Finland to consider Nord Stream project Oct 29.

HELSINKI, October 17 (Itar-Tass) -- The Finnish government will meet
on October 29 to debate the Nord Stream project.

The government will have to decide weather it should allow Finland's
economic zone to be used for the project needs in the Baltic Sea. This is
one of the three documents the Russian-German company Nord Stream should
receive from Finland before it can start building the gas pipeline.
The first of the three documents has been approved by the West Finland
Regional Environment Centre. In September it allowed Nord Stream to clear
the bottom of the Bay of Finland of mines along the pipeline route.
Experts say there may be several dozen mines in that area. A
50-metre-wide corridor has been chosen for laying the pipeline, and 27
explosive devices were found in the Finnish economic zone and one in the
Swedish economic zone. These are WW1 and WW2 munitions of the German,
Finnish and Russian make. This work is scheduled for 2010 and may take
several weeks.
Nord Stream also needs permission from environmental authorities in
accordance with Finland's Water Code.

.Abkhazia to succeed as independent state -- Bagapash.

WASHINGTON, October 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Abkhazian President Sergei
Bagapsh said his country would succeed as an independent state and achieve
economic and political prosperity.
In his article published by Friday's Washington Times, close to
American neo-conservatives, Bagapsh said the recognition of Abkhazia by
the majority of countries was "a matter of time".
"I believe it is only a matter of time before we are recognized by
most countries of the world," he said.
"I am confident because our independence is rooted in a desire for
justice, freedom and democracy for the Abkhazian people. I believe what
the Martin Luther King said, in a statement heard around the world, 'The
arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice'," Bagapsh said.
He stressed, ":we have ample potential as a nation, with a strong
ethnic identity and formidable economic potential."
The president touched upon the recent EU report on last year's war in
the Transcaucasia and said he was surprised by the fact that the West was
more concerned about the legality of Abkhazia's independence than "vile
and unnecessary attack on civilians".
"The recent EU report concluded that Georgia started the war last year
by indiscriminately killing civilians in South Ossetia, a brutal surprise
attack that violated international law. Yet so many Westerners appear more
concerned about the legality of our independence than Georgia's vile and
unnecessary attack on civilians," Bagapsh said.
"The Cold War intellectuals who dominate thinking in Washington and
Brussels don't care about Abkhazia or Abkhazians. Frankly, they don't care
about Georgians either. They care only whether something is good or bad
for Russia, which they hate," he said.
Bagapsh urged the United States and Europe to cooperate with Abkhazia
in rebuilding its economy and give up their fantasies that Georgia will
restore its "territorial integrity".
"If Europe and the United States based their policies on the reality
of what is happening now in our region, not on a fantasy that the
Georgians will someday restore their "territorial integrity," they would
recognize there is a diplomatic path of compromise and humane action that
would benefit all citizens of the Caucasus, regardless of their
ethnicity," he said.
At the same time, he stressed that "nothing will make" Abkhazia return
"under the rule of Georgian nationalists and despots".

.Russia expects new non-permanent UN SC members to help make UN better.

MOSCOW, October 17 (Itar-Tass) --The Russian Foreign Ministry expects
new non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to exert active
efforts to make the organisation more efficient.
The ministry said the election of Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil,
Nigeria, and Gabon to the U.N. Security Council for 2010-2011 "is evidence
of their active position in international affairs and high authority among
U.N. member states".
"We hope that while participating in the work of one of the main U.N.
bodies these countries will actively help consolidate the organisation's
central role in world affairs, make it more efficient, enhance its
authority in the realisation of the global agenda, and look for collective
responses of the state to the challenges and threats on a wide range of
issues," the ministry said.
"For our part, we are ready for constructive cooperation with the
newly elected members of the U.N. Security Council," the ministry added.
The voting was held at the U.N. General Assembly on October 15.
The U.N. Security Council is composed of 15 members, including five
permanent ones - Britain, China, Russia, France, and the United States.
Each of them has the right of veto. The rest of the Security Council
changes by half every year. Five of the current non-permanent members -
Libya, Burkina-Faso, Vietnam, Croatia, and Costa Rica - will leave the
Security Council on January 1, 2010. The term of Austria, Mexico, Turkey,
Uganda, and Japan ends on December 31, 2010.
-0-zak/