Two Georgian projects have won the United Nations Public Service Awards, which is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service.

The Ministry of Justice has won the 2012 United Nations Public Service Award, 2nd place, in the category of “Improving the Delivery of Public Services" for its pubic service halls, while the Civil Service Bureau of Georgia has won the second place in the category "Preventing and combating corruption in the public service" for implementing the Online Asset Declaration System (OADS).

Georgia has been invited to the 2012 United Nations Public Service Day, Awards Ceremony and Forum, which will take place in New York from 25 to 28 June 2012. This event, which will focus on the theme of “Innovation in Citizen Engagement for Effective Governance”, is organized by the Division for Public Administration and Development Management of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), in partnership with UN-Women and other relevant agencies of the United Nations.

The 2012 event marks the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Public Service Day and Awards Ceremony.

The General Assembly, in its resolution 57/277, designated 23 June as United Nations Public Service Day for the purpose of celebrating the value and virtue of service to the community at the local, national and global levels, with prizes to be awarded to public sector institutions for contributions made to the cause of enhancing the role, prestige and visibility of public service.

On 23 June each year, the United Nations organizes a ceremony to commemorate the United Nations Public Service Day, during which the most innovative initiatives in the public sector around the world are recognized.

Over 400 participants, including the President of the General Assembly, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, high-level government officials from around the world, are expected to attend. Participants will also include world leaders, ministers, senior government officials, mayors, and representatives from civil society, academia, the private sector, and international and regional organizations.

Riot police dispersed opposition rally on the Chistie Prudi square in Moscow. The units appeared near the opposition`s camp at 6 a.m. this morning and detained 23 protestors. By the morning, the camp of the opposition was completely empty.

Russian Interior Ministry officials say they followed the court ruling and the reason of the detention of the protestors was their drunkenness. However, the protestors were asleep when the officers appeared.

The disaster area on Gulia Square in Tbilisi will be cleared off damaged buildings and the ruins of the constructions, which were destructed in last Saturday`s flood in Tbilisi. Municipal office of supervision will provide safe demolition of the illegal constructions and annexes, which are dangerous as they were not properly constructed. The representatives of the office say the constructions must be removed from the territory in order to evade similar tragedies as it happened last Saturday. Flood and downpour killed five people, who were inside one of such illegal constructions on Gulia Street, Ortachala district.

Two members of Georgian non-governmental organizations were selected by the NATO special jury to attend the Chicago Summit. Nato Bachiashvili, the member of the International Center of Geopolitical Surveys and Giorgi Gamkrelidze, the representatives of the New Generation, New Initiative NGO will attend all sessions and all press conferences in Chicago.
NATO jury selected twenty young people from around the world and two of them are Georgians. They submitted video ads on peace and security issues to the jury.

Discussion of the amendments to the Tbilisi budget, proposed by the ruling party member Paata Gobejishvili to the City Hall for consideration today, grew into noisy debates. According to the project, the budget should allocate three million GEL to the special assistance foundation and the funds will be spent on the rehabilitation of the buildings damaged and destroyed during the flood in Tbilisi last Saturday.
Opposition members said the project was very vague and it did not describe the expenditures in details, calling on the ruling party members to present detailed account of expenditures at the next session of the city hall.
Paata Gobejishvili denied the allegations and said the funds would be completely spent on the assistance of the families, who were left homeless after the disaster and restoration and rehabilitation of the ruined and damaged buildings. The funds will be appropriated by district governments.

Labour Party accuses Bidzina Ivanishvili of bribing their members and supporters trying to win them over. Giorgi Gugava of the party voiced his allegations at the briefing today, where other members of the party were also attending. They asserted that Ivanishvili`s team members visited them at home, offered them plastic cards with money on the account if they defected from the Labour Party and joined Ivanishvili`s team.
Gugava said Ivanishvili was offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to their party members trying to convince them move to his party because the Labour Party was a very strong opposition power.
Gugava said the members of the Labour Party would never change ideas on money.

Tbilisi hosts international developing exhibition - Minister of Sustainable Development and Economics of Georgia Vera Kobalia opened the 17th international exhibition at Expo Georgia Exhibition Centre today. The Minister awarded six Georgian architects with the titles of deserved architects and constructors.
Companies from 16 countries have exhibited their product at the event, where 135 show rooms are arranged.

EU ambassador to Georgia Philip Dimitrov delivered an annual report on the Europe`s Neighborhood Policy. The 22-page document hails successful enhancement and enlargement of Georgia and the European Union in the cooperation within the EU Eastern Partnership Program. It also says that the negotiations on EU associate membership were conducted constructively and the sides had very significant progress.
According to the report, Georgia made effective steps by simplifying visa procedures and implementing the terms of readmission treaty. The report also hails reduction of corruption and progress in political reforms.

Minister of Health and Social Care of Georgia, Zurab Chiaberashvili introduced the details of the primary medicine reform to the staff of the National Centre of Family Medicine today. Minister said the goal of the reform was to assist citizens in controlling and improving their health at the beginning in order to avoid complications and hospitalization.
Before the reform, the similar medical centres operated as polyclinics, but now they will be called Centers of Family Medicine.

Georgian Vice Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze discussed the role of the OSCE and PACE in the process of peaceful resolution of Georgia-Russia conflict at the meeting with Matteo Mekachi, Chairman of the Committee for Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
Giorgi Baramidze and Matteo Mekachi emphasized the need of international monitoring on Georgia`s occupied territories and the role of the organization in the protection of human rights in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali breakaway regions.
Giorgi Baramidze also spoke about the meaning of democratic and transparent elections of parliament in Georgia and the involvement of the OSCE democratic institutions in this process.

Football club Dynamo Tbilisi is preparing for staff change - the management of the club has started negotiations with Volker Finke offering to train Georgian club. Well-known for Georgian fans, Finke was in different periods in contact with the members of the Georgian national team in Freiburg. He worked as the director of the Koln sport school recently.

Dynamo manegement says other candidates are also very real and the final decision on a new coach will be taken until the end of the season.

Georgian parliament has approved the constitutional amendments on electoral law by the second hearing today. With 109 votes against 1 - the lawmakers adopted the 104/4-th article to the constitution of Georgia, according to which, until January 1, 2014, any person, who was born in Georgia and lived here during past five years, but are the citizens of a EU member state, will be given a right of vote as well as to participate in the parliamentary and presidential elections.

The members of the parliament will adopt the constitutional amendments by the third hearing next week.

Yet another incident has occurred at the trial of Anders Breivik at Oslo court today. An unidentified man set himself on fire outside the courthouse where right-wing extremist is being tried on terror charges for a bombing and shooting massacre on July 22.
According to the police, the man doused himself in a flammable liquid and set himself on fire outside the entrance to the building. He was urgently taken to hospital and reportedly, he survived. The injured man is the citizen of Norway; however, the police said the man`s identity or the motive for his actions were not immediately clear.
The incident occurred during the testimony of one of the students, who survived in the last July`s attack.
The previous incident occurred last week. Brother of one of the victims of the terror attack threw a shoe to Breivik.

The leaders of the National Democratic Party of Georgia arrived in the city of Gori today and met with their supporters and the members of the party`s regional branch. The opposition party has restored all regional organizations, including the one in Shida Kartli.

At the meeting with locals, the NDP leaders presented the new program of the party, the main priority of which is unemployment. National Democrats have a specific plan for reducing unemployment in Georgia, which they are going to introduce to the parliament for adoption.

President`s press speaker Manana Manjgaladze summed up last weeks events at the traditional briefing today. She expressed condolences to the families of the victims, who died in the Saturday`s flood in Tbilisi on behalf of the president and spoke about the works, which are underway to eliminate the damage inflicted to the capital by the disaster. Manjgaladze also reported the details of the president`s ongoing visit to the United States and spoke about the goals of the Computer Literacy Society, which was founded in Georgia last week.
Computer Literacy Society aims at spreading computer and modern technology skills among the residents of Georgia`s all regions.
`Today a competition was opened. At the first stage of the contest, three hundred villages were selected and any person with secondary education certificates can participate in it. Candidates will be selected by the open competition and they will take professional trainings and practice for free. They will be also presented with computers and all necessary equipment and enjoy free technical support during a year. Afterwards, these people will offer various consultations to the residents of Georgia`s regions,` Manjgaladze said.

New Rights Party leaders continue holding meetings with the population of Georgia`s various regions. They arrived in the village of Nikortsminda, Racha Region, today and met with locals. They said several significant problems were highlighted by the residents of the village, mostly in the sphere of health care and insurance system; however, opposition party leaders say unemployment is the most troubling problem in this village as well as in other regions of Georgia. The locals complained that they did not have a drug store in the village.
`Availability of medical service and distribution of social assistance is a very serious problem in all villages of Georgia. We want to group these problems and offer the ways for solving them to the minister of health care Zurab Chiaberashvili,` the leader of the party Davit Gamkrelidze told journalists after the meeting with locals in Nikortsminda.

Ministry of Georgia will bring ten volunteer teachers from China to start pilot program of teaching Chinese language at public schools. The program will be primarily launched in ten public schools of Tbilisi. It will be free and optional for pupils and the decision to enroll their children in the Chinese language class will be up to their parents.
The ten teachers, who will arrive in Georgia from August 2012, will work within the Teach and Learn with Georgia program and they will be offered same conditions as English language teachers.

The officers of Vake-Saburtalo police division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained Ilia Goderdzishvili, operator of a gas station Levan Piranishvili and a restaurant waiter, Omar Makhatadze.

In the course of investigation it was established that Levan Piranishvili kept the pin code and plastic card data of his customer, who paid for petrol at the gas station. Afterwards the detainee misappropriated and transacted a certain amount of cash from the customer’s plastic card on the account of ADJARABET totalizator and cashed it with the assistance of Ilia Piranishvili from the totalizator cashier. 

The similar fact of illegal money appropriation also took place in one of the restaurants in Tbilisi. During the calculation process, the client’s plastic card data and pin code became known to Omar Makhatadz, waiter at the restaurant, who lately misappropriated cash from the client’s plastic card with the same method.

Investigation is in progress under the article 177 II part of the Criminal Code of Georgia. Detainees have already pleaded guilty.

Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia has formed an Entrance and School Certification Examination`s organizing headquarters for 2011-2012 academic years. The headquarters will be responsible for conducting school certification and unified entrance exams on a high level and without obstructions.
The headquarters is chaired by Education Minister Dimitri Shashkini. The members of the headquarters held their first working meeting today and discussed technical and logistic issues of the examinations. Similar working meetings will be held permanently to sum up their work before the exams, in the process of exams and afterwards too.

A few days before the NATO Chicago summit, Secretary General spoke about the top issues that will be discussed at the summit. Anders Fogh Rasmussen was questioned about Georgia, its aspiration to join the alliance and its contribution to the ISAF mission.  Rasmussen hailed Georgia`s participation in the ISAF operation and praised the progress, which the country had in recent years.
The Chicago Summit will not be an enlargement summit, but we will definitely acknowledge the progress Georgia has achieved during recent years. We will acknowledge that progress in our declaration from the summit. We will also acknowledge Georgia`s contributions in a very visible way,` Rasmussen said.
According to Secretary General, Georgia will participate in three important meetings in Chicago. Georgia will participate in the ISAF meeting on Afghanistan. Georgia will participate in a special-partnership event, a gathering of 13 partners across the globe that contribute to NATO operations in a very significant way and Georgia is among these 13 partners and actually one of the largest contributors to our operation in Afghanistan. And finally, Georgia will also participate in an aspirant-countries meeting at the level of foreign ministers.
`So it will be in a very visible way that we acknowledge what Georgia has achieved and what Georgia contributes to the trans-Atlantic alliance,` Secretary General concluded.

Georgia will make a statement about hosting EURO 2020 football championship independently after Azerbaijan has refused to submit a corresponding statement jointly with Georgia as it was proposed earlier. Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs of Georgia, Vladimer Vardzelashvili briefed in this regards today. He said the Azerbaijan`s government will work for hosting Olympic Games and Georgia will try to become the host of the Euro 2020 independently.
Currently, Turkey is the only country to has submitted relevant application at the UEFA.
`We voiced our joint decision to make a joint application; it was the idea of Azerbaijan. It should be noted that Azerbaijan has already submitted a statement about hosting Olympic Games, therefore, we shall work independently to be granted the authority to host 2020 European Football Championship,` Vladimer Vardzelashvili said.

Georgia U17 football team returned to Georgia last night - fans greeted the young footballers in the Tbilisi airport. Georgian U17 football team has been kicked off the U17 Europe championship from semi-final, where they played with ten footballers from the 16th minute from the start. Experts say some of the decisions taken by a Romanian referee were unfair, as he gave two yellow cards to the captain of the team Nika Chanturia.
Georgian footballers and their coach accuse the referee of making several mistakes. Despite the result, Georgian U17 team is the first Georgian team, which was among four best teams of Europe in this tournament.

Tbilisi government begins registration of the buildings in Tbilisi, which were damaged by the last week-end`s rains and floods. Special groups formed by the government will register the damaged buildings, count the damage and then the rehabilitation projects will be prepared.

Currently, all 11 families, whose houses were ruined by the disaster, have been already moved to apartments rented by the municipal government. Mayor`s office says they will be provided with necessary assistance from the Tbilisi budget.

Last night`s hail has inflicted serious damage on the Sagarejo district of the Kakheti Region - the hail and storm lasted half an hour and it damaged vineyards, cultivated lands and fruit gardens. Water has flooded grounds floors and basements of the houses, where locals usually store products. Locals are helping four brigades of rescuers trying to pump water from the basements, clean up roads and count the damage.

U.S. President Barack Obama won`t attend a major summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Russia -White House press secretary Jay Carney made official statement on Monday. Carney abstained from specifying the reasons of the decision, however, he defined that despite good partner relationship between Russia and the United States, there still remain the issues, on which they have differences. Carney also added these differences should not affect bilateral relations.
Washington has also confirmed that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the APEC summit in Vladivostok scheduled for September.
Carney said the visit was cancelled; however, the two leaders will eventually meet at the G20 summit in Mexico in June and have their first face-to-face meeting since Putin was elected president for the second time.

President Saakashvili had a phone conversation today with the newly elected French President, François Hollande.

President Saakashvili congratulated him for an election he called "historic" and an electoral campaign that rose interest and hope well beyond the French borders, stressing the common values shared by both nations and the fundamental role of France for Georgia especially and Europe in general.

French President-elect - whose official investiture is planned for tomorrow morning - thanked him warmly and expressed his strong support to the territorial integrity of Georgia and to its young democracy.

Both leaders insisted on the importance of franco-georgian bilateral relations, showed confidence that they would continue to progress at a quick path and expressed the wish to meet in the nearest future.

Chairperson of the social assistance and culture department of the government of Tbilisi, Mamuka Katsarava visited the families, who were provided with temporary lodgings after the week-end`s disaster. Heavy rain and flood has demolished their houses in Tbilisi, killing five people. Those who survived have been housed promptly on the third day of the disaster.
Mamuka Katsarava has also met with the widow of Maia Khudoian, who died together with her children in the flood. The burial costs will be covered from t he state funds.
`We rented apartments for these families and now we begin to provide them with necessary appliances, food and clothes. Other humanitarian organizations have also contacted us and they are prepared to assist them. The bodies of the mother and her two children have been transferred to their home in Gori, where the local government will organize burial ceremonies and cover all expenses. The other woman, who was 84 years old, lived alone and neighbors used to help her. All expenses will be covered from the city budget,` Mamuka Katsarava said.

A citizen of Georgia died in Turkey - according to local media, Rasin Gasimov, 31, broke the glass of the entrance door in his house and cut his hand. When he realized that he could not stop bleeding, he rushed into the street asking for help, but no one helped him. Finally, locals called for the police and the injured man was transferred to hospital, but doctors could not save his life. Local police have arrested four people with the charges of negligence.

State-funded program conducted by the Ministry of Education Georgian Language for Further Success continues. The volunteers are registered at the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia and teach Georgian language to ethnic minorities in Georgia during a year. The contractor students live in regions during this period and teach state language to the representatives of ethnic minorities living there.
The Ministry has announced registration of volunteers for this year. They should submit applications to the Ministry of Education from today. The applicant students with bachelor`s degree will be paid; they will also get grants for their master`s degree after the participation in the program.

Chairperson of the parliament of Georgia Davit Bakradze arrived in Kakheti Region to view the areas damaged by the last weekend`s disaster. Davit Bakradze saw the districts, where the infrastructure has been damaged most of all. The rain and flood has destructed roads and isolated one of the districts of the Kolagi village from t he rest of the region.
Parliament speaker said the government would allocate funds to assist the disaster-stuck regions and restore the damaged infrastructure. Currently, road department crews are working to clean up roads and reconnect the isolated villages to the rest of the region.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili discussed the results of the law weekend`s disaster and the works carried out by the Tbilisi government`s relevant offices at the meeting with Tbilisi mayor and Minister of Finance.

President said the shacks should be completely removed from the capital and the construction standards should be strictly controlled in Tbilisi. President put questions to Tbilisi mayor regarding the families, who were left homeless after the disaster. Mayor said fifteen families have been already provided with temporary lodgings and three others would be housed soon.

President also instructed Minister of Finance Dimitri Gvindadze to allocate funds from the state budget for the assistance of the people, who were seriously damaged in the regions of Georgia.

President also thanked the rescue brigades and the emergencies services for operative work, thanks to which many people survived in the sudden disaster.
Last weekend`s rains have caused flood and killed five people in Tbilisi.

State Minister for Diaspora Issues Papuna Davitaia holds negotiations with Georgian Diaspora in France regarding the transfer of the coffin of Mikhako Tsereteli, prominent Georgian public worker, scientist and politician from France to Georgia. Minister went to the grave of the late Georgian public worker in Leuville within the visit to France.

Georgian Diaspora is divided into two parts regarding the issue- one that supports the idea and the other, which is against. Those who object to the transfer of the grave of Mikhako Tsereteli to Georgia argue that Leuville will lose its function and will no longer be the property of Georgia if all of the public workers buried there are transferred to the homeland; however, the issue is finally to be decided by the family of the late politician.

Minister Papuna Davitaia says the point of view of the family should be considered along with the will of the late politician, who wished to be buried in his homeland.
The government of Georgia has taken a decision to transfer the grave of Mikhako Tsereteli from France to Georgia and bury him on the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Public Workers.

Leuville-sur-Orge is a French town 25 km south of Paris whose cemetery is a burial ground to many prominent Georgian political émigrés who had left country after the Soviet invasion of Georgia of 1921. Among them are the members of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia in Exile.

Economic Conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE will be closed today. At the meetings held within the conference, the delegates of over 200 countries discussed economic and political issues. The discussions will be ended with adoption of resolutions, which will be finally sent to the Monaco summit for consideration. The participants of the conference discussed the problems of IDPs from Georgia`s occupied territories, how Russia fulfils its obligations taken by international agreements, regional security issues and the reforms carried out by Georgian government in various spheres.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia spoke about the expectations, which Georgia has from the upcoming NATO Chicago summit. Nino Kalandadze said Georgia`s expectations were very close to reality, as the summit did not intend to discuss the enlargement of the alliance. Kalandadze said Georgian delegation will participate in almost all meetings except the one of the member states.
`We have very realistic expectations from the NATO Chicago summit, because this is not the summit dedicated to the alliance`s enlargement. We expect that the participants will recognize Georgia`s achievements and progress and the relations between the Alliance and Georgia will not be revised. Georgia will participate in all meetings expect the one of the member states,` Nino Kalandadze said.

Governmental delegation of Kyrgyzstan pays official visit to Georgia to get familiarized with the reforms and innovations in the law enforcement structures of the country. Minister of Interior of Kyrgyzstan, members of the parliament and police senior officials are in the delegation, which will stay in Georgia for three days. They will visit new police offices and be introduced with the work of the service agency and new technologies introduced in the system within the reforms.
The members of the delegation will also meet with the students of the police academy of Georgia.

Last weekend`s non-stop rains have caused a collapse of a wall of the Armenian Church on Vertskhli Street in Tbilisi last night. The ruins of the wall fell on a house beside the church and damaged its wall too. Luckily, the collapse caused no casualties. Locals say the church was damaged and it failed to stand the disaster. The church was built in 1701 but it did not function any longer.

Rescue crews and the brigades of the road department are working non-stop to clean up roads and reconnect isolated villages to the rest of the regions. Last few days` rains have damaged roads and caused landslides in remote regions of Georgia. Rivers have swollen and caused floods especially in the districts along the river banks.
The water has lowered in Kolagi ravine, Kakheti Region, however, rescuers are still working to evade more complications. Locals are helping them in the villages of Navtiskhevi, Akhtala and Kolagi to clean up the ground floors of the houses and yards, which were flooded. Lagodekhi and Gurjaani towns were damaged most of all by the disaster. Flood has killed cattle and poultry and damaged cultivated lands.
The rain has caused downpour in Dusheti region too. Over 350 families were isolated from the rest of the region, but the rescuers have cleaned up roads and resumed traffic to the damaged village of Khevistemi.
Special commission was formed yesterday to count the damage. Under the order of the Minister of Infrastructure, corresponding offices should provide restoration of damaged roads and water pipelines in the shortest period of time.

The hottest point of the last week-end`s disaster in Tbilisi - the Gulia Square and its vicinity has been completely cleaned up of mud and stones. Special brigades worked here non-stop to resume traffic. Meanwhile, the special commission formed by the Tbilisi government continues to count the damage inflicted onto the residents of this district of the capital by heavy rains.
Flood killed 5 people, two of them children, in Georgia`s capital Tbilisi on Saturday night. All of them were killed by the steady downpour caused by heavy rain in Ortachala district of the city.
Tbilisi government has already housed the eleven families in temporary dwellings, who were left homeless by the disaster. The head of the social service department of the Tbilisi government, Mamuka Katsarava visited on them yesterday. They were provided with food and clothes.
Tbilisi government will cover the cost of the burial of all victims of the disaster.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili walked around the districts of Tbilisi, where 5 people were killed by the floods caused by heavy rainfalls in the city on Saturday night. He visited all the affected streets and districts.

Mikheil Saakashvili commissioned the representatives of Tbilisi City Hall to register and learn all the places and the barracks, which face high danged during natural disasters. He said places like this should be eventually removed to avoid further accidents caused by natural disasters and the people living in those barracks should be provided with accommodations in safer places.

Cleaning and emergency services of the city continue to work 24 hours to clean silt off from buildings, pump floodwater out from basements and open the blocked road.

Georgian Water and Power (GWP), the leading company providing water supplies in Georgia has released a special statement regarding the floods caused by the heavy rain in Tbilisi last night.

The statement says the Aragvi River swelled due to the unceasing rains and downpours that caused problems to the reservoir located in the Aragvi Gorge. Therefore, some districts of the city were left without drinking water supplies.

The statement also says the natural disaster has not affected the quality of the drinking water in Tbilisi and it meets the state standards.

Brigades of the company are working to resolve the problems.

Some districts of Tbilisi were also left in black out due to the natural disaster, although emergency brigades have restored providing the electricity supplies to the most part of the city.

Several villages of Kakheti Region in Eastern Georgia are left in black out.

Specialists are working 24 hours.

Several districts were paralyzed by the flood caused by heavy rain in Tbilisi lat night.

In Gulua Square of Ortachala district, the epicenter of the disaster, representatives of emergency services have been working for hours. Along with the rescue brigades, the city cleaning services are working to clean the territory. Traffic movement has been restricted on the territory.

The cleaning services and rescue brigades are working 24 hours in other districts of Tbilisi as well. The floods have damaged roads and buildings in the districts.
Houses, stores, streets in teh city were flooded by the heavy rain that lasted all night long.

5 people were killed, several were injured and transferred to hospitals.

Special machinery and equipments are working in the disastrous district.

Weather forecasters do not expect it to brighten within the next few days.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has expressed the deepest sorrow over the death of 5 people in result of the flood caused by heavy downpour on Saturday night in Tbilisi.

The president has offered his condolences to the families of the killed citizens.

The statement has been released by the president`s administration.

Flood killed 5 people, two of them children, in Georgia`s capital Tbilisi on Saturday night. All of them were killed by the steady downpour caused by heavy rain in Ortachala district of the city.

Body of a 84-year-old woman, who was living alone, was found in her apartment by rescuers at 10 a.m. on Sunday. She had been searched for by neighbors since last night. Eyewitnesses said the sudden downpour flooded her apartment and she was not able to get out of there. The old woman likely drowned in the flood.

In Gorgasali Street, where two children, one of them aged 6 months, the steady downpour flooded the barracks, where families were living.  Rescuers took out a woman with her two children dead from the garage.

Some 200 delegates of 40 countries assembled at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Economic Conference in Georgia`s Black Sea town Batumi today. President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili addressed the guests at teh conference.

Saakashvili spoke about the geopolitical situation in the country, the Russia-Georgia relations and invited foreign legitimate observers for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the country.

"We have elections now in October. It`s very important on teh one hand for the Georgian credentials but is has also huge security dimension to it and OSCE is an organization for security and democracy at the same time. And it has security dimensions to it because in parallel to our elections, our northern neighbor has called for big trainings of their troops exactly in parallel time of our elections, they moved it one month later or two months later, they would usually do it in summer... politically it makes nonsense.. I mean because if you do such things, you only help your adversary to win elections right? Unless there is some plan to illegally follow up or deliver on your threats. That`s why we need as many observers as we can get", he said.

Mikheil Saakashvili and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Petros Efthymiou discussed the monitoring of pre election preparations in Georgia at the face-to-face meeting in Batumi.

Petros Efthymiou also discussed important political issues at the joint press conference with Chairman of Georgia`s parliament Davit Bakradze. Petros Efthymiou confirmed the organization`s support to Georgia`s territorial integrity and said "the OSCE mission on Georgia`s territory should be re-established".

Russian delegates also commented on the issues of Georgia`s occupied territories and Russia`s role in the conflicts at the summit. Andrei Ilarionov, the former adviser to Russian president Vladimir Putin slammed the president`s policy saying "the program of the Russian authorities to change the acting political regime in Georgia is still in force". He said along with the latest corrections in Russia when Putin was sworn in as a president for the third term legally and for the fourth actually, provocations against Georgia and the Georgian authorities may intensify.

All the issues discussed at the Batumi summit will be summed up in a resolution which will be adopted by the OSCE at the summit in Monaco planned for July 2012.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Economic Conference is Batumi is supposed to last for two more days.

18 Georgian companies and business persons have been honored with Mercury 2012, the national business award of Georgia.

Special jury named the winners in 16 nominations, while 2 more winners - the entrepreneur of year and the desired employer - were revealed via online polls.
In difference to the previous year, four new nominations have been added to the business contest this year.

Pheri Ltd., became the winner received the main award of the contest. The winner was traditionally awarded by the president of Georgia. In his speech Saakashvili spoke about the success of the Georgian business.

The Mercury National Business Award ceremony has been conducted by the Economy Ministry and the National Investment Agency of Georgia for the second year.

About 400 companies and businesspersons were registered on the official website of the award.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili visited the Annunciation Church in the town of Khulo of Adjara Region in Western Georgia on the day of Saint Andrew the First-Called today.

Mikheil Saakashvili congratulated locals on the celebration and attended the holy mass offered by Archbishop Spiridon.

The president said construction of churches is intensively going on in Adjara Region, adding that the construction of the larges church named after Andrew the First-called, Simon Cananean and St. Matata in Adjara`s highland part will be completed soon.

Mikheil Saakashvili and Archbishop Spiridon also talked about the Khitchauri state University, which is the only one in Shuakhevi district.

The archbishop thanked the president saying that by assistance of him and the patriarch of Georgia construction of the university started in Shuakhevi that would significantly assist to raising the education level among the local youth.

Two Opel cars collided into each other in a road accident that took place on the road from Tbilisi to Mtskheta today.

One of the drivers, who was drunk, failed to manage the steer and the car fell off the bridge.

Rescuers pulled the car out of the river. No njuries were reported.

A block of apartments collapsed in the historical district of Georgia`s capital Tbilisi today. As reported, nobody was injured when the supporting wall of the building collapsed at 5 a.m. in the morning.

Rescue brigades and representatives of the local authorities arrived at the building. They said the nine families affected by the accident are able to get involved in the New Life of Old Tbilisi project and meanwhile they will be provided with contemporary accommodations.

The block of apartments is under the threat of full collapse and it poses threat not just to the families living in it but the neighboring building as well.

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili inspected the new infrastructural projects and objects being under construction in capital Tbilisi today. The president visited teh road connected Saburtalo and Vake districts, where a 204-meter tunnel is being constructed.

120 people are employed at the works, which are supposed to finish in September 2012.

Saakashvili also visited Galaktioni Bridge, where new ramps and piers are being constructed. He also inspected the ongoing works on teh territory of former market where two-storey new agrarian market is being constructed.

The president also inspected the ongoing works, at the public service hall, in the renewed theatre and exhibition hall in the Rike Park.

He also inspected the new gondolas at the 500-meter ropeway which will connect the Rike Park with Narikala fortress. Saakashvili tried the new ropeway with his elder son.

Three Georgians have been arrested by the police in Athens with the charges of robbery. According to local media, three robbers intruded in the house of a famous Greek actor Alexandros Parthenis and his girlfriend, gold medalist runner Catherine Tanus from the basement, but the signalization worked in time and the police detained the robbers in the house.
According to the police, the gang of three Georgians was wanted during past few months, as they were suspected of committing 91 robberies during past months in Athens. The identities of the suspects have not been reported so far.