Syria president to visit Belarus.

MINSK, July 26 (Itar-Tass) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad will
arrive on a two-day visit in Belarus on Monday to boost bilateral economic
and political cooperation, Syrian Ambassador in Belarus Faruq Taha said.
"This is an important event, because the Syrian president will visit
Belarus for the first time. This is an impetus to intensify cooperation
between our countries," the diplomat said.
The Syrian president is to have negotiations with his Belarusian
counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, the leadership of the country's
government and parliament.
At a meeting with Speaker of the Syrian People Assembly Mahmoud
al-Abrash in late June Alexander Lukashenko expressed confidence that
Belarus and Syria "can advance considerably in all trends of cooperation."
Belarus is interested in vigorous development of business cooperation with
Syria and is ready to deliver to the Syrian market a broad range of
Belarusian products, Lukashenko noted. "Syria is among our major trade
partners in the Middle East and the economies of our countries can be
considered as mutually supplemental," the president pointed out.
Lukashenko noted that Belarusian-Syrian cooperation "is based on full
trust and the striving for the closest cooperation in various fields." "We
are resolving the issues in the constructive way in such international
organizations as the U.N. and the Non-Aligned Movement. Belarus and Syria
do not accept equally external pressure and dictate, protect actively
their territorial integrity and sovereignty," the Belarusian leader said.
The Syrian president will be accompanied by a major business
delegation. A second meeting of the Belarusian-Syrian business cooperation
council will be held during the visit. Belarus will search for business
partners and investors among Syrian businessmen and will discuss
cooperation projects.

.Raul Castro to hold festive ceremony on Cuban Revolution Day.

HAVANA, July 26 (Itar-Tass) -- Cuban President Raul Castro will hold a
major ceremony on National Revolution Day in Cuba on Monday. The Cuban
leader will deliver a speech at a festive ceremony in the city of Santa
Clara, the capital of Villa Clara Province.
More than 100,000 people are expected to gather on the main city
square named after Ernesto Che Guevara. The participants in the abortive
storming of the Moncada Barracks, which a group of young rebels led by
Fidel Castro were attempting to capture on July 26, 1953, and other
veterans of the armed struggle with Batista's dictatorship will meet on
the square.
The day of the attack on the Moncada Barracks is considered the
starting point of the Cuban Revolution. After the victory of the
revolution in 1959 July 26 was declared as one of the most important
national holidays.

.Artamonov to be inaugurated as Kaluga governor.

KALUGA, July 26 (Itar-Tass) -- An inauguration ceremony of
newly-approved Kaluga Governor Anatoly Artamonov will be held here on
Monday, a source in the Kaluga regional authorities told Itar-Tass.
At its first session on June 10 the Legislative Assembly of the Kaluga
Region vested Artamonov, 58, with the powers of governor for the third
term.
President Dmitry Medvedev nominated the candidacy of the incumbent
governor for voting in the Legislative Assembly on June 3.
"The nomination of Artamonov's candidacy for governor proves the
country's leadership evaluated highly the efforts and merits of the
incumbent governor," speaker of the regional legislative assembly Viktor
Baburin said.
Anatoly Artamonov heads the Kaluga Region since November 2000. He was
reelected in March 2004, the regional Legislative Assembly approved his
candidacy nominated by the Russian president in July 2005.
Under the leadership of Artamonov the Kaluga Region managed to improve
considerably the investment attractiveness of the region, attract a great
number of investors, launch new productions and create more jobs. The
region turned into one of the most successful regions in Russia.
Artamonov considers as the major far-sighted task a stable political
and socio-economic situation in the region and a higher life quality. The
regional authorities provided necessary conditions to develop relations
with foreign partners in economic and humanitarian spheres. The Kaluga
Region is leading in the amount of direct foreign investments. The region
remains a high-tech economic center, where dozens of foreign companies are
operating. The industrial parks Rosva, Kaluga-Yug, Grabtsevo house
strategic investors - Volkswagen Rus, Volvo Truck,
Peugeot-Citroen-Mitsubishi, the companies Nestle and Samsung operate
there. The Danish company Novo Nordisk plans to build a plant to produce
insulin medicines for diabetes patients by the end of 2012. The Kaluga
Region is implementing 32 targeted programs that embrace all spheres of
life: health care, housing, innovations, small business and youth affairs.
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