* The awarding ceremony of the 8th governmental quality contest will be held at the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry. Thirteen organizations will receive awards at 11.00 a.m.
* RIA Novosti will host a news conference on the topic, Russian Shipbuilders Will Present Their Products in Lithuania, at 2.00 p.m. The presentation is scheduled for July 25-28.
* Moscow will host a news conference entitled Security and Quality of Foodstuffs at Moscow Markets. Berries, Mushrooms and Water-melons. Bird Flu in Russia at 10.00 a.m.
* The KinoMark company will present the Faces of Love 9th International Film Festival in Sochi (a Russian resort on the Black Sea), the Kinotavrik 5th International Arts Festival (Sochi), the Golden Ram national award and others at a news conference at 2.00 p.m.
* The Patriarch Palace of the Moscow Kremlin will host the presentation of the book, The History of Money in Russia: the 350th Anniversary of the One-ruble Coin, published by the Moscow Kremlin Museum and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. 3.00 p.m.
ST. PETERSBURG
* The 10th session of the Russian-U.S. commission for the prevention and elimination of natural and industrial emergency situations will open and run through Saturday.
* The World Friendship Marathon will arrive in the Leningrad region. The race dedicated to the 60th anniversary of V-E Day started in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, on March 2, 2005. Its route covers 45 countries. The race will finish in Budapest in October.
KALININGRAD
* The Russian-Lithuanian-Belarusian container train Mercury will set off on its first trip. The train will make weekly Kaliningrad-Moscow trips via Belarus.
VELIKY NOVGOROD
* An international congress of naval cadets aged 15-19 will open. Cadets from Great Britain, the United States, Sweden, Estonia, South Korea and the Russian cities of Veliky Novgorod and Petrozavodsk will make a tour of lakes Ladoga and Onega and the Neva and Svir Rivers and will visit Valaam, Kizhi and other towns in northwestern Russia. The tour will end on August 1.
TBILISI
* A meeting between Georgian State Minister for Separatist Conflicts Georgy Khaindrava and Foreign Minister of Abkhazia (a self-proclaimed republic in Georgia) Sergei Shamba will open under the auspices of the UN. The sides are to discuss international security guarantees in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone.
ROME
* Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi will meet with a group of children from Beslan (a town in the North Caucasus where terrorists seized a school). North Ossetian children are spending the summer in Italy at the invitation of the Mediterranean Women, a humanitarian non-governmental organization.
RAUMA, FINLAND
* An exhibition of Vologda laces will open and run through September 25). The exhibition will feature 155 samples from the Vologda state museum-reserve. Vologda is an ancient Russian city 350 kilometers to the north of Moscow.
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