Lukashenko urges media to help strengthen CIS relations.

MINSK, November 25 (Itar-Tass) - Belarusian President Alexander
Lukashenko has urged mass media of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) to more actively be engaged in processes of strengthening relations
among the Commonwealth countries.

At a meeting with the participants in
the 10th meeting of the Council of heads of state news agencies on Tuesday
he expressed hope that the present forum "will become at least a small
step towards adhesion and improvement of relations inside the CIS."
"Mass media is really a mirror of our relations," he said. "And today
the Commonwealth gores through uneasy times. We have many problems in the
economy. In politics we have no disagreements, perhaps, but there are
major problems in the media field. Some mass media in CIS countries do not
always form the media that should exist in relations between states,"
Lukashenko noted.
The Belarusian president said he wished the Minsk meeting of CIS news
agencies' heads to make its contribution to ensuring "objective, truthful
coverage of events in Commonwealth countries."
Itar-Tass Director General Vitaly Ignatenko who heads the CIS
Information Council on behalf of the meeting participants thanked the
Belarusian president for attending the meeting.
The Information Council brings together the state agencies of
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and
Tajikistan.
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.Russia Proton rocket orbits French communications satellite W-7.

MOSCOW, November 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket
that was blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Tuesday evening on
Wednesday successfully placed on the target orbit the French
communications satellites W-7.
Press secretary of the Khrunichev State Space Research and Production
Centre Alexander Bobrenev told Itar-Tass that "at 02:32, Moscow time, the
W-7 spacecraft detached from the Briz-M upper stage. The satellite will
take the control point of 36 degrees East longitude on the geostationary
orbit."
The W-7 satellite is produced by the French company Thales Alenia
Space. It is designed for the provision of communications and television
services in the territory of Europe, Central Asia and Africa. The
estimated life period of the satellite in orbit is 15 years. Its launching
mass is 5,600 kilograms. The satellite is equipped with 70 Ku band
transponders. The satellite's commercial exploitation beginning is
scheduled for January 2010. It will become the most powerful satellite of
Eutelsat and will allow to double its resource.
The Proton-M and Briz-M upper stage were produced by the Khrunichev
Centre. The Proton is a three-stage, liquid-fuel rocket with the launch
mass of about 700 tonnes. The company International Launch Services (ILS)
is engaged in the marketing of Protons rockets on the market of space
services. The Khrunichev Space Centre holds the controlling stake in it.
The carried out launch is the eighth for the Proton-M carrier rocket
in 2009 and 349th in its flight history. It has become the sixth launch
for ILS in 2009 and 55th since the beginning of commercial exploitation of
Protons in April 1996.
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.Testing of all facilities of Kozmino oil terminal complete.

VLADIVOSTOK, November 25 (Itar-Tass) - Tests of all facilities of the
new oil terminal Kozmino in Russia's Primorsky Territory that will become
the end point of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline
system have been completed. The press service of the enterprise reported
on Wednesday that tests of facilities of the onshore and offshore
structures of the special sea oil port were completed on November 24.
Testing of the equipment of the petroleum tank farm the reservoirs of
which have the capacity of 350 thousand tonnes of oil at the first stage
of the project implementation was held sometime earlier.
All the facilities were filled with process oil for the tests. A total
of 80.6 thousand and 21.9 thousand tonnes of oil were delivered for this
by rail to the port from the Meget and Skovorodino stations respectively.
The first tanker is expected to arrive for loading at the terminal as
early as December.
The work for the oil terminal construction in Kozmino bay was launched
last year. At the initial stage oil to the port will be delivered by rail
and further by sea to Asia-Pacific countries. This amount will reach up to
15 million tonnes of hydrocarbons annually. At the second stage the
pumping of oil through the new oil terminal will reach 50 million tonnes.
Hydrocarbons will be delivered to the end point of the route through a
570-km pipeline running in the Primorye territory; 500 super tankers with
the deadweight of over 100 thousand tonnes will be able to call at the
port. A petrochemical plant with the annual processing capacity of 20
million tonnes of oil and an electric power station for the provision of
electricity to these facilities and the city will be built near Nakhodka.
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