The first part of Missis World contest was actually run last night in «Zhemchuzhyna» hotel. Out of thirty ladies that reached this stage only ten will compete in the final stage tomorrow in «Zimy» Theater. Their names are already known, but they are kept secret by the organizers.

The stage that ran last nigh included interview contest (called “Interview” :) and accounted for 50% of the score), and swimsuit (25% of the score) and evening dress (25% of the score) contests.

Here are three photos from sochi-news.ru

I also found decent photos from last year’s Missis Wold 2006 event held in St. Petersburg.

Rescue efforts restarted monday morning, but were later stopped due to the high risk of new avalanche in the area. The search is going on for three people apparently sighted by witnesses. But nobody was reported missing yet, all hotels in the area are being checked to see if anyone’s missing.

A group of at least four people was caught under avalanche today in Krasnaya Polyana. Rescue group could reach the place of the accident 30 minutes later and recovered ten years old child from under the snow, but doctors couldn’t save his life and he died another half hour later. The search for the remaining three persons continued until night, and will resume tomorrow morning. Additional groups of rescue workers from Adygea republic (10 people) and Krasnodar Krai (46 people) are coming to join Sochi rescuers (37 rescue workers from Krasnaya Polyana and a group of rescue workers from Sochi).

The accident occurred in the top area of ski-lifts operated by «Alpika Service» resort on Salymovsky Tsyrk mountain at 15:10 local time.

I hope they can save those people.

I guess this also means we’ll probably hear soon new accusations from the opponents of the Sochi’s Olympic bid and new government’s assurances to provide safety.

Russian Congress of Andrology and 3rd Congress of Professional Association of Russian Andrologists is scheduled in Sochi, Dagomys district on April 27-29. Official program, in Russian, can be found on Association’s official website.

The next biggest thing to hit Sochi after International Olympics Committee visit will be this year’s finals of the International beauty contest – Missis World 2007.

First thing’s first: the official website of the contest is www.mrsworld.com. This sorry excuse for the website is pretty useless, but it does have (low quality) pictures of all ladies, so check ’em out and let me know who you think should win the contest! :) I personally like Yulia Ogrokhyna of Ukraine :-D

The date of the event is March 8 – the International Women’s Day. Until then, ladies, who are currently in Sochi, are Read the rest of this entry »

«Narodnaya gazeta Sochi» reports that average monthly salary in Sochi in 2006 was 9270 rubles, which is around $350 US.

Average monthly salary in Russia in 2006 was 10736 rubles, around $405 US.

Forty seven students took part in Sochi local Armenian literary language competition.

Sochi is very multi-cultural city. People of over 100 different nationalities live in Sochi, with largest minority group being Armenians. According to census of year 2000, 17% of 420 000 Sochi residents are of Armenian nationality, and according to Russian migration agencies this number is a much higher considering large number of illegal immigrants. So, it is no surprise that almost 1500 school students in Sochi are studying Armenian language.

I should mention that real (literary) Armenian language is quite different from the language local Armenians speak. Armenians in Sochi lived for generations, and even many adults in local Armenian families don’t know literary Armenian language.

Other large national groups in Sochi include Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, and Georgians.

First investment project was signed during the meeting of the Mixed Committee for economic, industrial, and technical cooperation between Russia and Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal on February 27. The project is a hotel complex in Sochi, which will be called “Portuguese village”. The cost of the project is $150 million.