Israel to host the 12th Congress of WARP.

TEL AVIV, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - The 12th Congress of the World
Association of Russian Press (WARP) will open in Israel on Sunday. About
300 journalists and the heads of printed and electronic media outlets from
more than 50 countries - from Peru to Australia - will attend the four-
day forum to discuss ways of supporting and developing the
Russian-language information space. Problems and challenges facing the
press in the 21st century will be another vital topic for discussion.
Vitaly Ignatenko, the General Director of the Itar-Tass news agency
who is the WARP president, will deliver the opening speech. Other speakers
will include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Russian
president's administration chief, Sergei Naryshkin, who will read out a
letter of greetings to the delegates of the Congress from Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev. Mrs. Irina Bokova, the Director-General of
UNESCO, has also sent her greetings to the forum.
Israel's Foreign Minister and Vice-Premier Avigdor Lieberman, and Yuli
Edelshtein, Israeli Minister of Information and the Diaspora, will also
make their speeches.
"I am sure that through joint efforts we will succeed in preserving
the unique Russian world, which considers Russian culture, the Russian
language, the Russian word and traditions of all peoples who have accepted
the Russian language as a language of inter-ethnic communication to be
great unifying values," Ignatenko said ahead of the forum.
He also emphasized that the Congress was being held in the year of the
65th anniversary of Victory over fascism. "Our common duty is to see that
the 21st century has no place for chauvinism, xenophobia and other
manifestations of religious and national intolerance," Ignatenko went on
to say.
The delegates of the 12th Congress of the World Association of Russian
Press (WARP) will meet Israeli President Shimon Peres on the forum's
sidelines. They will also visit the new Holocaust History Museum at Yad
Vashem and will participate in an official ceremony in Latrun to be
devoted to the 65th anniversary of Victory over fascism.

.Days of Slavic Alphabet and Culture to open in St. Petersburg.

ST. PETERSBURG, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - Days of Slavic Alphabet and
Culture will open in St. Petersburg on Sunday. They are timed to coincide
with the Day of St. Cyril and Methodius, the two brothers who became
missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples. Both brothers are
venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as saints with the title "Equals
to the Apostles".
A liturgy will be held at the Smolny Cathedral on Sunday. In
pre-revolutionary Russia, the Smolny Cathedral was a church of all
educational establishments under the patronage of Empress Maria Fyodorovna.
After the prayer, students from various educational institutions who
participated in a creative contest devoted to Cyril and Methodius will
receive their diplomas in the Smolny Cathedral.
The Chamber Choir of the Smolny Cathedral will sing sacred songs.
People's Artist of Russia Nikolai Burov, who is the director of the State
Museum Monument St. Isaac's Cathedral, will present a documentary titled
"The Smolny Cathedral" in which he is the narrator.
The guests of the festival will be able to visit the cathedral's
renovated belfries and catch a bird's eye view of the city from a height
of 50-meters.
The Smolny Cathedral is housing an exhibition of paintings, graphics
and applied art titled "The Light of Christ Enlightens Everybody". Their
authors are professors and students of art schools and universities of St.
Petersburg.
The festivities will continue on Monday and Tuesday. The University of
Arts and Culture will host the 11th international forum on the works of
Cyril and Methodius where post-graduates, students and teachers will
discuss problems of religious and moral education of young people.

. Two militants destroyed in Chechnya.

GROZNY, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - Two militants were destroyed in a forest
near the Serzhan-Yurt village during an anti-terrorist operation in
Chechnya early on Sunday.
The two militants are Ali Yusupkhadzhiyev and Askhab Yusupkhadzhiyev.
Both are residents of the town of Shali.
No casualties have been reported among the security forces that
conducted the operation.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and Magomed Daudov, the first
vice-premier responsible for the army and law enforcement, are reported to
be at the scene.

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