SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1370 (34), Tuesday, May 6, 2008
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TITLE: Visa Rules Waived For Fans
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia has waived entry visa requirements for fans with a valid ticket for the May 21 Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow, a match organiser told Reuters on Monday.
“A fan can come without a visa and...enter Russia with a valid ticket,” said Alexei Sorokin, the Russian official coordinating preparations for the match. 
“It is an unprecedented decision by the Russian government,” Sorokin said.
Tens of thousands of British fans are expected to travel to the match with the Premier League rivals facing each other in the final at the Soviet-era Luzhniki Stadium.
The two English clubs have both been allocated 21,000 tickets each for the match in Moscow.
Moscow has been planning to host the match for two years. Special measures have already been announced by the game’s organisers, with 700 buses scheduled to transport fans from the city’s three airports to and from the stadium.
There have been concerns that the city does not have enough hotel rooms to accommodate all the fans arriving for the match, though organisers say there will be enough beds to meet demand.
Arrangements were complicated by a diplomatic row between Moscow and London over the 2006 murder in London of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.
The dispute has affected the issuing of some types of entry visa between the countries.
With less than three weeks to go, concerns have been high that there would not be enough time for fans to make their way through Russia’s notoriously laborious visa application procedures.
Talks on preparations, which include Manchester United chief executive David Gill and Chelsea chief operating officer Ron Gourlay, continued over the weekend. Chelsea and United have both been allocated 21,000 tickets for the match at Luzhniki stadium. 
UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, said it wanted fans to use official charter flights to be able to go to the final without a visa. 
Deputy Mayor Valery Vinogradov said the city was fully prepared to host the game and that Moscow had met all of UEFA’s demands.
Many fans in England remain concerned about safety in Moscow, where supporters were attacked after a Euro 2008 qualifying match against Russia last year. 
There is also the possibility of clashes between rival Manchester United and Chelsea fans. 
British authorities have also adopted streamlined visa applications procedures for Russian fans of St. Petersburg club Zenit, which will play in the UEFA Cup final against the Glasgow Rangers on May 15 at Manchester, England. Zenit reached the final by beating Bayern Munich 4-0 on Thursday. 
Glasgow Rangers qualified for the final by beating Fiorentina on Thursday.
Vinogradov said the city has also prepared the public transportation system for visiting fans. About 700 buses and 200 mini-buses will be made available on the day of the game to transport fans, he said. The metro will also remain open until 4 a.m. — three hours later than normal. “We have also fulfilled our promises on reserving places in the city’s hotels. There are around 200 hotels in Moscow, and no other large-scale events have been scheduled for the day of the final. So, I think we can accommodate all comers,” he said.

TITLE: May Day Celebrations Marred by Provocations
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A democratic opposition march and meeting held amid May Day festivities in St. Petersburg was marred by an unprecedented number of provocations directed against it whilst being patrolled by a massive police presence.
“Thank you for not beating us,” chanted demonstrators to the police at the point where they gathered, referring, ironically, to police beatings and arrests during previous protest rallies.
Called “For Freedom and Justice,” the dissident rally on Thursday drew national opposition figures such as Garry Kasparov, the head of the United Civil Front (OGF), and Eduard Limonov, the leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP), both part of pro-democracy coalition The Other Russia. 
Andrei Illarionov, a former economics advisor to President Vladimir Putin and now an opposition figure, also joined protesters.
The first and most outrageous incident directed against the event took place as protesters were gathering near Oktyabrsky Concert Hall on Ligovsky Prospekt. A man briskly approached Limonov from behind and smeared his face with excrement brought in a polythene bag, so that the Moscow-based opposition politician and author had to leave for a while to wash.
The May Day demonstration also featured pro-Kremlin parties United Russia and Just Russia, the Trade Union Federation, Communists, left-wing and anarchist groups, and nationalists, who marched to various destinations where they held their respective meetings.
The United Russia group, sporting professionally made posters and props such as polar bear costumes worn by short-haired young men resembling army cadets, marched along the length of Nevsky Prospekt to Palace Square. 
The opposition groups were initially denied by the authorities the opportunity of marching along the city’s main street to St. Isaac’s Square and were offered a route through back streets and a meeting at Chernyshevsky Gardens instead.
However, after several days of talks, permission for the opposition group to walk along a 300-meter stretch of Nevsky, turning left on Ulitsa Marata and holding a meeting on Pionerskaya Ploshchad, near TYuZ (Young Spectators Theater), was granted as a compromise. 
A group of nationalists were sent to Chernyshevsky Gardens.
“We always prefer to reach some agreement [with the authorities] lest we should leave the event’s participants vulnerable,” said Olga Kurnosova, the head of the local branch of the OGF and coordinator for The Other Russia in St. Petersburg, by phone on Sunday.
The estimated 1,500-strong opposition group featured, apart from The Other Russia, the local branch of Yabloko democratic party, Living City, a group that struggles to protect the city’s endangered buildings, pro-Tibet activists protesting continued denial of a visa to the Dalai Lama and carrying the banner “Give the Dalai Lama a Russian Visa” and Tibetan flags, as well as other movements and pressure groups.
Led by Sergei Gulyayev of the Narod movement and Andrei Dmitriyev, the head local branch of NBP, who alternated in shouting slogans into a megaphone, the demonstrators carried a blue banner reading “Dissenters’ March: Russia Without Putin” and “This Is Our City,” among others.
After the incident with Limonov, his party guards formed a circle by holding hands around Kasparov and Limonov as they marched. As the group moved, preceded by a line of policemen, it was continuously attacked by provocateurs who threw dildos at The Other Russia leaders — as they have done at other recent opposition rallies — and ran away. The police did not make any attempt to stop them.
Opening the rally, Kasparov attacked United Russia, noting the seeming absurdity of a party that has “robbed the entire country” celebrating a festival of labor.
“They think they are many,” said Kasparov. “[But] this is darkness and insanity that should disappear as the sun is glimpsed, as spring comes. Nobody can bring our country back but us. That’s because we are backed by our history and our culture. We are backed by our country.”
Maxim Reznik, the local leader of Yabloko, who made his first public speech after he was arrested and imprisoned in early March on charges of assaulting three policemen in a case he sees as fabricated, thanked protesters for the support which he said had helped lead to his release.
“Thank you for the support I that felt... I think it was our common victory,” he said.
“In this case, the civil society of St. Petersburg and the whole country has deserves an excellent mark.”
Speaking next, Limonov attacked last month’s presidential election, describing it as a “the second political fraud committed in our country during the last several years.” 
“As eight years ago, [when the late Russian president Boris] Yeltsin brought his successor, Vladimir Putin, through the back door in a roundabout way, avoiding any election and democratic procedures, Putin brought his successor through the same back door this year,” he said.
Illarionov concentrated on political prisoners, saying that it is a “national shame” to have political prisoners in the 21st century and calling on the authorities for their immediate release. “There’s no more important slogan today, than ‘Freedom to Political Prisoners,’” he said.
As at the March for the Preservation of St. Petersburg last September, dozens of African students were mysteriously brought from Moscow, Tver, and other cities to join the rally under various pretexts by people offering them money in what opposition leaders see as a clear provocation designed to somehow discredit the May Day protest.
At one point African students were seen carrying a farcical banner saying “Our Fathers and Grandfathers Were Liberated by Revolution” and a poster saying “Ivan Dulov is Our Hero,” referring to a television comedy character.
Kurnosova said the main organizer of the African group was from Balashikha, a town near Moscow. 
Another was later identified as a member of the Kremlin-backed youth movement Nashi from Ryazan. 
One African student at the rally said he was invited to what was described to him as a rally against intolerance, while another said he thought it would be simply the May Day celebration.
“We also celebrate the First of May in Africa,” he said.
“African students from Moscow and the regions were lured into taking part in a demonstration they knew nothing about other than it was held on May 1 International Workers’ Day, and without any political provocations,” said Aliu Tunkara, president of the St. Petersburg African Union, an organization that unites Africans in the city and its surrounding region, in a statement.
“Mysterious organizers in Moscow told them it would be preferable if they put on traditional attire to use the event to demonstrate their culture. Moreover, they were offered financial rewards for that. They take advantage of the students’ [poor] financial status and unawareness of Russian politics to meet their political ends.
“The African Union refused to take part and advised those who called us not to participate, because they could face problems, whichever side they might back, pro-Kremlin or anti-Kremlin. After all, the African Union is not a political organization. We heard some people have had problems in their universities before. Many of the local Africans just left when they felt there was something wrong.”
According to a report, the African students were later put in several buses and taken away, accompanied by traffic police cars.
According to Kurnosova, the police did not co-operate in dealing with provocateurs behind such actions.
“To say honestly, we failed to submit anybody to the police, moreover, law enforcement officers tended to hide themselves somewhere as soon as we tried to point out the provocateurs to the police,” she said.
At a concert held after the meeting, the band Televizor delivered a powerful eight-song, politically-themed set, followed by the group SP Babai and satirical singer/songwriter Andrei Vasilyev.
“It’s turned out into what looks like a new genre, but, in fact, it’s in the tradition of rock concerts of the past, when John Lennon in the 1970s and then Peter Gabriel and Sting in the 1980s combined concerts and rallies to protest against injustice,” said Televizor frontman Mikhail Borzykin, speaking by phone on Sunday.
Although there were no police beatings or detentions, Kurnosova said there were still problems.
“For instance, they didn’t let people into the meeting and concert,” she said.
“Before the beginning, they blocked the site and wouldn’t let anybody in. During the rally, once a person left, he or she couldn’t get back in. It looks as if there was a command not to let people in to decrease the number.”
 “I don’t even know how to comment on this,” said Reznik, the leader of the local branch of Yabloko, speaking to The St. Petersburg Times about the provocations on Saturday.
“It looks like the people [behind the provocations] don’t know how to work for their money, because I can’t see what its all for. For instance, they smeared Limonov with crap, but what do they want to say with it? Do they think that if people will find out about this, their attitude to Limonov will be worse? I think just the opposite — the natural human reaction is to sympathize with somebody against whom actions like this are taken. And dislike, repulsion and disgust toward those who act like this. “Or what do they want to say by bringing black people? I don’t know, do they think there are nationalists who gathered here, who will start to fight with the Africans immediately?
“I don’t care, they come and they go, so what? But it is a pity that the wealth of the country that belongs to the people is spent on such things. Because it’s clear that it’s financed by the authorities. Somebody pays them for this, I mean in the end it’s us who pay. That’s what angers me.”

TITLE: 10,000 Feared Dead In Myanmar
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: BANGKOK — Myanmar’s military government has a provisional death toll of 10,000 from this weekend’s devastating cyclone, with another 3,000 missing, a diplomat said on Monday after a briefing from Foreign Minister Nyan Win.
“The basic message was that they believe the provisional death toll was about 10,000 with 3,000 missing,” a diplomat present at the meeting told Reuters in Bangkok.
The government had previously put the death toll countrywide from Saturday’s Cyclone Nargis at 351.
The storm has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and without clean drinking water, a UN official has said.
Neighboring Thailand announced it would fly in the first planeload of emergency assistance Tuesday requested by the Myanmar government, easing fears that the ruling junta would reject international aid.
Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.
With the city’s already unstable electricity supply virtually nonfunctional, citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, and water since lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city’s lakes to wash.
Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.
Public transportation was at a near standstill and vehicles had to cope with navigating without traffic lights. Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transportation or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
“Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us,” said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand.
With his shanty town house destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries that have offered temporary shelter to the many homeless.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country, the government indicated that a referendum on the country’s draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10.
“It’s only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote,” the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday.
Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military’s continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
Thai government spokesman Wichianchote Sukchotrat said the ruling junta had asked for food, medical supplies and construction equipment.
The Foreign Ministry in Yangon called resident ambassadors to a meeting Monday and some diplomats said they expected the government to request emergency assistance from other countries.
Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday’s storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city’s many monasteries, banded together, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclone’s 190 kmph winds.
Several residents said the streets were like forests, scattered as they were with trees and debris.
Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transport or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
“Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us,” said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand. With his shanty town house destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries which have offered temporary shelter to many homeless.
Most telephone landlines, mobile phones and Internet connections were down. But airlines announced Yangon’s international airport had reopened.
The city was plunged into almost total darkness overnight, security concerns mounted, with reports of robberies in some working class suburbs circulating. Many shops sold their goods through partially opened doors or iron grills. Looting was reported at several fresh food markets, where thieves took vegetables and other items.
At least 162 people were killed who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country’s southwest coast, military-run Myawaddy television station reported. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.
“The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge,” said Chris Kaye, the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. “The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened.”
State television reported that in the Irrawaddy’s Labutta township, 75 percent of the buildings had collapsed.
The UN planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye said. Initial assessment efforts had been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar urged the military junta Sunday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone - something it has been reluctant to do in the past. (Reuters, AP)

TITLE: Nestle Recalls Free Breakfast CDs
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — Swiss-based food company Nestle has apologised to Azerbaijan after CDs it handed out free with packets of breakfast products angered the former Soviet state by accusing it of provoking war with its neighbour.
Azerbaijan made an official protest after discs aimed at children across Russia stated it had provoked a war with Armenia over the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Nestle has halted distribution of the CDs.
“It’s a complete disaster as a statement, first it is incorrect, there are many views. It is also absolutely not the right place for it, it is a catastrophe,” said Andrey Bader, Nestle’s corporate affairs director for Russia.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh between Azeri and Armenian forces claimed an estimated 35,000 lives and despite a ceasefire in 1994 the issue remains highly sensitive in both countries. Armenia supports the separatists. Azerbaijan wrote to Nestle’s headquarters in Switzerland to complain about the disc.
“We have sent an official letter expressing discontent and Nestle offered apologies and withdrew all the CDs which had been distributed,” said a spokesman for the Azeri Foreign Ministry.
“Every measure which was possible has been taken,” he said, noting the CDs were not distributed in Azerbaijan itself.
The bonus computer disc was being distributed across Russia from April 10 to April 30 with two breakfast products — Kosmostars and Nesquik — and contained nuggets of data about different countries.
“Now, regretfully, it has become pretty emotional in Azerbaijan,” said Bader.
The content for the disc was prepared by an outside company and although the same details had been distributed since 1996, this was the first time it was noticed, said Bader.
Nestle has now temporarily halted the promotion, but will resume it once revised discs are despatched.
Bader said he did not know how many discs would have to be destroyed, but said it was a substantial campaign covering major cities across Russia, which has a population of 142 million.
He could not estimate the cost to Nestle, but said the decision to halt distribution was taken after consultation with its Swiss headquarters hours after the problem came to light.
“Nestle took time to officially apologise with its consumers, with a recorded speech on Azeri TV, we brought this in a very loud way to consumers,” he said.

TITLE: Drunk Hockey Fan Dies on Flight to Toronto
PUBLISHER: The Moscow Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Russian hockey fan died aboard a Toronto-bound Aeroflot flight after drinking heavily and harassing other passengers, including Russian Hockey Federation president and Hall of Fame goalie Vladislav Tretyak. 
The unidentified 41-year-old man was drinking straight from the bottle together with other passengers and began arguing with several passengers on the flight from Moscow on Wednesday, Canada’s Globe and Mail reported. 
Tretyak said he was sleeping in the business class cabin when he felt someone rubbing his head, Sovietsky Sport reported Sunday. The man left the cabin, and Tretyak said he heard only later that he had died. 
“I saw the man only twice,” Tretyak said. “Once when he patted me on the head and then only after he was already dead, lying next to the en- trance to the stewardess’ quarters.” 
Three hours into the flight, several passengers, together with members of the flight crew, moved to subdue him after he insulted a female passenger, Canada’s CBC News reported. 
The female passenger was “shouting back at him because he obviously did something that he shouldn’t have done,” a witness told CBC News. 
Passenger Michael Packham, 34, told the Globe and Mail that several attempts were made to restrain the passenger after he began stumbling around the cabin, stepping on people’s feet and accidentally hitting people in the head. 
“People kept trying to restrain him, but he kept getting back up,” Packham said. 
Another passenger, Vsevolod Timofeyev, said he saw the man turn blue after he lay down in the aisle between economy and business class. 
The man died an hour before the plane landed, the Toronto Star reported. 
Toronto police said that, while the cause of death remained unclear following an autopsy conducted Saturday, there appeared to be no signs of foul play. 
Canadian authorities have not released the man’s name, but the daily tabloid Tvoi Den said he was a hockey fan on his way to Quebec to watch the Russian national team play in the Ice Hockey World Championships. 
The passengers, including Tretyak were detained for six hours in Toronto after the flight.nducted an investigation into the death.

TITLE: Five Police Killed in Grozny
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — A remote-controlled bomb exploded on a roadside in the capital of troubled Chechnya, leaving five police officers dead, while another officer was fatally shot near the city, regional authorities said Monday.
The regional Emergency Situations Ministry said the bomb blast took place late Sunday in the city of Grozny. Two other officers were seriously wounded in the attack, the ministry said.
The police were part of a squad of 10 that was working to tighten security in the city ahead of this week’s inauguration of new Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and the celebration of Victory Day, which commemorates the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.
In 2004, Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov was killed in a bomb blast at a stadium where he was attending Victory Day ceremonies.
The republic’s Interior Ministry reported that a traffic officer was fatally shot while traveling on a road in the Grozny region.
Although major fighting between separatists and Russian troops died down years ago, Chechen rebels continue small hit-and-run attacks on soldiers and police.

TITLE: Protesters Cry ‘May Day’ Over Pricing
AUTHOR: By Catrina Stewart
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Thousands of people used traditional May Day marches to call for something new: an end to rising food prices.
The protests against rising inflation and living costs coincided with an end on May 1 to government-led price freezes on selected goods, a voluntary curb agreed on by food wholesalers and producers last October as a measure to stem inflation. 
The protests, staged in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Volgograd, Stavropol and other cities, highlight a key challenge facing President-elect Dmitry Medvedev when he assumes power on Wednesday. 
The protests are very topical, Dmitry Yanin, head of the Moscow-based International Consumer Societies Confederation, said Sunday. 
“People remember the 1990s when inflation was very high, and of course people are very worried,” he said by telephone.
In Moscow, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told May Day crowds that more than 5 million of the country’s poorest people were barely surviving on 5,000 rubles ($210) per month amid rising housing costs. 
Communist supporters carried banners saying, “Everyone should have the right to a free apartment.”
A pro-Kremlin march organized jointly by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and United Russia called for the “rise in wages to exceed the rise in prices.” The refrain was also taken up in Volgograd, where demonstrators called for higher salaries, the Regnum news agency reported. 
In St. Petersburg, marchers chanted, “No to high prices!” and “Putin’s Plan means high prices,” Reuters reported. In the Far East, protesters in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk called for higher wages and for the government to take measures to bring down prices for fuel and food. 
The battle cry for higher wages and pensions and lower food costs was taken up at May Day rallies around the world, with clashes between police and protesters in Turkey leaving nearly 40 people injured, while crowds rallied against the rising cost of food staples throughout Asia. 
In Paris, nearly 120,000 people marched to call for higher wages and pensions, while 25,000 people turned out in Madrid to voice their concerns over growing unemployment, Agence France Presse reported. 
Rising inflation has emerged as a global phenomenon in the light of poor harvests, the growing use of grain in biofuels production and rising demand from economies such as China. A growing number of governments, economists and NGOs have warned of a deepening global food crisis. 
Here, the authorities have pointed to rising food prices as the chief driver behind spiraling inflation, yet Russians are facing higher costs in every aspect of their lives, from apartments to fuel. 
As of April 28, consumer prices had risen by 6.3 percent in the year to date, according to the State Statistics Service, throwing doubt on the government’s ability to keep inflation to its target of 9 percent to 10 percent by year’s end. Inflation officially rose to 11.9 percent last year, far outstripping the government’s forecasts.
“The Federation Council is extremely disturbed by the uncontrollable rises in food prices and inflation,” said Oganes Oganesyan, head of the council’s committee on economic policy, Interfax reported. 
“We will react to the situation, particularly after the end of the ban on price increases on food products.”
He proposed empowering the government to react quickly to sudden price increases, enabling it to limit price increases on certain products in a similar way to its actions over the past six months. 
Marina Kagan, an executive director at Wimm-Bill-Dann, the country’s largest juice and dairy producer, welcomed the end to the voluntary price freezes, but said they were “never material” to the company, accounting for just 3 percent of its revenue. 
“At the time, it was probably the right thing to do because people needed to see some action,” she said, adding that the company would continue to adhere to voluntary price freezes in some regions. 
Analysts said they did not expect prices to rise significantly in light of the lifting of the price freezes — which was limited to “socially significant” products such as milk and cooking oil — but in some areas, such as Vladivostok, staple products had already risen by as much as 2 rubles since May 1, RIA-Novosti reported Sunday. 
Yanin said prices would continue to grow, irrespective of the agreement reached between wholesalers and producers. 
“I don’t think this agreement had any influence on prices,” said Yanin, noting that prices had grown, although at a slower rate, in spite of the freeze. 
The government has come in for some harsh criticism from economists for fueling inflation through increased budgetary spending and reluctance to take substantive measures to bring it down. 
In particular, the government has poured money into boosting wages and pensions. According to the Health and Social Development Ministry, real incomes have risen by an average of 25 percent in the last two years, above official inflation figures. 
Economists view such wage hikes as another contributor to rising prices. “Usually street protests are very powerful tools to push the government into advertising its measures,” said Yulia Tseplyayeva, an economist at Merrill Lynch. “I expect more public efforts … to demonstrate that [the government is] doing something, rather than anything practical.”

Staff Writer Anna Malpas contributed to this report.

TITLE: No Sign Of Attack By Georgia
AUTHOR: By Niko Mchedlishvili
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: KODOR GORGE, Georgia — Russia says Georgia is massing troops and weapons in this steep-sided valley ready to attack the separatist Abkhazia region, but it does not feel like a place preparing for battle.
On-duty policeman Rozman Loladze and his partner were making plans on Friday to hunt mountain goats with their Kalashnikov rifles. They reconsidered, and stopped off instead at a friend’s house for a few shots of vodka and some khachapuri cheese bread.
The remote Kodor Gorge has become the focus for a sharp escalation in tension between Russia and Georgia that has left Western diplomats worrying that it would only take a small spark to ignite a renewed armed conflict.
Moscow said Tbilisi had brought in extra troops, including Defense Ministry forces, 122-mm field guns, mortars and supplies, to mount an operation against the Moscow-backed separatists in Abkhazia. Moscow cited this as its reason for sending in hundreds of extra peacekeeping troops to the region last week.
A Reuters reporter and photographer spent two days last week in the upper part of the Kodor Gorge, the only area of Abkhazia controlled by Tbilisi. Officials did not attempt to impose restrictions on them.
The only forces they saw were regular police, Interior Ministry troops and Interior Ministry special forces. These units have been operating in the region for two years as part of what Tbilisi said was a law enforcement effort.
The Interior Ministry troops and special forces were dressed in camouflage uniforms marked with the ministry’s initials, and armed with Kalashnikov rifles.
The only other equipment in evidence were police patrol vehicles, a handful of KamAZ trucks, and several Soviet-designed UAZ off-road vehicles and Toyota Hilux pickup trucks.
All were marked with Interior Ministry insignia and none had the black-and-white license plates that are standard issue for Georgian Defense Ministry vehicles.
Moscow says there are more than 1,500 armed men in the area. Soso Karchaidze, a head of the local police, said there were 450.
“There has been no change in the number of men,” he said. “There are no armed forces [attached to the Defense Ministry] here at all.”
The upper Kodor Gorge has been on the front line of a tense standoff between Georgia and Russia since the end of a separatist conflict in which the separatists threw off Tbilisi’s control over all but this corner of the region.
Abkhazia is recognized internationally as part of Georgia but runs its own affairs, with support from Moscow. Under a 1994 ceasefire brokered by the United Nations, Russian peacekeepers patrol the conflict zone.
Stretching about 50 kilometers long and 3 kilometers across at its widest point, the upper part of the gorge has no more than 3,000 residents spread around 12 villages.

TITLE: Abkhazia Claims Downing of Spy Planes
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SUKHUMI, Georgia — An official of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia said its forces shot down two unmanned Georgian spy planes over the territory on Sunday.
Tension between Georgia and Russia, which has close ties to Abkhazia, has escalated since a similar incident two weeks ago. Georgia accused Moscow of shooting down a Georgian reconnaissance plane over Abkhazia. Russia denied involvement, and separatist Abkhazian officials said their forces shot it down.
Georgian Foreign Ministry official Maka Gigauri dismissed Sunday’s claims as “completely absurd disinformation” aimed at increasing tension in the area.
Ruslan Kishmaria, a representative of Abkhazia’s president in an eastern district of Abkhazia near Georgian-controlled territory, said two planes were shot down Sunday by Abkhaz anti-aircraft forces aided by aviation. Authorities were searching for fragments of the planes, he said.
Conflicting claims over aircraft downings have deepened tension between Georgia and Russia, which is strengthening its support for Abkhazia and another Georgian separatist region, South Ossetia, and started sending extra peacekeeping troops there last week. 
Russia says its military buildup is in response to Georgian deployments near the two breakaway regions and is aimed at protecting Russian citizens there. Georgia says it fears that Russia is preparing an “act of military aggression.”
The United Nations, United States and NATO expressed concern late last week at the state of relations between Georgia and Russia. UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Thursday that all actions by the parties and other countries should comply with Security Council resolutions affirming the support of all 192 UN member states for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Russia-led CIS peacekeeping force notified the UN observer mission in Georgia of the increase but did not specify troop numbers, so the UN cannot confirm the number of troops deployed, Okabe said. Itar-Tass reported Saturday that 2,000 CIS troops were based in the region and their number would be increased to 3,000.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised the recent tensions with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday at London meetings about the Middle East and Kosovo.

TITLE: U.S. Administration Pushes For Civilian Nuclear Pact
AUTHOR: By Susan Cornwell
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON — The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to send a pact on civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia to the U.S. Congress in the next month, but a congressional aide said there would be strong resistance to the deal.
Concerns over Iran, which Washington accuses of trying to build an atomic bomb, could scuttle administration hopes that the deal would take effect by the time Bush leaves office in January.
The Bush administration says the nuclear deal with Russia could help solve the Iran problem by clearing the way for Washington to cooperate with Russia’s offer to host an international uranium-enrichment center that would supply nuclear fuel to countries like Iran.
President Vladimir Putin says the proposed uranium-enrichment center, a sort of fuel bank, would discourage Iran and other countries from developing nuclear facilities that could be used for covert weapons programs.
“We can’t isolate ourselves from Russia and then expect that these are the proposals that are going to be the solution to the Iranian nuclear program,” a senior U.S. State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“If there is an interest in the U.S. in investing in this consortium that Russia is establishing, getting U.S. industry involved in that whole international enrichment center, this [nuclear] agreement would be a useful baseline for that sort of cooperation,” the official said.
A 123 agreement, so-called because it falls under section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, is required before countries can cooperate on nuclear materials, such as storing spent fuel, or work together on advanced nuclear reactor programs.
At a summit last month in Sochi, Bush and Putin agreed to sign a nuclear cooperation deal “in the near future.” The Bush administration is now going through the U.S. interagency process leading to the president’s signature.
Bush would have to send the deal to Congress “in the next month or so” to give lawmakers time to consider it before they adjourn this year, the senior official said. “If we’re to get it done, it will have to be soon,” the official said.
Once the agreement is sent to lawmakers, it would go into force if Congress did not pass a disapproval resolution within 90 legislative days.
But the U.S. House of Representatives is already on record as saying the United States should shun civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia because of Moscow’s aid in building Iran’s plant at Bushehr and supplying it with fuel. A similar bill with some 70 co-sponsors is pending in the Senate.
If Bush signs the deal but does not submit it to lawmakers, that leaves it in limbo — perhaps for the next president, who will take office in January, to send to Capitol Hill.
Some critics suspect the agreement is legacy-building by a White House in its last few months in office. 
“A nuclear-cooperation agreement should be icing on a cake of trust and accomplishment with regard to nonproliferation. Instead, there’s no cake,” said Henry Sokolski, director of the Washington-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.

TITLE: Deripaska Sued for $3Bln
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: LONDON — Billionaire Oleg Deripaska owes former business partner Michael Cherney at least $3 billion after failing to honor an agreement concerning stakes in aluminum companies, lawyers for Cherney told a London court hearing.
Geoffrey Voss, a Cherney lawyer, outlined at a Wednesday hearing a 2001 business agreement that his client claims took place to exchange part of Siberian Aluminum for a future interest in Russian Aluminum, which later merged with rivals to create United Company RusAl.
Deripaska has said he was never in a partnership with Cherney “in any commercial sense of that word,” Voss said, quoting from submissions by Deripaska’s lawyers. “Mr. Deripaska has sought, because of his power and influence, to rewrite history,” Voss said.
Deripaska’s lawyers will reply to the claims by Uzbek-born Cherney, formerly known as Mikhail Chernoi, at a later hearing. He denies any wrongdoing in the case.
Voss also refuted claims by Deripaska’s lawyers in court filings that Cherney’s credibility is questionable because he is involved in organized crime, saying his client has never been prosecuted. A “serious” charge in Switzerland was dropped this year when a court ruled that the allegations were “founded on rumor with no substance to them,” Voss said.

TITLE: City Activists Turn Out in Support of Tibet
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Activists who came to support the people of Tibet and protest human rights violations in the region found themselves outnumbered by Chinese students who came to counter the rally in St. Petersburg on Saturday. 
More than 100 Chinese people, with Chinese flags, pro-Beijing Olympics slogans, red carnations, and Chinese state symbols stuck to their faces, were sent away by the police who said their meeting was “unsanctioned.” The police also checked the documents of the most active young people who after a while left reluctantly.
The rally, which drew around 50 protesters, was the first meeting in support of Tibet in St. Petersburg since the Chinese government’s ongoing brutal clampdown in Tibet, in which exiled Tibetan leaders claim up to 150 people have been killed in recent weeks. 
Previously, a meeting scheduled for late March was postponed under pressure from the authorities who tried to stifle any protests before and during the Olympic torch relay in St. Petersburg early last month.
The meeting featured activists from the St. Petersburg Friends of Tibet Society, presided by Margarita Kozhevnikova. Apart from local participants, visitors from Kalmykia and Tuva, where Buddhism is the main religion, took part, as well as three Tibetans. One of them, philosophy professor Geshe Dakpa Jampa, gave a speech in his native language.
Slogans included “My Heart Is With Tibet,” “Freedom to the Political Prisoners,” “Today - Tibet, Tomorrow - ?,” “No to Violence in Tibet,” “Free Tibet” and “Save Tibet.” One poster demanded the immediate release of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was kidnapped by the Chinese authorities in 1995. The Panchen Lama is one of the most important religious authorities in Tibet.
Activists also distributed materials about the situation in Tibet, which is covered in Russian media mainly from a pro-China position, and collected signatures.
“First of all, it was a call for peaceful resolution of the crisis in Tibet, and, secondly, a call to [the Russian authorities] to let the Dalai Lama into Russia,” said Yelena Kim, an activist with the Friends of Tibet Society.
The Dalai Lama has been repeatedly denied a Russian visa since 1996. He was allowed to enter Kalmykia for a one-day visit in 2004.
The slogan “Freedom to the Political Prisoners” first referred to the Panchen Lama, Kim said. 
“He is the youngest political prisoner who was kidnapped at the age of six and nothing is known about him,” she said.
“But recently there was a wave of arrests, and there are so many political prisoners now, I can’t imagine how many, that we decided to write about them all.”
Last week, a Chinese court sentenced 30 people, including six monks, to jail terms ranging from three years to life in prison.
Some of the Chinese students returned when the rally was underway. 
A young woman with a small Chinese flag on her cheek told Russians standing next to her that what was said at the rally was “lies,” while a young man who was insistent in waving the Chinese flag and shouting “One China” was detained by the police after a document check, as he happened not to have his registration document, although he had his passport and student card.
Several members of the Yabloko democratic party took part in a rally. Maxim Reznik, the head of the local branch who spent three weeks in custody in what he calls a fabricated case in March, took time to hold one of the rally’s banners reading “Freedom to Political Prisoners.”
“I am taking part simply as a citizen, because I have great respect for Tibetan culture,” said Reznik. “When Tibetan culture and the Buddhist religion are for me linked to words like ‘peace’ and ‘kindness,’ I feel the objections to the fact that these great people [are treated] so unfairly even more deeply.
“It’s part of our diverse world, which is beautiful because of such little islands, and when it’s unified, destroyed it provokes protest. As Hemingway wrote, ‘Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.’
“It doesn’t matter where human rights are violated. But here, I feel there is some special injustice, because they are such peaceful people. [...] On the one hand, I feel shock, but on the other hand, I don’t feel hatred toward China - just a wish to support these people, help them, to explain to the leadership of the Chinese People’s Republic that they shouldn’t destroy what belongs to the whole world, rather than to them.”
Alexander Gudimov, the deputy chairman of the local branch of Youth Yabloko, the youth section of the democratic party, who was detained when he attempted to hold a solitary picket near the Chinese Consulate on the day when the Beijing Olympic flame relay passed through St. Petersburg last month, also took part in the rally.
Musician Yevgeny Fyodorov, the frontman of alternative rock band Tequilajazzz, said he came because it was the first rally in support of Tibet in St. Petersburg as far as he knew.
“I came because we see that such things start to happen here at last,” he said. “[Pro Tibet protests] have taken place in every country, on every continent, except maybe Africa. Because of the Olympics, Tibet got the chance to remind [the world] about itself. It didn’t happen here for some reason.
 “I am pessimistic about China giving any concessions, but I came to support these very likeable people. I sympathize with and have a great interest in Tibetan Buddhism, that’s why it’s very relevant to me.”
A second meeting that was planned to be held on Turgenev Ploshchad, near the Chinese Consulate, later the same day, was not allowed by the district administration because it said work such as planting bushes and flowers, and fence and path repairs, was taking place in the area. 
But on Saturday, no sign of any work at the site was detected.

TITLE: Dmitry Medvedev To Be Inaugurated With Pomp
AUTHOR: By Alexander Osipovich and Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writers
TEXT: MOSCOW — The final act in Russia’s highly choreographed transition of power is set to begin Wednesday at noon. 
When Dmitry Medvedev arrives at the Kremlin for his presidential inauguration, hundreds of VIP guests will be standing by for the ceremony, including politicians, foreign ambassadors and Russian media chiefs, Kremlin and diplomatic sources said Sunday. 
Once Medvedev has assumed his duties, one of his first acts as president is expected to be the appointment of his old boss, Vladimir Putin, to the position of prime minister. The State Duma, dominated by Putin’s allies in United Russia, could confirm the appointment as soon as Thursday — the same day Putin becomes the party’s chairman. 
Television viewers can watch the transfer of power without skipping a beat. 
Channel One, Rossia and TV Center plan to begin their live broadcasts at 11:40 a.m. Wednesday, as soon as Medvedev departs from the White House. 
“The procession of Medvedev’s motorcade from the White House to the Kremlin will be broadcast live,” Kremlin spokesman Yevgeny Mashkov said by telephone Sunday. 
Two “flying cameras” have even been mounted on cranes near the Kremlin to help film the approach of Medvedev’s motorcade, Interfax reported. 
The inauguration will follow the same protocol as the ceremonies in 2004, 2000 and 1996, said Viktor Khrekov, another Kremlin spokesman. 
As in previous years, guests will stand in three halls of the Great Kremlin Palace, and Medvedev will walk past the guests in Georgiyevsky and Alexandrovsky halls before arriving in Andreyevsky hall, a former tsarist-era throne room. 
There, Medvedev will mount the podium, along with Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin, Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov and Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov. He will place his right hand on the Constitution and read a 33-word oath of office, dating back to 1993, in which the president-elect pledges to defend citizens’ rights and freedoms, the Constitution and Russia’s sovereignty. 
It is then Zorkin’s duty to proclaim him president. The ceremony concludes with the playing of the national anthem, an inaugural speech by the new president and a 30-volley artillery salute. 
The Kremlin on Sunday could not provide a final guest list for the inauguration. About 1,700 guests attended the ceremony four years ago. 
Among the guests on Wednesday will be deputies from the Duma, which has the day off. More than 100 media representatives will also attend, including heads of the country’s top newspapers, radio stations and television channels, Mashkov said. 
All of Moscow’s foreign ambassadors have been invited, and the diplomats will be the only foreigners present, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Krivtsov said. One diplomat who plans to attend is outgoing U.S. Ambassador William Burns, according to a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman. 
Last week, Burns had his confirmation hearings for his appointment as undersecretary of state for political affairs — the No. 3 job in the U.S. State Department — and he is holding his going-away party Tuesday night. By chance, Burns’ attendance at the inauguration will be one of his last acts as ambassador to Russia. 
The Estonian and Israeli embassies confirmed on Sunday that their ambassadors would be attending too. Most other embassies were closed and could not be reached for comment. 
Georgia has no plans to snub its invitation to the ceremony, despite rising tensions with Moscow over the breakaway republic of Abkhazia, a senior Georgian diplomat said. 
“We are a normal government, and we do not need to resort to this kind of protest,” Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told Interfax on Friday. “There are plenty of other ways to express protest, unease, dissatisfaction and demands.” 
One VIP guest is likely to stand out among the politicians and diplomats: Patriarch Alexy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has also attended previous inaugurations. 
Father Vladimir Vigilyansky, a spokesman for the patriarch, confirmed Sunday that the church leader would attend the inauguration, adding that he would lead a prayer service in honor of Medvedev immediately afterward. 
“After the inauguration, he will lead a prayer service in the Kremlin’s Archangel Cathedral,” Vigilyansky said by telephone. 
Meanwhile, Moscow drivers will experience delays as streets in central Moscow shut down for the ceremony. 
Novy Arbat, Varvarka, Ilyinka, Borovitskaya Ploshchad, the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, Kremlyovskaya Naberezhnaya and Moskvoretskaya Naberezhnaya will be closed from 8 a.m. Wednesday until the end of the ceremony, Interfax reported. 
The same streets will also be closed early Monday morning, starting at 5:30 a.m., so police can practice security measures for the inauguration. 
Intermittent showers have been forecast for Wednesday, but planes armed with special chemicals are ready to stop rain from spoiling the ceremony, as well as Friday’s Victory Day parade. 
“If there are thick clouds on these days, special aviation brigades will be at work in the Moscow region,” said Roman Vilfand, director of the federal weather bureau, RIA-Novosti reported. 
Medvedev is to preside over the Victory Day parade.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>City Carnival in May</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Preparations are underway for the annual St. Petersburg Carnival which will take place on the weekend of May 24 and 25 and involve as many as10,000 people marching down Nevsky Prospekt in costume, Fontanka.ru reported. 
A fancy dress competition will take place in which the winner will receive a trip to Venice. 
There will also be a children’s carnival, puppet festival and a chance to see the St. Petersburg animation forum.

<b>Metro Station Repairs</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Baltiiskaya metro station will undergo repair work starting at the end of 2008 and estimated to last eighteen months, Fontanka.ru reported. 
During the restoration, the station will be open as usual. 
Cracks appeared in the station during the restoration of Mitrofanevsky Highway nearby, but these were fixed in 2005-06, the head of metro tunnel repairs Yevgeny Kozin told journalists on Monday. 

<b>Hermitage in Vilnius</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A branch of the State Hermitage Museum is set to open in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in 2011 or 2012, Fontanka.ru reported. 
The project will be funded by private investors at the cost of $146 million of which $100 million will be spent on a new building for the museum.

TITLE: DNA Is That of Tsar’s Children, Ending Mystery
AUTHOR: By Mike Eckel
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — For nine decades after Bolshevik executioners gunned down Tsar Nicholas II and his family, there were no traces of the remains of Crown Prince Alexei, the hemophiliac heir to the throne.
Some said the delicate 13-year-old had somehow survived and escaped; others believed his bones were lost in Russia’s vastness, buried in secret amid fear and chaos as the country lurched into civil war.
Now an official says DNA tests have solved the mystery by identifying bone shards found in a forest as those of Alexei and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria.
The remains of their parents — Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra — and three siblings, including the tsar’s youngest daughter, Anastasia, were unearthed in 1991 and reburied in the imperial resting place in St. Petersburg. The Russian Orthodox Church made all seven of them saints in 2000.
Despite the earlier discoveries and ceremonies, the absence of Alexei’s and Maria’s remains gnawed at descendants of the Romanov dynasty, history buffs and royalists. Even if last week’s announcement is confirmed and widely accepted, many descendants of the royal family are unlikely to be fully assuaged; they seek formal “rehabilitation” by the government.
“The tragedy of the tsar’s family will only end when the family is declared victims of political repression,” said German Lukyanov, a lawyer for royal descendants.
Nicholas abdicated in 1917 as revolutionary fervor swept Russia, and he and his family were detained. They were shot by a firing squad on July 17, 1918, in the basement of the Yekaterinburg house where they were being held.
Rumors persisted that some of the family had survived and escaped. Claims by women to be Anastasia were particularly prominent, although there were also pretenders to Alexei’s and Maria’s identities.
“It was 99.9 percent clear they had all been killed; now with these shards, it’s 100 percent,” said Nadia Kizenko, a Russia scholar at the University at Albany, State University of New York. “Those who regret this news will be those who liked the royal pretender myth.”
Alexei was one of the more compelling of the victims, drawing sympathy because of his hemophilia. His mother’s terror of the disease and fear that he would not live to gain the throne were key to her falling under the thrall of the hypnotic and sexually ravenous self-declared holy man Rasputin, who exerted vast influence on the royal family.
Researchers unearthed the bone shards last summer in a forest near Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was killed, and enlisted Russian and U.S. laboratories to conduct DNA tests. Eduard Rossel, governor of the Svedlovsk region, said tests done by a U.S. laboratory had identified the shards as those of Alexei and Maria. “This has confirmed that indeed it is the children,” he said. “We have now found the entire family.”
“The main genetic laboratory in the United States has concluded its work with a full confirmation of our own laboratories’ work,” Rossel said.
He did not specify the laboratory, but a genetic research team working at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has been involved in the process. Evgeny Rogaev, who headed the team that tested the remains in Moscow and at the medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts, was called into the case by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Rogaev said last week that he delivered the results to Russian authorities, but said it was up to the prosecutor’s office — not him or his team — to disclose the findings. “The most difficult work is done and we have delivered to them our expert analysis, but we are still working,” he said. “Scientifically, we want to make the most complete investigation possible.”
The test results were based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA, the genetic material passed down only from mothers to children. That DNA is more stable than nuclear DNA — the material inherited from the father’s side — especially when remains are badly damaged.
With the mitochondrial analysis completed, the team is working on the nuclear DNA analysis and comparing the samples to paternal relatives of the tsar’s family.
That information, along with conclusions already delivered to the prosecutors, eventually will be submitted to a professional journal for peer review and publication.

TITLE: Bush’s Missile-Defense Plan Inches Forward in Congress
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate panel has given a boost to U.S. plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic by authorizing a doubling of funds for the project.
The move, one of many steps necessary for approval of the funding, would increase the budget for the European system from $320 million to $712 million. Lawmakers also included money for construction of the two sites, which was withheld in last year’s funding bill.
The authorization, included in a 2009 defense policy bill approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, matched a request by the Bush administration.
The U.S. missile-defense plans include building a radar site in the Czech Republic and installing 10 interceptors in Poland as part of a system that the United States says is intended to protect parts of Europe and the United States. The missile-defense plans in Europe have become one of the thorniest issues in U.S.-Russian relations. Russia opposes missile-defense sites so close to its borders, contending that they would undermine its nuclear deterrent.
The United States says the system is aimed at countering long-range missiles from the Middle East or Asia and has cited Iran as the most likely threat. The U.S. Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency said Thursday that the Democratic-controlled Senate panel’s authorization endorsed that view.
“It just goes to show that there is certainly a bipartisan consensus in the Senate that there is a threat to Europe and the U.S. from Iran,” agency spokesman Rick Lehner said.
The bill that the panel authorized includes restrictions on funding for construction of the system. It requires that the Polish and Czech parliaments approve the projects and that the U.S. Defense Department certify testing of the system before the funds can be used. The bill must now be approved by the entire Senate.

TITLE: Estonians Stage Big Cleanup
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TURI, Estonia — Tens of thousands of Estonians scoured fields, streets, forests and riverbanks to amass tons of rubbish in the country’s first national cleanup. 
Using Google Maps to mark trash sites on the Internet and global positioning technology to locate the junk on the ground, Estonians collected everything from tractor batteries to plastic bottles and paint tins Saturday and ferried it, often in their own cars, to central dumps.
The campaign, which aimed to collect up to 10,000 tons of garbage, was organized by Internet entrepreneurs. “It is not really about the rubbish. It is about changing people’s mind-sets. Next year, it might be something else,” said Tiina Urm, spokeswoman for the event.
Estonia inherited a mass of garbage after it regained independence in 1991, but it has only added to the problem since. “It has to be done, it can’t stay here,” said Mats Eek, 17, cleaning up a site in the middle of a forest near Turi, 100 kilometers from Tallinn.

TITLE: Beslan Faces Cutoff
AUTHOR: By Nadia Popova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — An unpaid bill for street lighting could plunge Beslan, the North Ossetian town that suffered the country’s worst-ever terrorist attack, into darkness if the local government doesn’t pay up.
The town’s 37,000 residents could have their electricity cut off May 12 if a local electricity retail company fails to pay a debt of more than 25 million rubles ($1.05 million), the regional power distributor said Sunday.
The threat of a cutoff angered residents in Beslan, where 331 people, 186 of them children, died in September 2004 after Chechen separatists attacked the town’s biggest school and held hundreds hostage. The town has since struggled to come to terms with the traumatic attack, and, like the rest of the region, it suffers from some of the country’s worst poverty and unemployment rates. 
The administration of the Pravoberezhny district, which includes Beslan, averted a cutoff Sunday by paying 2.3 million rubles and promising to pay off the rest of the debt by Thursday.
On Sunday, the electricity companies involved blamed local government officials for the debt, while the administration insisted that there was no problem. 
Such disputes among generation, distribution and sales companies, often caused by mismanagement, are not as common now as they were a few years ago, but still occur, said Tatyana Milyayeva, a spokeswoman for state-run utility Unified Energy System. 
The utility is in the process of winding itself up and passing its assets on to successor companies in a huge program of sell-offs aimed at raising investments to upgrade the country’s aging electricity network. The reform, which started with the breakup of UES into generation, distribution and sales companies, will see the former state monopoly ceasing to exist as of July 1. 
The local retail company, Beslan Electricity Networks, said Sunday that it was not to blame for the debt, as it had not been paid by the local administration. “Of the debt of 16 million rubles [for the last three months], 11 million has not been paid by the district administration for lighting and other municipal services,” the company’s deputy director, Aslan Frayev, said by telephone. 
Zalina Alborova, a spokes-woman for power distributor Sevkavkazenergo, warned that the debt could endanger power supplies in the entire North Caucasus, as generating companies might refuse to work with the distributor after the payment delays. 
“We need some money to buy the electricity on the wholesale generation market, and now we lack 25.7 million rubles,” Alborova said by telephone Sunday. 
The company is one of the main electricity distributors in North Ossetia.

TITLE: Land Privatization Hit by Red Tape, Law
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Complex laws are stopping people in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast from buying plots of land they use as gardens despite reforms intended to make privatization easier, experts said last Wednesday at a roundtable held by Rosbalt news agency.
A simplified land privatization procedure was introduced in 2006 but the reform has caused more problems than improvements, experts said.
“St. Petersburg is a unique city. Most of its residents — 2.5 million people — regularly visit the Leningrad Oblast and live in dachas on garden plots. Being registered in another region, they have to pay for all social services and infrastructure,” said Andrei Lyakh, head of the Department for the Development of Gardening in St. Petersburg.
He estimated that 40 percent of garden plots in the Leningrad Oblast are privately owned.
 “All procedures necessary for privatization of land take a lot of time and money,” Yelena Moskal, a notary with the St. Petersburg Land Cadastre Chamber, said.
Lyakh added that it took him 2 1/2 years to buy his plot in the Vsevolozhsky district.
The cost of land surveying and registration varies between 10,000-12,000 rubles ($405-$487) in the Vsevolozhsky and Vyborgsky districts, 12,000-15,000 rubles ($487-$608) in the Kirovsky district and 5,000-10,000 rubles ($202-$405) in Lomonosovsky and Gatchinsky districts. In St. Petersburg expenses vary between 10,000-12,000 ($405-$487) rubles.
Lyakh said the “simplified” land privatization procedure — in which a gardener comes to an agreement with his neighbors and registers the plot without an official land-survey — offers only elusive ways to save time and money.
“This option is good as long as you have good neighbors. New neighbors or their heirs could start litigation over the size and borders of the land. In this case, landowners will have to undergo the standard procedure of land-surveying,” Lyakh said.
Other experts agreed.
“The legislation does not guarantee that using the simplified procedure you get ownership once and for all. If litigation starts, the total area and borders of the land can change,” Moskal said.
Tatiana Matveyeva, head of the methodology department at the City Hall’s Committee for Land Resources, said that  garden plots are being privatized in the Pushkinsky, Primorsky, Vyborgsky, Kolpinsky, Krasnoselsky and Krasnogvardeisky districts, which lie within the limits of the city.
“Land run by the garden associations that have applied to the committee has been privatized or is in the process of privatization,” Matveyeva said.
By February this year, a total of 5,165 plots covering a total of 410 hectares had been registered as privatized in St. Petersburg. However, Matveyeva admitted that lack of documentation or disagreements between owners can often put up barriers to privatization.
“Garden associations should have a general plan of the settlement in order to privatize the land. In most cases in St. Petersburg this document either does not exist or contradicts the actual plan of the settlement,” Matveyeva said.
In most settlements, inhabitants occupy dachas built on adjacent territories without permission, experts indicated, which causes problems.
The problem emerges if several inhabitants in the settlement refuse to take part in the privatization. The law requires that perimeter borders of the whole settlement should be approved and the land privatized and then each individual owner can privatize his plot, which should not stretch outside the settlement or cover public areas inside the settlement, Matveyeva said.
“Usually the chairman of the garden association is an elderly person. It’s common that he’s lost some of the constituent documents. Chairmen are often reelected. But two chairmen can coexist in the same settlement and have legal proceedings with each other,” Lyakh said.
“Unless we have a normal system of management in the garden associations, privatization problems will not be solved,” he said.
Lyakh added that the uncertain legal status of garden settlements also causes problems. For example, the Leningrad Oblast charges higher fees to connect to the power network to St. Petersburg residents (26,000 rubles / $1055) compared to residents of the Leningrad Oblast (550 rubles / $22).
He said it is a serious problem since about 100,000 St. Petersburg residents live in the Leningrad Oblast the whole year round.

TITLE: Oil Production Declines For 4th Straight Month
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Zhdannikov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW — The country’s oil production fell for a fourth straight month in April, confirming pessimistic forecasts for the year, while exports rose on the back of improved weather.
Industry and Energy Ministry data released Sunday showed that production stood at 9.72 million barrels per day, down from 9.76 million bpd in March and more than 2 percent lower compared with the post-Soviet high of 9.93 million bpd in October.
In absolute figures, March production was more than 6 million barrels — the size of six large tankers — down from October.
Since October, oil production in Russia has been varying between decline and stagnation, prompting many analysts to revise down their production forecasts for 2008. A fall in output this year would come after a decade during which production by the world’s second-largest oil exporter soared by more than half from the post-Soviet low of 6 million bpd.
Producers mainly blame heavy taxation amid rising costs for the production decline.
The authorities still expect production to grow by around 1 percent this year after an increase of 2.3 percent in 2007 and much bigger spikes in previous years, including a record 11 percent in 2003.
The data showed that Russian production-sharing projects, which were the key growth drivers in 2007, cut output further to 222,000 bpd in April from 228,000 bpd in March.
Major Siberian firms showed mixed results, with the country’s leading producer, Rosneft, raising output to 2.29 million bpd from 2.28 million in March and third-ranked TNK-BP increasing production to 1.37 million from 1.36 million. 
But No. 2 firm LUKoil cut output to 1.79 million from 1.80 million in the previous month, fourth-largest producer Surgut kept production flat at 1.23 million and Gazprom Neft, the country’s fifth-biggest oil producer, cut output further to 618,000 bpd from 627,000 bpd in the previous month.
Gazprom Neft was one of the worst performers year on year, with its production down by more than 6 percent versus April 2007 alongside Surgut, which cut output by more than 5 percent.
On the export front, supplies via the Transneft pipeline system recovered for a second month in a row from the unusually low February levels to reach 4.52 million bpd, up from 4.23 million in March and 3.99 million in February.
Such a high export figure was last seen in September, when oil firms rushed to evacuate more crude ahead of a spike in oil export duties.
Traders have said May could be another record month in terms of exports as oil export duties will reach a new record of around $400 per ton from June following a new rise in global oil prices.
Gas export monopoly Gazprom cut gas output to 48.03 billion cubic meters from 50.48 bcm in March, which was one day longer, as the country needed less gas because of warm weather.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <b>U.S. Pork Plants Banned</b>
WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — Russia, the fifth-largest buyer of U.S. pork, has banned imports of meat from plants run by Tyson Foods and Smithfield Foods starting Monday. 
“We’re still trying to learn more about the reason for the suspension,” Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said. Tyson, the world’s largest meatpacker, still has four plants serving Russia, he said. A Smithfield spokesman declined to comment. 

<b>Grain On the Up</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Farmers have sown around 38 percent of the expected spring grain crop, more than at the same time in 2007, the Agriculture Ministry said Sunday. 
Around 11.7 million hectares were sown with spring grains as of Sunday, 3.8 million more year on year, the ministry said. 

<b>Baltika In Italy</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Baltika Breweries said Sunday that it made its first deliveries of beer to Italy as the country’s largest brewer seeks to tap Italy’s expanding beverages market. 
The beer company plans to start selling the Baltika, Nevskoye and Yarpivo brands in Italy by May, St. Petersburg-based Baltika said. 

<b>Television Beer Ads </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — State Duma deputies proposed extending a ban on television beer advertisements by two hours until midnight, Kommersant reported Sunday. 
Beer ads on television are now allowed from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and most of them run in the first two hours, the newspaper said. Deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party proposed prohibiting ads before midnight so fewer young people see them. 

<b>Turkmenistan Rates</b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Turkmenistan’s Central Bank has unified the country’s two currency exchange rates as the government seeks to attract foreign investment and move toward a market economy. 
The bank set the rate at 14,250 manats to the dollar, the Turkmen government said Thursday. The official rate had been 6,250 manats to the dollar since Jan. 1, while a commercial rate of 16,100 manats was set April 24. 

<b>Oil Funds Hit $163Bln</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — The country’s oil funds accumulated 3.84 trillion rubles ($162.5 billion) by May 1 as the world’s biggest energy exporter benefited from oil and gas sales. 
The Reserve Fund totaled 3.07 trillion rubles, the Finance Ministry said Sunday. The National Welfare Fund totaled 773.8 billion rubles, the ministry said. 

<b>Russneft Appeals </b>
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russneft has filed an appeal with the Supreme Arbitration Court against back tax claims of 20 billion rubles ($840 million), Interfax reported Sunday, citing a source close to the company. 
The appeal was filed last week after a lower court upheld claims from 2003 to 2005, Interfax said. 

<b>For the Record</b>
SMR, a copper and molybdenum producer owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, quit talks with Serbia about buying the RTB Bor copper plant after disagreeing on the terms. (Bloomberg)

TITLE: Governor Backs Plan For Logistics Boost
AUTHOR: By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: About 100,000 square meters of new warehousing, depots and distribution hubs for goods and materials are to be added to St. Petersburg’s existing facilities by 2010, according to a plan approved by the St. Petersburg government last week.
“Its main purpose is to regulate logistics sites in St. Petersburg,” a statement from the governor’s office released last Tuesday reads. “In this document a total of 20 main zones for development of warehouse facilities were indicated. Logistics sites will be located mainly along the ring road and outside it, so as not to aggravate transportation problems in the city and in the central districts. 
The plan, designed by the City Hall’s Committee for Transport and Transit Policy, meets requirements in the General Plan for St. Petersburg’s Development and a federal program for the modernization of transport.
According to City Hall, the total area of logistics sites in St. Petersburg is 6.3 million square meters to be increased by 100,000 square meters during the next two years. 
A considerable increase is planned for St. Petersburg’s port.
“The development of the logistical infrastructure is important for St. Petersburg. But this infrastructure should not be redundant and should not add new problems to the already difficult transport situation,” Governor Valentina Matviyenko said.
Nikolai Asaul, chairman of City Hall’s Committee for Transport and Transit Policy was quoted by Interfax as saying: “Logistics centers in the city are located unevenly and not always rationally. They are being created mainly in the existing industrial zones. The new concept should regulate this process and classify areas for construction of new logistics centers in St. Petersburg.” 
Among the most developed logistics sites Asaul listed several industrial zones including Parnas, Predportovaya-1 and an industrial zone on Sofiiskaya Ulitsa.
In the new plan, the city is zoned into three types of areas: zones favorable for development of logistics sites; zones where limited construction is allowed; and zones where construction is prohibited.
“Realizing this concept, by 2010 we expect 2 or 3 modern ‘logistics villages’ to begin operating in the city. The total stock of covered warehouses should increase to 6.4 million square meters. By 2025, the number of warehouses inside the ring road should be half of that outside the ring road. The number of sea port terminals should be tripled,” Interfax cited Asaul as saying.
In contrast to official data, real estate consultants indicate a deficit of high-quality logistic sites in the city. 
According to Colliers International, by the end of 2007, the amount of Class A and B warehouse facilities was just 520,000 square meters.
“Almost all warehouse facilities are 100-percent leased. In most cases, warehouse complexes are pre-leased at the construction stage. It stems from the limited supply along with growing tenant requirements,” said Kirill Malyshev, director of the logistic and industrial property department at Colliers International.
“The highest demand is for warehouses located close to the ring road, the Moscow Highway, the Vyborgskoye Highway, and the Pulkovskoye Highway,” Malyshev said.
Among developing logistics sites, he listed the industrial areas at Shushary, Utkina Zavod, Gorelovo and Predportovaya.
However, experts are more optimistic about growth in this field than city officials. 
According to Colliers International, an additional 1.3 million square meters of logistics sites are under construction and more than 2.5 million square meters are in the project development phase.
“By the end of 2008, more than 1 million square meters of warehouse space is set to open, though their commissioning might be rescheduled,” Malyshev said.

TITLE: Baikal Challenges Global Warming Idea
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: NEW YORK — Lake Baikal is warming faster than the atmosphere, challenging the idea that large bodies of water can withstand global warming, U.S. and Russian scientists said. 
Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water, has warmed by 1.21 degrees Celsius since 1946, said Marianne Moore, assistant professor of biological sciences at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Global temperatures have risen 0.76 degrees Celsius since industrialization, a United Nations panel on climate change said in March. 
The Siberian lake holds more than 2,500 plant and animal species, including the world’s only exclusively freshwater seal, and some could become extinct by continued warming, said Moore, co-author of a report on Lake Baikal to be published this month in the journal Global Change Biology. The study challenges the idea that thermal inertia of oceans, seas and large lakes would make them more resistant to climate change, Moore said. 
“The warming that we’re seeing in this lake is of more concern than that of any other lake because of the extraordinary biodiversity,” Moore said. “You could potentially lose the Baikal seal.” 
Beginning in the 1940s, data on Lake Baikal was collected by Mikhail Kozhov, a professor at Irkutsk State University. The research was carried on by his daughter and granddaughter, Lyubov Izmesteva, a co-author of the journal article. The family has taken samples of the lake every seven to 10 days since 1946, amassing a history that Moore analyzed. The data revealed that the lake’s average summer temperature has increased by 2.4 degrees, Moore said. 
“My jaw just dropped to the floor when I heard this,” Moore said. “I was extremely surprised that the data set even existed.”

TITLE: TNK-BP Warned on ‘Violations’
PUBLISHER: Bloomberg
TEXT: MOSCOW — The government warned a unit of TNK-BP that it might lose oil-production rights after “gross violations” of licensing terms were found during an inspection. 
The Federal Service for the Inspection of Natural Resources Use, the state’s environmental watchdog, identified 33 breaches of contract at TNK-BP’s Varyeganneftegaz, the Natural Resources Ministry said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. 
“Inspectors found some insignificant violations,” Marina Dracheva, a spokes-woman for TNK-BP, said by telephone. “Not a single violation found could be grounds for license revocation.” 
Varyeganneftegaz produced around 61,000 barrels of oil per day in the first quarter, about 4 percent of TNK-BP’s average of 1.36 million barrels, according to the Industry and Energy Ministry. 
A ministry commission will now consider whether the infractions, including a failure to meet production targets and keep proper documentation, are sufficient to revoke Varyeganneftegaz licenses in western Siberia. 
“We pledged to remove all violations in the shortest period of time,” Dracheva said. 
Vedomosti reported on April 24 that Gazprom might pay $20 billion for control of TNK-BP. The billionaire Russian owners of TNK-BP said the same day that they “have not held and are not holding” talks about selling.

TITLE: The New Face of Hospitality in the Official Capital
AUTHOR: By Svetlana Osadchuk
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW — Before becoming the manager of Hotel Katerina City in Moscow, Katerina Oudalova, 27, ran her own fashion design business in Sweden, where her Russian parents emigrated in 1989. The hotel — the first privately owned hotel in the capital — was just a place to stay while visiting Russia.
“My father built it in 1998 and I enjoyed staying there, but I did not plan to be on the other side of the business,” she said.
Oudalova graduated from the London College of Fashion in 2003 and immediately went into the fashion business, producing clothes in Estonia and selling them in several cities in Europe and Sweden. 
While there were a lot of positive aspects to working in the fashion industry, Oudalova didn’t like the impermanence of it. 
“I wanted to build something more long-lasting, not something that would be cut-price three months after it had hit the shelves,” she said.
She started looking for a new job and became a project manager for a Swedish design company opening an office in St. Petersburg focusing on hotel interiors. “When I told my father of my career move, he simply replied that I could do this kind of work for another hotel, or I could work for our hotel, for our family business,” Oudalova said.
With that suggestion, she said, everything fell into place: her love for organizing parties, her interest in design and her business sense. 
“Ever since I started my small company in Sweden, I loved being in charge, being the one responsible for seeing the big picture,” Oudalova said. 
In order to get a feel for the hotel business, Oudalova did an internship that lasted several months, working as a trainee in various departments of the hotel. She cleaned rooms, washed dishes, waitressed, tended the bar, worked in the kitchen and as a receptionist, made reservations and sales and helped out in the accounting office.
“This all gave me some insight into the hotel business, and I realized I loved it,” she said. 
She also found the work challenging, noticing early on that there was a huge difference between working for a privately owned hotel in a developing market such as Russia and working for a hotel chain in the mature, stable European market.
Oudalova believes the biggest challenge to the Russian hospitality industry, and one that will affect it for many years to come, is the lack of a tradition of service.
“We just don’t have this tradition yet,” she said, “and no matter how many trainings we arrange, if you haven’t experienced great service or been used to it, it is hard to understand what is demanded of you. Even if you want to do it, you just don’t know how.” 
She does, however, believe that change is coming as more Russians travel and experience European service culture. After receiving good service on vacations and business trips abroad, Russians will come to demand this level of service from local hotels. 
“And those who can satisfy the customer will win — it is easy as that,” she said.
Hotel Katerina City is a business hotel that attracts few tourists. Their guests usually stay for only a couple of days and may have come directly from a business trip to London or New York, so they expect to find the same level of service in Moscow as in other major world cities. 
Oudalova says the development of the hotel business is crucial for Russia’s future economic development as a whole. Before deciding whether to start a business or invest in Russia, foreign businessmen have to make a visit — and the hotel they stay in often influences their impressions of the country.
Oudalova is concerned that as the hotel business develops in Russia, it will become increasingly difficult to find qualified staff. As the market grows, the level of competition for good employees will increase.
One of Oudalova’s current projects is to develop a good management system at Hotel Katerina City enabling it to attract and retain the best staff possible, the kind of staff who can satisfy her customers.
This involves holding staff retreats for the entire 165-person workforce in which they live in the hotel for two days while attending training sessions on service, corporate values and company history. 
“People who have never stayed in a hotel are not able to understand the client’s needs, and our staff has to know these needs in advance,” she said. 
She considers the money spent on these training sessions an investment in the hotel’s future. 
“Of course, I am the one who plans the strategy, but it is my team who make it possible. Some people have worked here for eight or 10 years. They know everything about the place. We have a very low staff turnover,” she said.
Oudalova became the general manager of the hotel last September, and in April, she took on additional responsibilities as a managing director with the hotel’s management company, Umaco Management. Besides Katerina City Moscow, it also manages an apartment complex in Krasnaya Polyana called Katerina Alpik.
Oudalova is reluctant to talk about her life outside the hotel. 
“Of course, I try to keep a balance between my life and my work, but my life is here in our family business,” she said.

TITLE: Greenspan Sees ‘Pale Recession’
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK — The United States has fallen into an “awfully pale recession” and may remain stagnant for the rest of the year, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted on Monday saying.
“We’re in a recession,” Bloomberg news agency reported Greenspan had said in a television interview. “But this is an awfully pale recession at the moment. The declines in employment have not been as big as you’d expect to see.”
Last week a government report showed employers shed jobs in April at a slower rate than had been feared, providing some relief about the slowing economy.
Greenspan doubted there would be an immediate recovery, saying stagnation for the rest of the year was the most likely outcome. “That’s certainly the most benevolent scenario,” he said. “It’s not all that far from being the most probable.”
The economy would not start turning around until home prices started settling and eased pressure on finance companies to write off mortgage-related losses, Greenspan said.
Greenspan has said before that the economy is in a recession, although he also said at that time that it was too soon to say how deep or prolonged the downturn would be.

TITLE: Central Bankers Tackle Rising Food Prices
AUTHOR: By Krista Hughes and Dominic Lau
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BASEL, Switzerland — Food price inflation may be one of the most serious problems facing the world, but one that monetary policy has little power to tackle, central bankers said on Monday.
With the price of food rising by more than 40 percent a year, the issue is high on the agenda at meetings of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel which began on Sunday.
“Food pressure is a global problem, we have to observe, monitor, but we cannot use monetary policy tools to manage this problem,” said Polish National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek.
“Food pressures could be one of the most serious problems that we have to face now.”
“It’s certainly going to be one of the big issues here,” Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer said on his way into the talks.
Top central bankers including U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and new Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa are joining other Group of Seven colleagues and policymakers from major developing nations at the meetings.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, who chairs the global economy session, holds a news briefing later on Monday.
The May meeting comes as a rapid rise in food costs and prices of other commodities such as oil is fuelling historically high inflation rates from the euro-zone to China, and creating a headache for central bankers also concerned about the economic impact of nine months of financial market turmoil.
Finnish central bank governor Erkki Liikanen said food prices were a concern not only for inflation, but also for living standards in many developing nations.
A 43 percent rise in global food prices in the year to March sparked violent protests in Cameroon and Burkina Faso as well as rallies in Indonesia following reports of deaths from starvation.
“They have an impact on the situation of many poor people around the world,” Liikanen, who also sits on the ECB’s Governing Council, told reporters.
“It’s a challenging situation in many developing countries in a way which we have not seen for some time.”
In China, rising food prices helped push inflation to a near 12-year high of 8.0 percent in the first three months of 2008, although China’s central bank chief said this was partly driven by strong seasonal spending and should ease.
“After the spring festival, including the second quarter ... the inflation rate, the CPI, could decline,” People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Sunday.
“But it doesn’t mean for the whole year whether there is a continuous trend for higher CPI or not. It’s still uncertain.”
On Monday, however, Zhou played down any direct short-term link between high Chinese inflation and economic performance, focusing more on the potential impact of the U.S. slowdown.
“The U.S. may import a little bit less from China. We could see this phenomenon but not very significantly. Basically China exports still grow quite strongly,” he said, citing export growth to Asia and Europe.
China had the option of raising interest rates to control inflation, but there was a range of instruments available for that purpose, Zhou added without elaborating.
At the BIS meeting, central bankers are also likely to discuss the success of joint efforts to ease persistent tensions on international money markets.
The Fed, the ECB and the Swiss National Bank announced a third phase of liquidity injections on Friday, offering extra funds to U.S. banks and promising to offer extra U.S. dollar funds to European banks past the end of the year.
Still, liquidity is not an issue for all countries: Poland’s Skrzypek said money markets there were over-supplied with funds, which had to be sterilized.

TITLE: Oil Prices Near $117 a Barrel As Nigeria Facility Is Attacked
AUTHOR: By George Jahn
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VIENNA, Austria — Oil prices rose Monday, supported by weekend news of an attack on a Nigerian oil installation, but with gains limited by a stronger U.S. dollar.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC spokesman Precious Okolobo said Saturday that attackers hit a flow station belonging to Shell’s joint venture in southern Nigeria and that some oil production had been shut down.
He gave no further details. Flow stations are intersections for pipelines carrying oil from wells to export terminals.
“The geopolitical news [out of Nigeria] is supportive of oil pricing and causes investors to come back into oil,” said Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. However, “the strengthening dollar has capped further gains in oil,” he said.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose 58 cents to $116.90 a barrel by noon in European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $3.80 to settle at $116.32 a barrel on Friday.
Crude futures soared Friday after Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq injected supply concerns into the market.
Also supporting oil prices were concerns about Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that his country will not bend to international pressure and give up its nuclear program. Iran is the second largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
When conflict breaks out or political tensions rise in the Middle East, investors often buy oil on the belief that supplies could be disrupted.
“The market is supported by strong commodity index fund buying that happened on Friday, driven primarily by a belief that there would be supply issues in the long term,” Shum said.
At the same time, an employment report from the U.S. Labor Department also gave investors reason to be more optimistic about the U.S. economy — and raised the floor on prices. 
The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of oil and any drop in demand there can have a global impact on prices.
Vienna’s JBC Energy described the relatively positive employment figures as “the main bullish factor in the market.”
“Positive news on the U.S. economy eased concerns about a recession and made further (U.S. interest) rate cuts ... unlikely,” said Monday’s JBC newsletter. “Theoretically, this would decrease the amount of money invested in oil as a hedge for the falling dollar.”
Oil prices dropped to nearly $110 a barrel on Thursday, helped by the rising U.S. dollar.
A rising dollar undercuts the appeal of commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation, and makes oil more expensive to investors overseas.

TITLE: LG Launches World’s Slimmest LCD TVs
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: LONDON — South Korea’s LG Electronics announced the global launch of its Scarlet TV, the world’s slimmest LCD television set, in London last Wednesday.
With a striking, slim silhouette, red back and round aperture surrounded by LED lights, this intelligent device sports a design intended to connect with viewers on an emotional level. A soft touch sensor makes even simple tasks like turning the TV on and off more tactile and appealing.
“The LG Scarlet TV is designed to appeal to buyers who want a TV with a unique design. With this TV we wanted to create a completely immersive TV watching experience,” said Kwan-Sup Lee, vice president of LG Digital Display Global Brand Marketing Team.
“We drew the eye with our circular accent and we’ve included a special sound effect that plays when the TV turns on, intended to help viewers transport themselves into a different realm,” Lee said.
The Scarlet TV was launched first in Los Angeles on April 28 and then in London at a series of celebrity parties. The secret of the unusual PR campaign for the Scarlet TV was also unveiled.
For three months before its launch, LG presented “Scarlet” as a hit new TV series, masterminded by “King of Pilots” television director David Nutter. Nutter’s flair for spotting new talent this time extended to young actress Natassia Malthe, who played the role of Scarlet in the fake upcoming program.
Malthe became Scarlet for the campaign, commanding column inches and TV spots across the globe.
Dressed in a fabulous designer red dress, Malthe walked down a red carpet  to unveil the new TV set in the presence of international press and celebrities in both Los Angeles and London.
“Things are not always what they seem,” said Nutter. “With this clever campaign idea, LG Scarlet has changed the face of television and brand marketing for years to come,” he said.
However, the London launch was reportedly marred by the no-show of 80s pop star and actress Grace Jones who was due to sing at the event. 
The singer stayed in her hotel suite and refused to perform at the bash, The Daily Mirror reported. The 59-year-old former Bond Girl had already been paid $100,000 by organizers but was waiting for the rest of her $150,000 fee to be paid up front, the newspaper wrote.
LG Scarlet TV not only has an attractive design but is also equipped with LG “smart” technology. It gives its audience an optimal viewing experience, pulling them away from the real world and drawing them into the fantasy created onscreen.
“In its design this TV looks like a beautiful lady to me,” Lee said. “However, this lady is not only beautiful but is also smart.  That is, it’s the lady that everyone is looking for — beautiful and smart,” he said.
An intelligent sensor can analyze ambient light and automatically adjusts the screen’s brightness to the optimal level for any time of day. By sensing color, temperature and illumination of the surrounding environment, the intelligent sensor identifies the viewing atmosphere and produces the best color quality to help viewers watch TV comfortably. This has the added benefit of cutting power consumption by as much as 50 percent.
At the same time the new TV goes further to ensure that its picture always looks good with exceptional picture tuning functions: AV Mode and Expert Mode. These controls give viewers the ability to precisely tune their TVs to look perfect in any room and with any image source. The AV Mode optimizes the picture with Cinema Mode, Sport Mode and Game Mode accordingly while the LG Expert Mode menu was certificated by the ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) picture quality calibration institution, making it possible for the viewer to fine-tune the picture at a professional level.
For the best sound quality, the TV includes invisible speakers. By using the TV’s entire facade as a resonance board, it gives viewers crisp, rich sound quality without detracting from the TV’s look.
In addition LG’s new Clear Voice technology automatically enhances the sound frequency range of the dialogue against background noise.
Its advanced full HD TruMotion 12 Hz technology eliminates motion blur, even during fast-moving action sequences. A 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio means that black and darker colors, white and bright colors are more vibrant, while 24p Tru Cinema technology shows films in their native 24 frames per second.
LG Scarlet will be available across Europe from May.

The St. Petersburg Times traveled to London as a guest of LG Electronics.

TITLE: iTunes 
Strikes Deal With  Studios
AUTHOR: By Sue Zeidler
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Apple Inc said on Thursday it reached deals with top Hollywood studios to sell movies on its iTunes download service on the same day as the titles are released in DVD form, bringing its clout to a nascent market for video entertainment.
Apple shares rose more than 3 percent after the news as investors hoped the new movie sales would boost purchases of Apple’s portable iPod media player and Apple TV, as well as fuel growth for iTunes.
Privately-held CinemaNow and Blockbuster Inc’s Movielink offer similar services for downloading movies on the same day as DVD release, but Apple’s entry is expected to expand that market.
“Apple will increase awareness of digital downloads and it’s clearly a good thing for the studios who want to offer viable digital alternatives,” Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment, told Reuters. “We think this is a game changer.”
ITunes will offer new releases and catalog titles from Universal, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.
Movies available this week include “Juno,” “American Gangster” and “I Am Legend.” New titles will sell for $14.99 each and catalog titles for $9.99 each.
Apple launched a service for iPod and iPhone users to rent and download some movies earlier this year, but offering new releases could help it attract more consumers, analysts said.
“It’s actually a big deal, because when they were able to get parity (with CD release dates) on the music side, they were able to drive music sales,” said analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research.
Movies purchased off the Web represented 1.2 percent of the entire $36 billion paid movie industry market in 2007. That is expected to grow to 4.2 percent of the projected $40 billion market by the end of 2009, according to industry estimates.
Apple’s entry through its popular iTunes service could ultimately threaten the physical rental market led by Blockbuster and Netflix Inc.
“This poses a big long-term competitive question for Netflix and Blockbuster,” said JP Morgan analyst Barton Crockett.
Shares in both companies fell more than 3 percent.
Blockbuster spokeswoman Karen Raskopf said it hoped Apple would help create a larger market that would benefit its own Movielink service.
Netflix declined comment on Thursday, but has said it expects to lead the market for movies delivered over the Web, despite competition from Apple and Amazon.com Inc.
Apple closed up $6.05 at $180 on Nasdaq. Netflix shed 3.1 percent to $31, while Blockbuster fell 3.4 percent to $2.82.

TITLE: Yahoo CEO Facing Possible Rebellion After Spurning Microsoft
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc.’s shares tumbled by more than 23 percent in premarket trading Monday after Microsoft Corp. withdrew a $47.5 billion takeover offer for the Internet pioneer.
Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang is convinced that the company he started in a Silicon Valley trailer 14 years ago is worth more than the $47.5 billion that Microsoft Corp. had offered for the Internet pioneer.
Now he may only have a few months to convince Wall Street that his rebuff of Microsoft’s takeover bid was a smart move — and if he can’t, analysts won’t be surprised if Yang is either replaced as CEO or forced to consider accepting a lower offer if Microsoft comes knocking at his door again.
“This squarely puts the pressure on Jerry Yang to deliver results and shareholder value,” Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Scott Kessler said. “You are going to see a lot of shareholders just throwing in the towel because they are going to realize it’s going to take a while for the stock to get back to where it was Friday.”
The backlash is expected to begin Monday when Kessler and other analysts believe Yahoo’s stock price will surrender most, if not all, of its 50 percent gain since Microsoft made its initial offer Jan. 31. The anticipated sell-off would leave Yahoo’s market value hovering around $30 billion.
Yahoo shares tumbled more than 23 percent, or $6.67, to $22 in premarket trading. In Frankfurt, Germany, two hours before trading opened in New York, Yahoo shares fell 18.6 percent to 14.74 euros ($22.79).
Microsoft’s shares rose 4.3 percent, or $1.26, to $30.50 in premarket trading. The shares had declined 10 percent to $29.24 since the bid, reflecting concerns that the proposed marriage would turn into a complicated mess that would enable Google Inc. to grow even stronger.
Yahoo shares finished last week at $28.67, slightly less than the $29.40 per share that Microsoft was offering before Chief Executive Steve Ballmer agreed to raise the offer to $33 per share in a last-ditch effort to get a deal done.
Disillusioned shareholders are bound to question whether the rejection of Microsoft’s sweetened offer was driven more by emotion and ego than sound business sense.
“Clearly there’s frustration,” said Darren Chervitz, co-manager of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns Yahoo stock. “I am not even sure if Yahoo cares about its shareholders because they didn’t show much regard for shareholders’ best interests in this process.”
Despite such negative sentiment, Yahoo shares are unlikely to immediately fall back to their $19.18 pre-bid price, partly because some investors may still be holding out hope that the software maker will renew its takeover attempt if Yahoo continues to struggle.
Accompanied by fellow Yahoo co-founder David Filo, Yang flew to Seattle on Saturday to inform Ballmer that the company wouldn’t sell for less than $37 per share — a price that Yahoo’s stock hasn’t reached since January 2006.
Analysts and investors were left to wonder why the two sides couldn’t compromise at $35 per share.
“They really didn’t seem that far apart,” Chervitz said. “There is probably blame to go around on both sides, but I think most of it is in Yang’s hands.”
To win the faith of shareholders, Yang will have to execute a turnaround plan that he began drawing up nearly a year ago after he replaced Terry Semel as CEO amid shareholder angst about the company’s financial malaise.
Ballmer also will be under the gun to prove he can come up with another way to challenge Google’s dominance of the Internet’s lucrative search and advertising markets.
The unsolicited bid was widely seen as Ballmer’s admission that Microsoft needed Yahoo’s help to upgrade its unprofitable Internet division.
Analysts now expect Ballmer to use the money he had earmarked for the Yahoo acquisition to explore other possible deals with large Internet companies like Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and News Corp.’s MySpace and promising startups like Facebook Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. Microsoft already owns a 1.6 percent in Facebook, the second-largest social network behind MySpace.
But Ballmer is unlikely to be under as much duress as Yang, 39, who has promised that Yahoo’s development of a more sophisticated and far-flung Internet advertising platform will produce net revenue growth of at least 25 percent in 2009 and 2010.
That would be a dramatic improvement, considering that Yahoo’s revenue rose by 12 percent last year and is expected to grow at about the same pace this year.

TITLE: Russia’s New Strategic Industry
AUTHOR: By Richard Ferguson
TEXT: A decade ago, the public perception of the agriculture industry was one of subsidies, trade distortions and rigged markets. More recently, public awareness has focused on concerns over food security, price inflation and even shortages.
The demand factors are easily identifiable — population growth, urbanization, rising incomes, changing diets and fuel requirements. With the exception of biofuels, these factors combined present a picture of unrelenting demand for grains — gradual, paced and persistent.
Supply remains variable and volatile. The loss of 50 percent of the Australian winter wheat harvest during the drought in 2007 had a dramatic impact on wheat prices. Yet, Australia’s losses only accounted for some 3 percent of global wheat output in a normal year, while wheat prices rose by 30 percent between September and November. This was a clear indication that prices had become highly sensitive not to the factors driving demand, but to historically low inventories.
Inventories have halved in seven years. To an extent, lower inventories can be attributed to fewer distortions in the agriculture system as well as improved supply-chain management. But as some price distortions disappear, others appear. Export restrictions have been implemented in Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina and Kazakhstan. Therefore, the price hike of wheat from $8 per bushel to more than $12 per bushel in the first two months of this year can be largely attributed to political decisions as grain-exporting countries seek to protect their own food supplies. 
Ukraine’s decision to lift its export restrictions hopefully negates the possibility that these short-term panaceas might become permanent fixtures. Recent price declines that take the price of wheat back to $8 per bushel can be largely attributed not only to the possibility of a half-decent harvest, but also to the perception that the grain-exporting nations will remove trading restrictions as fast as they imposed them.
A similar theme has emerged in the rice market of late. As the wheat market retreated from its highs at the beginning of March, the price of rice increased from $18 per hundredweight to $25 per hundredweight. Encouragingly, some rice-exporting countries — including Malaysia and Pakistan — have cooled expectations that they too might restrict exports. It is expected that rice prices will decline sharply once the current frenzy comes to an end.
Grain supplies are volatile. But fundamental demand increases will likely be met by countries with highly fertile, but underutilized, land. Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan top the list of beneficiaries of this changing landscape.
Russia is a good example. In 1992, the country had 120 million hectares of farmland under cultivation. The change from public to private ownership ensured that one of the few advantages of communal ownership — access to equipment — was lost. Multiple ownership resulted in a “free rider” dilemma for the new owners of land — that is, the efforts of individual contributions are shared equally. Consequently, in the last 15 years, some 40 million hectares of rich farmland have been laid fallow. And what is farmed is low yielding. Russia now grows about 2 tons of wheat per hectare, but it has the potential to produce 5 tons of wheat per hectare.
The ramifications are significant. From 75 million tons of cereal output in 2007, Russia could multiply its grain output several times simply by enhancing yield management and bringing fallow land back into production. The country could produce some 300 million tons of cereals without the necessity of producing on virgin land.
This requires long-term planning and investment. Transferring ownership from inefficient multiple parties with no access to capital to large-scale corporate entities with long-term funding is a time-consuming exercise. In addition, repairing fallow land is an expensive business. Finally, to attain higher yields requires lengthy investment in crop rotation. Overall, this process can take from four to six years.
These changes will happen over time and restore imbalances in supply and demand across key cereal markets. 
That said, the entrepreneurial zeal which is transforming the agricultural landscape would only restore some equilibrium to a dynamic market. 
So, while wheat at $12 per bushel might prove to be a temporary blip, $4.50 per bushel is unlikely to be seen any time soon — even if it rains again in Australia.

Richard Ferguson is a global agriculture analyst at Nomura in London.

TITLE: Remaining a Moral Victor
AUTHOR: By Alexei Bayer
TEXT: In the 1970s, Alexander Solzhenitsyn hoped that Russia would be cleansed by its suffering under communism and eventually emerge as a beacon for other nations, leading the West toward moral regeneration.
Alas, it didn’t work out that way. Having lived under a morally bankrupt regime, most Russians became more cynical, not more idealistic. Whenever Americans, for example, talk about ethics, rule of law, or morality, Russians are likely to wink derisively. 
From revisionist historiography, Russians seem to have learned only one lesson — namely, that history is written by victors. Too many are convinced that the only reason the Soviet Union is now maligned by the international community is because it lost the Cold War. Or that Russia is feared and loathed by its neighbors for the same reason — and not because they had chafed so long under Soviet domination.
It is true that atrocities committed by the Allies, such as the firebombing of Dresden, were conveniently glossed over after World War II. Similarly, as long as the Soviet Union remained among the victors, the Red Army’s marauding march through Eastern Europe and Germany didn’t make much of a splash beyond academic history. Only recently has the Soviet treatment of civilians in the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine and Germany become a political issue in Brussels. The Kremlin now hopes that by flexing its energy muscle, it can restore the country’s former might and rewrite history once more. 
Ironically, official Washington has been enthralled by the same idea. As long as the United States is the world’s dominant military power, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush seems to believe that it can twist the truth whichever way it likes. The U.S. president himself routinely misleads the world and his own people, declaring, for instance, that the United States does not torture or that the bloody mess in Iraq is a path to victory. Since it will be writing history, Washington expects to skew the quaint nuances of good and evil in its favor. After all, only the losers are ever put on trial in Nuremberg or the Hague.
But Americans, just like Russians, have drawn the wrong lesson. Victors do get to write history, but only nations that behave morally remain victors.
What constitutes ethical behavior by a state, and its responsibilities to other states and its own people, have changed over time. There is no question that the strong write the moral code, but that doesn’t mean that they can then break its rules with impunity. Having declared that all men were created equal, it was only a matter of time before the United States had to recognize this principle with regard to its own slave population.
The Soviet Union was a prime example of a state positioning itself above its own laws, but that was only part of its problem. The Communist Party called itself “the honor and conscience of our times,” but in reality the Soviet Union was, quite literally, an evil empire. Men and women who rose through its hierarchy knew they were acting immorally, and they ended up despising themselves and bearing no loyalty to the system.
Many Bush administration officials know that they betray the principles on which their nation was built. This is why they are so similar to Young Communist League operatives from the Brezhnev era.
The United States was one of the modern world’s early republics, and Americans became the first nation of citizens, not subjects. Not surprisingly, the stars-and-stripes motif of its flag has been emulated by many nations around the world striving for freedom and democracy. After World War II, the United States worked to create an equitable international community. Most of the world now subscribes to those principles and it holds Washington to its own standards. 

Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, is a New York-based economist.

TITLE: Georgia Is Medvedev’s First Foreign Policy Test
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Frolov
TEXT: Whether by a calculated design or an unintended chain of events spinning out of control, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev will have a foreign policy crisis on his hands when he officially takes office on Wednesday. 
The crisis over Abkhazia and South Ossetia will test Medvedev’s leadership in foreign affairs. He will need to make a strong show of force and prove that he can defend Russia’s interests and lives no less forcefully than his predecessor did. 
The crisis, however, comes at a delicate moment and raises the question of whether it is purposefully intended to narrow Medvedev’s field of options when dealing with the West after the inauguration.
In mid-April, right after the NATO summit in Bucharest, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing legal and economic ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The decree also increased Moscow’s humanitarian and economic assistance to the breakaway republics.
Although coming short of the formal recognition, the move signaled that Russia no longer viewed the two territories to be under Georgia’s sovereignty.
Georgia protested the move and major Western powers raised their concerns with Moscow. They even tried to reverse the decision in a news release at the United Nations Security Council meeting two weeks ago.
Russia’s recent moves in the Caucasus are clearly intended as a veiled threat to dissuade Georgia from accepting NATO membership — if you join, you will lose Abkhazia and South Ossetia. By the same token, the Kremlin wants to escalate the territorial conflict to dissuade NATO from offering membership in the first place. Many within NATO already question whether the alliance should rush to assume responsibility for Georgia’s security.
The Russian action, however, gives the Georgian leadership an incentive to provoke a Russian military response. This tactic was on display two weeks ago when Georgia deliberately sent a reconnaissance drone into Abkhazia’s air space and blamed Russia for shooting it down. 
Moscow responded last week by announcing that it was sending additional peacekeeping troops to Abkhazia, a move that prompted U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to register her concerns with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting in London on Friday.
Before all hell breaks loose, Medvedev will have to apply the brakes to Russian moves in the region, while Washington and Brussels need to dissuade Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili from flirting with war as a tactic to win parliamentary elections on May 21.

Vladimir Frolov is president of LEFF Group, a government relations and public relations company.

TITLE: Communism’s New Crisis
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: A decade ago, the triumph of liberalism in Europe was so overwhelming that even parties that traced their political lineage to the early 20th-century revolutionary working class movement did not speak openly about the radical transformation of society. Communist parties closed down or hastily reinvented themselves as Social Democrats, while Social Democratic parties became liberal parties.
Some Communist organizations kept their name as a kind of “traditional brand name” appealing to older voters. But they radically changed their ideology, as was the case in Russia, where Communists became conservative nationalists, openly declaring their monarchical and religious proclivities. Socialists in Western Europe occupied a position to the right of liberals. Finally, some Communist parties — for example, in Greece and Portugal — tried to pretend that nothing had happened, freezing themselves ideologically. 
Over the last eight years, the situation has been quite different. The collapse and ideological disintegration of the “old” working class parties continues. The most recent example was the series of electoral losses of the Austrian Social Democrats, which were transformed from a leading force in national politics into a second-class political organization. But the old parties are being replaced by new forces offering to bring us fresh anti-capitalist alternatives, and they are ready to demonstrate their readiness for radical actions. From 2003 to 2005, these parties were transformed into a major social force.
Nevertheless, it is too early to talk about the revival of the European left. Each time when one or another organization attains considerable success, problems arise. The Italian Communist Refoundation Party was assigned ministerial posts in the Cabinet of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, but this government had very little to do with the aspirations of those voters who invested their hopes in the left. Leaders of the Communist Refoundation Party rallied their followers to support Prodi’s administration to avoid a worst-case scenario — political power being put in the hands of a right-wing coalition of Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi, but this is exactly what happened. Frustrated and angry, voters also punished the left in the harshest way. For the first time since World War II, the Communists are not represented in the parliament. 
Failures in some countries occur concurrently with the rise of movements in others. The German party Die Linke brought together activists from eastern and western provinces into a single organization for the first time since the country’s unification, and it became an important nationwide force. Unlike its predecessor, the Party of Democratic Socialism, which was represented almost exclusively in East Germany, Die Linke participates in the work of provincial parliaments in West Germany. In Greece, the Stalinist Communist Party and democratic Synaspismos are both growing.
Both victories and defeats reflect the same tendency. European society is ripe for transformations, but it does not have a clear outlook of what political trend it should follow. We discover the same trend in the United States, where emotional and abstract exhortations to change are in the meantime substituting for a well-defined strategy or program. We can see the same trend in Eastern Europe and even in Russia where the government itself calls for “social innovations” despite its own proud claims of having attained “stability.”
By making speeches critical of neoliberalism and underscoring the vices of the existing system, the leftists are increasing support for their cause. But this support must be converted into a new political reality — into a program of transformation that is understandable to a significant part of society. Without this program, every time they opt for a policy of the lesser of two evils, this turns into primitive opportunism and a loss of face.
It amounts to a crisis in the movement, which leftist parties themselves are recognizing more and more. It cannot be overcome by just one individual party in a single country. A joint search for a new strategy is needed, but it can only rely on the efforts and accomplishments of individual organizations bold enough to undertake truly radical and forward-looking actions. 
In that sense, the global economic crisis may be a good stimulus for creativity. An experiment is a risky affair, but in the midst of a collapsing economy, one must try.

Boris Kagarlitsky is the director of the Institute of Globalization Studies.

TITLE: British PM Vows to Fight Back After Poll
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON — Prime Minister Gordon Brown is looking to make popular concessions in a bid to win back support for his beleaguered Labour government after its drubbing in last week’s local elections, media reports said on Monday.
He is considering ditching the rubbish bin tax, delaying the 2 pence (4 cents)-a-liter fuel duty rise in October, expanding shared equity schemes to boost the housing market and increasing pressure on supermarkets to reign in rising food prices, newspapers said.
Labour MPs and backbenchers continued to voice support for the prime minister despite the worst local election results for the party in 40 years, but some unnamed sources gave him between two weeks and a year to turn the situation around.
Labour Party faces another test later in the month when a by-election is held in Crewe and Nantwich.
The Daily Telegraph said some ministers and senior Labour figures privately say a defeat by the Conservatives could persuade even previously loyal allies to take the risk of trying to remove Brown.
But The Times said ministers believed Brown, who has been in power for less than a year, should be given time to fight back.
Failure to improve the party’s ratings during the next 12 months, though, could make his position untenable, The Times reported one anonymous minister as saying.
Brown launched his fight back on Sunday, admitting he had made mistakes but insisting his party could recover to win the next parliamentary election.
Brown pinned the blame for the dismal election results on the weakening economy and voters’ concerns over rising food and energy prices and a credit squeeze that has sparked fears of a slump in the housing market.
Brown said he felt voters’ “hurt” over price rises but believed he was the man to lead the party through the storm.
Labour lost hundreds of council seats in its worst local election performance on record. The Conservatives ousted Labour’s long-serving Ken Livingstone as mayor of London, the most powerful elected post they have held for years.
Labour’s share of the vote plunged to 24 percent, 20 points behind the Conservatives, who would soar to a landslide victory if they could repeat that result at the next parliamentary election, which Brown must call by mid-2010.
Ministers continued to show public support for Brown on Monday, preferring to blame the economy for Labour’s woes.
“If you look at what’s actually affecting the lives of real people then it is much more likely that it can be attributed to a sense of specific concern that people have about their economic future,” International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander told BBC radio.
“There are genuine anxieties at this stage which are being expressed in concern and fear which we need to address and we are determined to address.”
They scored victories in the north of England where they have struggled and in Labour heartlands in Wales. Labour lost Reading council, its last remaining stronghold in the wealthy southeast of England.
“I think this is a very big moment for the Conservative Party, but I don’t want anyone to think that we would deserve to win an election just on the back of a failing government,” said Conservative leader David Cameron.

TITLE: Russia Tops Group D at Start of Worlds
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: QUEBEC CITY, Canada — Captain Alexei Morozov scored his second goal in sudden-death overtime as Russia rallied to beat the Czech Republic 5-4 in the preliminary round of the World Ice Hockey Championships on Sunday.
Morozov’s goal just over three minutes into the extra session spoiled a superb performance by Czech forward Patrik Elias who had a hat trick at the Colisee arena.
The thrilling seesaw game featured four lead changes, seven power play goals and a Russian penalty shot in overtime.
“The Canadian public saw a great game today,” Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov said. “I wasn’t happy with our first two periods but by the third period we were playing better.”
In Group B action, Dany Heatley had a goal and three assists and Pascal Leclaire stopped 30 shots for the shutout as defending champion Canada cruised to a 7-0 win over Latvia at the Halifax Metro Centre arena.
The United States defeated Slovenia 5-1 in the other Halifax game while Denmark rolled over Italy 6-2 in the late game Quebec City.
With the victory, Russia takes over first place in Group D with five points in two games, one point ahead of the Czechs.
Russia is trying to snap a gold medal drought dating back to 1993.
The last time Russia and the Czechs met in a Worlds was the quarter-finals of the 2007 tournament where Russia won 4-0 and went on to capture the bronze.
Konstantin Gorovikov, Kostantin Korneyev and Sergei Zinoviev also scored for Russia which outshot the Czechs 4-2 in the overtime.
“They are greedy,” Elias said of the Russians. “You can never underestimate their power. They played as a team and they play a very tough hockey game.”
Elias’ three goals all came on the powerplay. Buffalo Sabres forward Ales Kotalik added another powerplay goal for the Czechs who blew two leads in the game (2-1, 4-3) and outshot the Russians 43-27.
“We made a couple of mistakes and they have great players to make great powerplays,” Russian star Alex Ovechkin said. “They scored all of their goals on the powerplay. Today we did not shoot enough on their goaltender.”
Morozov capped off an exciting overtime frame, taking a drop pass from Zinoviev and firing it between the blocker of Czech goalie Milan Hnilicka and the far post.
The overtime started with Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk being awarded a penalty shot after just 30 seconds when he was hauled down on a breakaway by defenceman Tomas Kaberle. But after some nifty stickhandling moves, Kovalchuk’s shot hit the left post and sailed into the corner.
The victory may have proved costly for Russia as starting goaltender Alexander Yeremenko left the game with a suspected knee injury. Russia is now left with just one healthy goalie because their third string goalie is also hurt, Bykov said.
Yeremenko was replaced by backup Mikhail Biryukov and it seemed to spark the Russians as Morozov scored the first of his two goals just minutes later to give Russia a 3-2 lead.

TITLE: McCain Happy At Obama’s Troubles
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — Republicans can hardly contain their glee as they watch Barack Obama battle through a rocky period. And why should they?
Nothing else is breaking the GOP’s way this year. But, at least now, the Democrats’ political phenom is tarnished, and, if he defeats Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, he will enter the general election campaign not only bruised and battered — but also carrying baggage as he faces Republican John McCain.
“We’ve had a rough couple of weeks. I won’t deny that,” Obama said Friday.
The Illinois senator has repeatedly had to address — and repudiate — the ranting of his bombastic former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Obama has continued facing questions about his relationship with indicted Chicago businessman Antoin Rezko. The candidate’s patriotism has been questioned. So has his readiness.
On the eve of a critical Pennsylvania primary, Obama caught flak for claiming that small-town folks are bitter and thus cling to guns and religion. Then he turned in a lackluster debate performance. He ended up losing that primary to Clinton in part because he didn’t attract enough white, working-class voters.
Now he finds himself in the midst of competitive contests in two more states. Losses Tuesday in Indiana and North Carolina would further weaken him. Even if he manages to hold off Clinton in those and the final primary contests, Obama would essentially limp to the nomination.
“The bark is stripped off him a little bit,” said Reed Galen, a Republican who worked on President Bush’s campaigns. “Are the folks on the Republican side of the aisle happy to let Hillary do that? Absolutely.”
Among Republicans and Democrats alike, Obama’s turbulent time is raising questions about why he can’t seem to put away Clinton after a 16-month primary fight and whether Obama — in his first hard-fought race — is prepared not only to go up against McCain this fall but also to withstand the rigors of the White House.
Republicans hope Obama will be damaged goods come the general election and McCain will have a stronger shot at hanging onto the White House in an extraordinarily difficult political environment. 
Most Americans disapprove of Bush’s job performance and think the country is on the wrong track.

TITLE: Ronaldo Sorry For Scandal
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian star Ronaldo says he’s sorry, embarrassed and ashamed about his highly publicized encounter a week ago with three cross-dressing prostitutes, calling it the biggest mistake of his life.
In an interview on Brazil’s Globo TV, the AC Milan striker on Sunday denied claims by one of the prostitutes that he had sex with them and used drugs, but admitted the incident will haunt the rest of his career.
“It was an isolated and stupid act,” the three-time FIFA Player of the Year said on Globo. “I’m sorry and ashamed.”
In a halting voice, Ronaldo said he wasn’t aware the prostitutes were cross-dressers until he got to a motel with them, discovered they were men and decided not to have sex with them because he is heterosexual.
Ronaldo, who is recovering from knee surgery in Brazil, also said he had been drinking earlier that night after watching Rio’s Flamengo win against rival Botafogo-but was not drunk.
“I made the stupidest mistake ever of my personal life,” he said. “Anyone can make a mistake, and I made a big mistake.”
Police are investigating to determine whether an extortion attempt was made against Ronaldo, but have said he committed no crime. Prostitution is legal in Brazil.
The television appearance by Ronaldo was his first in public since last Tuesday, when he went into hiding after the run-in with the prostitutes, who created a brief media sensation in Brazil with days of high-profile interviews.
The comments by Ronaldo to Globo jibed with his statement last week to police and with interviews conducted with detectives.
The motel manager — identified only as Luisa — said Ronaldo, who was dressed and appeared to be sober, tried to get rid of the prostitutes after realizing they were men.
She told police Ronaldo offered the prostitutes $600 to end the incident, but they would not accept dollars. The manager then converted the money into Brazilian reals for Ronaldo, but before he made the payment one prostitute asked for $30,000 to keep the story from the media, according to a police document.
Ronaldo is a fan of Flamengo and has said he wants to play for the Brazilian club before retiring. He has won two World Cups with Brazil, including in 2002 when he scored eight goals, two in the final against Germany.
Ronaldo told Globo TV that his contract with AC Milan ends in June, but that he won’t start negotiating his comeback with any teams until he recovers from his injury.

TITLE: Beijing Wants Mood Music To Improve With Vatican
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: VATICAN CITY — Beijing approached the Vatican to let the China Philharmonic Orchestra perform for Pope Benedict in an unprecedented concert that could help improve often thorny relations, Church sources said on Monday.
The sources, who spoke on condition that they not be named, said the Vatican realised that China is trying to improve its international image but that Church officials hope the performance could be a seed for eventual diplomatic relations.
However they have cautioned not to expect any immediate breakthroughs following Wednesday night’s concert at the Vatican.
“I don’t think they (the communist government) are doing it out of love for the pope or love of the Holy See but it will be positive in the end,” said one source, a priest who is familiar with the situation.
The orchestra, currently on a European tour, will perform Mozart’s “Requiem” and Chinese folk songs along with the Shanghai Opera House Chorus in the Vatican audience hall.
Benedict has made improving relations with Beijing a major goal of his pontificate and issued a 55-page open letter in June saying he sought to restore full diplomatic ties with China that were severed two years after the 1949 Communist takeover.
Catholics in China are split between those who belong to a state-backed Church and an underground Church whose members are loyal to the Vatican.
The priest said a Chinese diplomatic envoy approached a Vatican official outside Italy and made the offer. An initial offer for the orchestra to play for the pope was made several months ago but the concert could not be arranged.
“It’s very important that they made the offer again,” the priest said. “It will be positive for the Chinese people to see the pope too,” adding that he expected the concert to be broadcast on Chinese television.
Another source said the Chinese were clearly “shopping for good will” in an effort to improve China’s international image, tarnished by recent unrest in Tibet and disruptions of the international leg of the Olympic torch relay.
“Each side clearly has its own interest in this,” the second source said, calling the Vatican’s willingness to host the concert “a good will gesture”.
Relations between the Vatican and Beijing have hit low points several times in recent years as the Vatican criticised China for appointing bishops without papal approval.
Benedict accused China of “grave violations of religious freedom” in 2006. Relations warmed significantly last September when the Vatican approved the installation of a new state-approved Catholic bishop of Beijing.
China wants the Vatican to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province.

TITLE: Against All Odds, Zenit St. Petersburg Reach UEFA Cup Final
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: Zenit St. Petersburg may not be the most fashionable club but the Russian champions made the rest of Europe take notice when they crushed German giants Bayern Munich 4-0 to reach the UEFA Cup final on Thursday.
Zenit coach Dick Advocaat, however, stopped short of proclaiming his team in the same class as Chelsea or Manchester United, who contest the Champions League final in Moscow on May 21.
“Well, we are not an elite club, not yet anyway,” the Dutchman told a post-match news conference.
“We don’t have the status of Chelsea or other big European clubs, but hopefully if we continue to play like we did tonight, then anything is possible.”
Zenit’s attacking display against the former four-times European champions in Thursday’s second leg semi-final at the Petrovsky stadium even impressed Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.
“Any team that beats Bayern 4-0 must be the favourites [for the final],” the German said.
Ironically, the Russian side play Rangers in the UEFA Cup final in Manchester, England, on May 14, while the English clubs will go the other way to contest the Champions League showpiece in the Russian capital a week later.
Zenit, playing in their first European final, will now try to emulate CSKA Moscow, who became the first Russian club to lift the UEFA Cup in 2005.
They will have to do it without the services of their top striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, however.
The Russia international was booked late in the game after netting twice on Thursday to join Bayern striker Luca Toni as the UEFA Cup top scorer with 10 goals apiece. He will miss the final through suspension.
“It was a stupid foul but I hope my team mates will carry the load for me,” said Pogrebnyak.
Advocaat is used to replacing team members after Zenit played the second leg against Bayern without three suspended players-Russia playmaker Andrei Arshavin, Czech international Radek Sirl and Dutch midfielder Fernando Ricksen.
“No one is irreplaceable. Other players will have to do a bit more to get the job done,” he said.
The Dutchman, who moved to Zenit in 2006 after quitting as South Korea coach, made winning the European trophy a priority this season.
“Zenit have never played in a European final, so this UEFA Cup means a great deal for this club, for the fans, for the whole city,” he said. “After coming this far, we certainly don’t want to stop there.”
Zenit, backed by the seemingly limitless resources of Russian energy giant Gazprom, will make their Champions League debut in September.
Advocaat, who in November extended his contract for another year, has already asked the team’s sponsors to splash their cash to strengthen the squad.
“When you compete against the best clubs in Europe you can’t rely on 11 or 12 players,” he said. “If we want to become a top club we must have the equal number of quality players just like any other team.”
Meanwhile in Italy, Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli said the wrong side will face Zenit after watching his side lose 4-2 to Rangers in a penalty shoot-out, also last Thursday.
Deadlocked over two legs and extra time at 0-0, despite Fiorentina having most of the possession throughout the semi-final games, Rangers reached the final after Spaniard Nacho Novo converted the decisive spot-kick. “It’s a big disappointment because if there was a team that deserved to go the final it was Fiorentina,” Prandelli told a news conference.
The Scottish side showed little adventure in both of the goalless ties but prevailed with some dogged defending and cool shooting from the penalty spot.
“We lacked a bit of luck with some of the rebounds in the area,” Prandelli added. “We managed to reach the byline many times and get in lots of crosses.
“Perhaps we were a bit too frenetic with the final pass, but it was a semi-final so that’s quite normal.
“The only thing lacking was the finishing, but we tried. We deserved to go to the final, but we accept this verdict with serenity”.
Rangers manager Walter Smith paid tribute to the hosts for their attacking approach.
“They had a fair amount of pressure, but our team defends very well. We are a difficult team to score against,” he said. “I don’t think Fiorentina could have done much more than they did.”
Smith, 60, said the victory was the culmination of year-long effort: “In a short space of time we’ve built up the spirit and determination which we have shown throughout the season. It is fantastic what we have done.
“On a personal level, at this stage of my career I thought [the time of] European Cup finals had passed, so I’m delighted.” 
Smith praised Steven Whittaker, Brahim Hemdani, Sasa Papac and Novo for the courage they showed in converting their penalties.
But he admitted that he “thought the worst” when captain Barry Ferguson missed the opening spot-kick.
He added that he was relishing the prospect of facing the Zenit side of former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat in the final. 
“That was a fantastic result Dick got,” he said of Zenit’s 4-0 thrashing of Bayern Munich to give them a 5-1 aggregate win. “I look forward to meeting Dick.”

TITLE: Turkmenbashi’s Successor Undoes Former Leader’s Personality Cult
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ASHGABAT — A rotating gold statue of Turkmenistan’s former leader is to be removed from the center of the capital, state media said on Saturday, as his successor chips away at the late president’s personality cult.
Saparmurat Niyazov spent his 21 years in power building Turkmenistan into one of the world’s most isolated regimes while imposing his mark on the gas-rich Central Asian state.
He styled himself Turkmenbashi, or “Father of all the Turkmen”, and spent giant sums building sumptuous memorials to his own wisdom, including a 75-meter-tall tower in central Ashgabat whose summit is a statue of himself.
But President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered the giant syringe-like structure that towers over low-rise Ashgabat to be removed to a southern suburb, state media said.
The tower, known as the Arch of Neutrality because Niyazov said one of his biggest achievements was to ensure Turkmenistan’s neutral status, is topped by a 12-meter gold-plated effigy of the leader.
With arms outstretched as if to embrace his subjects from the lofty perch, Niyazov rotates once every 24 hours, tracking the path of the sun from dawn to dusk.
Berdymukhamedov, who came to power in February 2007 after Niyazov died of heart failure in late 2006, said it should be moved to a major avenue in the south of the city, which is called Neutrality Avenue.

TITLE: Europe’s League Titles Decided in Some Style
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Real Madrid and Bayern Munich won their respective league titles Sunday despite less-than-stellar performances.
Madrid needed two late goals to beat Osasuna 2-1 in the Spanish league to win its record 31st title. Arjen Robben tied the score for 10-man Madrid in the 87th minute and Gonzalo Higuain added the second goal in the 89th.
Bayern won its 21st German title after a 0-0 tie at VfL Wolfsburg.
Inter Milan had a chance to win the Italian league title Sunday, but it lost to city rival AC Milan 2-1.

n MADRID, Spain — Real Madrid won its record 31st Spanish league title by getting late goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Arjen Robben in a 2-1 win at Osasuna.
Higuain scored with a hard shot from the right in the 88th minute, two minutes after Robben headed in a cross from Fernando Gago.
Francisco Punal had put the hosts in the lead from the penalty spot in the 83rd. Osasuna was awarded the penalty after Madrid defender Gabriel Heinze handled the ball inside the area as he leapt to challenge a cross.
Madrid played much of the match with 10 men following Fabio Cannavaro’s ejection in the 46th.
The win gives Madrid 78 points-10 more than second-place Villarreal-with only three games remaining.
Villarreal managed to postpone Madrid’s title celebrations for a few hours by beating Getafe 2-0. Nihat Kahveci scored both goals.
Getafe was in control at Villarreal until the 37th minute, when Giuseppe Rossi chested down a long ball and broke past defender Cata Diaz before finding Nihat with a pass across the goal for an easy score. 
Robert Pires found the Turkey striker alone again on the right side in the 44th and he shot high to beat goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri.
Thierry Henry and Bojan Krkic scored two goals each, and Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez added the others as third-place Barcelona routed Valencia 6-0.

n BERLIN (AP) — Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga title after a 0-0 tie at VfL Wolfsburg.
Toni Kroos had Bayern’s best chance in the 73rd minute, putting a shot just outside the right post. But it became clear that neither team was going to be able to score in the final minutes, handing the title to Bayern.
Bayern, which also won the German Cup last month, has a 10-point lead over second-place Werder Bremen with only three games remaining.
Bayern overcame a poor performance to get its point, allowing 18 attempts before the break-a team record since the statistic was first recorded in 1992. A party for Bayern won’t be held until May 17 when Bayern plays its final game in Munich against Hertha Berlin. But thousands of fans chanted and screamed as the final seconds ticked off.
Bayern also won a title in 1932, which came before the league was formed, making it German champion for the 21st time.

n LONDON (AP) — Arsenal needed a late header from Nicklas Bendtner to beat Everton 1-0 in the English Premier League, and Liverpool beat Manchester City by the same score.
Bendtner jumped to head a cross from Armand Traore past American goalkeeper Tim Howard in the 77th minute.
The win gives Arsenal a chance to overtake Chelsea for second place and an automatic spot in the group stage of next season’s Champions League.
Arsenal, with 80 points, trails Chelsea by one, but the Blues have two games to go and can win the league title. Manchester United leads the league with 84 points with one game remaining at Wigan next Sunday.
Chelsea plays at Newcastle on Monday and then hosts Bolton in the final round next Sunday.
“We can still finish second if Chelsea loses one game and draws another one,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. 
“But Bolton are safe and having seen West Ham against Manchester United yesterday, I have very little hope Bolton will make a result at Chelsea.”
Liverpool, which got a 23rd-minute goal from Fernando Torres, has 73 points and has already secured fourth place.
Everton could have guaranteed itself a spot in the UEFA Cup with a tie. The team hosts Newcastle on the final day of the season next Sunday.
West Bromwich Albion and Stoke were promoted from the League Championship and will play in the Premier League next season. Leicester, Scunthorpe and Colchester were relegated to League One.

n MILAN, Italy (AP) — Inter Milan will have to wait at least one more week for its third straight Italian league title after losing to city rival AC.
Second-place AS Roma defeated Sampdoria 3-0 to cut Inter’s lead to three points with two games left in the season.

TITLE: Three Babies Found in Freezer
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: BERLIN — In the latest case to shock Germany, authorities said on Monday they have discovered three dead babies in a freezer and arrested the woman believed to be the childrens’ mother.
The discovery of the babies, all of whom appear to have been newborns when they died, came late on Sunday after members of the arrested woman’s family alerted the police, prosecutors said.
The 44-year-old woman already has three children aged 18-24.
The woman has been placed under medical supervision because of her mental state and was to be questioned later Monday, said prosecutors’ spokesman Ewald Weinberger said.
The freezer containing the bodies was in the cellar of a detached house in the town of Wenden, about 100 kilometres east of Bonn.
The corpses, which according to local television channel WDR were wrapped in bags, were to undergo autopsies once they had thawed, Weinberger said.
Another television channel, N24, speculated that the mother was able to conceal her pregnancies because she was overweight.
Prosecutors in the nearby town of Siegen were to give more details at a news conference at 1200 GMT.
Germany has witnessed numerous similar cases in recent years.

TITLE: Rice Urges Israel to Ease Gaza Plight
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wound up a weekend trip to spur Israeli-Palestinian talks with a one-on-one meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday, and Olmert was scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later in the day.
An Olmert aide said no public statement was expected after his meeting with Rice, who at a news conference with Abbas on Sunday demanded that Israel do more to ease life for Palestinians in the West Bank by removing roadblocks.
Facing Palestinian frustration at the pace of the negotiations, Rice made unusually direct remarks Sunday about the consequences of Israeli construction and roadblocks in the West Bank. Palestinian claims that Israel is deliberately expanding Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians want for a state have dampened hopes for a peace deal before President Bush leaves office in January.
Asked about settlements, Rice said she “continues to raise with the Israelis the importance of creating an atmosphere that is conducive to negotiations.”
The twin issues of settlements and roadblocks were likely to be on the agenda at the Olmert-Abbas meeting in Jerusalem.
“That means doing nothing, certainly, that would suggest that there is any prejudicing of the final terms” of a deal setting up a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank, Rice said.
For its part, Israel isn’t trying to expand settlements as land grab before an eventual withdrawal, the country’s senior diplomat said.
“I can assure you Israel has no hidden agenda,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said.
Livni pointed to Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as proof that Jewish settlements “are not obstacles” if the government decides it has a larger aim of peace with the Palestinians. Israel dismantled 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza when it pulled out.
Rice emphasized that a year-end goal for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is still achievable, even though both sides question whether the target is realistic.
Abbas has sounded increasingly pessimistic. He accuses Israel of undermining talks by continuing to build in Jewish settlements on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, and refusing to remove hundreds of military checkpoints that dot the West Bank.
The Bush administration is serving as a proctor for the first direct high-level peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians since talks broke down amid violence more than seven years ago. The closed-door talks have yielded no obvious successes, although all sides say the atmosphere is good.
Rice shuttled between Israel and the West Bank, passing red-roofed Jewish settlements and illegal outposts on the way, to prod for progress ahead of Bush’s commemorative visit to Israel later in May. He is marking the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state.
His planned visit has rankled some Palestinians, who say the United States is too close to Israel to act as an honest broker. Bush will not visit the West Bank, as he did during his first visit to Israel as president in January.
In the West Bank, Rice said that Israeli gestures there must have a “real effect” on the lives of the people. “We are trying to look not just at quantity, but also quality of improvements,” she said.
Israel maintains hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the West Bank, saying they are needed to protect settlements and prevent would-be attackers from crossing into Israel. The Palestinians claim the travel restrictions have stifled their economy and made free movement in an area they claim for their state extremely difficult.
Rice said she had discussed the lifting of Israeli roadblocks, but did not say Israel made her any new promises. When Rice visited in March, Israel promised to remove 61 roadblocks. The United Nations reported that only 44 have been dismantled, and most of them had no or little significance.
“It was the first time that I had raised this issue, and so it will be now a discussion as to how to carry out that concern, or how to address that concern,” Rice said.
At the same time, she acknowledged there is a “real security dimension” for the Israelis.
There was one suicide bombing last year and two so far this year. That’s down from a high of 59 in 2002, the year Israel began building a separation barrier along the West Bank and multiplying its military checkpoints and roadblocks.

TITLE: Pro-EU Tadic In Danger
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BELGRADE — Serbian President Boris Tadic has received death threats for “betraying the Serb people” by seeking closer ties with the European Union despite its support for Kosovo’s secession, officials said on Monday.
Tadic, also the leader of the main pro-Western party, backed the signing of a Stabilization and Association Agreement last week over the objections of nationalists, who said it amounted to a recognition of independence for Serbia’s former province.
“We are aware of the death threats President Tadic received,” the state prosecutor’s office said on Monday. “Relevant state institutions are taking all measures necessary to protect the president and identify the perpetrators.”
The president’s office declined to comment on the threats. The Serbian daily Blic quoted one letter as saying Tadic would get a bullet to the head for betraying the country.
The secession of Kosovo, Serbia’s medieval heartland, polarized Serbian society between hardliners who want to freeze ties with the EU and pro-Western liberals who think there is a way to move towards membership and still not give up Kosovo.
The government, a coalition of Tadic’s Democrats with outgoing nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, collapsed under the strain. Campaigning for the May 11 election has focused largely on the EU-Kosovo dilemma.
Tadic, speaking to reporters at a public function, urged politicians to calm down and not create “bad blood in the country.”

TITLE: Picture Emerges of Austrian Who Jailed, Raped His Daughter
AUTHOR: By Bradley S. Klapper
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: AMSTETTEN, Austria — Casual acquaintances knew Josef Fritzl as a jovial fellow who liked to drink beer and enjoyed a bawdy joke. But former neighbors say the man accused of imprisoning his daughter and fathering her seven children ran his household like a dictator. Piece by piece, a picture is emerging of a shrewd liar and an obsessive tyrant.
“At home, he was clearly the lord of the manor. Even at his campground, he was very strict and his rules had to be followed,” said Anton Graf, who rented Fritzl land along Austria’s Mondsee Lake.
“He was inflexible and had no sensitivity,” Graf, 57, told The Associated Press. “You were sick, something happened, he didn’t care ... There was a rule — and that was it.”
Although authorities have clamped down on records, examples of Fritzl’s double life are coming to light.
The 73-year-old retired electrician was both a hard worker respected by his peers, and a fiercely private man whose life revolved around the home he ruled with an iron fist.
The mosaic of Fritzl now taking shape also points to an astonishingly agile criminal mind: He allegedly forged letters, concocted an elaborate but consistent cover story that his daughter Elisabeth had joined a cult, and even impersonated her in a phone call to his wife.
Fritzl apparently complemented trickery with a heavy reliance on authoritarianism: To keep family and tenants from the windowless, soundproofed rooms where he confined Elisabeth for 24 years, along with three of the children, he menacingly banned them from the basement.
Former tenants said Fritzl told residents of the apartment house he owned that the cellar was off-limits and they were not allowed to take photos there. Anyone who broke that verbal agreement was threatened with eviction, they said.
“He was obviously a tyrant,” said Sigrun Rossmanith, who works with Austria’s court system. “If they heard over and over that the cellar was taboo, then they didn’t dare to check on anything.”
Police say Fritzl also threatened his daughter and the three children held captive with her that the cellar was rigged to release toxic gas in case they attempted to overpower him in a bid to escape.
Herbert Katzengrueber, Amstetten’s mayor, said City Hall officials who dealt with Fritzl described a manipulative and controlling man.
“He was apparently very dominant within the family,” Katzengrueber said. “He terrorized the family. The deplorable acts against the daughter were not the only violence. There was also permanent pressure put on the family over the years.”
Fritzl was born in Amstetten on April 9, 1935, but little is known of his early life. Even his parents’ names have been withheld by authorities, who say privacy laws prevent them from releasing birth, marriage and death certificates.
A class photo from a school trip in 1951 — obtained by AP — shows a 16-year-old Fritzl looking tall and handsome, with dark hair and a serious demeanor. A former classmate who gave his name only as Erich S. recalled Fritzl as a “slightly different” teenager and remembers his unfashionable haircut.
Johann Kreitler, director of the high school Fritzl attended from 1947-51, said Fritzl left school at 16 and later went to a vocational school.
Fritzl’s employers and colleagues say he gained their respect and was a hard worker.
“He expected a lot from others, but he seemed to expect a lot from himself,” said Graf. “Saturdays, Sundays, holidays — if work needed to be done, he did it.”
Yet outside the workplace, there were warning signs.
Reports suggest Fritzl was arrested in the 1960s in Linz and may have served prison time. Police have declined to comment, saying records that old have been erased under Austrian law.
But the daughter of a former employer backed up the reports.
“He was hired even though he had a record,” said Sigrid Reisinger, who heads the Amstetten construction material firm Zehetner, which employed Fritzl from 1969-71. She said the alleged crime was of a sexual nature but did not recall details.
Calls to Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, went unanswered Friday.
Fritzl then sold machines for a German company in Austria and was often on the road. He bought an inn and campground in Unterach, about 90 miles west of Amstetten, that his wife Rosemarie — who police say was unaware of the cellar dungeon — ran during summers from 1973 to 1996.
“One day he came to my door and told me that Elisabeth was not coming home any more, that she had left to join a cult,” Graf said.
He said Fritzl was so believable that no one was suspicious. “He was so convincing of the sorrow he felt and the suffering of his family,” Graf said. “Nobody had any clue.”
Graf said Fritzl also told of discovering one of Elisabeth’s children on his doorstep — and Graf said he never doubted the tale.
Two other children also turned up the same way — hand-picked to live upstairs, police say, because Fritzl decided they were “crybabies” who would raise a ruckus in the basement.
Local authorities say Fritzl was twice suspected of arson at the inn, in 1974 and 1982. But Gerhard Neuhuber, an Unterach police official, said Fritzl was cleared because of lack of evidence.
During the second investigation, Fritzl spent a short time in prison, Neuhuber told the AP.
After the latest allegations, police in Upper Austria have been examining whether Fritzl might be linked to an unsolved murder nearby.
Yet Fritzl remains little-known in Unterach, where those who dealt with him say they saw little in his character that seemed exceptional or suspicious.
Graf said he sometimes met Fritzl for business dealings, and the pair would share a beer. 
“He told jokes, not always the cleanest,” Graf said. “He laughed loud, a real boom.”
Germany’s Bild newspaper interviewed a man it identified only as Paul H., who said he twice vacationed in Thailand with Fritzl, and obtained video showing Fritzl on the beach receiving a massage, eating supper and laughing.
“We sat out on the terrace and had a nice evening,” it quoted the friend as saying.
There was no sign of the man investigators say confessed to tossing the body of one of his offspring in a furnace after the child died in infancy.