Events

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A new webpage, www.the.ge containing full information on the events being held at Georgian clubs, movies, concert halls, restaurants and other places of entertainment was launched at Gallery Vernisaj on April 8. The webpage is detailed and interesting information can be accessed very easily.



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A new hymn written by Georgian Patriarch Ilia the Second was premiered on April 8 at the Tbilisi Grand Concert Hall. The hymn is dedicated to the Mother of God and was sung by famous Georgian opera singer Iano Alibegashvili, accompanied by the Georgian National Symphony Orchestra. The singer was chosen by the Patriarch himself.



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Oboist Francois Leleux and German horn player Wolfgang Gaag gave a concert performing compositions by Bach and Rossini at the Georgian Culture Ministry on April 8 with the Georgian State Chamber Orchestra. The event was the beginning of a new tradition – from now on the Ministry will host different cultural events every Friday.



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The Courtyard Marriott Hotel hosted a photo exhibition by Irakli Gedenidze called “Fasten Your Seatbelts” on April 8, organised by the Partnership for Road Safety. It was held as part of the project Popularisation of Seatbelts in Georgia. The exhibition featured photos of famous Georgian residents, including President Mikheil Saakashvili and First Lady Sandra Roelofs, wearing seatbelts. The First Lady is patron of the Alliance for Safe Roads project, which is sponsored by the Partnership for Road Safety, USAID, BP, the US Embassy in Georgia, the Georgian Education Ministry, the Netherlands Embassy in Georgia, the magazine Auto Build and the Georgian National Automobile Federation.

The organisers of the exhibition called on the Georgian population to use seatbelts, as they are one of the best means of ensuring personal safety in the event of a car accident.



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The exhibition After 9 April by painter Gogi Chagelishvili was held at Karvasla Museum in Tbilisi on April 8. It presented paintings portraying the situation after the tragic events 9 April 1989.



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The National Examinations Centre has started receiving applications for the United Masters Exams. Registration for these will last until May 10. Detailed information about the exams will be posted on the Centre's website www.naec.ge and in universities.

The United Masters Exams will be held in July. Candidates for Masters Degree programmes will be able to submit their applications only after successfully passing the United Masters Exams.

Students are funded to study in accordance with their scores at the United Masters Exams. In 2009 the state funded the studies of about 900 Masters programme students.



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The Education Professional Syndicate held training for the Teacher's Certificate exams on April 9, 10 and 11 in schools in Kutaisi. Syndicate President Tato Shavshishvili says that the training should help teachers pass the examinations and develop their professional skills. The organisation will hold trainings in all the Georgian regions prior to the exams.



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An event dedicated to Mother Tongue Day was held at the Arnold Chikobava Linguistics Institute on April 14. On the same day the Linguistics Institute’s website www.kartuliena.ge was launched. This will give users full academic information on the Georgian language, encourage the language’s standardisation and signpost users to courses and dictionaries. The site will also include a forum, in which all interested users will have their questions answered by experts.



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The first reward card in Georgia, the Unicard, has been issued by the British investment company Universal Card Corporation. Anyone wanting a Unicard will be able to get one free at Goodwill, Ioli, Voulez Vous, Lutecia, Roniko, Kenari, Elit Electronics, Mobi, the trade centres GTC, Megaline, New Kidobani and Eurasia and the Rustaveli and Amirani cinemas.

Unicard holders will be able to use the product in more than 700 trade and entertainment locations. It will credit them with points for buying goods and services and talking on the phone. After collecting a certain number of points a cardholder will receive a gift which they choose from a catalogue or the website www.unicard.ge.

To begin with the cards will be distributed in Tbilisi, but by the end of the year they will also be available in other major cities of Georgia.



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CNN International has begun to broadcast a series of programmes on Georgia in its i-List programme. CNN's new series i-List takes you to a different country each month and highlights innovation and influence in business, technology, culture and more.

The first programme touches on Georgia-Russia relations and says that tens of thousands of Georgians had to flee their homes due to the 2008 August war in South Ossetia. The narrator says that the Government constructed a colony near the conflict zone soon after the war to provide IDPs with shelter.

The first guest in the report on Georgia was Georgian NBA star Zaza Pachulia and the second Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II. In his interview His Holiness recalled his dialogue with Russian President Medvedev, who spoke to him about the necessity of securing the repatriation of IDPs, however "the words were never fulfilled".

Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri was also interviewed. He recalled the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in Vancouver and the simulated news programme broadcast on Imedi TV, which caused panic in the public by reporting that the Russians were invading again without publishing a warning on the screen that the programme was a simulation.

Anyone who has interesting information about Georgia can upload it to http://www.ireport.com/ir-topic-stories.jspa?topicId=413016.