Bratsk to elect new mayor in early vote.

IRKUTSK, the Siberia, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - Early elections of the city
mayor will be held in Bratsk, the second largest city in the Irkutsk
region, on Sunday.
A source at the city electoral committee told Itar-Tass that seven
candidates were running for the post. Three of them are members of the
three major parties represented in the Russian State Duma: Alexander Serov
(the Communist Party), Sergei Magdalinov (the Liberal Democratic Party of
Russia) and Konstantin Orlov (the Fair Russia party).
There are also four independent candidates. They include two
candidates from the United Russia Party: Sergei Grishin, a deputy of the
regional Legislative Assembly, and Bratsk's acting mayor Alexander
Doskalchuk. The other two independent candidates are entrepreneur Valery
Pigarev, who doesn't belong to any political party, and Viktor Skurkovin,
assistant director of the Voin (Warrior) limited liability company.
Early mayoral elections were called in Bratsk after the former mayor
stepped down from his office on January 12 this year. According to the
Russian federal legislation, a new mayor is to be elected not later than
six month after the resignation of his predecessor.

.Split in the Russian Union of Film-Makers is minimal.

CANNES, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Film Director Nikita Mikhalkov
says a split in the ranks of the Russian Union of Film Makers is minimal
despite rumours.
Mikhalkov's picture "Burnt by the Sun 2" was shown in the main contest
program of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.
Mikhalkov told a news conference held after the run about the
situation in the Russian Union of Film Makers, of which he is the head,
and a collective letter of withdrawal signed by the Union's members.
"Out of 97 people who signed a letter of intentions to leave the
Union, 30 have never been its members. Another thirty have been refusing
to pay their membership dues for the past five or ten years. That
automatically deprives them of their membership. Two more people have been
residing abroad for more than 30 years. One of them - Otar Ioseliani -
cannot withdraw from the Union because he has never been its member. Out
of those who remain only four people have really submitted an application
of withdrawal. So you yourselves can see the scale of this, as some say,
colossal international scandal," Mikhalkov said.

.Wonderworking icon arriving in Czech Republic for Trinity.

PRAGUE, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - A wonderworking icon of the Mother of God
"Semistrelnaya" (The Softening of Evil Hearts), one of the holiest items
of the Orthodox Church in Russia, will arrive in the Czech Republic on
Sunday.
"Today, when Orthodox Christians are marking the Holy Trinity, a plane
will deliver the icon from Moscow to Brno," Father Joseph of the Orthodox
parish of St. Vaclav in Brno," said.
The pilgrimage will last until May 30. The Icon will visit five Czech
cities. This coming Monday it will be taken to the Church of
Transfiguration in Liberec. Then, it will travel to the Cathedral of St.
Peter and Paul in Kralovy Vary from where it will head for the Plzen
Orthodox parish of St. Ann.
On May 27, in the morning, parishioners will be able to pray to the
Icon of the Mother of God "Semistrelnaya" at the Assumption Cathedral at
the Olsany Cemetery, the largest graveyard in Prague, where the remains of
Russian soldiers are buried. After that, the icon will return to Brno
where it will stay until May the 30th.
The Icon of the "Semistrelnaya" Mother of God is about 500 years old.
However, the one going to the Czech Republic is modern. It was made my
icon painters in Sofrino, near Moscow. The icon looks as if it was a
hundred years old and has already been recognized as wonderworking.
The Icon of the "Semistrelnaya" Mother of God displayed its holy
ointment shedding for the first time back in 1999 shortly before apartment
buildings blasts in Moscow. Tiny bleeding small wounds appeared on the
icon on the day the Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea.
The icon is kept at the "Softening of Evil Hearts" chapel in the
village of Bachurino near Moscow.

. Floods in Poland kill 12.

WARSAW, May 23 (Itar-Tass) - The death toll from the Polish flood has
reached 12, the Polish police reported on Saturday. More than 3,000 people
have been evacuated from the flooded area. More than 7,000 policemen are
patrolling the river dams. They are also rescuing people and their
property.
Poland's southern regions are worst hit.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday that the situation in the
southern regions continued to be dramatic and was showing no signs of
returning back to normal despite the fact that the weather had improved.

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