SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #611 (0), Friday, October 13, 2000
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TITLE: Petersburg Physicist Wins Nobel Prize
AUTHOR: By Masha Kaminskaya
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg scientist and State Du ma Deputy Zhores Alfyorov, this week's Russian sensation for winning the Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday, was greeted with a storm of applause at a Duma session the following day.


But Alfyorov, a Communist Party member, used his platform in the Duma to deliver a stinging speech on the dilapidated state of Russian science, and made an urgent call for more funding for scientific institutions.

A vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alfyorov won this year's physics prize for his pioneering work in the field of semiconductors, which boosted the development of information technology and paved the way for such modern inventions as the Internet, CD players and mobile telephones.

He will share half of the nearly $1 million award with Herbert Kroemer, 72, of the University of California, for their joint work in developing semiconductors, the Royal Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel prize, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The other half of the award will go to Jack Kilby, 76, of U.S. electronics group Texas Instruments Inc. for his contribution toward the invention of the integrated circuit, better known as the micro `chip, the Academy said. 

An energetic 70-year-old, Alfyorov was jubilant as he celebrated the first Nobel Prize for a Russian physicist since Pyotr Kapitsa in 1978, and the first to be given to a native of St. Petersburg for work carried out in the city.

The last Russian citizen to win a Nobel was Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who won the Peace Prize in 1990.

Alfyorov said the bulk of his award-winning work was carried out at the end of the 1960s and in the 1970s. He said Kroemer had worked out the theory, and his team then came up with the practical applications.

After spending most of the day talking to the media in his office at the Ioffe Institute of Physical and Technical Studies, which he has headed for 13 years, Alfyorov went straight to a local branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to raise a glass of champagne to Russian science with his long-standing colleagues.

"I've had a lot of calls today, and I am happy, very happy, and very proud," he said on Tuesday. "But one of the reasons I'm so happy is that I hope such recognition of the achievements of Russian science - especially St. Petersburg science - will help it in these hard times."

Alfyorov's Wednesday address to the Duma focused on the latter point in particular, as he slammed the priorities of the 2001 draft federal budget, which passed its first reading last Friday.

Interrupting a fellow deputy's speech, speaker Gennady Seleznyov greeted the Nobel Prize winner as he walked into parliament.

"Dear colleagues, not every day do we have a Nobel laureate walking into the session hall," Seleznyov said, giving Alfyorov a bunch of red roses as lawmakers offered their congratulations.

"I am proud that [we have in our ranks] a person of such a powerful mind," said Communist Party leader Gen nady Zyuganov - a statement which caused a minor argument with the Our Home Is Russia faction, in which Alfyorov used to be a member.

Despite the festive mood, Alfyorov launched into the budget. "Today, under harsh circumstances, our scientific and technical potential is still preserved, if much damaged," he said.

"But our achievements are practically unwanted in our own country."

Next year's budget, he said, allocates more than four times the money for the deputies' new apartment complex - about 1.1 billion rubles, or $39.5 million - as the sum the state will spend on all areas of fundamental science in the country.

"This [apartment] building alone would allow us to build scores of new laboratories," he said in his speech.

But he finished with on a brighter note. "Our country is a country of optimists," he said, "because all the pessimists have already left."

Before his speech, Alfyorov said he hoped that his Nobel prize would "help him in discussing the ... state budget."

"After all, when a Nobel laureate is expressing his opinion, it's different [from an ordinary deputy's speech]," he said.

The physicist has himself pledged to give half of his $229,000 to his institute, although he added that most of it would be "taken care of" by his wife.

This is not Alfyorov's first political crusade in the name of science.

His career in politics began 12 years ago, when he was elected a member of the bureau of the Lenin grad branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, then the sole governing body of the region. A year later, he was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies.

In 1995, Alfyorov was elected to the State Duma on the party list of the pro-government Our Home Is Russia faction. He was re-elected in 1999, this time as a member of the Communist Party for its insistence on better state financing of science. He also serves on the Duma's Education and Science Committee. 

Celebrating at the Russian Aca de my of Sciences on Tuesday, Alfyorov - whose elder brother was given the first name Marx - said he preferred to be called "a Soviet scientist."

"Zhores Ivanovich engaged in politics with the sole purpose of helping [our country's] science," said Andrei Filkenshtein, Alfyorov's colleague and the head of the Academy's Institute of Applied Astronomy. "But he has his own political views [too], no doubt."

"This is an outstanding event," Filkenshtein continued. "Our science has for long been deeply humiliated [by the state], we've felt our work is unnecessary and unappreciated. The prize has made us feel part of the world's scientific community."

Alfyorov will be awarded his Nobel Prize on Dec. 10 in Stockholm.

TITLE: EBRD Inspects Local Projects
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov and Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was in St. Petersburg this week mostly to praise what he saw, despite a grim EBRD report released Tuesday that was critical of the bank's past undertakings in Russia.


On his first visit to Russia since being elected president of the EBRD last May, Jean Lemierre flew into the northwestern capital from Moscow on Tuesday evening. He immediately signed an agreement for the EBRD to lend $8 million for the construction of a new cargo terminal near St. Petersburg's domestic airport, Pulkovo 1.

Lemierre went on to look in at other local EBRD-supported projects and industries: Baltika Brewery, the Krasny Bor hazardous waste site, and even a small eatery located near Chernyshev s kaya metro station, Cafe Kolobok.

"The Pulkovo Cargo terminal represents one of the first privately financed large infrastructure projects in Russia, and demonstrates that private-sector capital can be mobilized for significant improvements in transport and logistics," Lemierre said at the signing ceremony on Tuesday. 

The 10-year term loan financed most of the terminal's $13 million price tag, with the rest picked up by Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise, Lufthansa daughter company GlobeGround GmbH, and privately owned construction company Len stroi zhil servis.

In 1999, approximately 22,500 tons of cargo went through Pul kovo 1. An EBRD press release said that the new terminal would have a handling capacity of 35,000 tons a year. Second and third phases of the project would raise capacity even higher, to 60,000 and 90,000 respectively. 

Lemierre also said that the EBRD would continue to cooperate with Baltika, especially with regard to establishing a cheaper and more stable supply of raw products, according to Lyud mila Fomicheva, press spokes woman for the brewery's boss Taimuraz Bolloyev.

The EBRD has already ploughed millions into Baltika - one of Russia's biggest business success stories - including a $50 million investment in a malt production unit, joint-owned by the French Soufflet Group, in 1999.

However, in terms of its overall Russia strategy, the EBRD's latest report is critical of previous investments, and sets harsher new standards for future lending.

The EBRD was founded in 1991 by European governments that hoped to help the post-Soviet bloc find its way both to free markets and free democracies. It has for years been Russia's No. 1 private investor, having since its founding sunk more than 2.4 billion euros ($2.1 billion) into investments here, from truck factories to lumber yards to banks.

This year, the bank will once again be Russia's leading private investor, with plans to invest 650 million to 750 million euros ($565 million to $651 million). That is up dramatically from the 217 million euros ($188 million) in new commitments the bank took on in 1999 following the devaluation of the ruble in August 1998.

On Monday, Lemierre signed off on three deals worth a total of 43.8 million euros ($38 million) - including a 17.3 million euro ($15 million) loan to the Chelyabinsk Electrolytic plant that represented the bank's first dip back into industrial investment since the August 1998 crash.

The EBRD's review, available at www.ebrd.com, is of interest not just because of what it says about future EBRD activities. It will also be studied by other private investors pondering Russia.

The report looks back largely on an era that was run by Horst Kohler, the bank's president up until this summer, when he accepted a promotion to lead the much larger International Monetary Fund.

At the IMF, Kohler has brought a new wariness toward lending that contrasts with the Kremlin-friendly reign of his predecessor, Michel Camdessus. To judge from the draft federal budget for 2001 that the cabinet has submitted to parliament, the Russian government is not expecting any new IMF loans or any lenience on old ones this year. In fact, that budget devotes a fourth of all revenues to paying off foreign debts.

Meanwhile, back at the EBRD, Kohler's successor Lemierre has adopted an only slightly less-wary line.

"We have to be honest," Lemierre said this week in Moscow. "Many people thought [laying the groundwork for economic prosperity in Russia] could be done easier and more quickly."

The report argues that the agricultural sector has been untouched by reform, while the banking sector remains a post-devaluation mess, and that good policy for economic development has been hamstrung by political lobbying.

"A culture of non-transparency in fact pervades" the nation's biggest companies, the report says, and adds that in the past the bank has "overestimated its ability to influence change for the better in companies with low standards."

Where the EBRD has had strong success has been in micro-lending to small and mid-sized business, which have received more than 500 million euros ($434 million) in recent years.

This has included more than 2,100 credits to the tune of $52 million since 1995 for St. Petersburg enterprises, according to the business daily Vedomosti.

One of the local small businesses to benefit was where Lemierre lunched on Wednesday, the Cafe Kolobok, which has received four loans totaling more than $150,000. 

"The visit of [Lemierre] will be good advertising for us," said the cafe's director, Sergei Solovyov, to Vedomosti on Wednesday.

In four years, Solovyov said, what had been a Soviet-style eatery had turned into a fast-food restaurant that serves up to 4,000 daily. 

"To get the first credit [from the EBRD], we had to put my own apartment up as security," he said.

TITLE: RuNet E-Commerce Deemed Secure as Anywhere
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Terrified to punch in a credit card number on the RuNet? 


Experts say e-commerce customers aren't any more likely to get burned shopping at a known domestic retailer than at the Internet's top shops. Chances are that a local online retailer uses the same level of security software as the biggest dot.coms for processing financial transactions.

"From a technical perspective, Russian shops are as secure as Amazon.com," said Andrei Braginsky, telecoms analyst at Renaissance Capital brokerage house.

Technical security won't help, though, if the retailer itself is a fraud. In May, a phony Internet shop swindled some $630,000 from 5,500 unsuspecting cardholders through Cyberplat, a third-party payment processor.

Customers still have to rely on their intuition to sniff out reputable sites. "It's really a common-sense approach, but expats especially might not know who's who in the market," said Ron Lewin, managing director at IT consultancy TerraLink.

Internet traffic is very easy to track, Lewin said. So retailers use a secure connection feature - usually indicated by a key or lock symbol - to encrypt information sent to their sites.

"This encryption is good enough to stop almost everybody from getting the data," Lewin said. "However, it is important to note that Internet e-mail is usually not encrypted whatsoever. People should never send credit card information via e-mail."

E-shops interviewed said using a well-known financial processor also helps to reassure potential credit card customers.

The payment services also minimize the set-up costs and financial risks of handling customer purchases. Without a third-party processor, the retailer must establish a direct relationship with the credit card companies, install the proper software to accept card information and make bank transfers. And while credit card companies will often cover cardholders' losses due to fraud, "the businesses have to eat [the losses]," Lewin said.

"We're close to happy with [Cyberplat]," said Kirill Modelevsky, director of online supermarket XXL of its Internet payment service.

He cited complaints that the service is not always quick and that customers worry it is not secure.

Cyberplat and Assist, another Web payment system, have a combination of in-house and purchased software for implementing high-security features, such as storing sensitive information in 128-bit encrypted form, transferring data by SSL 3.0 protocol, and anti-viral software.

"We warn our Internet merchants that some transactions can be fraudulent. We are using special methods to reduce fraud," said Andrei Mamykin, product manager of the St. Petersburg-based Reksoft firm, which developed Assist to process credit card payments for its online book and video retailer Ozon.

Cyberplat's Spiridonov said that since the scheme by Politshop - the fake shop that transferred its payments through Cyberplat - they have cooperated more closely with the Interior Ministry's high-tech crime division.

"Now I can proudly tell you there has not been one successful attempt to hack our server," he said.

Some companies skip the online payment process all together, saying that offering that feature, and thus spending dearly on security features, would not significantly boost profits since credit card use is low and online credit card use is even lower.

Seventy percent to 80 percent of Assist's card transactions come from abroad. But many retailers, such as those selling perishable items, do not have the luxury of finding their customers across the border.

"There are so few true credit cards in Russia that the inability to make payments online is not really the obstacle," said Jonathan Hay of online supermarket Bistronom.ru, which accepts only face-to-face credit card payments, usually made to the courier delivering groceries.

"The obstacle to faster growth in the [business-to-consumer] market is a lack of credit cards," Hay said. "We recognize that it would be more convenient to pay online, but we want to be sure that the system is as near to 100 percent safe as possible for our customers."

XXL's Modelevsky agreed. "In Russia, plastic money is not so popular," he said. "Not so many people have credit cards. That is why [securing a two-party payment system] is not such an important question for us."

Only about 5 percent of XXL's customers purchase online with credit cards. "If our customers ask more and more for online service with credit cards, we would do this immediately," Mo delevsky said. "Now, it's not so necessary."

Credit card companies have introduced rules to minimize a hacker's chance of using the stolen information, such as only approving transactions when the goods are shipped to the credit-card holder's billing address.

"Growth depends heavily on a convenient, secure and reliable method of payment online, as convenience is the main benefit of the Internet," Lewin said. "In all cases, the consumer must feel confident in the security or reliability of the transaction.

"But even cash cannot provide total security."

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Which Lennon Street?


YEKATERINBURG, Ural Mountains (Reuters) - Most Russian cities have a street called Lenin, but Che lya binsk will become the first to have a Len non Street. 

Valery Yarushin, a onetime Soviet rock star and lifelong Beatles fan, said in a telephone interview that city council deputies had voted overwhelmingly to back his proposal to name a street after murdered Beatle member John Lennon. 

"At the City Duma hearing there were two opponents of the idea," he said. "They said there were plenty of people in Chelyabinsk who deserved the honor. But ... all other deputies voted 'Yes.'"



Prisoners Released


MOSCOW (AP) - Authorities have freed about 140,000 prisoners or dismissed their cases under an amnesty begun last spring, reducing crowding in the disease-ridden prison system.

The amnesty covered prisoners who were infected with tuberculosis or convicted of minor crimes and people who had won state or military awards. The parliament passed the amnesty in May. It is scheduled to expire Oct. 27.

The amnesties have reduced the total inmate population to about 950,000 in 987 facilities, Deputy Justice Minister Yury Kalinin was quoted as saying by Interfax. Russia has the highest per capita prison population in the world.



Radioactive Spill 


MOSCOW (AP) - A river barge that overturned in the Far East over the weekend was carrying radioactive materials in a sealed container, the Emergency Situations Ministry revealed Tuesday.

No radiation has leaked from the three-ton container holding iridium-192, which is now on the bed of the Amur River near the village of Keselevka, said ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov.

Russian news agencies had reported that the barge was carrying diesel fuel in barrels when it capsized Saturday. Beltsov said some barrels with diesel were on board, as well as food, consumer goods and metal.



Media Official Arrested


ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Dmitry Solonnikov, a member of the St. Petersburg Media Committee, was arrested Wednesday and charged with fraud. He is being held at Kresty detention center, according to Gennady Ryabov, a spokesman for the City Prosecutor's Office.

"The arrest is in regard to [Solonnikov's] activities in 1998," said Ryabov in a telephone interview Thursday. He refused to give any further information.

At a press conference on Thursday, Alexander Potekhin, acting vice governor in charge of the Media Committee, said Solonnikov was "an honest man."

Potekhin said Solonnikov, who in 1998 headed the city department on NGOs, had been regularly summoned as a witness in a case on the embezzlement of money for sociological research.



Former P.M. To Sue


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said on Thursday he would sue U.S. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush over his accusation in a television debate that Chernomyrdin stole IMF funds.


Bush attacked Vice President Al Gore over the Democratic administration's ties with Russia in Wednesday's presidential campaign debate. He said a part of a 1998 $4.8 billion IMF loan to prop up the Russian rouble had "ended up in Viktor Chernomyrdin's pockets."

Chernomyrdin, out of office for several months by the time the money reached Moscow, said Bush's remarks were damaging to his reputation and unworthy of a presidential candidate.

TITLE: Navy Head: I'll Still Resign Over Kursk
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, chief commander of the Russian Navy, restated his intention to resign over the disaster of the Kursk submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea last August.


Speaking in St. Petersburg on Wednesday at an event to commemorate the navy's 300th birthday, Kuroyedov took full responsibility for the catastrophe, in which all 118 crew perished. 

"In the navy, there is always one man responsible for everything, bad and good, that happens," he said according to Interfax. "In this case, it's me." 

Kuroyedov tendered his resignation to President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 12, said Igor Dygalo, head of the Russian Naval press service. 

Dygalo said in a telephone interview that Kuroyedov's desire to resign was part of the "traditional honor of an admiral."

Putin has refused to accept any resignations, Dygalo said, until results of the disaster's investigation are known. At present, Russian and Norwegian divers are working to remove bodies from the hull of the Kursk. 

"It's clear that he and other naval authorities took the tragedy to heart," said Alexander Pikayev, a military analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

"But during the accident, the naval press service lied too much and that's his responsibility," Pikayev said.

Defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer agreed. "Although Kuroyedov was the first to say the situation is hopeless, he is still to blame for the misinformation given by the naval authorities about the sailors being alive," Felgenhauer said.

TITLE: TV Academy Scratches Prize for News Coverage
AUTHOR: By Sarah Karush
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The television industry has decided to punish itself for last year's "information wars" by canceling the news category in its annual awards. The Russian Television Academy, which is composed of television veterans and acts as the jury for the TEFI awards, voted "almost unanimously" to exclude the news category from this year's awards, which will be handed out on Oct. 21, academy member Sergei Muratov said Tuesday.


Muratov, the creator of the once wildly popular show "KVN," or Club of Jolly Quick-Wits, and a professor of journalism at Moscow State University, said the academy was skipping the news award to protest the behavior of the major stations during last year's parliamentary elections.

At that time ORT, and to a lesser extent RTR, fed viewers a daily stream of negative reports about Fatherland-All Russia leaders Yury Luzhkov and Yev ge ny Primakov and Yabloko leader Gri gory Yavlinsky.

Meanwhile, NTV which traditionally wins the TEFI for best news program boosted Luzhkov, Primakov and Yavlinsky, while criticizing the Kremlin and the pro-government Unity party. But NTV's coverage was not nearly as slanted as that of the other two stations.

NTV director Yevgeny Kiselyov, who is also a member of the academy, has protested the decision to skip the news award, saying NTV should not suffer for the mistakes of the other stations.

"It seems to me that this is an attempt to equate those who tried to work objectively and honestly with those who eagerly let themselves be used as propaganda weapons," he said in remarks reported by Kommersant.

Muratov agreed that NTV had committed far fewer sins than the other stations, but said that did not solve the problem.

"NTV would have had no competition," Muratov said in a telephone interview. "It would be no contest."

Oleg Dobrodeyev, head of RTR's parent company VGTRK, and Konstantin Ernst, director of ORT, also both members of the academy, told Kommersant that they approved of the decision.

"You have to have the courage to admit that the information services of all the big channels were engaged in political agitation last fall," Ernst said. "Meanwhile, the TEFI award is for 'best information program,' and not 'least effective propaganda.'"

Muratov said the academy needed to do more to solve the problems in television. Instead of simply giving out prizes, it should also analyze the quality of television and publish its findings.

Muratov said the quality of television news had improved since last fall.

"But I don't think the television stations have learned their lesson; and this is why the academy should act as a thinker," he said.

TITLE: Cat Tormentor Gets Community Service
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Perhaps the homeless cat hiding in Yury Burkov's building last March was wailing because it was hungry or thirsty. Or perhaps it was just softly meowing for joy.

Either way, Burkov took his ax and hacked it into bits.


Now the cat has been avenged: This week Burkov, 31 and unemployed in Ufa, the capital of the republic of Bashkortostan, was sentenced to a year of community service and fines of 20 percent of his annual salary.

Because Burkov is unemployed, he has been ordered by the court to find a job so the state can get its 20 percent. If he does not, he will face a new fine and possible imprisonment of up to six months, said a police official by telephone from Ufa.

The conviction for cruelty to animals - the first in Bashkortostan - has become a precedent, said the official, who refused to give his name. "Now we have experience and we'll be bolder in sending such [cases] to court."

Burkov was detained after a police patrol stationed near his home noticed an intoxicated man with a bloody ax in the street, Interfax reported. The police initially thought Burkov's victim was human, but determined otherwise after a blood analysis and inspection of the evidence by a special forensics team.

"They thought somebody had been chopped to death," said the official.

He called Burkov's reasons for the crime "simple."

"He was drunk, the cat was meowing. He got fed up. He threw it in the snow near the building entrance and chopped the cat with an ax he'd taken from his apartment."

Burkov admitted his guilt in court, according to Interfax.

"He wasn't sorry for the cat," the police official added.

Although cruelty to animals is a criminal offense, only a handful of cases get to court. There were, however, several legal precedents for Burkov's conviction set by animal-cruelty cases in other places around the country.

Two years ago in Moscow, Vladimir Kotov - whose last name derives from the word for tomcat - was sentenced to six months of community service and a 15 percent garnishing of his wages for throwing his cat, Grishka, out the window after the animal ate some ground meat Kotov had brought home for his dinner. Although believed dead during the trial, the cat later turned up - shaken but unharmed. The sentence was not reduced.

Three years ago, a man in Volgograd, in southern Russia, was ordered to pay 6 million rubles (then about $1,000) for using rat poison to kill a neighbor's dog.

"There are laws but no one believes in them," said Yulia Shvedova, director of the Moscow-based Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who has been fighting for animal rights for 35 years. Shvedova said it was important that the laws were being enforced, but she said animal abuse was less rampant now than a decade ago when financial instability and the attendant stress were more prevalent.

"Now people feed stray dogs. Go and give some bread to a dog [on the street] and he won't take it because he's full," said Shvedova. "Besides, 10 years ago it was very fashionable to wear hats made from dog fur."

Under Russia's Criminal Code, those convicted of cruelty to animals can be forced to pay a steep fine or spend up to six months behind bars. Laws against cruelty to animals in other countries carry similar punishments, but they tend to be better enforced.

In Britain, the Protection of Animals Act of 1911 provides for fines of up to 5,000 pounds ($7,250) and a jail sentence of up to six months for cruelty to animals.

The difference is in the number of cases taken to court: In 1999 there were 2,719 convictions in Britain for cruelty to animals.

A prison sentence would certainly be a possibility, said Emma Nutbrown, a spokeswoman for the Royal Society for Protection of Animals in England, when asked what Burkov could expect for his offense in England.

TITLE: Moscow Looking To Lead CIS Allies
AUTHOR: By Sujata Rao
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Russia vowed on Wednesday to work with five of its ex-Soviet allies to boost security in volatile Central Asia and the Caucasus region.


President Vladimir Putin and the presidents of Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Kazakstan signed two documents saying they would give "practical meaning" to a Collective Security Treaty of 1992.

"Our meeting this time was of a more concrete nature on how to guarantee security in our region," Putin told a joint news conference.

"It is time to boost the effectiveness of the treaty and follow the path of military cooperation," said Askar Akayev, the president of Kyrgyzstan, which throughout has been battling Islamist rebels who are thought to be from Tajikistan.

The leaders said that they had taken forward an agreement signed in the Belarussion capital city of Minsk earlier this year, although there were few details.

Proposals include drawing up a plan for the period 2000 to 2005 and deciding the status of a potential security force to be created by the six participant states.

Analysts note that the treaty's practical results since its inception have been negligible. They see the group as yet another forum to extend Russia's influence over Central Asia, an oil-rich region once seen as the Soviet Union's soft underbelly.

On Wednesday, as in the past, the focus was Afghanistan. Russia accuses Afghanistan's ruling Taleban regime of fomenting terrorism in areas ranging from Chechnya in the North Caucasus to Kashmir in India.

It blames Kabul for recent incursions of gunmen into Central Asia as well as a booming drug trade in the former Soviet Union.

"We appeal to the international community to actively seek ways to restore peace in Afghanistan," a joint declaration said.

The treaty also allows Russia a chance to secure weapons contracts. Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said arms would be sold to partners at cheaper prices. "Everyone benefits," he told reporters.

Russia's five partners appear to have re-grouped around Moscow with renewed enthusiasm since Putin came to power.

Since taking office, the Russian president has traveled to Uzbekistan, promising support in case of foreign attacks, and Turkmenistan, securing a key energy deal.

TITLE: Space Station Crew Is Raring To Go
AUTHOR: By Nikolai Pavlov
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: STAR CITY, Moscow Region - Two Russian cosmonauts and one American, who will be the first crew to man the $60 billion International Space Station this month, said they were ready for their mission after four years of training.


"I am really glad we have got to the day where the training is behind us. It has been a long road," William Shepherd, who will command the space station, told a news conference Monday.

"I am really anxious to go to work in space with these guys because I think the team work we have on the ground is only going to get better in the 17 weeks of our flight," he said.

While speaking in Russia's leading space training center in a town outside Moscow, Shepherd said he hoped such international cooperation would soon become a merely matter of course.

Shepherd, a U.S. Navy captain, is to blast off with Russians Yury Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalyov, on Oct. 30 to the ISS. They plan to spend up to 117 days on board.

Gidzenko said that their job would be to bring the space station to life by making the various components, which have already been shipped into space, work. He said they would also do a number of scientific experiments.

"We will do everything expected of us to get the station ready for the next crew. It is undoubtedly a new step in space exploration," he added.

The crew have had to deal with some frustrations on the way, including the fact that the launch of the station's living quarters by Russia was more than two years late.

As well as Russia, the ISS is being built jointly by the United States, Europe and Japan.

It is a far more ambitious project than Russia's Mir space station - now 14 years old - the future of which is under debate.

When completed, the target date being 2005, the ISS will be seven stories high and be one of the brightest objects in the night sky. At least 35 more space missions will be needed to finish off the station.

The crew are to travel to the station on a Russian Soyuz rocket and return on a U.S. space shuttle. Most of the missions will travel to the station by shuttle.

They will have a living space no bigger than the cabin of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

TITLE: Grozny Car Bomb Claims at Least 7 Lives
AUTHOR: By Ruslan Musayev
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GROZNY - A powerful car bomb went off outside a police station in the Chechen capital Grozny on Thursday, killing at least seven people and wounding 21 more in the biggest attack in Chechnya in months. 


A preliminary investigation suggested it had been set off by a remote-controlled device, said an official in the office of Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said seven people, including several members of the pro-Russian Chechen police force, had been killed and 21 were wounded. 

A spokesman for the Russian military headquarters in Mozdok said that the explosion occurred outside a police station, and that it appeared to have been timed to go off when a car carrying prosecutors drove up. Policemen and prosecutors were among the dead, he said. 

The car contained explosives equivalent to 9.9 kilograms of TNT, the official in Moscow said. It was parked outside a section of the police station where crowds were lined up to get identity papers, he said, adding that the majority of the wounded were civilians. 

Russian news agencies reported that at least 15 people were killed. A doctor in a Grozny hospital, Abdula Ismailov, told NTV television that seven people had died in that hospital alone. 

Zara Matuyeva, who was shopping at a market about 400 meters from where the bomb exploded, said she had seen no fewer than 20 bodies on the street, surrounded by large pools of blood. The explosion shook buildings and shattered windows for blocks around. 

Russian troops cordoned off the neighborhood, which was swarming with ambulances and fire trucks. Police launched a sweep of the area, checking people's identity documents and searching cars. 

In recent months, Chechen rebels have stepped up ambushes and bomb attacks against federal forces and Chechen officials cooperating with the Russian government. Russian positions in both Grozny and Gudermes, the seat of the pro-Russian Chechen administration, have been targeted heavily. 

Five Russian soldiers were killed in two separate rebel attacks on Wednesday, said an official in the pro-Russian civilian administration in Chechnya. Two were killed when rebels fired grenades at an armored personnel carrier in the region of Khankala, on the outskirts of Grozny, and three others died when their armored personnel carrier hit a land mine and rebels opened fire. 

In total, rebels attacked federal positions at least 19 times over a period of 24 hours, the official said. Russian planes and artillery carried out strikes against suspected rebel positions in Chechnya's border regions and in the deep gorges leading into the rugged mountains of the south. 

Chechnya won de facto independence in a 1994-96 war. Russian troops rolled back in a year ago, however, after rebels raided the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan and after a series of apartment bombings that killed some 300 people.

TITLE: Duma Deputies Angered by U.S. Demand To Free Pope
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution calling on Russia to release a U.S. businessman accused of spying and asking President Bill Clinton to consider cutting Russian financial aid if it does not.


The resolution was passed Tuesday by the full House in a voice vote after the International Relations Committee unanimously approved it last week.

The case of Edmond Pope, a former naval intelligence officer who has been charged with espionage, has strained ties between Washington and Moscow, and U.S. officials have pressed for his release, arguing that he conducted legitimate business in Russia and therefore broke no laws. Pope has been held in a Moscow prison since his arrest in April for allegedly trying to obtain underwater missile technology from a Russian scientist.

His trial could start next week, and he faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Russian lawmakers angrily denounced the resolution Wednesday, and State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov said it was "crude interference in our criminal procedural legislation."

"The Americans should send over fewer spies. Then we can waste fewer resources catching them and proving their guilt."

A provision in the House resolution, which is not binding and has no companion legislation in the Senate, asks Clinton to consider terminating all financial assistance to Russia and to authorize U.S. officials to try to block Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization unless Pope is released.

It also opposes rescheduling millions of dollars of Soviet-era debt owed by Moscow to the United States.

TITLE: Linkov Removed From SPS Council
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Local Democratic Party head Ruslan Lin kov was removed from the Coordinating Council of the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, for a breach of discipline, stripping him of the right to run on the unified Yabloko-SPS ticket for Galina Starovoitova's former Duma seat.


For months, he and party officials have been at loggerheads over whom to nominate to run for the district 209 seat, which was left vacant after Starovoitova was murdered in November 1998.

The 29-year-old Linkov - who was Starovoitova's spokesman when she was shot, and who himself suffered injuries during the attack - has long insisted he is the man for the job. The Yab loko-SPS union, however, nominated former Yabloko Duma deputy Ana toly Golov, 54, to be the candidate.

But Linkov refused to cede his position and continued to campaign. As a result, official action was taken by the Yabloko-SPS governing body when they stripped Linkov of any formal associations as a party candidate earlier this week.

Since forming its alliance, Yabloko and SPS have been squabbling over the wisdom of advancing one candidate or more. But last month, an apparent agreement seemed to have been reached when they nominated Golov for their bid.

But at a press conference Thursday, Linkov called the Yabloko-SPS unity and its principles a sham. 

"The [Yabloko-SPS] coalition tries to solve its internal problems at the expense of the electorate of the district," he said. "The Yabloko-SPS union is an illusion and both parties' representatives know this very well."

Both Yabloko and SPS parties' members were dismayed by Linkov's dark view of the union, and at least one member wished to bring him back into the fold. 

"This is not a very pleasant collision," said Yury Gladkov. "We have our single candidate, and I hope that Ruslan's present state of mind is only temporary."

Other Yabloko members jeered at Linkov's aspirations to win the seat.

"We made surveys in the district which show that Golov has far more chance to win than Linkov. His arguments do not have much substance to them," said Yabloko member Mikhail Amosov in an interview on Thursday. He did not specify any figures of the survey.

Olga Kurnosova, head of the SPS Coordinating Council, said she does not agree with Linkov's point of view.

"If you have noticed, Yabloko and SPS work very closely with each other in the State Duma," Kurnosova said at a press conference on Thursday. "At the same time, the parties form a single faction in the legislative assembly to form a united bloc of democratically oriented lawmakers. So the results of their work are obvious." 

The District 209 seat was initially won by Sergei Stepashin in December. He left it, however, to take a federal posting as head of the Federal Audit Chamber. 

Since then, the seat has been up for grabs and has drawn 10 candidates who range disparately from college deans to an accused murderer, Yury Shutov, who is campaigning from a jail cell.

As for Linkov, he said he does not exclude withdrawing his Democratic Russia party from SPS because "the party has become a union of pragmatism, and has forgotten about basic principles."

He said Democratic Russia will discuss the possibility of leaving the coalition with SPS at its next meeting, scheduled for November.

TITLE: Dry Zone Gets Boos From Shop Owners
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Starting next Sunday, last call for hard booze in bars and cafes on much of central Vasilievsky Island will be 9 p.m. 


Although the serving of beer can continue as usual, municipal council authorities say they are sick of the drunken brawls, urine-stained sidewalks and doorways, violent crimes and noisy crowds that congregate in front of buildings during their carousings. 

The hard liquor ban will extend from Sredny Prospect to the north and continue to the Lieutenant Shmidt, Universitetskaya and Makarova embankments on the Neva. Hard liquor will also be banned from sale on Detskaya Ulitsa and Kosaya Liniya, which are to the southwest of the Kirov Palace of Culture. 

Measuring roughly 2 1/2 square kilometers, this area contains 60 establishments that sell hard liquor. 

Fed up by the drunken hassle, Vasi li ev sky's municipal council - officially known as municipal district No. 7 - passed the law. The police are in full support. Under the new code, an establishment ignoring the new ordinance will be punished by a 1,669 ruble fine, or the revocation of its liquor license.

"In Russia, there are too many people who drink too much and then do unacceptable things," Vadim Yevdokimov, the deputy chief of police of Vasilievsky Island district said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. 

"Our phone lines receive complaints about drunks every five minutes and since the beginning of the year the police have detained more than 10,100 drunk people on Vasilievsky Island alone," he fretted, adding that about 6,000 couldn't make it home and had to sleep it off in the drunk tank, or Vytrezvitel.

The litany doesn't end there. Igor Polovtsev, the deputy chairman of municipal council No. 7., said the complaints to his offices were virtually endless. 

"Some people spend their evening drinking until midnight," said Yevdokimov. "Then they go to buy more and about 4 a.m. they start dancing. So you can imagine how their neighbors feel." 

But shopkeepers and barkeeps are incensed. 

"We can't see what aims the administration has in doing this," Vadim Mo rozov, the second commercial director of a shop that he asked not to be identified. 

"People will find vodka anyway, not only drunk people use the building yards and basements as a toilet, so there is no sense in limiting the sale of spirits only on one part of Vasilievsky Island. The only conclusion I can come to is that the new regulations will mean extra money for the administration."

Many are thinking of filing appeals with the municipal council when the time is right. 

"We haven't appealed to the municipal council yet," said Alexei Bokatov, the commercial director of the food shop Alyosha, at 38 Bolshoi Prospect.

"We are just waiting to see what will happen when the regulations come into effect," Bokatov continued. "Right after the municipal council informed us about the order I looked up all the documents trying to find legal foundation for it and I couldn't. It appears to be a classic imposition."

But others are taking it more seriously. According to Galina So ko lo va, the head of the trade and food department of the Vasilievsky Island district, her department has sent an official letter to the Lawyers Committee of the St. Petersburg Administration, requesting the lawfulness of the new anti-alcohol regulations be looked into.

"We have not received an answer yet, but according to federal law, all limitations [in alcohol sales] must be made on a federal [as opposed to municipal] level," Sokolova said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. 

Boris Grust, a lawyer with the Yury Shmidt and Partners Law Office said he saw no constitutional violation of those citizens who will be affected by the law, and noted the direct increase of crime in areas where heavy drinking occurs. However, he also noted that the ordinance could spawn a black market. 

As usual the administration goes the easy way, not thinking of the result," he said. "I think that we need to be challenging alcohol dependence by constructing more sports centers and promoting a more healthy way of life."

TITLE: Philip Morris Admits Dangers of Smoking
AUTHOR: By Clare Nullis
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GENEVA - The Philip Morris tobacco company admitted on Thursday that smoking is addictive and deadly and said it was in favor of global regulation of the tobacco industry - although it defended its freedom to sell cigarettes.


"We agree that smoking is addictive and causes disease in smokers," said David Davies, vice president of corporate affairs of Philip Morris Europe.

The comments came at the start of two days of public hearings hosted by the World Health Organization on a planned international convention to control tobacco and stem the epidemic of smoking-related deaths.

Of the 500 organizations which submitted written comments, some 177 were chosen to speak in the debate. They include prestigious medical associations, health campaigners, smokers groups, tobacco farmers and workers and - most controversially of all - tobacco multinationals. 

The vast majority of speakers highlighted the evils of smoking and spoke of their fears that tobacco companies will make attempts to derail the planned convention.

Anti-smoking groups are furious that WHO even allowed tobacco companies to take part in the hearings.

"The tobacco industry will stop at nothing," said Matt Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. "It has staged the most devastating cover-up of scientific evidence. It has preyed on our kids and lied to governments. It has manipulated nicotine and our political system."

The American Lung Association has termed the tobacco company participation as the "equivalent to having a fox guard the hen house."

In Geneva, the tobacco companies are intent on stressing that they are responsible.

"Sensible regulation benefits society and consumers everywhere," Davies told a press conference.

Davies maintained that the company was in favor of tougher measures to prevent tobacco sales to youth - although he drew the line at a global advertising ban. 

He said much more would be achieved if the 112 countries which currently have no laws on the sale of tobacco to minors would implement legislation.

"We must ensure that adult smokers continue to be informed of the health effects of tobacco smoking, but remain free to decide to smoke," he said.

Davies said Philip Morris would share the findings of research into safer cigarettes with WHO on Friday. WHO officials have said they are interested in what tobacco company scientists have to say about progress toward less harmful cigarettes, but stressed that there is no other common ground between them.

The public hearings will not necessarily have any impact on the convention, as it is for governments rather than private organizations to negotiate. But it provides a high-profile platform for what it expected to be fiery debate.

WHO estimates that smoking kills more than 4 million people per year and says the toll may rise to 10 million per year by 2030 because of surging tobacco use in developing countries.

TITLE: U.S. Mortgage Maverick Finds Home
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Not long after pursuing a job opening published in a Virginia financial newspaper, James Cook was lecturing Siberian bankers in felt boots about housing mortgages. Seven years later, the president of DeltaCredit mortgage program can lay claim to being part of the team that invented the Russian word for mortgage: ipoteka.


"As many problems as Russia has, this is one area where they have a tremendous advantage over anyone else," Cook said. "If people start to realize they have an incredible amount of property wealth that can be tapped into, you're going to see things taking off."

Both the federal and municipal governments have been trying for years, with intermittent successes, to create a long-term mortgage system that would give a jolt to a potentially hot real estate market, as apartments worth billions of dollars fell into private hands a decade ago. And with high demand for housing and millions of square meters being added to the market every year, there is a great need for available financing.

There are complaints that adequate legislation does not exist to protect the lender in case of nonpayment. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said in London last month that current legislation was not solid enough for the creation of a reliable mortgage system.

DeltaCredit - which has a 100 percent payment rate from its borrowers - experimentally dipped into the uncharted waters just before the 1998 meltdown. Despite the unfortunate timing, business picked up steam this past summer and has since disbursed more than $12 million in loans with its partner banks. And this fall it joined up with real estate and construction companies to reach more customers.

Unlike most Russian banks, DeltaCredit enjoys a steady stream of foreign finance, as it is one arm of The U.S.-Russia Investment Fund, a private investment firm established by the U.S. Congress in 1995 with $440 million in available capital.

"I think it was really the right thing to do," Cook, 36, said of the fund's decision to set up a mortgage program. "Russia is sort of the victim of a lot of training and a lot of technical assistance, but not enough financing really to put it into practice."

Mortgages seem to flow through Cook's veins. When the Virginia native was 18, he began spending his vacations from college - where he studied financing and public relations - working for a mortgage bank. At 20, he organized an advertising campaign for a credit union. The first year of the campaign attracted some 20,000 new customers, so the bank made him its marketing manager.

Cook left in 1994 after being selected to help set up a mortgage lending system here under a USAID contract. "When I got here I said, 'Is there a plan, you know, for me to follow?' And they said, 'No, just go out and do it. Just do it.'"

Joined by Elena Klepikova, now vice president of DeltaCredit, he spent his first two years conducting seminars for bankers and other professionals interested in home financing. Cook found that there was not even a word for mortgage in the Russian language, and together with some colleagues adopted ipoteka from the Greek word for mortgages.

But transplanting an "American ideal" to a country with a thin banking infrastructure was not ever his intention. "We had to really transform [the mortgage program] so it's truly a Russian product," Cook said.

At the beginning, during strategy pow-wows with Klepikova and others, he would say how this or that was done in the United States, and they would envision how it could be done in Russia.

"It's like a puzzle. It's like playing a game. I always told them that business is like being master of the game. You have to figure out how to solve the problem and how to get ahead of your opponent."

And for the first time in his life, he is his own customer. Cook hopes to get a loan approval next week from DeltaCredit to finance the purchase of a former communal apartment near the Kremlin. During the application process he learned of a few of unnecessary requirements, such as needing a spravka to prove that he's not insane and having to show an actual college diploma. Those items have now been deleted from DeltaCredit's list of requirements.

TITLE: Russia Considers Importing American Pork
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Russian Meat Union said on Wednesday that Russia might import up to 30,000 tons of pork meat sausage ingredients per month until the end of the year, and was looking to the United States as a likely supplier.


The Agriculture Ministry was unable to confirm or deny the existence of a significant pork meat deficit.

"We expect no supplies of domestic meat, and we need at least 30,000 tons of pork per month," said Viktor Yatskin, the chairman of the union's information committee.

"We need cheap pork for sausage products, mainly trimmings. I believe that current prices in the United States make U.S. pork competitive, even taking into account the shipping costs."

Russia used to import large quantities of pork from the European Union, which paid substantial export subsidies to ship its pork surplus to Russia and other East European countries.

But in August the EU removed all its pork export subsidies due to a fall in output, which resulted in higher European pork prices.

TITLE: Finance Ministry Joins List Of Angry MOST Creditors
AUTHOR: By Anton Charkin
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - The debt noose around Media-MOST tightened this week with the Finance Ministry joining the group of creditors seeking their money back.


Before Tuesday, only banks or companies with state participation - Vnesh ekonombank, Gazprom and Sber bank - had filed claims against Media-MOST. Now it is the state's turn.

The ministry's claims are for guarantees paid on a loan by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

"The first tranche of the guarantees is for $140 million," Kudrin said. Vnesh ekonombank has been instructed to establish whether other claims against Media-MOST have been made, he said.

Vneshekonombank said a $30-million suit had been filed with the Moscow arbitration court against closed joint stock company Bonum-1, which is wholly owned by Media-MOST subsidiary NTV-Plus. The claim amount is the same as that previously transferred by the Finance Ministry to Ex-Im Bank.

Vneshekonombank said in 1997 and 1998 the Finance Ministry, Bonum-1 and Vneshekonombank signed four loan agreements for a total of $142.5 million, which was to pay off a loan made by Ex-Im bank to Bonum-1 for the production and launch of a TV satellite. But, as of Jan. 18, Bonum-1 terminated its obligations under all four agreements without paying back the principal debt, interest payments and insurance commission to the Finance Ministry.

No one is really sure how much Media-MOST is worth, but there is no disagreement on how much it owes. Gazprom-Media's claims against MOST total $473 million, with another $40 million due to be paid by the end of the year on a loan issued by Gazprombank to NTV. MOST owes more than $100 million to Sberbank, $220 million to the Moscow city government, and Vnesh ekonombank says it is owed $63 million.

Counting the $142.5 million from Ex-Im Bank guaranteed by the Finance Ministry, the total amount of debt of varying types and with various repayment dates comes to about $1 billion.

TITLE: Battle For Frequencies Becomes Waiting Game
AUTHOR: By Pavel Nefedov
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - Communications Minister Leonid Reiman has annulled last month's controversial move to commandeer frequencies from mobile phone operators Vimpelcom and Mobile TeleSystems to make room for a third newcomer, Sonic Duo.


But the scandal that was on everyone's lips in the telecommunications industry, and which angered Wall Street investors and the government of Norway, is not yet over. 

Sonic Duo, a company that Reiman's ministry has already shown favorable treatment, still needs frequencies in the 900-megahertz range if it wants to start offering phone service next year - and it is likely that someone will again soon be asked to share. That someone may well be Vimpelcom, which throughout has received the Communications Ministry's coldest treatment.

The story of the frequency grab begins in the fall, when President Vladimir Putin put the two top executives from PTS, or St. Petersburg Telephone - deputy director Reiman and director Valery Yashin - in charge of the Communications Ministry and the Svyazinvest telecoms holding company, respectively.

Spring came and brought an April 17 letter to Reiman from Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of the General Staff and often mentioned as a future defense minister. The letter stated that Vimpelcom was using more 900-MHz frequency channels than initially envisaged by its license. (The Russian air force also uses 900-MHz frequencies.)

There was no public response. But about a month later - and within hours of his May 19 confirmation as communications minister - Reiman approved a coveted mobile phone license for a brand-new player on the Moscow market, Sonic Duo.

Sonic Duo was 65 percent owned by Svyazinvest-subsidiary Tsentralny Telegraf, with the lion's share of the rest belonging to Finnish telecoms giant Sonera. The company received its license without an auction - in an exchange that amounted to one former PTS executive handing a license worth millions of dollars to another.

Analysts immediately pointed out that no frequencies in the 900-MHz range remained for building Sonic Duo's network. There were rumors that mighty Sonera had struck a deal with the military, but by mid-summer it had become clear that no space had been found.

In August, Vimpelcom and MTS officials met with officials at Glav svyaznadzor, the Communications Ministry arm that deals with frequencies. The mobile phone operators were told to make room for Sonic Duo. They refused.

On Sept. 5, a laconic letter was sent to both companies signed by the deputy head of the Glavsvyaznadzor, Vladimir Alexandrov. Referring to Kvashnin's April appeal, the letter ordered the operators to surrender, by year's end, some 52 frequencies that had been allocated to them by Glavsvyaznadzor.

The ministry at first argued that the air force needed the frequencies. But two days earlier, on Sept. 3, General Kvashnin had already distanced himself from the matter. In another letter to Reiman, Kvashnin wrote that the distribution of frequencies to civilian operators was up to the Communications Ministry. He also wrote that his April 17 letter had not been meant as a request that the allocations be annulled.

So the buck stopped with the Communications Ministry, which soon admitted it was acting for Sonic Duo.

Vimpelcom's chief, Dmitry Zimin, responded to the Sept. 5 letter by stating that it would mean the annihilation of the BeeLine GSM network. Vimpelcom's Wall Street-traded stock fell steeply, and within a day after the letter was released the company was worth some $400 million less.

MTS, however, was in less trouble: It was using the disputed frequencies only to develop a system allowing mobile phone use on the metro. MTS briefly complained, then sat back to watch its major competitor, Vimpelcom, sweat.

Vimpelcom did not just sweat; it shrieked. Soon market analysts and the media were speaking of "expropriation." Reiman returned from a vacation in mid-September to announce the letter was null and had been dispatched without his authority - although Reiman had been in Moscow on Sept. 15.

MTS was notified in writing of this new ministry position Sept. 14. Vimpelcom was notified Sept. 16. At this point Boris Nemtsov, head of the Union of Right Forces Duma faction, joined the fray in defense of Vimpelcom. He appealed to President Putin to "personally sort out this disgraceful situation." The Norwegian ambassador also got involved - Norway's Telenor is a major Vimpelcom shareholder. The ambassador asked Russian officials, "Have you forgotten that Telenor is a major investor here?"

Even Anti-Monopoly Minister Ilya Yuzhanov, another St. Petersburg resident brought to Moscow by Putin, spoke out, saying the Communications Ministry had exceeded its authority.

On Sept. 18, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov stepped in, promising a rapid final decision. Later he set a deadline for a decision of Oct. 6.

Vimpelcom's enemies began to mobilize. They returned to the events of 1998, when Vimpelcom received an addition to its operating license that permitted work to begin on its GSM-900 network. On Sept. 20, a group of Duma deputies wrote to the Cabinet that Vimpelcom had received that 1998 license on the basis of a one-person decision by Nemtsov, then a deputy prime minister, "contrary to the legally established procedure."

Throughout, the general director of Sonic Duo, Alexander Esikov, has held a winning hand. His company has had nothing to do with the exchange. It simply obtained a license and is now waiting for the promised frequencies to be allocated. 

But time is passing, and according to a company plan released this summer the network is due to be up and running in a few months.

"At present we have no further plans regarding the launching of our network. There is no need to notify the market at present," Esikov said Tuesday.

But negotiations continue between Vimpelcom, MTS and the Communications Ministry, and Vimpelcom's Zimin suggests the ministry is continuing to take a hard line toward his company.

Reiman finally wrote Kasyanov a letter on Monday standing down. However not only was Vimpelcom unaware of Reiman's letter to Kasyanov, but Zimin said Glavsvyaznadzor was demonstratively delaying the go-ahead for a cellular network in Tver that has already been built.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Russian Meat Imports


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Meat Union said Wednesday that Russia might import up to 30,000 tons of pork meat sausage ingredients per month until the end of the year, and was looking to the United States as a likely supplier.

The Agriculture Ministry was unable to confirm or deny the existence of a significant pork meat deficit.

"We expect no supplies of domestic meat, and we need at least 30,000 tons of pork per month," said Viktor Yatskin, the chairman of the union's information committee. "We need pork for sausage products, mainly trimmings. Current prices ... make U.S. pork competitive, even taking into account shipping costs."

Russia used to import large quantities of pork from the European Union. But in August the EU removed all its pork export subsidies owing to a fall in output, which resulted in higher European pork prices. 



Duma to Petersburg?


MOSCOW (SPT) - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has told his ministers to examine a plan to build a $2 billion complex in St. Petersburg to host both houses of parliament and offices of the new Russia-Belarus Union, Kasyanov's spokeswoman said Tuesday. 

Also Tuesday, the Kommersant daily reported that the project is backed by President Vladimir Putin and Kasyanov, who gave Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref until Christmas to complete a feasibility study. 

The proposal was put forward earlier this year by Pavel Borodin, the state secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union and former supervisor of the Kremlin's multibillion-dollar property empire. Borodin sent a draft decree approving the complex's construction to Putin for his approval in August. 



Yugoslav Deals Eyed


MOSCOW (SPT) - Russian companies can expect lucrative contracts to help rebuild war-ravaged Yugoslavia, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Tuesday. 

Gref said that the Russian government has worked out a cooperation program with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's government, and has established a state commission on the issue. 

Last week's peaceful change of leadership in Belgrade has already resulted in a number of European Union economic sanctions being lifted, and the EU has offered $2 billion in aid to help rebuild the county. Monday's repeal of the export embargo on oil and oil products to Yugoslavia could mean a competitive advantage for Russia over other countries. 

Russian oil companies reacted to the lifting of sanctions with optimism. "A new market is opening, which is of great interest," said LUKoil press secretary Dmitry Dolgov. 



EU 'Hurt' Russia


HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's accession to the EU in 1995 hurt Russian firms, and this must be avoided when the Baltic states join the bloc, privatization architect Anatoly Chubais was quoted as saying Tuesday. 

Chubais, chief executive of Unified Energy Systems, told the Finnish business daily Kauppalehti that Russian businesses had been harmed by Finland's EU membership as the tariffs on Russian exports to Finland had been raised. 

The case of Finland was an example of what happened when the special needs of Russia were not taken into consideration, said Chubais, adding Russia should not lose out as the EU develops.

TITLE: City Develops New Tax-Friendly Zones
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Temkin
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly has adopted laws creating two new economic development zones in the city, freeing companies in those areas from paying some local taxes.


One of the zones is Tsarskoselskaya, which covers the Pushkin and Pavlovsk suburbs of St. Petersburg. Businesses here will be required over the next several years to pay just 40 percent of all local taxes.

The other zone, however, dubbed Izhor, is taken up entirely by the properties of one factory - the famous tank-and-pipe manufacturer Izhorskiye Works, which is owned by the Uralmash-Izho ra holding.

The Izhora economic development zone frees the factory from paying some property taxes, land taxes and transport taxes through 2010.

Alexander Ivanov, director of the Izhorskiye Works center for restructuring, said the big prize for the factory would be a 30 percent reduction in the overall property tax burden. Ivanov estimated that this alone would let the factory save 70 million rubles ($2.5 million) a year.

The logic behind the Tsarskoselskaya zone seems clear. Sergei Odokienko, chairman of the City Economics Committee, said it was the logical continuation and expansion of a previous economic development zone called Pushkinskaya that lapsed in May 2000.

"Companies that were residents of the Pushkinskaya zone increased their payments into the [municipal] budget by 1 1/2 times," said Odokienko.

If the Pushkinskaya zone covered just the Pushkin suburb, Tsarskoselskaya will expand the tax breaks into Pavlovsk as well.

"Pushkin and Pavlovsk aren't making full use of their tourism potential," said Odokienko.

"Freeing companies involved in creating tourism infrastructure from 40 percent of all local taxes will help create conditions for investment."

St. Petersburg now has three economic development zones: Gavan, Polustrovo and Kronstadtskaya.

The Gavan zone is taken up by the Lenexpo exhibition complex and Lenexpo's daughter companies. These companies only have to pay 50 percent of their property, profit and land taxes through 2006.

The Polustrovo zone is home to the Polustrovo company, which is building a residential housing complex there in cooperation with Stroi telny Trest.

The zone offers complete freedom from profit and property taxes.

The Kronstadtskaya zone, on the small island of Kronstadt, is mostly home to small companies that have only been asked to pay 40 percent of profit and property taxes.

In order to take good advantage of the new tax breaks, companies must register themselves as residents of the economic development zones. Doing so involves submitting to City Hall a full business plan describing the company's activities.

Ivan Oskolkov, an analyst with the consulting company Labrium, said some companies previously registered elsewhere but located in Pavlovsk and Pushkin would do well to reregister themselves to take advantage of the quotas. This has now begun setting off disputes between different city regions for their tax revenues.

Other tourism-dependent suburbs of St. Petersburg, such as Lomonosov and Kurorotny, will start lobbying for economic development zones of their own.

TITLE: The Insoluble Dilemma of Separating Siamese Twins
AUTHOR: By Rory Carroll
TEXT: MONTHS before the dilemma rippled from a British labor ward into the world's conscience, the sun-baked village of Xaghra started its own journey toward the awesome decision about Mary and Jodie.


A young woman's pregnancy had turned disastrous, and in March she fled with her husband for specialized care in Manchester, England. In the rural community of Xaghra on the Maltese island of Gozo, a speck in the Mediterranean Sea, secrets don't last long. Everyone knew that the smiling shop assistant was expecting conjoined twin girls. As the birth drew nearer, prayers were murmured daily in the Romanesque church that dominates the village square. God willing, mother and daughters would survive.

Whatever happened would be a manifestation of God's will, for this is a population 95 percent practising Roman Catholic, where grottoes of the Virgin Mary adorn street corners, Mass starts before dawn and abortion and divorce are illegal.

Twins Jodie and Mary arrived in June, joined at the front like a cylinder, tiny and alive, but harbingers of a tormenting, unexpected choice. Mary, the weaker twin, had no viable biological existence because she lacked a heart and lungs. Daily, she drained Jodie and impelled her toward death. Without intervention, both would die. 

Doctors wanted to separate the sisters to save Jodie. The parents, devout Catholics supported by the Vatican, were opposed because Mary would not survive. Up through Britain's courts the arguments surged, convulsing law lords, ethicists and philosophers in a harrowing debate. 

Sleepy Xaghra, 1,900 kilometers away, has no oak-paneled courtrooms, just cacti, sea breeze and sun-baked fields. Before the birth, it had decided that this was a matter to be left in the hands of God. It never expected mankind to have a say.

The parents, who cannot be named under British media law, had the right to enlist the House of Lords to appeal a Sept. 22 Court of Appeal decision to separate the girls. A few days later, they decided they would not.

Although the villagers' opinion had no effect on the outcome, the legal battle forced them to reconsider - to choose.

Gathered on a shaded cafe terrace in front of the church, a group of men lapsed into silence. A raging debate had blown itself out. Would Mary's death from separation be an unintended effect, and thus acceptable, or euthanasia, effectively murder? Certainty evaporated in the dusk.

The twins' parents argued that if Jodie lived she would be severely disabled and stigmatized by the superstitious as she hobbled through the hot, dusty lanes. Nonsense, said the gathering. Such attitudes died out years ago; but if it would help the couple win in court, then it was a valid ploy.

Suffusing discussion were the priests' sermons: All human life, no matter how damaged, is sacred. It cannot be taken, whatever good might come of it. Mary's and Jodie's souls will be received into the kingdom of heaven. A great and good pattern is at work, and it is invisible to man.

This was the refrain of the petrol pump attendant, the mechanic, the farmer's wife, the retired taxi driver. Mary is a human being, not a parasitic growth. God's will should not be set aside.

Some villagers work in Gozo's few hotels and restaurants, but most are laborers and peasants. The island has been Christian since St. Paul was shipwrecked there almost 2,000 years ago. Identity was forged in resistance to Ottoman Turks - a mentality of medieval fatalism to make moderns recoil.

I arrived free of angst. The case seemed morally straightforward. Mary would die anyway, so the imperative to save human life obliged us to separate Jodie. Tragic, but not complicated.

Some villagers felt the same, but plenty didn't, and it became clear why. For them, Mary was no abstraction. She was as special and loved as Jodie. To condemn her merely because she was weak might be utilitarian and rational, but it was not right. As the father told the court: "We cannot begin to contemplate that one of our children should die to enable the other to survive."

And what right do courts have to interfere? There is no crime, just a heartbreaking choice best made by loving parents. As sincere and learned they might be, judges have no authority to sentence anyone to death.

This, rather than the heaven that awaits the innocent, powered the villagers' conviction. Simple-minded folk beholden to mumbo jumbo, they are not. With philosophical force they argued that leaving Mary and Jodie to die together would not be an abrogation of responsibility to God, but an upholding of human life.

The twins' fate now is left to doctors who said late last month that they had no immediate plans to operate. Leaving Xaghra, my view is unchanged. I still think the girls should be separated. But a queasiness has set in. The surgeon's knife risks slicing the fabric of our humanity. It feels wrong, but it's right, isn't it?


Rory Carroll is Southern Europe correspondent, based in Rome, for The Guardian, a British national newspaper. This comment first appeared in Newsday.

TITLE: What Other Papers Are Saying
TEXT: A relaxed and coherent Boris Yeltsin presented the world with his third book, "The Presidential Marathon," but one of his memoirs' major characters, the president's own anointed successor, beat a path to St. Petersburg during the book's presentation to celebrate his birthday in the northern capital. Meanwhile, Zhores Alfyorov snatched the Nobel Prize for his work in semiconductors after a 20-year wait. 




Final Confession


As to that book that Yeltsin wrote, the ex-president proved he was not quite through with politics when last Saturday he gathered his family - as well as his "family" - to show off the book that purports to tell what the president was really up to.


It would seem the book was not just an almanac of his nine years in power, but a bean-spiller about his relations with both his genetic and his Kremlin families, Izvestiya reports. 

On the down side, said the paper, the event was more a farewell to the Yeltsin epoch than the heralding of a new era. 



New Beginnings


Vedomosti takes the view that the appearance of the farewell memoir was the start of a second wind for the president's "marathon" - the beginning of a new phase in Yeltsin's life cycle.


Had he not written the book, suggests the paper, Yeltsin would have risked living like a common Russian pensioner, in the style, say, of former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who is forced to do the talk-show circuit, offering up bits of wisdom and watching his title as the "father of the Russian nation" evaporate.

But Yeltsin played it smart, says the paper. He provided history with a pre-pre-emptive strike against any myths that may emerge ahead. His book, according to the paper, presents the typical Yeltsin, full of wisdom and homilies, gifted with an acute mind, and loaded with political gamesmanship.

Unlike his past two books, his present work, says the paper, serves as an indisputable encyclopedia for young politicians and has raised him to the honorable status of Russia's political grandfather. 

The paper says there is a lesson in all of this for Putin and that he should add the book to his required reading. For starters, it tells him how his old buddy Anatoly Chubais had been at the forefront of blocking his rise to power. 


The Nobel Duma


Meanwhile, one of St. Petersburg's long-neglected scientists has finally walked off with a Nobel prize after a two-decade hiatus, says Peterburgsky Chas Pik. 


Physicist Zhores Alfyorov of the St. Petersburg Physics and Technology Institute suddenly became the nation's pride as he won the Nobel Prize for Physics, sharing it with two American beanheads. 

But for Russia and Alfyorov himself, the prize is especially significant given the fact that he despaired for 20 years on the Nobel Prize waiting list, the paper quoted his wife Tamara as saying. 

Even the last Nobel Prize for Peace won by President Gorbachev in 1990 was largely symbolic, the paper claims. 

Portraying Russia's good record of producing Nobel Prize winners, the paper publishes 21 Russian laureates, including dozens of natural scientists from 1904 to date. 

Nevertheless, the coming of Alfyorov, who is also a Communist lawmaker, into the Nobel arena, is considered an embarrassment to the government because the Communists got publicity and the Kremlin was shown up for its miserable funding of the sciences, says Komsomolskaya Pravda. 

Three days after winning the prize, Alfyorov excoriated the Duma for its budget for the sciences and the Communist Duma faction demanded revisions to improve funding for science and social programs.

TITLE: Only a Bold Move Will Bring Peace to MidEast
TEXT: IF there is anything that the violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians underscore, it is how much they have to lose if they don't reach a peace agreement. The sides have come closer than ever to a peace deal, but their accomplishment is being lost in the heat of street battles. 


President Clinton, who has guided the peace process, spoke to Middle Eastern leaders over the past few days in an effort to stop the killing. He should be prepared, however, to go to the Middle East and meet face to face with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Barak's office said the prime minister was prepared to extend his deadline for finding an agreement. The immediate task is to stop the violence before it spreads throughout the region. Already, fighting has spilled out of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Arab leaders in Jordan, Egypt and even Kuwait are under increasing pressure from demonstrators at home angry over mounting Palestinian casualties. The bloodshed, as one Middle East analyst cautioned, is turning from an Israeli-Palestinian conflict into an Arab-Israeli one. 

Palestinians blame Ariel Sharon, right-wing leader of the Likud Party and no friend of peace, for touching off the unrest with a provocative visit to Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. They also blame Barak for using excessive force against the angry Palestinian response. Israelis in turn claim that Arafat may even have orchestrated the violence to gain international sympathy for his negotiating position. Both sides may be right, but finger-pointing and recrimination will not help defuse the crisis. 

Despite the mounting tension, few anticipate an all-out war. Still, the spirit of compromise in which the peace negotiations have taken place is shifting as confidence in the leadership on both sides dissipates. Arab and Israeli extremists are wasting no time exploiting the crisis. 

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov flew to the region to help stem the violence. Visits like this are useful, if only to open new diplomatic avenues and underscore the strategic importance of peace in the Middle East.

But it is ultimately the United States that has played, and will continue to play, a pivotal role in the Middle East negotiations. 

The risks of failure are high. But the stakes are higher. 

Clinton was right in mounting a "full diplomatic press" in recent days to try to end the clashes. If that fails, he should stand ready to fly to the Middle East for a summit. Clearly, this is the time for a bold move. 



This comment appeared as an editorial in the Los Angeles Times

TITLE: Just How Will Putin React to Ratings Slip?
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Albats
TEXT: IN a recent interview with the U.S. television news analysis program "60 Minutes," former president Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly criticized his heir and godson, current President Vladimir Putin, taking him to task for not being decisive enough. That criticism somewhat contradicts the overwhelming praise Yeltsin lavishes on his successor in his recently released book, "Midnight Diaries," but it once again reveals the guts that made Yeltsin Yeltsin.


Two major Russian pollsters confirm Yeltsin's point: Putin's rating - though still high - has shown a clear tendency toward decline over a two-month period, by a factor of six to nine points.

A comparative study of electoral expectations by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion, or VTsIOM, is even more worrisome. Except for a couple of parameters (including the economy's good performance), Putin has failed to fulfill the nation's expectations. According to VTsIOM research conducted in March, many of those who voted for Putin expected him to continue the country's development toward democracy, but in September, one-fifth of them said they felt that matters are taking a different turn. To the dissatisfaction of some 30 percent of those surveyed, they see the behavior of today's Kremlin as the preservation of the old Yeltsin-era state of affairs at best. To the surprise of pollsters, four times as many people (from 1 percent in March to 4 percent in mid-September) believe that Putin's Russia is moving toward anarchy.

But the biggest and most unexpected blow for those answering the recent questionnaire is "the atmosphere of fear, tension and suspicion" that has reappeared in this country over the last five months. As many as 44 percent of Russians surveyed sense that unpleasant atmosphere in their real lives, whereas only 24 percent said they had expected it.

As for dashed expectations regarding the lack of improvement in the situation in Chechnya, the poll reveals people's weariness with the war that once catapulted Putin to the top of the charts. It would be interesting to determine if those who now feel somewhat betrayed because their living standards have not been enhanced understand that the decline in their poor standard of living (a matter acknowledged by 17 percent) is closely connected to the war in Chechnya - which they applauded a year ago.

So what conclusions can we draw from these statistics? The first conclusion - and a positive one at that - is that the nation can make realistic judgments, despite mounting propaganda by government media. In fact, another study highlights that the effect of opposition media - NTV television in particular - has been quite small. People are learning to draw conclusions on their own. They see what Yeltsin acknowledged: that Putin hesitates to make decisions that might endanger his relationship with groups of hardliners - the military, in particular.

But negative conclusions are also evident. If Putin made miniscule moves toward reforms when his rating was sky-high, he is unlikely to undertake them if his rating is beginning to slide. The worst that may happen is that his advisers will suggest the president undertake certain populist measures, such as looking for another internal enemy.

However, if Putin chooses the middle ground, we can expect boring, gray politics - and the country's steady decline until the next presidential elections.



Yevgenia Albats is an independent journalist based in Moscow.

TITLE: slavic pork and russian blues
AUTHOR: by Simon Patterson
TEXT: On entering the Fort Ross "Bar Restaurant," one would scarcely suspect that it used to be a Soviet cafe, but according to my dining companion and colleague, not very long ago stodgy pelmeni and lukewarm broth were being served in this very spot. 


The saloon-style decor, with mezzanine floor, and pleasant wooden furniture, are perhaps not the most subtle in the world, but a perfectly pleasant atmosphere to enjoy a meal and escape the office on a very busy day when there are far more important things to do. Don't look up at the ceiling, though - it completely ruins the saloon atmosphere, belonging more in an '80s hair salon.

Just off Nevsky Prospect, the seedy-looking courtyard where Fort Ross is situated is still pleasantly secluded from the milling hordes of people and traffic, and also apparently home to the one of the best watch repairing shop in the city.

The menu reveals a massive selection of alcohol, but somewhere in there we found some food, and sat down to enjoy the mushroom and chicken salad (50 rubles) and the stuffed tomatoes (65 rubles). As far as alcohol was concerned, we opted for the Saperavi Georgian red wine (35 rubles per "50 grams," which ends up costing quite a lot when measured in such quantities), which as far as we could tell really was Georgian, and not some local imitation. Other items on the menu sounded very interesting - especially the sandwich with "calf," which turned out to be nothing more than a very creative translation of ikra, or caviar, and the "teemed beer," which was simply beer on tap.

I had the sturgeon solyanka (50 rubles), magnificent, filling and rich, while my colleague had the Petrovskaya Pokhlyobka (65 rubles), an original sort of puree of meat and vegetables.

After all this we thought with horror about the main course that awaited us. Fortunately, my Fort Ross steak (120 rubles), a lean, tender cut in an unspecified "sauce" which tasted more like mashed potatoes than anything else, was perhaps the least filling of the dishes I ate. The svinina po-slavyanski, or "Slavic pork" as the menu has it (90 rubles), was too much for my colleague, but he pronounced the sauce, made of tomatoes, raisins, plums and onion, a great success, despite the fact that the name "Slavic pork" is something of an incongruity.

Apparently, live music can be heard here on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with the group "Hoodoo Voodoo" promised on the day we went. At lunch time, however, one is provided with the likes of Ms. Spears on MTV and Vaya Con Dios on the CD player.

My colleague said on the occasion he had visited in the evening, Russified blues had been the order of the day, so if this is your sort of thing, you'd best visit after 8 p.m. 

We finished the meal with coffee (25 rubles) which, unlike everything else we had had, was pretty mediocre. There's a sizable dessert menu here too, but this was out of the question after the feast we had just experienced.

While most visitors may prefer just to come here for a few "teemed beers" and live music, it still makes a great place for a meal - so perhaps the designation "Fort Ross Bar Restaurant," while cumbersome, is in fact quite appropriate.



Fort Ross, 23 Nevsky Prospect, Tel: 314-81-01. Open daily. Big lunch for two with wine, 918 rubles ($33) Major credit cards accepted.

TITLE: students first to stage berlioz's masterpiece in petersburg
AUTHOR: by Giulara Sadykh-zade
TEXT: The Conservatory Opera Studio, long striving to separate itself from its alma mater, has with its staging of Berlioz's Les Troyens clearly declared its right to an indepedent existence. This ambitious cultural project - the most grandiose and expensive in the history of the former theater school, now the Rimsky-Korsakov State Ballet and Opera Theater - has clearly been undertaken to demonstrate the theater's creative independence. No opera could be better chosen to do this than Hector Berlioz's two-part epic.


It is indeed strange that Les Troyens has until now never found a place in the large repertoires Russian opera theaters.

The opera itself is full of superlative, typically French musical intonation: dramatic, erotic, exciting, and drunken with full-blooded lyric feeling. True, alongside this there are several less expressive passages in the score, at times reducing the furious incandescence of seething passions to the level of banality.

However, the weaker musical episodes fly by, imperceptibly making up a unified form, the "lining" of the opera. The splendid patterns allow the melodic arias, the tense ensemble and the zealous chorus to bloom.

Three years ago, Valery Gergiev went to see director Andrei Koncha lov sky with the idea of staging Les Tro yens. However, in the process of negotiations, Les Troyens somehow became Pro ko fi ev's War and Peace, and in the long term it fell to the Opera Studio to familiarize audiences with Berlioz's five-hour score.

The score of Les Troyens, intended to be performed over two evenings, is made up of three and a half hours of pure music, putting Sergei Stadler, the musical director of the production, to the test.

All recitatives which slow down the action have disappeared from the opera, along with the inserted ballet pieces. The opera is performed in the language of the original, although the Opera Studio is yet to equip itself with a display board for simultaneous translation. 

The text of the opera, written by Berlioz himself, is based on Virgil's Aeneid. The first part - "The Taking of Troy" - recounts the perfidy of the Greeks presenting the Trojan horse as a gift to the city. The second half tells the sad story of the fruitless love between Dido and Aeneas, ending with their separation and the death of the Queen of Carthage. Full of gloomy prophecy and terrible omens - not for nothing does the main character in the opera become the prophetess Cassandra - Les Troyens, with its dense atmosphere, full of war, blood, love and death, should make for truly impressive listening.

At the Opera Studio, Les Troyens still impresses, despite the more than doubtful quality of the orchestra's playing and the debatable merits of the soloists, of whom only Lyudmila Vorobyeva (Dido) could be called good without any reservations. Her soft mezzo and general musicality had a beneficial influence after the unsynchronized performance of the orchestra, the out-of-tune chorus and the general sensation of an intonational lack of well-being.

Viktor Kramer, fashionable in theatrical circles and director of the 'Farce Theater' may be a good director when working in the lighter genres of bouffe and vaudeville and in the smaller productions of dramatic theater, but thrown into the cosmic depths of a Berlioz score and faced with the interpretation of ancient myths, Kramer is simply lost. Not knowing how to enliven the stage performance of a choral mass or how to work with both musical and visual media, he has taken the line of least resistance: placing everybody on the stage and having them mimicking the actions of the lead singers. In other respects, the production may be considered a simple concert performance in costume.

In sum, the first production of 'Les Troyens' in Russia is undoubtedly a serious cultural step, which has long being necessary. However, is it worth discrediting Berlioz's opera with an untidy performance and a fecklessly superficial set of directorial decisions? Does not such a production deprecate the idea, good in itself, of addressing such a little-known yet artistically significant score? This is a question to which there is no simple answer.

TITLE: voronina saves skewed take on 'gabler'
AUTHOR: by Tom Masters
TEXT: In Maria Voronina, Yury Tomoshevsky has found an actress capable of the enormous range needed to bring the eponymous heroine of "Hedda Gabler" to life, a true achievement by any measure. However, the director's approach to Ibsen's problematic tragicomedy, and the rather lack-lustre production substantially detract from this brilliant success.


Tomoshevsky has drawn together actors from many different St. Petersburg companies, and the results are highly impressive. Voronina is simply superb, effortlessly portraying Hedda's meanness, neurosis and self-obsession, slowly descending into self-destructing hatred. Her long silver fingernails, thin hair and lounge lizard physique make her initially terribly vicious and in the final act, transparently vulnerable.

Two further performances really stand out; Dmitri Isaev's Tesman is played with great comedy and is amusingly childish and uncouth, whilst the Kommisarzhevsky's Stanislav Landgraf delivers a sublimely calculating, lascivious Judge Brakk, subtlely trapping Hedda into dependence. Tomashevsky himself takes on the role of Eilert Lovborg and succeeds in playing an alcoholic genius with quiet ease, while Olga Zarubina's Tea Elvsted is a perfect foil to Hedda, weak-minded and somewhat hysterical. The tight cast manage to maintain Ibsen's pitch very successfully, alternately very funny and tragic.

Given such impressive performances, it is both surprising and a great pity that the other aspects of the production are so thoroughly unremarkable. Vladimir Gorbenko's plink-plonk piano accompaniment to events is at best distracting, at worst highly annoying and inappropriate. The set design falls somewhere between minimal and cheap, McDonald's furniture seemingly the choice of the nineteenth century Norwegian bourgeoisie.

However, having the entire cast corseted and suited except Hedda, who resembles a 1920s night-club refugee, means the costumes are at least a success in thematic terms. But the overall impression created is that of curious inconsistency.

Furthermore, quibbles with the director's interpretation of the play are plentiful. Hedda's significant burning of Lov borg's manuscript, a symbolic infanticide, is entirely lost as she flings it casually onto the fire. Her fear of love and sex comes across badly as do her latent passion for Lovborg. Indeed it seems that To moshevsky focuses so sharply on Hedda's unpleasantness that he misses its underlying factors. This sorry state of affairs reaches a climax in the final act when perhaps taking the phrase tragicomedy a little too literally, Hedda's suicide is played for laughs. In any terms, the inappropriateness of the last scene is a travesty, but despite these significant criticisms the bare bones of the tragedy are here.

Voronina excels towards the climax as the broken, jealous wife, drunk with hatred and boredom. Tomoshevsky's lack of wider perspective on the play can thankfully do little to dent the impact of a top-notch cast and a breath-taking star.

TITLE: 'africa' unveils new culture magazine
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
TEXT: A new city magazine drew a lot of attention, along with its share of criticism, when it appeared last week, but its editor called the publication "secondary." Called Aktivist, the hectic, art-flavored publication is a printed version of a bigger project - the Internet portal www.aktivist.ru, which covers the city's cultural events, clubs and restaurants. 


In the mold of Sobaka Ru, another city magazine launched earlier this year by local artist Anatoly Belkin, Aktivist's editor is artist Sergei "Africa" Bugayev, who is also the star of the groundbreaking perestroika film "ASSA," a DJ, musician and an assistant to a State Duma deputy. He is also one of the city's best-known scenesters, who can be spotted at almost every remotely deserving local event.

Aktivist.Ru is a local branch of the Helsinki-based Web organization Aktivist, which also has branches in Tallinn and Warsaw. Also planned are branches in Moscow, Kiev and Berlin. According to Bugayev, the future developments of Aktivist's local project include using WAP and SMS technologies.

The magazine with a circulation of 25,000 copies is distributed free, but the regularity of its appearance is not stated in the publication. Bugayev said it would appear monthly, but admitted that initial delays were possible.

"Our readers represent most of this country's population - people who can't afford to buy an expensive magazine like Itogi," said Bugayev. "We hope there's a public which not only looks at pictures but occasionally reads magazines."

However, the content is uneven; thus, a fine review of the Hermitage exhibitions by art critic Arkady Ippolitov appears close to a nonsensical article about the alleged mystical meaning of Peter and Paul's Fortress by Sergei de Rocambol.

"I don't want to discuss the idea that there is a style and orientation, a target group and so on in this country," said Bugayev. "I think that to speak about a middle class [in Russia] is premature."

"My partners pressed me very heavily to include as many as possible restaurants and all kinds of eateries," said Bugayev. "But honestly speaking, not everybody whom we mix with and orientate our magazine to can afford to go to restaurants."

According to Bugayev, the magazine is instrumental in realizing art projects such as one by Spencer Tunick, the U.S. artist who makes impressive art photos of masses of nude people amidst industrial landscapes in various cities of the world. Tunick approached Aktivist himself, and the magazine published some of his works and placed an invitation to those willing to take part in a similar event he plans to organize in St. Petersburg next summer.

"The project is interesting to us because of its interactivity," said Bugayev. "His exhibitions and especially the process of shooting creates various situations - he spoiled his relationship with the New York mayor because of it. It's interesting to test the free will in a society."

"Our profile is not only to describe cultural events but try to create them, inspire them and take part in them," said Bugayev.

TITLE: director promises to shock with strauss opera
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: "This is perhaps the most tasteless piece ever written, and I would be quite happy if some of the audience was sick." This was how director David Freeman greeted the Mariinsky Theater cast at a rehearsal of Richard Strauss's Salome, scheduled to premiere on Nov. 3.


The director, naturally, wasn't completely serious, but he says that he would like the audience to feel that they are being taken into a dark, twisted world. "It is a piece which should speak to us unconsciously, making us wonder what the personality is," Freeman said.

The forthcoming staging will replace the Mariinsky's 1995 version of Salome, a joint effort of New York producer Julie Tay mor and stage designer Geor gy Tsy pin, to become the theater's third interpretation of the Strauss opera. Rehearsing for the main roles are Konstantin Pluzh nikov (Herod), Makvala Kas ra shvi li (Herodias), Edem Umerov (John the Baptist) and Mlada Khudolei (Salome).

Salome sets to music the 1893 play by Oscar Wilde, based on the biblical story. King Herod asks Salome, his beautiful daughter-in-law, to dance. She agrees, but only when Herod promises that in reward she will be granted anything she desires. After the Dance of the Seven Veils is over, Salome demands the head of John the Baptist, having been told to do so by Herodias.

Freeman is an internationally famed British director, with both opera and drama experience under his belt, and not new to the company. His first production with the Mariinsky was nine years ago when he triumphantly directed Sergei Pro ko fi ev's Fiery Angel.

Now preparing his interpretation of Salome - which he believes is Richard Strauss' most extraordinary work - the director feels very much on the same territory. "There is a similarly alarming world [in Salome]. The music creates a world which is unbalanced, there is, oddly enough, an extraordinary image from the Fiery Angel, which is 'my soul feels as though it is being filled with black smoke.' In a way, that is what [Strauss's] music tells you about Salome."

During the rehearsals of the Fiery Angel, Freeman initially felt like the cast had never come across anything similar to what he was doing with them. Now, many of them have seen the production and come to rehearsals better prepared and knowing what to expect.

"If something is extraordinary all the time, then the extraordinary becomes ordinary." says Freeman, adding that he is working hard to try to find some sort of normality in a story which Oscar Wilde once called "the portrayal of unnatural passion."

Freeman's perception of Salome herself is not that of a monster. Rather, it finds an echo with "the 11-year-old boys that occasionally walk into a high school in America and shoot their teacher and classmates."

"They remain 11-year old boys and in a way what has happened is that they do not have enough imagination to realize the effect they're having on other people. Life is all like one big video game."

But the central character is Herod, rather than his daughter-in-law.

'You are not king for 43 years just through being a sort of sexual pervert, you actually have to administrate and do a good job, so I believe he is a very capable man in a very difficult situation," Freeman said. 

"It is also the time of Tiberius and Caligula. Herod based his court on that of Caligula, and it was definitely not a court where if someone had taken off their clothes people would have been terribly shocked. Men would pay quite a lot for a good striptease, but they wouldn't offer half a kingdom. The striptease itself is not the reason why everybody gets so upset."

For Freeman, it has to do with going into a sexual trance, a shamanistic state, when a person become transformed into someone else.

As director of this production, Freeman sees his task as getting the cast to examine the darker places of the human mind, that which people do not really understand. "It is quite scary," he admits, "as most of the time we are trying to be rational, compassionate human beings, and I am asking them to go somewhere which is very irrational, dark and quite disturbing."

King Herod, in this production, is to be shown as a powerful person who finds himself trapped.

Freeman doesn't take King Herod's readiness to sacrifice half a kingdom for Salome's dance seriously. "When Herod says 'you can have anything you want', I think he means 'anything you want that I want to give you'," Freeman said. "Because of the very public situation, he realizes he would lose face ... and for reasons which he possibly doesn't even understand himself, finally he gives the order to kill John the Baptist."

It is likely that Salome will not be Freeman's last cooperation with the Mariinsky, as he said that further projects are being discussed with Valery Gergiev, who will conduct the premiere performances of the new production. However, the director did not disclose any titles.

"But any more symbolist decadence is unlikely - two operas are enough, at least for now," Freeman said.

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Zoopark, the strange venue in the local zoo, which used a recent rock concert to collect money to buy food for a porcupine so that the poor caged creature could feel full for the next 12 months, is staging the English Day - a party where live acts will sing exclusively in English. Alexei Gelter, aka Winer, of the cult band Wine is rumored to be performing, among others. The idea to persuade the public to speak in English seems utopian, though. Zoopark, 7 p.m., Sat., Oct. 14.

Griboyedov, probably the city's best art club, which mixes live acts with DJs, occasional video art shows and alternative poetry readings, will celebrate its fourth anniversary next week. The band Dva Samaliota, which operates the place, hopes to meet the next anniversary in expanded form - with a bright blue sphere over the bomb shelter where the club is now located. Images of the future by designer Mikhail Barkhin can be seen today in Aktivist magazine, which was launched last week. (See page 11) Griboyedov, 10 p.m., Wed., Oct. 18.

Visiting Western artists include Bryan Adams, whose world tour "The Best of Me" will hit the city later this month. The Canadian heartthrob will play at the Ice Palace, the huge and ugly stadium which our governor is so proud of. Smoking inside is banned, drinking beer at the arena is banned as well, but there are plenty of toilets. The sound is usually awful, artists on the lifted stage are hardly visible and the custom of putting carpet and chairs on the artificial ice has already sent one local TV producer to bed, when he caught a cold at the Gary Moore concert. In the middle of summer! Ice Palace, Oct. 24.

A much better choice is to attend the JFC Jazz Club and listen to the Lenni-Kalle Taipale Trio, one of the leading mainstream jazz outfits in Finland. Formed in 1995, the band is led by pianist Lenni-Kalle Taipale, with bassist Timo Tuppurainen and drummer Sami Jarvinen. The next day the band will play an invitation-only concert at the Finnish Consulate. 


"To break walls between all kinds of music. There are no rules to make music. Just do what you feel!" classically-trained Taipale said in interview about his band which mixes latin-jazz, rock-jazz, groove and ambient. As critic Roger Tomas put it in Gramophone, "This is a lively, modern piano trio in the Jason Rebello/Jonathan Gee mould and the group's youthful excesses are entirely forgivable." JFC Jazz Club, 7 p.m., Thurs., Oct. 19


- by Sergey Chernov

TITLE: taiko drum performers get physical with music
AUTHOR: by Kiril Galetsky
TEXT: While Japanese influence in Russian culture may not be visible, interest in it certainly is, as almost any Japanese event in St. Petersburg, from musical performance to film festival, plays to sizable crowds.


The Za Ondekoza taiko drumming group appeared at the Gorky House of Culture to a near-capacity crowd on Wednesday evening - their tour here not only their first in Russia, but also the first time a taiko group has performed in the country. The St. Petersburg concert was the last in a European tour which took them to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Russia. The two previous shows were in Moscow and Novgorod.

Taiko drumming is a relatively modern Japanese music form that has been taking the Western music world by storm. While taiko drums in various forms have been used in Japan for over 1,400 years, and possibly much longer, taiko as it is known today has a relatively short history. In 1951, jazz musician Daihachi Oguchi created the kumi-daiko style. He is generally credited as being the first to popularize taiko. Coming from a jazz background, Oguchi wanted to see taiko drums played together, and revolutionized the form by assembling a taiko drum ensemble in the style of a jazz drumset.

Za Ondekoza was established by Tagayasu Den in 1969 on Sado Island in Japan. Recruiting young people looking to do something a little different, he created a new kind of taiko group in a commune totally dedicated to taiko drumming as a way of life. Constant physical training, including daily marathon running, and the communal living experience paid off in the form of mighty taiko performances that have awed the world. Through extensive touring, Za Ondekoza have brought taiko to a worldwide audience. The original members of Za Ondekoza went on to form Kodo in 1981 after splitting with Den, who started a new Za Ondekoza. Kodo has gone on to international fame, becoming perhaps the best know taiko group outside of Japan.

Like taiko itself, the group is deft mixture of Japanese tradition and Western progressive musical forms. Wednesday night's show was a mixture of intense rhythms and beautifully lit, poetic, almost theatrical scenes. Ondekoza do not take themselves too seriously, however, and there were moments of light comedy - such as when a toy train choo-chooed onto the stage during the sound of a wind instrument which resembled a train whistle, and the group did imaginary Benihana-style food preparation with cleaver-like metal drumsticks upon the wooden stands of their drums which resemble cutting boards.

The current line-up included other musicians besides drummers. Ondekoza's flautist Seizan Matsuda even played a Russian folk melody to the delight of the audience, who clapped with it every time it was reprised.

"I learned that melody while at school," remarked Matsuda, "I have always been interested in Russian music. My impressions of Russia and Russians are of very hot people in a very cold country. The people here have something hard, something harsh about them, but are really very friendly and respond to our shows very well."



For more information on Ondekoza and taiko drumming, visit members.aol.com/ ZaOnde ko za and/or www.taiko. com

TITLE: Huge 8th Inning Ties Series for Yankees
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - Just when it seemed the Yankees' latest dynasty was crumbling, New York's dormant offense awoke in time to tie the AL championship series at a game apiece.


Bernie Williams ended a record-tying, 21-inning scoreless streak with an RBI single that sparked a seven-run eighth inning, and New York rallied past the Seattle Mariners 7-1 Wednesday.

"Down 2-0 going into Seattle would've been devastating," Chuck Knoblauch said. "And right now, we're riding a high with the eighth inning."

Orlando Hernandez, pitching on his birthday, improved to 7-0 with a 1.22 ERA in postseason play, allowing six hits and striking out seven in eight innings on an afternoon of brilliant sunshine.

But as twilight turned to dusk, it seemed like the Yankees' hopes for a third straight World Series title were fading away.

New York was 12-for-58 (.207) against the Mariners in the first 19 innings of the series.

Then suddenly, New York stirred Yankee Stadium by going 8-for-8 to start the eighth inning, the crowd of 55,317 rocking the old ballpark with every hit. The eight hits were an ALCS record and the most in an inning for the Yankees since June 29 at Detroit.

Seattle's bullpen, which had pitched 15 scoreless innings in the postseason when Arthur Rhodes took the mound at the start of the inning, got blown apart, wasting six shutout innings by starter John Halama.

David Justice, visibly angered when umpires ruled he didn't check his swing on a 1-1 pitch, started the big inning with a double to left-center that hit less than a foot from the top of the wall.

At that point, the Yankees were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-13 in the series. The 21-inning scoreless streak had tied the team postseason record, set against the New York Giants in the 1921 and 1922 World Series.

Williams brought that to an end, slapping a single to center off Rhodes and Tino Martinez followed with a sinking liner to left that bounced off the glove of a diving Al Martin for a single that allowed Williams to take second.

Jorge Posada then hit a smash that rolled off the glove of a diving Mark McLemore in the hole between first and second, bounding into left field as Williams scored. It was the first time in 15 games since Sept. 23 at Detroit that four straight Yankees got hits.

Slumping Paul O'Neill, dropped to seventh in the batting order, followed with a sacrifice fly to left that made it 3-1, and that was it for Rhodes, who was replaced by Jose Mesa.

Luis Sojo singled to put runners on first and third, and Posada was thrown out at third, apparently as Jose Vizcaino missed a bunt sign. Vizcaino then doubled in Sojo, Knoblauch singled home Vizcaino, and Derek Jeter followed with a two-run homer into the right-field seats, just the second homer for the Yankees in their last 88 innings - a streak dating back to the regular season.

Halama, a born-and-bred New Yorker, had allowed just five hits. The Mariners, who won their first four games of the postseason, were six Yankee outs from taking a 2-0 series lead back to Safeco Field, where the series resumes Friday.

Seattle went ahead in the third when Mike Cameron walked with two outs, stole second and came home on Stan Javier's single.



Mets 6, Cardinals 2. This was the reason the New York Mets were so eager to get Mike Hampton.


Pitching every bit like an October ace, Hampton won for the first time in the postseason, leading the Mets past the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 Wednesday night in Game 1 of the NL championship series.

"I wanted to be a contributor instead of a liability," Hampton said. "I just wanted to do my part and help this team win. I didn't do that in the first series."

The Mets extended their postseason scoreless streak to a team-record 26 innings before allowing two unearned runs with two outs in the ninth.

Hampton kept the big guy - pinch-hitter deluxe Mark McGwire - on the St. Louis bench and left after the seventh with a 3-0 lead. Relievers John Franco and Armando Benitez finished up.

And it was a good-luck victory for the wild card Mets - the last seven teams to win the NLCS opener went on to reach the World Series.

Mike Piazza put aside his past playoff slumps, hitting an RBI double in a two-run first inning. Todd Zeile and Jay Payton homered in the ninth and Edgardo Alfonzo scored a run and drove in another.

Game 2 will be Thursday night at Busch Stadium with Al Leiter starting for the Mets against rookie Rick Ankiel.

TITLE: Rangers Victorious As Messier Returns
AUTHOR: By Ira Podell
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - There's more work in store for Mark Messier's No. 11 New York Rangers sweater before it rises to the Madison Square Garden rafters.


Messier played at home with the Rangers on Wednesday night for the first time since he left for the Vancouver Canucks three years ago. Messier, who led the Rangers to the 1994 Stanley Cup title, resigned with the team in the offseason.

The Captain will have to wait a little longer to dress in the traditional home white as the Rangers wore road blues. However, the wait was short for his first goal of the season.

Messier gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead by banking in a shot off Montreal defenseman Eric Weinrich, while New York was on an early third-period power play. The Rangers won 3-1.

The return against the Montreal Canadiens - the team Messier made his first Rangers debut against in 1991 - was combined with New York's celebration of 75 years in the National Hockey League.

"It's kind of special for the players for this year's edition of the Rangers to kind of get a sense of what it means to be a Ranger," Messier said. "For myself it's obviously a special night to be able to come back and be a Ranger again."

Messier, who started at center, certainly enjoyed the pregame ceremony in which he was introduced last, cloaked in shadow and smoke. Fans showered him with a four-minute ovation that brought a broad smile to Messier's face and he skated with his arms and stick raised.

And yet, the excitement and anticipation did not bother the man, who did not play any preseason games this summer in New York, Tuesday night.

"I slept like a baby," said Messier, who had an assist in the Rangers' opening-night victory Saturday night in Atlanta.

The deep relationship that developed between Messier and Rangers fans is one that is rivaled only by those forged in Montreal with Maurice Richard, Boston with Bobby Orr, Detroit and Gordie Howe and Edmonton with Wayne Gretzky.

"I think Wayne's connected to Edmonton and Mark's connected to New York," new general manager Glen Sather said. "It's terrific to see it, especially for me because I haven't seen Mark in these conditions for so long."

What made Messier's return possible was the hiring of Sather, the former Edmonton coach and general manager who won five Cups with the star center.

When Messier left the Rangers for Vancouver three years ago, the chance that he would ever play again for the Rangers was remote. The only hope for No. 11 to return in Rangers white would be when Messier was honored by having the number retired.

The Rangers even showed a video tribute when Messier came back to the Garden for the first time in an enemy uniform. Messier was left covering his face as tears flowed freely.

"The emotions then involved my disappointment at having moved on," Messier said. "I never wanted to leave New York and it was a reminder at how good a time it was here."

Messier felt his return would not involve tears this time as the Rangers' anniversary took center stage - honoring alumni and other former captains.

"It's a real celebration," Messier said.

Sather said he hoped Messier wouldn't show the tears that also were shed when he took back the captain's 'C' from Brian Leetch - his close friend, who took over the title when Messier departed.

"I hope he saves them until he gets the Stanley Cup presented to him," Sather said. "I'm sure it's going to be a great night and a pretty emotional moment for him.

"He's so sincere with the feelings he expressed when he came back and accepted the 'C' from Leetch. There aren't many people that can go through something as naturally as that and not try to mask it. He's honest, that's the way he is. That's what makes him so valuable and so acceptable in people's eyes."

Messier's departure from New York came amid a rift with then-GM Neil Smith and Garden president Dave Checketts. Smith's firing late last season and Sather's arrival made Messier's return a reality. When Vancouver couldn't meet his price, Messier seemed ticketed for New York.

"It's not a surprise," Messier said. "All things put aside it was the best decision to come back to New York. It was a tough decision to make and I would have loved to stay in Vancouver and see it through because I know what would have happened."

What didn't happen in the last three years for Messier or the Rangers were playoff games. Something Messier, who signed a two-year deal with the Rangers, guaranteed would change.

Although the colors, the fans and the arena are the same, Messier is quick to point out the differences from his first stint in New York.

"I'm 39, I have less hair and am hopefully a little smarter," Messier joked. "It's completely different, it was a complete overhaul change."

TITLE: Italy Leads Way in World-Cup Qualifiers
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: Two second-half penalties from Alessandro Del Piero gave Italy a 2-0 win over Georgia in their World Cup European group eight qualifier on Wednesday.


Italy was pushed all the way by an enterprising Georgian side, which would be justified in feeling they deserved at least a point from an evenly balanced match.

Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni was clearly pleased to have picked up another win after Saturday's 3-0 victory over Romania but admitted his side needed to thank goalkeeper Francesco Tol do for two vital first-half saves.

"Georgia really made us suffer in the first half and twice Toldo had to save us. But we started to improve in midfield and in the end I think it was a fair result. But I think that Georgia showed tonight that they can be our most dangerous rivals in this group," said Trapattoni.

Italy could have opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Stefano Fiore set up Marco Delvecchio but the Roma striker shot weakly at Georgia keeper David Gvaramadze.

But it was clear from the start that unlike Saturday's win over Romania, Italy was up against determined and dangerous opponents.

Giorgi Nemsadze forced a good save from Toldo in the 12th minute and then Archil Arveladze cut in from the left and went close with a low drive which hit the side-netting.

Italy struggled to gain control in a midfield dominated by the energetic and incisive work of Temuri Ketsbaia, but Del Piero, recalled in place of influenza victim Filippo Inzaghi, brought Gvaramadze to full stretch with a right-foot shot in the 18th minute.

The best effort of an entertaining first half came a minute later when Kets baia burst out of midfield, raced into the Italian penalty area and unleashed a fierce drive which Toldo superbly parried.

Two minutes after the break Italy had the lead when Francesco Totti was judged to have been tripped in the area by Alexander Rekhviashvili and Del Piero coolly converted the penalty.

Trapattoni promptly replaced striker Delvecchio with the battling midfielder Gennaro Gattuso and the extra man in the center of the field succeeded in reducing the influence of Ketsbaia.

But Georgia coach David Kipiani's introduction of Gocha Jamarauli and Giorgi Demetradze gave his side some fresh impetus and Italy was on the back foot again.

Georgia came close to an equalizer 10 minutes from the end when Toldo failed to hold a stinging long-range effort from substitute Jamarauli, but the ball was scrambled clear by Alessandro Nesta.

Italy made sure of the points two minutes from the end when Del Piero went down as he rounded Gvaramadze and, despite protests from the Georgian defenders, the Juventus striker rose to slot home the spot kick.

"It went well for Del Piero tonight but above all this was a victory that showed the need for collective hard work and determination even when things are not going so well," said Trapattoni.

Italy leads group eight with seven points from their three games but playmaker Totti, booked in the second half, will be suspended for the trip to Romania on March 24. 



Group 1. Russia maintained its perfect start with a 3-0 win over Luxembourg in Moscow while 10-man Slovenia drew 2-2 with Switzerland in Ljubliana.


With the match between Yugoslavia and the Faroe Islands postponed in Belgrade because of political tensions, Russia moved to the top of the group with six points, one ahead of Slovenia with Switzerland with four.

Maxim Buznikin (19), Dmitry Khokh lov (57) and Yegor Titov (90) scored for the Russians, bidding to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1994.

Kubilay Turkyilmaz scored both Switzerland's goals. Ermin Siljak and Milenko Acimovic replied for Slovenia, who also had Amir Karic sent off after 38 minutes.



Group 2. Portugal moved on top of the group with seven points after its 2-0 victory over the Dutch. It was also a good night for Ireland which beat Estonia 2-0 in Dublin with goals from Mark Kinsella (25) and Richard Dunne (50). Ireland dominated and could have won by a far greater margin but for the heroics of Estonian goalkeeper Mart Poom.


Estonia is second with six points, but has played four matches, one more than third-placed Ireland, which has five.


Group 3. The Czech Republic surprisingly lost its perfect record in a 0-0 draw at Malta, but remains on top with seven points, two more than Denmark.


Denmark dominated the match against Bulgaria in Copenhagen but had to settle for a 1-1 draw when Dimitar Berbatov scored in the 82nd minute to cancel out Ebbe Sand's 73rd-minute strike.

An 89th-minute Thordur Gudjonsson goal gave Iceland a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland in Reykjavik for their first points of the campaign.



Group 4. Turkey went on top with a 1-0 win over Azerbaijan in Baku thanks to a late strike from Hakan Sukur. Turkey has seven points, the same tally as Slovakia who slipped from first to second after being held 0-0 by Sweden in Bratislava. The Swedes have five points. Moldova drew 0-0 with Macedonia in the other match played.


Group 5. Ukraine, bidding to qualify for its first major finals after narrowly missing out on Euro 2000, scored a superb 1-0 win over Norway in Oslo with Andriy Shevchenko hitting the only goal - his fourth in three qualifying matches.


Poland stayed on top with seven points despite being held 0-0 at home by Wales. Belarus joined Ukraine with six points after a 2-1 win over Armenia.



Group 6. In the only match played, Scotland maintained its unbeaten record with a 1-1 draw in Croatia who took the lead after 16 minutes through Alen Boksic.


Kevin Gallacher swept in Scotland's equalizer eight minutes later, and the only black mark for the Scots was the banishing of coach Craig Brown from the dugout for dissent.

Scotland leads the group with seven points from three matches, followed by Belgium with four from two and Croatia with two from two. San Marino and Latvia have no points.



Group 7. The group is shaping up as a three-way fight between teams that all battled through the same qualifiying group in Euro 2000 - Spain, Israel and Austria.


Spain, who thrashed Austria 9-0 during that competition, could only manage a 1-1 draw in Vienna on Wed nesday, while Israel beat Bosnia 3-1 in Tel Aviv.

Spain leads the group with seven points, followed by Israel and Austria with six points. Bosnia and Liechtenstein have no points.



Group 8. Hungary scored the biggest win of the night, bringing back memories of their glory days of the 1950s, when they crushed Lithuania 6-1 in Vilnius.


Although Lithuania was reduced to 10 men, it made no difference to the visitors who were already 2-0 ahead.

Miklos Feher scored a hat trick and Bella Iles, Ferenc Horvath and Krisztian Lisztes (penalty) added the others.



Group 9. England's poor start to its campaign continued when it was held to a 0-0 tie by Finland in Helsinki.


England was denied what looked to be a valid goal late in the game when Ray Parlour's shot hit the bar and bounced down over the goal-line, but was not counted.

With Albania scoring a rare win, defeating Greece 2-0 in Tirana, England is at the bottom of the group with one point from two games. Germany, who beat England 1-0 on Saturday but did not play on Wednesday, is on top with six from its two matches.

TITLE: Milosevic's Party Undergoes Changes
AUTHOR: By Katarina Kratovac
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Slobodan Milosevic's party announced leadership changes Thursday as it struggles to stem the steady erosion of its power and influence to the newly elected president, Vojislav Kostunica.


In a statement, the party said its hardline secretary general, Gorica Gajevic, had been replaced by the more moderate Zoran Andjelkovic, head of the Serb-run Kosovo government.

Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was named the party's vice president. Milosevic apparently remains at the helm despite losing the presidency in the Sept. 24 elections. The Socialists also called a party congress for Nov. 25.

Later Thursday, however, Beta news agency quoted a Socialist official as saying Milosevic will resign "because of the members and supporters." Miloje Mihajlovic, a Socialist deputy in the Serbian parliament, also said further changes in the party were "necessary."

There were also signs of a rift between the Socialists and their neo-communist allies, the Yugoslav Left, the party of Milosevic's influential wife Mirjana Markovic. Both parties said unlike in last month's elections, their candidates would run independently in the next Serbian elections.

The shakeup could mean Milosevic is trying to regroup and consolidate his followers after their ouster from power so he can remain a political player.

Allies of the current and ousted president are locked in a power struggle as Kostunica seeks to dismantle the last vestiges of Milosevic's authoritarian regime and open ties to the West.

Kostunica's camp has set a Friday deadline for Milosevic's loyalists to agree to form a transitional government in Serbia and call early elections in December. Serbia is Yugoslavia's dominant republic and Milosevic's allies still hold a majority in the republic's parliament.

Zoran Djindjic, a key Kostunica adviser, said Thursday pro-democracy groups have established contact with the Socialists on reopening talks about the early Serbian elections and formation of the transitional government, which would rule until the vote is held.

The deadline to the Socialists followed attempts by Milosevic officials to reclaim control over the Serbian police and government posts, which the ousted president's followers still hold.

Serbia's deputy premier, ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj, insisted Thursday that the government will not resign unless the Kostunica camp stops the ongoing takeover of all Serbia's institutions.

The army resisted efforts Wednesday by Kostunica to replace its pro-Milosevic top brass. The general staff had earlier officially endorsed the new president but Milosevic's loyalists still retain chief posts.

In Washington Thursday, President Clinton began lifting trade and economic sanctions against Yugoslavia in a gesture of support for the new leadership.

"The victory of freedom in Serbia is one of the most hopeful developments in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall," Clinton said. "It ended a dictatorship and it can liberate an entire region from the nagging fear that ethnic differences can again be exploited to start wars and shift borders."

Clinton said he had directed the immediate lifting of an oil embargo and a flight ban to Yugoslavia, part of a package of sanctions imposed in 1998.

TITLE: Israel Hits Back After Lynching
AUTHOR: By Ibrahim Hazboun
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli helicopters rocketed Yasser Arafat's residential compound, Palestinian police stations and broadcasting centers Thursday in a powerful and swift retaliation for the brutal killings of two Israeli soldiers by a Palestinian mob. 


Columns of smoke rose from Gaza City and the West Bank town of Ramallah after the gunships fired several waves of missiles. 

"This is a declaration of war - a crazy war," Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, said of some of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since the 1967 Mideast war. The fighting has left last-ditch U.S. peace efforts in tatters. 

Israel said it was sending a warning signal in a limited strike. Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami held Arafat responsible. "Arafat is endangering the entire region," Ben-Ami said, calling on the leaders of Egypt and Jordan to intervene and force the Palestinian leader to call a truce immediately. 

The killing of the soldiers incensed Israelis. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called it a "cold-blooded lynching." 

On Thursday morning, an angry mob stormed a Palestinian police station in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where the two Israeli reserve soldiers were being held after having made a wrong turn into the Palestinian city. The crowd beat the two and dumped the bloodied, mutilated bodies into the street. Chaotic TV footage showed Palestinians flashing V-signs from the second floor window of the police station as men in the background appeared to be striking at someone on the ground. 

Barak responded quickly, tightly sealing Palestinian towns, amassing troops near Ramallah and unleashing helicopter gunships. A column of Israeli armored personnel carriers rumbled across a rocky hillside near Ramallah. 

Arafat's headquarters in Gaza City and buildings near it were evacuated shortly as helicopters hovered above. A one-story building next to Arafat's residence, housing his elite Force 17 bodyguard unit, was struck. Smoke rose above the compound near the Mediterranean seafront. Residents were running out of the buildings in the area amid the chaos, and ambulances rushed to the scene. 

In the town of Beit Lahia, rockets hit the headquarters of Tanzim, the armed wing of Arafat's Fatah faction. Six Palestinian navy boats were also destroyed, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said. 

UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said he was at Arafat's headquarters, and left it just before the missiles struck nearby. It was not immediately clear if the Palestinian leader was with Larsen at the time. 

The Israeli attack came after Arafat met with CIA chief George Tenet at an undisclosed location in Gaza City. Tenet had left the area before the attack, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. 

In Ramallah, an Israeli rocket hit a car, sending two Palestinian bystanders scrambling for cover as flames burst into the air. Another missile struck the police station where the Israelis had been killed hours earlier, reducing it to rubble. 

The Palestinian TV headquarters in Ramallah were also hit. Palestinian reports said at least 12 people were injured. In a second wave, about two hours later, the helicopters returned, rocketing radio transmitters in the city. 

An angry mob gathered outside the police station, shouting "God is great," and raising a Palestinian flag on a wall that was partially destroyed. 

"This is a crime. Let the world see what Israel does to us," said Adeed Zeidan, a Palestinian ambulance driver. 

The killing of the soldiers and Israel's strong response left little hope that Israel and the Palestinians could negotiate a truce and bring an end to two weeks of bloodshed that have left at least 94 people dead, the vast majority Palestinians. 

The crisis erupted Thursday morning when the Israeli soldiers inadvertently ended up near the center of Ramallah, a scene of daily battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian rioters. The Palestinians initially said the two soldiers were undercover troops masquerading as Palestinians, but later said the two were driving in a car with Israeli license plates. 

The soldiers were detained by Palestinian police and immediately rushed to a nearby police station. Rumors quickly spread that the Israelis were undercover troops. More than 1,000 Palestinians surged toward the police station. 

Palestinian forces tried to keep the mob at bay, but about 10 men broke through a second-floor window where the Israelis were held. TV footage showed the attackers emerging from the station with blood-covered hands. 

The bodies of two Israeli soldiers were thrown from the second floor and thrashed with iron bars. From the window, young Palestinians shook their fists and flashed gleeful "V for victory" signs.

TITLE: Gore and Bush Tread Carefully in 2nd Presidential Debate
AUTHOR: By Walter R. Mears
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - After a largely polite debate, Al Gore's campaign early Thursday said it would step up criticism of the record of Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Gore's campaign accused Bush of making several mistakes, "including errors of life-and-death issues" in their second debate, and promised to make his record as governor a top issue in the final four weeks of the campaign. 


Gore, who slipped in polls after the first debate as the Bush campaign highlighted mistakes and exaggerations he made, is trying to turn the tables on Bush. 

Gore spokesman Mark Fabiani said the campaign was releasing examples of miscues made by Bush in the debate, including a statement that three men convicted in the 1998 Texas dragging death of James Byrd Jr. behind a pickup truck would be put to death. Bush later acknowledged that he'd misspoken twice when he said all three are to be executed for the crime - only two got the death penalty; the third received life imprisonment. 

During Wednesday's debate, Gore did not pick up on the error, but Fabiani on Thursday said Bush's statement that the men "would" be put to death risked hurting the prosecution's case against all three. He said appeals are pending in all three cases.

"As a result of last night's debate, the Texas record is squarely on the table for the public to examine," Fabiani said by telephone.

Bush acknowledged the error in a post-debate interview on ABC. "Listen, we all make mistakes," he said. Bush declined to say whether his mistake on the Byrd case was comparable to Gore's alleged miscues. Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes said Gore was inconsistent in his comments on energy. She said the Bush campaign would continue to welcome Gore's attacks on Texas, which she said were largely erroneous. "The vice president has some explaining of his own to do after last night's debate," she said. Hughes also said Bush would "emphasize the vice president's inability to explain why his administration has increased the rate of the uninsured in the country." 

Fabiani on Thursday outlined planned attacks to keep the pressure on Bush after the debate, saying Gore himself would begin addressing the issue Thursday. He said Gore's running mate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, would do the same during a visit to Texas. Fabiani said the Democratic National Committee and the Gore campaign were sending surrogates across the country to criticize Bush. Also, Democratic ads would increasingly focus on the Texas governor's record, Fabiani said. 

"Governor Bush made serious errors, including errors of life-and-death issues," he said. "Mr. Bush needs to be held to the same exacting standard applied to Al Gore last week." Fabiani pointed to both large and small mistakes made by Bush, including: 


. An appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday, in which Bush said 111 children had returned to the Medicaid system; Bush should have said the figure was 111,000.

. Bush later remarked, "I don't know the numbers," Fabiani said. 

. At a post-debate rally, Fabiani said, Bush told supporters that if elected president he'd be inaugurated on Election Day; the president is inaugurated in January. 


Polls immediately after the first debate, on Oct. 3, showed Gore to be the clear winner, but Bush was able to seize on miscues by Gore to gain momentum in the campaign. With their more aggressive strategy beginning Thursday, the Gore campaign plans to do the same. 

At their second debate, held in the chapel of Wake Forest University Wednesday night, the candidates struck a more polite tone, taking turns discussing America's role abroad, mixing argument and agreement on foreign policy. The campaign debate turned confrontational when they got to issues of capability and credibility. The matchup in their neck-and-neck campaign produced no clear breakthroughs for either nominee, with one more round coming in St. Louis next Tuesday, exactly three weeks before one of the pair is elected president. 

Both the vice president and Gov. Bush said they enjoyed the more relaxed format. During the debate, Gore admitted making factual errors, a line of attack that Bush and his allies have used to challenge the Democrat's credibility and one the Republican said voters should judge. Gore said he couldn't promise never to get another detail wrong, only that he would try. But he said that as president he would work his heart out "to get the big things right." 

Instant public opinion polls by ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and CNN-USA Today gave Bush higher marks in Wednesday night's debate. An ABC poll showed 46 percent of viewers thought he won, with 30 percent saying Gore won. In the CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, 49 percent thought Bush did a better job, with 36 percent saying Gore did a better job. The error margins for the polls ranged from 4 to 5 percentage points. 

Bush and Gore basically agreed on U.S. policy in the Middle East crisis, both demanding that Yasser Arafat act to halt Palestinian violence against Israel. They both pledged to maintain U.S. ties with Israel, despite many differences on diplomatic details. They also agreed on U.S. policy toward Yugoslavia, saying that but for the use of NATO force against the Serbians, Slobodan Milosevic would not have fallen to an elected president.

TITLE: Chinese Writer Captures Literature Prize
AUTHOR: By Tony Austin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Gao Xingjian, a Chinese-born writer, is this year's winner of the Nobel prize for literature. He is credited with producing one of the most original works in any language.


Gao won the prize, worth about $900,000, "for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama," the academy said in its citation.

His great novel "Soul Mountain" - enacting an individual's search for roots, inner peace and liberty - is a singular literary creation, difficult to compare with any other artistic work.

Gao, 60, left China in 1987 after one of his plays, "The Other Shore," was banned and since then none of his plays has been performed in China.

To avoid harassment before leaving, he went on a 10-month trek of the forest and mountain regions of Sichuan Province, tracing the course of the Yangtze river from its source to the coast.

He settled as a political refugee in France in 1987 and is a French citizen.

A writer of prose, translator, dramatist, director, critic and artist, Gao's work has transcended the bounds of his Chinese background to win universal appeal.

Gao, whose experimental and pioneering plays have been inspired in part by Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud and Samuel Beckett, is now considered a French cultural figure.

"Gao has been one of the most important writers in creating what didn't quite exist before - a spoken drama in China as distinct from music drama, dance and the old traditions," the Swedish Academy's permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said.

"He is a great writer of novels and drama and a renewer of both genres in the Chinese context but also a writer who has a universal knowledge to offer readers all over the world," Engdahl said.

Gao Xingjian grew up during the aftermath of the Japanese invasion. His father was a bank official and his mother an amateur actress who stimulated young Gao's interest in the theater and writing.

During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, he was sent to a re-education camp and felt it necessary to burn a suitcase full of manuscripts. It was not until 1979 that he was allowed to publish his work and travel abroad.

His early dramas were hugely successful but attracted unwelcome official attention in China, and he was condemned for "intellectual pollution" in 1983.

Gao has spoken of China's "terror which reigns everywhere, in detention camps and in daily life, and smothers human conscience."

"It destroys people if they do not manage to have secret thoughts," he said in an interview with France Info radio, which was rebroadcast Thursday.

After the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, in which demonstrators in Beijing were killed by the authorities, he left the Communist Party.

He was declared persona non grata and his works were banned after the publication of "La Fuite," or "Fugitives," which takes place against the background of this massacre.

Gao's second novel, "One Man's Bible," reflects the Cultural Revolution and the author recounts with ruthless candor his experiences as a political activist, victim and outside observer.

But Gao is more than a dissident author. His play "Fugitives" angered the pro-democracy movement in China as much as the Beijing authorities.

"In the writing of Gao Xingjian, literature is born anew from the struggle of the individual to survive the history of the masses," the Swedish Academy said.

TITLE: UN Food Boss Says Targets Not Met
AUTHOR: By David Brough
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ROME - The international community is "way behind" its target to halve world hunger by 2015 in line with a pledge made at a 1996 food summit, the director general of the United Nations' world food body said on Thursday.


"We are reducing the number of hungry people by 8 million a year, but the necessary investment that has to go into agriculture is just not there," Jacques Diouf, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, told Reuters.

Diouf said in an interview that international institutions and governments were not investing enough in farming, while conflict and increasingly extreme drought and floods were obstructing the battle against hunger and poverty.

"We are way behind target," the Senegalese official said, when asked whether the world was on track to achieve a goal set at the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome to halve the number of chronically undernourished to 400 million by 2015.

We need to remobilize public opinion. We need to remobilize the leaders at the highest level [to fight hunger]," he added.

"If you look at the level of national budgets going to agriculture in relation to populations in the rural sector, you will see that there is no consistency," he added, speaking a few days before the UN's World Food Day on October 16.

Diouf highlighted the drought-hit Horn of Africa, North Korea and Iraq among the states hardest hit by food shortages.

Some 19 million people in the Horn of Africa, mainly Kenya and Ethiopia, now need emergency food assistance, he said.

Although outpourings of international aid spearheaded by the FAO's sister agency, the World Food Program, had improved conditions in the region this year, Diouf said the situation remained critical.

"Only 1 percent of the arable land in the Horn of Africa has water control [irrigation]," Diouf said. 

"Compare it to the figures for Asia - 38 percent, China 50 percent. How can you have a serious development [of agriculture] in an area where 99 percent of the land has no water control and is entirely dependent on the vagaries of the climate?"

As for North Korea, Diouf said food aid was still needed as drought was hampering grain production, but he saw no likelihood of famine.

Diouf said he was concerned over the impact of two consecutive years of drought on farming in Iraq, where there was a serious shortage of inputs such as fertilizers.

"In some areas 75 percent of the cropped area has been damaged," he said.