North Korean leader says industry developing despite total shortages.

PYONGYANG, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il has
visited a steel mill in the northern city of Hyesan, where he came as part
of an inspection trip to Ryanggangdo province.
Korean Central News Agency said Chairman Kim, who stands at the head
of the country's National Defense Commission, was satisfied with how the
engineers and workers of the steel mill had managed to upgrade the
manufacturing of steel with the aid of original Korean technologies "in
the conditions of shortages of literally everything."
He put forward new long-term tasks for the Hyesan steel mill's labor
staff.
Kim Jong Il did on-the-spot management during several hours of stay at
a local shoe factory where he thanked the staff for the manufacturing of
high-quality footwear,
He also made a trip to the local university, which according to him
plays the role of an advance guard in training highly qualified teachers
with a revolutionary character.
The KCNA said that the North Korean leader was familiarized with the
construction of an up-to-date agricultural farm earlier in the day in the
same Ryanggangdo province.
He used the opportunity once again to stress the importance of the
policy pursued by the Korean Workers Party, saying it is aimed a making
dramatic pivot in potato growing.
Along the way, Kim Jong Il made a stop at a factory producing soybean
paste. He singled it out as an enterprise "putting out a healthy and tasty
product on the basis of the most advanced technologies."

.Russia's Duma to fully ban consumption of alcohol before driving.

MOSCOW, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's State Duma is going to have the
first reading of a bill that will fully ban consumption of alcohol before
driving.
The bill introduces amendments to the federal law on road traffic
safety. They will prohibit driving if a person is in a condition of
alcoholic, narcotic or chemical substance intoxication.
Simultaneously, the bill revokes an earlier permission to drive a car
if the content of absolute ethanol in the driver's organism exceed 0.3
grams per liter of blood or 0.15 milligrams per liter of the exhaled air.
The norm for the admissible levels of alcohol that set the ceiling at
0.3 per mille in human blood was passed July 1, 2008.
At the end of last year, however, President Medvedev told a Russian TV
channel at the end of last year he was going to lift this liberal
concession.
"We should introduce zero tolerance of alcohol before driving," he
said then. "We're unprepared yet for permitting even small portions of
alcohol before driving because, unfortunately, this provokes real drinking
before a man gets into the driver's seat."

.Heavy cyclone causes storm warning in Vladivostok

VLADIVOSTOK, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - A heavy cyclone has compelled
authorities in the major Russian Far-Eastern city of Vladivostok to issue
a storm warning.
The storm has already caused cancellation of regular passenger boat
and ferry services between Vladivostok and the islands of Russky, Popov
and Reinike, all of them located in the Gulf of Peter the Great,
spokespeople for the press service of the city's mayoralty said.
Local weather forecasters say showers and storms have been brought to
the city by a Western cyclone.
A monthly amount of rainfall is expected here in the next few days and
forecasters say it may cause a rise of water level in rivers by 30
centimeters on the average.

.Russia's Foreign, Defense Ministers to leave for conference in Rome.

MOSCOW, May 19 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov leave for Rome later Wednesday to
take part in the first joint meeting of Russian and Italian Foreign and
Defense Ministers that has been scheduled for Thursday, May 20.
"The set of issues related to ensuring Euro-Atlantic security will
have the central place at the conference," an official at the Russian
Foreign Ministry said. "The sides will do a precisely-targeted analysis of
the prospects for building a new architecture of European security in the
light of the Russian President's initiative on signing a legally binding
international treaty in this sphere."
"The negotiating parties will stress the importance of a more
intensive cooperation between Russia and NATO, and also with some other
separate states of the bloc, including in the format of the Russian-NATO
Council," the official said.
"The ministers will take a look at the Russia-EU relationship,
including its military element, and will consider the issues related to
disarmament," he said, adding that opportunities for cooperation on the
antiballistic missiles will make up a separate item of discussions.
The four ministers are expected to have a detailed review of the
situation in Afghanistan as part of preparations for a high-level
international conference in Kabul in July.
"The Russian ministers are going to call for more active and
coordinated actions in fighting with the drugs threat coming from
Afghanistan," the official said. "The Afghan context will also set the
framework for a discussion of the progress achieved so far in the drafting
of Russian-Italian agreements on military transits via Russia, as units of
the Italian Air Force are taking part in the efforts to stabilize and
restore Afghanistan."
Sergei Lavrov is expected to hold a separate meeting with Italian
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, while Anatoly Serdyukov will confer with
his opposite number Ignazio La Russa.
An agreement on establishing the two-plus-two ministerial format of
Russian-Italian relations was reached at the beginning of last December in
the course of consultations between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"The setting up of a mechanism for in-depth consultatios on the issues
of international policies and security reflects the line of the Russian
and Italian leaderships at consolidating strategic partnership of the two
countries," the official said.
-0-kle


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