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The News in Brief

Friday, March 11
Mikheil Saakashvili about Sochi Olympiad

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has spoken about possible negotiations with Russia and the Sochi Olympiad in an interview with Russian paper Kommersant . The video version was broadcasted live on TV “Dojd”.

The President responds to the journalist’s question whether Georgia will participate in the Sochi Olympiad or not. He says that it is a question of principle for the Olympic Committee.

“It’s far enough from 2014, considering how rapidly the situation changes in our region and worldwide”, Saakashvili said. He says that what is happening in Abkhazia is not only Georgia’s problem but Russia’s as well.

The President said that the most important issue for Georgia is de-occupation of Georgia’s territories and returning people to their houses.

“Georgia is a small country. We are less than 5 million. If a tenth of them are not allowed to their houses, this is of course a serious problem. There is also a problem of terrorism”, the President says. He noted that it is important to investigate the terrorist acts that took place in Tbilisi.

The journalist asked the President about police reform in Georgia. “The most important is not to have corrupt structures; people in the offices feel that this is their country, that this country has a future. Private interests must be forgotten. They should not steal. There is not half reformism. You either steal or not”, Mikheil Saakashvili stated. (Interpressnews)



Business Ombudsman meets with businessmen

Business Ombudsman Giorgi Pertaia is continuing his meetings with the representatives of small and medium businesses in Georgia. The meeting was held in the Hotel Citadin yesterday. This time, the business ombudsman listened to the problems of the businessmen from the tourism sector.

The businessmen introduced the problems they have in their sector and put questions to Mr. Pertaia. The questions were mostly about the new tax code.

Business ombudsman said the cooperation with large business is easier, but the problems in the small and medium business are still topical, that`s why such meetings are of particular significance for the development of this sector of business. (Rustavi 2)



Andria Urushadze Is Meeting With Population Of Regions

The Minister of Health, Labor and Social Affairs of Georgia Andria Urushadze is holding meetings with the population of the regions of Georgia.

As Prime-News was told at the Health Ministry, Andria Urushadze met with Gurjaani district’s population of Kakheti region on March 10 and got acquainted with their problems on the spot.

As it was mentioned during the meeting the population has problems related to the energy vouchers distribution, as the vouchers have not been transferred to some of the families and the minister was asked to solve the problem.

Andria Urushadze also spoke about the process of food voucher distribution and explained the details of the procedures to the locals. (Prime-News)



Two Georgians in Forbes Rich List

There are two Georgiansin the latest Forbes rich list - Bidzina (Boris) Ivanishvili is in 185th with $5.5 billion and Alexandre Japaridze is on the 564 place with $2.1 billion. Both of them are indicated as Russian businessmen in the Forbes rating.

This year's list broke records in size (1,210 billionaires) and total net worth ($4.5 trillion). China doubled its number of 10-figure fortunes, and Moscow now has more billionaires than any other city (79). Mexico's Carlos Slim widened his lead at No. 1. ($74B), Bill Gates is in second place ($56B) and Worren Baffet is in third place ($50B). (Interpressnews)



Tbilisi mayor presents new vice mayor

The Mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava introduced the new vice mayor of the capital Giorgi Tskhakaia to the Tbilisi government members yesterday. The Mayor said the new vice mayor would work on solving economic problems in the Tbilisi government. He will be in charge of attracting investments for various municipal projects, monitoring the implementation of these projects and their regulation.

Giorgi Tskhakaia has previously worked as the Deputy Minister of Economics and Finance. Before assuming the new office in the city government, he was the head of the revenue office of the Ministry of Finance. (Rustavi 2)



Laboratory analysis to find out the type of virus suffered by 4 patients

The married couple, who were hospitalized from one of the remote regions of Georgia via helicopter with the symptoms of viral infections, has already been discharged from the Ghudushauri clinic.

However, their 11 and 14 year-old children remain under the observation of doctors, who say their health condition has significantly improved.

The laboratory analysis will find out the type of virus with which they were infected. The patients were hospitalized from Mtiuleti by the interior ministry rescue brigades yesterday. They are from the village of Beniaantkari. The family failed to visit a doctor as the village is isolated from the rest of the region due to heavy snow. (Rustavi 2)



Police interrogated sportsmen until late last night

Police were interrogating the colleagues of the late Czech tourist, who died in avalanche in Gudauri resort on Wednesday. The dead tourist, whose body was taken to Tbilisi for expertise, will be taken to his homeland very shortly.

Thomas Fila, 35, was an extreme sportsman and he was skiing on the Lomisa Mountain together with five other sportsmen. The tragedy occurred on a difficult route. The rescue brigades arrived at the site of the incident in half and hour, but the tourist was already dead when they found him. Other sportsmen had light injuries.

There were three Czech and three French tourists in the group of skiers, who arrived at Gadauri resort six days ago. (Rustavi 2)