi Danelia’s biographic data. He was born in 30 August, 1930 in Tbilisi. Danelia graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute and worked as an architect. In 1956, he entered the Higher Director’s Courses at the Mosfilm Studio.

His 1964 feature Step Through Moscow, starring Nikita Mikhalkov, is one of the most characteristic films of the Khushchev Thaw. Among Danelia’s most popular movies are Mimino (1977), about a Georgian pilot’s adventures in Moscow, and The Autumn Marathon (1979), about a translator vacillating between his wife and mistress. In 1986 he directed a sci-fi film, Kin-dza-dza.

In 1976, he was a member of the jury at the 26th Berlin International Film Festival.

Danelia was named a People’s Artist of the USSR in 1990.

Giorgi Danelia is the author or co-author of scripts to most of his films; he also wrote scripts for films by other directors, among which are Gentlemen of Fortune (1972) (collaboration with Viktoria Tokareva), Frenchman (1988) with Sergei Bodroy and Hello from Charlie the Trumpet player (1998) with Sergei Dernov. (Interpressnews)



Jamaican ship arrested for water pollution

Georgian Coastal Guards of the Border Police and the Black Sea Conventional Inspection officers have arrested a ship with Jamaican flag. The ship's crew is accused of polluting the sea.

The ship is in the 14th dock of Poti Port and will be released once the 66,000 GEL fine has been paid. The ship was loaded with scrape metal and was sailing from Turkey to Ukraine. (Rustavi 2)