Russian frigate built for India to be ready for sea trials in Feb-March.

BANGALORE, February 19 (Itar-Tass) -- The first of the three frigate
that are being built in Russia's Kaliningrad for the Indian navy will be
ready for sea trials in February-March, 2010, Sivathanu Pillai, the
executive director of the Russian-Indian venture BrahMos Aerospace, told
journalists.
According to Pillai, one of the three ships is completely ready, while
the second one will be ready in February-March. In his words, test
launches of BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles might be
performed both in the Baltic and in India when the first ship is delivered
from Russia. The issue, he said, will be decided by the Russian navy
command.
Russia signed a 1.6-bilion-U.S. dollar contract to build three Project
11356 frigates for the Indian navy on July 14, 2007 in New Delhi.
It is the second such contract between Russia and India. The first one
worth one billion U.S. dollars was signed in November 1997. Under the
contract, Russia built three Krivak-class frigates - INS Talwar, INS
Trishul and INS Tabar - for India, and delivered them all in late 2004.
The frigates built under the new contract are of the same class but
are armed with new Russian-Indian BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missiles.
The first ship, INS Teg, floated out in December, 2009, the second
one, INS Tarkash - in June 2010.
The Project 11356 class, also known as Tawlar class, is a new class of
frigates designed and built by Russia for the Indian navy. The Talwar
class guided missile frigates are modified Krivak III class frigates. The
Talwar class has a displacement of 4,000 tons and speed of 30 knots and is
capable of accomplishing a wide scale of missions, primarily, finding and
eliminating enemy submarines and large surface ships.

.Turkmenistan marks State Flag Day on Saturday.

ASHGABAT, February 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Turkmenistan marks on Saturday
the State Flag Day, the second most significant holiday in the national
calendar after the Independence Day.
The flag of Turkmenistan was adopted on January 24, 2001. It features
a green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing
five carpet guls (designs used in producing rugs) stacked above two
crossed olive branches; a white waxing crescent moon, typical of Turkic
symbology, and five white five-pointed appear in the upper corner of the
field just to the fly side of the red stripe. The green and red colors
appear in this flag because they have been venerated historically by the
Turkmen. The waxing crescent moon symbolizes the hope of the country for a
shining future and the stars represent the five provinces of Turkmenistan.
The five traditional carpet designs along the hoist represent the five
major tribes or houses, and form motifs in the country's state emblem and
flag.
"The flag is the guarantor of the state's sovereignty," Turkmen
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said in his address to the nation.
"The history of the Turkmen state flag, like the history of our nation,
goes back thousands of years."
Large-scale celebrations and cultural events are traditionally
conducted throughout the country every year to mark this day. Timed to
coincide with the holiday, the country's biggest marketplace, the Altyn
Asyr (Golden Age) with an area of 100 hectares has been opened in the
vicinity of the capital city of Ashgabat.

.RF finance minister says food prices will be growing globally in 2011.

KRASNOYARSK, February 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Food prices will grow globally
in 2011, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Friday.
"Food prices will be growing through the year," Kudrin told the Russia
24 TV channel. "They are likely to set new records even against the
previous year when they were going up."
"There will be discussions about food prices, how to prevent their
growth, how to prevent markets from being monopolized," he noted.
In 2010, food prices in Russia grew thrice as much as in the European
Union. According to the Russian state statistics authority, potato prices
went up by more than 30 percent in 18 Russian regions in January 2011.
Beef prices increased by an average of 4.4 percent, vodka and bread prices
- by 2.6 percent. Experts say the price hike was caused by growing cash
volumes in the Russian monetary system.

.Moderate earthquake rocks Japan's northern regions.

TOKYO, February 19 (Itar-Tass) -- A magnitude 4.9 earthquake was
registered on Saturday in Japan's northern regions, the national
meteorological authority reported. No tsunami warning was issued.
The quake's focus was in the Pacific north-east of Hokkaido, near the
Russian Kuril islands. There were no reports on casualties or damages.
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