SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1349 (13), Tuesday, February 19, 2008
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TITLE: Pristina Sends Moscow Back To United Nations
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — The government reacted immediately Sunday to Kosovo’s declaration of independence, calling for a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the move, while former Soviet breakaway regions, long fostered by aid from Moscow, rejoiced at improved prospects of international recognition.
The Foreign Ministry promptly issued a stern warning after the parliament of the former Serb province unanimously embraced a declaration of independence Sunday afternoon.
“We expect the United Nations’ and NATO’s mission in Kosovo to fulfill their mandate swiftly ... and annul the decision of the Pristina organs,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its web site.
It said the declaration could lead to an escalation of tensions and renewed ethnic conflict in the Balkans.
The statement reiterated Moscow’s position that a declaration of Kosovar independence represented multiple violations of international law, including breaches of Serbia’s sovereignty and the UN Charter.
“Russia totally supports the Serbian leadership’s reaction ... and its just claims to territorial integrity,” the statement said.
Serbian President Boris Tadic said Sunday that his country would never accept Kosovo’s “unilateral and illegal” declaration.
The Kremlin also condemned the decision.
“This is an illegitimate act that deeply contradicts UN Security Council resolutions,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in televised comments Sunday evening.
The Foreign Ministry’s statement made no reference to a possible recognition of former Soviet breakaway republics. President Vladimir Putin last week said that Russia would not mimic a “foolish and unlawful decision” by the West.
Britain, France and Germany could move quickly to back Kosovo’s new status officially after a meeting of EU foreign Ministers on Monday. But the 27-member Union is deeply divided over the issue. The stiffest opposition comes from Spain and Cyprus, two countries torn by separatist conflicts themselves, and from Greece and Romania, two of Serbia’s traditional allies.
It was unclear how soon Washington would recognize Kosovo. President George W. Bush merely said during a visit to Tanzania Sunday that the U.S. would work with its allies to prevent violent clashes, The Associated Press reported.
Leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, autonomous territories that have enjoyed de facto independence within Georgia for more than 15 years, said they would press their case for international recognition.
“Kosovo is a precedent and by no means a unique case,” Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh said Sunday, Interfax reported. South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said that both his region and Abkhazia make a stronger case for independence than Kosovo.
“What Kosovo did today happened in Abkhazia and South Ossetia already 17 years ago,” he was quoted as saying.
Both leaders said that they would formally ask both the Commonwealth of Independent States and the United Nations to recognize them as independent states, the agency reported.
Their words were echoed by Abkhaz representatives abroad.
“We welcome this as an example of a people’s right to self-determination,” Khibla Amichba, a representative of the Abkhaz government to Germany said by telephone from Andernach, near Bonn.
George Hewitt, a professor of Caucasian Languages at London’s School of Oriental Studies, to whom the republic has given the title of Honorary Consul in Britain, agreed.
“Whatever happens in Kosovo is a precedent for Abkhazia,” he said in a telephone interview from Doncaster, England.
While it was unlikely that any country would recognize Abkhazia, Hewitt argued that support from countries other than Russia might be the only way out of the isolation that has kept the small territory along the Black Sea coast isolated ever since it defeated Georgia’s armed forces in a vicious war back in 1993.
“If the West does not want to see Russian power established, it should step in and recognize Abkhazia,” he said.
The present status quo meant that Moscow has been able to wield massive influence, because without recognition other countries were unwilling to establish relations, he argued.
Western policymakers have argued that the case of Kosovo must not be compared with Abkhazia or South Ossetia, because ethnic Albanians represented 90 percent of the province’s two million people and had been oppressed by the Serbian government in Belgrade.
Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended the late Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
In Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgian troops tried to bring the territories back under central jurisdiction after both unilaterally declared independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
In a rare show of agreement with Moscow, a senior Georgian politician voiced opposition to an independent Kosovo on Sunday.
“The Georgian leadership will never recognize Kosovo’s independence,” said Konstantin Gabashvili, the chairman of the country’s parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee.

TITLE: City Hosts World’s Premiere Sports Awards
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Swiss tennis star Roger Federer and Belgian tennis player Justine Henin were named the world’s best sportspeople of the year at the ninth Laureus World Sports Awards Ceremony 2008 — the Oscars of the sporting world — in St. Petersburg on Monday.
“I’m thankful the jury didn’t think three times was enough for me,” Federer, who made history by becoming the first ever winner of four Laureus awards, said at the ceremony.
Henin said she was happy to receive the title.
“It was the best season in my career, the year I will never forget,” said Henin, who won two Grand Slam tournaments in 2007 at the French and U.S. Opens and finished the year by lifting the WTA Tour Championship in Madrid.
The South African Rugby team won the Laureus World Team of the Year title. 
Briton Lewis Hamilton, who made the most successful debut of the year in Formula One, received the Breakthrough of the Year award.
“I think I deserve the title no more than all the other nominees,” Hamilton said with modesty.
Paula Radcliffe, the British long distance runner, received the World Comeback of the Year title.
Holland’s Esther Vergeer, a disabled tennis player, received the Laureus Disabled Sportsperson of the Year award. Shaun White, American snowboarder and skateboarder, received the title of World Action Sportsperson of the Year.
Meanwhile, three other people connected to sports received special prizes from Laureus.
Ukraine’s pole vaulting legend Sergei Bubka, who was the first man to jump over six meters and a competitor who broke world records 35 times, won the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It’s really a great surprise for me. Thanks a lot for this award. It is probably too early for me, because my life is sport. I consider this award today as a stimulus to work harder and to promote sport,” Bubka said.
Canadian Dick Pound, who retired after eight years as Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, received the Laureus Spirit of Sport Award. The Laureus Sport for Good Award went to Americans Brendan and Sean Tuohey for their work in founding the PeacePlayers International project.
The glamorous ceremony, broadcast live to over 180 countries, played host to dozens of the world’s best sportsmen and women nominated for awards and to legendary retired athletes who doubled as jury at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theater.
The ceremony began with the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Theater Orchestra playing the Russian national anthem.
President Vladimir Putin attended the ceremony.
“I’d like to express my gratitude to the founders of Laureus for the promotion of sports, and uniting people around sports,” Putin said.
“Success in politics, in life and in one’s profession consists of a whole set of factors, but it is clear that only real heroes manage to attain the shining summits of victory. The example of those people attracts millions of people around the whole world to sport,” he said. 
Governor Valentina Matviyenko said the city was “proud to host such a prestigious sports awards ceremony.” Matviyenko said the city deserved the honor as 114 Olympic champions grew up here, and 81 Olympic champions are now living in St. Petersburg.
The nominees for the Best Sportsman of the Year included U.S. athlete Tyson Gay, Brazilian soccer player Kaka, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, Finnish car racer Kimi Raikkonen and U.S. golf player Tiger Woods.
Female candidates for Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, as well as Henin, included Russian athlete Yelena Isinbayeva, Swedish athlete Carolina Kluft, Australian swimmer Libby Lenton, Brazilian soccer player Marta, and Mexican golf player Lorena Ochoa.
The nominees for the Laureus World Team of the Year included Italian soccer club AC Milan, the Australian national cricket team, the Italian car racing team Ferrari, the German national women’s soccer team, the Iraqi national soccer team and the South African national Rugby team.
Among the famous guests were Russian supermodel Natalya Vodyanova, Hollywood celebrities Cuba Gooding Jr., Kim Cattrall, Dennis Hopper and Kyle MacLachlan.
The philosophy behind Laureus, which works to promote charity sports projects, was first announced  by its patron Nelson Mandela at the inaugural Laureus Award in 2000.

“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can awaken hope where there was previously only despair,” Mandela said at the inaugural ceremony.

TITLE: Karabakh Reflects on Kosovo’s Independence
AUTHOR: By Karine Ohanyan
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh — “What is Kosovo, and what do you eat it with?” quipped Yuan Go, a Chinese cook living in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Yuan, who speaks the Karabakh dialect of the Armenian language fluently and goes by the Armenian name of Gurgen, moved to this de facto independent republic more than a year ago. 
He and two other Chinese cooks work at a hotel restaurant.
Yuan, 25, cracked the joke when asked what Kosovo’s declaration of independence Sunday meant for Nagorno-Karabakh.
He and many other residents seem to have little idea what to expect, but they are hoping that life stays calm in the enclave, which Azerbaijan insists is part of its territory even though its Armenian majority declared independence more than 16 years ago.
Unlike Kosovo, the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic enjoys no strong support from the European Union or the United States in its bid for independence. But Karabakh Armenians, who, with the support of Armenia, won a bloody war against the Azeris in the 1990s, are seeing parallels with Kosovo and the long struggle of its Albanian majority. For Karabakh’s leaders, international recognition of Kosovo’s independence would set an important precedent.
“We are confident that the recognition of Kosovo by the international community or by individual countries will strengthen our position in negotiations to resolve the conflict with Azerbaijan,” Georgy Petrosyan, the foreign minister of the unrecognized republic, said in an interview.
Azerbaijan has offered Nagorno-Karabakh broad autonomy within the country during ongoing talks mediated by the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe. But Nagorno-Karabakh’s population has insisted on independence. The enclave has a population of 137,737, 99.7 percent of whom are Armenian, according to the most recent census, taken in 2005.
“It is important that Kosovo might become an example of a country’s independence being recognized against the will” of the country from which it is seceding, Petrosyan said.
He said he believed that the solution for Kosovo in its conflict with Serbia should also work for Karabakh in its conflict with Azerbaijan.
“A denial of this thesis would amount to a denial of the nature of the precedent and its role in contemporary international relations,” he said.
Ashot Gulyan, speaker of Karabakh’s parliament, agreed. 
“The situation around Kosovo cannot be perceived as a one-off case,” he added.
The leaders do not seem discouraged by the fact that Russia, Armenia’s closest ally, has avoided mentioning Karabakh when listing other self-styled republics in the former Soviet Union that might be affected by Kosovo’s independence bid. During his annual news conference last week, President Vladimir Putin once again accused the West of adopting double standards in insisting that Kosovo’s case was unique. He listed Georgia’s republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and Moldova’s Transdnestr as territories that might seek to follow Kosovo’s lead. Putin, who has been trying to forge closer ties with oil-rich Azerbaijan, did not name Karabakh.
Petrosyan said the omission might be an indication that Russia, which is participating in the OSCE negotiations, “is avoiding statements that would put its impartiality as a mediator in doubt.” Russia, however, has also been involved in similar talks between Georgia and South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The Karabakh war erupted after the parliaments of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh held a joint session on Dec. 1, 1989, to declare the unification of their territories. Azeri deputies from the Nagorno-Karabakh parliament did not participate in the vote.
The first clashes along the Armenian-Azeri border broke out the next year, and full-scale fighting started in 1991.
On Dec. 10, 1991, Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian majority overwhelmingly backed a referendum in support of independence for their homeland.
The enclave’s newly elected parliament set up the independent Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh on Jan. 6, 1992.
The war ended in 1994, with Armenian forces driving Azeris out of the enclave and seizing control of several neighboring Azeri districts, forcing their population to flee. Armenian forces still control these districts, while Azeris control the northern tip of Nagorno-Karabakh, from which the Armenian population has fled. A conflict-resolution proposal suggested by OSCE mediators calls for Karabakh to return the districts to Azerbaijan in exchange for the right to hold a new referendum on the enclave’s status.
Many Karabakh residents do not appear hopeful that international recognition of Kosovo’s independence might mean a change for their homeland.
“Such issues are resolved the way that world powers want them resolved,” said Juleyetta Arustamyan, a 44-year-old singer who lives in the enclave’s main city, Stepanakert.

TITLE: McCain Hits Out at Putin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has accused President Vladimir Putin of preparing to lead a puppet government.
The Arizona senator, long critical of Putin, had harsh words for the president as he prepares to give up the Kremlin to a hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, and then take on the post of prime minister.
“I think that Mr. Putin is trying to restore the old Russian empire. Obviously he is perpetuating himself in power in Russia virtually indefinitely by this setup of having basically a protege, someone who is doing his bidding as president while he serves as the prime minister,” McCain said Friday.
“We knew the puppet show was going on, we just didn’t know who the puppet was,” he said.

TITLE: Medvedev: Foreign NGOS Are Spying
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin’s likely successor suggested in an interview published Monday that the British Council and foreign NGOs spy on Russia, echoing accusations that have strained ties between Moscow and the West — in particular Britain.
The remarks from Dmitry Medvedev were striking because he has tended to take a less confrontational tone with the West than Putin, leading to speculation that his expected election on March 2 might ease tension that has built up in recent years.
In an interview with the weekly Itogi, Medvedev suggested supporting Russian actions that led the British Council — an international cultural body funded by the British government — to suspend operations at its offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. Moscow said the offices were operating illegally.
“If someone allows you in their home, act decently,” Medvedev said in the interview published on Itogi’s Web site.
“After all, it’s known that state-financed structures like the British Council ... conduct a mass of other activities that are not so widely advertised,” Medvedev was quoted as saying. “Among other things, they are involved in gathering information and conducting intelligence activity.”
Medvedev said he was unaware of any Russian NGOs allowed to “operate freely” in Britain.
“Try registering one of our NGOs in London — a headache is guaranteed,” he was quoted as saying.
The confrontation over the council further poisoned relations between Britain and Russia, already strained by both countries’ refusal to hand over suspects for prosecution. Raising memories of Soviet-style scare tactics, Russian staff of the council were interviewed at night by Russian police and intelligence agents.
Medvedev indicated that Russia would continue to confront the West on issues large and small. “If you meekly put up with any pressure, others stop taking you into account,” he said.
Medvedev also rejected Western accusations that Russia uses its energy riches as a tool in political blackmail, saying similar charges could just as easily be pressed against the United States.
“If one so desired, one could call the U.S. a financial aggressor and economic terrorist for forcing its currency and its business standards on the world,” he said.
Support from Putin and the Kremlin virtually ensures Medvedev victory in the March election.
In the interview, he said Russia cannot survive without a strong presidency and sought to counter speculation that he might serve as a figurehead while Putin, who Medvedev says he will make his prime minister, would continue to rule.
“There are not three, four or five centers [of power],” Medvedev said.

TITLE: Finland Says Airspace Violated
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HELSINKI, Finland — A Russian helicopter briefly violated Finland’s airspace Saturday along its southeastern border, the Finnish Border Guard said.
An Mi-8 helicopter, likely belonging to border guards, flew in Finnish airspace for a few minutes Saturday afternoon near the frontier town of Lappeenranta, said Lieutenant Colonel Pasi Tolvanen.
“At this stage, a good guess would be that it was a normal border patrol flight that strayed for some reason,” Tolvanen said.
Finnish frontier officials informed Russian border guards about the incident, he said.
Tolvanen said the low-flying helicopter flew about 10 kilometers over the frontier zone and was seen by several local villagers.
The alleged violation came a few months after Finland and Russia agreed on steps to limit air violations following a spate of such incidents by Russian military aircraft — mostly transports — along the southern coast where the international airspace is narrow.
In September, Moscow apologized after one of its planes violated Finnish airspace and said it was unintentional. 
Similar incursions were observed in December 2007, April 2006 and August 2005.

TITLE: Lukin Deplores Treatment of Prisoners
AUTHOR: By David Nowak
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — As President Vladimir Putin sang the praises of a resurgent Russia late last week, the country’s human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, criticized the treatment of prisoners in his annual report.
The 16-section report, which summarizes human rights violations reported during 2007, outlined a total of 28,617 complaints — a 12 percent drop in comparison with 2006.
Independent rights activists gave the findings a cool reception, saying the report was incomplete.
Violations covered a number of areas, including missed pension payments, discrimination against the disabled and labor issues, but the report concentrated on the rights of prisoners, whose conditions, it said, approached torture.
“The conditions in many penitentiaries are, in essence, close to torture,” the report said, citing the “unfounded use of physical measures.”
Lukin’s office received more than 3,000 complaints from prisoners, at least a third of whom accused prison officials of denying them their basic rights.
“It should be stressed that this alarming picture is explained not only by the poor work law enforcement system employees, but also by the extremely slow change in the principles upon which the system is built,” the report said.
Prison officials criticized the report as biased.
“Let the conclusions rest on the consciences of those who prepared this report,” said the head of the Federal Prisons Service, Yury Kalinin, Interfax reported.
“We don’t deny that isolated rights violations occur, but each is dealt with and adequate measures are taken,” Kalinin said.
Independent activists praised Lukin for addressing prison abuses. But they said he had paid scant attention to other serious issues, including an apparent rise in hate crimes, crackdowns on opposition rallies, and reports of kidnappings in Chechnya and Ingushetia.
“The situation with opposition rallies, freedom of association and personal security in the North Caucasus needed addressing,” said Alexander Petrov, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow, who described the report as “basically good, but with glaring omissions.”
Media freedoms were also conspicuously absent from the report, Petrov said.
“The report’s main achievement,” he said, “is that it will not allow civil servants to sleep easy.”
Alexander Brod, director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, said that the “cautiously written” report was “useful, given Lukin’s position as a government employee.”
“He can’t undermine the state. His reports have to avoid political undertones,” Brod said.

TITLE: EU Deputies Give Support to City’s NGOs
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: German members of the European parliament  Rebecca Harms of the Greater Green Alliance party and Gisela Kallenbach, a member of the Group of Greens and the European Free Alliance, who spent last week in meetings with St.Petersburg’s human rights groups and city officials, expressed concern over what they see as a rapidly deteriorating state of civil society in Russia and are preparing a report to be distributed in the European parliament in the nearest future.
The parliamentarians’ visit was prompted by a wave of complaints coming from human rights groups in Northwestern Russia that found themselves under heavy pressure from the authorities and encountered difficulties with re-registration under the new law on non-governmental organizations that restricts foreign funding of such groups.
Yury Vdovin, a prominent Russian human rights advocate and deputy head of the St. Petersburg office of human rights group Citizens’ Watch said the situation regarding non-governmental organizations in Russia is close to a catastrophe.
A new law on non-governmental organizations, which came into force in April 2006, has been widely seen as a crackdown on human rights groups. Vdovin called the law a weapon with a telescopic sight, to be used selectively against the most critical groups. 
“Through a new registration process, the law places major bureaucratic obstacles in the way of the work and the very existence of human rights groups,” the campaigner said. “The Russian government has been steadily destroying independent pressure groups and replacing them with GONGOs — governmental non-governmental organizations — that protect people’s rights only on paper.” 
Gisela Kallenbach shares Vdovin’s worries. She said she feels
“Human rights are universal; they are the same in China, Africa or Russia, but the Russian authorities do not seem to understand that,” Kallenbach said. “The government officials in Russia are trying to filter people’s rights and impose restrictions on them. They take it upon themselves to decide which rights are applicable to the Russian people and which the Russians could — in the government’s view — do without.”
In Kallenbach’s opinion, the way out is a more active civil society. She compared modern Russia with East Germany in the late 1980s.
“The street protests of August 1989 are still very vivid in my memory; the streets were flooded with protesters,” the parliamentarian recalls. “Of course, media coverage of the demonstrations was very different from what I saw with my own eyes, but the scale of the protest was so massive that it was impossible for the government to ignore. This is how you make a difference.”
As Vdovin points out, in the majority of European countries, no special legislation exists to regulate the work of NGOs, other than facilitating the tax regime of these organizations. 
Rebecca Harms emphasized the differences in the Russian legislation and European law, with the definition of what is a non-governmental organization and the understanding of its functions differing dramatically.
“In Europe, non-governmental organizations play a very active role in controlling the government, while in Russia things have been turned upside down,” Harms said. “The government is restricting the activities of non-governmental organizations instead of ensuring its own transparency and accountability.”
The situation in St. Petersburg is further complicated by a confrontation between the city ombudsman and the Human Rights Council.
Igor Mikhailov, a United Russia politician, was elected St. Petersburg’s first ombudsman in July 2007 by the city’s Legislative Assembly, which is heavily dominated by United Russia. Most of the city’s human rights groups refused to cooperate with the official, declaring Mikhailov “a cynical ruling-party stooge”. The activists have formed a Human Rights Council that consists of the city’s most trusted human rights advocates.
Mikhailov said he has received around 3,500 appeals since he started his job. However, as Ella Polyakova, head of the St. Petersburg human rights group Soldiers’ Mothers, points out, when the cases concern political liberties or involve the interests of a government clan, victims of abuses flock to human rights advocates, rather than the ombudsman.
“The people who come to us question the ombudsman’s integrity and his ability to act in the interests of people,” Polyakova said. “He is a prominent member of a party that has been busy amending the Russian law to fit its corporate interests.”  
The parliamentarians, however, warned the activists against boycotting the ombudsman.
“A boycott is not constructive; a dialogue is always better, even if it is hard work,” Kallenbach said. “Besides, if you attend the meetings, later you will be able to compare the ombudsman’s words with his practical steps.” 
Both the deputies and human rights activists agreed that a European convention should be created — primarily for the sake of Russia — that would oblige states not to interfere in the activities of NGOs and prevent their work from being restricted.

TITLE: Different Traditions Meet in Army’s New Look
AUTHOR: By Alexander Osipovich
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Lambskin berets, “Top Gun”-style bomber jackets and honor guard uniforms harking back to the Napoleonic Wars could soon appear in the wardrobes of the Russian armed forces.
The Defense Ministry last month unveiled the results of a half-year project to develop new military uniforms, the most sweeping redesign since a 1990s makeover that prompted widespread criticism from soldiers and officers.
President Vladimir Putin was the guest of honor at a fashion show hosted by Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Isakov and one of Russia’s best-known designers, Valentin Yudashkin, who won a tender to design the new uniforms.
While television crews seemed most interested in the frills — especially the lambskin collar and beret worn by a slender female model — the biggest news for soldiers may be in the footwear department.
The Defense Ministry is phasing out portyanki, the footcloths that Russian soldiers have wrapped their feet with since the days of Peter the Great, and replacing them with socks. Officials are also replacing sapogi, or traditional Russian army boots, with lace-up boots similar to those worn in the U.S. army.
“The time has definitely come to reform military uniforms,” Eduard Vorobyov, a retired army general, said in a telephone interview, singling out the decision to eliminate sapogi and portyanki.
Yudashkin’s redesign undoes one of the least popular changes introduced in 1994 under then-Defense Minister Pavel Grachyov: The peaked caps that were raised to towering heights to accommodate a two-headed-eagle insignia.
“Those utterly shameful caps need to be taken away or minimized,” Vorobyov said. “It is simply impossible to walk around in them when there is a strong wind, since they get blown away.”
Innovations include white dress uniforms for Navy officers — a revival of a pre-1994 style — and blue ones for Air Force officers, who currently wear a drab olive. Air Force pilots get U.S.-style bomber jackets made of leather with fur collars.
Perhaps the most elaborate design is a new uniform for the presidential honor guard that features dark blue and red fabric, highlighted by gold buttons and epaulets reminiscent of the tsarist army.
Fashion historian Alexandre Vassiliev praised Yudashkin’s mix of influences. “There is simultaneously a passion for the imperial era and an interest in returning to the Soviet past,” he said by telephone.
The redesign project was launched last year by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, a former furniture store manager, several months after his appointment in February 2007. In an unusual case of the military reaching out to the world of haute couture, Serdyukov invited some of Russia’s top fashion designers to compete in the tender, including Yudashkin and Igor Chapurin.
The resulting designs will be scrutinized by each branch of the military over the next six to nine months, and it will take three years to produce new uniforms for everyone in the armed forces, Isakov said.
Putin made no public remarks at last week’s presentation, but he apparently gave his approval. “The president had no criticisms,” Yudashkin told reporters.
Not everyone was so neutral. Alexander Prokhanov, editor of the nationalist newspaper Zavtra, blasted Yudashkin and called the new uniforms effeminate. “When the Russian infantry attacks, they will look like a swarm of butterflies,” Prokhanov said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio.
Visitors to the popular blogging site LiveJournal.com wondered why the government was designing new uniforms when the military faced an array of other problems.

“It would have been better if they had raised pensions or increased benefits for children,” wrote one user. “Instead they sew uniforms and build stadiums.”

TITLE: Becar Planning Huge Business Center
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Becar Realty Group has acquired unfinished production facilities in the Nevsky district which the company plans to reconstruct over the next seven years before opening the largest B-class business center in the city.
The building, located on 3rd Rybatsky Proezd, was projected as an aluminum plant. After reconstruction, the total area of the business center will be 98,000 square meters, including 78,000 square meters of office area.
“This project marks a new trend on the office real estate market - instead of simply leasing out office areas, we are trying to create a business center with a comfortable environment for business development and operations,” said Alexei Lazutin, head of the investment department at Becar Realty Group.
“Such a concept is only possible with large business centers. If the total office area is between 2,000 and 4,000 square meters, a business center cannot provide a printing office or conference facilities,” Lazutin said.
Becar’s business center will contain several restaurants and cafes, a conference hall, printing office, mailroom, secure parking lot and several cash machines.
“Business centers on this scale can only be found in Moscow — in St. Petersburg there are no centers of a comparable size. This new business center has all the chances of becoming the largest one in St. Petersburg,” Lazutin said.
The first part of the center will start operating in 2009, and the whole complex will be completed by 2014. Becar expects logistics, production and distribution, finance, telecom and IT companies to be the main tenants,along with retail operators.
Becar plans to charge relatively low rent rates to compensate for the center’s remote location. In 2015 Becar will sell the operating business center. 
“Considering its size, it will be more like a business park than a regular business center. Investment into a project like this could vary between $120 million and $130 million,” said Sergei Igonin, managing partner of IB Group.
Igonin agreed that large logistics companies are likely to become the main tenants. “Becar’s managers are focusing on the correct market segment. But will they find enough logistics companies in St. Petersburg that will want to base their back-offices in this area?” he said.
Igonin indicated that Becar would have to tackle the transportation problem in order to attract tenants. “The business center will be located near a metro station but there is practically no way to access it by car. The ring-road will not improve the situation, because the business center is quite a distance from it,” Igonin said.
Becar will also have to compete with other business centers in the same area.
“The Utkina Zavod logistics complex which is being constructed by International Logistic Partnership will have considerable office space. In the same district, a large office center is planned to occupy 400 hectares. Theorema’s logistics complex in Obukhovo will have office space, and with the development of Kudrovo residential district a new office center should emerge there,” Igonin said.
He estimated that 7,000-8,000 people would go to this district daily. “Obviously, they will mostly rely on the metro station.”
Igonin estimated that by 2015 the business center could be sold for approximately $200 million.
Experts from Becar indicated that over the last few years Moscow has seen a trend of office projects moving outside the city center to peripheral districts. They forecast that the same trend will start happening in St. Petersburg.
Alexander Sharapov, president of Becar Realty Group, expects that the new business center “will improve an area that is in economic decline and redefine the image and status of Rybatskoye.”
“Moving large office projects out of the city center would be a rational solution for the transport problem,” he said.
This is not Becar’s first project to reconstruct industrial facilities. In December last year the company opened the Bazen B+ class business center on Ulitsa Shaumyana after reconstructing the building.

TITLE: IT Park To Open In City By 2015
AUTHOR: By Ali Nassor
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Local engineers have vowed to take St. Petersburg into the advanced world of information technology by unveiling an ambitious 8-year construction plan for an IT park in the city center last week. 
Upon completion in 2015, the 6,000-square meter IT Park will help Russia to secure a fair share of the fast-growing global IT market, according to the project’s general director, Yevgeny Yelin. 
Currently, Russia’s share in the world’s IT market, which is valued at $3 trillion and is dominated by Japan, China, India and the U.S., accounts for only $2.5 billion.
Meanwhile, the program’s masterminds are looking for investors worldwide to inject extra funds into Russia’s largest and most sophisticated IT project, which is valued at $90 million and is funded by the federal government and St Petersburg administration. It is one of seven long-term programs for cities including Moscow, Nizhny-Novgorod, Kazan, Tyumen and Kuzbas formulated in April 2006 by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. But unlike St. Petersburg’s tripartite project, the others are either yet to reach a significant size or still remain on paper. 
Thanks to the active participation of the St. Petersburg administration and St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications in the local program, preliminary work, including the design and construction of 3,000 square meters of business and training centers, has been underway since last year according to Yelin.
The St. Petersburg administration alone has allocated 152 million rubles ($6.2 million) this year for the development of the engineering facilities, infrastructure, staff housing, conference halls and training centers. It is part of a 1,409 million-ruble ($57.3 million) budget plan for 2008-2010 to be issued in parallel with 742.15 million rubles ($30.1 million) from the federal government during the same period. Swedish Technopolis, the only foreign company involved in the project so far, will also invest $150 million, according to a recent agreement reached with the Russian side, said Yelin. 
“Efforts to court larger international consortiums are underway, but it’s too early to go public with the details,” said Yelin, referring to the project’s transparency policies.
The cluster-model complex to be located at the area bordering Ulitsa Novoselov, Prospekt Bolshevikov, Ulitsa Dybenko and Krylenko in the Nevsky District near St. Petersburg’s historic center will also house 14,000 workers who will be offered temporary apartments, and a training campus for about 12,500 practicing and trainee programmers from across Russia and overseas, according to Alexander Gogol, rector of St Petersburg State University of Telecommunications. There are only about 5,000 programmers on the market in a city of 5 million, “prompting the need for urgency in developing the IT market,” according to Gogol.
But Yelin reassured defenders of St. Petersburg’s historical and architectural heritage that they need not be worried about the new complex, as its skyline will not exceed 102 meters. The city is governed by a series of restrictive laws on architecture and building heights.

TITLE: Citigroup Chosen To Develop Pulkovo
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: St. Petersburg’s government chose Citigroup Inc. and two other foreign companies to advise on partners for a planned 30 billion-ruble ($1.2 billion) expansion of the city-owned Pulkovo airport, Russia’s biggest outside Moscow.
Citibank Global Markets Ltd., the Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP law firm and the U.K.-based ASM, a company that specializes in advising on the development of airports, will work with city officials on finding a non-state investor by next February to finance the bulk of the project.
St. Petersburg will call a tender next month and select a short list of finalists by June, city government officials said at a presentation in St. Petersburg on Friday. Municipal authorities are pursuing a “public-private partnership” and may offer a concession to run Pulkovo’s operations or sell part of the airport.
Pulkovo could handle 20 percent more people this year than in 2007, Andrei Murov, director general of Pulkovo Airport, the city-owned company that manages the airport’s operations, said at the presentation. It served 6.1 million passengers in 2007, 20 percent more than the previous year.
St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, is trying to position Pulkovo as a regional hub and compete with destinations in the Baltics and Scandinavia. The planned upgrade at the airport includes adding runways and building a new passenger terminal.

TITLE: Sitronics Moves Toward Ownership Of Subsidiary To Consolidate Assets
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian high-tech firm Sitronics said on Monday it would pay $116.9 million to raise its stake in subsidiary Kvazar-Micro to 87 percent, and would later take full ownership of the IT firm.
Sitronics, which currently owns a 51 percent stake in Kvazar-Micro, said in a statement it would buy the shares from Melrose Holding Company and finance the acquisition with a combination of cash and its own stock.
“As a result of the transaction, Melrose Holding Company will acquire a 3.07 percent stake in Sitronics. Kvazar-Micro will acquire the remaining 13 percent of its shares from Melrose Holding Company within two years,” it said.
Kvazar-Micro is one of the leading suppliers of solutions, products and services in the field of technology in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries.
“The acquisition of the remaining stakes in Kvazar-Micro will take us to the next level in consolidation of our assets and creation of a unified company with higher efficiency levels,” Sitronics Chief Executive Sergei Aslanyan said.
Sitronics’ London-listed stock closed at $6.63 on Friday. The company is part of Russian services conglomerate Sistema.

TITLE: New Shipyard For City
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: ST. PETERSBURG — Vnesheconombank will finance the construction of an 18 billion-ruble ($733 million) St. Petersburg shipbuilding complex owned by billionaire Sergei Pugachyov, Kommersant reported, citing the bank.
Vladimir Dmitriev, head of the state-owned bank, signed an agreement last week with Alexander Gnusarev, chairman of Pugachyov’s United Industrial Corp. (OPK), according to Kommersant. The project will increase the capacity of the Severnaya Verf shipyard, the Russian daily said.
Moscow-based OPK is also considering a syndicated loan that would allow it to seek additional financing because the project’s cost is expected to grow.

TITLE: Europeans Wary of Russia
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: LONDON — Most voters in five major European countries are wary of Russia as a supplier of their energy needs, according to a poll published Monday.
The Financial Times/Harris survey also found that, despite their unease, those same west Europeans were opposed to paying more, if at all, to switch to renewable sources.
Overall, a majority of respondents in Britain, France, Italy and Germany were opposed to Russian companies investing in their countries.
Only Spain bucked the trend: 55 percent of Spaniards welcomed investment from Russia.
Despite the unease towards Russia as an energy provider, only in Britain did a majority of respondents, 60 percent, regard Russia as a foe rather than a friend.
When it comes to using renewable energy as a rival to Russian energy, the majority of respondents with bill-paying responsibility in their houses said they would not pay more for energy from renewable sources.
A majority of those that said they would pay more, meanwhile, said they would only accept price increases of five percent.
In all the five European countries, along with the United States, a clear majority favored increased investment in wind farms. Germany at 79 percent was the lowest, while the US was highest with 92 percent of respondents favoring such proposals.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>Betting Zone Approved</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov approved the creation of a gambling zone in Siberia’s Altai region, the third of four to be established by next year, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Friday.
The “Siberian Crown” will need at least 30 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) to create infrastructure, the newspaper said, citing Mikhail Schetinin, the region’s deputy governor.
Casinos Austria International Holding GmbH may be interested in setting up operations there, he said.

<b>Gazprom Mulls France</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Gazprom is ready to consider Gaz de France SA as a second partner in the South Stream pipeline, RIA Novosti reported, citing Gazprom Foreign Relations Director Stanislav Tsygankov.
No official offer has been made, the state-run news service cited Tsygankov as saying Friday in Verona, Italy. Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov was unavailable to comment when Bloomberg News called.
Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas exporter, is planning to build the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea to Bulgaria with Italy’s Eni SpA. Gaz de France has failed to join the European Union’s rival Nabucco pipeline, which follows a similar route as South Stream, from Bulgaria to western Europe, RIA said.

<b>Ukraine Sets Deadline</b>
KIEV (Bloomberg) — Ukraine will repay its debt to Russia for natural gas supplies by April 14, said First Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov.
Ukraine will be able to settle its bill to Gazprom, Russian state fuel monopoly, within two months, Turchynov said Friday on Ukrainian TV channel 5.
Gazprom, which supplies Ukraine with 71 percent of its gas, said on Feb. 7 that NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, Ukraine’s state-owned gas and oil company, owed it $1.5 billion for gas deliveries since November. Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on Feb. 12 that Ukraine will start to repay its debt, averting a halt in supply.

<b>Rosneft Eyes Sakhalin</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Rosneft may share control of Russia’s offshore Sakhalin-3 oil and natural-gas development with Gazprom, Interfax reported.
Both companies have expressed interest in three unclaimed blocks at Sakhalin-3, the news service said. Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Sergei Bogdanchikov is ready to discuss cooperating on the project with Gazprom, according to Interfax.
Developing offshore projects will take 12 to 14 years from the time of the license sale and cost from $15 billion to $20 billion, Interfax said, citing Bogdanchikov.

<b>MTS Focusing On CIS</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s largest mobile-phone company, will focus on Russia and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States to keep its leadership, making overseas expansion a “secondary” goal.
“CIS is and will be our main market,” Chief Executive Officer Leonid Melamed said Friday in an interview at a conference in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. “We want to be present in all CIS countries.” Opportunities for expansion elsewhere, including Asia and Africa, are “secondary,” Melamed said.
The company, controlled by billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s AFK Sistema, counted more than 83 million subscribers in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus as of Jan. 31, Mobile TeleSystems said Monday. 

<b>Foreign Debt Decreases</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian government foreign debt declined by 15 percent last year as the world’s biggest energy exporter benefited from crude oil and natural gas sales.
Foreign debt fell to $44.4 billion from $52 billion in the previous year, the Moscow-based Finance Ministry said on its web site. The debt currently stands at about 3 percent of gross domestic product, it said.
Russia, which has entered its 10th consecutive year of economic growth, should build a “powerful financial system that should eventually become one of the pillars of global financial stability,” Dmitry Medvedev, the front-runner to succeed President Vladimir Putin, said Friday in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia.

<b>Pensions Seek Returns</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian pension funds may be allowed to invest in top Russian and international corporate securities as they seek to achieve higher rates of returns.
Moscow-based Vnesheconombank, the state-owned lender that manages about 90 percent of Russia’s pensions, is lobbying for a new law that would allow it to diversify its investment options, Chairman Vladimir Dmitriev said in a Bloomberg Television interview Saturday in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
Vnesheconombank, which has about 360 billion rubles ($14.6 billion) in pension savings, is only allowed to invest them in Russian treasuries, according to Dmitriev.
The bank’s investment opportunities should be expanded to include top Russian corporations and private companies abroad with ratings of at least BBB, or one step above investment grade, Dmitriev said.

<b>Metals Could Combine</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s competition authority “isn’t against” a tie-up between United Co. Rusal and GMK Norilsk Nickel, the country’s biggest metals producers, one of its officials said.
The government will insist on the creation of a basic metals exchange in Russia if a merger or takeover happens, Alexei Ulyanov, head of industrial supervision at the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, said at a conference in Moscow on Monday. Rusal, Russia’s largest aluminum producer, is completing the purchase of a 25 percent stake in Norilsk.

<b>Firms Seek Lenta Shares</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and TPG Inc. are among funds seeking to acquire a shareholding in Lenta, the Russian hypermarket chain whose owners are battling for control, Kommersant reported.
Goldman’s private equity fund, Capital Group Cos.’s Capital International fund and the Russia Partners fund of Siguler Guff & Co LLC have bid for a stake in Lenta, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified person close to the retailer’s shareholders. TPG is also in talks with the chain about buying its shares, Kommersant said, citing two people familiar with the matter.
St. Petersburg-based Lenta may sell a stake of as much as 20 percent within three months to fund new superstores, CEO Vladimir Senkin said Feb. 13.

TITLE: Medvedev To Tackle Corruption, Red Tape
AUTHOR: By Miriam Elder
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Dmitry Medvedev, likely the country’s next president, laid out a liberal-leaning economic program on Friday, urging economic liberty and a crackdown on corruption in his first major speech on the subject just two weeks ahead of the presidential vote.
Medvedev, reading faithfully from notes in a style more rigid than that of President Vladimir Putin, largely echoed some of the major themes laid out by his mentor.
Corruption, a lack of respect for the law and an unwieldy bureaucracy were among the issues Medvedev said he would tackle in his first term, though without offering specific prescriptions.
Yet as concern has grown over Putin’s clampdown on dissent and his centralization of power, Medvedev outlined a more open approach that should ring well with Western investors and observers. 
“Freedom is better than lack of freedom — this principle should be at the core of our politics,” Medvedev said in a speech at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, broadcast on state television. “I mean freedom in all its manifestations — personal freedom, economic freedom and, finally, freedom of expression,” he said.
Medvedev, first deputy prime minister and chairman of Gazprom, said he would seek to cut down on red tape and the number of bureaucrats, reiterating Putin’s call in a major speech to the State Council on Feb. 8. More than one-third of the country’s total work force — 25 million people — is employed by the state, Putin said.
Signaling a departure from Putin’s policy, Medvedev said he was against the practice of placing state officials on the boards of major corporations.
“I think there is no reason for the majority of state officials to sit on the boards of those firms,” Medvedev said. Nearly all the country’s top officials — from Kremlin deputy chief of staff Igor Sechin, who chairs oil major Rosneft, to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who chairs diamond monopoly Alrosa — also head the boards of state companies.
Yet Medvedev said the state would continue to play a role. “They should be replaced by truly independent directors, which the state would hire to implement its plans,” he said.
It is unclear how much power Medvedev will wield after acceding to the presidency, a result almost assured by Putin’s backing for the quiet lawyer from St. Petersburg. Putin indicated in his farewell news conference as president on Thursday that he intended to take up the post of prime minister.
The huge task of battling corruption could fall to the prime minister, analysts said. Russia is ranked 143rd out of 179 countries on Transparency International’s corruption index.
“Corruption is our society’s most serious disease,” Medvedev told the Krasnoyarsk forum, which was attended by a bevy of top officials from government, finance and industry. Medvedev has refused to take part in television debates with the three other presidential candidates, and has used official speeches instead to lay out his platform.
The government’s anti-corruption campaign has taken center stage since Putin appointed Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov last year. Yet few arrests have been made, and the most public — of Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak in November on charges of attempted embezzlement — was widely seen as the politically driven result of Kremlin infighting.
Medvedev said he would work to strengthen the judiciary and that his first term would focus on “ensuring the independence of our legal system from the executive and legislative [branches].”
The country’s convoluted legal system is widely seen as one of its most politically tainted and corrupt institutions. 
Medvedev said he would also seek a law to cut down on the wide-scale practice of corporate “raiding,” where business owners are forced or pressured into selling up, often by state-connected officials.
And he said the state should lead by example. “The state should safeguard property in a way that sets an example for society as a whole and for each individual personally.” 
Both Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of Yukos serving an eight-year jail term, and Mikhail Gutseriyev, the former head of Russneft who has fled to Britain, have accused the state of bringing criminal charges in order to seize their companies. 
Summarizing his economic plan, Medvedev said his government would focus on the four “I”s — institutions, infrastructure, innovations and investment.
His concrete proposals were few, but included reiterating Putin’s call to replace VAT with a sales tax, ensuring a favorable tax climate to encourage investment inside Russia, as well as support for making the ruble a regional reserve currency.

TITLE: Monopolies Investigated
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Cases of monopoly abuse, improper advertisement and corrupt state purchases multiplied over the last year, according to the local branch of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. Despite improvements in legislation, many companies that behave questionably are still immune to controlling bodies.
“Last year was very difficult. Statistics revealed a dramatic increase in law infringements in all areas,” Oleg Kolomiichanko, head of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast branch of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, said at a press conference at Interfax on Friday.
Last year the branch investigated 916 complaints, of which 613 cases were proved to be violations of the law. The branch initiated 309 legal cases and 144 cases connected with administrative law violations, issued 112 warnings and charged 100 fines. The total fines paid amounted to over $285,000.
The number of complaints investigated last year increased by 2.6 times compared with figures for 2006, and the number of legal cases increased by 3.7 times. In addition, antimonopoly officials investigated price increases in real estate and food retail markets, but did not find any proof of collusion.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service wins about 90 percent of cases. Last year several new laws and amendments were introduced, including amendments to the Administrative Code that increased fines and the sphere of their application.
“However, violations are found in areas where we no longer expect to find them,” Kolomiichenko said.
He cited the example of Lenta retail chain, which distributed an advertisement claiming 72 percent of their products were cheaper than their competitors’, while Faeton filling stations claimed to be the “number one chain.” 
In some cases, controlling bodies still have their hands tied. “It’s very difficult to sue supermarket chains using antimonopoly legislation. We initiate virtually no cases of that kind. We would lose in court, if we tried to prove that they dominate the market in terms of retail areas,” Kolomiichenko said.
Among the most important cases, Kolomiichenko mentioned Bank VTB, which made collusive agreements with other financial institutions.
One interesting case was that of the Klimov plant. Contractors accused the company of monopoly abuse when it stopped providing technical support to them, while Klimov said the contractors had violated intellectual property laws.
As a result of the court hearing, the contractors were ordered to start paying for using intellectual property. Klimov was given a minor warning and resumed technical support.
“The statistics showed an increase in abuse of the law, because state bodies have increased control of this area, introduced more effective administrative methods and gained experience in exercising new laws, which enabled them to tackle ambiguities in the law in a definite way,” said Viktor Naumov, partner at Beiten Burkhardt St. Petersburg.
“I suppose that businesses also started to trust the antimonopoly service, which resulted in a larger number of complaints and applications,” Naumov said.
However, Naumov indicated that control over state purchases — a function recently granted to the antimonopoly service — could lead to legal disputes. “At the moment the antimonopoly service is the most active state body supervising the activities of state officials. However, it will be extremely difficult to navigate the numerous economic interests in this area,” Naumov said.

TITLE: Rich List Published
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — Oleg Deripaska’s net worth almost doubled to $40 billion, making him the richest on a list of Russian billionaires that ballooned to 101, Finans magazine said.
Deripaska, the 40 year-old founder of the world’s biggest aluminum company by capacity, United Co. Rusal, extended his lead over former partner Roman Abramovich on surging metals prices and investments in construction and car manufacturing, Moscow-based Finans said in its latest issue.
Abramovich, the 41 year-old owner of the Chelsea soccer club, saw his fortune rise to $23 billion, followed by Novolipetsk Steel’s Vladimir Lisin and Alfa Group’s Mikhail Fridman, who tied at $22.2 billion, and Severstal’s Alexei Mordashov at $22.1 billion.
Russia, the world’s biggest energy supplier, added 40 new dollar billionaires last year, the ninth straight of economic growth. The combined wealth of the country’s richest 500 people has more than quadrupled to $716 billion in the five years Finans has compiled its rich list, equal to more than half of gross domestic product.
Mikhail Prokhorov dropped from third to seventh place and Vladimir Potanin slipped from fourth to sixth as the feuding partners split their holdings, including Norilsk Nickel  and Rosbank, which was bought by Societe General SA.

TITLE: Rosneft Planning Gas-Fired Power Plants
AUTHOR: By Tai Adelaja
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Rosneft, the country’s largest oil producer, announced plans Friday to build several gas-fired power plants across the country before 2020 as part of an effort to recycle the country’s wasteful associated gas and protect the environment. 
Chief executive Sergei Bogdanchikov said power plants would be built at the company’s huge Vankor field in eastern Siberia and in the Krasnodar region, in addition to one already under construction at its Priobskoye field in western Siberia. 
“The new power plants will supply electricity to remote regions that currently lack electricity and improve environmental safety by utilizing associated gas, which is abundant in the country,” Bogdanchikov told the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum on Friday.
Rosneft’s plans come after President Vladimir Putin last year called in his state-of-the-nation address for the government to arrange for the use of associated gas flared off by oil companies, which he said totaled 20 billion cubic meters per year.
The company’s proposals have been submitted for consideration to the Industry and Energy Ministry, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bogdanchikov said.
He said the company had already received approval from some ministries, and that it expected a green light from others shortly.
Construction of a modern, 315-megawatt gas turbine at the Priobskoye field began in November. The fields currently spew out 2 bcm per year of associated gas into the atmosphere.
Rosneft acquired its Priobskoye field, in the Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous district, via a state auction in December 2004. The field is one of the key assets of Yuganskneftegaz, the former main production unit of now-bankrupted oil firm Yukos.
Rosneft announced plans in October to spend a total of 67 billion rubles ($2.72 billion) over the next five years to reduce wasteful flaring of gas during oil production.
Mikhail Stavsky, the company’s vice president for production, who unveiled the plans, said investments would peak in 2008 and 2009, “when the program foresees an increase in the utilization of associated gas to 95 percent from the current 59 percent.”
The Priobskoye power plant is expected to increase the reliability of the field’s power supply, develop Yuganskneftegaz’s production capacity, and also ensure environmental protection for the area, burning off a projected 533.4 million cubic meters yearly, Bogdanchikov said at the plant’s foundation-laying ceremony in November.
In a country where many billions of cubic meters of associated gas are flared off every year, it is a standard practice for oil companies to utilize some of the gas to generate power for their own use, analysts said.
Alexander Kornilov, a utilities analyst at Alfa Bank, said oil companies such as Rosneft had little choice but to utilize associated gas close to the source of extraction.
“Associated gas cannot be transported without some refining, and no one is eager to buy it,” Kornilov said. “The only plausible thing is to try to save the environment by using some gas to power electricity plants.”
But Matvei Taits, a utilities analyst with UralSib, said power stations built to utilize associated gas could turn out to be white elephant projects.
“The price of electricity is still very low and that means it is cheaper to buy electricity from nearby suppliers than to invest in gas turbine power stations,” Taits said. “The price of alternative electricity must be high enough to make such projects viable.”
n Rosneft plans to spend as much as 600 billion rubles ($24.4 billion) through 2020 to boost oil production in eastern Siberia, Bogdanchikov said Saturday.
The company will spend 50 billion rubles this year and 600 billion rubles over the 12-year period as it seeks to raise annual oil output to 170 million tons by 2020, Bogdanchikov said Saturday at a conference in Krasnoyarsk. 
The company produced 102 million tons of oil last year.

TITLE: WTO Accession Delayed By Timber
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — The European Union and Russia, the largest economy outside the World Trade Organization, failed to agree on timber duties, the main hurdle to membership in the trade arbiter, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said.
EU and Russian officials will seek to reach an agreement on timber when they meet again in a few weeks, Mandelson told reporters in Moscow on Friday.
“I am persuaded that Russia really does want to complete negotiations for entering the WTO during 2008,” Mandelson said. “I strongly support this.”
Russia has sought membership in the Geneva-based WTO for almost 15 years. Its economy has grown an average of 7 percent in the eight years since Vladimir Putin came to power. In a bid to reduce the economy’s dependence on oil and gas exports, the Russian government raised export tariffs on unprocessed timber to bolster industries in the country such as wood processing.
“We understand our Finnish partners’ worries and understand that Finnish companies need to safeguard the supply of raw materials,” including timber, Putin said at his annual press conference on Thursday. “You should understand us, too. We want to develop wood processing within the country and that’s completely normal.”
Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, has a fifth of the world’s forested land. It exports about 30 percent of the 186 million cubic tons of timber it logs annually. Export tariffs for unprocessed timber rose in July, and will jump to as much as 80 percent of the value of timber products in 2009, doubling the cost of wood for companies in Finland. EU member Finland buys about 20 percent of its wood from Russia.
Mandelson said the EU won’t allow European businesses to be harmed by Russia’s timber policies. “We have to ensure that whilst Russia’s needs are met they don’t at the same time damage or operate to the detriment of the European industry,” Mandelson said. A number of options on timber would be “carefully weighed,” by EU members and the Russian government before the new talks, he said, without providing details.
Russia’s deputy chief negotiator, Andrei Kushnirenko, said on Feb. 12 that the country could become a member of the WTO by Jan. 1, 2009.
Mandelson said it was “ludicrous” that an economy of Russia’s size was still outside the organization, adding that Russia was “reaching the limits” of its ability to sustain economic growth.

TITLE: Controlling Rosbank Stake For SocGen
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS — French bank Societe Generale said it had finalized its acquisition of a majority stake in the Russian retail bank Rosbank. 
SocGen — reeling from a massive trading scandal it said cost it nearly 5 billion euros ($7 billion) — said in a statement late Wednesday it now holds 50 percent plus one share in Rosbank. 
The acquisition makes SocGen one of Russia’s leading banks, the statement said. 
“We would like to lead an ambitious and focused expansion strategy to capitalize on opportunities in the local banking market,” the statement quoted SocGen chairman and chief executive Daniel Bouton as saying. “We hope to maintain lasting cooperation with our Russian partners who have supported the successful development of Rosbank.” 
The bank said that, in accordance with Russian law, it would launch a mandatory offer to minority shareholders. 
In 2006, SocGen doubled its stake in Rosbank to 20 percent, with an option to buy at least another 30 percent and take control of the bank within two years. 
Rosbank is one of Russia’s largest banks, with 600 branches spread across the country. 
Earlier this week, SocGen launched a heavily discounted rights issue, seeking nearly 5.5 billion euros ($8 billion). The move was a bid to restore its position as a top-tier bank in the aftermath of last month’s trading scandal, the biggest-ever loss blamed on a single trader.

TITLE: Nuclear Staff in Iran Doubles
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — State nuclear contractor Atomstroiexport said Thursday that it would double staff at Iran’s first nuclear power station over the next year, as Moscow prepares to start up the reactor at the plant, RIA-Novosti reported. 
Russia has already delivered nuclear fuel under a $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant, on the Gulf coast in southwest Iran, and Iranian officials say the reactor is likely to be started up in mid-2008. 
Atomstroiexport, which is building the plant, will boost staff by about 1,000 from 1,300 at present, RIA reported, quoting the firm’s chief, Sergei Shmatko. 
“In the next few weeks 200 to 300 specialists will come to the station,” RIA-Novosti quoted Shmatko as saying in Bushehr. “In the course of the year we plan to boost the number of specialists by 1,000 people.” 
He said Russia and Iran would create a joint venture to run the Bushehr plant. 
Russia made a contract to build the plant in 1995 on the base of an earlier project begun in the 1970s by German firm Siemens. Siemens’ project was disrupted by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. 
Russia and the United States say the plant means Tehran does not need to enrich uranium itself. But Iranian officials say it is their right to have a domestic enrichment program.

TITLE: Channel 5, Ren TV Merge
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: Moscow — The TV companies Petersburg-Channel 5 and Ren TV are uniting into a large media holding company called National Mediagroup, Itar-Tass reported Friday. The announcement came from the press service of the new holding company that initially will accumulate 68 percent of Ren TV shares and 72 percent of Petersburg-Channel 5 TV and Radio Company, which last year was granted federal status.
The founders of the new holding company are the main shareholders of the two TV companies, which represent the most capitalized sectors of Russia’s financial and economic system: Banking, oil and gas, and metallurgy. These are: Russia bank, the companies Severstal and Surgutneftegaz, and insurance group Sogaz. According to the press release, initially a controlling stake in the holding company will belong to Russia bank.
Lyubov Sovershayeva, who has chaired the Ren TV board of directors since 2006 and the Petersburg TV and Radio Company board since last year, has been elected chairperson of the board of directors of the new holding company. Sergey Fursenko, head of the company Lentransgaz and president of the Zenit football club, has been recommended for the post of general director of the holding company.
The founders are uniting their media assets “with a view to improving the channels’ competitive ability and make their management more efficient,” the press release says.
“In setting up the holding company, the founders were guided by the need to solve a number of socially significant tasks, including the promotion and preservation of cultural heritage, education and the instruction of young people, as well as the establishment of efficient information interaction between the public, business and the authorities.”
In order to solve these tasks, the holding company has set up a public council led by Olympic champion and State Duma deputy Alina Kabayeva. Lyubov Sovershayeva and film critic Daniil Dondurey have been appointed her deputies.
Representing the foreign public on the council will be Italy's Angelo Codignoni, former president of the Eurosport channel, and Hans Mahr, head of the media group of the German concern RTL, which owns 30 per cent in Ren TV.

TITLE: Businesses Call For VAT Cuts
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The country’s largest business lobbies have called on the government to reduce the value-added tax to 10 percent, following President Vladimir Putin’s call for an unspecified cut from the current 18 percent last week.
The groups, including the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Delovaya Rossia and Opora, said Wednesday that they wanted VAT reforms to include the introduction of a unified VAT rate of 10 percent from next year.
The country now has two VAT rates, of 10 percent and 18 percent.
On Friday, Putin told an expanded session of the State Council that the country “must aspire” to achieve a unified and reduced VAT. After the meeting, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin agreed that the VAT rate would eventually be reduced but said it was too early to discuss a specific time frame.

TITLE: U.K. Government Nationalizes Northern Rock
AUTHOR: By Gonzalo Vina and Ben Livesey
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: LONDON — Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government introduced legislation Monday to nationalize Northern Rock Plc after the Treasury rejected a private rescue for the only U.K. bank to suffer a run on deposits in a century. 
The Newcastle-based bank was suspended from trading in London Monday, and an independent panel will determine how to compensate shareholders. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling outlined emergency legislation in Parliament. 
“There will have to be some threat to jobs,” said Alex Potter, a London-based banking analyst at Collins Stewart. “The priority will be to reduce the asset base of the bank.” 
The first bank nationalization since 1984 will damage the credibility that the Labour government has established for managing the economy since it took office a decade ago. It will leave Treasury officials responsible for 113 billion pounds ($222 billion) of Northern Rock assets and 6,500 employees. 
“There is a perception that Darling is not up to the job and that he has made the wrong judgments through this whole episode,” said John Curtice, author of “The Rise of New Labour” and a professor of politics at Strathclyde University in Glasgow. “This has been far more than a drip. There is no doubt that this will damage their reputation.” 
Ron Sandler, who advised the government on pensions and brought back Lloyd’s of London from the edge of bankruptcy in the late 1990s, will earn $180,000 a month acting for the government as Northern Rock’s executive chairman. Former Swiss Re Group executive Ann Godbehere will become finance director, earning $150,000 a month. 
“We want to get the bank back into private ownership after a temporary period of time,” Brown said at a press conference in London today. “That will depend on how the markets recover.” 
Sandler said in Newcastle that the bank would remain nationalized for “a period of some years.” He plans to study Northern Rock’s books and decide on a strategy to revive the operation in the coming days. 
Northern Rock was forced to tap the Bank of England for 55 billion pounds in loans and guarantees in September after contagion from the U.S. subprime mortgage slump led to a jump in market borrowing costs, making it impossible for the bank to fund its business. Customers of the mortgage lender, once the U.K.’s fifth-largest, lined up for three days to withdraw deposits until Darling guaranteed savings in all U.K. banks. 
Darling’s proposed legislation will give the government sweeping powers to seize any other bank that runs into trouble. That authority, the Treasury said, would expire in a year and will be used only to preserve the stability of the financial system or the interests of taxpayers. 
The Conservative opposition, pointing out Labour’s historic support for state control of the economy, plans to vote against the rules. Labour governments in the 1970s under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan nationalized ship and aircraft builders and British Leyland Motor Corp. 
“This is the day when Labour’s reputation for economic competence died,” said George Osborne, the Conservative member of Parliament who speaks on finance. “Gordon Brown has dithered his way to the disaster. We will not help Gordon Brown take this country back to the 1970s.” 
The government aims to bring the measures into law within days with the support of the Liberal Democrats, the third-biggest U.K. political party. 
“The government has taken far too long, but they are now in the right place,” Vince Cable of the Liberal Democrats, who speaks on finance, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “This bank will have to be downsized. It will be painful for people in the northeast. It also will be painful for the shareholders.” 
After the Bank of England provided emergency funds, Darling sought bids to take over Northern Rock and considered detailed plans from the company’s own managers and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group Ltd. Both offers needed more than 1 billion pounds in subsidy from the Treasury. 
“The best interests of the taxpayer were served by not giving what would have been a substantial subsidy,” Brown said. “Both bids that came forward would have required a subsidy from government.” 
Virgin’s proposal required the value of Northern Rock to quintuple before the Treasury could benefit, while the management bid didn’t inject enough capital to protect taxpayer funds, Treasury officials said. Luqman Arnold’s Olivant Advisers Ltd. withdrew its offer on Feb. 4.

TITLE: Animal Cruelty Video Leads To Largest U.S. Meat Recall
AUTHOR: By Charles Abbott and Christopher Doering
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON — A California meatpacker accused of animal cruelty is making the largest U.S. meat recall on record — 143 million lbs, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Sunday.
Most of the meat, raw and frozen beef products, probably has already been consumed, said USDA officials at a briefing. Some 37 million lbs were bought for school lunches and other federal nutrition programs. USDA said there was only a minor risk of illness from eating the beef.
Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co voluntarily recalled all of its beef produced since February 1, 2006. USDA said Hallmark violated rules against the slaughter of “downer cattle” — that is, animals too ill to walk.
“This is the largest beef recall in the history of the United States, unfortunately,” said Agriculture Undersecretary Richard Raymond.
Based in Chino, California, Hallmark/Westland has been closed since early February. Company officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Humane Society of the United States showed videotapes on January 30 showing workers at the plant using several abusive techniques to make animals stand up and pass a pre-slaughter inspection. These included ramming cattle with forklift blades and using a hose to simulate the feeling of drowning.
“A recall of this staggering scale proves that it’s past time for Congress and the USDA to strengthen our laws for the sake of people and animals,” said HSUS president Wayne Pacelle.
Raymond said the recall stemmed from slaughter of cattle that could not stand at the time of slaughter, although they passed inspection earlier. Packers are required to alert USDA veterinarians in those cases so they can decide if the animal can be slaughtered for food.
In most cases, beef from downer cattle is barred from the food supply. The rule was adopted as a safeguard against “mad cow” disease, a deadly, brain-wasting illness. People can contract a version of the disease by eating tainted products. USDA said there are many other safeguards against mad cow.
Until now, the largest U.S. meat recall was 35 million lbs in 1999.
USDA said the Hallmark/Westland recall ranked as a minor health risk because it involved a violation of inspection rules rather than proof of contamination. Most of the meat products recalled were beef, but a small amount was ground pork, according to the department.
Announcement of the recall will help the search for beef produced by Hallmark/Westland that may be held in freezer plants.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said in a statement that USDA must toughen its inspection measures before animals are slaughtered to prevent future occurrences.
“How much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?” said Harkin, an Iowa Democrat. “Federal regulations exist for a reason — to protect public health. For Hallmark/Westland to issue a recall that goes back two years indicates that violations may have been long-term.”
Four senior Democrats in Congress, including Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, told the General Accounting Office on Thursday to investigate the safety of meat in the school lunch program in light of the Hallmark/Westland case.

TITLE: Blu-Ray Wins Technology War
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Investors cheered the impending end of a format war for next-generation DVDs on Monday, pushing up shares of both Toshiba, on the verge of abandoning its HD DVD technology, and Sony, the leader of the rival Blu-ray camp.
A Toshiba source told Reuters on Saturday the company is planning to give up on its HD DVD format, conceding defeat to Blu-ray. 
The battle has slowed the development of the high-definition DVD industry, which analysts estimate to be a multi-billion dollar market.
Separate consortia led by Toshiba and Sony have battled for years to set the standard for optical discs and compatible video equipment for next-generation DVDs, a war often compared to the Betamax-VHS video cassette standoff of the 1970s and 1980s.
Sony-backed Blu-ray offers about three to six times more capacity than the current standard, with the potential to offer as much as 15 times. Rival HD DVD, developed by Toshiba, offers slightly less storage capacity than Blu-ray but claimed it had a cheaper technology. Blu-ray was launched in 2003, HD DVD in 2006.
Hollywood studios had initially split their allegiances between the two camps, meaning only certain films would play on any one DVD machine. The balance of power tipped decisively toward the Sony camp in January after Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros studio said it would only release high-definition DVDs in Blu-ray format.
U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc announced on Friday that it would abandon the HD DVD format and only stock its shelves with Blu-ray movies. Best Buy Co Inc and video rental company Netflix Inc also recently signed up to the Blu-ray camp.
Liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panel (PDP) have fought for years for the title of the most popular flat display technology.
LCD, in which crystals are sandwiched between glasses and a backlight, offers vivid colors and can be used in bright light. PDP, which uses tiny pockets of gases, needs no backlight and provides faster images and natural color.
LCD has gradually gained ground as the technology expanded its market from small devices such as mobile phones to large TV panels. Very large TVs remain PDP’s stronghold.
Big production lines and heavy investment by LCD makers, such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Sharp Corp, enabled them to roll out larger screens at cheaper prices than plasma makers like Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and Samsung SDI.
Market research firm iSuppli forecast sales in the plasma panel market to rise from $7.6 billion in 2006 to $9 billion in 2008, then decline to $8.2 billion in 2010 and $7.6 billion in 2011.
It forecast the LCD TV panel market to grow from $22 billion in 2006 to $39.8 billion in 2008 and $53 billion in 2011.
GSM (global system for mobile communications) is the most popular mobile standard used by more than 2 billion people. Competing with GSM is CDMA (code division multiple access), pioneered by Qualcomm Inc and mostly used in the Americas and parts of Asia.
The battle continues as operators, such as U.S. No.1 and 2 operators AT&T and Verizon Wireless, upgrade mobile networks to offer ever more advanced high-speed services.
GSM operators, such as Europe’s Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom, chose the path leading to W-CDMA and its upgrades, while those in the CDMA camp are moving on to EV-DO, another high-speed standard. Britain’s Vodafone owns Verizon Wireless together with Verizon Communications.

TITLE: What Keeps the Kremlin Up All Night
AUTHOR: By Daniel Treisman
TEXT: To observers of Russia’s election campaign, one thing is clear: The Kremlin’s political operatives do not want to leave anything to chance.
Of eight would-be opposition candidates, all but three have been driven out, having been either disqualified or discouraged from running. National television reports with breathless excitement on every movement of the Kremlin favorite, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Lest anyone miss the point, polling stations have been told to hang posters accusing Medvedev’s rivals of filing fraudulent income declarations. Before the State Duma elections in December, governors were reportedly ordered to deliver at least 65 percent of the vote for United Russia, and there is no reason to think such pressures have stopped.
All this raises the question — Why? As numerous opinion polls show, President Vladimir Putin and his team are genuinely popular. It seems certain Medvedev would win decisively even in a completely fair vote without Kremlin insiders leaning their thumbs, toes and other body parts on the scale.
The government’s popularity is no surprise. Under Putin, real wages have tripled and unemployment has fallen sharply. Given the booming economy, it would take some hard work for a Kremlin candidate to lose. Even if Russia had plunged this January into a financial crisis as severe as that of August 1998, simulations suggest this would not have threatened Medvedev’s lead.
So why is the Kremlin doing everything possible to undermine the legitimacy of an election in which its own candidate is set to triumph?
First, it might be simple paranoia. It is hard to believe Kremlin insiders genuinely think opposition candidates Garry Kasparov or Mikhail Kasyanov could have won if they had been allowed to run in an open contest. But with an administration as secretive as this one, nothing can be ruled out.
Another possible reason the Kremlin is messing with elections is because it’s what the siloviki and political operatives like to do. They see no downside in doing so, and they enjoy it. Scolding and demonizing the West is a badge of honor for them. Cutting off its nose to spite its face, the administration chooses to tarnish its international reputation because it views the election monitors and the democracy-rating industries of Washington and Strasbourg as the preserve of anti-Russian hypocrites with self-serving agendas.
A third possibility is that the Kremlin’s election management is not about the voters at all; rather, it aims to keep the pro-Kremlin elite in line. Much has been made of the conflicts between silovik clans that have been arresting or investigating each other’s agents and leaking to the press. To impose discipline on this fractious band, especially as he attempts to hop from one seat to another, Putin needs to demonstrate total control of the political machinery. Permitting even minor challenges might be viewed by some as a weakness, which would mean increased vulnerability.
Thus, the Kremlin may instruct governors to manage the votes not because the victory is in doubt, but rather to verify which of them are loyal and effective servants. Once they have dirtied their hands manipulating local elections, the governors are also less likely to metamorphose into anti-Kremlin campaigners for openness and liberal democracy.
A similar logic may hold for Medvedev himself. Were he to win an honest election, he might construe this as conferring a personal mandate. It is in the interest of Medvedev’s associates — one in particular — to keep him weak and dependent. Discrediting his election may be a way to keep Medvedev from getting ideas above his station.
Perhaps the Kremlin operatives are looking ahead to future contests. Open elections are not just about picking a winner. They allow new political personalities to emerge and grab attention. In many countries, losers from one election return refreshed to fight the next — for example, Senator John McCain in the U.S. primaries. The goal in 2008 may be to keep the field empty and ensure no credible opposition candidates are waiting in the wings in 2012.
Finally, the Kremlin’s determination to obtain by trickery what it could win fair and square may relate to economics, not politics. Although Putin dismisses allegations that he has amassed a personal fortune, it is no secret that some of his friends and acquaintances have become extremely wealthy. The next few years are crucial for Putin’s inner circle; they face the task of rapidly privatizing the state assets they now control. The point of heavily managed elections — and managed democracy in general — may be to prevent revelations in the press and attacks by political rivals that might jeopardize the consolidation of this business empire.
My guess is that the true explanation combines several of these factors. But the economic interests seem increasingly dominant. Kremlin insiders appear to view political controls as a necessary complement to their use of law enforcement to win business battles.
If so, they have missed an important point about democracy — in the long run, it can be the most effective way to protect the interests of insiders. Clear, honestly enforced rules of political competition favor those who have the resources and experience to win at such games. Even in the most democratic systems, insiders can usually tilt the rules in their favor. Fair competition between political parties can occur within the limits of a basic agreement on respecting the core interests of the wealthy — or even, in some countries, on a certain level of protection for the security services.
The alternatives are less predictable. If politics is forced out of public institutions, it spills out onto the streets. The administration is right to fear mass demonstrations, not because Kasparov’s supporters are likely to storm the Kremlin, but because there comes a point, as demonstrations grow, at which individuals all along the “power vertical” start to reevaluate their positions. During the August 1991 coup attempt, Generals Pavel Grachev and Yevgeny Shaposhnikov chose not to follow the orders of the organization that tried to implement the putsch, the State Committee for a State of Emergency, as did various second and third-level officers. Such sudden changes of perspective among their mid-level subordinates are what should keep the Kremlin’s strategists awake at night.

Daniel Treisman is a professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

TITLE: The Three Vladimirs
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: It seems both timely and premature to assess President Vladimir Putin’s eight years in office. Timely because he is coming to the end of his two-term presidency and premature because his likely upcoming stint as prime minister can do much to alter his legacy. As it is, he is an ambiguous figure. Is he the man who saved Russia from chaos or strangled its democracy in the cradle?
One way to begin that assessment is to compare Vladimir Putin to his other two great namesakes in Russian history, Prince Vladimir, who brought Christianity to Russia in 988, and Vladimir Lenin, who brought communism to the country in 1917.
A mix of Viking and Slav, with a great appetite for sex and slaughter, Vladimir even had his own brother put to death in his struggle for power. In 988 he converted Russia to Christianity. His motives were in part political and economic — the Byzantine Empire, from which Russia took its form of Christianity, was the main power in the region. But there was also a definite spiritual component for Vladimir, whose own conversion led him to be more compassionate and charitable. In the end, he was sainted.
Prince Vladimir was also the first great Russian iconoclast. He ordered the idols of the pagan gods to be whipped, burned and thrown in the river. Then he had the whole city of Kiev come to that river at dawn for baptism, saying anyone who failed to appear should “consider himself my foe.”
Vladimir Lenin was the antithesis of Prince Vladimir. Lenin hated God and religion, which he saw as no more than primitive superstition and an instrument used by the ruling class to retain power. Like Prince Vladmir, Lenin and the Soviets were great iconoclasts — burning religious images, killing priests, turning churches into warehouses (when not destroying them entirely).
Lenin and his followers failed to kill Christianity and replace it with a new, lasting faith. Still, he changed the course of history, and Soviet influence will remain strong for generations. Although most of the statues of Lenin and the other leaders of the Soviet Union were torn down in the heady days of the early ‘90s, Lenin himself — mummified and iconic — remains in a glass coffin in his tomb on Red Square.
The third Vladimir — Putin — inherited a world in which Soviet and Christian elements were still alive, but neither had the power to shape the worldview, identity and mission of the new Russia. It is his challenge to combine those two elements from the past with those of the present — technology and globalization — to create something new.
In the 17 years after Russia’s baptism, Christianity spread widely throughout Kievan Rus. In the 17 years after Lenin’s revolution of 1917, communism spread widely throughout Soviet Russia. But in the 17 years since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, no new idea, no new ideology and no new sense of life or national purpose has taken hold in the country. The pursuit of wealth and the restoration of prestige is not a vision.
Putin’s principal achievement so far has been the creation of stability, but if he wants to go down in history with any of the luster of his namesakes he will have to construct something grand on that platform of stability. In his years as prime minister, Putin could make sure that Dmitry Medvedev’s hand is steady on the presidential wheel while Putin spends more time charting a new course. Maybe it’s a super-science society creating breakthroughs in nanotechnology and other new fields that will propel Russia to the forefront of nations.
If the new Russia is to be anything more than a mix of cronies and commodities, there must be some new idea to excite the nation’s energies. If Putin can come up with it, he will ensure Russia’s greatness — and his own.

Richard Lourie is the author of “A Hatred For Tulips” and “Sakharov: A Biography.”

TITLE: The Most Important Issues Facing the Next President
AUTHOR: The New York Times
TEXT: How the next U.S. president plans to handle the disastrous Iraq war is the most important foreign policy question of this year’s campaign. But it is not the only foreign policy question that voters need answered. 
President George W. Bush’s mismanagement reaches far beyond Iraq. He has torn up international treaties, bullied and alienated old friends and enabled old and new enemies. Before Americans choose a president they will need to know how he or she plans to rebuild U.S. military strength and its moral standing, and address a host of difficult challenges around the world. 
Here is our list of questions. It is by no means comprehensive. 
•China. How would the candidates handle relations with a rising China? How would they manage a potential military competition while also encouraging democratic reforms there? How would the candidates persuade Beijing to help dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions or to play a constructive role in Sudan and Burma? How would they conduct relations with Taiwan? 
•Nonproliferation. Bush tore up arms control treaties, offered to sell civilian nuclear technology to India, then wondered why so many countries weren’t more outraged by Iran’s nuclear misbehavior. Do the candidates have practical plans to halt the spread of nuclear weapons? Would they commit to deep cuts in the United States’ nuclear arsenal, forswear the development of new nuclear weapons and persuade the Russians to do the same? 
•Russia. President Vladimir Putin has crushed rivals, closed most independent news organizations and all but extinguished hopes for democracy. Washington needs Moscow’s cooperation on a host of dangerous issues. How would the candidates manage relations with an increasingly autocratic and increasingly powerful Russia? 
•Terrorism. Is the war on terrorism a military fight? Should it even be called a war? How would the candidates improve U.S. intelligence capabilities and elicit more cooperation around the world? What would they do to oust al-Qaeda from Pakistan? How would they ensure Pakistan’s cooperation while also pressing for democratic reforms that are essential for its long-term stability? 
•Iran. Tehran continues to defy the United Nations Security Council by enriching uranium — the hardest part of building a bomb. What are the candidates willing to offer Iran in exchange for giving up its nuclear efforts? Can Iran be contained without a military confrontation? 
Americans deserve to hear the candidates’ answers long before they go to the polls. 

This comment appeared as an editorial in The New York Times.

TITLE: Sovereign Presidents’ Day
AUTHOR: By Mark H. Teeter
TEXT: Americans on Monday are observing Presidents’ Day, another Western holiday Russians may want to adopt. In early 2012, when there will be enough former Russian presidents to make a selective Top-Two list, we could see Sovereign Presidents’ Day proudly proclaimed here. In the meantime, perhaps Russians and Americans should use this day to reflect on the history of their highest offices and how the current elections may alter both.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the holiday’s principal honorees, are widely regarded as the best presidents in U.S. history. George W. Bush is widely regarded as one of the worst, his record of full-spectrum malfeasance rendering him the Warren Harding of a new millennium: “I am not fit for this office,” confessed the oft-bewildered President Harding, “and never should have been here.”
But how does the office evolve? Distinguished occupants, like Washington, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, mold and stretch the constitutionally defined presidency to meet the pressure of events and to suit their own visions. The undistinguished tend to leave things alone. The disastrous, as we have seen, opt for a “third way”— recasting the office without a mandate or the consent of the other two branches of government.
The illegal detention and torture at Guantanamo and the use of presidential signing statements to vitiate acts of Congress are prime examples of an executive branch running amok. They represent “extravagant and unnecessary claims of presidential power,” noted a Bush-appointed assistant attorney general who resigned in protest. For systems continuing to adjust like Russia’s, with limited presidential experience and a traditional bias toward individual power, such flagrant transgression of prescribed authority makes the current U.S. executive model one to avoid like the plague.
Russian leaders have a thousand-year record of claiming all the powers their offices can bear and many they can’t –– a habit which has helped make Russian history the arduous slog it has been. The post-Soviet presidential model is as top-down as its tsarist and Soviet predecessors, yet to date sports only a fig-leaf rationale — “sovereign democracy,” a curious abstraction which seems ever more elusive the more people define it. The actual dicta of Russia’s presidency are simpler: “Because I can,” and “Try and stop me.”
In short, neither of the 2008 models on display is something the democracy-minded should want the keys to. But what might the new model year offer?
Russians will soon see their chief executive’s role redefined, as a new president — and the prime minister who virtually invented him — engage with the process of an administration theoretically dominated by the presidency. The country may initially get a kinder, gentler chief executive, content to push a social agenda of Putinism Lite, but what honeymoon lasts forever? And what will Russians do if they find their prime minister is a sort of Slavic Dick Cheney?
The U.S. Vice President’s office has been the boiler room beneath the executive meltdown, as Cheney and co-conspirator David Addington have labored tirelessly to divert to the presidency new powers to “detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy without congressional approval or judicial review,” as U.S. public television reported. It is hard to see Putin and some attack lawyer mobilizing frightening new powers for Dmitry Medvedev, whose office hardly needs them. But what if state initiatives always come from the second deck, eventually making the Constitution, which Putin reveres so highly, a public (and international) joke? Stay tuned.
Bush’s successor, in any case, must right a badly listing ship. Of the scenarios now available, a Barack Obama presidency may be the only one in which the office of chief executive gets an intensive, back-to-the-future revival effort.
Obama unabashedly seeks a presidency that combines inspiration and authority — something not seen since the early stages of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Johnson sought to use his cross-aisle savvy and the power of the office to expand and complete FDR’s New Deal — which has also served, at least nominally, as a major inspiration for Russia’s “sovereign democracy.”
If a President Obama can pick up the threads of Roosevelt and Johnson and, in the process, attract the interest of Russia’s ever-industrious sovereignty formulators, perhaps we’ll see a Presidents’ Day here that truly rings democratic. It could happen — things in Russia are either impossible or miraculous — and the recognition of some common Russian-American institutional ground might be an early cross-cultural success as the U.S. presidency enters its Barack period.

Mark H. Teeter teaches English and Russian-American relations in Moscow.

TITLE: Mysterious Deaths of 9 Skiers Still Unresolved
AUTHOR: By Svetlana Osadchuk
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Nine experienced cross-country skiers hurriedly left their tent on a Urals slope in the middle of the night, casting aside skis, food and their warm coats.
Clad in their sleepwear, the young people dashed headlong down a snowy slope toward a thick forest, where they stood no chance of surviving bitter temperatures of around minus 30 degrees Celsius.
Baffled investigators said the group died as a result of “a compelling unknown force” — and then abruptly closed the case and filed it as top secret.
The deaths, which occurred 49 years ago on Saturday, remain one of the deepest mysteries in the Urals. Records related to the incident were unsealed in the early 1990s, but friends of those who died are still searching for answers.
“If I had a chance to ask God just one question, it would be, ‘What really happened to my friends that night?’” said Yury Yudin, the only member of the skiing expedition who survived.
Yudin and nine other students from the Ural Polytechnic Institute embarked on the skiing expedition to Otorten Mountain in the northern Urals on Jan. 28, 1959. Yudin fell ill near Vizhai, the last settlement before the mountain, and was left behind.
What happened next has been reconstructed from the diaries of the rest of the group and the photographs they took. Copies of the diaries, photos and investigators’ records were reviewed for this article.
The skiers, led by Igor Dyatlov, 23, set up camp for the night of Feb. 2 on the slope of Kholat-Syakhl, a mountain next to Otorten. They pitched their tents at around 5:00 p.m., investigators said, citing photos that they developed from rolls of film found among the abandoned belongings.
Why the nine skiers picked the spot is unclear. The group could have detoured just 1.5 kilometers down the mountain to a forest, where they would have found shelter from the harsh elements.
“Dyatlov probably did not want to lose the distance they had covered, or he decided to practice camping on the mountain slope,” Yudin said by telephone from Solikamsk, a town near Yekaterinburg, where the institute, now named Ural State Technical University, is located.
When the group left the institute for the expedition, Dyatlov promised to send a telegram as soon as they returned to Vizhai from Otorten Mountain, which he said would be by Feb. 12.
But Yudin said Dyatlov told him when they parted ways that the group would probably return a few days later than planned.
As such, no one was worried when the group failed to reappear on Feb. 12.
Only on Feb. 20, after relatives raised the alarm, did the institute send out a search-and-rescue team of teachers and students. The police and army dispatched their airplanes and helicopters later.

Puzzling Evidence
The volunteer rescuers found the abandoned camp on Feb. 26.
“We discovered that the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group’s belongings and shoes had been left behind,” Mikhail Sharavin, the student who found the tent, said by telephone from Yekaterinburg.
Investigators said the tent had been cut open from inside and counted traces of footprints from eight or nine people in meter-deep snow. The footprints had been left by people who were wearing socks, a single shoe or were barefoot.
Investigators matched the footprints to the members of the group, saying there was no evidence of a struggle or that other people had entered the camp.
The footsteps led down the slope toward the forest but disappeared after 500 meters.
Sharavin found the first two bodies at the edge of the forest, under a towering pine tree. The two — Georgy Krivonischenko, 24, and Yury Doroshenko, 21, were barefoot and dressed in their underclothes.
Charred remains of a fire lay nearby. The branches on the tree were broken up to five meters high, suggesting that a skier had climbed up to look for something, perhaps the camp, Sharavin said. Broken branches also were scattered on the snow.
The next three bodies — Dyatlov, Zina Kolmogorova, 22, and Rustem Slobodin, 23 — were found between the tree and the camp. The way the bodies were lying indicated that the three had been trying to return to the camp.
The authorities immediately opened a criminal investigation, but autopsies failed to find evidence of foul play. Doctors said the five had died of hypothermia. Slobodin’s skull was fractured, but the injury was not considered fatal.
It took two months to locate the remaining skiers. Their bodies were found buried under four meters of snow in a forest ravine, 75 meters away from the pine tree. The four — Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel, 24, Ludmila Dubinina, 21, Alexander Zolotaryov, 37, and Alexander Kolevatov, 25 — appeared to have suffered traumatic deaths. Thibeaux-Brignollel’s skull had been crushed, and Dubunina and Zolotarev had numerous broken ribs. Dubinina also had no tongue.
The bodies, however, showed no external wounds.
The four were better dressed than the rest, and those who had died first had apparently relinquished their clothes to the others. Zolotaryov was wearing Dubinina’s faux fur coat and hat, while Dubinina’s foot was wrapped in a piece of Krivonishenko’s wool pants.
Deepening the mystery, a test of the clothes found they contained high levels of radiation.
The investigation, however, was closed after a few months, and investigators said they could not find anyone to accuse of wrongdoing. Case files were sent to a secret archive. Skiers and other adventurers were barred from the area for three years.
“I was 12 at that time, but I do remember the deep resonance that the accident had with the public, despite the authorities’ efforts to keep relatives and investigators silent,” said Yury Kuntsevich, head of the Yekaterinburg-based Dyatlov Foundation, which is trying to unravel the mystery.
Investigators first explored the theory that the local Mansi people had killed the skiers in revenge for trespassing on their land. No evidence, however, was found to back up the theory; Neither Otorten nor Kholat-Syakhl were considered sacred or taboo places by the Mansi, case documents said.
Further debunking the theory, a doctor who examined the bodies in 1959 said he believed that no man could have inflicted the injuries because the force of the blows had been too strong and no soft tissue had been damaged,
“It was equal to the effect of a car crash,” said the doctor, Boris Vozrozhdenny, according to case documents.

‘Bright Flying Spheres’
In 1990, the chief investigator, Lev Ivanov, said in an interview that he had been ordered by senior regional officials to close the case and classify the findings as secret. He said the officials had been worried by reports from multiple eyewitnesses, including the weather service and the military, that “bright flying spheres” had been spotted in the area in February and March 1959.
“I suspected at the time and am almost sure now that these bright flying spheres had a direct connection to the group’s death,” Ivanov told Leninsky Put, a small Kazakh newspaper. He retired in Kazakhstan and has since died.
The declassified files contain testimony from the leader of a group of adventurers who camped about 50 kilometers south of the skiers on the same night. He said his group saw strange orange spheres floating in the night sky in the direction of Kholat-Syakhl.
Ivanov speculated that one skier might have left the tent during the night, seen a sphere and woken up the others with his cries. Ivanov said the sphere might have exploded as they ran toward the forest, killing the four who had serious injuries and cracking Slobodin’s skull.
Yudin said he also thought an explosion had killed his friends. He said the level of secrecy surrounding the incident suggests that the group might have inadvertently entered a secret military testing ground. He said the radiation on the clothes supported his theory.
Kuntsevich agreed, saying another clue to the deaths was the fact that the faces of the first five bodies had been inexplicably tan. “I attended the funerals of the first five victims and remember that their faces look liked they had a deep brown tan,” he said.
Yudin also said the released documents contained no information about the condition of the skiers’ internal organs. “I know for sure that there were special boxes with their organs sent for examination, “ he said.
No traces of an explosion, however, have been found near Kholat-Syakhl.

No Records of Missiles
While a missile fired from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan could have reached the northern Urals, there are no records of any launches at the time, said Alexander Zeleznyakov, a historian on Soviet missiles and a senior official with the Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energia. The Soviet Union’s other main launch pad, Plesetsk, only opened in late 1959. Zeleznyakov also said the surface-to-air missiles that could have been launched from the pads had not yet been built.
The Defense Ministry and the Yekaterinburg regional prosecutor’s office said they had no immediate information, citing the age of the case.
Kuntsevich said he had led a group to the area last year and found a “cemetery” of scrap metal that suggested the military had conducted experiments there at some time.
“We can’t say what kind of military technology was tested, but the catastrophe of 1959 was man-made,” he said.
Yudin said the military might have found the tent before the volunteer rescuers. He said he had been asked to identify the owner of every object found at the scene and had failed to find a match for a piece of cloth that looked like it had come from a soldier’s coat, a pair of glasses, a pair of skis and a piece of a ski.
Yudin also said he had seen documents that led him to believe that the criminal investigation had been opened on Feb. 6, 14 days before the search team found the tent.
Dyatlov’s friends have looked into whether the deaths might have been caused by an avalanche. Setting up the camp on the slope might have disturbed the snow above, causing it to tumble down a few hours later. This would explain the ripped tent, which the skiers would have had to cut open to exit.

Skeptics of this theory point out that the skiers left the camp by foot and traveled more than a kilometer in minus 30 C.

Thibeaux-Brignollel would have been unconscious due to his shattered skull, said Mikhail Kornev, a doctor with the S.M. Kirov Russian Medical Military Academy.

But his friends could have carried him. After all, investigators could not decide whether there were eight or nine pairs of footprints in the snow.

Also, Dubinina and Zolotarev could have walked with their broken ribs, Kornev said. “I can grant this possibility since the situation was extreme,” he said.

Six former rescuers and 31 independent experts gathered Friday in Yekaterinburg to look for answers about the incident. They concluded that the military had been carrying out tests in the area and had inadvertantly caused the deaths.

But “we still lack documents and ask the Defense Ministry, the space agency and the FSB to provide us with them to obtain a full picture,” the participants said in a statement.

The conference was organized by Ural State Technical University, the Dyatlov Foundation and several nongovernmental organizations.

What really happened on the night of Feb. 2, 1959, may never be known. But Dyatlov is unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon.
The area where the group set up their last camp has been officially named Dyatlov’s Pass.

TITLE: Pakistan Holds Election After Military Rule
AUTHOR: By Matthew Pennington
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistanis fearful of militant attacks voted Monday for a new parliament in a key step toward democracy after eight years of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf, whose political survival hangs in the balance.
Musharraf promised to work with the new government regardless of who won the vote, after a year of turmoil that has seen an explosion in Taliban militancy and growing public disaffection with Pakistan’s support of the U.S.-led war on terror.
“I will say from my side, whichever political party will win, whoever will become prime minister and chief ministers, congratulations to them on my behalf. And I will give them full cooperation as president whatever is my role,” the president told state television.
Public antipathy over Musharraf’s support of the U.S.-led war on terror could count against his political allies, as could his recent declaration of emergency rule and purging of the judiciary to safeguard his controversial re-election as president in October.
An overwhelming victory by the opposition, headed by Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, could leave Musharraf politically vulnerable to impeachment.
“It is the fate of the Pakistan People’s Party that it will win, and we will change the system after winning,” said Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, after casting his vote in his hometown of Nawab Shah.
Two public opinion surveys by U.S. groups have suggested that if the election is fair, Bhutto’s party will finish first, followed by the opposition party of ex-Premier Nawaz Sharif. The pro-Musharraf party — the Pakistani Muslim League-Q — is trailing in third.
But the PML-Q still predicts it will fare strongly in rural areas of the largest province, Punjab, where the election is likely to be lost or won and where allegiance to feudal landlords, rather than a party, can determine how people vote.
Opposition politicians have accused the government of planning to rig the balloting, and have threatened street protests.
Musharraf, who recently ceded his command of Pakistan’s powerful army, has warned he would not tolerate such protests, which could set the stage for a dangerous confrontation in this nuclear-armed nation.
Before casting his vote in the city of Rawalpindi, he urged candidates to accept results of the vote.
“If they win they should not show arrogance and if they lose they should show grace, accepting the result,” Musharraf said in comments broadcast Monday on state television.
Pakistan has lurched in its 60-year history between weak civilian governments and military rule — including the period since Musharraf’s takeover in a 1999 coup.
“This is about Pakistan and the government’s relationship with its people, and it is about Pakistan’s ability to show the world that it has a credible election, therefore a credible government,” said Sen. John Kerry as he observed voting in the eastern city of Lahore.
More than 470,000 police and soldiers were deployed nationwide to provide security after a wave of suicide bombings, including the Dec. 27 assassination of Bhutto that forced a six-week delay in the vote. The day was declared a public holiday to encourage citizens to turn out to vote.
But while fears of attack warded off some voters, sympathy for Bhutto and disaffection over rising food prices compelled others to exercise their democratic rights.
“My vote is for the PPP,” said Munir Ahmed Tariq, a retired police officer in Nawab Shah. “If there is rigging this time, there will be a severe reaction. This is a sentiment of this nation.”
But turnout in many parts of the country appeared low — possibly below the 41 percent recorded in the last general elections in 2002.
At a polling station in the key city of Lahore, just 28 percent of the 2,740 registered voters had turned out, with just 90 minutes of voting to go. Opposition parties and analysts claim that local authorities have used state resources to back ruling party candidates — claims that have been denied by the government, which has promised a free and fair vote.
The last general election, which installed pro-Musharraf parliament, was widely regarded as flawed and lawmakers have provided little check on the president’s dominance. But with power — and popularity — now diminished the incoming parliament could have more leverage.
Along with fears of Taliban attacks, political violence stalked the election.
Violence between rival political factions in the key province of Punjab has killed at least nine people and wounded dozens more since Sunday night, officials said.

TITLE: Valuev Returns For WBA Title Vengeance
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NUREMBERG, Germany — Nikolai Valuev earned a shot at the WBA heavyweight title Saturday, beating Sergei Liakhovich in a one-sided decision between former champions. 
The 7-foot Russian, in one of his best performances, effectively used his left jab from the opening seconds to subdue the smaller fighter in the WBA eliminator bout. 
Valuev (48-1) won 120-108 on two of the judges’ scorecards and 120-107 on the other to earn a rematch against Ruslan Chagaev, the first to beat the Russian as a pro and the man who took away his WBA belt in April. 
“I’m looking forward to the fight. Ruslan Chagaev, we’ll see each other soon,” Valuev said. 
Valuev’s lopsided decision came against the fighter from Belarus who knocked out Lamon Brewster in a bruising battle to win the WBO title. Liakhovich (23-3) lost his title two years against Shannon Briggs on a last-second knockout despite leading on points. 
Valuev, who was the tallest champion of all time, repeatedly scored with the jab, partially closing Liakhovich’s left eye. 
“Do you want us to quit?” Liakhovich’s trainer Tommy Brooks yelled after the eighth round. “We don’t have much choice if you keep standing in front of this guy.” 
The 34-year-old Valuev also rocked Liakhovich with hard rights several times. Never known for his mobility or boxing skill, he even threw flurries of combinations at several points. 
“I did it better than before. I think we have changed a lot of things,” said Valuev, who has a new trainer. 
The win thrusts the Russian back into the heavyweight picture, where several unification fights are expected. 
Valuev will face a tougher test against Chagaev, a quick fighter who forced him to trade punches in their last bout. 
Liakhovich, 9 inches shorter, appeared simply overwhelmed by Valuev’s size. 
“He knew how to use his advantages,” Liakhovich said. “I didn’t have any answers. It wasn’t my day.”

TITLE: Murray Triumphs in Marseille Open
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MARSEILLE, France — British number one Andy Murray won his second title of the year when he beat Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-3, 6-4 in the Marseille Open final on Sunday. 
World number 11 Murray, who won the Qatar Open last month, served and returned superbly to seal his fifth career title after an hour and 44 minutes of high quality tennis. 
The 20-year-old Murray, who will return to the world’s top 10 with the win, has lost just one match this year, to eventual runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round of last month’s Australian Open. 
The first set was tight until Murray, seeded fourth in the indoor event, broke Ancic with a superb forehand winner in the eighth game. He then served for the set, taking it with an ace after squandering four set points. 
“That last game of the first set was crucial,” Murray said. “If two or three points had gone his way, the issue could have been different.” 
Wild card Ancic, who has dropped out of the top 100 after being sidelined for six months last year with glandular fever, reacted by capturing his opponent’s serve for the first time in the fourth game of the second set. 
The 20-year-old Murray broke back immediately and took Ancic’s serve again in the seventh game. Leading 5-3, he earned a first match point, which Ancic saved with a dropshot before holding serve. 
The Scot then served for the match, wrapping up victory with a service winner on his second match point. 
“Mario played a great match,” Murray said. “People can’t imagine what he went through in 2007 with his health problems. It’s good to see him back on the tour.” 
Murray and Ancic had met once before, in Auckland in 2006, with Ancic, who peaked at world number seven that year, winning 6-3, 7-6. 
“It was really tough with a lot of close games,” Murray said of Sunday’s match. 
“I served well throughout and returned really well in the second set. He started getting a bit tired in that second set and that was probably the key to the match.” 
After winning in Doha, Murray was knocked out at Melbourne Park before a knee injury forced him to withdraw from the Davis Cup tie with Argentina. 
“I think I made the right decision,” Murray said. “Davis Cup matches are very tiring and I didn’t want to take risks.”

TITLE: Over 100 Dead in Terror Attack in Afghanistan
AUTHOR: By Allaudin Khan and Noor Khan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A provincial governor said Monday he had warned an anti-Taliban militia leader targeted in a suicide attack that militants were trying to kill him. The death toll in Afghanistan’s deadliest bombing since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion rose to more than 100.
Afghans buried relatives and friends in the southern city of Kandahar on Monday, a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of men and boys watching a dog fighting competition.
Kandahar Governo Asadullah Khalid said the death toll had risen to more than 100, up from 80. Most victims were killed immediately, though some of the scores of Afghans critically wounded had died, Khalid said. He did not give a precise toll.
The bombing was the deadliest in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s ouster from power in 2001 and follows a year of record violence and predictions the conflict could turn even deadlier in 2008.
Officials said the suicide attacker targeted a militia leader, Abdul Hakim Jan, who died in the attack, along with 35 of his men. Khalid told mourners at a mosque he had warned Jan about three weeks ago that militant suicide bombers were trying to target him.
The bomber struck in a barren dirt field on the western edge of Kandahar city, as several hundred people watched a dog fighting competition, turning the field a bloody red.
“The contrast between those who take innocent lives so brutally and senselessly and those working with Afghanistan’s government and people to build a better future could not be more stark,” a statement from the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday.
Khalid blamed the attack on “the enemy of Afghanistan” — which typically means the Taliban.
A Taliban spokesman denied the militia was behind the attack, though the group typically denies involvement when there are massive civilian deaths. Antonio Giustozzi, a London School of Economics researcher and Afghanistan expert, said it couldn’t be ruled out the attack was carried out by one of Jan’s tribal rivals.
Jan was buried Sunday night by tribe members and relatives, but others were buried Monday, said Haji Talib Agha, one of Jan’s brothers. Around 1,500 people attended the funerals of the 35 fighters from Jan’s militia, said Zemeri Khan, the district police chief of Arghandab.
Separately, a NATO soldier was killed and another wounded when their patrol was struck by an explosion Sunday in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement. The nationalities of the dead and wounded soldier were not released.
Kandahar — the Taliban’s former stronghold and Afghanistan’s second-largest city — has been the scene of fierce battles between NATO forces, primarily from Canada and the United States, and Taliban fighters the last two years.
The province, one of the country’s largest opium producing regions, could again be a flash point in the increasingly violent Afghan conflict this year. Canada, which has 2,500 troops in Kandahar, has threatened to end its combat role in Afghanistan unless NATO countries provide an additional 1,000 troops to help the anti-Taliban drive there.
The U.S., which already has some 28,000 forces in the country, is sending an additional 3,200 Marines in April, most of whom are expected to be stationed in Kandahar during their seven-month tour.
The previous deadliest bombing in Afghanistan killed about 70 people — mostly students — in November, part of a record year of violence in 2007 that included more than 140 suicide attacks.

TITLE: Japanese Underdog in Shock ATP Title Win
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Qualifier Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese man to win an ATP title in 16 years by upsetting top-seeded James Blake 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the International Tennis Championships final on Sunday. 
“I still can’t believe it that I beat James Blake,” the 18-year-old Nishikori told the crowd, which included a dozen Japanese fans chanting, “Nippon! Nippon!” high up in the stands. “I’ve only seen him on TV. This is my best tournament ever.” 
With the win, the 244th-ranked Nishikori is expected to move to a No. 122 ranking. He is the youngest player to win an ATP title since Lleyton Hewitt won Adelaide as a 16-year-old in 1998. 
“Last night I couldn’t imagine. I tried to imagine winning the final, but I couldn’t do it,” said Nishikori, whose parents watched the match on an Internet feed. “I was so nervous in the first set.” 
Shuzo Matsuoka was the last tournament champion from Japan. He won his lone career title at the Seoul tournament in April 1992. 
Nishikori used deep ground strokes and a multifaceted game to win eight matches in the tournament, three in qualifying and five in the main draw. He saved four match points in his semifinal against third-seeded American Sam Querrey. 
Blake, who appeared to emotionally fade at times in the match, was quick to credit Nishikori as a future star. 
“Congratulations to Kei on winning his first ATP title,” Blake said. “I’m sure it will be one of many. He’s been impressive all week. He has a very bright future.” 
Blake, 10 years older than Nishikori and currently ranked 12th, has failed to capture the title in two consecutive final appearances at the ITC. 
Blake was the third top-seeded player to reach the final at this tournament since it began in 1993. None of the three captured the title. 
“I can’t seem to get that winner’s title so I’ll have to keep coming back and trying,” Blake said.

TITLE: Briton in UK Kidnap Plot Sentenced
AUTHOR: By Jill Lawless
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — An extremist who plotted to kidnap and behead a British soldier was sentenced to life in prison Monday by a judge who said he was a fanatic determined to carry out his violent plan.
Parviz Khan, 37, pleaded guilty last month to concocting a plot to lure an unnamed British Muslim soldier into a trap using alcohol, women and drugs, and to take him to a lockup garage where he would be beheaded. 
Prosecutors said that Khan was planning to film the murder and then later release the footage to spread fear and panic.
Judge Richard Henriques told Leicester Crown Court in central England that Khan should serve life with no chance of parole for at least 14 years.
The judge said prosecutors had described Khan as “as a man who has the most violent and extreme Islamist views and as a fanatic.” 
Having seen the evidence, the judge said, “I unhesitatingly accept that description of you.”

TITLE: U.S. Swimmer Breaks Record
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: COLUMBIA, Missouri — Natalie Coughlin broke the women’s 100m backstroke world record here Sunday, clocking 59.21sec in preliminaries at the Grand Prix of Missouri long course swimming meeting.
Coughlin sliced 23-hundredths of a second off her own world mark of 59.44, set on March 27 of last year in Melbourne, where she added the 2007 world title to the Olympic title she won in Athens. 
Coughlin was the first woman to break one minute in the event, first doing so with a time of 59.58 in 2002.
The 25-year-old U.S. veteran said she didn’t go into the heats expecting to swim so fast.
“If you could see my face, I was slightly shocked,” said Coughlin, who was more than four-tenths of a second off world record pace after the first 50m. 
“I was thinking about barbecue and no warm down. It was a strange race. I really didn’t expect it.”
Coughlin’s record-breaking swim came hours after she settled for second behind Katie Hoff in the final of the 200m freestyle.
Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, who set a world record in the 200m backstroke on Saturday, was second-fastest in the 100m back heats 59.61 and American Hayley McGregory was third-fastest in 1:00.31.
The 100m backstroke final was scheduled for Monday morning as the meeting matches the planned program at the Beijing Olympics in August, where finals will be held in the morning and heats in the evening.

TITLE: McCain Relies On Key Players
AUTHOR: By Liz Sidoti
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — John McCain’s presidential campaign has been likened to a pirate ship: A feisty captain, rhetorical saber in hand, leading a fiercely loyal crew against his Republican primary opponents.
The five experienced hands who navigated McCain’s candidacy back from the brink of death are now charting the course toward the general election. All volunteers, his top advisers spent the weekend in Arizona plotting the transition.
Their challenge: Keep the organic feel of a bare-bones organization that the candidate has come to trust — and that has seen remarkable success — while expanding it into a GOP battleship able to take on either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton and a Democratic Party hungry to regain the White House after eight years of Republican rule.
“I’m very happy with our advisers,” McCain said last week, reflecting on his campaign’s new chapter. “I’m not so much worried about that as I am losing the flavor of the campaign.”
He wants to preserve his freewheeling style, especially the lengthy ask-anything town-hall-style events that are a hallmark of his campaign.
“We can’t play it safe. We tried that once,” McCain said, recalling the early months of the primary season, when critics say his campaign bore the mark of a large Bush-style bureaucracy and the cautiousness that came with it.
Back then, McCain paired veterans from George W. Bush’s two successful elections with loyalists from his first failed candidacy. High-paid consultants were hired and some 150 staffers filled an expansive Northern Virginia HQ.
McCain’s allies grumbled that the campaign didn’t fit the candidate and predicted the organization would crumble.
Sure enough, by last summer, McCain found his campaign account drained of some $25 million he had raised; staff layoffs and management changes followed.
McCain went forward in his own way, and, by necessity, with a pared-down campaign.
But five seasoned political operatives closed ranks to form McCain’s inner circle through his improbable primary comeback and now as he embarks on the general election — Rick Davis, one of McCain’s closest advisers for more than a decade; Mark Salter, often called McCain’s alter ego; Charlie Black, a former senior adviser to presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; Steve Schmidt, a veteran of President Bush’s 2004 campaign; and Mark McKinnon, Bush’s media adviser in 2000 and 2004.

TITLE: Rice Calls For Deal In Kenya
AUTHOR: By Tom Maliti
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NAIROBI, Kenya — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Kenya’s rival politicians Monday that a power-sharing solution to a bloody political crisis would enhance the country’s relationship with the United States.
Rice’s visit was greeted with anticipation by many Kenyans but wariness by others. Kenya’s foreign minister warned Sunday that any solution imposed by outsiders would ultimately fail.
“I’m going to emphasize that there is a lot to be gained in a relationship with the United States through resolution of this political crisis,” Rice said.
Washington is pressing Kenya’s rivals to strike a power-sharing deal to end the turmoil that has engulfed much of the country since a flawed Dec. 27 presidential vote. Rice planned to meet with President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the election was stolen from him. She was also going to discuss the peace talks with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is mediating.
“To the president, President Kibaki, I will say power-sharing means real power-sharing and the United States, as a friend of Kenya, expects that power-sharing to take place to show that you can make the electoral and constitutional reforms that frankly should have been made several years ago,” she said before her meetings.
She added: “To Mr. Odinga, I will be saying that we understand that the election was problematic, the United States has said that, but again power-sharing does need to take place.”
President Bush told reporters Sunday that the United States was looking at “how best we can help the process. Not what we should do to dictate the process but what America can do to help the process move along.” Bush is in neighboring Tanzania, the second stop of a five-nation Africa tour.
In the nearly two months since the vote, Kenya has been wracked by violence, much of it pitting ethnic groups that supported the opposition against those tied to the president’s party. More than 1,000 people have been killed and some 600,000 forced from their homes.
While Kenya’s political leaders have welcomed help from abroad in trying to end the crisis, the foreign minister insisted Sunday that any solution must come from Kenyans themselves.
The result of the talks “must be a Kenyan solution. Anything less will be superficial and perhaps counterproductive,” Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula, who is on the government’s negotiating team at the talks, told reporters.
No one, he warned, should “make a mistake of putting a gun (to) anybody’s head.”
On Saturday, the top U.S. State Department official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, warned that the U.S. is considering targeted sanctions against anyone who stands in the way of a power-sharing deal.

TITLE: Poor 
Liverpool Must Improve
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON, — Liverpool faces a daunting challenge from runaway Serie A leaders Inter Milan in the Champions League at home Tuesday only three days after their FA Cup humiliation by Barnsley.
Having gone down 2-1 at Anfield against the Championship (second division) side on Saturday, five-times European Cup winners Liverpool must call on their vast experience if they are to win the opening leg of the first knockout round tie.
Stephen Gerrard, who has four goals in the competition, leads a Liverpool side now out of the FA Cup they last won in 2006 and whose interest in the Premier League is virtually over barring the fourth Champions League berth for next season.
With all their eggs now in one basket, defender Jamie Carragher, set to make his 99th European appearance for Liverpool, said: “We will have to play a lot better than we have been and be at our very best to get through.
“They look like running away with their title and are keen to win this trophy after watching AC Milan do that against us last season,” he told the club’s Web site (www.liverpoolfc.tv).
“It will be a big test for us and we will have to up our game a level or two to get through. Making a good start in the tie at home, though, is crucial.”
Italian champions Inter have lost only one match this season, a 1-0 defeat by Fenerbahce in Turkey in September in their first group game, and are 11 points clear in Serie A after a 2-0 win over Livorno on Saturday.
Coach Roberto Mancini rested his favoured strike partnership of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, joint top scorer in the Champions League with five goals to go with his 14 in Serie A, and Julio Cruz.
Cruz said it would be a mistake to focus on the second leg being at San Siro.
“We mustn’t think that this might be an advantage. We have to try and do things well without thinking about the return leg at home, and try to kill off the match before the game in Milan,” he told Sky Italia.
Luis Figo came on as a substitute against Livorno for his first appearance since breaking his leg in November, a piece of good news amid their injury problems in midfield where Patrick Vieira and Chilean playmaker Luis Jimenez are doubtful.
Remarkably, the clubs have met only once before in the European Cup when Inter prevailed 4-3 on aggregate in 1965 on the way to winning the trophy for the second season in a row.

TITLE: Kosovars Declare Their Independence
AUTHOR: By William J. Kole and Nebi Qena
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s parliament declared the disputed territory a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an “independent and democratic state” backed by the U.S. and key European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.
Serbia immediately denounced the declaration as illegal, and Russia demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The European Union and NATO, mindful of the Balkans’ turbulent past, appealed for restraint and warned that the international community would not tolerate violence.
“Kosovo is a republic — an independent, democratic and sovereign state,” the parliamentary speaker, Jakup Krasniqi, said as the chamber burst into applause after a unanimous vote to approve the document.
Ten minority Serb lawmakers boycotted the session in protest.
Across the capital, Pristina, revelers danced in the streets, fired guns into the air, waved red and black Albanian flags and honked car horns in jubilation at the birth of the world’s newest country.
“I feel stronger,” said Ymer Govori, 36, carrying his daughter on his shoulders to celebrations downtown. “I have my own state and my own post code, and it won’t say Serbia any longer.”
Krasniqi, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and President Fatmir Sejdiu signed the declaration, which was scripted on parchment, before the unveiling of a new national crest and a flag: a bright blue banner featuring a golden map of Kosovo and six stars, one for each of its main ethnic groups.
Sunday’s declaration was carefully orchestrated with the U.S. and key European powers, and Kosovo was counting on swift international recognition that could come as early as Monday, when EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels.
By sidestepping the UN and appealing directly to the United States and other nations for recognition, Kosovo’s independence set up a showdown with Serbia — outraged at the imminent loss of its territory — and Russia, which warned that it would set a dangerous precedent for separatist groups worldwide. Serbia’s government minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said Serbia would increase its presence in the roughly 15 percent of Kosovo that is Serb-controlled — an apparent attempt to divide the province.
“From today onward, Kosovo is proud, independent and free,” said Thaci, a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which battled Serbian troops in a 1998-99 separatist war that claimed 10,000 lives. “We never lost faith in the dream that one day we would stand among the free nations of the world, and today we do.”
“Our hopes have never been higher,” he said during the ceremony, which was televised live. “Dreams are infinite, our challenges loom large, but nothing can deter us from moving forward to the greatness that history has reserved for us.”
Thaci had stern words for the Serbian government, which last week declared secession illegal and invalid, saying in the Serbian language: “Kosovo will never be ruled by Belgrade again.”
Thaci also signed 192 separate letters to nations around the world — including Serbia — asking them to recognize Kosovo as a state.
Kosovo has formally remained a part of Serbia even though it has been administered by the UN and NATO since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

TITLE: Mickelson Overcomes Riviera With Change to Putter
AUTHOR: By Doug Ferguson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Phil Mickelson had played 10 tournaments at Riviera dating to his first appearance 20 years ago as a teenager. Never before had he arrived with such good vibes, mostly because of a minor change that he didn’t reveal until he won. 
It wasn’t his close call last year, when he bogeyed the final hole and lost in a playoff. 
Nor was it the playoff loss two weeks ago in Phoenix, a sign that his game was on the right track. 
Rather, it was a noise only Lefty could hear. 
He switched golf balls this year to a softer cover for more spin, and figured he had made all the adjustments until he struggled with his speed on the greens at Pebble Beach last week, which held him back. That’s when he decided to change the insert in his putter. 
“When I had putted with the insert I had, it was a quieter sound when the ball was coming off and I couldn’t hear it, and I was giving it a little too much,” Mickelson said. “Consequently, my speed was going well by the hole. By putting in the firmer insert, I was able to hear it, and my speed and touch came back. 
“Now I hear it and it feels great.” 
The putter was key for Mickelson, who closed with a 1-under 70 for a two-shot victory over Jeff Quinney that gave him yet another PGA Tour title on the Left Coast. 
He now has 33 career victories, with 16 of them in California and Arizona. 
But as much as the putter helped Mickelson, it went from a magic wand to a ball-and-chain for Quinney. 
He made four straight putts, three of them for birdie, from outside 10 feet that took him from a two-shot deficit to a brief lead, and ultimately to a duel alone the final seven holes. But Quinney again had trouble down the stretch. 
He bogeyed three straight holes, starting with back-to-back par putts that he missed from 7 feet, that gave Mickelson a two-shot lead and some comfort as he played the final holes. Quinney lost all hope with a three-putt from 20 feet on the par-5 17th, and his 25-foot birdie on the final hole only made it look close. 
He shot a 71 for his first runner-up finish in his two years on tour. 
“I had two (putts) that I’d like to have back,” Quinney said. “I just put a little too much pressure on the putter on the back nine.” 
Mickelson, meanwhile, was solid throughout the week. 
His putting kept momentum in his round of 64 on Friday to seize control, and in his 70 on Saturday to stay in the lead. And after a two-shot swing that gave Quinney the lead on the ninth hole Sunday — Quinney made a 12-foot birdie, Mickelson missed the green well to the right and made bogey — Lefty responded with clutch putts. 
The first came at the 310-yard 10th hole, where Mickelson hit a driver over the green and a flop shot to the skinny part of the green, the ball stopping 6 feet away. Quinney saved par with a 10-foot putt, and Mickelson made his on top of him to tie for the lead. 
Mickelson pulled away when Quinney made the first of three straight bogeys, and the tournament turned on the par-3 14th. 
Quinney went over the green and chipped 7 feet by the hole. Mickelson hit into a bunker and blasted out to the same distance, a few inches farther away. That meant he went first, and Mickelson poured it in for par. 
Quinney missed his, the lead was two shots, the tournament effectively over. 
Mickelson didn’t make it a clean sweep of the West Coast Swing. He has never won in Hawaii, and only goes to Hawaii on vacation. He has never won the Accenture Match Play Championship, although he gets another shot starting Wednesday. 
But he has won at every stop on the West Coast, from the ocean courses of Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach to soggy La Costa Resort to the desert tracks in Phoenix, Palm Springs and Tucson. 
“I do enjoy the West Coast,” Mickelson said. “I’m excited to play golf and I practice very hard on the West Coast when the season is coming around and I haven’t played for awhile, I’ve got a lot of energy and I’m excited to get back out. I think all of these things, plus the fact that I grew up here and used to walk these fairways on the outside, I just have a great love for the West Coast. 
“I’ve been fortunate to play well here.” 
It should be no surprise that Riviera took so long. 
Until last year, Mickelson had missed the cut four out of eight times, including the 1995 PGA Championship. He loved the look of Riviera, but was confounded by the sticky kikuya grass that could grab the ball as it was approaching the green. 
There’s an art to his course off Sunset Boulevard, and he was a slow learner. 
“I didn’t understand the nuances of this golf course, where you can and can’t hit it,” he said. “And learning those nuances and how to hit the shots into some of these greens has helped me over the years. Last year was when I started to put it together, and I’m fortunate to break through this year.” 
Sweeter still is having his name on the roll call of champions, a list that includes Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead. And it’s a list that doesn’t include Tiger Woods, or even Jack Nicklaus. 
And now that another victory is in the bag, he’s hungry for more. 
“It’s not quite to where I believe I can get it, but I feel like it’s been much better than in the past, so I feel like I’m getting better,” Mickelson said of his game. “I can taste where I want to get to. But I’m not quite there yet.”

TITLE: Superman Soars Past the Rest in Superslam Dunk
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW ORLEANS — Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Dwight Howard — super slam dunk champion. 
A red cape trailing behind him, Orlando’s man of steel made like Superman and won perhaps the best dunk contest, definitely the most creative, in NBA history to close a memorable All-Star Saturday.
Using a variety of props as well as teammate Jameer Nelson, Howard scored perfect 50s from judges on his first two dunks before the contest was turned over to fan voting for the first time in the final round. 
Fans, too, picked the 6-foot-11 Howard, who dispelled an old dunking myth: Big men can fly high. 
“It’s really for the big men,” Howard said. “Everybody always says, big men can’t jump and big men don’t look good dunking. I just tried to add a little bit of my personality. With me being so tall, I knew it was going to be tough. I tried to play to the crowd and have fun.” 
In any other year, Minnesota’s Gerald Green would have easily walked away with his second straight dunking crown, but he was upstaged by the amazingly athletic Howard, whose performance has to rank up there with anything Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter or even tiny Spud Webb ever did above the basket. 
The dunk contest, bland for so many years as the game’s high risers seemed to run out of ideas, was freshened up by some of the most creative aerial assaults in memory. 
Howard, Green, Toronto’s Jamario Moon and Memphis’ Rudy Gay all used tape, ladders, teammates and even a tasty dessert to show their stuff. 
“I think the dunk contest is back,” said Howard, who was disappointed when he failed to make it out of the first round last year. “I don’t think people want to see the same old dunks. They want to see something else, see some spice.” 
Howard started things off with a dunk he has been practicing for two years. Standing on the baseline, he tossed the ball off the reverse side of the backboard, caught it with both hands, and after peering through the glass at the rim, dunked left-handed. 
The crowd roared and a celebrity panel of judges including Magic Johnson, Karl Malone as well as Dominique Wilkins, Julius Erving and Darryl Dawkins — three of the game’s most famed dunkers — all gave him perfect 10s. 
Not to be outdone, Green tried to blow the field away. Literally. 
After Timberwolves teammate Rashad McCants climbed up and placed a cupcake with a single candle in it on the back of the rim, Green soared in and puffed out the flame before throwing down a nasty left-hander.

TITLE: Drive toward Independence
TEXT: Key dates in Kosovo’s decades-long — and often bloody — drive to gain independence from Serbia:
1968: First pro-independence demonstrations by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, when it was part of Yugoslavia; many arrested.
1991: As Yugoslavia implodes, separatists proclaim Kosovo a republic, which is recognized by neighboring Albania.
1996: Pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army emerges, claims responsibility for bombings of police targets.
March-April 1998: Dozens killed in Serb police action against suspected Albanian separatists. Serbs overwhelmingly reject international mediation on Kosovo in referendum. 
July-September: KLA seizes control of 40 percent of Kosovo before being routed in Serb offensive. 
October: NATO allies authorize airstrikes against Serb military targets.
Jan. 15, 1999: Forty-five ethnic Albanians slain outside Racak. International officials demand war crimes investigation.
March: Belgrade authorities reject the internationally brokered peace deal, while ethnic Albanians sign it.
March 24: NATO launches 78 days of airstrikes against Yugoslavia.
June 10, 1999: Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic agrees to withdraw troops from Kosovo after agreeing to a proposal for NATO to move in and the province to be run by UN. 
Oct. 6, 2000: Milosevic resigns after mass demonstrations protesting his refusal to accept electoral defeat.
June 28, 2001: Milosevic extradited to The Hague to face trial for war crimes, dies before trial ends.
February 2002: Kosovo elects parliament and government with Ibrahim Rugova as president.
October 2003: First direct talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders since 1999 end without agreement.
March 2004: Ethnic Albanian mobs attack Serbs in worst outbreak of violence since the war.
January 2006: Rugova dies of lung cancer in Pristina.
February 2006: UN-mediated talks on Kosovo’s future status begin.
Jan. 26, 2007: UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari unveils recommended guidelines to Kosovo’s eventual statehood.
April: Russia rejects Ahtisaari proposal in the UN Security Council.
July: Kosovo’s prime minister says UN-sponsored process has failed and calls for declaration of independence by year’s end.
February 2008: Kosovo declares independence.
Source: AP

TITLE: Key facts About Kosovo
TEXT: Land: Kosovo covers about 10,900 square kilometers, roughly the size of Belgium, and borders Albania and Macedonia. The central area around the capital, Pristina, is lowlands, with mountains elsewhere.
People: About 2 million. Ninety percent are ethnic Albanian; most are Muslims, and the rest are Catholics. The remaining 10 percent are mainly Orthodox Christian Serbs.
Status: Though it legally remains a province of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the UN and NATO since 1999, when Slobodan Milosevic’s forces were ousted after a NATO air war launched to end his crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
History: Kosovo, the site of an epic battle between Serbs and Turks in 1389, is considered hallowed ground by the Serbs, and the birthplace of their identity. Ethnic Albanians say they are descendants of the ancient Ilyrians, who were Kosovo’s first inhabitants.
What’s Next: Kosovo declared independence on Sunday, and its ethnic Albanian leadership is counting on swift recognition from the United States and key European powers such as Britain, France and Germany. Serbia, backed by Russia, fiercely opposes the bid and has vowed to block it at the UN Security Council.

TITLE: Criticism Of China Over Sudan Role
Continues
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PARIS — International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said he respected film director Steven Spielberg’s decision to quit his Beijing Olympics role because of China’s policies in Sudan. 
“I reacted by respecting his decision,” Rogge told French television channel France 24 in an interview to be broadcast later Friday. 
“I have a lot of respect for Mr. Spielberg,” Rogge added. “I like his films. Here is a man who has had a remarkable career.” 
Hollywood director Spielberg said he pulled out of his role as an artistic adviser because China was doing too little to help halt the bloodshed in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, where Khartoum-linked militia have battled rebel groups. 
“He was contracted by the organizing committee,” Rogge told France 24. 
“The IOC had nothing to do with that decision. He [Spielberg] is leaving. It is his decision. He certainly would have brought a lot to the opening ceremony in terms of creativity. His absence will not harm the quality of the Games.” 
China voiced its disappointment on Thursday over Spielberg’s decision and said the Games would be a success regardless.