SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1150 (16), Tuesday, March 7, 2006
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TITLE: ElBaradei Holds Out For Deal
AUTHOR: Hamas Sticks To Its Guns
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW — Hamas leaders refused to renounce violence or recognize Israel during a weekend visit to Moscow, but they did make potentially significant concessions by extending a cease-fire and hinting that the militant group might soften its stance if and when Israel withdraws to pre-1967 borders.
The head of the delegation, Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal, tried to win points with Russia by calling Chechnya an internal problem — a statement that angered Chechen rebels.
President Vladimir Putin invited Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January, to Moscow for talks in an apparent bid to help Russia regain its status as a powerbroker in the Middle East. The invitation infuriated Israel and surprised the other members of the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators: the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. The Quartet had agreed to withhold international recognition of Hamas until it condemned violence and recognized the Jewish state.
In an apparent attempt to avoid further damaging relations with Israel, Putin decided against meeting with the Hamas delegation, which took a sightseeing tour of the Kremlin on Sunday.
Putin called interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday to discuss the Hamas talks and the situation in the Middle East, the Kremlin said. 
Olmert’s office said in a statement that he spoke with Putin for about 40 minutes. 
“President Putin stressed several times during the conversation that Russia would not take any step directed against Israeli interests, nor harm Israel’s security,” the statement said, adding Putin had also stressed the importance of negotiations with Hamas.
Putin on Saturday spoke with U.S. President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the Hamas talks as well as about Moscow’s negotiations earlier in the week with senior Iranian officials about that country’s nuclear program. 
Hamas officials met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his deputy Alexander Saltanov on Friday. The meeting was supposed to have been a short protocol event but went on for two hours to compensate for the Russian side’s refusal to arrange a meeting with Putin, Kommersant reported.
The Russian side urged Hamas to endorse the “rejection of violence as a means of obtaining political goals,” existing Israeli-Palestinian agreements and “recognition of Israel’s right to exist,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its web site.
Mashaal at first struck an uncompromising stance, telling reporters upon arrival at Sheremetyevo Airport that Hamas would not consider recognition of Israel.
But at a news conference after the talks with Lavrov, he said Israel must first withdraw from territories occupied in 1967 and allow the return of Palestinian refugees, among other conditions, if it wants peace.
That statement — while sticking to Hamas’ tradition of ambiguity — could be significant because Hamas in the past has called for Israel’s elimination altogether.
“If Israel officially announces its readiness to withdraw from all territories occupied in 1967, the return of Palestinian refugees, the closure of settlements, the dismantling of the dividing wall, the release of all prisoners, then our movement will take a big step toward peace,” Mashaal said at the news conference. “There can be no peace if the occupation continues.”
He also ruled out any negotiations with the current Israeli government. “Yasser Arafat sat at negotiations with Israel for 10 years. The result is that Israel killed Yasser Arafat,” he said, referring to the late Palestinian leader.
The Foreign Ministry said Hamas also promised to maintain a year-old cease-fire if Israel refrained from force. A conference of Palestinian factions in Cairo last year nailed down a cease-fire by Hamas and other militants. Since winning parliamentary elections in January, Hamas has repeatedly said it would be willing to continue the informal truce if Israel reciprocates.
Lavrov said Hamas was ready to honor all the agreements the Palestinian administration had undertaken as part of the Middle East peace process if Israel made steps to meet it halfway. He said Russia and Hamas had also agreed to pursue contacts.
Mashaal also called Chechnya “Russia’s internal problem.”
“We do not interfere in other states’ internal problems,” Mashaal said.
Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev, who has been granted political asylum in Britain, said the Hamas statement was a betrayal but not unexpected.
	
(SPT, AP, Reuters)

TITLE: Charity Eases the Pain of Cancer Sufferers
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Two local hospitals and one clinic this month started offering free psychological, psychotherapeutic and psychiatric help to children suffering from cancer and members of their families. The initiative is part of a nationwide humanitarian project entitled “My s Vami” (We Are With You), which plans to set up a nationwide network of psychological support consultancies and a call-center.
St. Petersburg hospitals No. 1 and 31 have begun offering psychological support to juvenile patients and members of their families, as well as the hospital’s own staff. 
As part of the initiative, a medical clinic at 21 8-ya Krasnoarmeiskaya Ulitsa is receiving cancer-stricken children and their relatives free of charge three times a week. 
Confidence, psychological support and mental stability play a very important part in the rehabilitation process of cancer patients, said Igor Shats, chief doctor at the St. Petersburg Medical & Psychological Clinic and one of the founders of the project.
Margarita Belogurova, head of the children’s oncology ward at City Hospital No.31, agreed saying that the results are already being felt in her hospital after just a few weeks. “I have noticed less tension in the mothers and the general atmosphere is easing up,” she said. 
But Belogurova accused Russian society of turning its back on children suffering from cancer. 
“People tend to ignore the existence of children’s cancer because the illness is generally perceived as fatal by ordinary people, which is, of course, not true,” she said.
In fact, over 70 percent of local children diagnosed with cancer survive, she added.
The telephone hot-line, which is expected to start operating in mid-April or early May, will not only provide psychological help but will also assist parents with information about new treatments, the most successful clinics and charitable foundations, which help to raise funds, said Alexandra Slavyanskaya, head of the Moscow-based children’s cancer charity  “Happy World.” 
The organization is the project’s main sponsor. Once the hot-line is launched, the contact number will be published in the local media, she added.
Despite the progress that has been made, some treatments and technologies are still not available in Russia, resulting in a far greater number of fatal cases than in developed countries. Statistics vary dramatically depending on the type of cancer.
According to recent statistics collected by “Happy World,” in Western Europe 90 percent of children with acute leucosis survive, while in Russia, that figure is only 50 percent. Similarly, in Western Europe, up to 85 percent of children survive brain cancer whilst in Russia only about 35 percent win their battle against the illness.
“In Russia, patients die because they can’t afford the treatment or are unable to find sponsors and donors,” Slavyanskaya said. “Hopefully, our project will help build bridges between charitable groups and financial donors.”
Yevgeny Kreslavsky, a doctor of medicine and ex-president of the Russian Association of Emergency Psychological Help Call-Centers, said the hot-line will help “minimize the risks and potential damage caused by the much-advertised services of quack doctors.”
Doctors are also hoping that the new project will help save sufferers’ families.
“A typical scenario for families of a child with cancer is that the mother spends most of her time with the child, while the husband starts to feel neglected and alienated,” Kreslavsky said. “Most Russian families are run by women, whether we like it or not, while men tend to behave as ‘senior children.’ When they get less care and attention, they protest or leave.”
Cancer affects not just a narrow circle of close relatives but a wide spectrum of people. Examples are numerous.
Natalya Zaitseva, a local woman in her thirties, said she stopped nearly all contact with a friend of hers after she found out that the friend’s only daughter had a rare and dangerous cancer.
“I wasn’t being mean, I was being weak,” she explains. “When she first told me about her daughter’s illness, she said that it was progressing rapidly and the chances of survival were slim. I knew she needed me, but I couldn’t bring myself to give her a call because I was afraid of hearing bad news. I am still very much ashamed of myself.”

TITLE: Russia ‘Not Reliable,’ U.S. Analysis Warns
AUTHOR: By George Gedda
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — Russia’s emergence as an increasingly authoritarian state could impair U.S.-Russian ability to cooperate on key international security issues, according to an analysis by a major U.S. foreign policy organization released on Sunday.
Continuation of Russia’s drift away from democratic norms under President Vladimir Putin “will make it harder for the two sides to find common ground and harder to cooperate even when they do,” said the report, which was issued by the Council on Foreign Relations.
It warned that some critical problems cannot be dealt with effectively unless Moscow and Washington cooperate.
“If Russia remains on an authoritarian course, U.S.-Russian relations will almost certainly continue to fall short of their potential,” it said.
The report was co-chaired by Jack Kemp, a former Republican presidential candidate, and John Edwards, the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2004. Kemp formerly served in the House, Edwards in the Senate.
Release of the report was timed to coincide with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Washington, his first as foreign minister. He is due to arrive Monday and will meet the next day with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The report urged that the United States preserve and expand cooperation on dealing with the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program and on coping with the risk of Russian nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands.
On the whole, though, the report said relations were headed in the wrong direction.
“In particular, Russia’s relations with other post-Soviet states have become a source of significantly heightened U.S.-Russian friction,” it said.
It urged that Washington counter Russian pressures that undermine the “stability and independence” of its neighbors by helping to secure the success of those states that “want to make the leap into the European mainstream.”
The report was especially critical of the Kremlin’s energy export policy, accusing it of turning “a prized asset of economic relations into a potential tool of political intimidation.”
Ukraine, it said, “has been the most shocking and coercive application of this view to date, but others may lie ahead.”
The report recommended that the United States go beyond mere expressions of concern about the rollback of Russian democracy. It urged that Washington step up support for organizations committed to free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007 and 2008, respectively.
“Russia’s course will not — must not — be set by foreigners, but the United States and its allies cannot be indifferent to the legitimacy of this process and to the leaders it produces,” the report said.
Among many setbacks to Russian democracy in recent years, the subordination of the judiciary to executive power received particular importance in the study.
“Under President Putin, power has been centralized and pluralism reduced in every single area of politics. As a result, Russia is left only with the trappings of democratic rule — their form, but not their content,” the report said.
Lavrov, speaking to U.S. journalists in Moscow ahead of his trip, called for “clear and honest” relations. He implied U.S. officials had aired the two countries’ problems through the media instead of using quiet diplomatic channels.
“We can’t believe in official, public diplomacy when some concerns are flagged throughout the media, very often without proper justification, very often based on wrong assumptions,” Lavrov said Friday, speaking in fluent English.
He did not specify which media reports he was referring to, but may have been responding to U.S. newspaper reports last week that said the White House was “recalibrating” its policy toward Moscow due to concerns that Russia’s democratic institutions had been weakened by Putin.
Lavrov said that “direct dialogue, a clear and honest raising of concerns and the receiving of clear and honest answers is ... something the state of modern Russian-American relations deserves.”

TITLE: Thousands Angered by Growing Bills
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — A wave of protests against growing utilities bills rolled across the nation over the weekend, with thousands of people hitting the streets to call for restrictions on price hikes and to denounce overall housing reform.
In striking contrast to the national protests over the monetization of state benefits last year, the rallies were organized not only by leftist groups but also by liberals, including State Duma Deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov, who heads the Republican Party.
Protests over housing reform have been simmering since the start of the year, when rates increased across the board. The Kremlin is keeping a sharp eye out for unrest ahead of parliamentary elections in 2007 and the presidential vote in 2008.
“A common bane — the housing reform — has united all, the right and the left, the entire country,” Duma Deputy Anatoly Lokot, who heads the Novosibirsk branch of the Communist Party, told a crowd of 6,000 people in Novosibirsk on Friday, Interfax reported.
Ryzhkov told about 60 supporters on Slavyanskaya Ploshchad in central Moscow on Sunday that housing bills grew an average of 15 percent at the start of the year, but that they shot up by 30 percent in some regions. “If pensions are increasing by only to 7 or 8 percent, how can it be that housing costs are growing much faster?” he said. 
Ryzhkov called for more transparency in the filing of proposed utility fee hikes to the Duma and said electricity company Unified Energy Systems and gas giant Gazprom should be required to fully disclose their financial statements.
“If we knew the precise amount of revenues, perks to management and other expenditures, I am sure there would be reserves within the companies that would allow the prices to be lower,” he said.
Ryzhkov said he and his colleagues had drafted a bill seven months ago that would provide more transparency, but United Russia deputies were blocking the legislation from coming up for discussion.
“I am planning to bring up the results of the protests at a State Duma session soon to make sure that the bill is discussed,” Ryzhkov said, noting that under the current law, bills have to be discussed within two months of submission.
Despite the relatively small number of people who showed up in Moscow on Sunday, Ryzhkov said about 10,000 more joined protests in other cities, including 2,500 in Velikiye Luki, in the Pskov region; 1,500 in Pereslavl Zalessky, in the Yaroslavl region; and 1,500 in his hometown of Barnaul in the Altai region. “Lots of people also hit the streets in Astrakhan and Tomsk,” he said.
The largest protests, however, were led by left-leaning politicians.
Lokot told the crowd in Novosibirsk that utility costs for city households had increased by 27 percent and warned that another law posed an even graver problem. The law, which comes into effect next year, would allow authorities to evict residents who fail to pay utility bills.
The law also assumes that costly structural repairs in residential buildings would be conducted at the expense of the residents. Such repairs are long overdue for scores of buildings across the country because local authorities have failed to step in. At the same time, residents have for decades been obliged to pay a monthly fee for future repairs.
Left-leaning protests against housing reforms and growing prices took place over the weekend in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ufa, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Ulyanovsk and many other cities.
In Voronezh, police detained 12 young activists from Rodina and the National Bolshevik Party, Interfax reported. The report did not say why the activists were detained.
Protesters marched through their cities and blocked main roads in many areas.
Some expanded their protests beyond housing. In Ufa, for example, protesters also called for free higher education, guarantees of employment after graduation and lower prices for sugar, Interfax reported Saturday.
Although many protests were led by Communists, other political parties also joined in, including Yabloko in a rally in St. Petersburg.
Some people said they cared more about protesting than showing their allegiance to a political party.
“I go everywhere: to the Communists, United Russia, Ryzhkov with his party. If the devil calls a protest, I’ll go as long as there is a chance that our lives might get better as a result,” said Nina Gulicheva, an 82-year-old World War II veteran wearing bright red lipstick and a small mountain of war medals on her chest. On Sunday, she was among Ryzhkov’s supporters.
 The government will increase pensions by 6 percent and raise the salaries of ambulance services employees from July 1, Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov said Friday during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Interfax reported.

TITLE: IKEA Drops Contractor For MEGA Construction
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Swedish DIY-store IKEA has terminated a 92 million Euro ($130 million) contract with Lemcon which had been assigned to construct the MEGA family shopping center in St. Petersburg.
Lemcon, a subsidiary of Finnish group LemminkÊinen, was appointed general contractor for the MEGA project in the city’s Parnas district in August.
“Two weeks ago we told Lemcon that we wanted to break the contract because they are not meeting its terms,” Interfax cited director for public relations of IKEA in Russia Irina Vanenkova as saying.
However, the Finnish contractor has refused to take the blame.
“The project had reached about its half-way point and was scheduled for completion by the end of the year,” Juhani Sormaala, Managing Director of LemminkÊinen Corporation, said in a statement published on the company’s site on Friday.
“In Lemcon’s view there are no legal grounds for terminating the contract, and it is likely that the matter will proceed to the court of arbitration,” she said, adding that the incident would not affect the group’s financial performance.
Representatives of Lemcon’s St. Petersburg office could not be reached for comment Monday.
According to Lemcon’s Russian web site, the company has successfully completed around 400 projects since in started work in Russian in the 1970s, including a number of large projects in  St. Petersburg.
In August it completed the Elcotec plant; in July it completed the first part of a Nokian Tyres plant; and in April expanded the production and warehouse facilities of the St. Petersburg firm Kappa. MEGA was the only commission Lemcon had received from IKEA. 
By the end of 2006 IKEA was planning to complete both an IKEA and a MEGA store in the Parnas district, as well as another MEGA store in the Dybenko district, investing about $500 million in the projects.
A local real estate expert remained confident that IKEA would complete the project, but said that for St. Petersburg the situation was quite unique. 
“Breaking the contract with your general contractor in the middle of a project is very rare. As far as I remember there have been no such incidents in St. Petersburg,” said Boris Yushenkov, general director of Colliers International in St. Petersburg
“Choosing the contractor is a difficult and time consuming process. I hope IKEA had already started looking for a new contractor before officially breaking the agreement with Lemcon otherwise the process could add three months to the duration of the project,” he said.
“The process will be more complicated if Lemcon decides to sue IKEA,” Yushenkov added.
Yushenkov suggested that another foreign construction company would be asked to complete the MEGA Parnas project.

TITLE: Budget Airline Germanwings Eyes Soft Landing at Pulkovo
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Budget airline Germanwings is to start regular flights between St. Petersburg and Germany. The first low-cost carrier to establish itself in the city, Germanwings will serve Cologne and Bonn three times a week from April 29, Prime-TASS reported last week.
“The opening of a new route is aimed at improving economic relations between St. Petersburg and Cologne, where many companies of strategic importance to German economic development are based,” Prime-TASS reported citing a statement released by Germanwings.
According to Andreas Engel, director for International Public Relations at Germanwings, the company will use one of their new Airbus planes for the service to St. Petersburg. The company has an Airbus fleet of 22 planes.
“We hope to reach a seat load factor of over 80 percent. The average seat load factor is 82.4 percent on all of our 44 routes,” Engel said Monday by e-mail from Cologne.
Last summer Germanwings started regular flights three times a week from Moscow to Cologne, Bonn and Berlin. Since March 26 it starts flights between Moscow and Stuttgart. As for further expansion, the company is still considering its opportunities.
“At the moment we are happy with Moscow and St. Petersburg. Further plans related to Russia will be discussed at end of this year,” Engel said.
The first foreign budget carrier to start flights to Moscow was Germania Express selling one-way tickets from Moscow to Germany at around 120 euros.
However, thanks to active lobbying from national carriers authorities have set limits on discounts — tickets for Germanwings flights from Moscow cost about $100, though flights from Germany to Moscow are available at 19 euros, all taxes and fees included. The same principle will apply for flights to and from St. Petersburg.
Maria Tarabarinova, sales manager at Sindbad Travel, suggested that the Germanwings service will be popular among passengers used to cheap tickets, like those flying to Dusseldorf with Pulkovo airline.
The new routes take advantage of increased demand due to the holding of the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany in June and July, Tarabarinova said.
Tarabarinova said that in a couple of years, after assessing their operations in St. Petersburg, Germanwings could start flying to Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk or Kazan.
Nevertheless, the $100 limit set by Russian authorities will prevent many budget airlines from establishing themselves in the country, Tarabarinova said.
“Ryanair has been flying to Tampere, Finland, for a long time and is considering opening a second route, possibly in Lappenranta. This proves that the company is interested in the Russian market,” she said.
In Europe low cost carriers serve about 10 million passengers a month. Some of them are subsidiaries of larger companies such as Go (British Airways) and Buzz (KLM).
Germanwings is a subsidiary of Eurowings, in which Lufhansa holds a stake. 
“Through our partner Germanwings we have a successful and active participation in the ‘no frills’ sector,” said Silvio Uhlfelder, regional manager of Lufthansa in St. Petersburg and the Northwest region of Russia.
“No-frills airlines limit their service to the minimum and offer only point-to-point flights. In our opinion they will generate more air traffic, as people who up until now only traveled by bus or car might switch to planes, and with time are likely to develop the need to fly in more comfort,” he said.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: American Facade
ST. PETERSBURG  (SPT) –—Morskoi Fasad managing company, which is constructing a passenger terminal on Vasilievsky Island, has chosen American company Gensler to be an international architectural consultant for the project, managing company said Friday in a statement. 
Gensler has been engaged in large scale project development for 40 years and have offices in 28 countries. 
Russian companies would also participate in the passenger terminal project, Morskoi Fasad press service said. The terminal will start operating by 2008 while the whole project will be completed by 2011.

Bud Brewing 
AMSTERDAM (Bloomberg) — Anheuser-Busch Cos., the world’s largest brewer, and Heineken NV formed a partnership to start selling beer in Russia under the Bud brand. The companies have reached a licensing accord under which Heineken will brew, sell and distribute the Anheuser-Busch beer in Russia, according to a PRNewswire statement released Monday. 
Brewing will start in coming months at Heineken Brewery in St. Petersburg. Bud will be priced in line with competing beers.

TITLE: Boeing Steps Up Pitch For $3 Bln Aeroflot Deal
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Solovyov
TEXT: Reuters 
Aviation giant Boeing said Friday that it hoped to win a $3 billion contract to deliver 22 new long-haul planes to flag carrier Aeroflot, even if its rival Airbus has offered a discount.
The tender pits Boeing’s latest 787 Dreamliner jets against Airbus A350 aircraft, and media have speculated that Airbus offered Aeroflot a $100 million discount to win the contract.
Senior Airbus officials have called their bid “unique,” but declined to say if they really offered a discount.
Craig Jones, a Boeing vice president in charge of sales in Russia and the CIS, said the U.S. plane maker relied primarily on the “high value” of its 787 —  made of  lighter and more resistant composite materials — to win an edge over Airbus.
“First, when we talk about a $100 million [discount] on 20-plus airplanes, it’s not a huge percentage change in pricing,” he said during a presentation.
“The second factor is, maybe [Airbus] realized the first offer was not good enough, or they just basically confirmed the value of the 787,” he said with a smile.
Jones said Boeing’s calculations showed the Dreamliner’s economical consumption of fuel and other cost-effective factors meant Aeroflot would eventually be saving about $3.5 million per year on each 787.
“This $100 million discount will go away in about 15 months of operation. ... You have to add value to the price, too,” he said. 
“We are partners with Russia, and we have a superior product, so with that combination I think we have very good chances.”
Last month, President Vladimir Putin ordered the merger of all of Russia’s airplane makers into one state-run body, called United Aviation Corporation, to consolidate the moribund sector.
U.S.-based Boeing said it would stay committed to long-term cooperation with Russia’s aviation industry, even if it lost the contract with Aeroflot to Airbus.
Some 1,200 Russian engineers have been involved in the 787 project, and large metal parts of the plane are produced in Russia and delivered to the United States, said Sergei Kravchenko, Boeing head in Russia and the CIS.
“We hope that UAC will become our reliable and long-term partner, and that this partnership will be mutually advantageous,” Kravchenko said.
Boeing aircraft make up 81 percent of the foreign jet fleet of the Commonwealth of Independent States, including 76 percent of Russia’s 97 foreign-made jets. 
Boeing is in talks to sell as many as 17 of its new 787 airliners to Russian carriers, not including Aeroflot, the largest, Bloomberg reported.
Boeing hopes to sell “up to” 15 of the planned model to one Russian airline and two 787s to another, Jones said, declining to name them.
Production of the 787 is scheduled to start this year, and the first flight is expected next year.

TITLE: Central Bank Moves to Curb Money Supply
AUTHOR: By Douglas Busvine
TEXT: Reuters 
The Central Bank announced Friday a half-percentage point rise in its short-term deposit interest rates aimed at curbing inflation, surprising analysts who doubted the move would work. 
The increase would support money market rates and help to curb the money supply, which is growing at an annual rate of nearly 40 percent, the Central Bank said in a statement.
The bank added that it would consider further interest rate moves, and its policy steps would help to keep inflation below an 8.5 percent ceiling set in its monetary policy guidelines for this year.
Effective from Monday, it will raise its tomorrow-next, spot-next and call deposit rates to 1 percent and its one-week deposit rate to 1.5 percent.
“The increase in rates is being carried out with the goal of reducing the tempo of inflation,” it said, adding that the move had been “made possible by changing domestic and external economic conditions, including the interest rate policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.” 
Both the ECB, which raised rates a quarter percentage point to 2.5 percent this week, and the Fed are in a tightening cycle. Analysts consider exchange rate management to be the primary policy tool of the Central Bank, which buys up Russia’s dollar oil export earnings on the currency market and prints rubles to keep the exchange rate competitive. 
The resulting liquidity often drives money market rates toward zero, rendering official interest rates an ineffective tool at a time when inflation is still in double digits.

TITLE: Global Living - Coaching the Art of Self-Empowerment
AUTHOR: By Jennifer Davis
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Sometimes when you know what you want in life, you still need a little push in the right direction. A life coach might be just the person to gently nudge you toward your goals.  
Born out of executive coaching, life coaching is a relatively new method of self-empowerment where a client works together with a coach to make important life changes, such as switching careers, attracting more money and opportunities, and strengthening interpersonal relationships on the job and at home.
“When people ask me what life coaching is, I don’t explain it,” said Margarita Gokun Silver, a U.S.-trained life coach currently based in St. Petersburg. 
“I prefer to give an example, like: ‘How would you rate your life right now on a scale of 1 to 10? What would it be like at 10? What’s one small thing that you could do next week to help you get to 10?’ This is the essence of life coaching. Basically, it’s finding your dream, owning it, and going for it.”  
Gokun Silver’s own personal journey helped prepare her for her career as a life coach. A native of Moscow, she emigrated to the United States in 1989 with her family in search of opportunity. After graduating from Yale University with a Masters in Public Health, she traveled to Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan as a contractor for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) projects.
 “My family really wanted me to become a doctor, but while studying I realized that I wanted to do something international,” she said.  “I thought maybe I could combine their desires and mine not by becoming a doctor but through international public health. It was interesting, but I didn’t find it fulfilling.”
It wasn’t until Gokun Silver found herself in Buenos Aires, as a stay-at-home mom and spouse of an American diplomat, that she discovered her true calling. “I had always worked before, and here I was—a woman of leisure. It was a hard adjustment,” she said.  
“One day I was having coffee with a friend who was a life coach. She explained it to me and I thought it sounded like something that I’d really enjoy. You have clients that you work with over the phone that can be anywhere in the world. It sounded like a global business that would be easy to maintain, fun to do, and something that would be mine.”  
Upon returning to the States with her husband and daughter, Gokun Silver enrolled in life coach training in Washington DC with the Coach’s Training Institute and soon afterwards established her own company, The Global Coach Center (www.GlobalCoachCenter.com).   
“The difference between other coaching companies and my company is that I focus on people with a global background,” she said.  “People who work and live in different countries are different from people who choose to live in their home country. With coaching you want to develop a niche. My niche is working with expatriates, global nomads and the internationally minded.”
In fact, The Global Coach Center puts out a monthly newsletter called Global Living, which provides tips and information for expats. 
Since moving to St. Petersburg in September 2005, Gokun Silver has led several workshops including a five-session seminar in English called “Creating Out Loud: Discover Your Voice,” and a session in Russian for alumni of the Stockholm School of Economics.
“The workshop I did at the Stockholm School of Economics was similar to one I did at Columbia University for graduating students,” she said. “This workshop helps people create careers they really want after they graduate through self-coaching tools they learn at the workshop.” 
Gokun Silver works with clients on a one-on-one basis as well as in a group setting. Most individual coaching occurs over the telephone. “Nowadays, the coaching goes on over the phone, because it’s easier for the client than traveling to the coach in person,” she said. “Because we are trained to hear things over the phone that we would otherwise pick up through body language, it works.”
Thanks to the Internet and video conferencing, coaches are also able to conduct workshops or meet with clients in the virtual world via digital link. Gokun Silver led such a workshop on assertiveness for the U.S. Embassy in Botswana last year. Joyce Maneto, a registered nurse with the U.S. Embassy in Gabarone, Botswana found Gokun Silver’s workshop to be very effective. “Following Margarita’s presentation on the topic, all gray areas turned crystal clear,” said Maneto. “Margarita gave a rock-solid start to my career. Her strength is embedded in her dedication to see human beings reach their full potential.” 
Gokun Silver is currently planning several workshops in English, including “Make Difficult Decisions Easy”, “Assertiveness or The Art of Making Yourself Heard”, “What’s Next (for expat spouses)”, and “Money Talks.” “Money Talks” is a three-hour session that promises to help participants understand their relationship with money. “This workshop cannot guarantee to make you rich,” she said. “But it can guarantee that your relationship with money will change in such a way that you will attract more money into your life. Wealth is a state of mind.” Gokun Silver also conducts corporate workshops on leadership, team building, and cross-cultural management through coaching.
Although life coaching often touches on a client’s emotional issues, Gokun Silver insists that it differs from psychological treatment or counseling. “There’s one fundamental difference between psychotherapy, psychology, psychiatry and coaching,” she said. “And that is, how the clients see themselves when they walk into the office. When they go to a psychiatrist or a counselor they see themselves as either damaged in some way or in some kind of crisis they want to eliminate. The focus is, thus, on ‘getting back to normal,” 
“On the contrary, when clients approach a coach they see themselves already as creative, resourceful, and whole. Imagine what’s possible when you start in the kind of environment that views the client as magnificent from the very beginning.”

TITLE: Regulating the Work of NGOs
AUTHOR: By Yana Leonova
TEXT: In January a new federal law was signed into effect by President Vladimir Putin, introducing significant changes to the way nongovernmental organizations are regulated. When the legislation was introduced in the State Duma, the explanatory note attached to the bill stated that a mechanism of control needed to be established for NGOs. On the face of it, who could argue? Virtually every country regulates the work of NGOs. But Russian NGOs were puzzled. Why weren’t the provisions of previous legislation considered sufficient? 
The previous law “On Noncommercial Organizations” had a very important provision: The amount and nature of NGOs’ income, their assets and property, their expenditures, their employees and salaries, as well as volunteer work could “not be a commercial secret.” Simply put, every aspect of the functioning of NGOs was required by law to be public and accessible to literally everyone. At any time any organization — state, private, or public — or any individual could demand that an NGO present all its documentation. This meant that even a concerned or curious citizen could enter an NGO and ask to see the books, the charter or any other documents. And by law, the NGO had to comply.
Under the previous legislation, financial oversight was more stringent than with commercial organizations. In addition to standard accounting requirements, NGOs had to provide an annual report to the tax inspectorate on their activities to demonstrate that their funds were spent in accordance with their charter and grants or donations received. If not, the funds were to be considered “profits” and taxed at a rate of 24 percent.
Donors and grant-making organizations also followed up on the funds they provided to NGOs. In most cases the contract signed between the donor and the NGO required that the NGO provide a full accounting of expenditures, including copies of receipts. Most contracts included a standard article stating that if the funds were not spent as contractually stipulated the donor would have the right to inform the tax inspectorate. And if funds were not spent as stipulated in the contract, the tax inspectorate would levy a 24 percent tax on them. 
In addition to those systems of control that applied to all NGOs, there were additional controls put on certain kinds of NGOs.
An NGO with the status of a foundation was required to publish a report annually on all of its assets and property — not just real estate or office equipment, but literally everything the NGO had bought and used over the course of the year, down to boxes of paper clips and pencils. Foundations were required by law to be audited once a year, and the independent auditor’s report had to be submitted to the tax inspectorate. 
A charitable organization was required to submit an annual report on its activities that included information on employees at management level, the nature of its charitable activities and the results of its activities. And all charitable organizations had to provide full and complete access to their reports. 
NGOs with the status of public associations were required to publish an annual report on how their assets were used and send it to the government department that registered it. The staff of the registration department had the right to attend all events and activities conducted by the association, investigate whether the activities were in keeping with the chartered goals, and demand financial and other documents from the NGO’s managers. And restating provisions of other laws, this law stipulated that the prosecutor’s office had oversight over public associations and that the tax inspectorate was responsible for ensuring that all funds were received and spent in accordance with the association’s charter and the contractual stipulations of the funders. 
Why weren’t these “mechanisms of control” considered sufficient? Russian NGOs can’t answer that question. Nor can we predict how the new law is going to be implemented. But we hope that our work will be allowed to continue. 

Yana Leonova is deputy director of the NGO School, a Moscow-based foundation for the development of noncommercial organizations.

TITLE: Cutting the Wrong Tax?
AUTHOR: By Christian Gianella and William Tompson
TEXT: The government’s new medium-term economic program includes a proposal to cut the value-added tax (VAT) from 18 to 13 percent by 2009. Given a combination of sustained high oil prices, large budget surpluses and slowing growth, it is not difficult to see why the government is considering further tax cuts. The business community can always be counted on to support lower taxes and many in the government appear to see tax cuts as a way to boost economic growth. 
However, the authorities should proceed cautiously. The steady growth of budgetary spending commitments and uncertainty about oil prices both argue against moving too quickly to adopt permanent tax cuts. There may, nevertheless, be a case for some further easing of the tax burden, but both conjunctural and structural considerations suggest that VAT is not the right tax to cut. Certainly, a cut as radical as that now being proposed raises important questions.
The conjunctural argument is fairly straightforward. A VAT cut would stimulate consumption, which is already booming. At the same time, there is growing evidence that capacity constraints are already starting to affect industrial growth. This raises doubts about the ability of domestic producers to respond to further domestic demand growth. Stimulating consumption in present circumstances would probably just fuel the growth of imports and add to inflationary pressures. 
It would make more sense to cut taxes so as to stimulate investment, rather than consumption. Despite the relatively strong growth of fixed investment in recent years, Russia’s investment-to-GDP ratio remains rather low compared to most transition economies – and very low compared to fast-growing economies elsewhere. The government might therefore want to consider lowering the rate of profit tax, for example, or re-establishing some sort of investment tax break within the framework of the profit tax. The latter would, of course, have to be done carefully, so as to minimise opportunities for evasion. 
The structural argument is more complex. It is well known that the enormous role played by export-oriented natural resource sectors in Russia’s economy makes it vulnerable to ‘Dutch disease.’ What is often overlooked is that an economy facing such a risk is likely to benefit from greater reliance on indirect taxes like VAT, rather than direct taxes on capital and labour. The former apply to all goods and services sold in the country, where as the latter are levied only on domestic producers. 
Thus, while it is often argued that a lower average tax burden could help compensate somewhat for ruble appreciation, this is not really true of a cut in VAT. Cutting VAT means making imported goods cheaper, as well as local ones. 
By contrast, a cut in direct taxation (in the profit tax or payroll taxes, for example) reduces domestic producers’ costs relative to those of their foreign competitors. Indeed, a shift towards greater reliance on indirect taxation could actually help combat Dutch disease. An increase in VAT financed by a cut in direct taxes could actually be revenue-neutral and yet still improve manufacturing competitiveness. By making domestically produced goods cheaper relative to imports, it would offset to some extent the effects of ruble appreciation. VAT is in any case a relatively ‘good’ tax for Russia, since it is the most important source of government revenue that is not highly sensitive to fluctuations in oil and gas prices. Moreover, VAT does not distort markets or incentives in the way that taxes on labour and capital can do. Under a VAT, it makes no difference what factors of production are employed to produce a good, how many times it is traded, how the production chain is organised or where the good is produced. 
Russia’s chronically low investment rates constitute a further reason for thinking that any changes to the tax system should aim at stimulating capital formation rather than consumption. Russia needs very much to modernise its ageing capital stock. The country therefore has a strong interest in a tax system that will attract capital, not drive it away. And, as Russia’s recent history shows all too well, capital is the most mobile factor of production and thus the one that can most easily ‘flee’ taxation. The evidence from some Central European transition countries suggests that they were able to promote investment by reducing the overall tax burden while relying more on indirect taxes and less on direct ones.
If the Russian authorities nevertheless opt for a VAT cut in the near future, they will need to consider carefully what steps can be taken to prevent such a cut from simply fuelling inflation and import growth and undermining competitiveness. It might be prudent to opt for a relatively modest VAT cut and to combine this with measures to reduce the tax burden on investment. 
To put it bluntly, Russia currently has too much consumption growth and too little investment growth. If taxes are to be cut, therefore, priority should be given to stimulating the latter, not the former. 
Christian Gianella and William Tompson are economist and senior economist for Russia and the NIS in the Economics Department of the OECD.

TITLE: Blowing Oil Prices Sky High
AUTHOR: By Gal Luft
TEXT: We call our brothers in the battlefields to direct some of their great efforts towards the oil wells and pipelines. The killing of 10 American soldiers is nothing compared to the impact of the rise in oil prices on America and the disruption that it causes in the international economy. 

— A jihadist web site

The two cars that exploded a little over a week ago outside the inner perimeter of Abqaiq, the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, could have caused more loss of life and economic devastation than the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Had the terrorists succeeded in penetrating the guarded facility and detonating their bombs inside, they might have turned the complex into an inferno, releasing toxic chemicals that could have killed and sickened thousands of locals and expatriates who work and live nearby.
The damage to the world economy also would have been severe because the oil market today resembles a car without shock absorbers: The tiniest bump on the road could send consumers and prices bouncing off the ceiling.
That wasn’t always the case. Once there was enough wiggle room in the oil market to deal with occasional supply disruptions. As recently as 2002, some oil producers, chiefly Saudi Arabia, had the spare production capacity to provide liquidity to oil markets. But due to the sudden growth in demand in developing countries in Asia and continuing profligacy in industrialized nations such as the United States, oil output is largely spoken for. In 2002, there were about 7 million barrels a day of spare production capacity, or about 10 percent of world consumption. Today, spare capacity amounts to about 1 million barrels a day, less than 2 percent of world consumption.
That’s a lot less than what would have been lost if the car bombers had succeeded at Abqaiq. The attack would have removed 4 million to 6 million barrels a day of supply from an already tight oil market. That loss would have exceeded all of the oil taken off the market by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries during the 1973 Arab oil embargo. Depending on the extent of damage to the site, it could have taken months or even years to fix the facility, where two-thirds of Saudi crude oil is processed. Without extra supplies, the only mechanism left to restore the market to equilibrium would be a rapid and uncontrolled increase in prices.
This vulnerability isn’t lost on radical Islamic terrorists. They have identified the world energy system as the Achilles’ heel of the West and have made attacking it a central part of their plan.
Osama bin Laden’s strategy is based on the conviction that the way to bring down a superpower is to weaken its economy. We “bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw (from Afghanistan) in defeat,” bin Laden boasted in his October 2004 videotape. “We are continuing in the same policy to make America bleed profusely to the point of bankruptcy.” His logic, feasibility aside, is simple: Bring the United States to a point where it can no longer afford to preserve both its military and economic dominance. Then, as the United States loses standing in the Middle East, the jihadists can gain ground and topple regimes they view as corrupt and illegitimate, while defeating other infidels who inhabit the land of Islam.
Striking oil, which jihadists call “the provision line and the feeding to the artery of the life of the crusader’s nation” is relatively easy and effective. Terrorists no longer need to come to the United States to wreak havoc there. They can hit the U.S. energy supply near the source, where they enjoy strong support on the ground.
Politically motivated attacks on oil pipelines in Iraq have kept more than 1 million barrels per day off the global oil market. Had this oil been in the market, the price per barrel would have been $10 to $15 lower, according to most energy analysts. For the United States, an importer of more than 11 million barrels a day, the terrorist premium alone costs $40 billion to $60 billion a year. Higher oil prices mean a transfer of wealth of historical proportions from oil-consuming countries — primarily the United States — to the Muslim world, where 70 percent of global oil reserves are concentrated. The windfall also benefits jihadists as petrodollars trickle their way through charities and government handouts to madrassas and mosques.
How vulnerable is the Saudi oil industry to kamikazes bent on sacrificing their lives for the sake of disrupting the world economy? Despite Saudi assurances that their facilities have the best protection in the world, the terrorists were still able to penetrate the outer perimeter of Abqaiq before they were killed.
To compensate for the erosion in OPEC’s spare capacity, major oil-consuming countries need to create new cushions against possible oil shocks. At its current capacity of 700 million barrels, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve can mitigate supply disruption to the U.S. market, but it isn’t big enough to tide over the global economy if there were a severe disruption of oil supplies. If, however, the strategic reserve were expanded and Europe and Asia encouraged to establish similarly large oil banks, the oil-consuming nations could withstand a catastrophic failure of the Saudi system. It would make the oil weapon less effective, and less alluring to terrorists.
Reducing petroleum consumption, especially in the transportation sector, where two-thirds of U.S. oil is consumed, could also help restore some wiggle room to oil markets. By shifting to domestically produced transportation fuels like ethanol and methanol, or by driving more efficient hybrid vehicles, Americans can reduce their vulnerability to supply disruptions. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could tap into the grid and use made-in-America electricity; unlike in the 1970s, today only 2 percent of U.S. electricity is generated from oil. In many cases of national security, the best defense against foreign foes begins at home. Technology may not be able to wean the United States from oil altogether, but it can reduce U.S. vulnerability to an energy Pearl Harbor.

Gal Luft is the executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and co-chair of the Set America Free Coalition, an alliance of national security, environmental, labor and religious groups promoting ways to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. He contributed this comment to The Washington Post.

TITLE: Don’t Worry, Just Stock Up on Lots of Salt
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: On May 17, 1896, Muscovites began to gather on Khodynskoye Pole, where a lavish program of entertainment was planned to celebrate the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. By 5 a.m. on May 18, several hundred thousand people were milling around the pavilions, and police were unable to maintain order. In the ensuing crush, nearly 1,400 died and 1,300 more were seriously injured. The emperor saw no reason to call off the festivities, however. That evening, as scheduled, he attended a ball.
On Feb. 23, 2006, the Basmanny market collapsed. All day long, the main television stations fed us programming devoted to Defenders of the Fatherland Day. Meanwhile, people were buried alive under the ruins of the market, calling desperately for help. Rescue workers slowly pulled them out. A fire broke out and was extinguished. Those trapped in the ruins who escaped the blaze froze to death. At least 66 people died.
No one thought to call off the celebration of Defenders of the Fatherland Day, however. Why not? As Mayor Yury Luzhkov noted, there were two Muscovites among the dead. The rest of the people in the market at 5:40 a.m., when it collapsed, were foreign traders, mostly Azeris. Why cancel the gala televised concerts on account of the death of a few dozen people whom the defenders of the fatherland hassle every day outside railway stations?
On the eve of their professional holiday, the defenders of the fatherland gave themselves a little present when the State Duma passed a counterterrorism bill in a crucial second reading. If President Vladimir Putin is to be believed, the war on terror is nearly over. All that remains is to snuff out a few lowlifes who are hiding out in caves somewhere. But then the Duma comes along and passes a bill that doesn’t even mention wasting terrorists in caves. It talks about sending in the army instead.
I don’t see how the army can be deployed against terrorists who are holed up in caves. To deal with terrorists in caves, schools, hospitals, airplanes and the like, you need special forces units that are trained to rescue hostages. If you deploy regular army units in situations like this, the hostages will be going home in body bags. The army is designed to be used against another army, or against the civilian population.
As the government continued its successful war on terror, people began hoarding salt in early February. 
There was no sound economic reason for the run on salt, which began after shortages were first reported in Tula. But the economy is one thing; panic is another thing altogether. 
The last time we saw this kind of mass hysteria was in the Shchyolkovsky district of Chechnya, where dozens of people, mostly children, were laid low by a mystery illness in December. Their symptoms, including violent seizures, closely resemble the convulsions and outbursts of gibberish observed in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, and among Russian klikushi, or hysterical women, around the same time.
In November 2004, a minor incident at the Balakovskaya nuclear power plant sparked fears of a radiation leak that led to a run on iodine in Saratov and nearby regions. Authorities vainly attempted to restore calm, assuring the public that no leak had occurred.
According to public opinion polls, more than 50 percent of Russians support Putin. I have no doubt that if you asked the people who hoarded iodine in Saratov in 2004, and who more recently hoarded salt in cities across Russia, they would express their sincere support for the president. 
Our convictions seem to have little to do with our survival instinct, however. We happily watch gala concerts on Defenders of the Fatherland Day without giving a passing thought to the new law on combatting terrorism. But when it comes to the fallout from these events, instinct kicks in and we head to the store to stock up on salt.

Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

TITLE: ‘Crash’ Beats ‘Brokeback’ in Oscar Surprise
AUTHOR: By David Germain
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — “Crash” pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Academy Awards history, winning best picture Sunday over the front-runner “Brokeback Mountain.” 
 “Crash,” featuring a huge cast in crisscrossing story lines over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles, rode a late surge of praise that lifted it past the cowboy romance “Brokeback Mountain,” a film that had won most other key Hollywood honors.
“We are humbled by the other nominees in this category. You have made this year one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American cinema,” said “Crash” producer Cathy Schulman.
She was commenting on a year that saw the box office sinking, provocative independent films dominating big studio fare and a tiny-budgeted ensemble drama from outside Hollywood taking first prize.
Lead-acting Oscars went to Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in “Capote” and Reese Witherspoon as country singer June Carter in “Walk the Line,” while corporate thrillers earned supporting-performer Oscars for George Clooney in “Syriana” and Rachel Weisz in “The Constant Gardener.”
“Brokeback Mountain” filmmaker Ang Lee won the best director prize for the tale of two sheepherding pals who carry on a love affair they conceal from their families for years.
Lee, whose martial-arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won the foreign-language Oscar five years ago, became the first Asian filmmaker to win Hollywood’s main filmmaking honor.
“I’m so proud of the movie,” Lee said backstage, where he was asked if he was disappointed that his film about gay cowboys lost best picture and what might have kept it from winning. “Why they didn’t go for it, I don’t know. You’re asking a question that I don’t know the answer. ... Congratulations to the ‘Crash’ filmmakers.”
“Brokeback Mountain” won two others — adapted screenplay for Larry McMurtry (“Lonesome Dove”) and Diana Ossana and musical score for Gustavo Santaolalla.
“Crash” also won for the original screenplay by the film’s director, Paul Haggis, and Bobby Moresco.
In a year of challenging films at the Oscars, “Crash” was one of the fiercest, a portrait of simmering racial and cultural tension among blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians and Iranians.
The other best-picture nominees emerged either out of Hollywood studios or their art-house affiliates. But “Crash” was a true Oscar rarity, shot outside the system on a $6.5 million budget, then acquired by independent distributor Lionsgate at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, where the film premiered.
“Crash” became a solid box-office hit, grossing $55 million domestically.
Haggis noted that his film defied convention with its tiny budget and release date early in the year, which usually is considered a barrier for Oscar season. “This is the year that Hollywood rewarded rule-breakers,” Haggis said backstage. Witherspoon won a close race over Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending performance as a transsexual in “Transamerica.” 
“Oh, my goodness I never thought I’d be here in my whole life growing up in Tennessee,” said Witherspoon, who like co-star Joaquin Phoenix as Carter’s soul mate, country legend Johnny Cash, handled her own singing in “Walk the Line.”  
Hoffman’s performance nimbly straddles the magnetic qualities of raconteur Capote and the effete, off-putting egoism of the author. 
Clooney’s win capped a remarkable year, during which he made Oscar history by becoming the first person nominated for acting in one movie and directing another. Along with performing in “Syriana,” Clooney directed the Edward R. Murrow tale “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which earned him directing and writing nominations and was among the best-picture contenders. 
In “Syriana,” Clooney effaced his glamour-boy looks behind the bearded, heavyset facade of a CIA patriot who grows jaded over U.S. oil policy in the Middle East. In “The Constant Gardener,” adapted from John le Carre’s novel, Weisz played a humanitarian-aid worker whose fearless efforts against questionable pharmaceutical practices make her a target for government and corporate interests in Africa. 
The stop-motion family tale “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” won the Oscar for best animated feature film.  The South African drama “Tsotsi,” based on Athol Fugard’s novel about a young hoodlum reclaiming his own humanity, won for foreign-language film, beating the controversial Palestinian terrorism saga “Paradise Now.”

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Tillman Killing Probe
WASHINGTON — A new inquiry into the fatal shooting of Army Corporal Pat Tillman during combat in Afghanistan will examine possible criminal negligence in the friendly-fire incident, said Pentagon officials. General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday while there is no evidence as yet of a crime involving the former football star’s death, investigators will want to find out if any of Tillman’s fellow soldiers were “firing a weapon when they should not have been.”

Stolen Cash Found
LONDON (Reuters) — Police hunting robbers who stole 53 million pounds ($93 million) from a security depot said on Monday they had discovered more money within the last 24 hours. 
“We have had another further significant cash seizure,” said Kent Chief Constable Michael Fuller without elaborating. Fuller, giving an update on the probe which involves over 300 officers, told reporters $19 million has been recovered so far in London.

Bush Trail Cleansed
NEW DELHI — Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush. But it wasn’t the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.  After the dogs’ visit, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river, it was reported Sunday.

TITLE: Bryant, Odom Combine to Down Detroit
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers played up to — and beyond — some formidable opposition. Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, Lamar Odom had 24 points and 10 assists, and the Lakers took a 105-94 victory Saturday night over the Detroit Pistons, who have the NBA’s best record.
“It was a big win for us and a win that we don’t usually get, against a great team like Detroit,” Bryant said. “It’s probably the biggest home win of the year for us.
“We got great play from Lamar, who really is a big key for us when he comes out and plays this well and brings a lot of bounce to our ballclub.”
The Lakers ended a four-game losing streak to the Pistons, as they stormed back from a 10-point deficit with an 18-0 scoring spree that began late in the third quarter. 
They scored the final 12 points of the period for an 80-78 lead, then added six points in a row to start the fourth for an eight-point pad. The Pistons went more than 6 minutes without scoring.
Odom sparked the Lakers’ outbreak with nine points, but said offense wasn’t the key.
“Defense, making every shot hard for them,” he said of that stretch. “When you play team defense, you give yourself a chance to beat anybody. Hopefully this is a confidence-booster for us.” Detroit coach Flip Saunders said the Pistons lost some composure during the Lakers’ burst.
“They got a run, we got undisciplined. We were looking for the home-run shot instead of doing the best thing that we do, and that’s execute offensively,” Saunders said. “We were playing 45 feet from the basket with no dribbles.”
n 
Bruce Bowen and Chris Paul are exactly the type of players the United States needs to regain its position on top of the basketball world.
Allen Iverson is not.
That’s what Jerry Colangelo decided when he picked the players who make up the U.S. national team that will compete in this summer’s world championship and the 2008 Olympics.
Colangelo, the managing director of the U.S. national team, announced the 23 members Sunday, and his selections proved that he has moved the Americans away from the “Dream Team” concept.
“We wanted a team not of individual stars, but athleticism, shooters, role players and distributors,” Colangelo said on a conference call. “Chemistry is something we all talk about, we seek.”
There are still superstars: Kobe Bryant and LeBron James headline the team. But Colangelo also left room for players like Bowen, whose willingness to focus on defense is one of the keys to the success of the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.
Carmelo Anthony, Lamar Odom, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and Dwyane Wade - all members of the U.S. bronze medal team along with James in the 2004 Olympics - also were selected to the roster. They’ll be joined by Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Chauncey Billups, Chris Bosh, and Elton Brand.
Others on the roster include Dwight Howard, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Brad Miller, Paul Pierce, Michael Redd and Luke Ridnour.
College players J.J. Redick (Duke) and Adam Morrison (Gonzaga) also were chosen.
“They’re both great scorers,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I think some collegiate players going into this type of situation would be a little bit intimidated. I don’t think either one of these guys will.

TITLE: Zenit Faces French Test In Last 16
AUTHOR: By Martin Burlund
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: FC Zenit St. Petersburg faces its biggest European challenge yet as the underdog against Olympique Marseille of France in the final 16 in the UEFA Cup on Thursday. 
The first-leg match, to be played in Marseilles, is followed by a second leg to be played in St. Petersburg on March 16 at Petrovsky Stadium. 
During the group stage the St. Petersburg team qualified second in their group behind English side Bolton, which Marseille beat to secure its place in the last 16. 
Marseille has a distinguished record against Russian sides, never losing in five encounters with four victories and a draw. 
Zenit has only played against a French team once. Last season in the same competition’s group stage LOSC Lille Metropole outfoxed Zenit 2-1 in France. 
Marseille’s form in domestic football is also strong. Marseille held Paris Saint-Germain to a 0-0 draw Sunday in the French league despite fielding a reserve team against its biggest rival. 
The Marseille youngsters defended aggressively to prevent PSG’s veterans from creating chances. 
“It’s almost like a victory even if we just collect one point,” Marseille assistant coach Albert Emon said. Marseille is in fifth place in the French league with 44 points from 29 matches. 
French sports minister Jean-Francois Lamour had criticized Marseille’s decision to field the reserve team as a protest against restricted ticket allowances from PSG who had feared trouble from Marseille fans.
“All this must stop,” Lamour told France-Info radio Saturday. “The clubs should play the game, which means presenting their first team.”
Meanwhile Zenit on Saturday beat FC Terek Grozny in the first of two matches in the last 16 in the Russian Cup. 
Martin Skrtel and Alexander Kerzhakov secured a good lead against the Chechen team with a 2-0 win at Petrovsky Stadium. The second leg is to be held in Pyatogorsk on March 12.