INTOSAI congress in South Africa approves audit standards.

SANDTON (South Africa), November 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The audit standards
were approved at the end of a congress of the International Organization
of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) here on Sunday. The delegates from
more than 150 countries, including Russia, approved the Johannesburg
Declaration.
The document contains the main trends for the activities of the
supreme audit institutions, recommendations to ensure a stable economic
growth and environmental protection.
"I drew attention of the congress to the scale of our activities
limited by the national borders," chairman of the Russian Audit Chamber
Sergei Stepashin told Itar-Tass summing up the forum results. "The crisis
showed their tough interdependence and the absence of reliable indicators
of forecasting, development and overcoming of crisis processes," he noted.
"In this respect, INTOSAI could make its contribution in the efforts
of the G8 and G20 states, particularly in the independent assessment of
international financial institutions. This procedure includes the
assessment of the spreading of heavy crisis aftermaths, opportunities and
measures to overcome the crisis in various countries, regions and social
groups. We hope to consider this problem in our working group on the key
national indicators," Stepashin underlined.

.RF allots $4 bln credit to Venezuela to build defence capability.

CARACAS, November 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia allocated a
four-billion-dollar credit to Venezuela to build up the country's defence
capability, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on the country's Air
Force Day on Sunday.
Chavez recalled that the credit was allocated during his latest visit
to Moscow in October 2010.
The Venezuelan president and the supreme commander-in-chief noted that
"Venezuela does not intend to attack anybody" and "is preparing just for
the defence of the homeland from a threat coming from the U.S. 'imperia'
and its allies." He urged the armed forces "to prepare for the country's
defence in political, ideological, revolutionary, technical and material
spheres."
Three multipurpose fighters Su-30MK2 produced in Russia from a
squadron named after Venezuelan revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar were
participating in a parade staged on the occasion of Venezuelan Air Force
Day. The fighters were flying over the airbase Libertador and then
performed flight stunts. Chavez was welcoming the fighters with loud
applauds and got on the line with the pilots. "These are the best world
airplanes steered by the best world pilots," the Venezuelan president
underlined.

.Baikal governor instructs EMERCOM to continue drowned boy search.

ULAN-UDE, November 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Governor of the Baikal Territory
Ravil Geniatulin instructed the territorial main EMERCOM department and
other services to continue the search for the second boy, who drowned in
the Ingoda River in Chita on November 19, a statement posted on the
official portal of the Baikal Territory runs.
Geniatulin held a meeting with the top officials from the territorial
main EMERCOM department to discuss the search for Daniil Gilfanov. Igor
Mukhametchin was found dead on Wednesday.
"The governor instructed all EMERCOM branches and other services to
continue the search and to consider an opportunity for involving
additional machinery. The territorial finance ministry was instructed to
find additional funds for the search and involve more machinery if
necessary. The search operation will be resumed on Monday," the statement
said.
The search for an eight-year-old schoolboy Daniil Gilfanov was not
resumed in Chita on Saturday, the territorial main EMERCOM department told
Itar-Tass earlier. The city authorities have made the decision, because a
long search operation under the river ice is already hopeless in winter.
On November 24, after several ice blasts on the river cleaning up the
river fairway from the ice the rescuers found Igor Mukhametchin, 9, dead.
It became clear that the two boys, who were reported missing on November
19 and all Chita law enforcement agencies and emergency services were
searching for, got into an accident. The children went playing on a thin
river ice without the supervision of the adults and fell down in the ice
hole.

.Russia, Germany rectors calls for common education, science space.

BERLIN, November 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The rectors and the deans from the
humanitarian universities of Russia and Germany called at a forum that
ended here on Saturday for creating a common Russian-German educational,
scientific and cultural space. The two-day forum was held at the Russian
House of Science and Culture in the German capital.
The participants agreed to create an Internet portal Fortuna,
including the databases on the projects in humanities and science
implemented by the universities, which took part in the forum, a
memorandum adopted at the forum on Saturday said. The document notes the
importance to organize summer research and education schools involving the
professors and students from the universities in Russia and Germany.
In 2011 a system of measures will be developed to hold during the
Russian-German year of scientific research.
The Berlin forum involved representatives from the leading
universities in Russia and Germany, particularly from Moscow, St.
Petersburg, Pyatigorsk, Yekaterinburg, Kursk, Saratov, Tver and from
Berlin, Freiburg, Konstanz and Bochum. The participants discussed various
issues of cooperation between the chiefs of the general educational
establishments in the countries, including the prospects for the
cooperation in education and business.
-0-baz