Russia-Cuba seminar discusses high-tech in teaching Russian.

HAVANA, October 14 (Itar-Tass) - Training of school and college
teachers of the Russian language and literature with the assistance of new
information technologies is the focal point of a three-day workshop that
opened here Tuesday.

It has brought together Havana University teachers and their Russian
counterparts.
The workshop has been organized at the Initiative of the Moscow-based
Russian University of People's Friendship and is supported by a number of
regional universities and the Russian embassy in Havana.
Russian ambassador Mikhail Kamynin, who spoke at the opening ceremony
said: "After a certain pause, Russian-Cuban relations have regained their
previous dynamism and activity."
"Naturally, this new thrust in our relations demands quality
translation and interpreting of all our numerous contacts, and that's why
a motivation towards studying the Russian language has again emerged in
Cuba," Kamynin said. "Specialists having command of Russian are again in
demand here."
"I think all of us here are in evidence of a return of the great
Russian language /to Cuba/," he said adding that the workshop that
concentrates on how to train teachers of Russian on the basis of high
information technologies will be an important element in this process.
Roberto Espi, a high-rank official at Havana University, said on his
part the meeting with Russian teachers opens up new opportunities for
Cuban specialists.
"Knowledge and experience we'll take over from you will be useful for
everyone," he said.
The workshop aimed at promoting Russian with the aid novel
technologies has been organized in the format of Russia's special-purpose
federal program 'The Russian Language'.
The Russian delegation includes teachers from the People's Friendship
University, Moscow Bauman State Technological University, and colleges in
the cities of Belgorod, Kursk, Ulyanovsk, and Pyatigorsk.

.Rssn official says new mil doctrine does not rule out preventive
strikes.

MOSCOW, October 14 (Itar-Tass) - New edition of Russia's military
doctrine that should be submitted to President Dmitry Medvedev "contains
updated terms for using nuclear weapons as a tool for repelling an
aggression carried out with the aid of conventional weapons not only in
large-scale wars but also in regional or even local wars," Security
Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev says in an interview published by the
Izvestia daily.
Along with this, the update doctrine will envision "options for the
use of nuclear weapons depending on the situation and the enemy's
intentions."
"Preventive nuclear strikes at the aggressor isn't ruled out in the
situations critical for national security," Patrushev says.
The chapter of the doctrine stipulating the possibilities for the use
of nukes "is formulated along the lines of conserving Russia's status of a
nuclear power able to exercise nuclear deterrence of the potential enemies
and thwart their plans of an aggression against Russia or its allies," he
says.
"That's the biggest priority for this country in the foreseeable
future," Patrushev says.
"Objective conditions for an updating of the military doctrine have
sprung up of late," he goes on saying. "The doctrine should
presuppose flexible and timely reactions to the current and prospective
changes in the military, political and strategic situation over the medium
term."
"On the face of it, Russia believes one of its major tasks is to
prevent any possible military conflicts," Patrushev writes.
He mentions the Iranian nuclear problem, saying that the efforts to
attain a political and diplomatic settlement of the situation do not have
any alternative.
Methods based on the use of force may entail the consequences
extremely damaging for international security, Patrushev says.
Measures of the latter kind may have a directly opposite result - they
will rally the Iranians around their government, trigger displeasure in
the Arab world and add fuel to the activity that Hamas and Hizbollah, two
groupings linked to Teheran, conduct in Palestine, he writes.
The latter version of events may be echoed in the Middle East in
general and in Central Asia, too.
"We support Iran's right to running a civilian nuclear program but we
oppose drastically any further expansion of the Nuclear Club," Patrushev
says.
-0-kle