U2 rock musicians make big splash in Moscow.

MOSCOW, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - The legendary Irish U2 rock group
brought the house down on Wednesday during their first guest performance
in Moscow. More than 40,000 rock lovers gathered at the Luzhniki stadium
despite rain to watch three hours of rock extravaganza. All the tickets
to the show had been sold out.
The Snow Patrol opener band played as a warm-up. The audience gave
them a very warm welcome. But the house burst into applause to greet the
U2 leader Bono when he appeared on the stage. The U2 musicians started
their concert with the "Beautiful Day" hit. For the next three hours they
performed their most famous hits and songs from their new CD "No Line on
the Horizon".
Addressing the audience from the stage, Bono said that he was very
pleased to be in Moscow where U2 had never been before. He told the
audience that he had met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who produced a
very good impression on him. In the end, Bono wished everybody peace on
Earth.
Torrential rain didn't spoil the show. The audience paid no attention
to the whims of nature. They enthusiastically sang along to their
favourite tunes and danced to the U2 hits. They had waited for U2 for so
many years.
The appearance of Yuri Shevchuk, the leader of the Russian DDT rock
group, was a surprise. Together with Bono, they sang a song titled "Don't
Come Knocking." The Irish musician thanked those who had bought tickets to
the 'red zone'. All the proceeds gained from the sale of tickets to those
places will be transferred for the treatment of children ill with AIDS.
The U2 world tour, named "360 Degree Tour" was recognized to be the
best live show in the United States last year. The audience was
particularly impressed by a specially designed rotating stage. It was
mounted in the centre of the stadium and rotated around a circle. That is
why everybody could have an equally good view of the show.

. Two Russian bear paw smugglers may face charges in China.

BEIJING, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - Two Russian nationals detained in
China on suspicion of smuggling a shipment of bear paws into China may
face prosecution, the Xinhua news agency reports.
The two were reportedly detained in the city of Manzhouli, the Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region in Northern China.
According to the Manzhouli customs police chief, they are the
employees of the Russian Railways. Early in June, they smuggled 15 bear
paws into Manzhouli. They had hid them in a cache under the floor in one
of the railway carriages. The Chinese police caught the smugglers
red-handed when they were handing over the commodity to their accomplice
at a railway station in Manzhouli. Both Russians admitted they had
violated the Chinese law, Xinhua reports.
Bear paws are considered to be a culinary delicacy in China. They are
also used in traditional Chinese medicine. A shipment of bear paws in the
Chinese black market costs almost $14,000.

. The first all-Caucasus Youth Forum ends in Pyatigorsk.

PYATIGORSK, the Stavropol territory, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - The
first Mashuk-2010 youth forum ended in Pyatigorsk late on Wednesday,
August the 25th, by announcement of the best youth projects in various
fields.
More than 2,000 young people aged 18-30 from the Stavropol territory,
the republics of the North Caucasus as well as South Ossetia and Abkhazia
attended the forum that had worked in two shifts from August 9.
The guests of the forum included Alexander Khloponin, the presidential
envoy in the North-Caucasian Federal District, Valery Gayevsky, the
governor of the Stavropol territory and the heads of the republics of the
North Caucasian Federal District.
The delegates to the forum lived in a tent camp, Mashuk-2010, that was
set up on a slope of Mount Mashuk in Pyatigorsk. The delegates of the
first and second shifts submitted 225 and 255 projects for grants,
respectively. A delegation from the Stavropol territory had brought the
biggest number of 155 projects to the forum. Finally, 62 best projects
were selected. The winners will receive grants worth from 70,000 to
200,000 rubles.
For two weeks, the young people took educational courses in project
management, effective communications and intra-cultural interaction. They
presented their social and technical projects in eight fields.
The Mashuk-2010 training camp and the forum were organized with
support of the staff office of the presidential envoy in the
North-Caucasian federal district and the Federal Agency for Youth
Affairs. There are plans to make it an annual event.
The Mashuk-2010 camp is considered to be a platform where every young
person or a team can demonstrate their talents, find like-minders, get
public and state support and establish interaction with representatives of
other peoples and ethnic groups.
"Its aim is to select, develop and support talented young people in
their bid to create competitive goods and services, civilian and public
projects," the forum's organizers told Itar-Tass.

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