SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #609 (0), Friday, October 6, 2000
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TITLE: Chaos Reigns on Belgrade's Streets
AUTHOR: By Dusan Stojanovic
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Mobs seeking to topple Slobodan Milosevic turned their fury on his centers of power Thursday, leaving parliament and other key Belgrade sites in shambles and flames and pushing the Yugoslav president to an inevitable choice: fight back or bow down. 


Hundreds of thousands of people swarmed the capital to demand that Milosevic accept his apparent electoral defeat by Vojislav Kostunica in the Sept. 24 election. As demonstrators charged and riot police cowered behind helmets and shields, the federal parliament building, the state broadcasting center and police stations fell in quick succession. 

Protesters tossed documents and portraits of Milosevic through the windows of the parliament complex. Smoke billowed from the building and from the state television headquarters nearby. 

Dozens of people were injured, according to witnesses. Some police who fired on demonstrators were beaten. 

"What we are doing today is making history," Kostunica proclaimed during an evening speech in front of Belgrade city hall, across from parliament. "We call on the military and police to do everything to ensure a peaceful transition of power." 

Independent B-92 radio said Kostunica called an inaugural session of the new parliament for late Thursday. 

The crowd chanted for Milosevic's arrest. Kostunica answered: "He doesn't need to be arrested. He arrested himself a long time ago." 

At the White House, President Clinton said: "The people are trying to get their country back." British Prime Minister Tony Blair said of Milosevic: "Your time is up. Go now." 

Clashes spread through the capital, which echoed with the sound of stun grenades and tear gas fired to break up the crowds. Later, both state television channels went off the air before coming back on under opposition control, and the state-run Tanjug news agency - one of chief pillars of Milosevic's rule - announced it is no longer loyal to him. 

"From this moment, Tanjug informs the Yugoslav public that it is with the people of this country," a statement carried by the agency said. Another Tanjug report referred to Kostunica as "President-elect of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." 

The conquest of the parliament was symbolic. But the loss of state media and the government-run newspaper Politika was a bigger blow to Milosevic, denying him his biggest propaganda tools. 

The uprising swelled as security forces showed little willingness to battle the largest anti-Milosevic protest in his 13-year rule. Many police joined the flag-waving crowds as they surged across central Belgrade. Thousands more people joined smaller rallies in towns throughout the country. 

There was no immediate reaction from Milosevic, and his whereabouts were not known. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said that as far as the United States knows, Milosevic was still in Belgrade. 

A statement from Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia said it would "fight against violence and destruction" with "all its force and in all state institutions," Tanjug reported. 

There were fears the mayhem could allow Milosevic to declare a state of emergency and come down hard on his foes. But his security forces appeared to be disintegrating, with protesters seizing police precincts without a fight. The level of defiance was unprecedented in Yugoslavia's 55-year communist history. 

The government acknowledges that Kostunica outpolled Milosevic in the Sept. 24 election but says he fell short of a majority in the five-candidate race. A runoff had been set for Sunday.

The president has already countered in the courts in an apparent bid to cling to power: The Milosevic-controlled Yugoslav Constitutional Court issued a decision Wednesday that Tanjug said nullified "parts" of the election. The ruling outraged opposition supporters, who had brought the case in hopes Kostunica would be declared the winner. 

Hundreds of thousands of people broke through police convoys and streamed into Belgrade for Thursday's opposition rally, and the melees erupted as the rally was beginning. 

One attempt to storm parliament was repulsed by tear gas, but following waves of protesters broke through. By late afternoon, opposition supporters who had been inside the parliament building were climbing through the windows and onto the complex's balconies, waving flags as the crowd roared below. 

Inside the building, chaos reigned. Gangs of young people, many of them intoxicated, roamed the building, smashing furniture and computers and looting what valuables they could carry. 

But police offered little resistance and the clashes ebbed. Afterward, as night fell, thousands of demonstrators walked the streets in a relatively relaxed atmosphere. Some were drunk and brandishing handguns. 

Several shop windows were shattered, and by evening orange flames still billowed from part of the parliament building. Big trucks with loudspeakers drove through Belgrade blasting folk and rock music. The downtown headquarters of the Yugoslav Left, the neo-communist party run by Milosevic's wife, was demolished, with the graffiti "People's Revolution" sprayed on inside walls. 

More than 100,000 people gathered in front of parliament before Kostunica's evening speech. Protesters waved Yugoslav flags outside the building. 

The crowd chanted "Kill him! Kill him!" as opposition leaders claimed victory over Milosevic. 

"At this moment, terror rules in Belgrade," state television said in a commentary earlier, before a bulldozer broke into its headquarters and the opposition took it over. "They are attacking everyone they see on the streets and there is chaos."

TITLE: Museum Linked to Art Theft Cover-Up
AUTHOR: By John Varoli
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: After a decade of fruitless attempts to recover from France drawings by Russian avant-garde artist Pavel Filonov, the French government finally surrendered the works to the Russian Embassy on Sept. 27.


The works were stolen nearly 20 years ago from the State Russian Museum and subsequently sold to Paris' renowned Pompidou Center. 

Though the works are not extremely valuable, their return puts an end to one of the most complex and incredible art theft sagas after World War II, and raises many questions about the extent of French guilt for holding on to stolen art.

On Saturday, Russian Culture Minister Mikhail Svidkoi returned triumphant from Paris with the seven, A4-sized, black-and-white drawings dating from the years just after the 1917 Revolution.

"We are very grateful to the French Ministry of Culture and the Pompidou for having taken the decision to return to Russia what belongs here," said Anatoly Vilkov, head of the Culture Ministry's department for the preserving of cultural valuables.

Pompidou Center president Jean-Jacques Ailliagon said in a Culture Minstry press statement that "the return of the drawings is a manifestation of fulfilling a high moral duty and we hope other museums will follow our example."

Filonov (1882-1941) was one of the leaders of Russia's avant-garde movement, and known for his style, called "analytical art." He welcomed the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power, and flourished under the new regime in the 1920s. With the rise of socialist realism in the 1930s, however, he fell into disfavor, obscurity and poverty.

He never sold any of his works, but upon his death in 1941 during the Blockade of Leningrad, he bequeathed them to his sister, Yelena Glebova, who in turn donated them to the Russian Museum in 1977. Since all of his works were in Russia, their appearance in France was indeed a surprise.

The return puts to rest one of the most embarrassing chapters in the history of the Russian Museum - the Culture Ministry believes the drawings were stolen by several high-ranking museum officials working there in the late 1970s. The issue was so painful and sensitive that the current museum directors, who admit they know the identity of the culprits, almost never discuss the matter with journalists.

The seven Filonov drawings were stolen from the Russian Museum nearly 20 years ago. The exact date is unknown because the originals were switched with finely executed copies - presumably some time between 1978 and 1981. The drawings were purchased by the Pompidou in 1983 from a Paris antique dealer of Russian descent for 62,500 French francs (or about $11,000 at the time).

The crime was only discovered in 1985 when a Russian Museum art historian saw a copy of "Cahiers du Musee d'Art Moderne," published by the Pompidou in 1983, with photos of the stolen drawings. After a careful inspection she concluded that the ones in the museum's possession were forgeries, but the case was hushed up, and in fact, a criminal investigation was only initiated in 1991.

Even more surprisingly, when the Russian Museum held its Filonov exhibit at the Pompidou in 1990, it did not take any measures to pressure the Parisian museum into returning the stolen drawings. Ironically, the stolen Filonov drawings took part in that show as belonging to the Pompidou, even though both Russian and French museum officials knew the truth about their origins.

The stolen drawings would never have made it home, however, were not for the efforts of the European representative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Nikolas Iljine, a French citizen of Russian descent.

A year ago, when Iljine saw that Russian efforts to convince France to return the drawings had stalled, he took the initiative to hire a lawyer, who subsequently proved to the French government that the drawings were indeed stolen. His effort culminated July 24 when the French culture minister, Catherine Tasca, signed a decree revoking the French ownership of the drawings.

Without Mr Iljine's financial and organizational support, Russia most likely would never have regained possession of the drawings. Government negotiations, begun in 1997, proved fruitless, and before Mr. Iljine came on the scene with a good lawyer, the French entirely ignored Russian Culture Ministry requests to look into the matter.

While the drawings have returned, the scandal may only just be beginning. Documents shown to the St. Petersburg Times, and confirmed by the Culture Ministry, clearly indicate that as of 1993 French officials knew the Filonov works were indeed stolen. Yet, the French refused to return them.

According to documents shown to The St. Petersburg Times, former Pompidou director Germain Viatte, accompanied by another Pompidou official, Marion Vulien, brought the Filonov drawings to St. Petersburg in September 1993 to show them to Russian officials for expert advice on whether or not they were indeed genuine.

Michel Taran, an official at the French consulate in St. Petersburg, assisted them in bringing the drawings into Russia using the diplomatic bag. The drawings were then shown to Russian Museum director, Vladimir Gusev, and his specialists confirmed the drawings' authenticity.

That day, however, the drawings were promptly packed up and returned to France, once again in the diplomatic bag. The Russian Museum took no action to stop stolen art from leaving Russia.

"The French of course violated Russian law against taking cultural valuables, especially stolen ones, out of the country in 1993," said Vilkov who added that the Culture Ministry had not been informed the drawings had returned for one day.

Museum director Gusev could only defend his actions by saying that "We had no proof that the French had violated Russian law."

When asked whether or not the Russian Museum acted properly, Vilkov could only reply sheepishly: "It was their right to do as they felt best," and added that the issue of past guilt is not important, only the fact that the drawings have finally returned home.

TITLE: Hackers Gatecrashing Russia's Internet Party
AUTHOR: By John Varoli
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Dr. Linnux, a 22-year-old St. Petersburg computer whiz, who prefers not to use his first name, switches on his Netscan Tools program, a piece of hacking software he downloaded from the Internet for free. 


"It will take us about five minutes to start hacking into other computers," he says with a smile. Then he goes to work. 

He begins by entering a range of IP addresses he collected while hacking into a major American Internet system - on which he pirates free Internet hours, and which he won't name for fear it would close its port to Russia. The object of the exercise is to find computers that are currently on-line, allowing him full access to the contents of their hard drives. 

He smells blood. His mouse clicks and his keyboard is quickly tapped away at. His Pentium 166 PC zeroes in. He cracks the code and reveals a student in Germany working on a term paper about neo-Nazi groups. 

In a few deft key strokes, Linnux has taken the file. 

"Most people have no idea that once online they are wide open to intrusion from others out there," he says proudly. "And the funny thing is it's not that difficult to protect yourself."

Two years ago, Linnux could hardly imagine he'd soon join the ranks of Russia's growing number of computer hackers. An accomplished athlete, with a love for snowboarding, skiing, and windsurfing, Linnux's life changed forever in early 1998 when a snowboarding accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Scraping together a few hundred dollars, he bought himself a computer and went online to pass time. 

Linnux is just one part of an Internet revolution that is sweeping Russia. The number of Russians with Internet access at home has doubled over the past year, reaching 2 million, out of a population of 148 million. But analysts predict that number could double over the next two years. 

Part and parcel of the progress, however, is mischief and computer theft by the country's growing number of hackers, who, armed with primitive PCs and free hacking software, are earning a global reputation for their skills.

Russian computer prowess is certainly no surprise. The United States employs thousands of Russian geniuses both in the U.S. and in Russia where company employees work with American companies through the Internet. Russian technical universities, primarily those in St. Petersburg, are producing the world's best computer programmers. 

But surprisingly, the country's hackers are not the crop of the country's educated elite. On the contrary, hackers mostly lack structured computer training and themselves even say that formal education dulls your virtual street-smarts. 

"As the Web becomes more and more common in Russia, we can expect more problems with Russian hackers," said Pavel Semyanov, a computer security expert at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute and author of "Internet Attack."

"Not necessarily because they are malicious but because they have a mischievous and child-like desire to understand thoroughly how these systems work."

In 1999, Russian hackers were credited with a number of high-profile cyber crimes, such as disrupting NATO and U.S. government Web sites.

Last year Pentagon sources told the media about a "coordinated, organized" attack originating from hackers in Russia, insinuating Russian intelligence services were behind the attack, a charge hotly denied by Moscow.

And this year, a hacker, claiming to be Russian, took credit for the theft of 300,000 credit card numbers from CD Universe, an Internet music retailer. A group of five other hackers in Moscow were uncovered in April, also for cracking Internet stores and stealing credit card numbers.

Gazprom, Russia's giant natural gas monopoly, has been hit a number of times by hackers in the past year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Despite the headlines about feats in hacking, most hacking is limited to vandalizing Web sites and other forms of cyber-hooliganism. For this reason, Russian law enforcement often assigns such crimes low priority. In any case, Russian police are woefully unprepared to deal with such crimes. 

Yet, hackers do speak about colleagues, known as "crackers," dangerous criminals who work as guns for hire, offering their services to individuals, companies or organizations who need to break into computers, of say, a competitor, to steal information or to commit sabotage.

Russian computer experts say that Russian law-enforcement agencies like the FSB, however, are not as in the dark about computers as they may have you believe. In one instance, the computer system of the vehemently anti-FSB Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, was hacked into earlier this year and parts of its page layout deleted just as it was to print an incriminating article about Vladimir Putin's campaign financing.

"There are organized groups of hackers tied to the FSB, and pro-Che chen sites have been hacked into by such groups," said Vladimir Veinstein, 25, a computer security specialist in St. Petersburg who works for the Internet company Red Net. 

"One man I know, who was caught committing a cyber crime, was given the choice of either prison or cooperation with the FSB, and he went along."

But how dangerous is hacking? 

During the war in Yugoslavia, while headlines screamed that Serbian and Russian hackers had hacked into NATO's computer systems, the hackers only got as far as a NATO Web site. No vital or secret systems were compromised.

"It's the Cold War mentality and Americans are now obsessed with Russian hackers," said Danil Dougayev, chief editor of the popular Russian Web publication, Internet.ru. 

"The threat of Russian hackers is exaggerated by the western media," said Semyanov. "It is impossible to break into secret computer systems, such as the Pentagon's, because these are separate computer networks with no connection to the outside world."

Even Russian hackers admit their abilities are limited.

"There are very few people who can crack institutions such as banks, and even then they often have inside help," said Linnux.

There has been one proven major Russian hack job - the case of Vla di mir Levin, a St. Petersburg computer specialist who hacked through a Sprint connection between Russia and the U.S., and stole about $10 million from Citibank in the summer of 1994.

Levin was arrested in London in early 1995, and sentenced by an American court in 1997 to three years in prison. To this day, investigators say they are not exactly sure how he broke into the bank's system.

"The vast majority of hackers are teenagers who get their hands on some hacking software, and learn to do things such as send out Trojan horses or hack Web sites," said Dmitry Leonov, founder or www.hackzone.ru and who also co-authored the book, "Internet Attack." 

Hacking software can be bought for less than $3 in Russia or downloaded from the Web.

Hackers are a threat not only because they have the brains, but because there are few jobs in the struggling economy.

"For me, hacking is mostly sport, said Linnux. "But if someone offered me big money to hack someone else's system, I'd give it serious consideration."

TITLE: Snubbed Judge Quits City's Charter Court
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The former vice governor of the City Legal Committee, Igor Sobolevsky, was elected last week as a member of the prestigious Charter Court. But almost as soon as Sobolevsky found out he would not be elected the court's chairman, he resigned. 


The decision came last week even before the court began its work. Sobo lev sky did not participate in the judges' oath-swearing ceremony, saying he had caught a cold.

The judges, elected to act for five years, are supposed to rule on local legislation and gubernatorial decrees, checking that they correspond to the City Charter - effectively a local constitution introduced by the Legislative Assembly in 1998.

Legislative Assembly lawmakers say Sobolevsky, who was put forward as a candidate for the Charter Court by Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev, was unhappy with the decision of his six colleagues to elect Nikolai Kropachev, the dean of St. Petersburg State University's Law Faculty, as the court's chairman. 

"He wasn't elected chairman, so he just left. Why should he be in fifth or sixth position in the court?" said Vla di mir Golman, a Legislative Assembly lawmaker from the Our City faction in an interview on Wednesday. 

"Sobolevsky is a very professional and rational lawyer, so he would have been able to make a serious contribution to the work of the Charter Court," said Igor Mikhailov, a lawmaker from the Reasonable Compromise faction.

As Kropachev is known as a strong Putin supporter, his colleagues in the Legislative Assembly say Sobolev sky might have become a victim of political tides in St. Petersburg, where Yakov lev's position is watered down by the influence of Putin supporters. 

Before electing the judges, City Hall and the Legislative Assembly negotiated the main principles needed to balance the Charter Court with the legislative and executive branches of power. Three members were put forward by the Legislative Assembly, three members by the St. Petersburg court system and one candidate, Sobo lev sky himself, by the governor.

"There was no balance in the Charter Court from the very start, from the moment when it began to take form," said Alexander Prokhorenko, the governor's representative in the Legislative Assembly, in an interview on Wednesday.

"There were only two governor's representatives among seven elected judges."

"That Sobolevsky would leave was clear right from the start, when Kro pa chev showed up among candidates," Prok horenko continued.

Kropachev's law faculty has been the stable for many of the country's top leaders - including the current president.

Prokhorenko said Igor Sobolevsky had decided to work in a private company, but he did not specify in what kind of business the former judge had chosen to be involved.

According to Prokhorenko, Vyacheslav Tyeneshev, deputy head of the City Legal Committee, was being considered as a candidate for the spot left vacant by Sobolevsky. 

Meanwhile, analysts suggested it is unlikely that the Charter Court's situation will lead to Gov. Yakovlev's political position suffering on a national level.

"It is too early to say whether the power balance between the center and the governors has changed. The strength of the governors has definitely been reduced [on the federal level], but in general it is noticeable that they have maintained their positions in the regions," said Andrei Ryabov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by telephone on Wednesday.

"Maybe there is a political deal of some kind taking place between the center and the local administration," he said

Members of the Charter Court refused to comment on the resignation. "This is the private business of one individual," said Alexei Liverovsky, another Charter Court judge, in a telephone interview on Wednesday. 

Kommersant newspaper repeated allegations that Sobolevsky made it clear immediately after he was elected as a judge that he would not participate in the Charter Court's work unless he was elected chairman.

Sobolevsky was not available for a comment.

"This is not serious behavior when a person says [things like that]. It is simply not appropriate," said Leo nid Romankov, a Legislative Assembly lawmaker from the Bloc of Yury Boldyrev.

TITLE: Yakovlev Leads Hunt For Nation's Symbols
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev may not have envisaged having to oversee Russia's new anthem, coat of arms and national flag as part of his job when he entered politics, but now he has even been given a deadline to complete the task.


At the first meeting of the newly formed State Council last week, President Vladimir Putin gave Yakovlev until November to come up with a set of symbols for the Russian Federation. 

But the governor is not acting alone, with help coming from Georgy Vilinbakhov, head of the State Heraldic Commission, and the man in charge of the largest collection of heraldic knick-knacks outside of the Hermitage 

Faced with Putin's apparent love of symbolism, Yakovlev and Vilinbakhov see their first order of business as choosing a set of lyrics to the national anthem, composed by Mikhail Glinka and chosen as the country's tune by former president Boris Yeltsin in 1990.

While it may not be Glinka's most inspired piece of music, it will nonetheless keep its place. Vilinbakhov sees possibilities for the melody. 

"There is a wide spectrum of possible words [for the anthem] we have at the moment," said Vilinbakhov. 

"Tens of [versions] or maybe even more than a hundred reflect every possible topics," said Vilinbakhov in a telephone interview on Thursday.

But Andrei Petrov, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the Composers' Union and author of the modern arrangement of Glinka's Patriotic Song, has doubts about the piece. 

"It appears the melody has not caught the people's fancy despite being the national anthem for years," Petrov said referring to its lukewarm reception after the fall of the Soviet Union.

"If Russia is better than the Soviet Union, the music should be better too. I would offer another of Glinka's pieces from the opera 'Ivan Susanin,' or Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures from an Exhibition,'" he added.

"But I think this is unlikely that an another melody will be chosen," he said.

The State Duma has tried a number of times to enshrine the state's symbols in law, but each time the Communist Party, having a majority in the parliament, blocked the decision. In the autumn of 1998, the Communist Party introduced a draft law to return the red Soviet flag and the Soviet anthem, but failed. The draft law was backed by 242 votes, less than the 300 necessary.

Meanwhile, Georgy Vilinbakhov said, the flag and coat of arms will stay as they are: a white, blue and red tricolor and the two-headed eagle looking, according to one existing interpretation, to both East and West, demonstrating Russia's geographic significance between Europe and Asia.

"It's hard to say what the colors of the flag stand for. Colors of this kind were first flown on Peter the Great's ships as long ago as 1693," Vilinbakhov said.

Vilinbakhov said the work would be completed in a few months and then passed to the State Duma for ratification.

The Unity party, which after the 1999 elections has the biggest faction in the Duma, has not determined yet what type of symbol the deputies are most likely to support.

"The situation in the Duma has changed without any doubt, said Viktor Yurakov, deputy head of the local Unity party. 

"But I don't know what kind of flag the deputies are likely to support. The party will support anything that ... might symbolize Russia rising from its knees," 

City Hall officials say that the special commission will also need to determine how and where the flag and coat of arms are to be displayed. 

According to Alexander Afanasiyev, Yakovlev's spokesman, it is unclear on what side of the city flag the national flag should stand in the governor's office.

"This is a very serious question. For me, it would be interesting to find out whether it is possible to put the national flag above a toilet in a dacha. I personally think this is an insult," he said.

However, others take a dimmer view of Yakovlev's latest assignment. "I do not understand how Yakovlev can [be charged with making] a decision on which words should be chosen for the anthem. He is neither a writer nor a poet. There should have been a special commission made up of poets to supply the best possible answer," said Lev Lurye, a St. Petersburg historian.

TITLE: Strike Threatens Maritime Traffic
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Navigators who guide sea traffic in and out of St. Petersburg's ports have threatened to stage a strike, in a move they and their Western counterparts say could lead to a major maritime accident.


The sea pilots, represented by the Russian Maritime Pilots Association (RMPA), are protesting a recommendation on the part of the Transport Ministry to create a state navigation service, which they say would undercut the pilots' salaries and employ inexperienced staff, thus placing the fate of sea traffic in danger. 

The strike - which local pilots have said will probably go ahead - is planned to begin on Monday.

Ivan Zhdakayev, the deputy head of the State Duma's Energy, Transport and Communications Committee, said in a letter to President Vladimir Putin that the strike - which will take place in 14 ports across the country - would disrupt over 80 percent of sea traffic.

First Deputy Transport Minister Alexander Lugovets was quoted by Interfax earlier this year that the government had decided to "strengthen the role of the state in ports and shipping companies [because they] are strategically and economically important fields for Russia."

Transport Ministry officials would not comment on the matter this week.

Lugovets also said that the creation of a state navigation service would increase maritime safety. 

But Valery Vozhzhov, a navigator who works in St. Petersburg, said that the reform would mean "dozens of professionals being replaced by under-trained newcomers, which may lead to high numbers of accidents and environmental disasters, especially in ports [that handle] the transportation of oil."

Speaking at a press conference at the National Press Institute on Wednesday, Vozhzhov and his colleagues claimed that the government was trying to save money by gathering navigation services under its own umbrella, but would in fact end up losing it.

"Only certain officials will benefit, not the state as a whole," Vozhzhov said. "Those officials will pay their staff pilots tiny salaries, and will not target any money toward [the industry's] development."

The press conference followed an earlier meeting with journalists in September, at which the pilots first aired their grievances publicly.

Since then, the pilots have gathered the support of their foreign counterparts, but say they have had no reaction from the Transport Ministry.

Norman McKinney, chairman of the United Kingdom Maritime Pilotage Association, wrote to Transport Minister Sergei Frank on Oct. 3 expressing grave concern over the affair.

"The actions of your department can only lead to the lowering of standards of the pilot services in your country and thus increase the possibility of a major maritime disaster," said McKinney's letter, a copy of which was obtained by The St. Petersburg Times.

"Such actions can surely only be undertaken on commercial grounds, with no regard for safety or the environment."

Vladimir Yegorkin, the president of the RMPA, said in an interview last month that a navigator can expect to make 25,000 rubles ($900) a month - but under the state that would drop to around 4,000 rubles.

"The RMPA spends all profits on equipment and training," he said. "We even organize foreign language lessons as navigators communication a great deal with captains of foreign ships."

"The state has no legitimate reasons to close us down, so it is creating its own pilot service instead," said RMPA secretary Konstantin Shchigolev.

The St. Petersburg pilots said that hiring pilots outside of the RMPA was dangerous, because a navigator must not only be highly trained, but also know the local conditions, currents and depths intimately. 

They said even an experienced pilot was therefore of no use in an unfamiliar port.

"There are never two absolutely equal moorings," Yevgeny Sarmentov, a retired St. Petersburg pilot with over 30 years of experience, said in an interview last month. 

"Wind, temperature, captains and ships are different, so the situations change. And the pilot always has to be prepared."

"Legislation [on the question of state and non-state pilots' organizations] is murky and contradictory," said Viktor Tsymbal, a senior specialist with the Transport Ministry's Marine Safety Department, in an interview last month.

"In addition to the RMPA, there are state maritime pilot organizations and private companies operating in Russia's ports."

But he added that an analysis of the RMPA by his department had found the organization's work to be "absolutely flawless ... ideally organized."

Navigators wouldn't specify how long the strike would last, saying only that it would depend on the reaction of the Transport Ministry to the RMPA's action.

TITLE: Washington Warns Americans of Arms Business in Russia
AUTHOR: By Jonathan Wright
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON - Exasperated at Russia's treatment of an American businessman accused of spying, the United States warned Americans on Wednesday that it could be risky doing business with the Russian arms industry.

"In Russia certain activities which would be normal business activities in the United States and other countries are still either illegal ... or are considered suspect," the State Department said in a consular information sheet.

"Americans should be particularly aware of potential risks involved in any commercial activity with the Russian industrial-military complex, including research institutes, design bureaus and production facilities," it added.

"Any misunderstanding or dispute in such transactions can attract the involvement of the security services and lead to investigation or prosecution for espionage," it said.

The American, former naval officer and businessman Edmond Pope, has been in jail since April and Russian prosecutors have given the go-ahead for a trial on spying charges.

The main charge against him is that he tried to obtain underwater missile technology from a Russian scientist. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The United States says that it has not seen any evidence that he broke Russian law and that he should go free.

The warning, under review in the State Department for many weeks, is bound to annoy the Russian government, which said in August that attempts to link the Pope case with trade and economic relations would "give cause for serious worry".

The U.S. State Department, under pressure from members of Congress, has objected in particular to Pope's problems gaining access to medical inspections to see whether he has completely overcome a rare form of bone cancer.

On Tuesday a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved a resolution calling on President Bill Clinton to cut all financial aid to Moscow and work to block Russia's entry to the World Trade Organisation unless it releases Pope.

The measure, which could come up for a vote by the full House as early as next week, was approved unanimously by the House International Relations Committee.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last week described Russia's handling of the case as "outrageous" and said Washington had raised it in Moscow "at the highest levels."

The updated consular information sheet said that several U.S. citizens had been detained or arrested over the past few years on suspicion of spying while doing business.

"Arrested Americans faced lengthy sentences - sometimes in deplorable circumstances - if convicted. In the most recent case, the arrested American's health suffered and he has not been allowed to receive independent medical evaluations or treatment despite the embassy's efforts," it added.

In a separate statement, the State Department said the Pope case raised questions about the risks to Americans engaged in such business dealings and about the ability of the United States to protect their welfare in detention.

"Americans are well-advised to take this information into account before planning business-related travel to Russia," the statement added.

TITLE: Bone Marrow Transplant Center Opens
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Alexander Yevstigneyev has leukemia, and is preparing for a bone marrow transplant next week at the first facility of its kind in St. Petersburg.


The new Russian-German Transplant Clinic, which opened in July, operates as an adjunct to the Hematology Center of St. Petersburg State Medical University, and Yevstigneyev is its first patient. His donor lives in Germany, but, for standard ethical reasons, that is all the information Yevs tigneyev has been given about her.

But such mysterious details don't bother him or his mother, Lyudmila. 

"I am hoping for the best," said Yev stig neyev, 20, for whom chemotherapy is proving less and less effective and who made the journey from Yakutia for his transplant operation.

"We didn't find any matching relative in our family for the transplant," said Lyudmila Yevstigneyeva. "And I'm glad that now we have such strong hope that the bone marrow of his donor will help."

The $900,000 clinic was built thanks to funds from the German-based European Institute for the Support and Development of Transplant Strategies. It is the brainchild of the institute's medical director, professor Axel Fauser, professor Boris Afanasiyev, head of the St. Petersburg Hematology Center, and director of St. Petersburg State Medical University, Nikolai Yaitsky. The trio had planned a clinic for three years.

Bone marrow transplant is intended to cure serious cases of leukemia, cancer, and some genetically inborn diseases such as immuno-deficiency syndrome.

The first bone marrow transplant was performed in 1968, and it became a bright ray of hope for patients who were desperate to stop their cancer by methods other than the painful and sometimes short-lived effects of chemotherapy. 

Since that time, transplant operations have developed into three major branches: auto transplants, when doctors transplant healthy marrow from the patient's own body; relative transplants, marrow taken from a genetically matching relative; and genetically matching marrow taken from a non-relative. 

The first two types of transplants are already well established in Russian medicine, and staff at the new center have performed hundreds of them in various clinics in the city. But patients are often unable to find a matching relative.

So if the technology has been around for three decades, why did it take Russia so long to catch on? 

"There was previously a lack of essential facilities for such a complicated operation," said Afanasiyev, "and we didn't have our own donor files, so we weren't allowed access to the international database."

Secondly, he said, the financial help of the German side was needed to get the clinic off the ground.

Although there are about 3,000 operations of this type performed worldwide every year, 50 patients is a big enough number for the Russian clinic to deal with, said Fauser.

For most Russians, the operation is prohibitively expensive, costing around $50,000 to $70,000 all-inclusive - operation, donor search and transportation of the marrow. The German side is covering between 30 to 50 percent of the costs, with the rest being met by the Russian government and sponsorship from either businesses or private individuals.

It's not a risk-free process, according to both Afanasiyev and Fauser, who said that an operation has about a 70 percent chance of success. But that easily beats the 20 percent success rate for long-term chemotherapy patients.

Afanasiyev and Fauser said that the main task ahead was to build up the Russian donor database.

"In the West, there is a lot of publicity [asking for] donors to come forward," said Fauser. Afanasiyev said that he and his colleagues had organized a "donor day" in May, and had another planned for three days, starting on Oct. 17.

TITLE: Millionaire Tourism May Keep Mir in Orbit
AUTHOR: By Karl Emerick Hanuska
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Despite ominous warnings from Moscow that their tourist space attraction may soon crash to Earth, Western investors who want to launch James Cameron into space station Mir are saying that all systems are still go.


The director of the film "Titanic," who has said he is prepared to buy a ticket to space to fulfill a lifelong dream, is only one of the customers who will be disappointed if Russia allows its aging Mir orbiter to turn into a fireball.

Another is America's NBC television, which has announced plans to blast a winning game show contestant into orbit during the 2000-2001 TV season as part of a true-life show dreamed up by the producer of the mega-hit "Survivor."

But on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin said Moscow had to focus its meager space budget on the International Space Station and stop spending money on Mir.

"A ruble invested in the International Space Station [ISS] gives us more in terms of scientific research than a ruble invested in Mir," he told a news conference. "We have to pay more attention to the station which has better prospects."

The ISS is being constructed by a 17-nation consortium headed by NASA of the United States, and including Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil and the member countries of the European Space Agency.

Kudrin's comments came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said that a committee of designers had recommended ditching Mir, because it had outlived its effective life span.

Mir's demise would blast a big black hole into MirCorp, a joint venture led by Western investors who bought the rights to sell tickets to the public to fly to the Russian station.

The company said it was unfazed by the comments. "The long-term business prospects for Mir are extremely positive," it said in a statement.

Jeff Lenorovitz, a MirCorp spokes man in Washington, said Russia had no need to choose between Mir and the International Space Station, since MirCorp was already paying Mir's bills.

The company plans to charge about $20 million to space tourists for a week-long trip. One American millionaire space buff is already training at the Star City base near Moscow.

Mir has been in orbit for more than 14 years, nearly three times what Soviet designers planned for it. But MirCorp still touts Russia's space program's safety record, saying it has suffered no fatalities in more than 25 years.

Klebanov said the committee's recommendation to ditch Mir was made several days ago, but the national space authority had yet to make a final decision.

TITLE: Russia, India Agree On Terrorist Threat
AUTHOR: By Oleg Shchedrov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BOMBAY, India - Nothing strengthens friendship better than the feeling of a common threat.


Moscow and New Delhi, which clinched a strategic partnership on Tuesday during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India, have found one in what they see as burgeoning international terrorism.

Putin's presidency has been marked by war in Chechnya and unrest in ex-Soviet Central Asian states seen by Russia as its soft underbelly. He found an understanding ear in India, beset by problems in Kashmir.

In a further consolidation, Mos cow and New Delhi pointed at Af gha nistan, now almost fully controlled by the radical Taleban Islamic movement, as a nest of international terrorism and called for international efforts to tackle the problem.

"We believe that the center of international terrorism has largely shifted to that area," Putin told a news conference alongside Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Vajpayee said that he and Putin had agreed "to evolve a common strategy" to deal with Afghanistan.

Both countries appear to have good practical reasons to step up such a crusade.

Putin launched a military operation in Chechnya a year ago and insists that Russia is fighting international terrorists there rather than the local militants of the province.

He says Russia is at the front line of resistance to the common threat and therefore deserves help rather than criticism.

The threat of international terrorism is also used by Russia to maintain its influence in Central Asian states facing Islamic insurgency.

Gunmen based in Afghanistan's neighbor Tajikistan, itself the theater of five years of civil war pitting Islamists against a secular government, raided Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan earlier this year.

Putin says the same forces fomented both Russia's problems in Chechnya and the Central Asian violence.

Most Central Asian countries all but ignored Russia in the initial post-Soviet search for alliances but have now rallied behind Putin in resisting the new threat.

On Oct. 12, Putin will discuss security cooperation with regional leaders in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.

Analysts accompanying Putin in India said India also had reasons to blame outside forces for its problems in Kashmir. They said that this could help India muster international pressure on Pakistan, which it accuses of supporting both separatists in Kashmir and the Taleban in Afghanistan.

India's parliament, which Putin addressed on Wednesday, applauded when he said the same forces were planning and carrying out terrorist attacks "from the Philippines to Kosovo, including Kashmir and Russia's Northern Caucasus region." It was a clear reference to the Taleban.

Russia is also looking for ways to influence the Afghan radicals through Pakistan, especially after Taleban forces advanced to the borders of its allies in Central Asia. But it has to act cautiously to avoid allowing its deals with India's old foe to upset the renewed friendship with New Delhi.

Putin sent his envoy, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, to Pakistan last week in a mission which rang alarm bells in India. However, Vajpayee said he was satisfied with Moscow's explanations.

Focusing the new strategic union between Russia and India on an anti-terrorism campaign also appears a good way to demonstrate unity without triggering suspicions among other key players, primarily China and the United States. Both countries seek better relations with Beijing and Washington.

Last month, India and the United States separately agreed to include Afghanistan on the agenda of their joint working group on anti-terrorism.

China, another "strategic partner" for Moscow, faces a separatist movement in its Xinjiang region and is interested in joining forces to fight it.

"In fact, the threat of international terrorism could help establish a kind of regional alliance of Moscow, Delhi and Washington, crucial for maintaining stability in Asia," senior Russian parliamentarian Vladimir Lukin told reporters in Delhi.

TITLE: Overnight Fire Destroys Local School
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A fire broke out at a local secondary school on Wednesday morning, burning for around six hours and almost completely gutting one side of the building.


The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, but the damage to School No. 123, located on Novolitovskaya Ul. in the city's Vyborgsky district, has been severe and students will have to be diverted to alternative schools until costly repairs can be made.

According to the school authorities, the school, one of the oldest in the city, was built in 1937 and even survived the World War II bombings. 

On Wednesday, however, the 600 students and their teachers turning up for another school day were surprised to be confronted with fire-engines, smoke, glassless windows and huge puddles of water from the attempts to control the blaze.

"In the morning someone called me and said that our school had burned down, but I thought it was a joke," said Sveta Sobolyeva, a fifth-grade student, standing around outside with her rucksack on her back.

Six classrooms in the left wing of the four-story building burned down completely as the wooden ceilings of the upper floors collapsed.

The corridors connecting it to the right wing were also damaged by smoke as well as by the water that firemen sprayed to prevent the fire from spreading, according to one fireman who did not wish to be identified.

"It's such a tragedy for us," said an emotional Valentina Zorina, deputy director of the school.

"The children will have to go to different schools for the time being. Ours needs major repairs, which will take about a year and then only if we can find the money for them."

Olga Semyonova, a press spokeswoman for the St. Petersburg Fire Service, said that according to initial evaluations the damage caused is estimated at $4,000. "This figure doesn't include the cost of renovation," Semyonova said. 

School No. 123 also had the biggest library among the district schools, according to Zorina. The amount of damage to the library was not immediately clear, but in the afternoon, angry school staff and excited children entered the dark and draughty building to remove the remaining school equipment, gathering damp textbooks, potted plants and other equipment from the gutted building. 

"I saved two 'Hamlets' and one 'Pushkin!'" cried one of the teachers excitedly as she carried another pile of books out of the building.

"Hopefully we will be able to repair the right wing, which is just flooded, and then conduct regular classes there," Zorina said. 

"This morning, representatives of the local council and the Vyborgsky district administration came here to see the school and now they are to decide what to do about it," she said.

Semyonova said that the reasons for the fire are still not clear. "Usually it takes from three to 10 days to identify a fire's cause," she said. 

Meanwhile, the school authorities already have some suspicions.

Zorina said that right before the incident, a fire inspector had visited the school for a regular inspection. "He said that everything was in order."

She said that the blaze had reportedly started in the school's medical center, and that she suspected somebody had broken in looking for medicines and had somehow set fire to the room.

TITLE: Baltika Trademark Exploited
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Tyomkin and Sergei Rybak
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Baltika, the brewer famous for its numbered flavors of beers, now faces a new challenge: a brand of cigarettes also called Baltika and sporting the Baltika logo, but which has nothing to do with the company.


Baltika cigarettes - which, just like the beer, come in flavors such as Bal tika No. 3 and Baltika No. 9 - were being distributed in downtown St. Petersburg this week as part of a marketing push to introduce the new brand.

At about 10 rubles a pack, they were selling briskly - and those who bought a carton were rewarded with a free bottle of ... Baltika beer.

The brewery, not surprisingly, is displeased.

Lyudmila Fomichyova, press secretary of Baltika Brewery, said her company intends "to protect its trademark," possibly by going to court.

"All of our trademarks are registered, and using them without our permission is illegal," she said.

But the makers of the cigarettes - which are churned out at Metatabak, a factory based in the Moscow-region town of Podolsk - say otherwise.

"The people from St. Petersburg [i.e., Baltika beer] still have to prove that they have exclusive rights to the word 'Baltika,'" said Grigory Izrae lyan, commercial director of Soyuz kontrakt-Tabak, which owns the Podolsk factory. "I have consulted lawyers, and they [the brewery] do not own this trademark."

Izraelyan said that a "small regional firm called BTF" had placed the production order for the Baltika cigarettes. Izraelyan said the first consignment - 300 crate-loads, or about 120,000 packs - was filled late last week. He said the design on the cartons was put forward by the customers.

"We hope that we will continue working with BTF," Izraelyan said. For that reason, he added, he was declining to put journalists in touch with BTF - for fear that it might jeopardize future Baltika cigarette orders.

Alexei Skvortsov, a lawyer who specializes in protecting trademarks, said he thought Izraelyan and his business partners had little chance of surviving a court case - particularly because not just the name but the entire Baltika beer logo is used on the cigarettes.

"A court is unlikely to support those who profit by using the reputation of others," he said.

According to the Gallup AdFact Agency, between January and August Baltika spent more than $2 million on television advertising alone.

Advertising cigarettes on television, however, is illegal, and launching a new cigarette brand is often an expensive marketing task.

If there was a beer worth attaching one's fortunes to, it would probably be Baltika: Research by the COMCON marketing agency found it to be the nation's most popular beer.

Fifty percent of the nation's beer drinkers drink Baltika, COMCON found, and 73 percent recognize the name, which is almost 10 percent better then the far older Zhigulyov skoye beer.

TITLE: Duma Committee Drafts E-Commerce Guidelines
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The State Duma's Economic Committee has drafted a number of guidelines to form the basis for a law intended to define and regulate legal aspects of e-commerce in Russia. However, according to these guidelines, the new law, which is most likely to be introduced for the Duma's consideration before the end of this year, will do more than just establish legal norms for e-commerce, but also provide governmental bodies with automatic access to documents generated in the process and the right to use these documents in court.


According to Sergei Glaziev, the chairman of the committee and one of the law developers, the Duma will receive the project for official hearing before the end of 2000. The law will include articles about the electronic commerce, signatures, payment, electronic trading in stock and fund markets and an insurance system for those engaging in e-commerce transactions, the business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.

Ilya Gorbunov, the general director of Infocon, a St. Petersburg-based company which develops e-commerce software, said that a number of banks, including Guta Bank, Tavrichesky Bank, City Invest Bank and Sberbank have already begun using certain forms of electronic transactions in recent years. 

"If the law passes, then companies will not have to back up all electronic agreements with paper documents as they do now," Gorbunov said in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday. "But the law will bring both positive and negative effects," he added.

Gorbunov said that the process for authorizing electronic documents may keep some businesses which are not operating entirely aboveboard from using the system.

Companies who want their electronic documents to be legally recognized will be required to use software authorized by the Federal Communication and Information Regulatory Agency (FAPSI). They will then be required to register their electronic signatures with the agency.

Pavel Medvyedev, another Duma deputy working on the project, said on Wednesday that the process by which agreements bearing these signatures will become authenticized is yet to be decided.

"It may simply be the case that, upon the exchange of electronic signatures by two companies, the document would automatically become official," Medvyedev said. "But it is also possible that it may be necessary for the companies to submit these documents to FAPSI for verification before they can be considered legally authentic."

"[The law] will give a legally legitimate status to e-business," Gorbunov said. "But it will mean that contracts signed electronically will become more transparent. It's easy to see that some companies wishing to avoid the tax police will either not use the system at all, or will use technical methods which already exist in Russia to avoid the system's scrutiny." 

He also added that it's important for state agencies not to go too far with regulatory measures as this could actually hinder the creation of a positive environment for the development of electronic trading.

Analysts say that the passing of such a law will only be one phase in promoting e-commerce in Russia.

"Of course, passing this new law is a step in the right direction, but there are still many obstacles to e-commerce in Russia and I'm sure there will be difficulties," Dan Dou gan, director of operations at Jensen Technologies, an offshore programming company operating in St. Petersburg, wrote in an e-mail reply to questions on Wednesday.

"For example, the United States recently passed a law recognizing the legality of electronic signatures [the law took effect last Sunday]. However, there's still no one standard for encrypting the signatures and certifying the identity of the person signing the document. This issues still haven't been fully worked out in the West and Russia still has a long way to go, regardless of the fate of this law."

But, with the number of people using the Internet for commercial purposes growing in Russia and the world in general, such questions will become more and more pressing.

"We have thought about investing in e-commerce in Russia, but we are holding off because of many challenges facing the Russian Internet," Dougan said. "There are four main problems: a low computer penetration rate; low consumer spending; little credit card usage and unreliable parcel logistics systems. The biggest problem is that there is such a low penetration rate for computer usage in Russia. I have heard estimates of 1-3 million users in Russia about 2% of the population at best." 

"The reason for the focus on the business-to-business sector is simple. Organizations are just more likely to use computers and credit cards," Gorbunov said.

TITLE: Military To Receive Extra Revenue
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The military will get up to 25 percent of any extra revenue the government receives in 2001, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Wednesday.


Kudrin, seeking to calm lawmakers who say the government is trying to leave them out of decisions on spending extra revenue, said 50 percent of any surplus cash would go toward Russia's massive foreign debt, but 20 percent to 25 percent would go toward defense, Interfax reported.

Many lawmakers in the lower house of parliament say the government's revenue forecasts for next year are too low, and have threatened to vote down the planned 2001 budget unless the government changes its forecasts. They also want more say in how any additional money would be used.

Lawmakers say extra revenue must go toward social payments and the military, which has been seriously weakened in recent years by lack of money.

The government has refused to revise its revenue forecasts, saying world oil prices could fall, denying Russia a major source of income. But Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov reached a compromise with parliamentary leaders Tuesday, promising to give legislators more say on how additional revenue is spent.

Interfax also reported Wednesday that Russia posted a surplus of 5.7 billion rubles ($200 million) in September.

TITLE: EC Looking to Russia as Solution to Energy Woes
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth LeBras
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Bent on averting future fuel crises, the European Union turned to energy-rich Russia on Tuesday to start hashing out a deal that could double fuel exports to Europe.


Representatives from the European Commission sat down with officials from gas and oil companies in Moscow to begin negotiations on setting up a strategic partnership, Itar-Tass reported.

Under a draft of the deal, the partnership would oversee the construction of an entire infrastructure for transporting oil and gas to Europe. The European Union is volunteering to finance the building of pipelines, and the project would be completed by 2020.

With the project, the European Commission wants to double Russian exports, a move that could see a huge windfall for Russia's economy.

Officials are keeping mum over whether the exports would be offered at below-market prices. But at current prices, Russia would rake in $16 billion by doubling its annual EU gas exports of 80 billion cubic meters to 160 bcm, according to United Financial Group.

"The European Union is already a customer of Russia for its oil exports," EU spokesman Jonathan Faull said Monday in remarks reported by Reuters. "We want to change the commercial relationship into a long-term strategic partnership that would benefit both parties considerably."

There was no word late Tuesday of what had been discussed at the first meeting, and the two sides were expected to meet again Wednesday.

It was unclear which Russian companies were participating in the talks.

The European Commission is looking to Russia in a bid to reduce its dependence on fuel from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, EU officials said. Europe imports 75 percent of its oil from OPEC, and that amount could grow to 85 percent by 2020.

The EU wants to avert another energy crisis like the one that swept through Europe last month when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to denounce sky-high fuel prices.

European Commission head Romano Prodi proposed negotiations with Russia during a recent telephone call to President Vladimir Putin, according to media reports.

The Kremlin has been quick to express its support for a partnership. Putin told Prodi that Russia is willing to meet whatever levels Europe wants.

Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said Russia is prepared to engage in a "serious dialogue" over energy issues.

Energy analysts greeted the talks with a mixture of elation and apprehension Tuesday, saying that Russia had a lot to offer but the logistics of a partnership would be daunting - if not near to impossible - to hammer out.

"It is very encouraging that the EU is looking toward Russia," said James Henderson, head of the oil and gas research department at Renaissance Capital. "This is exactly the kind of foreign direct investment that Russia has been crying out for."

Sergei Yezhov, deputy director of the independent Fuel and Energy Institute, cautioned that while the government could help set up a partnership, it could not force the producers to go along.

"It's a problem of independent producers in Russia," he said.

Other observers fretted that Russia - which itself faces severe fuel shortages during the winter months - does not have enough energy to meet Europe's needs. The shortages occur because producers prefer the more lucrative Western market.

In a bid to keep enough fuel at home, the government has slapped heavy restrictions on exports.

"We do not have enough oil for our internal markets," said Alexandra Samodalova, an analyst for LUKoil Reserve-Invest. "If [EU] oil imports are doubled, all the oil will go abroad."

Yury Kafiyev, an oil and gas industry analyst for investment company Olma, said Gazprom could not double its shipments to Europe even if it wanted to because it does not produce enough to export abroad while meeting the demands of national power giant Unified Energy Systems.

TITLE: Kasyanov Forms New Council
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov met for the first time Wednesday with the two dozen businessmen on his new Council of Enterprises and promised them they would have a say in how business would be taxed.


"We are optimistic and truly believe that our opinions will be taken into account," said Mikhail Umarov, spokes man for mobile-telephone company Vimpelcom, whose general director, Dmitry Zimin, sits on the council.

President Vladimir Putin came up with the idea of forming the advisory council of entrepreneurs in July after a meeting with the oligarchs, the politically connected businessmen who control Russia's major companies.

None of the oligarchs sits on the council, which consists of 24 businessmen from industries that include carpet making and helicopter manufacturing.

The members were chosen based on their keen business sense and their ability to run their companies "concretely and transparently," said Alexei Volin, deputy head of the government administration, in remarks reported by Interfax.

The first meeting at the White House saw no big breakthroughs, but included a lot of discussion on taxation and the politics of customs regulations and tariffs.

Kakha Bendukidze, general director of machine-building company Uralmash, suggested to Kasyanov at the meeting that the tariff on the import of technical equipment should be set at 5 percent. This is lower than the current rate, but the government is proposing wiping out the tariff altogether.

Council members said a 5 percent tariff would help revitalize Russia's heavy industry, whose production levels are now a far cry from their Soviet peak, by offering some protection from foreign competition.

"If duties are instated, they should go directly to Russia's machine-building industry," said Taimuraz Bolloyev, general director of Baltika Beverages Holding, speaking by mobile phone from St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport after the meeting.

However, Bolloyev himself didn't support such a suggestion.

"Everything needs to be decided on an economic-not an emotional-basis," he said. "Every industry has its own wants, but the final decision has to be beneficial for the economy as a whole."

Igor Shuvalov, head of the government administration, was appointed to be the council's coordinator, meaning he would be the point man for the members' concerns.

Although the overall atmosphere of the first session was optimistic, afterward some members took a wait-and-see approach about the council's future.

"It might turn into another PartKhozAktiv," said Umarov, alluding to an elite group of managers and politicians who directed the centrally planned economy during the Soviet era.

In contrast, Anatoly Karachinsky, president of International Business Systems, said he was inspired by the budding cooperation.

"I've been doing business in Russia for a long time, and before this, not once did I see the government take any interest in what business was doing," Ka rachinsky said.

"Today, businessmen saw that the government was ready to listen, and the government saw that businessmen were ready to speak seriously about their problems."

Those involved noted that the composition of the council was remarkable in two ways: the lack of oligarchs as well as the absence of owners of small- and medium-sized businesses.

"It's already obvious that none of the members represents small- or medium-sized businesses," said Oleg Vyugin of the Troika-Dialog brokerage, in comments reported by Interfax. "In most countries, it is this segment that is most rapidly developing."

Vyugin said this could change in future versions of the council.

Volin, of the government administration, said oligarchs such as Gazprom head Rem Vyakhirev and Interros chief Vladimir Potanin were not included because they don't have much need for such a council.

They already have access to high-ranking public officials or have their own "media empires" that give them a podium for expressing their opinions.

At the meeting, it was decided that the council would meet regularly for the rest of the year, once in November and once in December.

Next month, they are set to talk about taxes on business revenues and stock options for top management, Umarov said. There is currently no set legislation that gives Russian top managers the right to own stock in the companies where they work.

If this council comes to justify its existence, then it might just be what Russia needs to lift its economy out of the doldrums, said Bolloyev of Baltika.

"No laws will work if they are thought up and implemented top-down," he said. "This kind of power needs to rotate around those who actually work in the industry."

TITLE: Oil Co. Transfer On Hold Again
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - The deal between oil majors Tyumen Oil Co., or TNK, and Si danko over the transfer of the Cher no gorneft production unit set for later this month was in jeopardy Wednesday after TNK shareholders announced they want to review the deal.


The deal, signed last December, called for TNK to transfer to Sidanko a debt-free Chernogorneft, which TNK bought from Sidanko in a controversial bankruptcy auction. In return, Sidanko shareholders, which include the Interros group, were to carry out a share emission that would give TNK a 25-percent-plus-one share blocking stake in Sidanko.

Sidanko chairman Dmitry Usha kov, however, said TNK had sent a memorandum refusing to take the newly emitted shares and insisted on getting primary shares instead, Interfax reported.

In London on Tuesday, Uneximbank creditors, who hold Interros' 38 percent stake in Sidanko, agreed to the share emission, which was thought to have been the final obstacle to the Chernogorneft transfer.

TITLE: The World Unites for a Balkan Tug-of-War
AUTHOR: By Susan Blaustein. By Ivo H. Daalder
TEXT: LAST week's stunning rejection by the Serbian people of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic marks a watershed in the country's politics. Despite an "unfree and unfair" election, the unified Serbian opposition overwhelmingly defeated the conjugal coalition of Milosevic and his wife, Mirjana "Mira" Markovic, in both presidential and municipal races. But it is unclear, despite huge turnouts for street demonstrations, how much the Serbian people are prepared to risk to defend their formidable electoral gains. 


Exhausted by war, corruption, destitution and international sanctions and opprobrium, the Serbian people came out in droves to embrace a little-known legal scholar and self-styled "democratic nationalist" politician, Vojislav Kostunica. An ardent Serb nationalist and critic of Western policy toward Yugoslavia, Kostunica talks of "reconciliation" rather than "revenge." His refusal, should he become president, to turn the indicted Milosevic over to the United Nations-mandated International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has reportedly reassured Yugoslav army and regime officials that they, too, might be protected from prosecution under a Kostunica-led government. His reputation as an incorruptible outsider also distinguishes him from better-known opposition leaders, all of whom have, at one time or another, betrayed constituents by cutting deals with Milosevic.

Milosevic has not been a good loser. He is determined to brazen it out in a second round of voting, calculating, perhaps, that if he can't bribe, threaten or cheat his way to re-election, he might actually "win," should Kostunica and his colleagues rest on their first-round victory and refuse to take part. Short of that, Milosevic might use the extra time to stage a provocation - a "terrorist" incident or a signal to his paramilitary units in Montenegro to move against the democratically elected government there - to use as a pretext for declaring martial law. He might engineer a pseudo-constitutional arrangement that would funnel all real power from Yugoslavia into the subsidiary republic of Serbia, where he might still be able to manufacture an electoral win next spring. That would leave Kostunica and his victorious opposition forces presiding over an empty federal shell. 

But these scenarios appear less and less likely. Even some Milosevic loyalists have acknowledged a partial opposition victory and called upon authorities to respect the citizens' vote. Back-room negotiations are reportedly focused on declaring an opposition victory, with guarantees of a safe exit and haven for Milosevic, other key figures in his entourage and their accumulated fortunes. 

If the popular will prevails, it would be an Olympian triumph for the Serbian people, who could, at long last, dare to imagine a future free of fear, international isolation and relentless economic hardship. An acknowledged Milosevic defeat would also be an immense relief to allied nations, whose commitment in recent years to sowing democratic change in Serbia has at last borne fruit. 

At such time as Milosevic finally concedes, or the last of his desperate maneuvers fails, the newly elected government should move quickly to differentiate itself from its predecessor by acting on its campaign commitments to democratic governance, economic reform, human rights and the rule of law. After a decade of Milosevic's corrupting touch, the effort will be difficult and slow. 

A new Yugoslav government would help stabilize the Balkans by categorically rejecting the use of force as a means of settling territorial disagreements. To show its good faith, Kostunica should comply with the international agreements and resolutions that ended the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, which include the inviolability of borders, the return of refugees and turnover of war criminals. The new government should also establish diplomatic relations with Bosnia and Slovenia, agree to resolve its 10-year-old border dispute with Macedonia and apply for UN membership as a new nation. 

If the Kostunica government takes such steps, the international community should not hesitate to lift sanctions, offer massive and sustained amounts of financial and technical support and assist Serbia in preparing to participate in European and trans-Atlantic institutions. Serbs' long-desired identification and integration with European nations and values is their best hope of fulfilling the potential, so bravely demonstrated in Kostunica's resounding electoral victory, to move beyond their recent, painful past.


Susan Blaustein is an independent writer and senior consultant for the International Crisis Group. She contributed this comment to the Los Angeles Times. 

ONCE again, Congress is trying to legislate an end to American military involvement in Kosovo. A conference committee is considering a House bill to force the withdrawal of all 6,000 U.S. troops now in Kosovo starting next April, unless the president certifies that the United States' European allies are providing the bulk of the troops and paying almost all the cost.


A similar measure earlier this year failed to pass the Senate only narrowly.

Gov. George W. Bush opposes this Republican-sponsored bill, but only on the narrow grounds that it interferes with a president's prerogatives. At the same time, his own repeated statements leave little doubt that the Republican presidential ticket shares the views of the bill's sponsors: Not only should Europe do more, but U.S. troops should leave the Balkans, albeit in an "orderly" fashion, since their presence serves no American interests.

Bush and his supporters on the Hill are wrong on both counts. And pushing this issue now, when there are crucial elections in Serbia and another possible confrontation in Montenegro, is doubly dangerous.

First, the facts. Europe is doing its fair share, much more so than frequent congressional complaints imply. U.S. troops make up less than 20 percent of the total force in the Balkans, and less than 15 percent in Kosovo. Over the past decade, Europe has spent more than three times what the United States has spent in nonmilitary assistance. European taxpayers cover nearly 90 percent of all such costs in Kosovo.

More generally, the repeated complaint that the United States does more than its fair share in global peace-keeping operations is simply untrue. Take the two largest UN operations today: In East Timor, the Australians have taken the lead, with many European countries contributing substantial forces. In Sierra Leone, the Nigerians carry much of the military burden, as well as Britain, which successfully intervened when that operation was on the verge of failure.

Overall, the United States deploys well under 1 percent of the total 37,350 troops currently deployed in UN peacekeeping operations. That is as it should be, given the many other global U.S. responsibilities. But the notion, frequently heard these days, that the United States is doing too much peacekeeping is simply untenable.

What about the other argument, that U.S. involvement fills a void left by others rather than serving real American interests? That contention ignores two key interests.

First, continued U.S. participation in NATO-led peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Bosnia is necessary to maintain Washington's critical leadership role in the Atlantic Alliance. If the United States is unwilling to share even minimally in the risks and burdens of participation in these efforts, how can it insist on retaining its leading role in a NATO that regards involvement in the Balkans as central to its mission? Equally important, if our alliances are as much in need of strengthening as Bush and his team claim, how will a unilateral withdrawal from NATO's primary operations accomplish this?

More fundamentally, the United States is deeply involved in the Balkans because it has a basic interest in forging a Europe that is peaceful, undivided and democratic, an effort the United States has invested in heavily ever since World War II. The initial investment has paid off in a stable, prosperous and democratic partner in Western Europe. Since the Cold War's end, Europe and the United States have been partners in the joint enterprise of extending the stability and security they have long enjoyed to the rest of the continent.

Central to this effort has been NATO's involvement in the Balkans, the one European region in which neither peace nor stability is yet guaranteed. As the alliance leader, the United States must do its part. It need not always provide the lion's share of the troops or money, and in this case it is doing neither. But as long as a peaceful and democratic Europe is threatened by the prospect of Balkan violence, getting the job done will require an American military presence.


Ivo H. Daalder is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and coordinated U.S. policy toward Bosnia as a staff member on the National Security Council in the first Clinton administration. He contributed this comment to The Washington Post.

TITLE: What Other Papers Are Saying
TEXT: Leaving behind the first anniversary of the current Chechen War, the nation's president-turned-sales manager, Vla di mir Putin, traveled to India this week to wheel and deal on the armaments market. In addition, Putin and the Indians compared notes on terrorism and religious separatism, and agreed to work together to counter outside threats.




When in Delhi ...


Kommersant reports that Putin managed to secure an arms deal worth more than $5 billion in New Delhi - something that even Russia's arms supremo Ilya Klebanov had failed to achieve after a year of negotiations.


But it was the Indians who first went public on the deal, says the paper, which includes the manufacture of 336 fighter jets and the sale of 300 modern T-90 tanks - not to mention the small matter of a multi-million-dollar aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov.

Kommersant congratulates Putin on making the sale, and even more on hiding his amazement at the sight of holy cows wandering the streets and holding up his motorcade on the way from the airport to his hotel in downtown Delhi. In general, Putin was clearly a model of diplomacy, tact and good business, says the paper, expressing no surprise at his hosts' adherence to their usual protocol by sending only low-level officials to meet him at the airport.

But Kommersant says that the Indians, in their turn, did their utmost to present the Russian leader with the best city possible, clearing away the homeless and the street beggars who would otherwise have congregated outside Putin's residence.

Putin was seeking bilateral cooperation on fighting terrorism, says Izvestia, but found at first that the idea was not as warmly welcomed as he had hoped. So he resorted to a little sleight of hand to achieve his aims.

A joint war on terrorism is not a prerequisite in our relations with India, Putin said. More important, he stressed to the Indian parliament on Wednesday, is economic and cultural cooperation.

But returning to the subject, Putin talked of terrorism from India's point of view. Terrorists are the same everywhere, he said, and yours in Kashmir are therefore the same as ours in the North Caucasus. This remark, says Sankt-Peterburgsky Vedomosti, won tremendous applause from the assembled deputies.

Putin then won a few more hearts by saying that the disputed northern state of Kashmir is solely a matter for the governments of India and Pakistan, and requires no foreign involvement or intervention - a view Islamabad opposes.

But Kommersant questions Putin's integrity, given Russia's recent efforts to woo Pakistan, and the appearance of a Moscow envoy in that country before the president flew to India. At stake are worries over the activities of the Taleban government of Afghanistan, whose forces are getting closer to the Tajik border. The paper says that it is in the interests of both Pakistan and Russia to work together on this question.



'If Lies Were Guns'


Novaya Gazeta suggests that Putin will be the loser in the long run, unless he stops waging wars like the one in Chechnya. It says that efforts to strengthen the army by securing armament deals and seeking support in the fight against international terrorism will not ultimately save him.


The paper advises its readers to see the Chechen War as a mirror image of Putin's military policies, saying the government has been shouting triumphant slogans for a year now - and that if lies were weapons, the Russian military would have conquered Chechnya long ago.

The paper also questions why the government did not keep its promise to go no farther than the Terek river to avoid unnecesary bloodshed, but suddenly decided to go for Grozny and then on to the mountains. 

Worse still, says the paper, is that the war has given rise to religious xenophobia in Russia. While Novaya Gazeta asks why social evils like terrorism, murder, prostitution and theft should always be seen in terms of religion, Argumenty i Fakty merely philosophizes that all terrorists, without exception, regard their cause as a sacred one.

TITLE: Mailbox
TEXT: Dear Editor,

Recently I read in The St. Petersburg Times about the acquittal of Alexander Nikitin on charges of espionage and treason, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. Don't get me wrong though, I was not relieved about the avoidance of an alleged miscarriage of justice. Neither was I relieved about the alleged victory the ruling signaled in terms of the rights of the individual against the repressive Russian State. 


I was simply happy because I believed this ruling would bring a much needed conclusion to the tedious, one-sided, government-bashing reporting of this case by our beloved St. Petersburg Times. Contrary to the apparent view of your editorial panel, there are actually two sides to a dispute of this nature. In the Nikitin case this alternative point of view was camouflaged and then made invisible by your reporters becoming too close to Nikitin the person rather than Nikitin the accused. This is not healthy journalism.

For the record, the other point of view is that Nikitin was quite rightly prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In my home country, the United Kingdom, all government employees are subject to a law called the Official Secrets Act. As a British citizen I would want and expect the Nikitins of this world to face trial for treason. 

The moment one joins government service, especially military service, one knows it is forbidden to publicize the secret information learned from one's privileged position. The information is "secret" for a good reason - the safety of one's country and one's fellow citizens. The concept of national interest is an important and accepted international concept, so why should Nikitin the ex-naval officer think it does not apply to him?

It is a lame defense argument to state that Nikitin divulged information that was already well publicized. This does not change the fact that he knowingly and willingly broke the rules. For this reason it astonishes me to read Nikitin referred to as some kind of hero. In the minds of many people, he is far from a hero, but someone lucky not to be eating prison breakfasts for the next few years.

Imagine my surprise, then, to find that Tuesday's St. Petersburg Times had reinvented Nikitin as an "environmentalist and nuclear fleet specialist," and quoted him in relation to the Kursk salvage operation. The contrast between the doomed crew of the Kursk submarine and rent-a-quote Nikitin could not be more vivid and sad. The men whose lives were lost in the Barents Sea are the real heroes of this country, and any link (however tenuous) that your newspaper makes between them and Nikitin is an insult to their memories.


Stephen Ogden,

St. Petersburg

TITLE: warhol's russian links on show at exhibition
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
TEXT: As hundreds turned up for the opening of the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Hermitage, the father of pop art's first major exhibition in Russia, the event itself was a mix of the official and the informal - with the U.S. ambassador and Consul General in St. Petersburg present alongside a colorful mixture of contemporary public artists, musicians and art students.


Organized by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the U.S. State Department, the exhibition, called "Andy Warhol: His Art and Life (1928-1987)," presents over 60 works spanning more than three decades, complete with a real BMW M1 racing car painted by the artist in 1979. Also included are drawings of his mother, Julia Warhola.

Lou Reed, who it was rumored might appear to say an opening word about the man who was producer and designer of first Velvet Underground record, did not materialize, but after the official speeches, the director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, gave the floor - quite surprisingly - to Boris Grebenshchikov, the founder of the once-banned group Akvarium.

The ever-curious Warhol was interested in Leningrad's burgeoning underground art and rock scene in the 1980s, and though he died a year before any of its representatives had the first chance to go abroad, he communicated with it , via Joanna Stingray, the singer who frequented the city at that time and produced the breakthrough compilation double album "Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the U.S.S.R." in 1986 from tapes she smuggled out of the country.

Stingray met Warhol in her late teens through her stepfather, an art collector for 45 years and co-founder of the MOCA, Los Angeles' first contemporary art museum. She talked about her contacts with Warhol in a telephone interview from Los Angeles Tuesday.

"One day my parents had a party in our house, and a friend of mine called and said 'What are you doing?' I said 'I'm just stuck in my room, because my parents are having a party downstairs for some guy called Andy Warhol.' My friend said, 'Andy Warhol! You have to get the Rolling Stones record, 'Love You Live,' and ask him to sign it, because he did the cover.' So I went downstairs, I was introduced to him and asked him to sign my record. And he drew a vagina on my record and signed his name."

Between her trips to Russia, Stingray visited New York several times and showed Warhol photos of paintings by Leningrad's underground artists such as Timur Novikov and Sergei "Africa" Bugayev.

"He was totally surprised, he couldn't believe they were doing such cool art. He said some of them reminded him of Jean Michel Basquiat and he thought it was great."

"Like most Americans he had very little information about contemporary art in Russia and contemporary music, [but when] he saw their work ... he was totally happy and surprised that this was going on in Russia."

"He said, 'Oh that's so nice to know that people all the way around the world in Russia are doing very interesting art.' And I said they know who you are, and they like your work. He said 'Maybe I can sign something for them.'"

Stingray came up with the idea of signing real Campbell tomato soup cans, one of the most famous Warhol images, and he jumped to it.

"I got soup cans and he signed them for all my friends," she said. "I told him everybody's name and he signed them himself, and I brought them to Leningrad and everybody loved it."

"The funniest thing about that soup is I remember giving everybody those signed cans from Warhol, and my friends could not believe it, but then when I got back to St. Petersburg two months later, some of the people that Andy had signed cans for had actually opened them and eaten the soup."

"He was a funny guy, I saw him a couple of times. He'd say 'Hi' to me and shake my hand, and I remember his was always cold. He was a strange guy."

What was left of Warhol's gifts was later shown at the underground Warhol exhibit organized by Novikov and friends at a private apartment - with some additions, the show will be repeated at the 10 Pushkinskaya Arts Center on Saturday. There will also be a presentation for the book "Intercontacts," describing unofficial contacts with Western artists, such as Warhol, John Cage and Frank Zappa.

The Hermitage opening demonstrated that Warhol's art is very much alive now in Russia. "It was really crowded and there were a lot of young people, which was pleasant. Many young artists approached me the other day and said it's great to have contemporary art at the Hermitage," said Thomas Sokolowski, the director of the Andy Warhol Museum. "It has been known for a long time as a great museum and now can also be known for contemporary art."

Or, as Grebenshchikov put it: "I am glad that Warhol at the Hermitage is one more bomb under the wall that divides us and the rest of the world, the normal one. ... Welcome to the real world."

TITLE: chernov's choice
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Earlier this week we got a moving letter from Artie Davis, the promotions director for the BMD Records. "One of our biggest artists, the new Frankie Goes To Hollywood, which is an internationally known band, was in the studio finishing their new album when they heard about the Kursk disaster."


"They wanted to help," Davis went on. "The band has written a song especially for the surviving families and want to donate proceeds from their record sales to them." He added, "We would also like the media to let everyone know about this project."

As everybody knows, FGTH split in 1987, but after half an hour of Web surfing, we found out that the word "new" before the band's name is crucial and, actually, is a part of the name of not at all "an internationally known band," but a bunch of people who have nothing to do with the original band and whom Brian Nash, FGTH's original guitarist, calls "conmen."

"This group that contacted you is a very notorious bunch of fakers who have nothing whatsoever to do with the real Frankie Goes To Hollywood," explained David L., the Web master of Across the Universe, the Holly Johnson fan page at www.acrosstheuniverse.co.uk.

"They have nothing to do with them at all, and are using the name with no authorization at the moment. Currently, members of the original band are taking various legal steps to deal with the "phony frankies" - as we true fans refer to them."

"Have nothing to do with these fakes. They will do nothing to benefit your well-deserving cause."

The Ganelin Trio will return for a one-off concert in the city in the course of its three-date Belarus and Russia tour. But it's not the Ganelin Trio that become famous in the 1970s. That Vilnus, Lithua nia-based outfit was the Soviet Union's leading "new music" act for a decade and even performed on the "Good Morning America" television show during its triumphant U.S. tour in 1986. While both saxophonist Vladimir Chekasin and drummer Vladimir Tarasov perform solo, pianist Vyacheslav Ganelin emigrated to Israel and was occupied with his own career. Meet his new trio - with Viktor Fonaryov on double bass and Mika Markovic on drums. Music Hall, 7 p.m.

As the world gets ready to celebrate John Lennon's 60th birthday - and his killer's parole denial - local Beatles fans get together for their traditional Lennon's Day, this time at the Marabu Nightclub for a live concert. Inevitably, the acts will be presented by "Russia's biggest Beatles fan" Kolya Vasin. There will be also screenings of various Beatles movies at the Spartak cinema. Marabu, 5 Kupchinskaya Pl., Oct. 6.

TITLE: 3rd early music festival gets off to a weak start
AUTHOR: by Giulara Sadykh-zade
TEXT: The 3rd International Festival of Early Music is already well underway in St. Petersburg, with the first two concerts taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday. The festival gets stronger with every year, and this time virtually all the city's cultural institutions are providing support, among them the British Council, the Goethe Institute, and the Alliance Francaise. 


The City Cultural Committee, the Philharmonia, the Cappella, the Hermitage, the Petersburg Cultural Center, and the consulates general of Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands are also contributing. 

With these allies the festival has swiftly grown, acquiring prestige and popularity. The 16 concerts of the festival take place in the best concert halls of the city, including the Menshikov and Sheremyetev palaces, and will continue until Nov. 5. 

The organizers have saved the best for last: a concert by Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt on Nov. 3 in the Philharmonia Small Hall and the Cappella performance of the renowned English countertenor Michael Chance, which closes the festival.

The festival opened with a concert from L'Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, taking place with the support of the Alliance Francaise. 

Unfortunately, this concert may not have been the best opening for the festival, as the impression it gave was one of dullness.

The ensemble with doubled parts (two flutes, two oboes, two viole da gamba, a violin and basso continuo) played the suites of 18th-century French composer Francois Couperin with so little energy and expression that the audience was gradually overcome with boredom. 

In his day, Couperin wrote light and appealing works, but it's hard not to agree that they were essentially designed to be played as background music. They may have been all very well for social receptions during the time of Louis XVII, but they don't really stand up on their own in a concert-hall performance. 

At any rate, it should be played in a more meaningful, diverse and refined manner than the version that we tried in vain to enjoy on the first evening of the festival.

Here it may be worth asking: How justified is the search for authenticity, and how necessary is it to reproduce the exact historical and musical context? Is it really possible to enter into the spirit and style of a past century? In the case of the Limoges ensemble, the answer is a clear no. To reconstruct the musical manner and resurrect the spirit of a bygone era simply requires 100 times the effort that the L'Ensemble Baroque de Limoges were able to make.

TITLE: 'taras bulba' without words is a highlight of baltic fest
AUTHOR: by Natasha Shirokova
TEXT: The annual International Festival of Baltic Theater is already in full swing, with many standout productions to offer. Along with the works of Rimas Tuminas and Kama Ginkas, whose presence at any festival is remarkable enough in itself, the new production of Gogol's "Taras Bulba," staged by Ukranian director Andrey Zholdak-Tobilevich IV, is worth particular attention.


"Taras Bulba" played last Monday at the Baltiisky Dom. Many would say that there is nothing quite like this innovative and provocative work in the city's theaters, as the director strips the story of everyday detail and makes it almost mythological. "What interested me in this production," says the director, "was the development of form."

The previous Baltiisky Dom Festival brought the director both the invitation to stage his work in St. Petersburg and a scandalous reputation. His version of Chekhov's "Three Sisters," where the action takes place in a concentration camp, divided conservative critics - who rejected the "profanation" of a classic - and those who zealously supported the production.

"We live on the eve of the 21st century. People won't go to theaters to watch familiar plots - that's all over. There will always be an audience for cheap commercial productions. But a serious audience knows by heart all the world's classical plots. That's why they will be interested only in two things: acting and form. These two things will be decisive for theater in the next 30 to 40 years," says Zholdak.

In the performance, the story of Taras Bulba - who sentences his younger son to death for falling in love with a Polish girl during wartime - is treated as a universal story, almost biblical.

The episodes are montaged together, but there is stylistic unity among them. Some are brutal and aggressive, as the ones depicting the war or the life of the military camp, but others are strikingly beautiful.

It seems natural that a performance that deals with basic human values would have no language barrier. So the director, while preserving the narration, eliminates the verbal text. The only words spoken are the words of the death sentence to Andrei Bulba. But the action is nothing like pantomime or modern dance. "The words get in the way of action. On the stage everything can be expressed plastically," says Zholdak.

Another unusual thing about the performance is that the original soundtrack was composed by one of the Baltiisky Dom actors, Roman Ryazantsev. In "Taras Bulba," Ryazantsev's music - interlaced with the sounds of dripping water, birds singing, and breathing - accompanies the action through the play.

With productions in Paris, Budapest and other European cities, and a welcome guest at major theater festivals, Zholdak regrets that in his native Kiev his performances are disappearing from the theater's repertoire. But at the moment negotiations for another production here are being discussed, which lets us hope that Kiev's loss will be St. Petersburg's gain.

TITLE: food to bring tears to the eyes
AUTHOR: by Simon Patterson
TEXT: Adzhika is a fairly deadly spicy sauce made of countless different "herbs and spices" which has much popularity in these parts, but which apparantly has its origins in that culinary cornucopia that is the republic of Georgia. 


It also gives its name to a funky 24-hour cafe just next to the Sennaya Ploshchad market, where all the gastronomic riches of the Caucasus are on sale. As one might expect, the food at Adzhika is extremely fresh and flavorsome, no doubt thanks to its proximity to the city's best food market.

While the seediness of the area around the market and the metro stations may put off some, the premises are clean and cozy, with the only danger that we faced being a large keyboard in the corner, with speakers and microphone promising some heinous muzak. During our meal, however, we were spared any attempts at restaurant crooning, and though most of the staff, who appeared not to have any previous musical training or experience, tried playing a few tunes, it was all kept at a thankfully low volume.

The rest of the decor was inviting, the walls a pleasant pink color, and covered in inscriptions in the Georgian alphabet, with paintings from Georgian life hanging on the walls. In the window there is a miniature dinner scene, with two dolls of Caucasian men dining on wine and smoked meat, though one of them must have had enough, as while we were eating he slumped onto the table, and resisted all attempts by our waiter to get him sitting upright again.

Rather tired and exhausted after a walk through the rain, we found the menu a bit difficult to take in, and inquired of our waiter what he would recommend. We agreed to the "ochen golodny" (very hungry) variant, which as it turned out, was more than enough, and would challenge the emptiest stomach.

I ordered the "zelen-melen," a wonderful array of marinated garlic, cabbage, green peppers and cucumbers, and we both had (as was recommended to us) the chanakhi lamb soup (80 rubles), with zucchini and a number of very spicy ingredients that soon had us both in tears. Fortunately, some enormous portions of khachapuri (20 rubles per 100 grams) cheese bread were at hand to ease the pain, as was the Boch karyov beer (25 rubles per half liter). No doubt it is an insult to Georgian cooking to wash it down with beer, but with the cheapest bottle of Georgian wine costing more than the meal itself, we decided we would put such niceties aside.

This was already plenty of food, but we had already ordered a "main" course, actually smaller than the first course. I ordered satsivi, chicken in a green, and very spicy, sauce and my dining companion ordered tolma, meat and rice wrapped in grape leaves in a white creamy sauce. Finishing all of this was beyond us, and we let the waiter take away the remains.

With the quick service, we were out of the place in less than an hour, so Adzhika is not somewhere you would go for quiet contemplation or a romantic dinner. But if you like your food cheap, fast (not in the McDonald's sense), and delicious, then this is the place for you. Who knows, maybe the live music is brilliant too - we just didn't stick around long enough to find out.



Adzhika, 7 Moskovsky Prospect. Open 24 hours. Dinner for two with beer, 493 rubles ($18). No credit cards, and you won't have to book.

TITLE: von trier's latest film loses sight of realism
AUTHOR: by Tom Masters
TEXT: Few things sound less likely than a musical about going blind, but Lars Von Trier's genre-meshing new film is in every sense an unlikely event. Case in point is his casting of Catherine Deneuve as a factory machinist and first-time actress Bjork in the lead as a Czech immigrant to Washington state in the 1960s. Endlessly trying, however, periodically uplifting and downright tragic, "Dancer in the Dark" is by no means Gilbert and Sullivan.


In fact, the first half of the film gives no clue that the film is a musical at all. The production techniques used by the founder of the "Dogma" movement are as gritty and ultra-realist as those used in his last release "The Idiots" (1998).

Bjork is the mildly insane-looking Selma, working in a kitchen-sink factory and living with her son Gene in a trailer. Selma is saving money for an operation that may save her son's sight, while gradually losing her own completely, suffering as they both do from a hereditary degenerative disorder. Deneuve, in a surprisingly minor role, is Selma's best friend, Kathy. Again, an unlikely duo, but which aptly enters into the film's spirit with surprising believability.

Selma's life of work and poverty is painted as thoroughly awful, and the Dogma movement's real-time methods employed by Von Trier bring this across perfectly - the film washed out and the camera rarely focused to the point that the audience can begin to empathize with Selma's impending blindness.

Against a background of caring friends, Selma's singular determination to save for Gene's operation often appears to be paradoxically selfish, coming between her and those who care for her. Perhaps purposefully, Von Trier does not probe Selma's psychology and thus she remains an enigmatic character, until she bursts into song.

The one pleasure in life left to saintly Selma is her passion for musicals, and she somehow finds time between making sinks to play Maria in a very amateur production of the Sound of Music. Through musicals, Selma can appreciate the world as it should be - full of friendly, loving, tap-dancing people - rather than how it is for her in reality. Just when things seem like they can't get any worse, however, robbery, jealousy, murder and a court- room drama ensue, leading to a brutal and tragic ending. Can Von Trier really get away with calling this a musical?

Amazingly, he can. In the midst of all this misery, when Selma, Kathy and the other factory workers unexpectedly burst into song and, like Dorothy's arrival in Oz, technicolor is spewed across the screen, surprise is about the only possible reaction. Selma allows her inner feelings to become the narrative of the film through song, singing of her acceptance of blindness, her love of her son and her guilt at what she is compelled to do.

The disparity between the two styles is purposely jarring yet fascinating. Despite winning the Golden Palm at this year's Cannes festival, criticism of "Dancer in the Dark" has been fairly consistent, understandable given that the film is quite confusing and shifts emotional gears constantly, ultimately lacking any degree of psychological realism. Yet to criticize the film for this is to miss its point entirely. The mistake to avoid is seeing the film in terms of its ultra-realist style, rather than its fantastical content.

Despite employing methods that seem downright stark, "Dancer in the Dark" is a musical, a medium hardly noted for stringent verisimilitude, and in such a light can be excused its almost comical lack of realism, motive and coherent plot.

If Von Trier's arrogance or the excessive pretentiousness of his "Dogma vow of Cinematic Chastity" film movement can be off-putting, there is no doubt that this film is both groundbreaking and incredibly ambitious. Von Trier plays with the audience, leading them through an intriguing maze of conflicting styles, evoking almost every possible emotion, to a tearful end. If a film should ultimately be judged by the effect it has on its viewers, then "Dancer in the Dark," it must be conceded, is an out-and-out triumph.

TITLE: russian wunderkinder exposed
AUTHOR: by Aliona Bocharova
TEXT: The Borey Art Gallery may be an unusual place for an exhibition, but for "Wunderkinder," which presents works by German photographer Peter Dam mann, the venue - with its plain white rooms - it could not be more appropriate.


There are four rooms with four stories: children from the Cadet Aca demy in Kronshtadt, young musicians from the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsa kov Conservatory, physically and psychologically disabled children, and street kids.

"They are all wunderkinder, because they make you wonder how they pull through life overcoming the obstacles they are facing every day," says Dam mann. And if, at first glance, they seem to have nothing in common, the exhibition explains how they share the same destiny.

Young cadets are not much different from street children, because "the Cadet Academy is only a social project that helps to solve the problem of the huge number of children on the street," Dam mann comments. Young musicians have to buy expensive instruments to continue playing and practising, and even "a broken string becomes a financial crisis." Lia, 12, says: "The violin is the instrument of my life. I have loved so many people. Love comes and goes, but my love for the violin will stay forever."

Children with their hearts withered by life on the street have their own dreams that they express in fictitious stories from their biographies. As the photographer says: "One kid told me that he has lived in Germany for two years and traveled around the country. Another one said he was given a hundred dollars, but suddenly lost it."

Dammann has worked with children before - as a social worker in Hamburg for 10 years. Combining his past experience with his passion for photography, in 1987 Dammann went to Eastern Europe to make photo reports - escaping from "the Western world of advertisements that left no space for quality photography." It was in 1992 that he published his first book, "Children of Railway Stations: Bucharest, Warsaw, Sofia, Saint Petersburg, Tirana."

Only after that was Dammann ready to take photographs of the inhabitants of "A House of Death," a boarding school for disabled children in Pav lovsk, presented in the third room of the exhibition. It might be a shocking experience for visitors to the exhibition, just like it was for Dammann himself during his first visit. "My fear contrasted with the joyful smiles from the children who were happy to be visited by someone."

However, he now considers his photographs more beautiful than scary, showing something that people try not to face. "My works should not arouse fear or compassion, but make people identify themselves with those children and, therefore, make them think." That is why the text is not a journalistic article, but rather an essential part of the visual image.

"Once you look at these wunderkinder and know them, you understand that they are not only victims of poverty, they are fighters for their future, who can help themselves," says Dammann.

This, no doubt, makes him a life-asserting artist who not only gives life another dimension, but helps to solve important issues in society. "In the Hamburg Museum of Art and Craft people have contributed huge sums of money to help such German charity organizations as 'Gartow Stiftung,' which supports young talented musicians from the Conservatory, and 'Perspectiven e. V.,' working with disabled children in Pavlovsk and Peterhof."

At the moment, Dammann, who won the second prize in the international photography competition "World Press Photo Award 1998," is continuing his work in Russia taking photos of children who have changed his life. 

As he puts it: "Germany is a country with insurance for everything: health, housing, car accidents. But everyone is scared that something might go wrong. After meeting these children who are able to survive in any circumstances, I have no such fears any more."



"Wunderkinder" runs until Oct. 14 at the Borey gallery. See exhibits for details.

TITLE: Stars, Avs Open Season with 2-2 Tie
AUTHOR: By Stephen Hawkins
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DALLAS, Texas - Ed Belfour and Patrick Roy were even on this night.


The Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche played to a 2-2 tie Wednesday night in a penalty-filled season opener matching two of the league's best goalies and the teams that played in the last two Western Conference finals.

Belfour stopped 26 Colorado shots while Roy, who remains four wins shy of breaking the NHL record for career victories, had 19 saves.

Neither team was able to take advantage of numerous power-play opportunities. There were 21 penalties in the game, 11 against Dallas, but neither team took full advantage. The Avs were 1-for-10 on the power play and Dallas was 1-for-9.

Penalties that carried over from the third period into overtime, kept the teams away from the 4-on-4 extra-session format until there was 2:54 remaining.

Dallas won both of the Western finals in seven games, including a series-deciding 3-2 victory on the same ice four months ago.

Colorado outshot Dallas 8-7 in the third period, including Alex Tanguay's breakaway that was deflected by Belfour with about three minutes to go. In the final minute, Milan Hejduk had an opening on Belfour's left side, but couldn't get the puck in.

Dallas had a 3-2 shot advantage in overtime.

Though the Stars began the third period with a two-man advantage the first 1:20, they couldn't capitalize. They only got off one shot, when Darryl Sydor moved across the middle only to have his close-range shot deflected by Roy.

Colorado tied it at two on Adam Deadmarsh's power-play goal 18:31 into the second period. Deadmarsh took a centering pass from Chris Drury and pushed it inside the right post over Belfour's glove.

Just more than a minute later, the Stars had their two-man advantage. Shjon Podein was called for charging after shoving Mike Modano, after the Dallas center's shot missed just 29 seconds into a power play.

Roy never had a chance on the first goal, having been screened by a teammate on Sergei Zubov's shot 12:40 in.

The Stars converted while enjoying a two-man advantage at the end of the first period, when Modano's slap shot hit the net just as the final horn sounded. It wasn't 2-0 until the goal was confirmed by a replay official.

Podein's hard shot just a minute into the second period was deflected by Belfour, but a minute later Podein scored on a centering pass from Stephane Yelle to make it 2-1.

Dallas also had four shots hit the posts, including what initially looked like a Brett Hull goal 2:53 in the second period, less than a minute after Colorado's first score. The crowd began cheering and the horn went off, but play continued. A replay showed that the puck bounded off the left post.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Motorcade Kills 18


DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (Reuters) - Eighteen people died and 39 were injured when a bus hit a crowd as it swerved to avoid the presidential motorcade in Tanzania Thursday, police and witnesses said.

The accident happened on the outskirts of the town of Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria around 9 a.m., regional police commander Eliah Kihengu told Reuters.

Drivers in Tanzania are expected to pull over when the presidential motorcade passes, with the president typically accompanied by a dozen cars as well as motorcycle outriders.

"The brakes of the bus failed and instead it hit people who were waiting to wave at the president when he passed," Kihengu said.

Witnesses said if the bus had not hit the bystanders, it would have been involved in a head-on collision with the motorcade of President Benjamin Mkapa, who was on the campaign trail in western Tanzania ahead of October's general elections.

The president's entourage stopped and helped take the injured to the hospital while the president suspended his campaign tour for the rest of the day, witnesses said.



Rebels Call it Quits


CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (AP) - More than 600 Muslim rebels, including a commander, surrendered Thursday in a ceremony led by Philippine President Joseph Estrada.

Estrada urged the remaining guerrillas to resume peace talks with the government. The talks were suspended June 30.

"We must resolve our differences through peaceful means because fighting among ourselves will never bring any good to either one of us," he said.

Estrada stood on a grandstand as he led the 609 former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, most still wearing camouflage uniforms with rebel insignias, in pledging allegiance to the government. In front of the stage was a long table with more than 400 firearms that belonged to the rebels.

The surrendering guerrillas were led by Malupandi "Commander Lupay" Cosain, a former provincial vice mayor who joined the Muslim insurgency.

Estrada suspended peace talks with the Moro front after the guerrillas refused to abandon their secessionist goal, stop attacks and lay down their arms.

The Moro group is the larger of two groups fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines. The other is the Abu Sayyaf - the group responsible for a spate of hostage takings since April.



Beijing Warns Bishops


HONG KONG (AP) - China told Hong Kong's Roman Catholic church to keep celebrations of the Vatican's canonization of 120 Chinese and foreign missionary martyrs "low key," a church representative said Thursday.

The warning from Beijing's representative office in Hong Kong caused "concerns" among Hong Kong Catholics, said Father Lawrence Lee, spokesman and chancellor of the diocese.

"It would have been more appropriate if they didn't say those words," said Lee. He declined to comment on whether the warning amounted to direct interference.

He said celebrations went ahead in Hong Kong churches "as usual" over the weekend.

Officials of China's Central Liaison Office conveyed the message to Bishop John Tong after summoning him to a meeting in mid-September, Lee said.

Officials at China's Liaison Office declined to comment.

News of the warning from Beijing was disclosed in an article written by another prominent Hong Kong Catholic leader, Bishop Joseph Zen, carried in Wednesday's edition of the Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao.

Zen accused Beijing of meddling with Hong Kong's religious freedom.

Referring to the Liaison Office's request to go "low-key" over the canonization, Zen wrote: "That baffles us. What are the measures for 'high' and 'low'?"



Taleban Will Talk


KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan said Thursday he had found the ruling Taleban movement willing to hold unconditional talks with its opponents for a political settlement in the war-torn country.

"I have got the feeling that they are willing to talk to [the opposition]," envoy Francesc Vendrell said after several hours of talks with Taleban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil. "I did not hear any conditions."

Vendrell, who arrived in Kabul earlier Thursday, said he was encouraged by his talks with Muttawakil and was exploring the possibility of bringing the Taleban and the opposition alliance round to resuming serious dialog.

The Spanish lawyer said he would meet alliance leader and ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani and main opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood before reporting back to UN Security Council and the UN-sponsored Six-Plus-Two group of countries seeking a peace settlement in Afghanistan.

The Six-Plus-Two comprises Afghanistan's six immediate neighbors - China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - plus the United States and Russia.

Several of the countries proposed last month during a meeting of the UN Security Council that an arms embargo be imposed on the Taleban and their rivals if Vendrell made no progress in bringing the two sides to a negotiated settlement by November.



Taiwan Cabinet Shuffle


TAIPEI, Taiwan (Reuters) - After a minor cabinet shake-up on Thursday which was focused on strengthening the government's financial skills, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian urged the island to have faith in his administration.

Premier-designate Chang Chun-hsiung, a veteran of Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), named Grand Justice Lai In-jaw, an independent politician with financial expertise, vice premier to help him tackle troubling financial problems.

Lai succeeded Chang, who was appointed premier on Wednesday after the shocking resignation of Tang Fei.

"Rocks on the road have been removed," Chen said in his first public appearance after Tang's resignation sparked a political storm. He did not elaborate.

Analysts said they believed Lai's appointment demonstrated the government's determination to deal with its current problems.

Sliding confidence in the government's ability to buoy the economy has knocked share prices down by 30 percent since it took power in May, despite the country's strong economic fundamentals.

Political uncertainties and tensions with rival China also weigh on the stock market. A public opinion poll conducted by independent cable network TVBS showed the latest turmoil had cut Chen's popularity to 37 percent from 77 percent in June, and 48 percent of respondents had no confidence in the government's economic ability.

TITLE: Cholera, Crocodiles Follow Vietnam Floods
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: HANOI, Vietnam - The death toll rose to 280 on Thursday in prolonged floods in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and state media warned of new hazards- cholera and crocodiles swimming downriver from Cambodia.


Local officials also warned that high sea tides next week would worsen the misery caused by the worst floods in decades, by raising water levels in downstream provinces.

"We will need more help as the situation in the province is expected to get worse by mid-October," said an official in the downstream province of Can Tho.

There have been 211 children among the 280 people killed by the floods in the low-lying Delta in the past month.

The International Red Cross estimates 4 million people have been affected in eight Delta provinces.

It says up to 35,000 families, or some 175,000 people, have had to be evacuated from homes in the Delta since the worst of the floods early this month and 150,000 more are critically in need of assistance.

Thursday's Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted Doan Hong, director of the health department of Dong Thap province, as saying there had been outbreaks of cholera in Laos and neighboring Cambodia, and the disease was spreading down the swollen Mekong River toward Vietnam.

He said this raised the risk of outbreaks in the Delta.

The paper also warned of another hazard after a fisherman caught a 25-kilogram crocodile in the Hau River, a tributary of the giant Mekong in An Giang province.

Tuoi Tre said a number of crocodiles had been seen in the Hau River and were thought to have migrated from Cambodia.

Flood waters have receded steadily in the upstream Delta in the past week but it is likely to be late November before they subside fully and concerns have risen about water-borne diseases like cholera and dengue.

The high sea tides are likely to slow the process by preventing drainage out to sea, officials said.

Municipal officials said torrential rains and strong winds in the past few days had damaged dozens of houses in Tien Giang province, where more than 11,800 families, or about 60,000 people, are in need of emergency relief.

About $2 million of international relief has been pledged and a UN team is touring the Delta to assess further needs.

Domestic and international relief agencies have been distributing rice supplies, medicines and drinking water and the Royal Australian Air Force plans to airlift blankets on Sunday.

A dissident Buddhist monk has vowed to attempt his own aid distribution on Friday, complaining that the government has tried to block his church's relief supplies.

The Venerable Thich Quang Do, deputy head of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, was jailed for attempting a similar mission in 1994. He is unlikely to be allowed to leave his heavily policed monastery this time.

On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said Do should stick to rules requiring aid to be channeled via three organizations - the Vietnamese Red Cross, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front - the ruling Communist Party's mass movement organization - and the Finance Ministry's aid committee.

TITLE: Lockerbie Judge Says OK to Diary
AUTHOR: By Jerome Socolovsky
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands - The personal diary of a Libyan defendant standing trial in connection with the Lockerbie crash should be admitted to the procedings as evidence, judges ruled Thursday, dismissing claims made by the defense that it had been seized illegally.


The judge's ruling was a small victory for the prosecutors arguing the case against alleged Libyan intelligence agents Lamen Khalifa Fhimah and co-defendant Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, who are facing charges in connection with the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, which resulted in the deaths of 270 people on Dec. 21, 1988.

The men are accused of putting a bomb-laden suitcase on the plane at an airport on the Mediterranean island of Malta, where they were working at the time as employees of Libyan Arab Airlines.

Fhimah's attorney Richard Keen claimed that police had acted in violation of Maltese law when they confiscated the journal on April 22, 1991. The book was found during a search conducted at a travel agency Fhimah started after leaving his job as station manager for the Libyan airline.

The trial was suspended for three days to allow the court time to reach a decison on the admissibility of the diary.

In a brief ruling, the presiding judge, Lord Ranald Sutherland, accepted that the diary's seizure violated Maltese law because Fhimah had already been identified as a suspect in the case.

Nonetheless, he said that the Scottish police were not informed of the potential violation by Maltese police officers accompanying them in the search.

"There is no question of any device or trick being employed, nor any deliberate evasion of law," Sutherland said. He added that any irregularities that did occur were excusable in light of the public interest in prosecuting the case.

Keen said Wednesday his client feared that prosecutors would give the contents of the diary a "most incriminating" interpretation. The contents had not been revealed prior to the ruling.

The importance of the diary appeared to grow after testimony last week by the prosecution's star witness, a Libyan-CIA double agent, failed to link the defendants directly with the bombing.

Speculation has grown that the defense may submit a motion to dismiss the case outright when the prosecution concludes its presentation in the coming weeks.

TITLE: Fresh From Olympic Gold, Cameroon Ties World Champs
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PARIS - Olympic champions Cameroon showed they could hold their own among soccer's elite when they drew 1-1 against world and European champions France in Paris on Wednesday. Patrick Mboma's spectacular overhead kick from a long throw cancelled out Sylvain Wiltord's opener for the French at the Stade de France. 


"It's a great night," said Mboma. "We came here to prove we could vie with the French and that's what we did."

France went ahead after 20 minutes when Arsenal's Patrick Vieira delivered a perfect lob for clubmate Wiltord. He rounded goalkeeper Alioum Boukar and slotted the ball into an empty net. 

But France, which was plagued by injuries, including Zinedine Zidane and goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, looked more vulnerable than usual. 

Goalkeeper Lionel Letizi, a replacement for Manchester United's Barthez, was forced into a fine save by striker Samuel Eto'o in the 34th minute. Gaining in confidence, the Olympic champions equalized when Mboma, so often the hero in Australia, produced his magnificent overhead effort a minute from the break. 

Substitute goalkeeper Richard Dutruel, on for the injured Letizi, spared the hosts further embarrassment by saving from Eto'o after the striker ran unchallenged through the French defense in the 62nd minute. 

For France, captain Marcel Desailly headed wide a free-kick from the left by substitute Laurent Robert 12 minutes from time. 

"We were aware Cameroon were a very mighty side," said French coach Roger Lemerre. "For some of my guys it was hard to play here tonight as they were not at their best. 

"We played euphoric opponents who were mentally and physically strong after their Olympic title."

TITLE: Gore Leads After 1st Presidential TV Debate
AUTHOR: By Carol Giacomo
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON - Democrat Al Gore continued to hold a slight lead over Republican George W. Bush in the Reuters/MSNBC daily tracking poll released on Thursday, the first to reflect some impact of Tuesday's presidential debate.


The survey also showed what pollster John Zogby called a "surge" of support for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, which could affect the neck-and-neck presidential race in battleground states.

The poll, conducted by Zogby, surveyed 1,209 likely voters between Monday and Wednesday. It found the vice president leading the Texas governor 46 percent to 40 percent, five weeks ahead of the Nov. 7 election. Bush dropped a point from Wednesday's poll while Gore remained steady.

"Again this race is very close - close among voters over 50, close among voters earning more than $50,000, close among suburban voters and those who have had some college or a college degree," he said.

Nader, the third-party candidate who was excluded from the presidential debate in Boston, rose two points to 7 percent in the new survey.

Nader was up to 17 percent among independents and 18 percent among progressives.

"If he continues the same trend, he will have an impact on several of the battleground states," Zogby said.

The Reform Party's Pat Buchanan had 1 percent of the likely voters polled, while Libertarian candidate Harry Browne and Natural Law's John Ha ge lin had less than 1 percent.

Another 7 percent were undecided.

Reuters and MSNBC will release a new poll every day until the election. The surveys are made up of a rolling daily sample of 400 likely voters each day to create a three-day sample of about 1,200. The race is now on the outer edge of the statistical margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The effect of Tuesday's presidential debate began to be reflected in Thursday's poll and will be further revealed over the next two days.

Of the 400 calls made on Wednesday after the debate, Gore led Bush by 46 percent to 39 percent while Nader posted 7 percent of the voters.

There has been little movement in the poll since it began last Friday. Gore has moved in a narrow 44 to 46 percent range while Bush has moved in an only slightly wider range of 40 to 44 percent.

The two vice presidential candidates, Democrat Joseph Lieberman and Republican Dick Cheney, hold their only debate Thursday night in Danville, Kentucky.

Past vice presidential debates have produced some memorable moments but rarely had much effect on elections. But with Gore holding only a wafer-thin lead over Bush, even a small movement in the polls could be crucial.

While Gore maintains a lead among 18- to 29-year-old voters (49 percent to 31 percent) and among 30- to 49-year-old voters (46 percent to 37 percent), the two major party candidates are tied among 50-to-64-year-olds and voters over 65.

One of the campaign's major issues has been health care for seniors, particularly access to affordable prescription drugs.

TITLE: Leaders Seek Solution to West Bank Battles
AUTHOR: By Greg Myre
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israel withdrew tanks from West Bank flashpoints and the Palestinians pledged to rein in rioting, but soldiers and protesters clashed in the Gaza Strip and tensions remained high throughout Palestinian areas Thursday.


Israeli and Palestinian security officials held talks and both sides said they were working to prevent further fighting under measures outlined by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Still, shooting broke out again at the Netzarim Junction in the center of the Gaza Strip, the site of repeated clashes in recent days. Israeli troops came under attack and returned fire, according to Israel radio.

Five Palestinians were injured. Some witnesses said the Palestinians threw stones and firebombs but claimed they did not shoot at the Israeli forces.

The clash was one of several small-scale skirmishes in the area. No major battles were reported as of mid-afternoon on Thursday, which appeared to be the least turbulent day since fighting erupted a week earlier.

Overall, 65 people have been killed and 1,800 injured, most of them Palestinian, since the fighting began.

Barak and Arafat met in Paris until the early hours of Thursday, reaching an informal verbal agreement on halting the fighting. But Arafat refused to sign a proposed agreement, and Barak returned to Israel.

"The Palestinians will make an effort to keep the quiet in terms of riots, and of course in terms of shooting, and we will withdraw our forces slightly," said Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, commander of operations for the Israeli army.

Nabil Shaath, an Arafat aide, said the leader was angered by Israel's refusal to set up an international inquiry into Palestinian claims that the Israelis have used excessive force in the fighting. Israeli Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami described the outcome of the talks as "half-good and half-bad," saying Israel would have to see if Arafat's pledge was being implemented in the field.

The Israeli army withdrew 23 tanks Wednesday from the outskirts of Nablus and tanks were pulled back from a hilltop outside the West Bank town of Ramallah on Thursday. Two more tanks were being withdrawn from the southern edge of Jerusalem, where shots were fired Wednesday night at homes in a Jewish neighborhood.

The tanks have not taken part in any of the fighting, but Israel has employed combat helicopters and anti-tank missiles to drive off waves of Palestinians throwing stones and firing automatic rifles.

Responding to protests at U.S. embassies in the Middle East, the United States announced it was stopping public business at diplomatic missions throughout the region, including the consulates in Tel Aviv and Jeru sa lem, for five days.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces came under sporadic fire in several locations in the West Bank and Gaza overnight, and small Jewish enclaves in Palestinian areas continued to be targets for attack.

Palestinian areas have tended to be relatively calm in the mornings, with violence intensifying in the afternoons and evenings. On Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen fired on more than 20 separate Israeli targets in the afternoon and evening, the army said.

Eight Palestinians died Wednesday, including a 12-year-old boy killed by Israeli fire in fighting at Netzarim. Thousands attended his funeral Thursday, including masked men in civilian clothes brandishing automatic rifles.

In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians marched to the main square Thursday, shouting "God is Great" and waving pictures of Arafat.

"The Palestinian people today are one, like one body," said Ahmed Hilas, a leader of Arafat's Fatah movement in Gaza. "We are representing the unity of the Palestinian people."

The violence erupted last Thursday following a visit to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque compound by right-wing Israeli politician Ariel Sharon. Control over the compound, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, has been the most contentious issue in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

TITLE: Pettitte Comes up Big in Yankees Victory
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OAKLAND, California- Andy Pettitte's near-flawless pitching and a revamped lineup allowed the New York Yankees to delay obituaries for the two-time defending World Series champions.


Pettitte allowed five hits in 7 2-3 scoreless innings, and the Yankees defeated the Oakland Athletics 4-0 Wednesday night to tie their best-of-five AL division series at 1-1.

The playoff series moves to New York for Game 3 on Friday night, with Oakland's Tim Hudson (20-6) - who this year became the first pitcher since 1991 to win 20 games in his first full major league season - facing Orlando Hernandez (12-13).

Glenallen Hill, in the lineup as part of New York manager Joe Torre's effort to shake up a moribund offense, broke up a scoreless game with an RBI single and Luis Sojo followed with a two-run double as the Yankees scored three in the sixth.

The hits by Hill and Sojo came with two outs and immediately after an intentional walk to struggling Paul O'Neill, who has not had an extra-base hit since Sept. 6. After the left-handed O'Neill walked, righties Hill and Sojo connected off right-hander Kevin Appier.

Pettitte, whom Yankees owner George Steinbrenner wanted to trade to Philadelphia in July 1999 before being talked out of it by Torre, has had some of his best performances in the postseason the last few years.

He beat Atlanta's John Smoltz 1-0 in the pivotal Game 5 of the 1996 World Series, and also pitched shutout ball in the 1998 Series clincher against San Diego.

Pettitte was helped by a pair of double plays, in the first and seventh innings. In the seventh, the A's had men on first and second with one out when Ben Grieve grounded into a double play.

And he survived a strange eighth-inning play that almost allowed the A's back in the game. With two outs, a runner on second and the A's down 3-0, Terrence Long hit a routine grounder to New York second baseman Sojo - who fielded the ball and then stepped on his own foot as he started to throw, and fell without releasing the ball.

That left runners on first and third, and Mariano Rivera replaced Pettitte. Rivera got Randy Velarde to hit a tricky-hop grounder that third baseman Scott Brosius was able to barehand in time to throw out Velarde.

The Yankees, who were being derided by critics as over-the-hill champions, snapped an eight-game losing streak and a 10-game road losing streak.



Giants 5, Mets 1. Barry Bonds wore a broad smile when he stepped into the on-deck circle in the first inning.


He might have had an inkling his playoff luck was about to change.

Bonds, the three-time MVP whose career has been defined by regular-season prowess and postseason futility, kicked off his latest playoff appearance with an RBI triple and a key single in the San Francisco Giants' 5-1 victory over the New York Mets in the opener of their NL series.

For Bonds, a 2-for-3 performance was an answer to his critics. He hit .200 in four previous playoffs, but he had the fourth multihit playoff game of his career.

"You should stop dwelling about the past with Barry," Jeff Kent said. "This is a new team and a new year."

If its first playoff is any indication, this new team has what it takes to win in October. Livan Hernandez held the Mets to five hits for 7 2-3 innings, and Ellis Burks hit a three-run homer as the Giants gave manager Dusty Baker and Pacific Bell Park their first postseason wins.

But none of the Giants gave particular credit for the win to one player. Kent said Bonds' standout game was no more important than Billy Mueller getting two hits or Burks' homer. "This is a team. We don't depend on just one or two guys."



Mariners 5, White Sox 2. Paul Abbott pitched like a playoff veteran and Seattle's bullpen was unhittable. That's why the road-tough Mariners are headed home with a 2-0 lead over the Chicago White Sox in their division series. Shutting down Frank Thomas and Chi cago's high-scoring offense for a second straight game, the Mariners beat the White Sox 5-2 Wednesday, putting the team with the AL's best regular-season record on the verge of a quick exit.


Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Friday at Safeco Field in Seattle.

Seattle stung the White Sox 7-4 in the opener Tuesday when Edgar Martinez and John Olerud hit 10th-inning homers off Chicago relief ace Keith Foulke.

Abbott, who started the season in the bullpen, gave up five hits and two runs over 5 2-3 innings to win in his first postseason appearance.

Seattle's bullpen took over as Arthur Rhodes, Jose Mesa and Ka zuhiro Sasaki didn't allow a hit the rest of the way. Sasaki struck out the side in the ninth for his second save of the series.

The White Sox, who led the majors in scoring, stranded eight runners, giving them 18 in the first two games. Thomas was 0-for-4 Wednesday and is hitless in seven series at-bats.

Chicago's 3-4-5 hitters - Thomas, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Lee - were a combined 0-for-9 Wednesday after going 2-for-13 in the opener.

TITLE: Wembley Prepares For Final Farewell
AUTHOR: By Stephen Wood
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - When England hosts Germany in its World Cup group nine qualifier on Saturday it will be the last time a first-class soccer match is played at Wembley.


Even with Pound475 million ($691.6 million) and three years set aside to replace the most famous soccer venue in the world, the architects have an unenviable task.

To succeed, they will have to generate the kind of intangible wonder that for 77 years has made the old Empire Stadium so special.

The sense of history exuded by the grand old lady is enough for a new book on the venue to be entitled simply "The Greatest Stage".

But on Saturday, Wembley Stadium, its distinctive white twin towers and all, will become history itself.

Thereafter a series of charity games are scheduled, with a gala evening to commemorate the passing of the old stadium to be held on Nov. 2.

Less than 24 hours later, bulldozers and wrecking balls will move in to demolish the structure. To arrive even at this point has been a messy and fractious process, in stark contrast to the uplifting memories Wembley has provided.

The venue has hosted a variety of events but it was built for soccer and made an extraordinary debut in 1923. The FA Cup final that year was won by Bolton Wanderers, who beat West Ham United 2-0 in the so-called "White Horse final."

Official figures put the attendance at Wembley that day at 126,047 but by kick-off it is estimated that as many as 200,000 fans had squeezed their way into the stadium.

With the pitch covered by a sea of faces, folklore has it that King George V ordered the surface to be cleared so that the match could be played.

At which point, Billy, the white horse ridden by PC George Scorey, entered the arena. The only policeman on duty, Scorey and Billy pushed the crowds back behind the touchlines.

Order was restored, and Scorey said afterwards: "The fact that the horse was white seemed to attract people's attention. The crowd was good tempered and we pushed it back with Billy's nose."

The Football Association made Cup finals 'all-ticket' occasions thereafter.

It was in the 1920s that the bowl-shaped Wembley was first thought of as the best venue in the world.

Even so, it was sold for the first time at the end of the decade for Pound122,000, less than one-sixth of what it cost to build.

The new owners introduced other sports to Wembley's portfolio, such as greyhound racing (when the hare was even caught in 1927) and speedway.

The Pope visited in 1982 and Wembley has also staged a series of music concerts, including pop star Michael Jack son, opera singer Luciano Pava rot ti and the Live Aid charity event in 1985. In September, American rock band Bon Jovi had the honor of being the last music act to appear on the stage.

American football took its bow in 1986, with 82,000 turning out to watch the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys; a baseball game was staged there in 1934, and even cricket could be seen on the hallowed turf in 1991 - until the charity event was rained off.

The Rugby League Challenge Cup final also found its home at Wembley, with the most memorable moments provided by Don Fox and Shaun Edwards.

In 1968, Fox missed the easiest of conversions in front of the posts to prevent his club, Wakefield Trinity, from defeating Leeds in the Challenge Cup final, while in 1990, Edwards played for more than an hour with a broken cheekbone as his club, Wigan, beat Warrington.

Rugby union has also had its moments under the twin towers. In 1999 Wales was inspired as it denied England the Grand Slam in the 1999 Five Nations Championship with a last-ditch try by Scott Gibbs.

In boxing, British sports fans remember fondly the victory by Frank Bruno over Oliver McCall to take a version of the world heavyweight title in 1995 and, moreover, the punch with which Henry Cooper floored a young Mohammad Ali in 1966. Cassius Clay, as he was still known at that time, got up to knock Cooper out in the next round.

Few occasions can match the Olympic Games, however. London, and Wembley, staged the Games of 1948. Fanny Blankers-Koen won four gold medals for the Netherlands, Emile Zatopek starred in the 10,000 meters for Czechoslovakia.

Also at those Games, Branislav Stankovic, the Yugoslavia defender, became the first soccer player to be sent off at Wembley in a game of football.

Hungary's players also achieved a first in 1953. The 'Mighty Magyars,' led by striker Ferenc Puskas, became the first non-British side to beat England at Wembley. A stunning 6-3 win signaled a shake-up of soccer's world order.

The same year saw the "Matthews final," when 38-year-old Stanley Matthews, who was later knighted, inspired Blackpool to a 4-3 comeback win over Bolton in the FA Cup final.

Three years later, Bert Trautmann, the Manchester City goalkeeper, played on with a broken neck to help his side beat Birmingham City in the Cup final.

Other great soccer memories at Wembley have been provided by Manchester United's European Cup triumph of 1968, the performance of Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomascewski against England in 1973, the goal scored by Argentinian Ricky Villa for Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City in the Cup final of 1981, and Paul Gascoigne's strike for England against Scotland in the 1996 European championships.

None, however, comes close to the defining moment in Wembley's history - England's World Cup final victory.

It was 1966 and, on the only occasion that England has hosted the World Cup, Geoff Hurst scored a hat trick to help England beat West Germany 4-2 after extra-time.

It was the stuff of legend. Hurst's second goal was deemed to have crossed the goalline by a Russian linesman, while BBC television commentator, Kenneth Wolstenholme, marked Hurst's third and England's fourth goal with the now immortal words: "Some people are on the pitch. They think it's all over. ... It is now!"

The new Wembley structure, which will lie at right angles to the present stadium, is also designed to be twice as large, with a 45-meter arch the focal design point.

But the twin towers will not be retained, deemed too expensive to move and rebuild.

Instead, if the Rugby League museum has its way, one of the most famous landmarks in the sporting world will be taken piece by piece to Cheshire - sold by Wembley for the grand sum of Pound2.

Pragmatism has won the day, as 58-year-old Hurst, who will be on a cruise liner sailing out of Southampton with nine other members of the World Cup-winning team Saturday, readily admits.

"After 77 years of great service, we need a new stadium," he said.

"I've got more reason than most to want to preserve Wembley and the twin towers, but when it's reduced to rubble the memories will still be there. You can't take those away."

TITLE: African Bushman Reburied After Return From Museum
AUTHOR: By Darren Schuettler
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: GABORONE, Botswana - The embalmed body of a 19th-century bushman returned to African soil on Thursday in an emotional and sometimes bitter ceremony that recalled his degrading display in Europe for nearly two centuries.


More than 1,000 mourners gathered to bury the remains of a man believed to have been dug up by white grave robbers 170 years ago, stuffed with straw and shipped to France as a curiosity.

The body later became the main exhibit in a small museum in Spain where it was known as "El Negro" - and nearly led to an African boycott of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

"The honor we are bestowing on this son of Africa is an indication of our strong determination to close a chapter of the injustices of the past," Botswana's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mompati Merafhe told the gathering at a civic park in the capital Gaborone.

Historians believe the 27-year-old man, who was given a Christian burial with military honors, died of natural causes and was stolen from his grave by two celebrated French taxidermists, Jules and Eduoard Verraux.

His corpse was exhibited in a Parisian shop for the next 50 years before being sold to a Spanish naturalist, who later bequeathed the remains to a museum in the town of Banyoles, near the city of Barcelona.

A scandal erupted in the early 1990s when a local doctor of Haitian origin objected to the exhibit, on the eve of the Barcelona games.

Alphonse Arcelin, who attended Thursday's funeral, was overcome with emotion as he recalled seeing the body for the first time in 1991.

"I cried and I still cry when I think about it. He was a black man. I felt humiliated, insulted," Arcelin told Reuters.

At least one mourner questioned why he was being buried again. "They should put him in a museum to attract tourists. If you bury him then history is gone," Ndu Lekoko told Reuters.

The Banyoles town council initially defended the exhibit, but the outrage eventually forced the mayor to remove the body from the exhibition in 1998 and the Spanish government agreed to pay for its repatriation to Botswana.

Spain's ambassador to Botswana, Eduardo Garrigues, said he hoped the return of El Negro would strengthen relations with Africa, but he fell short of giving the apology that some African dignitaries had expected.

"We are not responsible as a government for something that happened in 1830," Garrigues told reporters.