Modified Progress cargo spacecraft docks with ISS.

KOROLEV, the Moscow region, October 18 (Itar-Tass) - The third Russian
modified spacecraft Progress with a digital control system docked with the
International Space Station (ISS) at 05:41 (Moscow time) on Sunday
morning, a source at the Flight Control Centre in Korolev told Itar-Tass.

The spacecraft had delivered about 2.5 tons of various cargoes,
including food, water, health aids, fuel, various equipment and gifts for
the crew.
The 21st main expedition is now working at the ISS.


.German wartime cemetery unveiled in Kursk region.

BESEDINO (the Kursk region), October 18 (Itar-Tass) - The remains of
more than 21,000 German soldiers and officers who died in the Battle of
Kursk in the summer of 1943 have been buried in a German military cemetery
near the Besedino village, 18 kilometers away from Kursk. Another 40,000
soldiers and officers of the German Wehrmacht will be interred here by the
end of 2009.
The cemetery near Besedino is one of the biggest burial grounds of
German soldiers who died in Russia during WWII. It was officially
consecrated on Saturday. Apart from Russian and German officials about 300
relatives of the dead soldiers who had come from Germany attended the
ceremony. The oldest German lady is 90 years old and the youngest
relative - a grandson- is 14.
"We are now standing on a place where one of the fiercest battles of
WWII took place more than 60 years ago. Tens of thousands of people from
both sides found their death here on the Kursk land. We are grateful that
today we, the Germans and the Russians, are standing by these graves and
have a chance to remember together the soldiers who fell on both sides,"
German Ambassador to Russia Walter Jurgen Schmidt said.
A search campaign for the remains of German soldiers has been carried
out in the Kursk region for the past four years. Lieutenant-General
Vladimir Zarudnitsky, the deputy commander of the troops of the Moscow
military district, said that the search operation was part of a
Russian-German action to maintain military burial grounds.
Military historians have estimated that more than two million German
soldiers died in the territory of the former Soviet Union during the war
but no exact information about the number of common graves have been
provided, the Governor of the Kursk region Lyudmila Grebenshchikova said.
"Military cemeteries is a warning to future generations against the
horrors of war. In a way, they call for peace and cooperation. Let the
souls of the German soldiers who met their death hour on the Kursk land
find peace, attention and care," Grebenshchikova said.
At present, there are 3,310 Soviet wartime burial places in Germany
where 740 Soviet citizens are buried. The German government allocates
about one million euros every year for the maintenance of major Soviet
memorials in Berlin's Treptov Park as well as in the Berlin districts of
Tiergarten and Pankow.
On Saturday, the visiting German delegation laid wreaths and flowers
to the monument to dead Soviet soldiers near the village of Besedino.


.Italian premier & Egyptian president discuss Middle East.

ROME, October 18 (Itar-Tass) - The Middle East was the main
international topic in the agenda of a meeting between Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on
Saturday.
President Mubarak who is ending his European tour condemned Israel for
its policy of building Jewish settlements and what he called the
"Jeudization" of the holy city of Jerusalem. He emphasized that regular
clashes near the Al-Aqsa Mosque were a source of great concern for the
Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world.
The sides also discussed the possibility of convening a new summit of
the Mediterranean Union where the presidents of Egypt and France are the
co-chairmen.
For his part, Berlusconi noted that despite crisis phenomena in the
world economy, the Italian-Egyptian business ties are becoming stronger:
the trade turnover between the two countries doubled in the first six
months of 2009 compared to the same period last year.
"Many Italian enterprises are successfully operating in Egypt feeling
the support of President Mubarak. Their number is growing every months,"
Berlusconi said.
Earlier on Saturday, Mubarak had met Italian President Giorgio
Napolitano.

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