SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #613 (0), Friday, October 20, 2000
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TITLE: Berezovsky Told To Vacate His Dacha
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - After losing his influence in the Kremlin, business tycoon Boris Berezovsky has now also been stripped of some of the trappings of grandeur - a spacious government country house and government plates on his limo. 


President Vladimir Putin's chief property manager, Vladimir Kozhin, confirmed Wednesday that his office had asked Berezovsky to vacate the 570-square-meter dacha west of Mos cow. Berezovsky said earlier this week that he had to stay at a hotel after he was told to leave the country house he has occupied for several years. 

Berezovsky was a member of the inner circle of President Boris Yeltsin, who resigned Dec. 31. The mogul has apparently fallen out of favor with Pu tin. 

"Thus passes worldly glory," the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets said Wednesday. "In Russia the scenario is always the same - presidential property managers arrive at the former celebrity's dacha and ask him to vacate the premises." 

Government perks like dachas, which the elite prefer over apartments in the crowded city, and special license plates are key measures of status in Russia. 

Berezovsky said he paid $500,000 a year for the dacha, but Kozhin said the rent was $300,000. Kozhin insisted there were no political reasons behind the termination of the contract, saying his office needed the dacha "for other purposes." 

Commentators thought otherwise. "The lease for such a dacha costs much more, but they paid no attention to that when Berezovsky had friends in the Kremlin," Moskovsky Komsomolets said. "This is how the system moves against those who fall out with it." 

Berezovsky epitomizes the Russian moguls known as oligarchs, who built quick fortunes by obtaining state properties cheap through their government connections. Berezovsky's interests reportedly include oil, aluminum, auto sales and news media. 

He used his media empire to help get Putin elected in March, but appears to have lost influence with the new administration. Be re zovsky said earlier this year he would form a new opposition. 

He claimed Putin was trying to stifle the media by attempting to grab his 49 percent share in Russia's largest television network, ORT, the rest of which is controlled by the government. On Monday, Berezovsky set up a trust, handing his stake over to journalists and cultural figures to prevent the government from taking it. 

On Tuesday, he was questioned as a witness in a long-delayed corruption probe dealing with the alleged diversion of funds from Russia's national airline Aeroflot. Berezovsky has denied any wrongdoing and insisted the probe was politically motivated.

TITLE: Investors Set To Lose Svyazinvest Vote Power
AUTHOR: By Melissa Akin
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Three years after sinking nearly $2 billion into Svyazinvest, minority shareholders could get left out in the cold just as the government finally implements a desperately needed overhaul at the telecommunications giant.


Thanks to maverick mogul Vladimir Potanin, investors like financier George Soros and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell looked set Thursday to lose the power afforded them by jointly holding a blocking stake at Svyazinvest.

Soros' Quantum Fund joined forces with Potanin and a handful of smaller investors to place a winning bid of $1.9 billion for a stake of 25 percent plus one share in a privatization auction for Svyaz invest in 1997. 

The stake is held by Mustcom, a Cyprus-based investment consortium founded by the winning bidders.

Potanin announced Wednesday that he plans to shut down Mustcom, costing its shareholders the voting rights afforded by holding the blocking stake. Potanin said he would hold a 2 percent stake and Soros would have a 10 percent stake. The remaining shareholders hold miniscule shares.

Potanin offered only a cryptic explanation for his decision to get out of Mustcom. 

"The government has not fulfilled a significant part of the obligations it took on during the Svyazinvest auction," he was quoted by Kommersant as saying.

A Soros spokesman, asked to comment on Potanin's plan Thursday, could not confirm if Soros had signed off on the plan and refused to comment further.

It was unclear Thursday what gave Po tanin the authority to close down Must com and why he wanted out of the consortium.

But the end of Mustcom would "free the hands of the government" to push through its planned revamp of Svyazinvest without any needing to get approval from the minority shareholders, said Yevgeny Golosnoi, a telecoms analyst at the Troika Dialog brokerage.

Speculation over Potanin's announcement ran high Thursday in industry circles, and some analysts suggested that the tycoon was trying to court the government.

Potanin, a former cabinet member, has good reason to try to get cozy with the Kremlin, said Andrei Bogdanov, a telecoms analyst at Alfa Bank.

The Prosecutor General's Office earlier this year threatened to sue him on the grounds that he had underpaid for a stake in another privatization auction, for the Norilsk Nickel metals giant. 

In addition, Potanin is facing a Federal Securities Commission investigation into plans to transfer assets from the Norilsk metals plant to a new company called Norilsk Mining Co.

Norilsk investors have bitterly complained about the proposed swap ratio.

Bogdanov said the government might agree to drop its investigation of the share swap if Potanin smashed the power of Mustcom to block decisions at Svyazinvest.

Svyazinvest was considered a hot property when it went on the auction block in 1997, thus commanding a price of almost $2 billion.

But the telecoms holding with its aging and antiquated subsidiaries is widely considered by analysts to represent the epitome of the domestic telecoms sector: disorganized, undercapitalized and plagued by scandals. 

But now the government, which holds the remaining 75 percent minus one stake in Svayzinvest, is forging ahead with sweeping plans to consolidate the holding's 87 unruly and often inefficient companies into seven streamlined units.

The drastic plans to revamp Svyazinvest have been put on the fast track by a posse of St. Petersburgers aligned with President Vladimir Putin. The men in charge are Communications Minister Leonid Reiman and Svyazinvest general director Valery Yashin, both former managers at St. Petersburg's municipal telephone network. 

One of the juicier morsels that Svyazinvest has set its eyes on is Moscow-based MGTS, the nation's biggest municipal network with 4 million lines. All of Svyazinvest's subsidiaries combined control only about 3 million lines, according to Troika Dialog.

Svyazinvest, which after a 1998 share dilution was left with 28 percent in MGTS, has been trying to coax major shareholder AFK Sistema to allow MGTS to join Svyazinvest for several weeks now.

Yashin, speaking at a recent celebration marking the five-year anniversary of Svyazinvest, said he wanted MGTS on board and suggested that the privatization of MGTS had not been carried out properly.

"I have experience. I was the director of a phone company too. We had privatization there, and [MGTS] had privatization here, and I understand that something is not right with MGTS," Kommersant quoted him as saying. 

Pressing the point further, Kommersant quoted anonymous sources at Svyazinvest as saying that the Moscow prosecutor's office was investigating whether investment conditions for the share dilution had been fulfilled.

Officials at the Moscow prosecutor's office and Sistema were unavailable for comment Thursday.

Yashin later downplayed his remarks about MGTS' sell-off, saying that the "results of the privatization of MGTS would not be overturned," Vedomosti newspaper reported.

He did confirm to the newspaper that Svyazinvest was in negotiations with Sistema.

Golosnoi at Troika Dialog said Yashin probably softened his stance as "a followup" after getting his point across in Kommersant.

TITLE: Church Train Rolling Out to Far-Flung Faithful
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In 1896 Tsar Nicholas II ordered a church to be built on wheels to bring Russian Orthodox Mass to the farthest reaches of Siberia.


More than a hundred years later the second of those evangelical vehicles was born when a light-blue wagon was blessed by Patriarch Alexy II under the metal arched roof of Kievsky Station on a cold Wednesday afternoon.

"We're very glad that we've been allowed to return to this 100-year-old tradition," said Alexy II at the ceremony.

The "church on wheels," he said, would carry the faith to the many small towns and difficult-to-reach points in the country that do not have access to a Russian Orthodox church or priest.

"We bless this church to help people return to their faith," he said.

Built and paid for by the Railways Ministry, the church is an ordinary carriage transformed. Stained-glass windows replace the ordinary ones. Instead of the destination sign, a prayer in Church Slavonic is written in large letters along both lengths of the carriage.

The church - dedicated to one of the most prominent images of the Virgin Mary that depicts her as a guide - has two large icons of the mother and child attached to each side of the carriage.

Inside, the worshiper walks a corridor typical of any carriage into one large room that has been sumptuously decorated in accordance with church norms.

"The carriage is the only thing that shows it isn't [a church]," said priest Georgy Studyonov, who accompanied Alexy II during the ceremony in the carriage. "Everything else is completely like a real church. Even better than some churches."

"I was astounded. It was all done with love," he said, adding that Alexy II was delighted.

Alexy II said the church was part of the restoration of the spiritual life of the country after 70 years of communism. Some 12,000 churches, he said, have been restored, built or renovated in the past 10 years, and the carriage would help bring people back to church.

The church will be based at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery at Sergiyev Posad outside Moscow when not traveling the country. It's first mission begins Thursday at 12:33 p.m. when it leaves from Moscow's Yaroslavl Station and heads for the Arkhangelsk Region. Its first mass is set for Friday morning.

A typical journey will consist of one day in each place before an overnight journey to the next village or town.

The church will be manned by, among others, missionaries from the Belgorod seminary, Alexy II said.

The Orthodox Church began missionary work a few years ago to reach out to people in Russia, "not in other countries," said the patriarch in a pointed reference to the number of foreign missionaries who have flocked to Russia over the past 10 years.

A second carriage will be used as accommodation for the priests, students and railway workers who will go on the journeys.

The idea for the church came three years ago at the All-Russia Convention for Railway Workers when a priest put it forward, said Viktor Skorik, deputy general director of the Moscow Carriage Factory that built the church. There was also recent talk of constructing a similar church in the Far East.

"There was a carriage at the start of the century, then there was a break, and now there is one again," said Skorik. "Today is a return of the memories of the last century."

Trains are not the only transport the church has employed to spread the faith. Churches have also been built on boats and barges that traverse the rivers Volga and Ob.

TITLE: Mideast Peace In the Balance
AUTHOR: By Greg Myre
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israeli combat helicopters, attempting to rescue Jewish settlers trapped on a rocky West Bank hillside, traded heavy fire with Palestinian gunmen in a five-hour shootout Thursday. Israel's prime minister declared it a "gross violation" of a shaky truce announced two days earlier.


Two people were killed - one Palestinian and an Israeli civilian who bled to death - and the wounded included 15 Palestinians and at least five Israelis, according to Palestinian doctors and Israeli security officials.

The firefight amid the barren rocks of Mount Ebal, overlooking the West Bank town of Nablus, came on the eve of a Friday deadline imposed by both sides for ending three weeks of violence that has left more than 100 dead, the vast majority Palestinians.

"This is a very grave incident and a gross violation by the Palestinian Authority," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement issued after the battle ended and the settlers were evacuated.

It was not immediately clear whether Israel or the Palestinians were backing away from the truce, but the shootout appeared to be a serious threat to the deal announced Tuesday at a Mideast summit in Egypt.

Trouble broke out when about 40 Jewish settlers tried to travel to the hillside to observe Joseph's Tomb, a holy site in Nablus recently ransacked by a Palestinian mob.

The settlers came under fire from a Palestinian refugee camp, and Israeli helicopter gunships soon joined the fray in an attempt to protect the settlers, including women and children, and evacuate the wounded, according to Israelis.

Two helicopters hovered, unleashing machine-gunfire on Palestinians darting for cover behind the huge stones on a mountain nicknamed the "accursed mountain" for its stark landscape.

"We are engaged in a rescue operation on very difficult terrain," Israeli Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan said on Israel radio as the shooting raged. "We have deployed a large force which is firing under fire."

The settlers were scattered across the hillside, making it difficult for the Israeli forces to reach all of those trapped. Several of the wounded Israelis could not be evacuated immediately due to the heavy Palestinian fire.

One settler, pinned down by the gunfire, was interviewed on his celluar telephone by Israel's Channel 2 TV.

"Under fire for five hours straight," said Elazar Mizrahi, the staccato of automatic fire audible in the background. "There are still gunshots. Hiding. Others 30 meters from me. We came to tour the area. I'm hiding behind a rock. I can't leave here."

Each side offered widely differing accounts of how the battle started.

The settlers had prior army permission to climb the hill so they could observe Joseph's Tomb, which was desecrated after Israeli troops pulled out two weeks ago. They said Palestinian gunmen opened fire, but the Palestinians claimed the settlers fired first on unarmed olive pickers.

The battle died out after dark, while Israel moved tanks and armored personnel carriers to the outskirts of Nablus. Tanks had been moved away just a day earlier in an effort to reduce tensions.

Nablus has remained extremely tense despite the military's withdrawal from the holy site. The settlers have vowed to return to the tomb, though it is in the middle of the restive Palestinian city.

After the truce was announced in Egypt, the two sides agreed Wednesday to wait 48 hours, until around midday Friday, to determine whether it was working.

"The drop in the level of activity of the Palestinians is not enough and does not satisfy us," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said on Army radio. "We are halfway through the period and when it is over [Friday] we will decide what to do next."

Ideally, if the truce holds, the Israelis are to pull back troops from the outskirts of Palestinian cities, security teams from the two sides are expected to hold additional talks, and the Palestinians are to continue working to rein in militants.

But if unrest persists, the agreement mediated by President Clinton could quickly disintegrate.

In Cairo, Egypt, a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Israel had so far only made minimal efforts to implement the cease-fire.

"Israel wants to kill the Palestinian people and to keep them under siege, and to put them under pressure that they could not bear," said the aide, Nabil Shaath.

The truce was supposed to prepare the ground for a second stage - a two-week recovery program aimed at reviving negotiations on a comprehensive peace settlement.

Since the agreement, Israel has lifted the internal closure on Palestinian areas, which allowed Palestinians to resume travel between towns inside the West Bank and Gaza.

The Israelis opened border crossings to Egypt and Jordan, and trucks hauling goods again started to move between Gaza and Israel. The Palestinians were allowed to reopen their airport in Gaza after a 10-day closure.

However, Israel has yet to lift a closure between Israel and the Palestinian areas, barring tens of thousands of Palestinians from their jobs.

For their part, the Palestinians have begun to re-arrest some of the freed Islamic militants. The Palestinian leadership also issued "strict orders" to observe the truce.

Earlier on Thursday, two Palestinian policemen were killed in an apparent gas explosion at the Bethlehem headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 unit. A Palestinian police spokesman said the explosion was an accident, and not related to ongoing hostilities.

TITLE: Lost Hungarian POW Gets Promotion
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BUDAPEST - A forgotten Hungarian soldier received a long-overdue promotion Tuesday, going from private to sergeant major after 56 years of service, most of which he spent in a psychiatric ward in Russia.


Hungarian Deputy Defense Minister Janos Homoki announced the promotion, while Andras Toma, 74, shed tears and later shielded his eyes with his cap against the cameras' lights.

Toma, born Dec. 5, 1925, was a Hungarian conscript in 1944, when he was captured by Soviet troops in Poland and ended up in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp. In 1947, he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

While his comrades were repatriated to their homeland in the years following the war, Toma was forgotten.

"No one in Hungarian history has been in the military this long," said Col. Pal Kiss of the Defense Ministry, after the formal document, dated Oct. 17, 2000, releasing him from the army was read out.

"Many, many people worked long and hard to determine 'Uncle' Andy's true identity and the effort was successful," said Homoki, while presenting him with his new insignia.

Tuesday's ceremony ended the formalities concerning the return of the man who spent 53 years in a small hospital in the provincial town of Kotelnich. Toma, who was known in Russia as Tamas, was regarded as mentally unbalanced. He never learned to speak Russian, and for decades hospital staff had mistaken his Hungarian for gibberish. Not until a foreign doctor thought he recognized the language was anything done. The Hungarian Embassy in Moscow was contacted in December 1999, and in August this year Toma was flown home to Budapest. 

About 150,000 troops fought in the Hungarian army under Nazi command at the Don River in 1944. Red Army soldiers killed about 90,000 Hungarians.

TITLE: Media-MOST Settles Debt With Gazprom
AUTHOR: By Anna Uzelac and Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Media-MOST announced Wednesday that it has reached an "amicable agreement" on part of its debt to the state-controlled gas giant Gazprom. Company officials said the deal would ensure its journalists' independence, and would also involve bringing in an unspecified major foreign investor.


The companies - which have been in a politically charged battle for control over Media-MOST's holdings, most notably NTV television, agreed not to divulge details of the agreement before it is signed, a Media-MOST spokeswoman said in a telephone interview.

The announcement was issued at a Moscow court that was to consider a suit brought by a Gazprom subsidiary against Media-MOST, the country's largest privately owned media group. 

The plaintiff, Gazprom-Media, alleged that the media group had been transferring assets off-shore to avoid having them confiscated in lieu of its $473 million in debts. Both parties petitioned the court to postpone the hearing in light of their agreement. 

The deal between Media-MOST and Gazprom-Media covers $211.6 million - the principal of a $248.5 million debt. Media-MOST owes Gazprom $263 million more, which will be due next year. All of the funds were guarantees on third-party loans to Media-MOST.

Yevgeny Kiselyov, general director of Media-MOST's flagship NTV television, said in televised remarks that the agreement would "guarantee the true independence of the [company's] media."

Kiselyov added that "this debt [to Gazprom] was created on an absolutely political basis, in order to create problems for us and to try to get NTV into the government's hands." 

Last month, Gazprom-Media and Media-MOST revealed that Vladimir Gusinsky, the head of Media-MOST, had agreed to transfer control of his media empire to Gazprom days before prosecutors cleared him of embezzlement charges with no clear explanation.

Gusinsky, who was jailed for three days in July, said he had been forced by the Kremlin to swap his holdings' assets for his release from jail. He called the agreement invalid on grounds that it had been signed under duress. 

In that agreement, Gazprom was to receive control of Media-MOST in exchange for cancellation of the company's debts and $300 million in cash.

The agreement included a legally questionable document called Appendix 6 - signed not only by Gusinsky and Gazprom-Media head Alfred Kokh, but also by Press Minister Mikhail Lesin - that seemed to support Gusinsky's claim that he was offered a choice between selling or going to jail: The appendix stipulated that the signatories, as part of the sale, would do everything "within their power" to ensure Gusinsky's freedom and an end to legal action against him.

Sources at Media-MOST have said that - as a guarantee of editorial independence - the company wanted assurances from Gazprom that any shares it obtained in a settlement would be resold to Western investors, Reuters reported.

Gazprom officials have said they too are interested in selling off their stake in Media-MOST to a foreign investor. Gazprom owns a 14 percent stake in Media-MOST and says it holds another 40 percent stake as collateral for the $473 million in loan guarantees.

TITLE: Officials Hold Off on Prohibition
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A prohibition on the evening sale of hard liquor in certain neighborhoods on Vasilievsky Island has had less-than-bone-dry results as both police and city officials seem to have watered down their rhetoric following pressure from shop owners to reconsider the ban. 


The ban on hard-booze sales after 9 p.m. - which was to provide for fines and revocations of liquor licenses - was meant to go into effect in the center of Vasilievksy Island last Sunday in an effort to combat the region's notorious street brawls and to clean up its urine-soaked alley ways. 

But Vasilievsky Island's deputy chief of police on Thursday soft pedaled earlier statements promising an end to the carousing, saying he wanted to give liquor traders time to let the news of the new beer-only-after-nine law sink in. 

"It's too early to look for positive statistics," Yevdokimov said. 

"During the last five days [since the ban] we have faced strong pressure from the press and booze traders, but on the other hand social organizations such as The Citizens of the Leningrad Blockade and Pensioners' Community express nothing but their agreement. Of course that isn't the whole picture of society."

Yevdokimov said he would continue to monitor public opinion of the ban, speaking with the workers of the Baltiisky Factory, a ship-building plant, which is located in the middle of the neighborhood, which is affected by the hard-liquor ban. 

"The negative or positive opinion of the workers will hardly change the enforcement of the alcohol ban," said Yevdokimov. 

"But when you force the interests of 100 to 200 people, you want to hear 1,000 to 2,000 thank-yous. That would be just a confirmation that we are right."

Meanwhile, shops in the affected neighborhood - which begins at Sredny Prospect and continues south to the Lieutenant Schmidt, Makarova and Universitetskaya embankments - continue either to flaunt the ban or have simply applied for special liquor licenses from the region's municipal council, which will allow them to sell unlimited amounts of liquor after 9:00 p.m. 

According to Igor Polovtsev, the deputy chairman of the Vasilievksy Island Municipal Council, 26 vendors have applied for these licenses since Sunday and all 26 have received them. Just one store, he said, received the disappointing news that it would be allowed to sell hard liquor only until 11 p.m.

Simpler than turning to the Municipal Council, however, was the solution of one shop owner near the Vasilievsky Island metro station who decline to be identified. 

"We have no permission and still sell alcohol after 9 p.m.," he said. "I don't have any idea why they are doing this. I know only one thing - that my shop gives to the city, including the Municipal Council, about 45,000 rubles ($1,600) in taxes each month."

TITLE: Overnight Blaze in Oblast Claims 4 Victims
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Fire swept through a three-story wooden apartment building in the northern Leningrad Oblast village of Mo rozov on Wednesday night, killing four and displacing all 128 of the building's residents, fire officials said. 


The fire, which broke out at 1:30 in the morning and drew 78 fire fighters, also sent five of the building's residents to the hospital with burns. Two of them were burned over 40 percent of their bodies. 

The efforts of the firemen, who battled smoke-filled corridors to rouse sleeping residents in the building's 70 apartments, likely saved 58 lives, fire department spokesperson Tatyana Streganyuk said in a telephone interview Thursday.

The building, built in 1912, served as a dormitory for a local defense contracting plant as well as a shelter for migrant workers and their families, said Streganyuk. Most of the residents were above 40 years of age. 

Space was scarce for survivors in this small village, which is located 50 kilometers north of St. Petersburg - those who had not arranged to stay with friends or family have been taken to local summer camp facilities and kindergartens. 

Streganyuk said fire officials were considering several theories as to the origin of the fire. Among them were carelessness, arson or faulty wiring. But on Thursday, she said officials were zeroing in on one particular apartment rented by three men as the location where the blaze originally flared up. 

According to Streganyuk, neighbors had reported seeing the three men - whose names have not been released - intoxicated and an acting in a "careless" manner. 

"This seems more plausible since, according to the information of the neighbors, the three men mentioned above were very fond of drinking, and they saw them drunk that night," she added.

According to Streganyuk, one of the men who rented the apartment died in the fire. Another one was taken to the hospital suffering from burn wounds and the third disappeared from the scene.

TITLE: America's No. 1 Communist Dies at 90
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: NEW YORK - Gus Hall, the lumberjack, iron miner, steelworker and union organizer whose name became synonymous with the American Communist Party that he led for 40 years, has died at age 90. 


Hall, who studied guerrilla tactics in Moscow and spent more than eight years in prison for conspiracy to teach and advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, died Friday in a New York hospital of complications from diabetes, party officials announced Monday. 

Although Hall mellowed with age and with his party's slow fade from public enemy to historic relic, he never repudiated his beliefs or his rosy view of the Soviet Union as it was under Leonid Brezhnev. Not even the dismantling of the Communist bloc a decade ago could shake his ultimate loyalty. 

After shifting the party goal from violent overthrow of democracy toward what he saw as "a peaceful, democratic road to socialism" in the mid-1960s, Hall waged four quixotic campaigns for president of the United States. 

But he never garnered as much as even 1 percent of the national vote and he never qualified for the ballot in more than a handful of states. In 1976, he received his highest nationwide tally - 58,992 votes. 

Yet, in the communist world, Hall remained an important figure. He enjoyed the patronage of every Soviet head of state, from Nikita Khrushchev to Mikhail Gorbachev, and was received as a dignitary on his yearly pilgrimages to Moscow. A high point came in 1981 when he addressed the 26th Party Congress at the invitation of Brezhnev, the Soviet leader Hall most esteemed. He was less admiring of Gorbachev, whose reforms a few years later, Hall said, "literally destroyed the basis for socialism." 

Never the ogre he was often assumed to be, the barrel-chested Hall in person was affable, nattily dressed and adept at telling funny stories over cups of coffee. 

The man who said he was a born Communist and was inevitably introduced as "Comrade Gus Hall" was also quintessentially American. He enlisted in the Navy as a machinist's mate during World War II and repaired engines on Guam for the duration. 

In a 1982 Los Angeles Times interview, Hall insisted that life in the Soviet Union at that time was far better than in America because of the Communist nation's total employment, free education and medical care, low taxes and rent and housing for all. 

Yet asked if he would prefer to live in the Soviet Union or anywhere other than the United States, he exclaimed: "Oh, no. This is the best country in the world in which to live." 

The Communist Party of Russia sent a telegram of condolence signed by party leader Gennady Zyuganov to Hall's family and colleagues Tuesday. 

"Neither political persecution nor prison cells could break the spirit of this man, this courageous defender of workers' rights, justice and socialism. We convey our sincere condolences to [Hall's] family members and all American communists."

Hall is survived by his wife of 66 years, Elizabeth; one son, Arvo; one daughter, Barbara; two sisters; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

TITLE: Pope Pessimistic as Espionage Trial Opens
AUTHOR: By Anna Dolgov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Opening the trial against U.S. businessman Edmond Pope, a Moscow judge on Wednesday agreed to an independent medical examination to determine whether the defendant was healthy enough to remain in prison.


Pope, a retired U.S. Navy officer from State College, Pennsylvania, was arrested April 3 by the Federal Security Service on charges that he tried to buy plans for a high-speed Russian torpedo. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. 

U.S. officials have warned that the case could discourage American investment in Russia. Russian officials have responded that the Americans were meddling in Russia's legal system.

Pope's lawyer, Pavel Astakhov, told reporters at the Moscow city court that he did not see the 26-page indictment until Wednesday, and that Pope had not been permitted to study it closely because it was based on classified materials.

Barkina ordered the defense to recommend by Friday which doctors they want to examine Pope, who suffers from bone cancer. Astakhov said he would insist on an American doctor - a request that has been denied up until now.

The lawyer also demanded a new translator. The translator at the hearing was from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the agency that has lodged the charges against Pope.

Pope might refuse to testify because of the translator, Astakhov said. He went on to say that Pope doubted the accuracy of the indictment's translation which he was permitted to see three times - once when he signed it and twice when he was permitted to read it for an hour.

The court hearing was closed, and U.S. Embassy officials were not permitted to attend. 

Astakhov said Pope was pessimistic about the outcome of the trial, which was expected to last up to four weeks.

A key figure in the case, a university professor named Anatoly Babkin, was not on the list of prosecution witnesses, Astakhov said. The defense will insist that he testify because he helped Pope in his search for unclassified naval equipment designs, he said. 

Babkin was originally charged with divulging state secrets, but the FSB have since then suspended his case.

Pope's supporters say he was seeking information on an underwater propulsion system that is at least 10 years old and has already been sold abroad. But Russian says the Shkval underwater missile is cutting-edge military technology. The missile glides on air bubbles it creates as it moves, and can travel at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution last week urging the Clinton administration to link future aid to Russia to Pope's release.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Sub Project Unveiled


SEVERODVINSK, Far North (Reuters) - Russia and the United States unveiled Wednesday their first joint project to render harmless Moscow's rusting fleet of disused nuclear submarines, which has raised serious fears of pollution.

The U.S.-funded facility in the town of Severodvinsk on the White Sea will help Russia reduce the risk of polluting its own and international waters as it takes hundreds of nuclear vessels out of service under disarmament agreements with Washington.

The plant is due to help Russia tackle the problem of low-level radioactive waste extracted from nuclear submarines scrapped under START strategic disarmament agreements. 



Belarus Vote Praised


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia welcomed the outcome of a general election in neighboring Belarus boycotted by the ex-Soviet state's opposition Wednesday and said criticism by some Western observers exposed their bias.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union, which sent observers to Sunday's election along with the Council of Europe, has said the poll did not meet international standards. The United States has also said it would not recognize the vote.



Russia No. 2 for Sex


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) - Americans beat out Russians for having sex the most often, a global survey by a British condom maker said Tuesday.

"The Americans claim to be enjoying the most sex at 132 times a year followed by the Russians (122), the French (121) and the Greeks (115)," said SSL International, which makes Durex condoms.

"On average, people globally are having sex 96 times a year," said the company in its survey of 18,000 adults ages 16 to 25.

The survey said young Japanese made love the least often at 37 times a year while Malaysians did it 62 times a year and the Chinese 69 times a year.



Lithuanian Defeat


VILNIUS, Lithuania (Reuters) - Lithuania's prime minister said Wednesday that he would resign Thursday following his party's defeat in elections this month to pave the way for a new government to be formed.

Kubilius is to present his resignation to President Valdas Adamkus on Thursday, a formality for a sitting government under Lithuania's constitution following an election.



Trawler Crew Found


VLADIVOSTOK, Far East (Reuters) - The 20-strong crew of a Russian fishing boat that sank in a storm in the Pacific were found alive aboard rafts on Thursday after more than 12 hours lost at sea, officials said.

Twelve of the crew, including its captain, were found on one life raft and taken on board another fishing boat.

The other eight were spotted from the air on a second raft after darkness fell and officials hoped to reach them by sea shortly, a provincial Emergencies Ministry officer said by telephone from the island of Sakhalin.

The crew of the Taifun-1 had been out of contact since early morning near the Kurile Islands north of Japan, when the captain reported that the vessel was listing and in danger of sinking.

The 12 rescued crew on the first life raft were taken aboard the trawler Ostrov Sakhalin and were in good health, a sea rescue officer in the port of Vladivostok said.



Kremlin Names Mayor


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin renamed convicted embezzler Bislan Gantamirov as mayor of the Chechen capital Wednesday, saying it had ended a feud between the two most prominent pro-Moscow Chechen leaders.

RTR television showed Viktor Ka zant sev, the Kremlin's envoy in southern Russia, announcing Gantamirov's appointment in the city of Rostov-on-Don with Akhmad Kadyrov, Moscow's hand-picked Chechen boss.

Kadyrov and Gantamirov clashed earlier this year, embarrassing the Krem lin. Moscow appointed Ganta mi rov the Grozny mayor after its troops seized the city during the 1994-96 war. He was jailed after being convicted of stealing millions of dollars intended to rebuild the city. He was pardoned and went on to form a pro-Moscow militia. 



Nuke Cuts Observed


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it has stuck to its proposal of quick cuts to nuclear arsenals during arms control talks with U.S. envoys this week. The ministry also said that Moscow has presented some ideas on how arms control pacts by Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bill Clinton could be achieved without altering the key Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"There is no objective political reason not to go to a common ceiling of a maximum 1,500 warheads for each side," it said after talks between Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov and John Holum, the State Department's undersecretary for arms control and international security.

TITLE: Risk to Divers Could Sink Kursk Retrieval
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The chief of the navy said Thursday that he may scrap the recovery of crewmen's remains from the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine if experts decide the operation would risk deep-sea divers' lives.


"If the analysis of the situation inside the submarine's hull shows it's dangerous and too risky for the divers, I will be forced to give orders to cancel the operation," Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov said in a statement. "We mustn't allow the operation at the site of the catastrophe to turn into yet another severe shock for all of us."

Many naval experts have pointed out that the divers would be in deadly danger by working in their bulky pressure suits inside the cramped submarine compartments, which are likely littered with jagged pieces of metal and other debris.

Kuroyedov described the task as a "serious challenge in the technological and moral and psychological sense."

British, Scandinavian and Russian divers have sailed from the Norwegian port of Hammerfest on the mother ship Regalia and are expected to reach the site where the Kursk sank early Friday.

If the government cancels the salvage effort, the public seems prepared to accept it calmly. For weeks, Russian newspapers and television channels have described its dangers and suggested that the remains should be left in the sunken submarine.

"For relatives and for us, the crew have forever gone to sea," the Komsomolskaya Pravda said Thursday in a commentary. "Should we break the tradition that says that a crew's grave is their ship?"

Marine specialists have also pointed out that cutting holes in the submarine's hull to reach the bodies could jeopardize the safety of the Kursk's nuclear reactors, which automatically shut down after the explosion. No radiation leak has been spotted.

All 118 seamen on board the Kursk died in the Aug. 12 accident, when the submarine exploded and sank during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. Officials have not determined the cause of the accident. 

Experts point to a new torpedo undergoing tests as a likely cause of the disaster. Without citing any evidence, the daily Izvestia claimed Thursday that the new torpedo was a modification of the older Shkval underwater missile, a device that glides on huge air bubbles it creates as it goes along.

The newspaper said the navy was in a hurry to test it, because the government planned to sell the torpedoes to Iran.

Meanwhile, Irina Lyachina, the widow of the Kursk's captain, accused Russian authorities of misappropriating funds intended for families of the victims.

"There is no talk about help for the Kursk crew members' families," Lyachina wrote in a letter published Thursday by Komsomolskaya Pravda. She said she had resigned in protest from a commission overseeing the government and charitable funds.

Lyachina said the commission decided to spend 23,000 rubles ($821) on copies of a commemorative book about the accident for libraries and schools. She also protested using 5,000 rubles ($178) to mail thank-you letters to the donors, which were signed by Murmansk regional Governor Yury Yevdokimov, who heads the commission.

A spokeswoman for Yevdokimov declined to comment. NTV television reported that compensation funds for the families, which includes government and private donations, totaled about 118 million rubles ($4.2 million).

TITLE: Russian Aluminum Trading Now in Cyberspace
AUTHOR: By Andy Blamey
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - Internet metals marketplace Metals-Russia.com has launched live trading via its Web site, www.metals-russia.com, company president and CEO Dmitry Tseitlin said Monday.


"The system is fully operational," Tseitlin said.

The company, based in Israel, aims to connect the Russian metal industry to consumers worldwide via online trading and supply chain management plus a range of support services including trade finance and logistics.

"We are targeting aluminum as our first metal. We have an Internet marketing agreement with the largest Russian producer, Russian Aluminum, but we are also targeting other Russian aluminum producers," said Tseitlin.

Russian Aluminum officials said last week that the company plans to export 2.1 million tons of aluminum next year. It is one of the world's top three aluminum producers.

Prior to founding Metals-Russia.com, Tseitlin was head of marketing at Siberian Aluminum, which is now part of the Russian group.

While the initial focus is on aluminum, the company foresees adding other metals such as copper and steel at a later date.

Initial target markets are the United States and Europe.

The company has signed a joint-venture deal with U.S.-based Internet marketplace Aluminium.com.

"We have a joint marketing agreement with them so we consider them as our sales representatives in the United States," Tseitlin said.

The deal includes an arrangement under which Metals-Russia.com would be the sole Russian metals supplier portal on Aluminium.com, while the U.S. site would be the only metals exchange linked to Metals-Russia.com.

"The other very important market for us is Europe, but the penetration of the Internet is slower. ... It requires a different approach to a different market. We're working on our marketing strategy in Europe," Tseitlin said.

The company has secured commitments from Russian metals producers to place $3 billion worth of metals over the next two years; the Aluminium.com deal guarantees a supply of metals for transaction through the U.S. site worth $1 billion over the same period.

Tseitlin declined to give details of other producers signed up, or the tonnage involved.

"We have an Internet marketing agreement, we have a commitment from Russian manufacturers to sell this volume through our site, but the final decision belongs to the producer," he said.

The site offers participants the choice of conducting business by catalogue sales, auctions or - via a link to Aluminium.com - managed negotiation.

The company is also looking at capacity auctions, whereby suppliers could use the Web site to manage future output plans by lining up customer commitments.

"You are selling future production. In some semi-finished products with certain capacities you can produce a variety of products, so you're selling the capacity of a particular product," Tseitlin said, adding that Russia has substantial tonnage of unutilized capacity.

The company aims to generate revenues from two sources: Potential buyers will be charged a $1,000-a-year subscription fee to sign up to the site, while suppliers will pay a transaction fee.

"Our job as a company is to bring in quality end-users and bring full supply-chain transparency to the industry," Tseitlin said.

Despite the plethora of metals trading sites that have sprung up in recent months, the company's uniquely Russian emphasis should guarantee it a niche market, Tseitlin said.

TITLE: Foreign Businesses To Have Their Say
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The speaker of St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly has called for the foreign business community to participate in a rethink of the city's investment laws.


Speaking to members of the St. Petersburg International Business Association, or SPIBA, Sergei Tarasov said that the assembly wanted foreign businesses to participate in developing investment legislation because of their level of experience in this area.

"Who knows all the difficulties [of investing] better than the investors themselves?" he said in a speech at a SPIBA general meeting on Tuesday.

Tarasov also invited SPIBA members to suggest changes to existing laws, both on a local and a federal level.

SPIBA comprises 134 business, diplomatic and other organizations representing 21 countries.

Tarasov, 41, was elected speaker of the Legislative Assembly in June, filling a post that had been vacant since April 1998. The head of the assembly's Our City faction, Tarasov's business experience includes a stint as deputy head of the Lenexpo exhibition center, and as the manager of a joint-stock computer firm.

In an official letter to Tarasov sent after the meeting, members of SPIBA's executive committee said that tax issues were among the main points that should be taken up by the Legislative Assembly. In particular, the letter pointed to the possible raise in profits tax to 5 percent, as allowed by Part Two of the Tax Code, and mentioned amendments to legislation on tax breaks for investors in St. Petersburg.

James T. Hitch, the chairman of SPIBA's legislation and social policy committee, said after Tarasov's speech that this would help stimulate the flow of funds into Russia.

Tarasov said that the city's parliament would not raise taxes for businesses for the next 18 months, but said to journalists after the meeting that he was against any further tax privileges.

"The Legislative Assembly would like to attract investors with [straight forward] bureaucratic mechanisms, but not by reducing taxes," he said. 

The letter to Tarasov also highlighted bureaucracy as a major concern, citing documentation such as visas, work permits and registration of companies.

Finally, it mentioned the dual pricing system for Russians and foreigners for entrance to museums and theaters, and hinted that this should be abolished. The "foreigners' price" has long been a thorn in the side of St. Petersburg's ex-patriot community.

Alexander Afanasiyev, spokes man for Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev, said on Thursday that in theory the Legislative Assembly could stick to Tarasov's promise of leaving taxes alone.

But he said the assembly doesn't always act with one voice, and sometimes laws were the battleground for the parliament's internal conflicts.

"Furthermore, taxes might be raised by the state, and that would not depend on the assembly," Afa na siyev said. 

Meanwhile, Lev Savulkin of the local research think-tank the Leontief Center, said that the city needed to make sure that it reformed investment laws in their entirety.

"However, the regulations in these laws are too general, and don't mention specifics for small investors, such as renting land and buildings, real estate operations, the bureaucratic stages [to go through] when dealing with the [city] administration, and so on. To get money flowing in St. Petersburg, the city will have to pass broad reforms." 

According to the City Statistics Committee, foreign investment in 1999 brought the city a total of $706 million. Foreign investment for the first half of 2000 stood at $533.5 million, the committee reported.

TITLE: Baltika Owners Brewing Up Expansion
AUTHOR: By Alexander Gubsky
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The merger was announced last week of Danish brewers Carlsberg with the joint Swedish and Norwegian group Pripps Ringnes - brewers of Pripps, Lapin Kulta and Ramlosa mineral water.


The deal, which has yet to be approved by the European Union's anti-monopoly bodies, will result in the world's fifth-largest beer company.

The Scandinavian merger will directly affect Russia - Pripps and Finland's Hartwell company formed the Baltika Beverages Holding, which has controlling stakes in Russia's No. 1 brewer, Baltika, as well as four other breweries.

Pripps managing director, Mikael Hellberg, spoke about plans for the new company.



Q: How is the merger proceeding?

A: The first news was released in June. On Oct. 5, the merger of Carlsberg and Pripps Ringnes into Carlsberg Breweries was officially announced. Sixty percent of the new company will go to Carlsberg and 40 percent to the Orkla company, which owns Pripps Ringnes. Carlsberg is not new to Sweden as it already had production capabilities there through its Falcone subsidiary. Now Pripps and Falcone will form the Carlsberg Sweden company.




Q: Carlsberg Breweries will control 60 percent of the Swedish beer market. Moreover, you will have a big share in the Baltic states. To what extent are fears that the European Union's anti-monopoly bodies will reject the merger justified?

A: We may have to sell part of our production capabilities to competitors. We are waiting for the anti-monopoly bodies' decision in mid-December, and we expect that it will be positive.




Q: What will change for Baltika as a result of the merger?

A: Nothing, in principle: Baltika will remain the same independent enterprise that it is. The share of Pripps in the BBH holding will be transferred to Carlsberg.




Q: BBH has hopes of turning Baltika into the biggest-selling brand in Europe. [At present it comes in second behind Heineken, Pripps media service said.] When, in your opinion, could this happen?

A: It all depends on how many people buy Baltika. We believe it will be No. 1 within a year. That does not mean the company will significantly increase investment and the company's situation will not change radically. There is a plan for developing production.




Q: How will the new company develop after the merger?

A: The merger is good news because we will keep the old trademarks. But in so doing, we will have more resources for development purposes. For consumers nothing will change. Now the label will simply have Carlsberg Sweden in small letters where Pripps was written previously. It is not part of our tradition to drop old names. We have kept the names of many brands that were brewed at now-defunct breweries.

Q: But you will be making cuts?

A: Of course. When two people get married they no longer need two separate apartments. The same is true when companies merge. We will be twice as big, but we don't plan to spend twice as much. A decision to cut staff has not yet been taken, but down-sizing is necessary. Most likely this will affect administrative personnel - there is no sense laying off the factory workers.




Q: What are your plans for Eastern Europe?

A: They have yet to be agreed to and fleshed out in great detail. Think about it - we export beer to these countries, plus we have the BBH holding that belongs to Pripps and Hartwell, as well as factories in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Pripps will sell its premium goods in Eastern Europe. We are not counting on big volumes, but we would like to achieve good visibility - at the better restaurants for example. I should emphasize that Eastern Europe is a priority area for us.




Q: Are you working on any advertising projects for Russia?

A: We are considering various possibilities right now. Carlsberg has a good position on the mass market and we want to enter the market with our own products of a higher-price category.




Q: Do you plan to create new brands for Russia?

A: No, we will continue to develop the ones we have already. Perhaps Carlsberg will try to promote its brands more actively in Russia using BBH's dealer network. But this would not be a big share of the market - Baltika has priority.




Q: What is Pripps' role at Baltika? Do you take part in the resolution of technical issues? Do you provide the Russian enterprise with specialists?

A: After we became co-owners of Baltika in 1993, we began by moving equipment from Swedish and Finnish breweries to the St. Petersburg factory. There are no problems getting equipment in Sweden. Due to mergers, many smaller breweries closed, and to this day, much of their equipment stands idle.


We have trained staff and introduced new hygiene standards. The Baltika recipe was modernized - it is virtually the same as Sweden's popular Pripps Bla light beer that is sold internationally.



Q: Do any Pripps managers work at Baltika ?

A: At the moment - no. Our philosophy is as follows: National enterprises must stand on their own two feet. There shouldn't be too many foreigners. At the start, we poured resources into all areas in order to train people. But after a certain amount of time, people must work independently. Management should be local while we, the shareholders, are always prepared to provide financial or technical support.




Q: Does Pripps continue to put money into Baltika or is this no longer required?

A: The situation varies from year to year. It depends on two things: the volume of investment required and the level of profits. Some years BBH put in additional money and some years not.

TITLE: Russia Falling Behind in War Against Poverty
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Responding to a UN request that member states use Tuesday's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty to escalate a war on poverty, Russian officials unloaded reams of statistics but offered few solutions.


During a White House roundtable with experts from both the government and the private sector, officials announced that 36.7 percent of the population, or about 52 million people, now live below subsistence level - the equivalent of less than $1 a day.

And an even larger number, 54 percent, consider themselves poor, according to a poll conducted by VTsIOM, the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion.

"The way we classify poverty does not match most people's view of themselves," said Natalya Klimashevskaya, head of Moscow's Social Economics Institute.

President Vladimir Putin's government has vowed to make wage reform a top priority, but results are hard to come by. The official minimum wage this year was only raised by 50 rubles ($1.79) to 132 rubles ($4.74) a month, and isn't scheduled to rise above the ruble equivalent of $10 until July 2001.

But even when the minimum wage does break the $10-a-month threshold, it will still be some 75 percent lower than the official subsistence level. The government can do very little about it.

In the meantime, the rich are getting richer: Salaries for the 10 percent of households with the highest income are 32 times those for the lowest 10 percent, and their total income is 44 times higher.

"The lowest 10 percent are just degrading," said Deputy Labor Minister Galina Karelova.

Having children also becomes an additional burden on households. About half of all families with one child live below the subsistence level. With three children in the family, chances are three out of four that each family member will have less than a dollar a day to live on.

Only 14 of the country's 89 regions actually pay benefits to families that are entitled, while the rest run debts of 26 billion rubles ($935 million).

"Categories of poor people are getting broader every year," said Karelova. "Those on the government's payroll gradually join the ranks of the poor."

Having identified the problem, the government now has to decide how to tackle it officials said.

During Tuesday's roundtable, which was broadcast on the Internet and open to questions from around the country, users asked why Duma deputies kept paying themselves monthly pensions worth some 8,000 rubles, a sum nine times the national average.

"Personally, I think it's a shame," said Anatoly Aksakov, deputy head of the Duma's committee on economic policies. "Since parliamentarians are most inclined to pass populist laws before the elections, chances are high that more than half of the Duma members will vote for the law if is submitted just before their term expires."

The Duma has earmarked 1.5 billion rubles in next year's budget to build an apartment house for its members - about 15 percent of the amount earmarked for scientific research. Such numbers are one of the biggest complaints of Duma Deputy Zhores Alfyorov, Russia's newest Nobel laureate. Alfyorov met with Putin this month to ask for more funding for science.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Merloni Buys Stinol


MOSCOW (Vedomosti) - Italian company Merloni Elettrodomestici has completed its acquisition of a 100 percent stake in the Stinol refrigerator factory worth $119.3 million, the companies announced at a news conference on Tuesday.

However, the Interros holding, a shareholder in NLMK, issued a press release the same day saying the deal to buy the factory - Russia's largest refrigerator producer and a subsidiary of the Novolipetsk metals plant, or NLMK - was illegal.

By acquiring Stinol, Merloni will increase its share of the appliance market by 15 percent to 35 percent. Over the next three years, Merloni plans to invest $50 million in production at the factory.



French Talk to Gref


MOSCOW (SPT) - French oil company Total Fina Elf is ready to invest $230 million in the Russian economy over the next two years, and a further $500 million later, said Francois Rafin, a company representative in Moscow, in remarks reported by Interfax.

The remarks were made at a meeting with Economic Trade and Development Minister German Gref.

Total Fina Elf also confirmed plans to participate with other foreign companies and Gazprom in a joint-development of the Shtokmanovsky gas condensate deposit in the Barents Sea under a PSA, with an investment of $10 billion.

Koshikov said representatives from the French company expressed interest in participating in tenders for "more difficult" deposits in Russia and particularly in the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province under production sharing conditions, Interfax reported. 



UES Blasts Tambov


MOSCOW (AP) - National power grid Unified Energy Systems on Thursday accused officials in Tambov of breaking the law after armed riot police occupied four power relay stations that had cut electricity over unpaid bills.

UES said in a statement that police in Tambov, about 400 kilometers southeast of Moscow, were meddling in the work of electricity dispatchers, which the company said was a violation of federal law.

The standoff erupted Wednesday when UES ordered four electricity transmitting stations to drastically cut power to the city electricity network in a bid to make it pay some 449 million rubles ($16 million) in debts.

Tambov officials responded by sending OMON riot police to occupy the stations and forcing workers at the stations to return power to normal levels.



Vimpelcom Falls


MOSCOW (SPT) - The president of local cellular operator Vimpelcom said Wednesday that government plans to seize two-thirds of its GSM 900 frequencies was "100 percent" to blame for the company's continuing stock debacle.

Vimpelcom's New York-listed American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) have lost nearly half their value since mid September, when the order became public.

The Communications Ministry has since said it annulled the seizure order, which called for Vimpelcom to vacate 30 of its 45 GSM 900 frequencies by Nov. 1. But Vimpelcom president Jo Lunder said he has yet to receive official confirmation of the annulment or a promise that he wouldn't lose the frequencies in the end.

Lunder also conceded that a soft market for telecoms stocks was holding Vimpelcom down.

TITLE: Report: BP in Surprise Move for Rosneft Stake in Sakhalin 1
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth LeBras
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - World oil No. 3 British Petroleum wants half of state-owned oil company Rosneft's 40 percent stake in the massive Sakhalin 1 offshore oil and gas project, The Wall Street Journal Europe reported Tuesday.


Rosneft spokesman Alexander Stepanenko was quoted by the paper as saying that BP sent a letter to Rosneft late last month with an offer to purchase the stake, which analysts say could go for as much as $400 million.

Both BP and Rosneft refused to confirm the report Tuesday.

On Monday, Rosneft said it had rejected a $170 million offer for the stake by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. - prompting analysts to conclude that Rosneft was holding out for a larger bid.

Gennady Krasovsky, oil and gas analyst for the NIKoil brokerage, said the stake could be worth up to $400 million, which BP would probably be willing to pay.

Reports of BP's interest in Sakhalin 1 - near the Sakhalin Islands in the Pacific - surprised many observers, because the company's huge investment in a 10 percent stake in oil major Sidanko currently appears in jeopardy. Sidanko's main production unit Chernogorneft was acquired last year by the Tyumen Oil Co., or TNK, in a hostile takeover. Sidanko and TNK are still fighting over the unit.

"If BP Amoco is becoming more aggressive in its activities in Russia, despite the difficulties with Sidanko, then they are very brave people," said Dmitry Avdeyev, oil and gas analyst for United Financial Group.

The purchase of the stake in Sakhalin 1 could represent a safer investment for BP, since the project is covered by a production sharing agreement, or PSA, with the federal government that guarantees attractive investment terms, such as tax breaks.

BP's recent behavior indicates that the company is trying to strengthen its ties with its Russian partners, said Yury Kafiev, chief analyst at the investment company Olma.

Just a year ago, BP was strongly opposed to a planned $500 million loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to TNK.

That loan was temporarily frozen after TNK's acquisition of Chernogorneft.

Now, however, BP is strongly in favor of the loan, and the company is seeking to actively cooperate with TNK in the development of western Siberian oil fields, Kafiev said.

Kafiev said he didn't think that Rosneft was trying to sell half its stake in Sakhalin 1 because of a cash crisis. The move could also be a at Rosneft to "consolidate" itself.

The oil company could be contemplating increasing its 38 percent stakes in its subsidiaries.

UFG's Avdeyev said that it was simply "the best time [for Rosneft] to sell the stake" because demand for oil products is at a record levels.

TITLE: Coffee Counterfeiters Fleeing Capital for Regional Markets
AUTHOR: By Dina Vishnyaand Yelena Evstigneyeva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Counterfeit coffee and tea makers masquerading their products as name brands have lost ground in the capital over the last six months, market participants say.


Law enforcement bodies and industry leaders have banded together to push out the fakes. The pirates have, however, moved out into the regions.

Tea and coffee manufacturers maintain their best defense lies in expensive and sophisticated packaging. Ultimately, the consumer may have to foot the bill for the struggle with counterfeiters.

Manufacturers only start to take on pirates when illegal sales volumes increase, as they did a year ago. 

At the time 13 companies, including major coffee manufacturers Nestle, Kraft Foods and Tchibo as well as Lipton tea producers Unilever, formed the informal Brand Protection Group. The members of the group collectively lost $473 million last year, according to research conducted by Deloitte & Touche CIS.

One measure for fighting pirates, employed by virtually all the big-name tea and coffee makers, is to conduct joint raids with law enforcement bodies.

"Control has tightened on the Moscow market, where the bulk of counterfeit goods are traditionally sold," said Alexei Popovichev, deputy general director of RVR Communications, which represents the interests of BPG.

"It seems to me," he added, "city authorities have finally realized that they too suffer major losses through the sale of fake goods and have started to take action accordingly."

The St. Petersburg representative office for Tchibo together with Rostest-Peterburg carried out raids on shops last spring. Forged brands were found in 120 outlets and as a result St. Petersburg has been stripped of counterfeit Tchibo, said a Rostest representative.

Joint raids are carried out from time to time by Nikitin, the makers of the "tea with the elephant." As a result, the volume of pirated goods has fallen over the past few months, said Vladimir Paulyus, Nikitin's general director.

Paulyus does not attribute the drop solely to these strong-handed measures, but also to raising consumer and merchant awareness.

"Obviously, a year ago fakes were more plentiful," said Maria Malishkina, head of client relations at the Coffee Inform research company. "But two years ago, even cash-and-carry sellers were unable to identify the fakes. Now shopkeepers and customers are more aware. It is getting tougher for counterfeiters to survive."

The goods posing as brand names have fallen because "companies are spending big money protecting themselves against fakes and on advertising that explains how to identify the real thing," said Alexei Skvortsov, senior lawyer at the Hedman office.

But there is a flip side.

"The consumer can get confused by complex descriptions of how to tell fakes from the real thing while for the counterfeiters it can prove a useful guide," said Po po vi chev of RVR. "They can come up with new versions of the product in as little as two weeks."

Many manufacturers think the way out is for fakes to be made economically nonviable. This could mean periodically changing the product's design.

"Our Moccona coffee is not copied specifically because of its expensive packaging," said Alexei Melnikov, head of the Douwe Egberts representative office.

Another good defense is to use complex packaging such as oddly shaped jars, said Filipp Uei, general director of Kraft Foods in the Leningrad region.

The Nikitin company plans to change its packaging in mid-November, said marketing director Andrei Razumov.

"It will have a more complicated design and the cost of the packaging materials will increase significantly; so it will be harder and less profitable to fake," Razumov said.

Previously, teas could be distinguished from counterfeits by a specially printed sign, but this proved exceptionally easy to copy.

For this reason most companies do not reveal where their packaging is produced. The industry learned from its experience in Poland, where counterfeiters purchased their packaging at the same factory as the brand-name producers.

The Petersburg company Orimi Trade is pushing for legislation dealing with counterfeits to be stronger.

Igor Lisinenko, a State Duma deputy, is the founder and former owner of the Mai company, whose Maisky Chai is frequently copied. He is drafting a law on the protection of intellectual property by which pirates would be made criminally liable rather than simply fined.

Theft of intellectual property must be punished like that of material valuables, he said.

TITLE: New Gazprom Pipeline To Bypass Ukraine
AUTHOR: By Aleksandras Budrys
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russian gas giant Gazprom officially announced plans to build a new export pipeline bypassing Ukraine on Thursday.


Ukraine shrugged off fears the plans would hit its economy while Poland, whose agreement is vital, urged an international conference grouping all the countries affected.

Gazprom said in a statement it had signed a letter of intent with German Ruhrgas and Wintershall, Gaz de France and Italy's Snam to create a new export channel bypassing Ukraine to ship more gas to energy-hungry Western customers.

The 600-km pipe line, with a capacity of 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year, could have two lines and would run through Belarus, Poland and Slovakia, bypassing Ukraine. Its cost is estimated at $2 billion.

Gazprom was vague about the timing, saying the participants would soon estimate the technical, financial, economic and legal aspects and make a joint decision on implementation.

The decision to bypass Ukraine came after repeated criticism of Kiev by Gazprom for massive debts for gas and for siphoning off gas transported to Europe via Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma shrugged off fears the pipeline project would hit his country's economy.

"You know, it usually takes a lot of time from the project to its practical implementation," he told reporters.

Kuchma admitted cases of Russian gas being stolen and said Ukraine had this year alone amassed debts of 320 million hryvnias ($59 million) to Itera, a transporter and distributor of Russian gas, and $700 million to Gazprom.

Experts put Ukraine's debt to Gazprom at over $2 billion.

Kuchma also highlighted a political angle, saying he agreed with those in Ukraine who say former imperial master Russia was over-politicizing the gas issue and raised it every time Moscow wanted to assert its long-term interests in the region.

"One should not be too wise to use such an opportunity for political purposes," he said in reference to Russia. "If I were in their place, I would do the same."

Poland, which has insisted that it would oppose any plans which could damage Ukraine, a strategic ally, gave a guarded response to the pipeline plans.

Government spokesman Krzystof Luft said Poland wanted to organize the international conference quickly.

"We want to take an active part in talks concerning all gas transportation projects," Luft said.

An Economy Ministry statement said Poland remained opposed to any plan that might prevent completion of the second strand of the Yamal pipeline and did not look favorably on the Gazprom bypass proposal on economic, ecological and political grounds.

Yamal, whose first strand opened this year, is to take 67 billion cubic meters of gas to western Europe from the Siberian Yamal peninsula annually via Belarus and Poland. Polish gas and oil group PGNiG is building the second strand with Gazprom.

Analysts said Polish opposition might not stop the plan.

"We believe that this consortium of major European gas operators combined with the political support of Russia and the European Union will help overcome this difficulty," Moscow's Alfa Bank said in its daily market comment.

Others highlighted the huge funding needed. "The new pipeline's capacity is estimated at 60 bcm annually, or 46 percent of the current exports to Europe," said Steven Dashevsky of the Aton brokerage.

With Yamal, which has maximum capacity of 30 bcm per year and the Blue Stream, another pipeline of 16 bcm per year, which Gazprom is building to Turkey, Gazprom will almost completely eliminate transit dependence on Ukraine, he said.

"This is a major move toward final resolution of the Ukrainian issue, although the completion of all projects will take another three or four years and require massive capital expenditures, which Gazprom continues to lack."

TITLE: Regulator Sees Better Investment Rules
AUTHOR: By Brian Killen
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: The country's financial markets, potentially lucrative for investors but no place for the faint-hearted, should become less risky as a result of new regulatory measures, the main market watchdog body said.


The head of the Federal Securities Commission welcomed a presidential order this week abolishing obligatory membership of self-regulatory organizations and said this was just one of a series of steps aimed at improving market regulation.

"We don't fear any deterioration in regulation of the markets, because I think this will lead to closer contacts between the commission and the self-regulatory organizations," Igor Kostikov said in an interview late Wednesday.

He said organizations such as stock market watchdog NAUFOR, and the Professional Association of Registrars, Transfer Agents and Depositaries, or PARTAD, had become like monopolies and obligatory membership contradicted the Russian constitution. Now they would be more professional, while maintaining a supervisory function, he added.

Kostikov said the FSC had worked out in the last six months a new system for licensing and regulating professional market participants.

He said a new licensing regulation, registered at the Justice Ministry, would be published next week allowing for the introduction of practices hitherto virtually unknown in Russia.

"This will introduce a series of new guidelines which will give us the possibility to deal with regulation of insider information, build Chinese walls," he said, referring to rules designed to prevent sensitive price information seeping between different departments of the same investment house.

He said the regulations envisaged creation of a new department on Russian stock exchanges which would deal with supervision and monitoring. "We are adding another element of supervision and monitoring with the aim of reducing risk."

The FSC, with broad responsibilities over licensing and registration of share issues and a key arbiter in disputes, is now widely regarded as a force to be reckoned with by companies and market participants alike.

Kostikov said a new corporate governance code was being worked out with investors and international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

"In the not too distant past, major Russian corporations demonstrated not quite sporting behavior in this area, but now they understand that they cannot behave in this way," he said.

TITLE: Vodka Distillery Gets New Director
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Trailed by riot police and a court bailiff, the man ruled the rightful director of Moscow's Kristall vodka distillery took control of the plant's head office and said the long ownership dispute had ended.


Alexander Romanov took over the office of the factory from his rival Vladimir Svirsky on Tuesday night.

"I consider the conflict resolved," Romanov said. "The activities of the previous management will be assessed by the competent bodies."

The dispute began in May when Kristall's board of directors elected Romanov general director. Some board members objected, and a Moscow court ruled in July that the appointment was invalid, naming Svir sky acting director.

Before the court ruling, Romanov only controlled Kristall's operational management. All production and 90 percent of sales were controlled by Svirsky.

But Romanov and his guards occupied the production line in August, while Svirsky was camped out in the head office. The court finally reversed itself Sept. 29, ruling that Romanov was, in fact, the rightful director.

Romanov claims that the previous management - for which Svirsky served as chief accountant - drove Kristall to the edge of bankruptcy. He said investigators were checking whether there had been criminal activity at Kristall.

Svirsky denied the accusations and rejected the latest court ruling, calling Romanov's move "outrageous."

Romanov wanted to take control of the territory of the factory prior to the meeting of Kristall's shareholders scheduled for Monday, Svirsky said. The plan for the meeting was to replace the representative of the Mos cow government with the representative of federal departments on the board of directors, he added.

The state owns 51 percent of Kristall's shares, which are being transferred to the newly registered state company Rosspirtprom, where all state-owned stakes in alcohol-producing enterprises are to be held. The remaining 49 percent of the shares in the factory belong to private companies, which include Soyuzplodimport, Tekhnogres and an off-shore company incorporated in Cyprus, as well as Kristall employees.

"This is a direct threat not only to the factory, but to the government," Svirsky's lawyer, Yakov Mastinsky, told reporters. Mastinsky accused Romanov's guards of blocking everything from going in or out of the distillery, including finished vodka, and said production was grinding to a halt.

Kristall is one of Russia's approximately 180 vodka distilleries, and among the most famous. It makes the Stolichnaya brand, which is exported all over the world, along with other, cheaper liquors that sell for the ruble equivalent of less than $2 a bottle.

- AP, Vedomosti

TITLE: People Mark Out Their Best-Loved Brands
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The people have spoken: Their tastes have not changed all that much in two years.


In the third People's Mark contest, in which consumers from across the country vote for their favorite brands in 20 categories, the same makers of fruit juice, toothpaste, candy and chewing gum that won in 1998 again appeared in the top spots this year.

The same automobile, television, refrigerator, washing machine and laundry detergent producers also won.

"At first we were shocked, and we thought [the results] were strange," said Maria Khokhlova, an organizer of the People's Mark contest.

"And then we thought, this is good," she said. "Those winners in 1998 were companies that were very interested in the Russian market. Their strategic plans are not for one year, nor for just a moment of success."

Wimm-Bill-Dann's J-7 fruit juices won first place, as did Blend-A-Med toothpaste, Krasny Oktyabr candies and Dirol chewing gum. In nonfoods, AvtoVAZ won for cars, Samsung for televisions, Stinol for refrigerators, Bosch for washing machines and Tide for laundry detergent.

Only four categories saw new winners. Coca-Cola beat out Sprite for best carbonated drink and RJ Reynolds' domestically produced Pyotr I cigarettes took over from L&M. Head & Shoulders won for shampoo and Chudo Yogurt for yogurt.

"People don't like change in general," said John Rose, president of the Rose Creative Strategies advertising agency.

"Often it's just simply having the right product in the right market at the right time.

"I haven't seen a lot of [brand] introductions in the last two years since the crisis," he said.

With a nod to changing consumer habits and the prevalence of different products on the shelves, this year's contest added deodorant, computer printers and microwaves to the list. Rexona took top place for deodorants, Hewlett-Packard for printers and Samsung for microwaves.

Some 35,700 people voted for their favorite brand through the Internet and two national newspapers. The contest is backed by the Chamber of Industry and Trade and the Anti-Mono poly Ministry.

The winning company gets the right to use the People's Mark emblem - a white thumbs-up sign on a red background - for two years.

The categories alternate every other year, and last year people voted for their favorite motorcycle, bullion cubes and pantyhose.

Foreign names made up the bulk of the winners - 14 of 16 - in 1999.

This year Russian-made products took seven of the 20 categories, excluding the Cyrillic-spelled Pyotr I smokes.

Only one Russian producer - AvtoVAZ - won in the nonfood categories. Mercedes and BMW took second and third place, respectively, for automobiles.

"People know that there are certain things that Russians can do OK, and certain things they can't," Rose said, adding that shoppers might tend to think the local food or drink product is fresher.

The closest vote was for televisions, with Samsung edging out Sony by 1 percent with 25 percent of the vote.

The widest winning margin went to J-7 juices, whose 44 percent was far ahead of the 7.8 percent won by No. 2 Wimm-Bill-Dann. Both juices are produced by the same Russian company.

Organizers stressed that there was no direct link between winning and the amount a company spends on advertising, saying that prices and quality matter more.

Bringing that point home, Khokhlova showed a list of advertising budgets showing that commercials and billboards were not necessarily the driving factor behind consumers' predilections. For example, second-place winner Bochkaryov beer spent more than $11 million in advertising in the past year and garnered only 6 percent of the vote. Winner Baltika spent just over $2 million and still grabbed about 30 percent of the vote.

Anatoly Daursky, president of Kras ny Oktyabr, agreed that brand awareness doesn't always depend on millions of dollars being spent on ads.

"I am speaking to you today, and it will be in the newspapers," he said. "That also helps build the recognition of our firm."

TITLE: Oligarchs as Nation's Saviors? Berezovsky Justifies Himself
AUTHOR: By Boris Berezovsky
TEXT: A GROUP of House Republicans in the United States has assailed the Clinton administration for supporting Russia's former president, Boris Yeltsin, whom they accuse of fostering corruption and allowing undue influence to big business during his time in office. Similar views are expressed by some reviewers of Yeltsin's memoirs, just published.


Unfortunately, these people neglect the context of Russian history. As a participant in a major business privatization deal of that period - for which I have been labeled an "oligarch" - I would like to put what happened in Russia in historical perspective.

When the Bolsheviks abolished private property in 1917, they put all expropriated wealth under the management of two organizations that were to become pillars of Soviet totalitarianism: the Communist Party and the secret police (eventually known as the KGB). To accomplish this end, the new managers physically eliminated the previous owners - tens of millions of them.

Three-quarters of a century later, in just a few years, Yeltsin carried out the reverse of the Bolshevik Revolution - and he did so bloodlessly and efficiently. By 1998, 75 percent of the property had been transferred to private hands.

Critics say that privatization was unfair - that the "oligarchs" got major assets for a fraction of their real value. To put this claim in context, I recall the events of the pivotal year 1996, which began with Communists having a majority in the State Duma and Yeltsin's popularity slipping below 3 percent while that of his Communist rival, Gennady Zyuganov, rose to nearly 30 percent.

It was at that time that Yeltsin and Anatoly Chubais decided to sell off a great many state assets quickly so that it would be difficult for the Communists to renationalize private property after Zyuganov's expected victory in the race for president. This was the background for my decision to bid for the oil company Sibneft.

For the auction, my partners and I needed at least $100 million but had only $60 million on hand. So we invited foreign investors - in the United States, Western Europe and Japan - to participate in our bid. No one gave us a penny, and George Soros, who always understood Russia better than others, told me: "The risk is too high. The Communists will take everything back. Russia is slipping into a black hole, Boris. Don't be a fool, take your family and get out, before it's too late."

But we did not run away. I found the money in Russia, and we won the auction. And we helped Yeltsin defeat the Communists at the polls, using privately owned TV stations.

A week after the election I got a Western offer for my stake in Sibneft - $1 billion. Thus, the statement that we paid an unfair price is false - anyone who was seriously interested could have participated, but few were prepared to take the risk.

As for undue influence, our critics should not forget that a strong civil society and the middle class that serve to protect democratic liberties in the West do not exist in Russia. What we have are communists - still too powerful - and ex-KGB people who hate democracy and dream of regaining lost positions. The only counterbalance to them is the new class of capitalists, who, under extraordinary circumstances, find it acceptable - indeed, necessary - to interfere directly in the political process.

In 1996 this happened twice: during the elections and later when we helped purge from the Kremlin a would-be KGB junta. To those who find our methods unacceptable, I say: In order to punish a small-time nationalist dictator, the United States has justified the destruction - from a safe distance - of the infrastructure of a whole country, including its TV stations. Is it not a double standard to accuse people of undue political influence for putting their and their families' lives on the line to prevent a much harsher dictatorship in their own country?

After their defeat in 1996 the Communists and the KGB started a concerted smear campaign against the new Russian capitalist class. False accusations of corruption, money laundering and links with organized crime became common tools in the arsenal of disinformation waged by reemployed practitioners of the Cold War KGB. In 1999 they nearly succeeded in impeaching Yeltsin in the Duma on false corruption charges.

Today the KGB again has gained prominence in the Kremlin while the influence of big business has been reduced to zero. The results are clear: The system of democratic checks and balances has been dismantled by President Vladimir Putin's laws. Private owners of independent media are blackmailed by a government that is unhappy with news coverage. And fear of authorities is creeping back into the hearts and minds of millions of Russians.

There is a real danger of restoration of an authoritarian regime. This time it would be nationalist rather than communist, but the underlying goal would be the same: for the state bureaucracy to control all power and wealth.

And again, as in 1996, the only group that dares to stand up for democracy is Russian capitalists - the creatures of President Yeltsin.

The next U.S. administration will have to choose sides. I hope it will have the wisdom of President Bill Clinton and make the right choice. Otherwise, in the 21st century the world will have to deal with embittered, fiercely nationalist, authoritarian Russia. 


Boris Berezovsky, an oil and media tycoon, served as deputy secretary of the Kremlin Security Council in Yeltsin's administration. He contributed this comment to The Washington Post.

TITLE: medieval art preserved on walls of monastery
AUTHOR: by John Varoli
TEXT: VOLOGDA REGION, Northern Russia - Deep in the Russian hinterland, far from the museums of St. Petersburg and Moscow, lies one of the nation's greatest art treasures.


Some 600 kilometers northeast of Moscow, hidden within the vast forests and scores of lakes in the Vologda region, stands the Russian Orthodox Ferapontov monastery.

The small and - from the outside - unimpressive monastery is home to 16th-century frescoes in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

Painted by one of Russia's greatest icon painters, Dionysius, with the help of his sons in the summers of 1502 and 1503, the frescoes cover about 300 square meters and depict scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary.

Since the early 1980s, however, most of the church's interior has been covered by scaffolding, undergoing its first restoration in 500 years.

Only earlier this year the scaffolding finally came off, and restoration is about 80 percent complete, said Marina Serebyakova, director of the Fresco Museum of Dionysius.

It is hard to say when the work will be completed, since the necessary federal financing is erratic. Restoration efforts, however, might come to naught if more money is not given for upkeep of a building that was originally built as a "summer" church, and not a "winter" one - in other words, it has no proper heating.

"The most important thing is to avoid drastic changes in temperature inside the church," said Serebyakova, who added that the museum complex still has no electricity. The only consolation is that even in the summer, the region's climate is fairly cool, and hot days are rare.

The Ferapontov frescoes are exceptional, the only ones from Russia's Middle Ages to remain in their entirety, despite the ravages of time and weather, not to mention communist repression of religion.

The condition of the art has also not been helped by the monastery's small size and relative poverty - but those factors may have helped save the frescos.

Over the centuries, the monastery lacked the means to make any changes to its interior, largely because it was overshadowed by the massive St. Kirill of Belozersk monastery, some 30 kilometers away. 

Little is known about Dionysius's life. While nearly all Russian icon painters were monks, Dionysius is believed to have been Russia's first lay painter, a Moscow prince who for reasons unknown adopted a Greek name.

Some scholars, however, theorize he was, in fact, of Greek descent, a refugee from the Ottoman onslaught which captured Constantinople in 1453.

Whatever his origins, Dionysius was one of the few icon painters who signed his works, and the Ferapontov church has an inscription attributing the frescoes to Dionysius and his sons.

Another tantalizing mystery in Dionysius' life is an apparent 15-year hiatus in his artistic labors at the end of the 15th century. Some scholars surmise Dionysius may have left Russia in order to study in Italy during that time. It was precisely at the end of the 15th century that Russian-Italian relations became closer, and many Italian artists, architects and engineers came to work in Russia: A reciprocal visit by Russians is probable, some experts say.

"These frescoes are not at all typical for Russia, and certain elements are clearly not Russian in origin, but rather show strong Italian influence," said Svetlana Zharnikova, a historian from the Russian Academy of Sciences in the city of Vologda, the region's capital.

For instance, Dionysius used color effectively by combining light and soft shades with a dominant blue background, highly unusual for Russian painting of the time. And scenes from the church frescoes feature many buildings whose architecture is clearly Italian Renaissance.

Even more intriguing are the ancient rune inscriptions Dionysius left on the portal door of the Ferapontov church, as well as on a coffin depicted in one of the frescoes. No scholar has yet deciphered them, but the script is believed to be from an ancient, pre-Cyrillic language used by the tribes inhabiting Northern Russia before the arrival of Christianity in 988. Apparently, it lingered on even into the 16th century.



The Fresco Museum of Dionysius has no telephone, but those interested may write to it at: Fresco Museum of Dionysius, Ferapontov Monastery, Kirillovsky district, 161120 Vologodskaya Region. In preparation for the frescoes' 500th anniversary, the museum has founded a Friends of the Museum organization.

TITLE: mariinsky singers take top prizes
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: Twenty-three-year-old St. Petersburg tenor Daniil Shtoda keeps going from strength to strength. Last week, he took the Grand Prix of the 4th Rimsky-Korsakov international vocal contest. Earlier this year he received second place at the Placido Domingo vocal competition in Los Angeles, the first Russian singer to leave this prestigious event with a prize. 


"For me, performing on stage is never a routine. It's always thrilling and dramatic, and I give part of my soul to the audience," Shtoda said. "And the vocal competition is no exception. The performances took the maximum of my energy and emotions."

But Shtoda was not the only member of the Mariinsky Academy for Young Singers to shine at the Rimsky-Korsakov competition. In fact, the academy swept the lion's share of the contest's prizes. Mezzo-soprano Yekaterina Semen chuk and soprano Irina Matayeva shared the first prize, joined by baritone Vla dimir Moroz. Basses Mikhail Petrenko and Ilya Bannik received second prize, not awarded this time in the female competition. Third prize went to tenor Sergei Vinogradsky, soprano Larisa Yudina and mezzo-soprano Natalya Yev stafieva, a Mussorgsky theater soloist who was the only singer not from the Mariinsky Academy. Eleven special prizes were also divided among the 16 finalists.

In contrast to the Yelena Ob razt sova vocal competition which made its debut last year and admitted well over 100 participants to the first tour, only 64 singers were competing for prizes at the 4th Rimsky-Korsakov contest. But all in all, the Russian vocal school was there in full strength, providing much opportunity for the jury to appreciate it.

"A school - this is what we lost in France several decades ago when the last stationary troupes were closed down. The style of singing is becoming international, and our tradition is vanishing," said jury member Bruno Michel, artistic administrator of Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.

"I was here judging this contest two years ago, and can see a breakthrough in all aspects of vocal training," he added. "In France, young singers just out of the Conservatory can't show that kind of professionalism." The fact that 16 vocalists were allowed to the finals speaks for itself, reflecting the difficulties facing the jurors. According to composer Igor Rogalyov, one of the contest's jurors, the debates after the semifinals lasted for nearly 4 hours. "When I was young, it was hardly possible to see such a high level of technical perfection at a vocal competition," recalls jury chairman, renowned Bolshoi Theater soloist Makvala Kasrashvili. "It was almost painful to make a choice and leave dazzling performers aside." According to the competition's general director Larisa Gergieva, this year's event, though equally impressive in all voice groups, was particularly strong for tenors and mezzo-sopranos. Apart from the Grand Prix deservedly going to Shtoda, there were two other gifted tenors who drew much attention. Sergei Vonogradsky, 21, and Alexei Voropayev, 20, both demonstrated outstanding voices and revealed remarkable artistic potential. 

Despite their age, the singers didn't seem unnerved or shaky during the contest, even when singing alongside the Mariinsky symphony orchestra, a practice which they both are new to - unlike their rivals like Shtoda, Moroz, Bannik and Petrenko who have already had opportunities to enter the world's most famous venues. Another promising appearance was made by Tbilissian Conservatory graduate Anna Kiknadze, whose emotional, captivating singing along with a vivid, bright stage presence captured the public's eyes and ears, and won her a special prize for artistic skills and musicality. "This is the second competition in my life," she said. "But if at the first one I couldn't cope with nerves, this time I was preparing myself for a good performance, not rivalry," Kiknadze said. "The new strategy made me feel much better." 

According to Michel, as many as 20 participants of the contest can already be considered accomplished singers, and he already has a few roles in mind to offer to some of them in Chatelet. Luca Targetti, artistic administrator of La Scala Opera Division who was making his debut as this competition's juror, said the high level of singing was a pleasant surprise, and invitations from his company will follow shortly. But after the tremendously successful voice hunt and hard work in training, the next important step for the Mariinsky Academy is to keep the young talent on home soil. So far, the young singers are not tempted by lucrative contacts to bid the country farewell.

"Perhaps the weather here isn't ideal for singers," Shtoda smiled. "But whatever the climate is like, I still love St. Petersburg, and don't feel like escaping to any other place."

TITLE: priyut reveals the lighter side of dostoyevsky
AUTHOR: by Tom Masters
TEXT: Dostoevskians may be surprised to see another novel-to-stage adaptation being offered in St. Petersburg, although the Maly Theater's triumphant production of The Devils proved that Dostoevsky is versatile, if (in that case) lengthy. The Priyut Komedianta's new production is thankfully a great deal shorter and has both a strong cast and sharp direction to recommend it.


Perhaps a strange choice for a theatrical adaptation, The Eternal Husband is a rather light-hearted novella very unlike Dostoevsky's long novels. Moreover, the narrative is one of memory rather than of event and thus does not naturally suggest itself for the stage. Petr Shereshevsky's production proves itself to be skilful, however, managing to keep the play - much of which involves monologues - moving along with enough momentum to maintain interest.

The major innovation in the production is a multi-level set, which while being completely minimal, is both adaptable and thought-provoking as actors move (with Dostoevskian significance) from level to level. Fittingly for Dostoevsky, there is both a gutter and a pedestal, with various other levels between. Location, time and even reality constantly shift with dream scenes brought to life alongside actual events. Thankfully, the adaptation has been liberal enough with the original to taper the narrative to good dramaturgy, and the audience are spared parts of the novella that would simply be superfluous on stage.

The play itself is concerned with the relationship between a cuckolded husband and his wife's lover following her death. Trusotsky (the cuckold turned drunkard) and Velchaninov are both far too emotionally inept to deal with the magnitude of their own love for Trusotsky's late wife and seek spiritual solace in its wake, ironically finding a kind of peace. This is not the case for Liza, the product of Velchaninov's liaison with Natalya Trusotsky, who Trusotsky has raised as his own child. Trusotsky neglects Liza as he sinks deeper into alcoholism and she dies shortly after Velchaninov finds her a new "home" with wealthy friends. Against the background of this rather grim storyline is Velchaninov's ultimate realisation that Trusotsky's seeking him out with seeming innocence was actually a calculated piece of revenge for his relationship with his wife - the suffering brought by knowledge of deceit being even greater than that of loss.

Oleg Almazov (Velchaninov) stands out as highly charismatic, having no trouble handling long monologues alone on stage. He and Trusotsky (Dmitri Vladimirovich) make perfect foils and enjoy convincing stage chemistry.

Vladimirovich brings the contradictory character of Trusotsky to life, particularly when his motives become more clearly pronounced in the second act.

Shereshevsky's production is challenging and unusual, often very funny despite its dark themes.

Despite the strong direction and performances, however, there is a tendency to inertia, which is inevitable in a play with such an uneventful narrative.

If you skipped the philosophical digressions in the Brothers Karamazov, this is not for you, but for those who enjoy an evening of Dostoevskian soul plunging, the Eternal Husband will be a treat.

TITLE: city in the grip of warholmania
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
TEXT: The exhibition "Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987). His Life and Art" which opened at the Hermitage earlier this month, turned out to be a sensation that stimulated the city's contemporary arts scene, instigating a series of accompanying shows, lectures and film screenings.


The exhibition, organized by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in cooperation with the US State Department, has already been to 13 cities, including Riga, Ljubljana, Kiev, and Budapest, and will go to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow in May 2001.

It might be strange to see pop art in the Hermitage's classicist interiors, but Thomas Sokolowski, the director of the Warhol Museum, who came to lecture on the artist, reasoned that Warhol works would look even more effective if set off by classical art.

"I always wanted to do an exhibition - I would hang paintings [of Campbell's soup] next to historic paintings or still lives, or of a car crash next to Pieta," said Sokolowski.

"[Warhol] was very aware of the history of art. He would go to the Metropolitan Museum all the time in New York, and even though he didn't read very easily [because of dyslexia], he was like a computer - he'd just take in the information. And I think every image he'd ever seen he remembered. He saw himself as part of the history of art."

According to Sokolowski, the communicative component is crucial to Warhol's art. He wanted the audience to say, 'Oh, I like that. Oh, it's Marilyn Monroe, I like her movies.' It's not hard to look at. People could get it."

Indeed, such works as "USSR Map," showing the black map of Soviet Union covered with white SS18 and SS20 missiles, "Crowd With Communist Flag" and "Still Life (Hammer and Sickle)" are instantly understandable to the post-Soviet public. According to Sokolowski, the organizers didn't intended the exhibition especially for Russia, but the fact that the exhibition would travel around Eastern Europe was taken into a consideration.

To Sokolowski the Soviet images at the exhibition are yet another manifestation of Warhol's notion of "15 minutes of fame."

"Before people would say, both in Russia and in America, that the hammer and sickle was the symbol of Russia. Now nobody would say that, even in Russia it's the old symbol," he said.

"For all those years there was the hammer and sickle and the Soviet Union, now no more Soviet Union, no more hammer and sickle. And yet they were very powerful symbols, but it had its 15 minutes. ... And what was brilliant about Warhol is that he chronicled that. He understood that things change."

In Sokolowski's opinion, Warhol became a true believer in 15 minutes of fame in 1969, when he was shot by deranged feminist Valerie Solanas.

"That happened at sort of noon time. In the New York newspapers [there were] big headlines because Warhol was at the height of his fame: 'Pop Artist Wounded by Crazed Fan.' The next morning - nothing. Why? Not because Warhol wasn't famous, but because that night someone shot Robert Kennedy. And Warhol knew Kennedy was more famous than he was. It was 15 minutes of fame. All that relativity in modern society."

Because of his avid interest in life and trying to understand how things work, Warhol never repeated himself - unlike his compatriots such as Frank Stella or Jasper Johns, said Sokolowski.

"It was constant questioning. And I think that really comes from the notion that if you began poor and as an outsider, you're never comfortable." 

"It was amazing to me really to think that the kid who came from such poor beginnings understood all that 45 years ago. For us to talk about it now makes perfect sense. He somehow understood it. It was the notion of being the outsider. The outsider steps back and says, 'Oh, how does this work? Oh, Now I get it, OK, fine.'"

TITLE: five chefs, one camel, and a caravan
AUTHOR: by Irina Titova
TEXT: The first thing that fascinated my companion and me as we entered the new Caravan restaurant on Voznesensky Prospect was its interior, furnished as it is in Central Asian style, with even a life-size artificial camel on the carpet.


On our way to the table we passed a surprisingly big mangal, the Central Asian device for frying meat above glowing coals, where an Azeri chef was cooking lula kebab with lamb. 

Next to him there was an Uzbek chef baking Caucasian flat cakes (or thin lavash) in the round Eastern style oven made of clay. All in all, in fact the restaurant has five chefs, with the other three hailing from Armenia, Tadjikistan and Russia.

We sat at a summer house-like table surrounded with Turkish-style pillows, hookahs, jugs and carpets. We decided to order dishes of all kinds. We started with Azeri kutab, a very thin flat cake filled with different ingredients, in our case with lamb and tomatoes (90 rubles). The kutab cakes came on a big plate and we were glad to share them with each other.

Meanwhile, the very courteous waitresses began to arrive with dolma (lamb stuffed in grapes leaves - 90 rubles) and Azeri goluptsi cabbage rolls (110 rubles).

"I wonder what the difference is between Azeri and Russian goluptsi," my friend wondered. In fact, the difference was obvious. The Caucasian ones were three times smaller and the cabbage they were rolled in was three times thinner, and there was no rice! The taste of dolma was a bit unusual for our Russian taste buds, unused as they are to munching o the grape leaves.

For some reason we both found ourselves ordering dishes with lamb, and the meat was just perfect - soft, juicy and substantial. The lamb chops (180 rubles) and lula kebab with lamb (170 rubles) proved to be of the same high quality.

Having shared the meal with each other we felt almost unable to move, though it was time to go back to work and attempt to describe the charm of the place. But the pillows on the sofa beckoned us to take an extended rest after our gastronomic adventures. My companion still insisted that we try the dessert, so we scanned the menu for one last time. 

We decided upon some Turkish delight-type confectionary (40 rubles) and the chef's dessert of the day (70 rubles), a cake which, bizarrly enough was based on a traditional Nicuraguan recipe. But it would seem the Nicuraguans certainly know how to make cakes, as we both found it mouthwatering. We followed it with Cappuccino (40 rubles) and a cigarette to get us back in work mode.

In the eastern hall there were five waitresses who catered to literally to our every need. I had foolishly left my lighter in the cloakroom by mistake, but every time I needed to light a cigarette a waitress with a lighter suddenly appeared, eager to help me to satisfy my nicotine cravings.

As we reluctantly left we spotted Semyon Strugachyov, star of the film Peculiarites of the National Hunt, among the diners. Nobody seemed to notice the film star, however - it appeared that Caravan's food and interior were diversion enough alone.




Caravan is located at 46 Voznesensky Prospect (on the corner of Voznesensky Prospect and the Fontanka). Lunch for two without alcohol, 840 rubles ($30). Open daily from 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. Major credit cards accepted.

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Leningrad Rock Club will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend with an eight-hour stadium show. The now-inactive Rock Club stems from the times when there was only one rock club (not only in the city but in the Soviet Union) - the result of new tactics by the local KGB. Headed by Oleg Kalugin, who criticized the secret police during perestroika and then moved to the U.S., the local KGB experimented with underground artists, writers and musicians, letting them unite in so-called "clubs" (there were three such organizations in the city). Though it made them easier to control, putting underground heroes in the ghettoes actually helped them survive and eventually break through to wider audiences.


For some reason, the anniversary is celebrated almost six months earlier than the actual date - traditionally it is celebrated in spring, as the Rock Club's first concert took place in March 1981.

Akvarium, one of the main driving forces behind the Rock Club, will not participate, though. There will be Konstan tin Kinchev of Alisa, who has recently become an Orthodox radical, Yury Shevchuk of DDT and Vyacheslav Butusov, formerly of Nautilus Pompilius (the latter two moved to the city after Le nin grad rock had already become popular). Auktsyon and Televizor, the truer representatives of the movement, will also take part. The rest are newcomers, more or less. The show starts at the unlikely time of 3 p.m. Yubileiny Sports Palace, Saturday.

Bryan Adams has not canceled his show and will duly perform at the Ice Palace on Tuesday. Adams might be loved by pop radio and its audience, but there is a man of far greater worth who will be coming to the city next month. Ray Charles, a master of soul and rhythm and blues will play a one-off show at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall.

Charles, who turned 70 last month, is a winner of 12 Grammies and inductee to the Hall of Jazz Fame, Hall of Blues Fame, Hall of Rock and Roll Fame, and his name is on a Star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame - quite a long way from his childhood in a poor family in the segregated South.

After his performances of "Georgia on My Mind," "Let the Good Times Roll" or "Hit the Road Jack," music has never been the same again. He was also instrumental in forming the genre now known as rock and roll.

His Russian tour, however, has been subject to a misunderstanding. As was reported earlier this week, his U.S. and European managements signed separate contracts for his Russian performances. As a result two different sets of dates were announced - at the beginning and at the end of November.

Now the confusion has been resolved in favor of the earlier date, Charles will be perfroming on Nov. 3.



- by Sergey Chernov

TITLE: Yugoslavia's Youth Sets Agenda For Reform
AUTHOR: By Jovana Gec
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - Now that Slobodan Milosevic has been ousted, the youthful activists who helped to push him from power have a message to Yugoslavia's new leaders: "We're watching you."


That is hardly an idle threat, coming from a student movement that Milosevic's loyalists were never able to subdue.

"Milosevic's removal was just the first step," explains 23-year-old Teodora Smiljkovic. "The job that still lies ahead is great. People's minds need to change."

The student group Otpor, which means "resistance" in Serbian, knows the price of struggling for its beliefs. More than any other group, Otpor activists took the brunt of the regime's repression in the pro-democracy movement that led to Milosevic's defeat in Sept. 24 elections.

About 9,600 Otpor activists have been arrested by police in the past year, spending some 26,000 hours in jail. Many of them were beaten.

When Sept. 24 elections were scheduled, Otpor launched a campaign to encourage Serbs to vote against Milosevic, telling them, "He is finished." The phrase became the motto of the pro-democracy movement.

"We have become the heart and soul of the Serbian people," said one leader, Pedja Lecic.

Lecic has a point: Thousands of people have flocked to group's offices after police returned 2 tons of the group's prized memorabilia. Even the police pilfered some of the items, returning only 32 of the 600 T-shirts seized in pre-election raids.

Otpor's clenched fist symbol can be seen on buildings, signs and shop window everywhere. Though it had thousands of members, Otpor's strength lay in its reach: the loose-knit organization had chapters even in the tiniest villages around the country.

Otpor gained attention with colorful publicity stunts intended to make ordinary people reconsider longtime political beliefs. They inspired optimism in a nation almost without hope for its future.

The group, which once erected a giant cardboard telescope in Belgrade to let people watch the falling star "Slobotea" and offered people a chance to punch a Milosevic effigy for a penny, says it won't give up its antics and wants to make sure the new government stays on track.

"We are warning those who came where the communists used to be, to rule honorably," Lecic sid. "The whole system has to change."

First on their agenda is a reform of Belgrade University, Yugoslavia's premier institution of higher learning, which was virtually purged of professors who didn't support the old regime.

Otpor plans to file criminal charges against Milosevic and other officials who tried to rig last month's elections. A lawyer will take up residence in Otpor's Belgrade offices to take evidence and testimonies from ordinary people on corruption and crime.

Though they won't say exactly what the action will involve, Lecic says it is designed to warn the new authorities "not to become similar to Milosevic" or they would face popular anger just as the former leader did.

TITLE: Oldest-Ever Life-Form Revived
AUTHOR: By Patricia Reaney
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - Scientists in the United States have revived a 250-million-year-old bacteria that is believed to be the oldest living creature ever discovered.


The bacterium that lived millions of years before the dinosaurs was in a state of suspended animation in an ancient salt crystal in an underground cavern near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

"From a biological standpoint this is extremely significant because quite literally this organism is the next best thing to having been there,'' Russell Vreeland, a microbiologist at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, said in a telephone interview.

Hundred-million-year-old fossils and rocks give geologists clues about the Earth's past but until now researchers have not had anything to reveal the secrets of life that long ago.

"Now we have at least one organism that goes back that far that we can ask biological questions of ... something that we couldn't do before,'' Vreeland added.

The fact that Vreeland and his colleagues were able to bring the sleeping bacterium, called Bacillus permians, back to life after so long opens up the possibility that bacterial spores could live indefinitely. If something can survive 250 million years, what's the difference in another 250 or longer?'' Vreeland said.

The bacterium was trapped in a tiny brine pocket in the salt from ancient rock formations. "It was completely protected,'' said Vreeland, whose research is published in the science journal Nature.

"It was able to shut itself down into a protective spore and once it was encased within this particular type of rock it found itself in the most stable environment that you could imagine.''

The scientists carefully drilled into the crystal under the most sterile conditions, extracted fluid from it, placed the fluid in sealed test tubes and incubated it until it grew.

The extraordinary age of the bacterium also begs the question of whether organisms can survive long enough to travel between planets.

"If an organism were encased in a crystal and blown off a planet somewhere, or blown off of this one due to a meteor collision, it has a reasonable probability of surviving long enough to travel not just from planet to planet but solar system to solar system,'' Vreeland said.

The scientists are comparing the bacterium to its modern relatives and are now looking for even older organisms.

"We are already starting to look at some 500-million-year-old and 800-million-year-old samples and we're working on some that are even older than that,'' Vreeland added.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Britain To Open Dialog 


SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said Thursday that Britain planned to open diplomatic ties with North Korea for the first time since the creation of the communist state over 50 years ago.

The breakthrough will lead to Britain accrediting diplomats from North Korea for the first time since it recognized the state in 1949.

Cook, en route to the Asia Europe Meeting in Seoul, said Britain had received an approach from North Korea via its Beijing embassy.

"Diplomatic moves of that kind move at a leisurely pace. But we intend to give a positive response to the letter we received last month," said Cook.



Christian Prisoner Dies


BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese Protestant arrested while worshipping at an illegal service has died in a central China jail after being beaten and then denied medical care, a rights group reported Thursday.

Police detained Liu Haitong in a raid on a private home serving as an underground church in Henan province's Xiayi county Sept. 4, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Beaten by police and left weakened by the prison's inadequate food and poor hygiene, Liu began vomiting and developed a high fever, the center said. It reported that the 19-year-old died in the county jail Oct. 16 after police refused to provide medical care.



Tamil Tiger Suicide


COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew himself up in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Thursday, minutes before the president swore in a new Cabinet to cement her shaky coalition and end a week-long political crisis. Three policemen were wounded. It was not clear what the bomber's target was.

Officials said three American women tourists were among 23 people injured in the bomb blast near the white, colonial-style City Hall.

City Hall is just over 1 kilometer from President Chandrika Kumaratunga's official residence where the swearing-in ceremony took place. Colombo's main recreation park and several popular tourist shops are also located nearby.

Minutes later Kumaratunga swore in 42 ministers, more than twice as many as in her first government in 1994.



Turkey To Aid Troops 


BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer promised Wednesday that Turkey would train Kyrgyz troops and keep supplying them with equipment to fight against Islamic militants.

Sezer, on a one-day stop in the Kyrgyz capital, signed agreements with President Askar Akayev promising economic cooperation and partnership on battling international terrorism.

According to the agreement, Turkey will train Kyrgyz troops at its bases and plans to continue supplying military aid, mostly ammunition and other military equipment.



Ukraine Nuke Pause


KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A nuclear reactor at Ukraine's Zaporizhia atomic power plant shut down temporarily due to a malfunction, the state nuclear company Energoatom said Thursday.

Engineers switched off the No. 5 reactor for five hours on Wednesday after a transformer broke down, Energoatom said. The reactor was restarted early Thursday morning, the company said. The shutdown posed no danger of releasing radiation into the environment.

Currently, 12 out of the 14 reactors at Ukraine's five nuclear power plants are working. They produce more than 40 percent of the country's electricity output, which is the most in Europe.



Italian Floods


PIACENZA, Italy (AP) - Tens of thousands of Italians found borrowed shelter on high ground, escaping the crest of floods that brought northern Italy's Po river to historic highs. The death toll in avalanches and floods upstream hit 28 Wednesday, with searchers in Italy and Switzerland still digging.

Scant hope remained for the 19 missing. Most were believed carried away or buried when mud and water swept through Alpine towns and villages in northern Italy and southern Switzerland at the weekend onset of the flooding.

Late Tuesday, helicopters rescued 69 Boy Scouts and chaperons who had been trapped in Italy's Alps since Saturday morning.



Human Traffic Found


HONG KONG (AP) - Authorities said Thursday that 26 illegal immigrants from mainland China were found in a shipping container bound for the United States when a routine inspection revealed high carbon dioxide levels emitted from the container.

The men got into the container in Hong Kong and were due to be shipped out Friday en route to Long Beach, California, according to Customs and Excise Department spokesman Peter Tiu.

The young men inside had suffered no injuries. Authorities said they had basic necessities - drinks, canned food, instant noodles, blankets and clothing. There were no goods being shipped in the container.



Rwandan Tribunal


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A former Rwandan prime minister sentenced to life in prison for his role in the country's 1994 genocide is returning to court, insisting that his guilty plea was made under duress.

The UN war crimes tribunal meets Thursday to rule on Jean Kambanda's appeal. Kambanda, the most senior Rwandan official in UN custody, was the first head of government ever convicted by an international tribunal. He was found guilty Sept. 4, 1998, on six counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for the murder and extermination of civilians.

Last June, the defendant testified that his confession was made under duress at the advice of a court-appointed lawyer who allegedly misrepresented him. He said he had not personally committed any crimes.



Clinton Mourns Cole 


NORFOLK, Virginia (Reuters) - A somber President Bill Clinton mourned the 17 victims of last week's suspected suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole Wednesday. He also warned those responsible, "To those who attacked them we say: You will not find a safe harbour. We will find you, and justice will prevail."

Clinton led a memorial service for the victims in this Navy port that serves as headquarters of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. 

The crowd of about 5,000 people included family members of the 17 killed in the blast, and a number of sailors injured aboard the Cole, some lying on hospital stretchers.

TITLE: Candidates Tied After Final Debate
AUTHOR: By David Wiessler
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON - The two men squared off on Tuesday night in St. Louis in what many observers thought was the most combative and lively of their three face-to-face encounters this month.


Despite both the Democratic vice president and the Republican governor of Texas expressing confidence that they performed well, there was no clear winner. Both candidates immediately plunged back into campaigning in key states where the race for the White House is very close.

Boarding his campaign plane for a trip to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Bush took the aircraft intercom and told reporters and staff traveling with him, "Little less than three weeks to go. Looking forward to it. Hope you are as well. May your stories be objective.''

The first quick polls following Tuesday's 90-minute debate gave a slight boost to Gore, but it will take a few days for further polling to decide which, if either, candidate benefited from their final encounter, which Gore described as "just right", comparing his previous performances to Goldilocks' tasting of porridge - the first debate being 'too hot', the second 'too cold'.

The race has been tight for weeks. The latest Reuters/MSNBC tracking poll, released on Wednesday but conducted in the three days leading up to the debate, showed the two candidates dead even at 43 percent each.

With only 20 days left before the Nov. 7 election, the candidates immediately jumped back into their respective campaigns, concentrating in states where the race is too close to call.

Bush planned to campaign in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday while Gore was headed for Iowa and Michigan. Half a dozen Midwestern states may hold the key to the election and all were too close to call on Wednesday.

TITLE: Ebola Epidemic Mystifies WHO Experts
AUTHOR: By Chris Tomlinson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GULU, Uganda - International experts on Thursday began training Ugandan health workers on how to treat victims of the swift and deadly Ebola virus that has so far killed 41 people. 


At a government hospital at ground zero of Uganda's first known outbreak of the virus, Simon Mardel of the World Health Organization brought new protective gear for medical workers. In the early days of the outbreak, a doctor and two nurses died after treating the first patients. 

The smell of disinfectant waft ed across the grounds of Gulu Hospital as nurses dressed in surgical gear and heavy black rubber boots moved in and out of the Ebola ward. Anyone leaving the building was sprayed with bleach to kill the virus on their clothing. 

"Our priority right now is barrier nursing, getting the hospital safe," said Dr. Michael Ryan, a WHO medical officer who arrived with Mardel and two other WHO experts Wednesday. 

Teams from the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and French-based Doctors without Borders arrived in Uganda on Thursday with the sophisticated equipment needed to confirm the suspected Ebola cases and other supplies. The CDC teams were to fly out in the afternoon to Gulu, a town of 150,000 about 360 kilometers north of the capital Kampala. 

Gulu Hospital, a sprawling complex of beige concrete buildings with rusting tin roofs, has been treating 45 people suspected of having Ebola. A total of 111 cases were so far reported, including the 41 deaths. 

At the hospital, Mardel lectured doctors and nurses and showed them videos on treating victims of the virus, for which there is no known cure. 

Ebola is spread through bodily contact with a victim who has developed symptoms of the disease or has died from it. Ebola usually kills its victims faster than it can spread, burning out before it can reach too far. 

About four days after contracting the virus, the victim develops a headache, fever and chest pains. In the later stages, the virus begins to attack internal organs, causing bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of Ebola victims die of the disease within two weeks of infection. 

The first Ebola victim in the Uganda outbreak is believed to have died on Sept. 17 in Kabede Opong, a village five kilometers outside Gulu. 

Esther Awete was found dead in her mud hut by her mother and sisters. In keeping with custom, her body was kept in her hut for two days to allow friends and family to take part in the funeral. Awete's family and closest friends ritually bathed her body, buried her less than 10 meters from where she died and then washed their hands in a communal basin as a sign of unity. 

Now, her mother, three sisters and three other relatives are dead and the virus has spread across a 24-kilometer radius. 

Researchers do not know what causes Ebola outbreaks, which are often years and hundreds of kilometers apart. The virus is believed to be carried by animals and insects, which live with the virus. Ebola then makes the jump into an initial victim, who then spreads the disease in a community. 

Awete, 36, lived with her mother and sisters in a small compound of six thatched huts and a dilapidated house surrounded by banana trees and rows of corn. She made her living selling home-brewed cassava beer and corn she ground by hand inside her 4-meterwide windowless hut. 

People here do not eat wild animals, suspected as the source of some past Ebola outbreaks, and Awete did nothing unusual before she died, except for a trip to another village to get cassava leaves for brewing.

At first, neighbors thought Awete died of dysentery, cholera or any of a number of illnesses common to East African villages.

The outbreak in Gulu is the first time the disease has been found in Uganda.

TITLE: Castro Leads March Against 'Genocidal' U.S. Blockade
AUTHOR: By Anita Snow
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HAVANA - Waving huge placards with portraits of Abraham Lincoln, hundreds of thousands of incensed Cubans marched through the capital on Wednesday in the hopes of convincing Americans that U.S. legislation will make it even harder for them to visit the island.


The march was being held in large part to show the world, "and especially American public opinion, what our people think of the gross lie that the genocidal blockade has been softened," the Communist Party daily Gran ma said Wednesday.

Wearing his traditional olive green uniform with his now-familiar white athletic shoes for marching, Fidel Castro led a crowd the government estimated at 800,000 - nearly half the capital's population of 2 million - down Havana's Malecon coastal highway.

Cuba insists the legislation - which has already been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and was passed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday evening - will toughen rather than ease the nearly four-decade embargo against the island. It has been described in Washington as the first opportunity for American farmers in 38 years to sell food to Cuba, as well as the first step in the easing strictly-applied of trade sanctions against the communist island.

But because the measure, which U.S. President Bill Clinton has already said he will sign, bars the U.S. government and banks from financing the food sales, Cuba will have to pay cash or get credit from a third country - a step the Cuban authorities are not prepared to take. 

"The new legislation will not make it any more possible to buy food and medicine from the United States," read an editorial published Monday in state newspapers. In protest, "our country will not buy a single cent of food or medicine from the United States," it said.

Havana has complained that growing support among the American people to lift the embargo has been eroded in recent months by U.S. election-year politics. It worries that many Americans will believe the measure will do much more to ease sanctions than it actually will.

Cuba insists on a total lifting of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. government in 1962 in an attempt to squeeze Castro's government.

"Down with the blockade!" a series of young speakers chanted on Wednesday over a public address system set up outside the U.S. Interests Section, the American mission in Cuba. "Long live the revolution!"

Castro, along with many other marchers, waved small red, white and blue Cuban flags as the mass of people snaked slowly past towering historic coastal buildings that line the Malecon, Havana's main throughfare.

Granma on Wednesday called the mobilization a response "to the extreme U.S. right and the terrorist Cuban-American Mafia" for the "sinister modifications" to U.S. law.