One of the most extreme actions of the World Snow Forum - 2013, taking place in Novosibirsk, has finished. Participants in the beauty contest "Miss Snow World", one of the cultural components of the forum, were involved in a photo-session on the background of the snow sculpture compositions created during the International championship of Snow Sculpture specially for decoration of the current event.

A row of snow symbols of the World Olympics showed up by the Expo-Center building on the eve before the opening of the Forum.

What is the secret hiding in the eyes of this rider, half-turned to face the visitors? The people of Novosibirsk visiting the opening of the Eighth International Siberian Festival of Snow Sculpture have quite a few questions. What is the animal at the bottom of this composition, why is the taiga woman sitting on a reindeer?

How does one explain to them, that Tuva has not only reindeer, but camels as well…

More than 1,500 people have been employed to repair a heat supply station breakdown in Russia's Tuva region, officials said Tuesday.

The breakdown forced the evacuation of 3,000 people from the settlement of Khovu-Aksy, ITAR-Tass reported.

Investigators said the breakdown happened Dec. 20, due to defects in the station's steam boilers.

Its not surprising that a town located at the exact geographic center of Asia has special psychic energies. Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva republic, is 3,700 kilometers to the east of Moscow. But as far as its style of business is concerned, it might as well be on another planet.

"If a person decides to move to Kyzyl to start a business," said Otkun Dostay, the head of the Tuvan branch of UNESCO, "he will gain mental and spiritual equilibrium. Finding himself in the middle of the taiga, a person becomes placated by the energy and the breath of nature. It is like recharging a battery."

Throat singer Kongar-ool Ondar from Tuva, the tiny region of Siberia just outside of Outer Mongolia, was supposed to have been singing out in three-part harmony — by himself — atop a horse equipped with a stereo amplifier in Tuesday's Rose Parade.

The sound equipment was designed to prevent a repeat of his first appearance in 1993, when Ondar, singing without amplification, couldn't be heard over the din of the crowd.

Two famous wrestlers "Arzylan moge" Seden-Ochur Kara-Sal and "Nachyn moge" Eres Kara-Sal, together with the director of Center of Tuvan Culture, National Khoomeizhi of the Republic Kongar-ool Ondar will represent Tuva in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. On 1 January, thousands of roses, platforms and music orchestras, as well as more than half a million people will take part in a parade of 9 km length.

This ceremony will be on direct broadcast to many millions of spectators.