Ukraine plans to bid for Winter Olympic Games 2022.

KIEV, August 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine plans to submit its bid for
hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and National Olympic Committee
President Sergei Bubka met on Wednesday, August 4, to discuss "the bid
concept", the presidential press service said.
Bubka told Yanukovich about the preparations for submitting the bid.
"We should prepare all information about the Carpathians and improve our
infrastructure by 2014 in order to bid for hosting the Winter Olympic
Games," he said.
According to Bubka, "Ukraine has all the necessary conditions for
holding the Olympic Games properly, but it should thoroughly study all the
requirements first in order to take the first steps in the next four years
and develop the infrastructure that will be needed for the bid."
Knowing the position of the International Olympic Committee, Bubka
believes that seven years is enough for making the preparations. "Now that
we have 12 years ahead of us, including five years before the IOC vote, we
will take a clear approach and perform a certain amount of work every year
to build sport facilities that will be necessary in 2022," Bubka said.
In late May, Yanukovich proposed to bid for the Winter Olympic Games
2022 and hold them in the Carpathians in western Ukraine.
"We shall submit an official bid to the International Olympic
Committee with a proposal to hold the Games in 2022 in Bukovina
[Chernovtsy region]," he said.
"There is still much time to prepare the event," he added.
So far Canada, New Zealand, Romania, and Spain have applied for
hosting the 2022 Games. The IOC will choose the venue in 2015.

.Ukraine catches up with Euro 2012 football championship schedule.

KIEV, August 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine has caught up with the Euro 2012
schedule, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said at a meeting with
Lamine Diack, President of the International Association of Athletics
Federations, in the Crimea on Wednesday, August 4.
"We have practically caught up with the schedule of preparations for
this outstanding world event," the presidential press service quoted
Yanukovich as saying.
He welcomed the fact that Ukraine will host a council of the
International Association of Athletics Federations that should bring about
representatives from 33 countries.
"We are working hard today to continue sport achievements in Ukraine
and make sure they don't stop. The development of mass sport is a problem
we are working on," the president said.
In April, UEFA President Michel Platini gave Ukraine two months to
catch up with its 2012 European Championship preparation schedule and
Yanukovich estimated it would cost five billion U.S. dollars.
"Ukraine has two months to show what it can do. We cannot waste time
any more," Platini said after a meeting with Yanukovich following a
two-day visit to four of the country's host cities.
"I told him we need guarantees from the government on going forward
and I told him that in the next two months we would like to see strong
signs of advancing," Platini told journalists.
"President Yanukovich gave guarantees that the work would be done and
that he would do everything for the government to follow this," he said.
Platini raised doubts whether Ukraine would be ready to co-host the
tournament with Poland, complaining that work on the Lvov stadium had
stopped while renovation work on Kiev's Olympic stadium which is to host
the final is behind schedule. The other two Ukrainian host cities are
Kharkov and Donetsk in the east.

.Fish consumption in Russia up 30 prc in 2009.

KAZAN, August 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Fish consumption in Russia in 2009
increased by 30 percent, Fisheries Agency Head Andrei Krainy said.
"Since 2007, fish consumption in our country has increased from 13 to
19 kilograms per person. In Soviet times this indicator was 23 kilograms.
We hope to achieve this level within the next two years," Krainy said
during his working trip to Kazan on Wednesday, August 4.
Fisheries Agency is beginning to create a network of companies that
should bring fish products from producers to consumers.
"Such companies will generate their own cash flow for fixed assets
along the entire fish production chain from procurement to consumption,"
Fisheries Agency spokesman Alexander Savelyev told Itar-Tass earlier.
The project calls for building 19 distribution terminals.
Refrigerators will be built in two stages: in Vladivostok, Murmansk,
Yekaterinburg, Belgorod, and the Moscow region in 2009-2010; at 14
seaports in the Baltic region, the Far East, Kamchatka, the Caspian and
Black Seas in 2020-2011.

.Belarusian airline begins regular flights to/from Tehran.

MINSK, August 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The Belarusian state-owned airline
Belavia has begun regular flights between Minsk and Tehran.
Flights will be made twice a week.
Belavia Deputy Director-General Igor Cherginets said demand for the
flights between the two capitals was quite high and the airline hoped for
commercial success.
If the number of passenger travelling between Minsk and Tehran
increases, the airline may add more flights to the schedule.
-0-zak/