Killing a bookstore in Kyiv
“SOS! SOS! SOS!” is the beginning of an open letter that the Siaivo bookstore staff has addressed to the president of Ukraine. The bookstore has more than ample grounds to clamor for help, for their premises were auctioned off last September to the Abril Studio firm, which had been founded two months before the auction by one of the members of Kyiv Mayor Chernovetsky’s team. As a result, the bookstore is being closed. There had been repeated attempts to throw Siaivo out on the street before, but this time the situation is very serious.
The bookstore has a 65-year-long history. It was visited by such prominent cultural figures as Maksym Rylsky, Pavlo Tychyna, Ostap Vyshnia, Pavlo Zahrebelny, Platon Voronko, and Vasyl Kozachenko, as well as artists, actors, and politicians. The bookstore is now cooperating with over 300 Ukrainian publishing houses, and there are books by more than 700 Ukrainian authors on its shelves.
Ukraine and Brazil forging strategic partnership
Ukraine and Brazil have turned a new page in their relations and classified the latest agreements as strategic partnership, President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine said last Friday at a joint press conference with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The two countries’ leaders have signed six bilateral agreements on cooperation in the economic, military-technical, scientific, cultural, and humanitarian fields.
The two parties noted essential progress in the joint space project Tsyklon 4—Alcantara and assured the audience that the Ukrainian-made Tsyklon 4 launching vehicle would make its first start from the Brazilian launch site in 2010. The Ukrainian and Brazilian leaders agreed on the production of insulin and mineral fertilizers in Brazil according to Ukrainian technologies. The President of Brazil also said that the Ukrainian insulin program is lucrative in terms of price. Besides, the two parties signed an agreement on a visa-free treatment of Ukrainians who travel to Brazil as tourists.
Yushchenko also announced that an agreement had been concluded on a direct air link between the two countries. In his words, the three-flights-a-week arrangement will be put into practice within six months. Upon completing the negotiations, the presidents of Ukraine and Brazil exchanged state awards. Viktor Yushchenko and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received an Order of the Southern Cross and an Order of Freedom, respectively.
Three Ukrainian air companies struck off the European “black list”
The European Commission (EC) has struck three Ukrainian air companies off the so-called black list. According to the press service of Ukraine’s Ministry for Transport and Communication, these are Volare, the Ukrainian Air Transportation Company (UATC), and Motor Sich. One more company, Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines, has been allowed to make flights to Europe by just one airplane from its fleet.
It will be recalled that in 2006, in order to increase air traffic safety, the EC began blacklisting air carriers which are liable to a ban on making flights to EU member states’ airports and on making transit flights through the EU sovereign air space.
“To be banned from flying to the EU, it is often enough to make just one seemingly small mistake, and it may take several years to correct it. Lifting this ban from the Ukrainian air companies is really a success for the Ukrainian aviation,” Oleksandr Davydov, Deputy Minister for Transport and Communication and chairman of the State Aviation Administration, is quoted as saying. The ministry claims that the quality of supervision over flight safety in Ukraine has improved, because air companies are under continuous strict control. They know very well how to meet flight safety requirements, because they are subject to the foreign aircraft inspection program.
