SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1002 (69), Friday, September 10, 2004
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TITLE: Matviyenko Gauges Voters' Concerns Via SMS
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Governor Valentina Matviyenko appeared on television Wednesday answering questions from city residents using the short message service (SMS) function on their mobile phones in a novel experiment designed to bring her closer to the city she rules. 
 
The program, "Narodny Sovetnik" or "The People's Adviser" aired on Channel 5, the municipal television station, and City Hall has promised that the show will run weekly starting the second half of the month. 
 Matviyenko's appearance was reminiscent of President Vladimir Putin's annual televised pow-wow with the Russian people in which he tackles questions posed by viewers via e-mail, telephone and live satellite link-ups with citizens around the country.
 The majority of the over 1,500 messages the governor received in six days from Sept. 1 to Sept. 6 were about the activities of local communal services that, residents say, don't do their job properly.
 Matviyenko said that after she heard "residents complain that they don't know themselves what is being repaired and what must be done," she gave an order to the City Hall housing committee and heads of district administrations to get more closely involved in work with people and to report to local communities their plans to repair city living areas. 
 "They [the residents] have to understand that when [their house] is going to be repaired, every problem has its own program including such areas as roof repair, fixing basements, full repair of front walls of the buildings," Matviyenko said.
 She also said some measures should be taken to raise the prestige of such professions as plumbers and cleaners following a request of one city resident.
 "This is correct and very good advice because a good and sober plumber and a hard-working cleaner is, perhaps, every resident's dream. This is, probably, no less important [a profession] than the best artist or the best manager. We have made the decision to present municipal apartments to conscientious cleaners and those who have worked for a long time," she said.
 Matviyenko also pointed out that local businesses should be more "socially responsible" by providing measures that would assist city residents on low incomes. She said agreements in this area had already been signed with 20 companies, "that took certain responsibilities depending on their abilities."
 "Before the 60th anniversary of the victory in World War II [in May] we involved as many companies as possible. They are sent to particular people and they complete their obligations. This is a social examination of businesses for me [to check] if businesses understand their social responsibility for the city, for residents, and for veterans," Matviyenko said.
 City Hall in its turn would do its best to make sure residents will get monetary compensations for privileges they had from the state after the new law on this matter will be put in force January next year, Matviyenko said. 
 "While filing a draft budget for the next year the government will replace hitherto-received privileges, such as free public transport, with resources," Matviyenko said.
 "Of course there will not be as [much] money as it was expected, but we will try to increase it with a growth of the budget and change it according to the inflation rate," she said. "By doing this we will save up to 700 million rubles ($24 million) that could be spent on medicine for privileged categories of people that can't buy them themselves."
 But Legislative Assembly representatives say Matviyenko is just trying to calm down residents and will not be able to achieve her promises with the current state of the city budget and her approach to city problems.
 "It is a well known fact that to compensate privileges the city budget would need up to 5 billion rubles - money the city doesn't have. The only place Matviyenko can get this money is her pocket, but I don't think it's that big, yet," Boris Vishnevsky, the Legislative Assembly Yabloko faction representative, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
 "As for cleaners, their work should be paid according to things they have done. If it is clean, they should be paid, if not, then not. But she offers them municipal apartments instead," he said.
 "I felt sick and switched it off," Yury Vdovin, co-head of the Citizens' Watch, a local human rights organization, said Thursday in a telephone interview.
 Vdovin however agreed with Matviyenko's statement that City Hall will not be able to relocate to private apartments those residents still living in communal apartments using funds from the city budget.
 Matviyenko said City Hall would assist residents in getting a bank loan to purchase private apartments, but this drew a sharp reaction from Vdovin.
 "Hundreds of thousands of people that live in poverty got salaries like beggars during the Soviet Union while they hoped to get a publicly-funded private apartment. Now the Soviet successor, Matviyenko says City Hall will not ever give apartments to them - advising them to get a loan!" Vdovin said. 
 "And this is in conditions when the authorities are able to find billions of dollars to build new premises to relocate some federal institutions to St. Petersburg," he said.

TITLE: Putin Faces His Biggest Challenge So Far
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - As President Vladimir Putin lit a candle in memory of Beslan's dead in a chapel on Vorobyovy Gory, he never looked more alone. 
 
Standing in a corner of the almost empty church, his fists tightly clenched by his sides, Putin kept his gaze fixed solemnly down at the end of the most traumatic week of his presidency.
 The Tuesday night visit was not Putin's first to the chapel. More than four years ago, as Boris Yeltsin's newly anointed heir apparent, he attended a New Year's service there. Back then, he was set to swing into the presidency on the back of the war he had launched in Chechnya on his infamous vow to "waste" Chechen rebels "in the outhouse."
 His vow appears to have gone more than sour. Now he is facing the biggest challenge of his presidency.
 The scale of terrorist attacks over the past three weeks that have killed more than 400 people indicates that Putin's nation is facing "a new highly organized political military force," said Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin political consultant.
 What's more, questions are mounting about whether Putin's policies - not only in Chechnya but also the power consolidation drive to stamp out opposition and public debate - are exacerbating the terrorist threat. Opposition politicians such as Grigory Yavlinsky and Irina Khakamada said in interviews this week that this was an increasingly dangerous trend.
 Some politicians and analysts are wondering about Putin's ability to ensure the nation's security. "The president was awarded a contract to restore order in Russia and ensure that Russia's people are safe. Today we see that this contract has been broken," Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the few remaining independent State Duma deputies, wrote in Nezavisimaya Gazeta this week.
 "If the state cannot ensure the security of the country - which is its main task - then it cannot lay claim to its other powers, such as collecting taxes," Markov said. "This is a colossal crisis."
 But a bruised Putin looks to be keeping above the fray even as a storm of protest broke out this week in the Moscow press about the authorities' bungled handling of the Beslan attack and their initial lies over the number of hostages.
 Among the more than 130,000 people who attended an officially organized rally against terrorism in Moscow on Tuesday were many who stood beside the president. Some carried posters reading "Putin, We're With You," and others denounced protesters against the war in Chechnya as "traitors."
 The first public opinion poll conducted since the hostage crisis indicates that few hold the president responsible, blaming corrupt law enforcers instead. Fifty-four percent said the security and police services were corrupt, and 23 percent said they did not know how to do their job properly, Reuters reported.
 But it looks like the Kremlin is not taking any chances. Calls by the Duma's Rodina faction for the dissolution of parliament over the crisis never made it onto state television news. Neither did a statement by the Communist Party that lashed out at the authorities as being "incapable" of dealing with the national problems that, it said, had given birth to the terrorist threat. Their cries were muted and, without coverage, carried no political weight.
 Little debate on television means that few cries of protest are carried to the majority of the population. The last national televised political talk show, "Svoboda Slova," was pulled off the air in July.
 But even if this approach helps preserve stability in the short term, politicians and analysts said Putin's drive to silence opposition and concentrate power in his own hands could end up facilitating terrorist attacks.
 "If you have a system that has no independent sources of information, no independent parliament, no independent justice, or even any independent business, then you have a system that is very fragile," said Grigory Yavlinsky, a former presidential candidate and leader of the liberal Yabloko party. "This is a system that is not only dangerous to people but also to Putin.
 "He is very lonely in this position," Yavlinsky said. "He has concentrated all the levers of power in his hands."
 The lack of public debate means that few know how to respond to Putin's call on Saturday for the nation to mobilize, Markov said. "People will not be able to mobilize because they do not know what to do," he said. "This is the main problem. People don't understand."
 He added: "The lies of the authorities make it senseless to call for the people to unite. They will not unite behind people who lie."
 The silence of state media and muzzling of private media over the crisis could help the terrorists' cause, said Irina Khakamada, a liberal politician who ran against Putin in this year's election. Television coverage of Beslan has been muted, with the state-controlled channels backing off from airing live footage of the carnage. Izvestia editor Raf Shakirov, meanwhile, was forced to resign after publishing harrowing pictures from the attack.
 "There is fear if no one knows the truth," Khakamada said. "If people don't understand, it makes it easier for terrorists to buy people off. If we are slaves, it is easier for them to recruit. The more things are pushed underground, the better it is for the terrorists."
 Communist deputy chairman Ivan Melnikov said the Kremlin's drive to clamp down on opposition distracted it from tackling bigger problems like terrorism. "The actions of the authorities under Putin over the last few years have all been aimed at self-preservation: from stamping out the opposition to control over the media and ensuring election results," he said. "They've built a 'power vertical' that's proved useless in the face of these terrorist threats."
 As part of his drive to build a line of power to the president, the Kremlin has been systematically helping install loyal leaders in once-unruly regions. One of the men it put in place was Ingush President Murat Zyazikov, who replaced Ruslan Aushev. 
 Aushev maintained ties with Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and warlord Shamil Basayev during Chechnya's de-facto independence in 1996 to 1998 and as president never cracked down on rebel hideouts in Ingushetia, possibly because of his relations with the rebel leaders and because he feared revenge attacks.
 Now Putin risks seeing an upset in the fragile balance of power in the North Caucasus. He expressed fears last week that the Beslan attack aimed to ignite a tinderbox of ethnic tension in the region in an attempt to spread separatist sentiment from Chechnya.
 "He definitely thinks that there is somebody out there who wants to push Russia into collapse," said Brookings Institute Russia scholar Fiona Hill, who attended a meeting with Putin at Novo-Ogaryovo on Monday evening. 
 "He said there was now a risk of a much worse situation breaking out in the North Caucasus and that he was doing everything he could to prevent an explosion of ethnic tension," she said. 
 In what appears to be the knee-jerk reaction of a former KGB official, Putin said in his address Saturday that the terrorists were supported by people who wanted to break up Russia because they still saw its nuclear capacity as a threat. He made a clear parallel with the breakup of the Soviet Union.
 Many observers saw that as a dangerous and direct attack on the West. At his meeting Monday, Putin elaborated further. "I didn't say Western countries were initiating terrorism, and I didn't say it was policy," he said, according to notes taken by Guardian reporter Jonathan Steele. 
 "But we've observed incidents. It's a replay of the mentality of the Cold War," Putin said. "There are certain people who want us to be focused on internal problems, and they pull strings here so that we don't raise our heads internationally."
 Melnikov, the Communist lawmaker, lashed out at this stance, saying it was an attempt to cover up the country's problems with Cold War rhetoric. "There are certain forces within Chechnya and abroad that are interested in the destabilization of Russia. This was the case and is still the case," Melnikov said. "But the secret services should deal with this, and they should get information in time to prevent a turn of events [like Beslan]. This is an internal problem."
 Putin conceded that there have been mistakes in his Chechnya policy, Hill said. She said Putin stressed that the Kremlin planned to spend a great deal of effort rehabilitating Chechens from the psychological shocks of the past 10 years. 
 Khakamada said Putin must move fast to defuse tensions. "If we are a weak nation, we should not be aggressive or we will end up with a more aggressive enemy," she said. "But if we don't act aggressively, we will be left alone."
 For now, however, the vast majority of the people still place their trust in Putin, she said. "The trust of the people in the authorities has been totally undermined ... [but] people still live in hope for a strong leader," she said.
 But as Putin continues to concentrate power in his hands, a danger looms that he could eventually end up being held responsible.

TITLE: 10 Beslan Attackers Identified
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Ten of the militants who seized a school in southern Russia and took about 1,200 hostages have been identified, security officials said Thursday, with six coming from Chechnya, where insurgents have been battling Kremlin forces for five years. 
 
The other four came from Ingushetia, a republic neighboring Chechnya that saw brazen coordinated attacks against police in June, in which 90 people were killed. 
 The identities, reported by regional security officials on condition of anonymity, appeared to draw a strong connection between the Chechen insurgency and the hostage-taking, which ended in gunfire and explosions that killed at least 326 people. 
 The presence of Ingush raiders could threaten to inflame long-standing tensions between them and ethnic Ossetians, who are the majority in the republic of North Ossetia where the school was seized. 
 Also Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized Western countries for granting asylum to Chechen separatist figures, saying the practice weakens global anti-terror efforts. 
 Lavrov's comments in Russian newspapers and radio and TV broadcasts reflected longtime Russian anger over what Moscow sees as the West's receptiveness to the rebels. 
 Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, meanwhile, reported to President Vladimir Putin that directors for anti-terrorist commissions had been appointed in the republics of the North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya. 
 Few details were given in Nurgaliyev's televised comments about how the commissions would work, but the announcement clearly showed the Kremlin's concern that inefficiency and corruption had undermined security and that the violence could spread in the North Caucasus, where ethnic tensions create a potentially volatile mix. 
 The attacks - the downing of two airliners apparently by explosions, a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station and last week's school siege in the town of Beslan - prompted officials to offer a huge cash reward for information leading to the killing or capture of top Chechen rebel leaders and a pledge to go after terrorists all over the world. 
 Russia consistently brushes off criticism that its policies in Chechnya and the brutality of its troops there feed resentment that boosts support for rebels waging a five-year insurgency. The Kremlin instead contends that the militants are trained and supported by international terrorist groups, like al-Qaida. 
 "Granting asylum to people involved in terrorism - and Russia has documented evidence of this - not only causes us regret but also effectively undermines the unity of the anti-terrorist coalition," Lavrov was quoted as saying. 
 Apparently to discuss the international terrorism contention, Lavrov was due to meet Thursday with Rudolph Giuliani, who was mayor of New York when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks occurred. 
 Russian officials have been particularly angered by Britain's granting of asylum to Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy for Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, and the United States' granting of asylum to Ilyas Akhmadov, who was foreign minister under Maskhadov during Chechnya's de-facto independence in the late 1990s. 
 "It is enough to recall Akhmed Zakayev's statement made from London, in which he plainly and bluntly and without any intricacies blamed what happened in Beslan on the Russian leadership. I believe the cynicism of this statement is clear to everybody," Lavrov said. 
 "We are far from accusing the leaders of major countries ... of deliberately preserving this double standard," he said. "But the inertia is still very strong." 
 On Wednesday, the Federal Security Service offered a reward of $10 million for information that could help "neutralize" Maskhadov and longtime rebel warlord Shamil Basayev. 
 News of the reward offer came as Russia's top military commander, Colonel-General Yury Baluyevsky, said that "we will take all measures to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," including launching pre-emptive strikes. 
 Russian leaders have asserted the right to act preemptively before, flexing the nuclear-armed former superpower's muscles and tacitly threatening tiny neighboring Georgia that they would pursue Chechen rebels allegedly sheltering on its territory. 
 The European Union, already at odds with the Bush administration over pre-emptive military strikes, reacted cautiously. EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin said it was unclear whether the remarks reflected official Russian policy.


TITLE: Bombs Found in Cinema, Not Terrorism, Police Say
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Police found explosives, detonators and a gun in the Progress cinema on Stachek Prospekt which was closed for renovation, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. 
 
Russia has been on a high state of alert following a wave of attacks blamed by authorities on Chechen separatists, but a St. Petersburg security source said several men arrested in connection with the find were most likely small-time criminals. 
 Interfax news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying the stash included 900 grams of plastic explosives, a 200-gram stick of dynamite, two improvised explosive devices, a hunting rifle and 23 rounds. 
 Interfax quoted a ministry source as saying that prior to the discovery, police had arrested three men from Kazakhstan and confiscated four Kalashnikov assault rifles from them. 
 The arrests were made by organized crime squad detectives. 
 "In the last few years the building where the Progress cinema is located had different owners. They tried to renovate it to use as an office space. At the time the cinema was purchased by a company that appeared to be an organized crime gang. This gang has been disbanded, most of its participants are in custody," said Vladislav Piotrovsky, head of the St. Petersburg police criminal department quoted by Interfax.
 He said the stash was found after the criminal department received investigative information relating to it.
 "The information said that members of the criminal gang had made the stash which was later discovered by the police. The stash was made in 1998. It has no relation to acts of terror and plans of militants," he said.
 <i>(SPT, Reuters) </i>

TITLE: City Eyes Prosecutor Who Fights Graft
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Sergei Zaitsev, the chief prosecutor of the Chuvashia region, who has a reputation as a no-nonsense fighter of corruption in the police, has been tipped to be the new St. Petersburg prosecutor, local media reported this week, citing anonymous city law enforcement sources.
 
Zaitsev was reported to have recently visited the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office to familiarize himself with its work.
 The current chief city prosecutor Nikolai Vinnichenko is reported to have resigned at the beginning of August, but there has been no official confirmation.
 The office has declined any comment on developments at this point.
 &quot;We have a city prosecutor, Vinnichenko, who's on vacation until Sept. 12,&quot; said Yelena Ordynskaya, spokeswoman for the office, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. &quot;It's up to the general prosecutor to decide who is appointed and who is not. He's not answerable to us and doesn't discuss his decisions with us.
 &quot;Nobody saw Zaitsev here and nobody has invited anybody, including myself to a meeting where anyone could have seen him,&quot; Ordynskaya said.
 But Yury Novolodsky, a member of the St. Petersburg Lawyers' Collegium, confirmed that Zaitsev visited the city at the end of last month.
 &quot;I know from my sources he really was here about two weeks ago and his visit had certain goals,&quot; Novolodsky said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
 Last month, sources in the Legislative Assembly said that a group of Kremlin insiders that is behind the Yukos affair covets lucrative deals in St. Petersburg and forced Vinnichenko, who was allegedly against favoring the group, to resign.
 Zaitsev has built a reputation as an anti-corruption campaigner after charging 33 high-ranking officers in Chuvashia with abuse of power last year. 
 Zaitsev declared that wiping out corruption from the root and branch of Chuvash law enforcement bodies was a priority, Sovetskaya Chuvashia reported in December.
 Asked whether the prosecution of police officers was part of a State Duma election campaign launched by Boris Gryzlov, then Interior Minister and head of the Kremlin-backed United Russia party, Zaitsev said the moves were planned and took place a long time before the polls.
 &quot;The authorities in Chuvashia drafted a plan for measures to fight corruption last year,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;However, I'm glad this work has finally started being done openly and publicly,&quot; Zaitsev said.
 Novolodsky said that if Zaitsev is appointed, the new prosecutor will find plenty of corruption to fight in St. Petersburg.
 &quot;It would be very good if he did because these people who are supposed to protect law and order are in reality destroying it,&quot; he said, &quot;and they are doing this using taxpayers' money, which is very disturbing.&quot;

TITLE: St. Petersburgers Give Gifts for Beslan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Hundreds of St. Petersburg residents went to Russian Red Cross collection points Thursday where gifts for the victims of Beslan are being received.
 
&quot;From early morning people have been bringing in all possible things for Beslan: new stationary, linen, toys, children's clothes, and even video tapes with cartoons,&quot; said Zinaida Kalimullina, who helps collect aid in the city's Central district.
 &quot;People of all ages have come with help - the old, and young, and middle aged,&quot; she said.
 On Thursday 17 humanitarian points were opened by the Russian Red Cross in St. Petersburg. An official request put out by the organization asked St. Petersburg residents to collect new sets of linen, new blankets and new clothes for Beslan's children. 
 However, people went further than that and brought other goods, and money too. Larisa Fyodorova, head of the Kalininsky district's Red Cross branch, said she was very impressed by the people who came with help.
 &quot;It was very moving when three North Ossetian students brought about 100 kilos of soft toys. Another man came with 20,000 rubles and took our employees to a store to have them pick up sets of linen, which Beslan's victims needed,&quot; Fyodorova said.
 &quot;Some people come, bring something and cry. For instance, one young woman who herself has two children brought the aid and left crying,&quot; she said.
 Fyodorova said she expected that the majority of the people willing to help would be elderly people who had been through hard times themselves and therefore understand someone else's pain better. However, she said there were many young people, especially people in their 30s, who came to help.
 The aid will be collected until Sept. 20, after which it will be taken by plane to Beslan. In the last few days St. Petersburg residents have also been donating blood for the victims of Beslan.
 Yury Orlyukov, head of the blood donation department at the city's blood transfusion station, said that during the last three days more than 900 people came to donate blood.
 &quot;That's three to four times more people than we usually get. People have been deeply shocked by the tragedy in Beslan, and they want to help,&quot; Orlyukov said. Due to the flow of donors, Orlyukov said, the station, which usually closes at 2:30 p.m., prolonged its working hours until 8 p.m.
 Orlyukov said the station needs blood from all blood groups.
 St. Petersburg's leading soccer club FC Zenit has also decided to help Beslan victims and allocate money to them, Interfax said.
 &quot;The soccer-players and employees of Zenit could not stand aside from the tragic events in Beslan. Today there are no soccer clubs who would not help the victims of Beslan,&quot; the FC Zenit press-service said.
 
 <i>The following is a list of addresses of the main Red Cross collection points:
 </i>. Admiralteisky district: 40/42 Lermontovsky Prospekt. Tel. 259-9335. Open from 11a.m. through 5 p.m. on weekdays.
 . Central district: 11 Kovensky Pereulok (entrance from the yard). Tel. 272-8447. Open from 10 a.m. through 6 p.m., weekdays.
 . Petrogradsky district: 20 Ulitsa Zelenina. Tel. 230-9487. Open from 11 a.m. through 4 p.m., weekdays.

TITLE: Survey: Series of Terrorist Acts Blamed on Inept Police
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Most Russians blame corruption and the unprofessionalism of the country's police and special forces as the main reason that terrorist acts have not been prevented, an opinion poll has found. 
 
However, only a few think it's the fault of the authorities, the survey said.
 The poll was conducted by the St. Petersburg-based Independent Analytical Center or IAC on Saturday and Sunday, just after the tragedy unfolded in Beslan. It shows that 54 percent of respondents hold the corruption of police and special forces responsible for failing to stop terrorism.
 The survey also indicated that people consider corruption in the police so dangerous that 49 percent said toughening of the legislation dealing with corrupt police would be a more effective anti-terrorism measure than toughening the punishment for terrorists (30 percent).
 Yuly Rybakov, a former deputy in the State Duma, said the tendency to separate the responsibility of the police and special forces from the responsibility of the authorities is conditioned by a certain civil short-sightedness of the population.
 &quot;Many of us often come across the corruption phenomenon in the police and therefore we know that it exists and blame it. However, the corruption in the police and special forces could only be one reason for how terrorists get to places. The question remains why do they actually want to get to those places?&quot;
 People had a rather vague idea of what the terrorists' final goal was. 
 Thirty-seven percent said Chechen terrorists in particular aimed to &quot;show the weakness of the Russian authorities and destabilize the political situation in the country.&quot; Thirty-one percent thought they want &quot;to awaken the conflict in the North Caucasus.&quot; Only 6 percent supposed that the terrorists were trying &quot;to change Russia's policy in Chechnya.&quot;
 Answering the question of how they would act in Beslan if they were president of Russia, 25 percent of the respondents said they would &quot;do the same&quot; as President Vladimir Putin did. Only 7 percent said they would &quot;fulfil all the demands of the terrorists to save the lives of the hostages.&quot;
 At the same time, 26 percent of the respondents said a deal might have been reached that could have saved more lives.

TITLE: 'Nord-Ost' Cancels in City
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The doomed musical &quot;Nord-Ost&quot; will not now be performed in St. Petersburg between Sept. 24 and Oct. 24, its press-service announced, after a protracted dispute between its producers and City Hall.
 
&quot;'Nord Ost' guarantees full monetary compensation to the people who bought the tickets,&quot; the press-service added. 
 Refunds are available from Friday from the box offices where people bought the tickets, Interfax reported.
 The performances were canceled after a technical commission inspected the condition of the stage at the Music Hall theater, where the musical was to take place, and said the venue was not satisfactory.
 The show's producers however said this was an excuse and that City Hall never wanted the show, which was at the center of the Moscow hostage crisis in 2002 in which 129 people died, to be performed here.
 At the beginning of the conflict the show's director Georgy Vasilyev had said that if the performances were canceled the theater would have to pay a fine of 10.5 million rubles.
 The Nord Ost directors will announce their plans at a press conference in St. Petersburg on Sept. 14.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Extradition Hearing
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The extradition of Pavel Stekhnovsky, who has been accused by the FSB of assisting in the assassination of the State Duma lawmaker Galina Starovoitova, is still under question after a court hearing in Brussels, representatives of the Belgian Justice ministry said Wednesday. 
 The representatives would not say what the results of the hearing were, pointing out it is the Belgian Justice Minister's business to decide if the suspect should be extradited from Belgium.
 The matter could be resolved next week, Belgian authorities said in a telephone interview from Brussels. 
 
 
<b>Ferries Stop for Winter
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Ferries from St. Petersburg to Rostock, Germany will cease to operate until next spring, Interfax reported Wednesday, quoting Silja Line, a Finnish ferry operator.
 "The last time a Finjet boat will dock in St. Petersburg will be Sept. 15 after which the ferry connection will be suspended on this route until the end of April, 2005. We don't have any bookings for the winter," Interfax cited the operator's representative as saying. 
 Silja Line opened the route in June.
 



TITLE: Outdoorsman Logs into Russia
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Staff Writer Computer programming may not be the first occupation that springs to mind when one imagines subsistence living in the Canadian wilderness, but that is exactly where Bart Higgins, a vice president of Russia's Auriga outsourcing company, began his career as a software engineer.
 
&quot;In the winter, because everything was frozen, you couldn't do much. So, when in the early eighties the first computers came out, I began to learn programming just to do something in the wintertime,&quot; Higgins said.
 A native of Connecticut in the United States, Higgins' career has only recently led him to Russia, as he has spent much of his adult life in Canada. Like many Americans of his generation, Higgins, 56, moved there in the late 1960s to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
 &quot;I wasn't really drafted for military service, but I anticipated that I might be,&quot; Higgins recalled.
 After getting his degree in literature from York University in Toronto, Higgins spent three years teaching American literature at the humanities department there.
 But soon his life took a completely different direction.
 &quot;Both my wife and I were about to start our Ph.D. programs and we just thought: 'Is this what we want to do in life? While we are still young, let's take more risks, and we can always come back to this,'&quot; he said.
 It was then that Higgins and his wife moved to a remote and isolated part of northeastern Canada, on the coast of Labrador, facing toward Greenland, trying, as he puts it, &quot;to recapitulate the core American experience.&quot;
 The couple cleared a plot of land and built a log cabin, where the family lived for 14 years.
 &quot;It was frozen in the winter. There were no roads, no cars, we had no electricity and no running water,&quot; said Higgins, who is still fascinated with the wilderness and the American frontier.
 In the early 1980s, Higgins bought his first computer, which worked off batteries, and learned Basic programming.
 His first job was to make a cash register for a friend's shop.
 Higgins and his wife then launched a small software company that took on programming jobs during the winter. In the summer, Higgins would work for the local fishing industry, as there was no other work in Labrador.
 One of his early programming contracts was to make a scheduler for final exams at the local college.
 &quot;I was very afraid that the day that the first examinations were held, it would come on the radio that scores of people came to the same room at the same time, but it turned out okay,&quot; he recalled.
 In 1993, when Higgins' daughter turned 13, the family decided to move back to the United States.
 Several years later, at the age of 48, Higgins got what he described as his &quot;first not homemade job&quot; as a sales manager for Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Technologies.
 After almost seven years with Infosys, Higgins resigned in 2003, and a few months later landed himself a job with Auriga, one of Russia's largest software developers.
 He became one of the few Americans to work for a Russian programming company.
 Although he works out of Auriga's small U.S. office in New Hampshire, he also travels to the Moscow headquarters on a regular basis, and most of his co-workers in the United States are Russians.
 &quot;I am taking Russian language courses so that the working environment does not feel so alien,&quot; he said.
 Higgins has ambitious plans for Auriga.
 He said that the company's objective over the next five years is to have a minimum annual revenue increase of 50 percent.
 Higgins is critical of numerous aspects of Russia's outsourcing industry, which remains only a fraction of the size of India's.
 In India, a company like Auriga-which employs less than 170 people and last year had revenues of $4 million-would not even be among the top 100 software firms, he said, while in Russia it is considered one of the largest.
 By comparison, India's Infosys has roughly 25,000 employees and over $1 billion in revenues. &quot;We do look at India as our main competitor. It's just that they don't seem to notice,&quot; Higgins said, adding that for the most part Russian software companies are &quot;not a presence&quot; for India's outsourcers.
 Among the reasons for Russia lagging behind in the outsourcing industry, Higgins cited restrictive customs legislation, high internet costs, the lack of an efficient system of incentives for programmers and, most importantly, a prevailing Soviet-style &quot;culture of secrecy,&quot; as opposed to India's &quot;benchmark-oriented&quot; culture.
 &quot;I have never seen so many locks in my life! You can't hold things in two hands as you always need a free hand to open the door,&quot; Higgins joked, referring to the company's Moscow office.
 While locks might be justified for safeguarding the companies' research, the fact that most local companies are not transparent, as far as their financial expectations and results are concerned, ultimately makes the market less competitive, he said. But while he is aware of the local industry's shortcomings as a whole, Higgins has nothing but kind words for Russian programmers.
 &quot;They are not only deeply educated, they are broadly educated,&quot; he said.
 &quot;In the office I will talk about literature with the sales guy and we exchange books.&quot;

TITLE: Russian Business Leaders to Assist the Northern Caucasus
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In the aftermath of the Beslan tragedy, the country's most powerful business people said they are preparing a program to help stabilize the North Caucasus through economic development.
 
&quot;We are calling on the business community not to cut its business activity. We hold the key to Russia's wealth and hence its power,&quot; Igor Yurgens, vice-president of the influential Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP, said Tuesday.
 &quot;All of this is not about seeking praise for the heads of Russian businesses. This is our civic responsibility.&quot;
 Flanked by somber-faced business leaders, including Interros Group's Vladimir Potanin, SUAL's Viktor Vekselberg and Wimm-Bill-Dann's David Yakobashvili, Yurgens read out a joint statement signed by RSPP, Delovaya Rossiya, an organization of medium-size enterprises, and Opora Rossii, an umbrella group for small businesses.
 Yurgens expressed condolences to the citizens of Beslan and promised that the business community would support the government and provide aide to the North Caucasus.
 &quot;Business is actively helping the state overcome what happened. We have provided the financial and organizational resources of our companies to the state and are planning to continue doing so,&quot; Yurgens said. 
 Only through economic expansion will the country become strong, he said. In his address to the nation on Saturday, President Vladimir Putin said the country is still weak as it struggles to come to terms with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
 &quot;We are convinced that only through our work we will be able to build up Russia's economy - the basis for the nation's strength,&quot; Yurgens said.
 He said that as part of an economic package, the business community planned to expand operations in the Northern Caucasus to generate more jobs and raise the region's industrial output. Should the government create a new body to fight terrorism, Yurgens said, the business community is willing to provide material help, as well as know-how. Putin said in his address that the security services will be restructured in response to the Beslan attack. 
 While Russia's wealthiest gathered at RSPP's Moscow headquarters for Yurgens' speech, the country's richest person issued a statement of his own.
 Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the imprisoned former Yukos CEO who is on trial on tax evasion and fraud charges, expressed grief for Beslan's dead but urged the nation not to give in to rage.
 &quot;The fight against hatred cannot be won by rage. The two just breed off one another. Our victory will be in being strong and united, and this is what will protect our children,&quot; said the statement on www.khodorkovsky.ru.

TITLE: Putin Denies he is Trying to Bankrupt Yukos
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has reiterated that he is against bankrupting Yukos but conceded that the state may take shares in the oil giant as payment for its mounting tax bills, participants in a recent meeting with Putin said Wednesday.
 
&quot;I don't want to bankrupt Yukos. It is the people in Yukos themselves who are raising this,&quot; Harvard University Professor Marshall Goldman cited Putin as saying.
 Goldman was a participant in the marathon 3 1/2-hour session the president held with Western academics and journalists Monday night at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence.
 &quot;Give me the names of the government officials who want to bankrupt Yukos and I'll fire them,&quot; Goldman cited Putin as saying in response to his question about whether there were officials seeking to bankrupt the company.
 &quot;As regards members of my administration, we aren't worried about them taking over [Yukos assets].&quot;
 Putin said the state could take shares in the oil major as payment for back taxes but would not go as far as renationalizing the company, said Goldman and another participant in the meeting, the Brookings Institute's Fiona Hill.
 Yukos owes a staggering $7.5 billion back-taxes bill for 2000 and 2001, and potentially faces further claims for later years that could lead to a total tax bill in excess of $10 billion.
 Justice Ministry officials have said they plan to sell off the company's main production unit Yuganskneftegaz as payment for the bills. Many observers have speculated that Kremlin officials could be seeking to transfer Yukos' prime assets to state-owned oil major, Rosneft. A senior Putin aide, Igor Sechin, was recently appointed as its chairman.
 In the meeting, Putin did not rule out that Rosneft could buy Yukos assets, but said he was not sure whether it had the cash to do so, Goldman and Hill said.
 &quot;Yukos has a huge volume of assets. It could pay taxes with money or with shares. The government will support an acceptable decision and assist them in their future activities,&quot; Hill cited Putin as saying.
 As proof his administration was not seeking renationalization of the oil sector, Putin said his administration would give its full backing to a U.S. oil major interested in buying the state's remaining 7.6 percent stake in LUKoil in an upcoming privatization auction.
 &quot;They won't have any reason to have any second thoughts about their decision,&quot; Hill cited the president as saying.
 Goldman and Hill said although Putin did not name the U.S. company specifically, it was clear he was talking about ConocoPhilips, which has long been eying a share in LUKoil.
 Goldman said Putin appeared reluctant to answer the only question about Yukos during the entire session, audibly sighing before answering.
 Putin's admission that the state could take some shares in Yukos seemed to show the president was angling for the state to have a greater say in the oil major-but not full control, Goldman said.
 &quot;It could be related to the talks he has had with OPEC, where he has to tell them that Russia can't cooperate [on output] because it has no say in running oil majors,&quot; Goldman said. &quot;If they were to have some say [in Yukos], they might be able to cooperate.&quot;

TITLE: State-Owned Bank to Stock Up
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: An agreement on a two-step purchase deal was signed this week between the state-owned Vneshtorgbank and the St. Petersburg-based Promstroibank.
 
According to an official announcement from Vneshtorgbank, or VTB, this week, the bank signed a memorandum which provides for its purchase of 25-percent stock share of Promstroibank, or PSB, by the end of September. VTB will then look into the possibility of purchasing another share package of 51 percent of PSB's shares, which would bring its holdings to 76 percent.
 The second part of the deal should be completed before the end of 2006, according to a statement from the VTB press office. 
 VTB's senior vice-president Vasily Titov said the deal was broken up into two stages to allow for &quot;additional research of PSB's financial position,&quot; business daily Vedomosti reported Tuesday. 
 Titov said the banks will sign an agreement to define VTB's rights during the transitional period. He said that VTB will get a veto right in questions concerning PSB's major deals and key appointments.
 The value of the deal has not been disclosed, but price estimates have ranged from $250 million, from Moody's Interfax banking department, to $500 million, from Alfa bank senior economist Natalya Orlova, Vedomosti reported. 
 VTB's official statement said that purchasing the controlling package in PSB &quot;will allow the bank to strengthen its position in the Northwest, allowing further development of the VTB group to become a European-level bank chain.&quot;
 Business daily Delovoi Peterburg said that by allocating resources for the acquisition of private retail banks, the state is trying to create a second monopoly, similar to state-owned Sberbank. 
 Meanwhile, VTB, which has its main offices in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Morskaya ulitsa, has been looking for another location for its regional branch because it needs more space to accommodate its expanding activities.
 VTB is the largest bank in the country, with a base capital of about 42.1 billion rubles or $1.4 billion. It has a wide chain of subsidiary branches, with five branches abroad - in Switzerland, Cyprus, Austria, Luxembourg and Armenia. VTB is also an associated bank in Germany and has representative offices in Italy, China, Ukraine and Belarus.

TITLE: Tourism Drops as Terror Wave Prompts Holiday Cancellations
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: An unprecedented series of deadly terrorist attacks has destroyed the nation's image abroad as a safe travel destination, leading thousands of foreigners to cancel their vacation plans, travel agencies said Monday.
 
&quot;Before these terror attacks, Russia was considered one of the safest tourist destinations in the world, but this image has collapsed overnight,&quot; said Irina Tyurian, spokeswoman for the Russian Union of Tourism. 
 Tour operators polled Monday said between 20 percent and 40 percent of their clients had called up to cancel their reservations since Aug. 24, when bombs brought down two passenger jets nearly simultaneously, killing all 90 people aboard.
 &quot;About 20 percent of some 3,500 tourists who had planned to come in September have already canceled, and two groups from Japan canceled just today,&quot; said Marina Levchenko, general director of Tari-tour, which specializes in incoming tourism. 
 &quot;We have a bad feeling there will be more [cancellations] in October,&quot; Levchenko added.
 Intourist and Akadem-Servis, two of the biggest operators in Russia's estimated $3 billion per year incoming tourism industry, both reported well over a thousand cancellations.
 &quot;We have a cancellation rate of up to 40 percent for the period between mid-September and Oct. 1,&quot; Akadem-Servis general director Leonid Isakovich said. 
 Most of the cancellations came from customers in Israel and Japan, but also from France, Germany and Austria, where cancellations were &quot;all motivated by terror attacks,&quot; he said.
 St. Petersburg tour operators have also reported major financial losses. The national tourism association office in St. Petersburg reported that the number of foreign tourists in the city had declined by 20 percent over the last week. 
 Tourist company representatives said that should another attack occur, no-one will come here at all, news agency Fontanka.ru reported Wednesday. 
 Business travelers, however, are less fazed by terror concerns, both hotels and tourist agencies said.
 British Airways, for example, said its flights in and out of Moscow are still booked up.
 &quot;We don't feel it,&quot; said Daniel Burkard, BA's commercial manager for Russia. &quot;If one or another traveler decides not to go, free seats are taken by someone else immediately.&quot;
 However, St. Petersburg's city tourism and excursions union said that the decline started after the double-plane-crash tragedy, when a large group of foreigners canceled their trip to the city.
 Several industry players said they expect business to slowly return to normal - if there are no more terror attacks. Others, however, such as Levchenko of Tari-tour, had much gloomier forecasts.
 &quot;The situation is shaky,&quot; she said. &quot;We expect even more problems over the New Year holiday period. The new face of Russian tourism that was beginning to emerge has been destroyed.&quot;
 Isakovich of Akadem-Servis predicted that the number of tourists coming to Russia would fall by as much as 40 percent next year, reversing years of steady growth.
 St. Petersburg operators said they expect the decline to continue throughout the month, but that the situation should then start to improve, according to Fontanka.ru. 
 Russia welcomed 3.1 million tourists from abroad in 2003, according to government figures.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Lukoil invests in NW
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (Interfax) - Energy giant Lukoil plans to invest $13.5 million to develop its chain of gas stations in the Northwest region, said Lukoil Northwest deputy vice-president Valentina Zhurnko on Thursday at a press conference. 
 "In general, the investments will be used to expand Lukoil's retail chain in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast," Zhurnko said, adding that Lukoil plans to open about ten new gas stations in the region. 
 Lukoil holds a 10 percent share of the St. Petersburg gas fuel market.
 
 
<b>City Stalls Hotel
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (Baltic News Service) - Reval Hotel Group has been planning to open a four-star hotel in St. Petersburg with 150 rooms, but it hasn't been able to get the necessary approvals from the city government, the company announced this week.
 "Negotiations are underway, but we aren't making headway," said the group's managing director Feliks Magus. Nevertheless, Magus said he hoped that they would have a clearer idea about the project's future in the coming weeks.
 



TITLE: Bin Laden's Self-Defeating Jihad
TEXT: Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the hostage-taking in North Ossetia and its horrendous outcome and the capture of two French journalists in Iraq have shed new light on the challenges facing Islamist terrorism.
 
In his 2001 pamphlet, &quot;Knights under the Prophet's Banner,&quot; Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's ideologue, reminded his readers that the &quot;jihadist vanguard&quot; was always at risk of being isolated from the &quot;Muslim masses.&quot; He wrote that the jihadists needed to find ways of mobilizing those masses towards the supreme political goal: the triumph of the Islamic state and the implementation of Islamic law worldwide.
 Zawahiri considered the 1990s a decade of failed opportunities. Jihad had been unsuccessful in Algeria, Bosnia, Egypt and Kashmir because militants had proved unable to galvanize civil society. To reverse this trend, he came up with the idea of spectacular terrorism to shock the enemy and make the Muslim masses see the jihadists as &quot;Knights&quot;. The Sept. 11 attacks were conceived by Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden as a way of &quot;magnifying&quot; jihad against Israel and &quot;burning the hands of the United States,&quot; Islam's &quot;faraway enemy&quot; and the chief ally of the Jewish state.
 But three years on, this ideology has not achieved its goal. Although al-Qaida has resisted cold war-inspired U.S. military strategy (bin Laden and Zawahiri remain on the run) and directed a succession of bloody terrorist attacks - from Bali to Madrid - jihad activists have not seized power anywhere. They have lost their Afghan stronghold and U.S.-led coalition troops have pursued the war on terror to Iraq, toppling Saddam Hussein's regime and occupying Baghdad, erstwhile capital of the Muslim Caliphate.
 For the ulema - the Islamic scholars - this is a catastrophe. Instead of making inroads into enemy territory, jihad has backfired and led to what they call fitna - a war in the heart of Islam that has pitted Shia against Sunni, Arab against Kurd, Muslim against Muslim, and brought nothing but chaos. In Palestine, jihad has also so far led to fitna: the Palestinian Authority has lost influence, while Ariel Sharon's government has built a fence that keeps away most suicide bombers and will choke the Palestinian economy.
 Jihadists are at a crossroads: they are looking desperately for new slogans and modes of action that will trigger mass mobilization. This is the context for the North Ossetia massacre and the abduction of the French journalists. 
 Even though large numbers of Chechens resent Kremlin policy and look forward to independence, only a few identify with Islamist radicals, who tried to hijack the whole Chechen independence movement. Taking hundreds of children hostage was supposed to show that President Vladimir Putin's policy towards Chechnya had failed. Jihad activists had hoped to compel Moscow to come to terms, but the tactic has alienated Muslim opinion. Putin could have exploited this revulsion. Instead, the Russian establishment, drawn from the ranks of the old KGB, decided to storm the school, turning the Beslan massacre into the worst terrorist incident since Sept. 11 in terms of casualties. Russia's politicians have demonstrated that they do not understand the nature of the challenge. They are using obsolete methods and weapons that were designed in Soviet days to curb dissidents but are ineffectual against 21st century Islamist terrorism. The United States - in spite of its &quot;smart&quot; weapons, crafted to win the Cold War - has fared no better in its attempts to destroy the al-Qaida leadership.
 The French journalists' abduction by the &quot;Islamic Army in Iraq&quot;, which tried to blackmail Jacques Chirac into cancelling the law banning religious symbols in French schools, and its near-unanimous condemnation by the Muslim world, provide another opportunity for an alternative approach to fighting terrorism. Even Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hizbollah were adamant in their denunciation of the hostage-taking: not out of love for impious France, but because they believed the kidnapping would provoke fitna.
 The Islamic Army thought it had a winning strategy: on Arab television stations Islamist activists daily portray French secularism as persecution of Muslims. But the strategy has backfired. France's policy in the Middle East - its criticism of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and its view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - is more important to opinion in the region than its stance on secularism. Scores of French citizens of Muslim descent have appeared on Arab TV since the kidnapping, vehemently opposing the Islamic Army's claims that it speaks in their name. Jihadists have had to backpedal and are now seeking a ransom rather than a change in the law. 
 The Muslim reaction to these incidents suggests Moscow, Washington and their allies could try to beat al-Qaida at its own game. Instead, by concentrating on the military option, Russia and the United States are missing an opportunity to mobilize Muslim civil society against Islamist terrorism and dry out the social swamps from which it springs.
 
 <i>Gilles Kepel, professor and chair of Middle East Studies at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris, is the author of &quot;The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West&quot; (Harvard University Press). This comment first appeared in the Financial Times. </i>

TITLE: Asking for Death Penalty Is Risking Your Own Neck
TEXT: Every day on my way to work for the last few weeks I have witnessed a disturbing picture. It happens when I glance at the top of the Legislative Assembly building, the Mariinsky Palace, located in St. Isaac's Square.
 
One morning after another the national flag goes up and down, indicating days of mourning for victims who died in planes that were blown up, for those who lost their lives at Moscow's Rizhskaya metro station and now for hundreds of children who died in Northern Ossetia.
 This week, it seemed that the flag sank to the lowest level it has ever been at. After the anti-terrorism rally attended by more than 40,000 people in Palace Square on Monday, I understood that not only had the flag dropped to half-mast, but also that the moral state of the population and, most worryingly, the St. Petersburg intelligentsia, had dropped; they called for an end to the moratorium on the death penalty.
 St. Petersburg film director Alexei German was the first to say publicly that &quot;life imprisonment is not the punishment for people who shoot children in the back. They should be executed.&quot;
 His words were repeated by members of the St. Petersburg Pardons Commission, which drafted a statement to the Kremlin on Monday asking officials to bring Death Row back to Russia.
 Happily, the pardons commission changed its mind at the meeting and removed the death-row request from their statement, deciding that this was the members' personal stance and not the committee's official point of view.
 From my personal point of view, taking children hostage and then killing them is totally unacceptable behavior for any human being. It wouldn't even enter my head to do this.
 On Sept. 1, the day the hostages were seized, the first thought I had was &quot;what led these people to become so inhuman toward children?&quot; who, according to all religious and moral principles, should never be harmed.
 What awful thing has happened in this country in the last few years that has planted the seeds not only of terrorism, but of a terrorism of such outrageous and inhuman dimensions?
 Everybody understands the roots of the attack on Beslan lie in the war in Chechnya that has slashed the price of a human life to a zero. In conditions where everything is for sale, whether it be a weapon or a person, morals cease to exist.
 This is exactly what has happened in the breakaway republic and the responsibility for it lies firmly on the shoulders of President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle.
 It may be too late, but I still hope there is a chance the Kremlin will rethink its policy on Chechnya and the way the security forces and soldiers operate not only there, but also throughout the country. Because in conditions where life doesn't cost a thing, Russia could be stained by even more blood as a result of the actions of people who have basically lost their minds.
 The return of the death penalty would be a great mistake and would only change things for the worse, especially while the court system is far from being independent.
 In a worst-case scenario, the authorities could abuse the court system in such a way that people who they did not like would be charged with assisting terrorists and sentenced to death. It wouldn't surprise me if they were to do so, judging by many recent cases in St. Petersburg and in the country's political history.
 The Kremlin should realize that, if it continues to misrepresent things as improving when they are really getting worse, it will have to deal with more and more awful situations in the country.
 And I don't rule out that film director German could himself one day end up on death row, if he says something the Kremlin does not like.
 More than 30 million people were senselessly executed in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Isn't that enough?

TITLE: Heroism and Monstrous Incompetence
TEXT: The Federal Security Service, or FSB, has taken power in Russia. A former intelligence officer runs the country. A former intelligence officer runs the Defense Ministry. A former intelligence officer runs the Interior Ministry. According to various estimates, siloviki make up 70 to 80 percent of the new Russian establishment.
 
The primary function of the security services is to neutralize threats to national security - in other words, to prevent terrorist attacks. The security services are failing miserably in this task.
 I know they're busy. They're carving up Yukos and going into business. They're defending Russia's interests in South Ossetia. But surely they could think a little less about South Ossetia, which is part of Georgia, and a little more about Russian North Ossetia, where Beslan is located.
 The terrorists' demands were on President Vladimir Putin's desk inside of 10 minutes. Yet the state media reported that the terrorists had made no demands. The terrorists perceived this as a death sentence. If their demands weren't even being reported, negotiations were not on the cards.
 The terrorists were willing to negotiate with Ingush President Murat Zyazikov - also a chekist. Zyazikov switched off his mobile phone and disappeared. A spokesman said he was in Spain. Instead, former Ingush President Ruslan Aushev turned up uninvited. He contacted the terrorists by phone and told them he was coming in. Soon after, he emerged with 26 women and infants. Doesn't this indicate that negotiations were a viable option?
 Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and FSB director Nikolai Patrushev arrived in North Ossetia five hours after the siege began. No one knows what they did there. We do know that they didn't negotiate with the terrorists, thereby breaking the most basic rule of handling hostage situations: Negotiate, not to fulfill their demands, but to create the illusion that a peaceful resolution is close at hand. Everyone wants to live, even suicide bombers. The monstrous incompetence of these men resulted in the most deaths in the history of terrorism in Russia. Neither has offered to resign.
 In a certain newspaper office I was shown a remarkable document. A major oligarchic organization was offering to pay for articles about the tragedy. The oligarchs wanted to put statements like the following into print: &quot;All of those who took part in these tragic events are heroes. Russia hasn't witnessed heroism like this in a long time. For years the politicians have accused them of the seven deadly sins, calling them 'werewolves in epaulets.' But these men did not break; they did not fall.&quot;
 They're all heroes, you see? The officers in the elite Alfa and Vympel special forces units who were working out a plan for storming the school when the shooting started, then rushed in without body armor, shielding the hostages with their bodies. And Nurgaliyev and Patrushev, who couldn't seal off the school or move the armed gawkers and local cops out of the way. And anyone who says differently is an accomplice in terror.
 
 <i>Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio. </i>

TITLE: Write about now
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A trio of bestselling and critically acclaimed writers from Britain who are visiting St. Petersburg this week are revealing the secrets of their success. The program of events the visit has inspired, &quot;Fashionable Reading,&quot; ends Friday, but Isabel Wolff, Dougie Brimson and Irvine Welsh have had an action-packed week of book-signings, readings, meetings with the readers and fellow writers, workshops for young authors and Internet chats. 
 
The three writers represent three various trends in contemporary British literature. 
 Isabel Wolff is famous for her romantic comedies. Dougie Brimson explores the European football hooliganism both by means of fiction and non-fiction. Irvine Welsh, the author of the highly acclaimed novels &quot;Trainspotting,&quot; &quot;Marabou Stork Nightmares&quot; and &quot;Porno,&quot; among others, is more difficult to categorize. Welsh has tried various genres from crime to romance, all of which are turned inside out and disguised under his unique writing style. 
 The authors were brought to to St. Petersburg by a group of interested parties in the city: the British Consulate, the British Council, the Amphora publishing company (which publishes novels by Isabel Wolff, Dougie Brimson and Irvine Welsh in Russian) and the Bookvoyed bookstore. 
 It is hoped the event can be developed into an annual program which brings both British authors to Russia and Russian authors to the UK.
 After a packed press conference Tuesday, each of the three authors discussed their work.
 
 <strong>
DOUGIE BRIMSON
 </strong><i>What kind of reaction do you expect from your Russian readers? In what way do you think it would be different from your British readers?
 </i>
It's obviously different from that in the UK - the reaction in England is reserved, laid-back and chilled-out, while here I was surprised to get such warm and hearty reception, both in Moscow, where we visited the Book Fair, and here in St. Petersburg. I am quite shy, you know. I never call myself an author - I am just a guy who writes books. I am so humbled to be here, I am so well-treated! On my web site, I got a lot of responses to my books from Russia as soon as they were published here. That's why I was so glad when I found out about the project. Originally, it was meant to be in March, and when is was postponed I was really devastated, but, luckily, the project came again in September.
 <i>In your latest novel, &quot;Eurotrashed,&quot; you describe the behaviour of football fans, including those from Russia. Where did you get the information from and is there anything specific about Russian football fans?</i>
 Since they had contacted me on my web site, I asked a few of them to contribute stories from their life to my new book.
 I cross-checked the information afterwards. I had fans of CSKA, Spartak and some other Russian football clubs who helped me with it. Russian football fans have always looked towards England for a lead. But now, I think, they are developing their own kind of style. It's not based fundamentally on violence. It's a style that might be somewhere between English and Italian-Spanish type of fans. Though, if Russian fans get really organised they could be a real problem for Europe, because potentially they are one of the most violent groups of fans.
 
 <strong>
ISABEL WOLFF
 </strong><i>
How do you want your readers to react to your novels?</i>
 I try to make my women readers laugh and cry. There is humor and pathos in my novels. I try to make my books real and authentic about emotions. The readers read you for a certain reason: they want the same, but different. There's a consistency in tone in all my books.
 <i>Since you're writing primarily for women, what do you think about Russian women? What do you have to say to them?
 </i>They are so slim and tall! Russian women are very attractive too. As for deeper observations, I have to rely on what other people will tell me, I haven't been here long enough. I think my books tell about the life of women city-dwellers, and I don't think it's that different in St. Petersburg than it is in London. Women's aspirations are common: for professional and romantic success. But for foreign readers, I think, my books also say a lot about life in London and about life in the UK - for example, about class consciousness. 
 <i>Do you think that the Bridget Jones book (&quot;Bridget Jones' Diary&quot; by Helen Fielding) was a milestone in romantic comedy literature?
 </i>Romantic comedy had already existed, it has always been there, but I think Bridget Jones simply tapped into this enormous market - this constituency of a million single thirtysomething women, single in a sense of not having boyfriends even, looking for a partner. I don't think Bridget Jones was the best of these books, but it was the first, it opened the way. Bridget Jones is pure fuss - you don't see Bridget really sad, or really worried or really upset. But so many women bought it because they recognised they were in that situation. That was the role of the book - to articulate this concern. Still Bridget Jones was a pure comedy, and while I think it's a purely comic situation, it's a situation which contains comedy and a lot of sadness. 
 <i>Do you think you could ever change the genre? 
 </i>No, and I don't really want to either. My books are in way a literary equivalent to the kind of film like &quot;Notting Hill.&quot; I want my books to be amusing. <br> I like my books to cheer people up.
 
 <strong>

 IRVINE WELSH
 </strong><i>
What is the new novel you are working on at the moment about?
 </i>It's about a guy whose father was a chef. He wasn't told who his father was, and he was raised by his single-parent mother. He gets to the age when he's becoming obsessed with finding out who his father is. I think it's going to be called &quot;The Bedroom Secret of The Master Chef.&quot; Hopefully, it will be published next year.
 <i>How would you describe the current situation in the British literature?
 </i>I am really disappointed about the situation with British literature - even more than I am with American literature, which is quite healthy and there's a lot of good stuff coming out. In Britain publishers have become very much like the record companies. It's all about market and niches. It's very difficult just to write something than to be self-conscious about the market prospects and genres. One of the writers in our program, Dougie Brimson, has created his own genre, football hooliganism literature, which did not exist before. Other people just try traditional genres - like crime or chick-lit, which is basically a sub-division of romance, but very post-feminist and reactionary in a lot of ways. Writers have turned rather conformist and there's no real alternative. There's still a lot of misery and suffering, but all people want to have is escapism. There are a lot of good things to be done, particularly with crime and science fiction. 
 Then, in English-speaking fiction there's a whole imperialistic thing: they would rather publish some English-language stuff which is rubbish in order to fill a market demand than publish some great contemporary European, African, or Asian writers. English is a language that has achieved some kind of cultural hegemony across the world. 
 <i>Do you see British literature as part of the European tradition, or as something standing aside?</i>
 I think it does stand aside, culturally and linguistically. Britain, in terms of literature, has always been closer to America than to Europe, which means British literature is going down a dangerous route. On the other hand, I get concerned about the whole process of European integration. I like the idea of a single currency, and I think Europe is quite harmonious, and there are a lot of good things people can do as part of a European community. But I worry about the whole thing when Brussels and the Central Europe taking on the world powers. I think it becomes almost fascist. I would just leave it as federation of states. I have got to the stage when I think that any more political integration and economic integration in Europe is going become dysfunctional, but any less will be dodgy as well. We are just about at the right point.

TITLE: CHERNOV'S CHOICE
TEXT: Platforma,</strong> the art club co-owned by Moscow promoters, was launched the Russian style last week, with a sea of vodka and lots of traditional snacks such as pickled cucumbers. 
 There was no concert, so the venue's acoustics are yet to be checked, but co-owner Mikhail Ryabchikov said that his impression from the opening was &quot;positive.&quot; Ryabchikov added that Boris Grebenshchikov of Akvarium came to check out the new venue earlier this week.
 At first glance, the spirit of the place, where local art figures from 1970s and '80s and former hippies dominated, was reminiscent to that of the early Manhattan/Kotel club when it was managed by film director Dmitry Meskhiev and had Grebenshchikov and others as &quot;honorable members.&quot;
 The book store which is supposed to add some intellectual nuance to the place has yet to be opened, but concerts started this week with the local band Volkovtrio. This week's live music events at Platforma will start with Alexei Aigui's &quot;<strong>4'33&quot;</strong> on Friday. 
 The club's music program so far seems to be split between avant-rock acts such as Volkovtrio and 4'33, off-the-wall singer/songwriters such as Alexei Khvostenko and cabaret-punk bands such as <strong>Chirvontsy </strong>(Sept. 17).
 <strong>Fish Fabrique,</strong> the longest-running alternative rock club in St. Petersburg celebrated its 10th anniversary last week with a &quot;secret&quot; party. Traditionally, <strong>Tequilajazzz,</strong> a leading local alternative band, marks its own 11th anniversary at the club on the very same night.
 However, the band, which returned from its brief tour to Vladivostok earlier on in the same day did not play, but some archive video footage of the band was shown instead. According to Tequilajazzz singer and bassist Yevgeny Fyodorov the band has cancelled its concerts in Moscow because of the recent terrorist attacks. &quot;There is nothing to have fun about,&quot; he said.
 Though off the usual club route, the club ArcticA will host a 31st birthday party for Andrei &quot;Figa&quot; Kondratyev, the frontman of the folk-punk band <strong>Skazy Lesa.
 </strong>Kondratyev said that mostly Skazy Lesa songs will be performed, but there will be a few numbers from Nordfolks, Kondratyev's Irish-folk style band that he has lately put on hold.
 &quot;We'll probably play some Nordfolks hits - closer to the end, when we reach the necessary condition,&quot; Kondratyev said.
 From the other side of the globe comes the Brazilian band <strong>No Rest,</strong> which has been described as a &quot;melodic and powerful political punk-hardcore band.&quot; It will perform at Moloko on Friday. The club's manager Yury Ugryumov said Moloko's policy is not to have punk bands too often, but a &quot;Brazilian punk band that sings in Portuguese&quot; sounded too interesting to resist.
 <strong>Chufella Marzufella</strong> will perform what singer and guitarist Pavel Ryabukhin calls a &quot;usual&quot; concert at the bunker club Deep Sound, formerly Front, on Sunday.
 The veteran local garage-rock band has just released its long-awaited album called &quot;Greblya.&quot; The album will be launched with a concert at Moloko on Sept. 25.
 
 <i>
- By Sergey Chernov
 </i>

TITLE: Another fine mess
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The river-cruise is a staple of St. Petersburg summertime. Yet only one of the cruise boats combines the delicious Neva views with another, equally delectable, Petersburg trademark: fine dining. The New Island restaurant-ship, moored near Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge, departs four, times a day to cruise up the Neva and back over the course of a meal. 
 
Onboard, panels of glass stand in place of walls and offer a mouth-watering panorama even from the dock. St. Isaac's Cathedral sits squarely across the way and the Bronze Horseman rears over the water, juxtaposed on the near bank with the Egyptian sphinxes alleged to be older than the Neva itself. It's easy to see why the restaurant stays open even in winter when the boat is frozen in place.
 We sat down at our table about half an hour before the boat departed, right as the guests started to trickle in. The crowd is well-dressed and almost all Russian, although you might want to request a table downstairs if you're easily bothered by smoke. 
 The inside of the ship is plain but the walls are simply decorated with pictures of former guests: presidents like George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, and Jacques Chirac, and a swath of royalty and prime ministers from around the world. You may have guessed the New Island is not cheap, but it is also not outrageously expensive: a high class meal for two with wine will cost about $125.
 We were lucky enough to be seated ourselves at the presidential table. Located at the very tip of the boat, it affords a rolling panorama of both banks at once, like being in an IMAX theatre. 
 We ordered the food before the boat left. The menu is concise - it could easily take longer to pick your wine than your entree - but has something for every taste, with a European and a Russian section. 
 Appetizers from the mess, as a kitchen on board a boat is known, range from a classic Caesar salad to caviar with bliny. Entrees include a good fish selection as well as lamb, duck, and beluga, though vegetarian options are few. It's a good idea to arrive early enough to order before the boat leaves because you won't want to have your nose stuck in the menu when it sets into motion.
 Our appetizers were served as we passed between the Hermitage and the <i>strelka</i>, or spit, of Vasilyevsky Isla and, although the waitress confused my companion's main course with her appetizer and it was a few minutes before the waitress brought the right dish.
 The salmon lox (listed on the menu as smoked salmon) that we had ordered was very fresh and had a light flavor, not at all smoky or fishy. It was prepared in a simple lemon and oil dressing, a minimalist approach that successfully highlighted the native texture and taste of the meat. The thin lox-type fillets are served with salad greens, a white tartar sauce on the side, and a cut lemon to squeeze over the salmon.
 The white house wine we ordered was well-chilled and not too sweet, but didn't quite stand up to the salmon or our entrees. The wine list is extensive, and it's requires expertise to order something other than the house wine.
 Our entrees arrived just as Smolny Cathedral came into view around the big bend in the Neva. I had ordered Norwegian trout, which has red meat like salmon, and it came with a side of Chinese vermicelli. The fish was perfectly cooked with the meat flaking away from itself when I cut into the fillet and dissolving in my mouth. The rich paprika cream which dominated the dish was a heady complement to the trout.
 My companion's beef stroganoff was equally palatable. Served with rice on the side, the beef was cut and mixed up with mushrooms in a piquant brown sauce with insinuations of lemon.
 By the time we ordered desert the boat had already passed Alexandra Nevskogo Bridge and turned around, heading back to the city center and into the setting sun. 
 On the recommendation of my companion, who is Italian, I opted for the tiramisu. It arrived in a frosted glass, topped by chocolate and a light dusting of cinnamon. The pudding was highlighted by an unmistakable dash of vanilla and had a custard consistency that elegantly offset the layers of cake deeper in the glass. Like the architecture floating by the windows, the tiramisu rivaled the best in Florence or Rome.
 Although it was a cloudy night, the rays coming from low on the horizon cast a striking light on the sites of the Neva's South bank. The mood of the views can alter greatly depending on the time of day and the time of year, so take into account the time of sunset when planning your trip. And soon the river will freeze. 

<strong>The New Island Restaurant-Ship. 7 Lietentant Schmidt <br> Embankment. Tel: 963-6765. Cruises depart at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., <br> 8 p.m., and 10.30 p.m. Menu in Russian and English priced in units. 
 Dinner for two with tea and wine: 3,691 roubles ($125) 
 Reservations recommended. </strong>

TITLE: THE WORD'S WORTH
TEXT: &iuml;++&Iuml; &Uacute;@++&Iuml;'++&Egrave;&Igrave;(o)&Egrave;:</i> a rude SOB, a bastard, a schmuck
 
If the guy who nearly clips your car making a right turn from the left lane is a <i>&Igrave;++&quot;&Icirc;&Acirc;^</i> (a pushy son of a gun), what do you call the guy who swerves into the oncoming lane - and then honks the horn and swears at you for not pulling over to let him use your lane? This, ladies and gentlemen, is a<i> i++&Iuml;.</i>
 The word in Russian comes from the Bible: <i>&iuml;++&Iuml; </i>(Ham), is one of Noah's three sons - the one who didn't cover up his father's nakedness. Inherent in the notion of <i>i++&Iuml; </i>and <i>i++&Iuml;&Ograve;&Uacute;'&Oacute; </i>is no sense of decency or shame, as well as an uncultured, low-class crudeness. 
 One of the original meanings of <i>i++&Iuml;</i> was as a derogatory term for a serf or anyone of the lower classes. This is still heard in the expression, <i>&agrave;&Aacute; i++&Iuml;++ &Igrave;e &Ograve;o/oo&Acirc;&Icirc;++&Acirc;-, &Ocirc;++&Igrave;++ </i>(&lt;&lt;you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,&gt;&gt; literally, you can't make a serf into an aristocrat - pan being the Polish word for a member of the upper class). Now <i>i++&Iuml; </i>refers to anyone who is ill-bred, boorish, crude and rude. <i>&iuml;++&Iuml; &Uacute;@++&Iuml;'++&Egrave;&Igrave;(o)&Egrave;</i> (literally &lt;&lt;a tram lout&gt;&gt;) is the worst version of the type. <i>&Ccedil; &Uacute;&Acirc;++&Uacute;@&Acirc; &Oacute;&Igrave; &Igrave;&Acirc; &Uacute;&Oacute;&Icirc;,&Iacute;&Oacute; &Aacute;++&Igrave;fl&Icirc; &Iuml;&Oacute;fi &Iuml;&Acirc;&Ograve;&Uacute;&Oacute;, &Oacute;&Igrave; &Acirc;^fi &Euml; &Ocirc;&Oacute;&Ograve;&Icirc;++&Icirc; &Iuml;&Acirc;&Igrave;fl. &iuml;++&Iuml; &Uacute;@++&Iuml;'++&Egrave;&Igrave;(o)&Egrave;!</i> (Not only did he take my seat in the theater, he told me to go to hell. What a schmuck!) Anyone else notice that Yiddish is a good source for translating Russian slang? Definitely another dissertation topic.
 Louts come in all shapes, sizes and genders; the female of the breed is <i>i++&Iuml;&Iacute;++. &egrave;@&Oacute;o/oo++'^&Euml;^++ &Iuml;&Igrave;&Acirc; &Ograve;&Iacute;++&Aacute;++&Icirc;++, ~&Uacute;&Oacute; &Ocirc;&Icirc;++&Uacute;,&Acirc; &Iuml;&Igrave;&Acirc; &Ocirc;&Oacute;&Iacute;++&Aacute;(o)'++&Uacute;, &Igrave;&Acirc; &Ograve;&Uacute;++&Igrave;&Acirc;&Uacute; - &Oacute;&Igrave;&Oacute; &Iuml;&Igrave;&Acirc; fl'&Igrave;&Oacute; &Igrave;&Acirc; &Ocirc;&Oacute; &Iacute;++@&Iuml;++&Igrave;&Ucirc;. &egrave;@&Acirc;o/oo&Ograve;&Uacute;++'&Icirc;fl&Acirc;-, &Ograve;&Acirc;.&Acirc;? &auml;++&Iacute;++fl i++&Iuml;&Iacute;++!</i> (The saleswoman told me she wouldn't even show me the dress, since I clearly couldn't afford it. Can you believe it? What a bitch!) 
 <i>&iuml;++&Iuml;&Ograve;&Uacute;'&Oacute;</i> is the quality of boorishness that characterizes these creeps. In Russian linguistic and cultural hierarchy, <i>i++&Iuml;&Ograve;&Uacute;'&Oacute; </i>is worse than <i>&Igrave;++&quot;&Icirc;&Oacute;&Ograve;&Uacute;,. &ccedil;++&quot;&Icirc;&Oacute;&Ograve;&Uacute;, </i>is pushiness and balls; <i>i++&Iuml;&Ograve;&Uacute;'&Oacute; </i>is a kind of shameless, nasty crudeness. You can say of someone, <i>&Oacute;&Igrave; ' &Iuml;&Acirc;@&Ucirc; &Igrave;++&quot;&Icirc;(o)&Egrave; </i>(he's pretty ballsy, he's got a pushy streak in him) and still like the guy. In fact, he's the kind of guy you want negotiating your next lease. But there's no limit to the <i>i++&Iuml;&Ograve;&Uacute;'&Oacute; </i>of a<i> i++&Iuml;,</i> and no redeeming qualities. <i>&eacute;&Igrave;&Euml; &Ucirc;'&Oacute;&Icirc;&Euml;&Icirc;&Euml; &Igrave;++-&Ucirc; &Ograve;&Oacute;&Uacute;@&Ucirc;o/oo&Igrave;&Euml;^&Ucirc; '&Oacute; '@&Acirc;&Iuml;fl &Acirc;fi &Oacute;&Uacute;&Ocirc;&Ucirc;&Ograve;&Iacute;++. &auml;&Oacute;&quot;o/oo++ &Oacute;&Igrave;++ '(o)-&Icirc;++ &Igrave;++ @++.&Oacute;&Uacute;&Ucirc; &Euml; &Ocirc;&Oacute;&Ocirc;(o)&Uacute;++&Icirc;++&Ograve;, '&Oacute;&Egrave;&Uacute;&Euml; ' &Aacute;o/oo++&Igrave;&Euml;&Acirc;, &Oacute;i@++&Igrave;&Igrave;&Euml;&Iacute;&Euml; &Oacute;&Uacute;&Oacute;.@++&Icirc;&Euml; &Ucirc; &Igrave;&Acirc;fi &Ocirc;@&Oacute;&Ocirc;&Ucirc;&Ograve;&Iacute;. &iuml;++&Iuml;&Ograve;&Uacute;'&Oacute;! </i>(They fired her when she was on vacation, and when she came back and tried to enter the building, the guards took away her pass. What a low-down thing to do!)
 Russians, kind-hearted souls, also believe that people can become louts over time; for that they use the verb <i>i++&Iuml;&Acirc;&Uacute;,. &auml;&Oacute;&quot;o/oo++ fl &Ocirc;@&Euml;&Igrave;&Euml;&Iuml;++&Icirc;++ &Acirc;fi &Igrave;++ @++.&Oacute;&Uacute;&Ucirc;, &Oacute;&Igrave;++ &Iuml;&Igrave;&Acirc; &Ocirc;&Oacute;&Iacute;++&Aacute;++&Icirc;++&Ograve;, &Ograve;&Iacute;@&Oacute;&Iuml;&Igrave;&Oacute;&Egrave;. &ccedil;&Oacute; '&Oacute;&Uacute; &Ocirc;@&Oacute;-&Icirc;&Oacute; o/oo'++ &Iuml;&Acirc;&Ograve;fl^++, &Euml; &Oacute;&Igrave;++ &Igrave;++~++&Icirc;++ i++&Iuml;&Acirc;&Uacute;,. </i>(She seemed sweet when I hired her. But two months have gone by, and she's started to act up.) Don't confuse this, however, with the verb <i>i++&Iuml;&Euml;&Uacute;,, </i>which is used far more frequently. It means &lt;&lt;to be rude to someone,&gt;&gt; or, more colloquially in English, to give someone lip, to talk back, to get out of line. <i>&aring;&Oacute;&Egrave; &Ograve;(o)&Igrave; &Ograve;&Uacute;++&Icirc; &Iuml;&Igrave;&Acirc; i++&Iuml;&Euml;&Uacute;,. &uuml; &Igrave;&Acirc; &Aacute;&Igrave;++,, ~&Uacute;&Oacute; &Ograve; &Igrave;&Euml;&Iuml; o/oo&Acirc;&Icirc;++&Uacute;,!</i> (My son has started to talk back to me. I don't know what to do with him!) <i>&uuml; &Ocirc;&Oacute;-&Icirc;++ ' &Uuml;&ugrave;&auml;, ~&Uacute;&Oacute;.(o) o/oo&Oacute;&Iacute;++&Aacute;++&Uacute;,, ~&Uacute;&Oacute; fl '(o)&Ocirc;&Icirc;++&Uacute;&Euml;&Icirc;++ &Iacute;'++@&Uacute;&Ocirc;&Icirc;++&Uacute;&Ucirc; '&Oacute;'@&Acirc;&Iuml;fl, ++ .&Ucirc;i&quot;++&Icirc;&Uacute;&Acirc;@ &Iuml;&Igrave;&Acirc; &Igrave;++i++&Iuml;&Euml;&Icirc;. </i>(I went to the housing office to prove that I had paid up my maintenance fees on time, and the bookkeeper gave me lip.) <i>&aring;&Oacute;&Icirc;&Oacute;o/oo&Oacute;&Egrave; ~&Acirc;&Icirc;&Oacute;'&Acirc;&Iacute;! &auml;++&Iacute; '(o) &Ograve;&Iuml;&Acirc;&Acirc;&Uacute;&Acirc; &Iuml;&Igrave;&Acirc; i++&Iuml;&Euml;&Uacute;,! </i>(Young man! How dare you get out of line with me!) 
 So what do you with a <i>i++&Iuml;?</i> In my experience - nothing. Unless you can get back as good as you get, it's better to walk away. After all, the Bible gave us Ham, but it also gave us Job: practice a little patience. <i>&Ouml;fi &Iuml;&Ucirc;&Ecirc; &Uacute;++&Iacute;&Oacute;&Egrave; i++&Iuml; - ++ &Oacute;&Igrave;++ &Acirc;&quot;&Oacute; &Uacute;&Acirc;@&Ocirc;&Euml;&Uacute;. &igrave; &Igrave;&Acirc;fi &Uacute;&Acirc;@&Ocirc;&Acirc;&Igrave;&Euml;&Acirc; &agrave;&Oacute;'++. </i>(Her husband is a real bastard, but she puts up with him. She has the patience of Job.)
 
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter. </i>

TITLE: Dramatic changes
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: At least two local drama theaters open new seasons this month with new leaders on board. The Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT) opens its season on Friday with a new principal director, while the Komissarzhevskaya Drama Theater has invited a guest principal director - the first such appointment made in St. Petersburg's theater history. Both artists, however, are not new to their troupes.
 
The BDT's Temur Chkheidze, who is responsible for a number of productions in the company's repertoire, was first offered the job of principal director of the company fourteen years ago, shortly after the death of Georgy Tovstonogov in 1990. Tovstonogov's &quot;Woe From Wit&quot; (1962), &quot;The Idiot&quot; (1966), &quot;Inspector General&quot; (1972), &quot;Story of a Horse&quot; (1975) and &quot;Tarelkin's Death&quot; (1983) gained the troupe nationwide fame. 
 There were hopes to find an adequate replacement, but until one was found, it was decided that an &quot;acting artistic director&quot; would temporarily concentrate efforts on preserving the legacy of the legendary director. But as the years went on, the troupe and its home aged. 
 It and is now weak and unconvincing, and lacks the precious ensemble which once made it so famous. 
 There are remarkably few young actors in the company - something that Chkheidze says he will change.
 &quot;We have a strong troupe but we have to constantly bring new young talent in,&quot; Chkheidze said. 
 &quot;Somebody can stay, somebody can go, but it is crucially important for every director and actor to find their stage and their company.&quot; 
 The director said six or seven recent graduates of theatrical schools will join the BDT in the coming season.
 Chkeidze is also planning to change the BDT's recent tendency of using plays as star vehicles. 
 &quot;There are many most talented performers in the company, but I am not going to exploit their names,&quot; he said. &quot;I start by choosing a play, not by choosing an actor and trying to suit their demands.&quot;
 Three premieres are scheduled for this season, including Leonid Andreyev's &quot;Katerina Ivanovna,&quot; Lev Tolstoy's &quot;The Power of Darkness&quot; and Ronald Harwood's &quot;Quartet.&quot; Chkheidze himself will stage the Tolstoy play, while director Nikolai Pinigin will be responsible for the two other productions. Kirill Lavrov, who had been performing the late Tovstonogov's duties up to the end of last season, will perform the main role in &quot;The Power of Darkness.&quot; The venerable actor, who remains BDT's artistic director, turns 80 next year.
 Experimental Bulgarian director Alexander Morfov is already familiar with the Komissarzhevskaya Drama Theater, which opened its new season on Sept. 4. His bright, innovative renditions of Shakespeare's &quot;The Tempest&quot; and Moliere's &quot;Don Juan&quot; have gained the company high critical praise on international level and were enthusiastically receieved by audiences. The theater has created a new job specifically tailored for Morfov. The post of principal guest director hasn't really existed in St. Petersburg theater but has been invented as an analog to &quot;principal guest conductor,&quot; familiar to the classical music world.
 His contract obliges the director to stage a minimum of one new production a year as well as keep an eye on existing shows in the repertoire, amending them if necessary. Morfov will also be consulting Komissarzhevskaya's artistic director Viktor Novikov on all aspects of the company's repertoire and general direction, from extending an invitation to a particular director to offering a role to a certain actor.
 &quot;It is hugely important for us to have him here, as Morfov is a great asset indeed, being one of the most gifted young directors,&quot; Novikov told Izvestia newspaper this week. 
 &quot;He will be spending up to six months in St. Petersburg every year ... It has also been agreed that he will not work with other local companies for the duration of his contract.&quot;
 Morfov is expected to arrive in town later this month to start working on his version of Berthold Brecht's first play &quot;Baal.&quot; Other premieres to expect from the Komissarzhevskaya Drama Theater this season include Alexander Isakov's take on Viktor Shenderovich's comic play &quot;Schweizer's Namesake,&quot; Krasnoyarsk director Alexander Belsky's interpretation of Poyarkov's &quot;The Little Tatar&quot; and Georgy Tovstonogov's (the grandson of the famous BDT leader) rendition of St. Petersburg poet Linda Yonenberg's play &quot;Morock.&quot;

TITLE: Troupe movements
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: HONG KONG - When artistic companies from St. Petersburg tour Asia, they often receive an enthusiastic welcome at the Hong Kong Cultural Center. 
 
In recent years the venue has hosted many major troupes. In 2002 the Mariinsky Theater ballet company's sold-out week of performances was the dance event of the year in Hong Kong. Last year the St. Petersburg Philharmonic delighted music lovers there. This year it is the turn of the Eifman Ballet which, after giving four performances in Hong Kong last week, is now performing this week in the neighbouring city of Macau, the second and last stop of this Chinese tour.
 The Eifman Ballet opened its Hong Kong appearances with &quot;Red Giselle&quot; (1997), one of the most famous ballets choreographed by the renowned St. Petersburg-based choreographer and leader of the company Boris Eifman. This spectacular two-act work is the most inventive and absorbing dramatic ballet seen in Hong Kong so far this year. Its story is based on the tragic life of the legendary St. Petersburg ballerina Olga Spessivtseva. In the early 20th century, the dancer was forced to compromise her artistry to the dictates of the Soviet regime and later fled to the West where she eventually suffered a mental breakdown. 
 Eifman is ingenious in narration. His choreography focuses on the ballerina's difficult relationships with the three men dominant in her life - the teacher who handpicked her to be a star, the brutal KGB agent who was her admirer and let her leave Russia for the West, and finally her handsome homosexual dancing partner in Paris (Serge Lifar) who was unable to reciprocate her love. This gives rise to many intense and emotionally resonant duets for the ballerina who is constantly on stage. In Hong Kong, Vera Arbuzova was superlative in the demanding role of the ballerina.
 Eifman's effective choreography abounds in theatricality and powerful symbolism, notably in the violent ensemble dance of a Revolutionary mob, and in another scene in which secret police agents terrorize Mariinsky dancers. The sight of the KGB agent wrapping his dirty black leather coat round the ballerina after one of their duets is unforgettable. 
 In Act II, Eifman serves up a brilliant parody of the 19th century classic &quot;Giselle&quot; danced by the ballerina and her Parisian partner. (Giselle was one of Spessivtseva's most famous roles.) It is difficult to suppress a laugh when Giselle's lover, Albrecht, is seen caressing his squire instead of Giselle - a clever twist on the original choreography. Giselle's mad scene mirrors the ballerina's own nervous breakdown at the end. 
 The Eifman Ballet's second offering last weekend was Eifman's earlier biographical work &quot;Tchaikovsky&quot; (1993), which is in a similar vein but less well crafted than the later work. In Act I features a recurring blurring of reality and fantasy, with subtle quotations from Tchaikovsky's ballet classics. Tchaikovsky's emotional conflict between his wish for a conventional marriage and his homosexuality is depicted well. In the gloom-laden Act II, Bejart-style choreography in the duets for Tchaikovsky and his alter ego is rather repetitive, although this is contrasted by an all-male, orgiastic ensemble dance at a gaming parlour toward the end.
 The company possesses a wonderful troupe of dancers to illuminate Eifman's unique choreographic style. The male contingent is especially strong. Albert Galichanin was magnificent in the title role in &quot;Tchaikovsky.&quot; Yury Smekalov dazzled as the Partner in &quot;Red Giselle&quot; and has a fine classical style. He also gave a powerful performance as Tchaikovsky in the second cast. Konstantin Matulevsky and Dmitry Ficher were excellent in the supporting roles, and Yelena Kuzmina was moving as Tchaikovsky's wife who later became mad.
 The audience's applause grew warmer as the week progressed, and Eifman himself received loud ovations every night. In a &lt;&lt;meet-the-choreographer&gt;&gt; session last Saturday, Eifman answered many enthusiastic questions from members of the audience about &quot;Tchaikovsky.&quot; Eifman said afterwards that he was impressed by the intelligent questions raised. 
 The news that the Eifman Ballet is due to tour other cities in China next year was particularly well received.

TITLE: Glamour Rus
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Glamour, a giant in the world of women's glossy magazines, has launched a Russian edition. With an initial print-run of 300,000 and an aggressive $5 million ad blitz, the magazine, which hit newsstands for the first time last week, is aiming to gain a foothold in a market dominated by Cosmopolitan.
 Glossies, particularly those oriented toward young, urban female readers, have been among the best performers in a booming magazine market. 
 The arrival of Glamour - with a circulation of nearly 5 million in ten countries - means that nearly all major international lifestyle magazines are present in Russia, though the market is far from being saturated, said Yelena Myasnikova, editor of Cosmopolitan, which is published by The St. Petersburg Times' parent company Independent Media.
 &quot;The enthusiastic response from local and international advertisers has been very encouraging and reinforces our conviction to launch Russian Glamour,&quot; Robyn Holt, managing director of Conde Nast in Russia, said in a statement. 
 Conde Nast already publishes editions of Vogue, GQ and Architectural Digest in Russia. 
 The ad market is expanding rapidly but concrete numbers are hard to come by, as they are a closely guarded secret in a highly competitive industry.
 For the launch of Glamour, Conde Nast invested in an advertising campaign that has hit TV screens, billboards and metro cars in major cities.
 The magazine, published in its trademark pocket-size format, is on sale for 40 rubles ($1.30). The suggested price for the mini-edition of Cosmopolitan is 65 rubles.
 Glamour's main competitors on the domestic market will be Cosmopolitan and Elle, which is published by Hachette Filipacchi Shkulev.
 Sergei Nikolayevich, deputy editor of Elle, said that the newcomer will fill a market niche. But he was doubtful if it would be able to maintain its ambitious print-run.
 &quot;The first edition of a new magazine is often complimentary,&quot; he said, with a larger-than-usual print-run needed to account for free distribution.
 Elle has an official circulation of 220,000, and Vogue 150,000. Besides Cosmopolitan, they have been the only two women's glossies with a circulation above 100,000.
 Cosmopolitan, with roughly $10 million in sales, was country's No.1 monthly magazine in 2003, according to Mediamark market research agency. Elle, the only other women's glossy to make it to the top 10, was fifth with $2.6 million in sales.
 &quot;Since last fall our circulation grew by 200,000 copies. If we could do it, there is definitely room for growth in this market,&quot; said Myasnikova. In March the Russian edition of Cosmopolitan, with 610,000 copies, entered the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest circulation among European glossies. (The British edition of Glamour, with a print-run of 580,000, was close second.)
 The October issue of Cosmopolitan will have an all-time high print-run of 630,000, Myasnikova said.
 Myasnikova said that it is difficult to put a number on the potential readers of glossies, as the target audience keeps growing with the booming economy.
 Nevertheless, it is still much lower than in even much smaller European countries, she said.
 When Glamour was launched in Greece in 2002, for example, its initial print-run was 350,000. The population of the whole country is less than Moscow's.
 Konstantin Isakov, general director of Mediamark, called Glamour's appearance &quot;one of the last entries of western magazine brands to the Russian market.&quot;
 &quot;Glamour's entry is not going to be revolutionary,&quot; he said. &quot;They are a few years late with their entry.&quot; 
 The mini-format - which Italian Glamour pioneered in 1998 - will not give the Russian edition a competitive advantage, Isakov said, as Cosmpolitan is already publishing a successful pocket version.
 &quot;They'll find their niche since the market is on the rise, but their main competitors will not surrender easily,&quot; he said.
 The magazine's &quot;dumping price&quot; and aggressive marketing may allow Glamour to attract readers at first, Isakov said, but in the absence of a nationwide distribution network, it will be difficult to sustain high circulation.
 &quot;It took Cosmopolitan over a decade to get to where it is now, but whether Glamour can do the same is open to debate,&quot; he said. 


TITLE: Jakarta Bomb Targets Australians, Kills 7
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful car bomb exploded outside the gates of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday, killing seven people and wounding nearly 100 in an attack police blamed on al-Qaida-linked terrorists. 
 
The blast flattened the embassy's gate, mangled cars on the busy commercial street and shattered the windows of nearby high-rise buildings. Dazed survivors desperately tried to locate colleagues and relatives. 
 &quot;I can't find my family,&quot; said Suharti, who had eight relatives working in the mission. &quot;I am terrified. I don't know where they are.&quot; 
 A senior Indonesian police officer who asked not to be identified said seven people died in the 10:15 a.m. blast, including three policemen guarding the building. A doctor at a nearby hospital said 98 people were admitted with injuries, none of them foreigners. 
 &quot;Initial investigations show this was a car bomb. We do not know whether anyone was in the car,&quot; police chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar said. 
 About a dozen Australians were slightly wounded, mostly by flying glass, an embassy spokeswoman said. 
 The explosion shook buildings across a large part of the central commercial district of the city of 12 million people. A thick plume of white smoke rose up above the embassy. 
 In Athens, Greek foreign ministry spokesman Giergos Koumoutsakos said the Greek Embassy on the 12th floor of a nearby building was gutted, and three diplomats were slightly wounded. 
 Passers-by witnessed grisly scenes as security officers covered the bodies of victims ripped apart by the blast with newspapers. A severed human leg lay on the intersection between the two lanes of the street, its trousers torn off by the force of the explosion. 
 Police immediately blamed Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network that is linked to al-Qaida. The group has been accused in several deadly bombings, including the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in the same neighborhood last year, in which 12 people were killed. 
 A 2002 terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali killed more than 200 people, including 88 Australian tourists. 
 &quot;The modus operandi is very similar to other attacks, including the Bali bombings and the Marriott blast,&quot; Bachtiar said. &quot;We can conclude [the perpetrators] are the same group.&quot; 
 The bombing could have been timed to coincide with several upcoming events: the anniversary Saturday of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Indonesian presidential elections on Sept. 20, and Australian elections a month from now. Australia's role as a U.S. ally in the war in Iraq has been a key issue in the election campaign. 
 &quot;This is not a nation that is going to be intimidated by acts of terrorism,&quot; Australian Prime Minister John Howard said. 
 Embassy media officer Elizabeth O'Neill said the force of the bomb shocked staff. 
 &quot;[It was an] enormous bomb, the enormity of the crater, the police truck outside has been blown to bits, it's like the wind has been pushed out of you,&quot; O'Neill told Australia's Nine TV Network. 
 After the blast, the Australian Embassy announced it would be closed until further notice, along with the consulate in Bali. Non-essential staff and dependents of embassy staff have also been given the option of going home, the spokeswoman said. 
 The embassy is located on Rasuna Said Street, a main thoroughfare in the Kuningan district with foreign embassies, businesses and shopping malls. Bloody corpses and severed human remains were strewn across the six-lane street. 
 &quot;The ground shook so hard I fell down. A huge column of white smoke rose up,&quot; said Joko Triyanto, a security guard, his arms bleeding from shrapnel wounds sustained in the explosion. 
 President Megawati Sukarnoputri was in neighboring Brunei Thursday attending a royal wedding, but cut short her stay to return to Jakarta, officials said. 
 &quot;We strongly condemn this action. Together we fight the war against terrorism,&quot; Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters at the scene. 
 The bombing came as authorities prepared to press charges against jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has been accused by police of heading Jemaah Islamiyah and playing a role in the Marriott Hotel blast. Bashir has denied any involvement in terrorism. 
 Bashir condemned the attack but predicted he would still be blamed for it. 
 &quot;I'm very upset. I'm against all bombings like this,&quot; Bashir said according to his lawyer Mahendradata, who visited the cleric in jail shortly after the blast. 
 &quot;But [the authorities] will still use this to attack me,&quot; Bashir said. &quot;In their desperation, they will accuse me for this attack just like they have the others.&quot; 
 Bachtiar said the bombing may have been the work of Azahari Husin, a British-trained Malaysian engineer who has eluded capture for nearly three years. Husin, one of Asia's most-wanted men and a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, has been linked to numerous bombings in Indonesia, including the Bali blasts.

TITLE: Accused Nazi Denies Killing
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MUNICH, Germany - An 86-year-old Nazi war crimes suspect charged in the killings of 164 Slovak villagers during World War II denied on Thursday that he was involved in the shootings of women or children. 
 
Ladislav Niznansky is accused of having headed the Slovak section of a Nazi unit code-named Edelweiss, which hunted resistance fighters and Jews after the Germans crushed an uprising against Slovakia's Nazi puppet government in 1944. 
 He faces 164 counts of murder for allegedly taking part in the killings, including giving the order to shoot 18 Jewish civilians. 
 Defense lawyer Steffen Ufer argued in court that Niznansky was under orders from Nazi superiors and was not present when the bulk of the shootings happened. 
 &quot;He never gave an order to move against women and children, nor did he personally lift his hand against such persons,&quot; Ufer said in an opening statement as the trial got under way. 
 Outside the courtroom, Niznansky flatly told reporters: &quot;I am not guilty.&quot; 
 Now a German citizen, Niznansky was arrested at his Munich home in January, paving the way for what could be Germany's last Nazi war crimes trial. He could face life in prison if convicted. 
 Niznansky testified he initially took part in the rebellion and switched sides after he was captured and a German officer threatened to have him sent to a concentration camp. 
 Prosecutors say he issued orders for and participated in the shootings of 146 people in the villages of Ostry Grun and Klak in central Slovakia on Jan. 21, 1945. Niznansky &quot;ordered that no living soul be allowed to escape,&quot; according to the indictment. It also alleged that he personally shot at least 20 people. 
 Niznansky also is accused of ordering the shooting of 18 Jewish civilians discovered hiding in underground bunkers at Ksina on Feb. 7, 1945. 
 Many of the victims of the shootings were women and children. 
 &quot;The aim of the operation was the total destruction of the villages and the liquidation of all their inhabitants because there were partisans there who were supported by the population,&quot; the indictment said. 
 His lawyer said Niznansky denies being at Ostry Grun and Klak at the time of the killings. 
 Other survivors have said a German officer did the shooting, Ufer said. He said Niznansky was with his unit &quot;in the hills above&quot; the two villages when the villagers were shot. 
 Niznansky is believed to have fled to Germany after a 1948 communist coup in then-Czechoslovakia. He later worked for several decades at Radio Free Europe, a U.S.-financed station in Munich that broadcast to the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.

TITLE: Space Probe Crash Lands
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah - The Genesis space capsule, which had orbited the sun for more than three years in an attempt to gather clues to the origin of the solar system, crashed to Earth on Wednesday after its parachute failed to deploy. 
 
It wasn't immediately known whether tiny cosmic samples it was carrying back to Earth as part of a six-year, $260 million project had been lost. NASA officials believed the fragile disks that held the atoms would shatter even if the capsule hit the ground with a parachute. 
 &quot;There was a big pit in my stomach,&quot; said physicist Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, which designed the atom collector plates. &quot;This just wasn't supposed to happen. We're going to have a lot of work picking up the pieces.&quot; 
 A recovery team that includes Genesis project members was dispatched to the crash site Wednesday afternoon on a salvage mission. 
 Hollywood stunt pilots had taken off in helicopters to hook the parachute, but the refrigerator-sized capsule - holding a set of fragile disks containing billions of atoms collected from solar wind - hit the desert floor without the parachute opening. 
 The impact drove the capsule halfway underground. NASA engineers feared the explosive for the parachute might still be alive and ready to fire, and kept helicopter crews at bay.

TITLE: Canada Smash Slovakia To Decide Line-Up For Semis
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TORONTO - Jarome Iginla had two goals and an assist to lead Canada into the World Cup of Hockey semifinals with a 5-0 victory over Slovakia on Wednesday night. 
 
Vincent Lecavalier, Ryan Smyth and Joe Sakic also scored for Canada, which will play the Czech Republic in Toronto on Saturday night in one semifinal. 
 The United States plays Finland on Friday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the other semifinal. 
 Canada has dominated the tournament, going 4-0 while outscoring its opponents 15-3. 
 &quot;This was our first real test in a do-or-die game and I think we responded real well,&quot; goaltender Martin Brodeur said. 
 Brodeur, arguably the best goaltender in the world, was barely tested, finishing with 23 saves for his first shutout of the tournament. 
 Slovakia couldn't contain Canada's top line of Iginla, Sakic and captain Mario Lemieux, who were on the ice for three goals. 
 &quot;They're very easy guys to play with,&quot; Iginla said. &quot;I still battle not being in awe a little bit.&quot; 
 Lecavalier scored the first of four second-period goals on a power play at 2:28. Brad Richards skated around a defenseman before passing to a streaking Lecavalier, who didn't miss the open net. 
 Iginla scored just under three minutes later with a quick shot from the side of the net. Lemieux, who was in front of the net, was initially credited with the goal. 
 Smyth made it 3-0 at 11:29 after Slovakia defenseman Zdeno Chara turned the puck over at Canada's blue line. Three Canada players hustled down the ice before setting up Smyth, who scored his third goal of the tournament. 
 Just 19 seconds later, Iginla fed Sakic, whose wrist shot beat goalie Jan Lasak. 
 &quot;Our biggest problem was up front. We didn't score enough,&quot; Chara said. &quot;We made too many turnovers and we paid for it.&quot;

TITLE: Rain Halts Play But Kuznetsova Advances
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - By the time Lindsay Davenport got on the court after a long, rainy day at the U.S. Open, there were only about 100 fans in the stands. 
 
Some of those folks were wandering around, too, and that caused her more trouble than Shinobu Asagoe. 
 &quot;They just kind of kept coming right when I was in the line of my toss,&quot; she said. &quot;I just asked if they could maybe bring some more ushers out, even if there weren't that many people.&quot;
 Davenport overwhelmed Asagoe 6-1, 6-1 Wednesday night to reach the semifinals. She'll face St. Petersburg native and No. 9 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who defeated No. 14 Nadia Petrova 7-6 (4), 6-3. 
 Davenport and Kuznetsova were lucky - they got to finish. 
 The glamour match of the tournament so far, two-time Open champion Andre Agassi vs. No. 1 Roger Federer, was suspended because of showers. Federer led 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, and the match was due to resume Thursday afternoon, weather permitting. 
 Arthur Ashe Stadium was about one-third full for Agassi-Federer. In another men's quarterfinal, No. 5 Tim Henman led No. 22 Dominik Hrbaty 6-1, 7-5, 4-5 when it was suspended - about a dozen fans were there for the warmup. 
 Davenport got to the National Tennis Center around 9 a.m., about two hours before she was scheduled to play at Ashe. But with no chance to get started in the steady rain, she passed the time trying to sleep, doing crossword puzzles, visiting with her family and eating. 
 &quot;It's not a total shock to tennis players that we have to go through this,&quot; she said. &quot;At this point, I just didn't care if there were 100 people there or 10 people, I just wanted to play.&quot; 
 Davenport wound up starting at 9,645-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium at 7:29 p.m. By then, organizers had shifted the schedule so that all four matches could be played at the same time. 
 Only two dozen fans headed over to outer Court 11 for the start of the quarterfinal between Kuznetsova and Petrova. It was so empty that when Petrova slapped the strings of her racket after a missed shot, it sounded like a violin - it was that easy to hear. 
 Stan Kasten, the former president of the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers, was among those watching. 
 &quot;It's like when you go scout a kid at a high school game or in the summer leagues, there aren't a whole lot of people there,&quot; he said. &quot;It's an interesting environment to see a match that means so much.&quot;
 The match was originally supposed to be played at Armstrong. Instead, the setting looked more like a recreation league tournament, and that was fine by Kuznetsova. 
 &quot;It was important for me to play on a small court so I don't get nervous,&quot; she said. &quot;I played [Nicole] Pratt, second round, on this court. Now, I play in the quarterfinals on the same court. It's weird.&quot; 
 The other women's semifinal will also be United States vs. Russia: No. 8 Jennifer Capriati takes on No. 6 Yelena Dementyeva in the other matchup. 
 Davenport has won 22 matches in a row since losing to Maria Sharapova in the semifinals at Wimbledon. She's already won three Grand Slam championships, including the 1998 Open. 
 &quot;I'm in a great position. I've done everything that I could possibly do to be ready to play here and do well,&quot; she said, &quot;and now you just see what happens.&quot; 
 Agassi got off to a slow start, and had trouble handling Federer's serve in the first set. But Agassi came back to win 12 of 13 points early in the second set for a 3-0 lead and went on to close it out, drawing a standing ovation. 
 Federer regained his touch in the third set, finishing it with a 130 mph service winner. The rain came back with Agassi serving at deuce to open the fourth set. It stopped for a bit, raising hopes that play would resume, and then returned to force the suspension for the night. During the afternoon, the only action at Ashe came when John McEnroe and Andy Roddick suddenly appeared on the slick surface. They carved out their own version of a traditional New York game - stickball - right in the middle of the court. 
 McEnroe pitched and Roddick held the opposite end of his racket and took batting practice. It sort of looked like Mets reliever John Franco vs. St. Louis slugger Scott Rolen - McEnroe throwing lefty curves against Roddick's powerful swing. 
 &quot;One more!&quot; Roddick demanded after 15 minutes of frolicking. And on the final toss, Roddick sent a drive into the upper deck.

TITLE: Singh Steals Woods' Spot For Canada
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OAKVILLE, Ontario - It took Vijay Singh nearly two years and 11 victories on the PGA Tour to finally replace Tiger Woods at No. 1 in the world. And that might have been the easy part. 
 
Singh is playing better than anyone, and with at least five tournaments left in his stellar season, he expects to be No. 1 when the year ends. Even so, Ernie Els has been hovering near the top all year, Phil Mickelson is starting to close in and Woods is never too far behind. 
 &quot;The easier part is getting to the top,&quot; Singh said Wednesday. &quot;The hardest part is staying up there.&quot;
 The solution is simple - keep winning. Three days after he knocked off Woods on the golf course and in the world ranking, Singh is back to work at the Canadian Open, which includes the No. 1 player in the world, the last two Masters champions and seven Americans who are getting their game in shape for the Ryder Cup next week. 
 The star attraction is still Mike Weir, the first Masters champion from Canada, who feels like he's at Augusta National whenever he plays his country's biggest tournament. 
 &quot;There a little bit more pressure, no question, than even a major,&quot; Weir said. 
 But the betting favorite is Singh - and it probably wouldn't matter even if Woods had decided to play. 
 &quot;Earlier in the season when Vijay won back-to-back (New Orleans and Houston), people were saying, 'OK, can't argue with this guy anymore,''' Stewart Cink said. &quot;For six months, at least, everybody figured Vijay was the top player.&quot;
 Now he has a world ranking to prove it. 
 Singh didn't need a reminder, but it was a compelling image Wednesday to see him with a paper rolled up in his hand, the latest issue of PGA Tour News. On page 12, in the top-left corner under the heading, &quot;Official World Golf Ranking,&quot; his name was next to No. 1. 
 &quot;I thought I was the best in the world for a while,&quot; he said. &quot;That has not changed.&quot;
 When he ducked out of the interview room, Singh might as well have thrown the paper away. 
 Reaching No. 1 in the world was a lifelong mission, and he is especially proud to have achieved it at age 41. As always, however, Singh has work to do. 
 &quot;Nobody out there cares who's No. 1 when you tee it up,&quot; Singh said. 
 This is the third-oldest national championship in golf, and what a way to celebrate its 100th anniversary - having the No. 1 player in the world at Glen Abbey. 
 Singh became only the 12th player to reach No. 1 since the world ranking made its debut in 1986, and he plans to keep it for as long as he can. 
 Along with the Canadian Open, Singh will play in two weeks at the 84 Lumber Classic, then go over to Ireland for a World Golf Championship. He is the defending champion at Disney, ends the year at the Tour Championship and might play in Tampa the week before. 
 With that kind of schedule - and with his game - Singh has a good chance to topple Woods' single-season earning record of $9.1 million. 
 But it's the ranking he sought, and the ranking he wants to keep. 
 &quot;I'm not going to stay home and hope my ranking stays where it is,&quot; Singh said. &quot;I'm not worried about anyone catching me. If they do, they must be playing good golf. 
 &quot;My goal is to win more tournaments,&quot; he said. &quot;If I do that, I'll stay on top.&quot;