SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times DATE: Issue #614 (0), Tuesday, October 24, 2000 ************************************************************************** TITLE: Nuclear Waste Referendum Progresses AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: In a significant step toward the goal of forcing a national referendum on nuclear waste, St. Petersburg environmentalists joined colleagues across the country in handing over a petition on the subject Monday. But even as they did so, a Bulgarian power plant was announcing a deal to store nuclear waste in Russia - even the the law would appear to prevent this. "[Now we will see] whether the state is willing to add the environment to its list of priorities, or leave it without attention, funding and care," said Alexander Karpov, one of the referendum's organizers, as the signatures were handed to the City Electoral Commission on Monday. But Nuclear Ministry officials have poured cold water on the petition, saying that the public does not know enough of the technicalities of the nuclear industry to make an informed decision. It took less than three months to get 95,000 St. Petersburg residents to sign the petition - just some of the total 2.6 million signatures environmental activists say they have gathered in 62 regions. Two million signatures are required by law before a popular vote can be initiated. The organizers of the action are now waiting for local electoral commissions to check the validity of the signatures, and - should they be given a clean bill of health - are holding their breath as to the decision of the Constitutional Court on the possibility of a referendum. At the heart of the matter is a move by the Nuclear Power Ministry to allow Russia to import spent nuclear fuel from other countries. Proponents of the idea, lead by the ministry's chief, Yevgeny Adamov, say that a commercial fuel dump would bring Russia billions of dollars that would work for the cause of nuclear security. The project can only go ahead if the State Duma amends the law banning the import of nuclear waste. A bill that would do so is tentatively scheduled to be heard Dec. 19. But environmentalists have repeatedly pointed to Russia's inability to deal with its own nuclear industry, let alone everyone else's. They highlight accidents at the Mayak storage plant in the Che lyabinsk area, as well as various minor leaks at other plants, including the Le ningrad Atomic Energy Station (LAES). The law as it stands allows Russia to accept spent fuel from other nations for reprocessing - which yields uranium, plutonium and huge quantities of radioactive waste water - if the resulting waste is sent back where it came from. But according to a statement by Bulgaria's Kozloduy plant reported by Reuters, Adamov has said that in this case, the waste would not be returned. Environmentalists were also incensed by a presidential decree signed in May that closed the State Committee for Environmental Protection, and transferred its responsibilities to the Natural Resources Agency, which licenses the development of Russia's stores of petroleum and minerals. Putin has also abolished the State Forestry Committee. OPINIONS, PLEASE The three questions a referendum would pose, according to Karpov, are: . Do you oppose the import of radioactive materials for storage, processing or burial on the territory of Russia? . Do you support the idea of a federal agency for environmental protection in Russia, independent of existing structures responsible for the use and management of natural resources? . Do you support the idea of an independent forestry service in Russia? Karpov said that over 30,000 signatures were gathered in each of the 32 regions. "Ten, even 20,000 might be an exceptional figure, but 30,000 shows that the public is really paying attention [to the issue], which is encouraging," he said. The Orenburg Oblast took the lead with 170,000 signatures. It wasn't easy work, however. "[It was] depressing [to meet] so many pessimists," said Varvara Borisova, a local Greenpeace member who volunteered to gather signatures for the petition. "It was frustrating to hear so many people say, 'Oh, you'll get nowhere.'" Borisova said that the younger and older generations were most willing to sign, with generations in between less concerned. "I met people born in 1910 who were willing to sign up, who knew enough to discuss the topic," she said. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Dmitry Krasnyansky, deputy head of the City Electoral Commission, said in an interview on Monday that 15 days was the limit to check the signatures, before they were passed on to the Central Electoral Committee. "If the signatures get validated then [after another 15 days], they get passed to the president, [who] in turn asks the Constitutional Court to check that the referendum's questions don't contradict the Constitution," Krasnyansky said. "If they do not, the president fixes the date for a popular vote 10 days after that." According to Tamara Morshcha ko va, vice president of the Constitutional Court, law on federal referendums determines which issues should be decided by the Duma, and which by referendum. "There are issues that cannot be solved via popular vote, such as granting amnesties, changes to the federal budget, the status of a subject of the [Russian] Federation, and changes to federal taxes," Morshcha kova said. She added that creating, abolishing and restructuring ministries and other state executive bodies were also outside the bounds of referendums. "In this case, we will examine if the referendum would require making changes to the Constitution, which is not permissible." NAYSAYERS Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Nuclear Ministry officials have rejected the idea of a referendum. "[Such a] vote could only be an emotional decision," Kasyanov said earlier this year. "Only scientists and specialists can find out the truth and [offer] the right solutions." Yury Bespalko, a press spokesman for the Nuclear Ministry, also said Russia was not yet ready for a popular vote on nuclear waste. "Of course, the people's right to express their opinion is guaranteed by the Constitution," he said in a telephone interview on Monday. "But society is far from informed about affairs in the [nuclear-energy] field, and so it is not prepared to judge such a technical issue." "There are situations when in order to survive [financially], one must sacrifice something," said Vyacheslav Kulikov, assistant to Deputy Nuclear Minister Vladimir Vinogradov. "But we are no less patriotic than the ecologists," he said. "We live here, and we want our children to live in a safe environment." But Natalya Mironova, an environmentalist with the Chelyabinsk-based group "For Nuclear Safety," said the current practice of dealing with nuclear waste is inexcusable. "Karachai Lake [in the Chelyabinsk area], only 4 kilometers away from the nearest village, is full of nuclear waste," she said, "and the oncology rate in the region is at least 2 1/2 times higher than [the national] average." TITLE: Accused Spy Pope Denies All Charges PUBLISHER: Combined Reports TEXT: MOSCOW - U.S. businessman Edmond Pope on Monday proclaimed his innocence before a Moscow court, denying espionage charges and accusing the judges of bias, his lawyer said. Pope, 54, of State College, Pennsylvania, was arrested on April 3 on charges of trying to buy secret blueprints for a high-speed torpedo used by the Russian military. He waited six months in Lefortovo Prison for the trial to open last week. On Monday, he read from a 40-page statement to answer the charges and to protest his treatment by the court. Pope's statement contains 88 points of contention, and he made it through 39 of them Monday and planned to read the rest Tuesday, his lawyer Pavel Astakhov said. Pope said he didn't have a chance of a fair trial. "There is no Themis [goddess of justice] in this room," Astakhov quoted Pope as telling the judges at the closed trial. Astakhov said that after reading his statement, Pope would likely remain silent for the remainder of the trial to protest the court's rejection of all his requests. The defense has lodged 15 motions - from a request for a medical examination by a panel of doctors including Pope's American surgeon to a demand to replace the court translator, who is an officer of the intelligence service that brought the charges against Pope. All have been rejected, Astakhov said. The lawyer said the interpreter on Monday was "so bad that even the judge scolded him for translating inaccurately." Astakhov, who speaks English, said he frequently had to correct the interpreter. He said that he would move to have some of the transcripts of Pope's interrogations thrown out because they contained errors. Astakhov said that he plans to highlight the fact that the indictment is based on two presidential decrees and a government decree so secret that the defense was not allowed to see them. Basing charges on secret decrees is a violation of the Russian Constitution. Astakhov said that despite the defense's request to see the decrees, the court did not order the prosecution to bring them in. The Federal Security Service claims to have a firm case against Pope, a former U.S. Navy officer who ran a private business dealing in maritime technology from around the world. Family members and U.S. officials say the charges are trumped up. U.S. President Bill Clinton asked President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call Friday to help free Pope. Putin responded that the case is in the hands of the judiciary, the White House said Friday. In discussing Pope, Clinton "talked about the necessity, our concern that he [Putin] hasn't taken enough steps yet to free Edmond Pope," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said. "We've seen no evidence, no evidence at all, that he's guilty of the charges they made." Putin was unreceptive to Clinton's plea, Siewert said. Putin "said that it is in the hands of the Russian legal system," the spokesman said. "We think he ought to be free." - AP, SPT TITLE: Scientists Add to Russia's Landmass AUTHOR: By Irina Titova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: When the 79 scientists aboard the Academic Fyodorov returned to St. Petersburg from the North Pole earlier this month, they brought news that Russia may own 1.2 million square kilometers of land - containing billions of dollars worth of natural resources - that it never knew it had. The only snag is that the land lies under 1,500 meters of polar ice and water. But if the case can be made to authorities at the United Nations, which has a branch that governs the sovereignty of undersea land masses, Russia may have put serious money and resources in the bank for future generations - who presumably will develop the needed technology - by mapping a continental shelf roughly three times the size of France. The three-month Arctica-2000 expedition, funded by the Natural Resources Ministry, set sail after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to investigate economic, geological and defense interests for Russia in the Arctic. The expedition was to search the seabed surrounding the Mendeleyev Ridge on the polar ice cap, above eastern Siberia, and to probe the extent of Russia's continental shelf. According to Vladimir Ivanov, the Arctica-2000's ice specialist, seismological investigations of the ridge revealed a continental land mass buried under centuries of ice and water that is attached to the Russian continent. "It was earth crust about 30 kilometers thick and buried under the seabed," said Ivanov in an interview. "It revealed the presence of granite substances, which is another feature of continental [rather than] oceanic crust." Many in the community of the scientific world were elated. "[This mission] brought the most conclusive proof about the continental origins of the Mendeleyev Ridge, which means a lot for the future economy of the country," said Renat Murzin, who is the head of Marine Works Department at the Natural Resources Ministry in Moscow. Professor Ron MacNab, from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Canada and one of several international scientists to come to St. Petersburg to inspect the results of the Arctica-2000 mission, agreed. "The expedition was essential, and it became an extremely valuable addition to the world of science," he said. If Arctica-2000's collection of preliminary data holds true, Russia has a jump on what some consider to be the vanguard of oil drilling and production in the 21st century, in which exploitation of the continental shelf will be paramount. "For example, in 2000 it is estimated that offshore oil production will be 1.23 billion tons, and natural gas 650 billion cubic meters," said Yury Kazmin, chairman of the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, or CLCS, which was set up to assist states in establishing their outer limits on the basis of their continental shelves. Eventually, Russia will have to lay claim to Mendeleyev territory through the CLCS. If approved, the Men de le yev Ridge - and all the resources it may hold - becomes Russian national property, said expedition head Mikhail Sorokin. But establishing that what you've got is continental shelf and not ocean floor to the commission can be a tricky business. According to researchers, oceanic crust is usually no more than 15 kilometers thick, whereas continental crust can exceed 30 kilometers. Another factor, according to Garrik Grikurov of the St. Petersburg Oceanographic Institute, the age of the crust is also a factor; oceanic crust usually doesn't exceed 170 million years of age. Continental crust can reach 4 billion years. For now, Ivanov said that when he and his colleges complete their maps and data bases, they will send them to the CLCS and claim the jurisdiction over the Mendeleyev ridge. Then researchers say, the real million dollar research will begin as they work to establish the true dimensions and content of the shelf through thousands of meters of ice and water. But eventually, experts say, the research would pay off. "Although such research may be an extremely expensive undertaking for a state, the potential resources of the continental shelf are so enormous that the expenses for the research will most probably be well justified over time," said Olexiy Zinchenko, secretary of the CLCS. "Just to give you an example, on the deep seabed, which is beyond the continental shelf, you can find huge deposits of polymetalic nodules containing nickel, cobalt, and copper." Russia, however, is not the only country eyeing hypothetical polar territorial extensions. Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States are also doing similar research on their own continental shelves. Canada's MacNab, however, didn't see any reason for Russia's claim to be disputed. "I don't think any country would mind Russia's claim for the territory since the Russians are totally following the existing rules," he said. "According to the existing law, Russia has more territory to gain in the Arctic geographically. Therefore, economically it means more to Russia than to any other country." Arthur Grantz, Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University in California - who also came to St. Petersburg to see the results - had not seen the data yet. But he said that Russia's claim on the territory will be rigorously examined. "As far as I have heard, it's interesting data, but it has to be substantiated and then it has to be worked out at international meetings," he said. "When the data is published, every government will go to its own scientists and ask them what they think. Then it can begin a dispute or not." But Arctica-2000's Ivanov said that it was too early to get excited about pulling endless resources out of the Mendeleyev Ridge. "For now, we don't have the equipment for extraction - it will take many more years to build such enormous derricks," he said. "That's why we should concentrate on securing the territory for future generations who will invent the essential devices, and they will have a store house of resources when the conventional ones are exhausted." TITLE: Starovoitova Honored by New Monument AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: State Duma deputy Galina Staro voi to va, who was gunned down two years ago by unknown assassins, was honored with a monument unveiled at her grave in Nikolskoye cemetery last Saturday. The unveiling ceremony drew hundreds of supporters of the former Du ma deputy, who was one of Russia's most visible and outspoken female politicians. American ambassador in Mos cow James Collins and Sergei Stan kevich, former aide to President Boris Yelt sin, attended the ceremony. The granite monument - designed by St. Petersburg artist Anatoly Bel kin - juxtaposes a Russian flag, a fragment of a city street, and a piece of lattice work in the style found on the Griboye dov Canal, where Starovoitova lived. "When making this monument we met with so much compassion. The artisans refused even to talk about money," said Olga Starovoitova, the late Duma deputy's sister. "Though these may sound like minor details, they show the people's attitude, and this is what's important." "The more time that passes since the tragic death of my mother, the deeper and more sensible the loss gets," said Sta rovoitova's son Platon. "She paid with her life for the people's right to live, think and act freely. She didn't just give me life, she gave me its sense and meaning." He said the flag on the monument was a very apt symbolic touch. "Everyone who comes here will sense what she lived and sacrificed her life for," he said. Starovoitova was murdered in the stairwell of her building on Nov. 20, 1998. Her aide, Ruslan Linkov, who was with her at the time, suffered head injuries but survived. Her murder remains unsolved, and though few at the monument's unveiling spoke about this fact out loud, there was a palpable mood of anger and bitterness over the authorities' complete failure to make any progress in the investigation. As at Starovoitiva's funeral, many people spoke out about the unification of democratic parties that Starovoitova had worked for in the Duma. The parties remain fragmented. Declaring Galina Starovoitova the conscience of Russian democracy, Stankevich said, "Even though God knows what is happening under the slogans of Russian democracy, we all have Galina as a standard to verify our feelings and steps. And we have this place to come and think about what we do in our lives." "For me, Galina Starovoitova is an example of a true people's deputy, taking other's sorrows as her own," said Yabloko Duma Deputy Alexander Shishlov. "She was a lighthouse showing the way. ... I see my duty as a deputy to serve the unification of democrats, of those to whom liberty and human life are the most precious values." TITLE: Boris Yeltsin Drops In on German Book Fair PUBLISHER: Combined Reports TEXT: FRANKFURT, Germany - Boris Yeltsin made a brief appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Friday to promote the latest volume of his memoirs, but the former Russian president, looking stiff and puffy-faced, canceled a news conference. A spokeswoman for Yeltsin's German publisher gave no reason for the abrupt scrapping of the media event and said Yeltsin would fly home to Moscow later Friday as planned. Yeltsin, accompanied by his wife, Naina, who guided him solicitously through a throng of reporters, declined to answer questions as he briefly visited his publisher's stand. Smiling at applause from onlookers, he made brief, slowly delivered remarks lasting less than a minute, slurring and mangling Russian syntax as he referred to his time in office. "Despite everything that's being said, I think we had achievements in that time that benefited the democratic countries Russia and Germany," he said. "So, as always, I am happy to visit Germany and especially on such a great occasion as the International Book Fair ... to present my book." An official from the publishers offered a German translation of his brief remarks, apparently prepared in advance, which differed significantly from what Yeltsin had just said. Surrounded by a swarm of reporters and bodyguards, he also had some difficulty mounting a low podium to present his book to photographers and appeared unable to control his pen when an admirer asked him to sign a copy of the memoirs. Yeltsin, 69, who was plagued by poor health and erratic behavior for much of his time in office, arrived in Germany on a rare foreign visit on Thursday and met former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, who is under a cloud over a funding scandal. The volume, "Midnight Diaries," covers the later years of his presidency and his shock decision to resign. It came out in Russian under the title "Presidential Marathon" this month. Publisher Propylaeen was banking on Yeltsin's role in seeing through German unification to sell the German translation. In the book, he touches on his relations with Kohl and the merger of former communist East Germany with the West. In the book, Yeltsin says Kohl's loss in 1998 elections influenced his decision to give up power. He recalls that Kohl ran for re-election despite polls showing clearly that Germans were fed up with him. - Reuters, AP TITLE: Arctic Museum To Make Room for Church AUTHOR: By Masha Kaminskaya PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: The cold winds of the past are blowing over the Arctic and Antarctic Museum in St. Petersburg, as a court has granted a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church the right to reclaim an old chapel that is part of the museum's building. After three month's grace granted by Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev, the museum, on Ul. Marata, will have to remove exhibits from 313 square meters soon to be reclaimed by the parish of Father Pyotr. "The [museum] has only a few exhibits to move," said Father Pyotr in a telephone interview on Sunday. "If we give up this chapel, we'll definitely have to give up the parish." However, the museum's director, Viktor Boyarsky, is outraged at the decision, which gives the church more space in addition to two chapels on the site that it already holds. The best option, he said, is to keep things as they are rather than "to set up another communal apartment [in the museum], so that [the congregation] sing their songs while we have excursions in the next room." The eight-year-long courtroom battle over the Nikolsky Church has pitted the Arctic and Antarctic Museum against Father Pyotr and a clutch of 150 or so yedinovertsy - Followers of One Faith - a branch of Orthodoxy formed in the 18th century, and intended as a compromise between the Old Believers and the main church, who split a century earlier. Until 1933, the entire building belonged to a small but rich parish of yedinovertsy. Adherents to the faith were virtually exterminated during the Stalinist repression of the 1930s and the church was handed over to the museum, then part of the Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Institute. The building was safely in the museum's hands until 1991, when a presidential order signed by Boris Yeltsin was issued to return religious buildings to their former owners. The church got two chapels back in 1993, but subsequent lawsuits filed by the City Property Committee on behalf of the yedinovertsy for the third were rejected. One application was finally upheld, however, by the City Arbitration Court last month. Now, the museum's only alternative to sharing the premises is to head to its scientific institute, which is way out in the suburbs near the Gulf of Finland - hardly on the tourist thoroughfare. The museum contains around 70,000 exhibits, and gets about 100,000 visitors per year. "This is what I call real-estate religion," said Boyarsky. "[The parish] only came forward for the building." He also claimed that there were only 30 members of the parish, not 150. But Father Pyotr said his parish existed long before it was allowed to register, and is desperate for room to maintain its old-style baptisms and weddings. He added that the parish had emotional ties to the location. "All those white bears and penguins - they're nice, but they stand on the blood of martyrs we all need to atone for," he said. "This church is the only one [for the sect] in the entire Northwest, and according to the law, we can only claim the right to this particular property." According to Alexander Afanasiyev, spokesman for Gov. Yakovlev - who recently visited the museum - the city is in favor of the museum's continued existence. But, he said, it should not be difficult to move to new premises. "There is no question of [claiming] the whole building," said Ida Mikhalenkova, a 60-year-old parishioner. "We have visited this museum and the history of polar explorers means much to us. I don't think the situation will change." TITLE: UN Declares Rape Trial Unfair AUTHOR: By Ana Uzelac PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW - Ten years ago, a young man in Chelyabinsk was sentenced to life in prison for a series of murders and rapes he said he didn't commit. After exhausting his appeals in Russian courts, he took his case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Now, more than three years later, in a potentially precedent-setting decision, the committee has agreed that Dmitry Gri din's right to a fair trial was violated and urged that he be set free. It went on to recommend Russia "ensure that similar violations do not occur in the future." It was the Human Rights Committee's first ruling against Russia and it was unclear how the government would respond. Karina Moskalenko - director of the International Defense Center in Mos cow, which handled Gridin's appeal - said his case is typical in Russia where the role of the court is often understood as "establishing the guilt of the suspect." It is this tendency that makes the ruling so important, she said. "It's the indirect accusation of the whole system and the first international demand that it be changed," Mos ka len ko said. The right to a fair trial is enshrined in the Russian Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Russia is a signatory. It was on the basis of the covenant that the UN committee made its decision. In late 1989, Chelyabinsk was shaken by a series of brutal rapes and murders. Gridin, then 22, was detained after he made a pass at a girl in an elevator and she accused him of attempted rape and murder, his complaint says. Once arrested, he was charged with six previous assaults. According to his complaint posted on the UN committee's Web site, the arrest warrant was issued only four days after his detention, during which he was beaten, deprived of sleep and denied food. He first saw a lawyer 10 days after his arrest. Also, crucial evidence was tampered with and people who could confirm Gridin's alibi were not allowed to testify in court. Three witnesses who testified later complained to the Supreme Court of discrepancies between what they said during the trial and what appeared on the official record. The UN committee, under the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is one of two institutions to which Russian citizens can appeal. The second is the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. But unlike the decisions of the Strasbourg Court, which are binding, decisions of the UN committee are just recommendations. "We can just state that the country has broken the covenant and recommend ways to correct this. Then it's up to the country to decide whether it will obey what it has signed or not," a committee official said Friday by telephone from Geneva. "Russia should listen to this decision, but it doesn't have to," said Died rik Lohman, head of Human Rights Watch in Moscow. "The committee's only real power is the power of public knowledge and it's capacity to create pressure on the decision-makers and make them review the case." TITLE: Kursk Election Goes Ahead Without Rutskoi PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - An election for governor of Russia's southwestern Kursk region was declared valid on Monday despite fears that turnout might be hit by the controversial last-minute exclusion of incumbent Alexander Rutskoi. An official from the Kursk election commission contacted by telephone said the turnout at the gubernatorial polls held on Sunday was nearly 58 percent, above the required 50 percent. Officials said on Sunday that three hours before the end of voting turnout was only 41 percent. However, neither of the leading candidates - Communist Alexander Mik hailov and President Vladimir Pu tin's envoy in the region, Viktor Sur zhi kov - managed to secure the 50 percent support needed for an outright win. A second-round vote will take place on Nov. 5. Rutskoi, a former Russian vice president who led a revolt in 1993 against then-Kremlin leader Boris Yeltsin, has questioned the legitimacy of the polls after a regional court ruled on Saturday to bar him from the race. The court accused Rutskoi of misreporting his property and of abusing his official position to help his campaign. Rutskoi, who plans to appeal against the ruling, described the court decision as a conspiracy against him. He had warned that it could disrupt voting, but no major problems were reported. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Kostunica Meeting MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was to meet newly elected Yugoslav President Voji slav Kostunica this week in Mos cow, Russian news agencies reported on Monday. "We have a development program for various areas regarding Yugoslavia," Putin was quoted by Interfax as saying before a regular cabinet meeting. Interfax said the meeting would take place on Friday. Russia had refused to join the Western pressure on former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic which ended in his ouster. But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was the first foreign politician to visit Belgrade after Kostunica's victory in last month's election. Western countries had proclaimed Kostunica the winner in the immediate aftermath of the September 24 election, but election officials said neither he nor incumbent Milosevic had cleared the 50 percent required for outright victory. Putin offered to mediate by hosting both Kostunica and Milosevic in Moscow. But Ivanov was dispatched to Belgrade after a day of mass protests in the capital and met both contenders. Milosevic admitted defeat after his meeting with the Russian foreign minister. Clinton Thanks Putin MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President Bill Clinton thanked President Vladimir Putin on Friday for his support at this week's summit on the Middle East, the Kremlin said. It said in a statement that the two men had discussed the Middle East during a telephone conversation. "Clinton expressed gratitude to Putin for his support during the difficult negotiations at Sharm el-Sheik," the Kremlin said. "Both sides expressed the importance of coordinating the actions of Russia and the United States on the issue of a settlement for the Middle East, particularly in the current period of crisis." Putin, who is co-sponsor of the peace process with Clinton, was not invited to the summit at Egypt's Red Sea resort on Monday and Tuesday, called to halt spiraling violence between Palestinians and Israelis. But Putin, apparently unoffended, has said he supported the summit and hoped for progress in bringing peace to the region. Ex-Prisoner Awarded MOSCOW (SPT) - A Swiss court has awarded businessman Sergei Mik hai lov 819,000 Swiss francs ($465,000) in compensation for serving 26 months in jail before being acquitted. Mikhailov was arrested by Swiss authorities in October 1996 on money laundering and other charges. Swiss authorities called him the leader of Mos cow's Solntsevo gang, a major organized crime group. But they failed to prove those charges in a 1998 trial. A Lausanne court has ordered Swiss authorities to compensate Mikhailov for his imprisonment, Segodnya reported Friday. 3 Killed in Ambush NAZRAN, Ingushetia (AP) - Three soldiers were killed and six were wounded when rebels fired on a military column from the cover of a thick forest in eastern Chechnya, an official said Friday. In the ambush Thursday near the town of Gudermes, rebels waited as military vehicles packed with soldiers passed on the road and then opened fire on five lightly defended cars driving in the rear, Kremlin spokes man Konstantin Makeyev said. TITLE: Russia Planning To Bring Mir Back Down to Earth PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - A senior Russian official said on Monday the country's aging orbital station Mir would most likely be ditched in the Pacific Ocean in February, Interfax news agency reported. Russia is focusing its limited resources on participation in the International Space Station (ISS), for which it has provided two modules. The first long-term expedition to the ISS will be launched from the Russian-run Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan on Monday. "We are planning to bring Mir down and sink it in the ocean in late February," Interfax quoted Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov as saying. Russia's efforts to find extra funds to preserve Mir, in orbit since 1986, have clearly failed. Last month the council of chief designers urged the government to make a formal decision on dumping the station and Klebanov said this was expected soon. Russia launched the ISS living quarters, basically an updated Mir, in July. But its launch was two years late, a delay which the Americans blamed on Russian reluctance to scrap Mir. Klebanov was quoted as saying Russia would send space cargo craft Progress to Mir, with fuel needed to down the station safely in a designated location in the Pacific Ocean. Mir's demise could blast a big hole in MirCorp, a joint venture led by Western investors which has bought the rights to sell tickets to the public to fly to the space station. Earlier this month MirCorp said it had raised some $40 million to keep Mir aloft into next year, as interest grew in sending civilians into orbit. James Cameron, director of the film "Titanic," has said he wants a ticket to fulfill a lifelong dream, and America's NBC television station has announced plans to blast a winning game show contestant into orbit in the coming months. After being in space almost three times longer than its Soviet-designers envisaged, Mir has suffered a number of glitches in recent years, including a fire and a collision with a supply ship. TITLE: Malyshev Returns to Yakovlev's Cabinet AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: It's official: Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev has a government. And he may even have a successor. With the approval by the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly last week of Valery Malyshev as one of the city's 13 vice governors, Yakovlev's cabinet is now rubber-stamped. Malyshev will head the strange-sounding Sports, Transport and Communication Committee, the same post he held until joining the State Duma in December 1999. But in a sign that Malyshev is not universally popular - he was mentioned by a special Interior Ministry task force investigating corruption in St. Petersburg last year - lawmakers in the assembly needed two goes to muster the necessary 25 votes for Malyshev's approval. He finally scraped through with the support of 26 deputies. "[Malyshev] is a very vivid character, which is why it was predicted that lawmakers would have a wide range of views on his candidacy," said Viktor Yevtukhov, a Unity faction member of the assembly, by telephone on Monday. Among his other duties as vice governor, Malyshev was responsible for cooperation between City Hall and the assembly while he worked in City Hall - lobbying deputies to pass laws initiated by Smolny. Last year, however, was a particularly fractious one for the assembly and Yakovlev. In the fall of 1999, for example, Malyshev supported Yakovlev's drive to have gubernatorial elections brought forward to coincide with Duma elections - a controversial move that some assembly deputies claimed was done illegally. The decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Around the same time, Malyshev was connected by the Interior Ministry to a shell company that illegally financed the All Russia faction congress on May 22, 1999. His office at City Hall was searched by an investigative group from Moscow sent to St. Petersburg specially to work on the case. No charges were ever brought. Malyshev has also been connected by local media to Viktor Novosyolov, a member of the Legislative Assembly who was assassinated in October last year. Novosyolov was widely believed to have had links to organized crime figures in St. Petersburg. Malyshev won his Duma seat by being on the party list of the All Russia faction, which was headed by Yakovlev before the Duma elections. Seen as Yakovlev's closest ally - the governor recently said that Malyshev was wasted in Moscow - he is also viewed as the potential inheritor of the city's top job when Yakovlev's term expires in 2004, or if he is appointed to a position in the capital. City Hall played down such rumors Monday, however. "It is too early to talk about ... Malyshev [being] appointed governor if Yakovlev leaves the city," said Alexander Afanasiyev, Yakovlev's spokesman. "Yakovlev is not going anywhere." Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that Yakovlev's successor was more likely to be chosen by the Kremlin than by the governor himself. Malyshev himself was unavailable for comment on Monday. In an interview with the Delovoi Peterburg newspaper, however, he said that is was "very pleasant" to hear the rumors. "Sometimes I think, why not?" he was quoted as saying. TITLE: U.S. Senate Plans Scrutiny Of Al Gore's Kremlin Deal AUTHOR: By Christopher Wilson PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans said they will hold hearings next week to probe the legality of a recently disclosed deal struck by U.S. Vice President Al Gore with Moscow that Russia would not face U.S. sanctions if it failed to meet a deadline to end arms shipments to Iran. News reports of the 1995 pact between Gore and former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin have prompted charges by Republicans that Congress was kept in the dark about the arms sales and President Bill Clinton's administration failed to seek penalties against Russia under a U.S. law that bars such deals with Iran and other states view ed as sponsors of terrorism. "The agreement specifically commits the Unit ed States to 'avoid any penalties to Russia that might otherwise arise under domestic law,'" said Sen. Sam Brownback, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which plans to open the hearings on Tuesday. "Without an explicit act of Congress, the vice president did not have the power or authority to commit the Unit ed States to ignore U.S. law," the Kan sas Republican told reporters Thursday. Gore, the Democratic presidential candidate, has denied the agreement violated U.S. law or that he made any attempt to withhold details of the deal from Congress. His campaign has dismissed the controversy as a politically motivated attack in the final weeks before the Nov. 7 elections. Under the 1995 agreement negotiated by Gore and Chernomyrdin, Russia pledged not to enter into any new contracts for Iran to buy conventional military weapons and to finish shipments of existing contracts by the end of 1999. The agreement covered sales of weapons including a diesel-powered submarine, tanks, mines and other weapons that were part of Soviet-era contracts. In return, the United States agreed not to sanction Russia under a 1992 nonproliferation law that was co-sponsored by Gore himself and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. "Clearly there was a controlling legal authority on these transfers and it should not be ignored by the Congress of the United States," said Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, who also sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. "We will be investigating it in the interests of the American people and to ensure that our laws are enforced," Smith said. The White House said last week the weapons involved were "antiquated," posed no threat to the United States, and that the agreement had achieved its main purpose of stopping new Russian weapons sales to Iran. Senate Republicans, however, took the White House to task for failing to provide Congress with details of the agreement and said they were prepared to subpoena documents for the hearings. They said Gore would also be "invited" to testify. "I believe the U.S. Congress and the American people deserve a full explanation from the administration of all of the details regarding this highly questionable agreement," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "If they are not immediately forthcoming, I believe the appropriate committees should investigate," he said. Lawmakers said that the congressional committees could include the Senate Governmental Affairs and Judiciary Committees as well as the Foreign Relations Committee. TITLE: Bad Weather Impedes Operation To Recover Kursk Crew AUTHOR: By Andrei Shukshin PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - A storm in the Barents Sea on Monday forced Russian and Norwegian divers to suspend work on cutting a hole in the hull of the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk to retrieve the remains of its 118 crew. Penetrating the inner hull is the toughest challenge facing the divers at this stage. A worker who took part in building the Kursk told Russian television that cutting into 10 centimeters of reinforced metal was a daunting task even in a dry dock. Interfax news agency quoted Gennady Verich, head of the Northern Fleet rescue service, as saying the operation was suspended in the evening after the weather sharply worsened. He said a storm brewing all day had reached a level that endangered the lives of the divers. Vladimir Navrotsky, spokesman for the Northern Fleet, told RIA news agency that the divers had cut about a fifth of the hole they have to make in order to enter the vessel, which sank in August in Russia's worst nuclear submarine disaster. Navrotsky said the work would take at least 15 hours and could be finished early on Tuesday. NTV commercial television said it was not clear how much this timetable would be compromised as the weather in the Arctic changed quickly. NTV said the divers left their cutting machines on the Kursk's hull. On Sunday, they drilled a hole in the rigid hull to inspect the submarine's eighth compartment with a video camera. They found conditions inside safe. Norwegian radiation experts said there was no sign of radioactive leakage inside the craft. They said testing would continue as divers moved closer to the vessel's reactor. To gain access to the rigid hull the divers have had to cut through the outer hull and its rubber lining and clear an area of about 2 meters housing extensive piping. Another hole was being cut over a neighbouring compartment of the Kursk, the seventh compartment. It is believed some sailors could have been at their posts there when two explosions - the exact origins of which are still unknown - sank the submarine. The divers, working from the Norwegian offshore platform Regalia, have to make seven holes to reach each corner of the 154-meter sub, which was badly damaged by the blasts. Divers could face grave danger trying to enter the Kursk, not only from intense cold and darkness, but from jagged metal debris inside that could puncture their survival suits. Navy commander Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov has instructed divers not to attempt anything that might endanger them. The operation is being run by the Norwegian arm of U.S. oil services firm Halliburton. Norwegian divers have done most of the survey work and cutting holes. But only Russian military divers will actually go inside the vessel. TITLE: Renationalization Ruled Out For Norilsk Nickel Company PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: MOSCOW - A top prosecutor said Friday that an investigation into the legality of some of the largest privatization deals of the past decade is continuing, but made it clear that his office wouldn't try to renationalize property. First Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Biryukov told lawmakers in the State Duma that a probe into alleged foul play in the 1997 privatization of the Norilsk Nickel smelting and mining company was still under way, with prosecutors seeking to reimburse the state for the lost revenue. Biryukov acknowledged that it would now be impossible to cancel the results of privatization without hurting the interests of honest shareholders. "The situation has changed and it's hard to do anything now without infringing upon shareholders' rights," Biryukov said in a speech before the State Duma. Earlier this year, prosecutors filed a lawsuit to cancel the privatization of the nickel giant, but the Moscow Arbitration Court turned it down in June, saying the motion had been poorly prepared. The huge factory in northern Siberia, which employs 130,000 people, is the world's second-largest producer of nickel and the largest producer of platinum-group metals. Nickel is used in steel alloys, and platinum metals have a major industrial use in car exhaust pipes to reduce emissions. The prosecutors have charged that companies affiliated with tycoon Vladimir Potanin bought a stake in Norilsk Nickel for about $620 million in a flawed auction procedure. Business rivals claimed that Potanin, a former deputy prime minister, had used government connections to win the auction. Biryukov said Friday that prosecutors were also looking into other privatization deals, including the Tyumen Oil Co. Many of the privatization deals that followed the fall of communism have been marred by similar allegations of foul play. TITLE: China Pushes for WTO Entry AUTHOR: By Paul Eckert PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: BEIJING - China and the European Union ended a summit Monday stressing their commitment to overcoming snags in China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). But the discussions on China's WTO accession, which overshadowed political issues at the one-day summit, produced scant evidence of a breakthrough in the impasse. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who headed the EU team in tough, but ultimately successful bilateral negotiations with China, told Reuters in an interview he had clarified the issues stalling multilateral talks on China's WTO accession in Geneva. "The Chinese president [Jiang Ze min] and prime minister have said that their wish was that this could be done before the end of the year," Lamy said. "We will work hard in that direction." The official Xinhua news agency quoted Jiang as saying both sides should approach multilateral WTO talks "from a strategic perspective, enabling China to join the global trading system at an early date." "The EU's attitude is very important to accelerating the negotiations," Jiang said. EU leaders said they were reassured by Premier Zhu Rongji that Beijing had not lost the will to finish its 14-year accession process. Zhu told European Commission President Romano Prodi and French President Jacques Chirac - whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency - that "China does not intend to stray away from its commitments," Prodi told a news conference. China's official Xinhua news agency said that Zhu repeated one of the sticking points in Geneva, telling EU leaders that China "hopes WTO members will not add new requirements in the multilateral negotiation process." The EU said last week that efforts by WTO members to clarify China's "opaque or unpredictable" trade regulations met Chinese accusations that they were trying to extract new commitments. Lamy said bilateral disputes included details on the allocation of insurance licenses and access to the distribution system. Multilateral issues involved certain trade regulations. He said he was confident China would grant promised licenses to European insurers by its WTO entry. China agreed to issue seven licenses within 60 days under a WTO deal signed with the EU in May, but had bestowed only two by the July deadline. TITLE: WPP Group Posts Rise, But Fears Slowdown AUTHOR: By Merissa Marr PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: LONDON - The world's biggest advertising group WPP feasted on the Olympics and U.S. elections to post a 21 percent rise in third quarter revenues on Monday, as new business poured in from top clients such as Ford and Nike. WPP, which concluded its takeover of New York-based agency Young & Rubicam earlier this month, put creeping fears of an advertising slowdown on hold after reaping a 14 percent rise in net new billings to 830 million pounds ($1.20 billion). But the owner of U.S. agencies J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather reiterated that such storming growth could not continue forever, with revenues rising 21.2 percent at constant currencies, or a reported 26.3 percent, to 679.4 million pounds ($986.2 million), after climbing 19.5 percent in its core North American market. "These are very strong numbers and worries of a slowdown aren't showing in these results, although a slowdown is more likely to impact quarter four," said Ga reth Thomas, analyst at Commerz bank, which has a "hold" on WPP stock. WPP shares ended 1.6 percent up at 870 pence ($12.6), after climbing five percent earlier in the session. The Olympics, millennium celebrations and U.S. elections coupled with favorable economic conditions have powered strong growth in the advertising industry in the past year, but growth is expected to be less energetic next year given a thinner spread of big events and an expected slowdown in key economies. "You've seen what's happened in the third quarter: if anything it's gone a little bit stronger. But clearly, [growth like this] can't continue forever," WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said in an interview. With business roaring ahead, WPP said it was on track to meet its 14 percent target for 2000 operating margins - a key indicator of profitability for the sector. Sorrell said the advertising industry was forecast to grow 6-7 percent this year but slow to 5-6 percent next. Marketing services, a large chunk of WPP's business, are expected to rise 7-8 percent this year and 6-7 percent next. WPP, which has diversified heavily into higher-growth marketing services to cushion the blow of any economic slowdown, is currently way ahead of the industry average, with organic growth running at around 15 percent. Sorrell said he would push on with small and medium-sized acquisitions and has set up a fourth global network to run alongside JWT, Ogilvy & Mather and Y&R, to serve "challenger" companies fighting for lead positions in their markets. The new agency, grouping WPP's Conquest offices with Batey Advertising in Singapore and the Seattle agency Cole & Weber, is to be launched later this year. Sorrell dismissed as "ill-informed" reports that he was in talks to buy UK public relations firm Finsbury. Industry sources said WPP was widening its search for a new chairman after its previous top candidate, TI Group Chairman Christopher Lewinton, got a thumbs down from investors. WPP had committed to appointing its next non-executive chairman from the Y&R board, but industry sources said the list of possible Y&R candidates had now been exhausted. TITLE: Oil Market Shows Stability Despite Middle East Crisis PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: LONDON - High oil prices held steady on Monday as Middle East tensions simmered and markets resting on wafer-thin surplus stocks readied for a surge in winter demand. International benchmark Brent crude for December delivery was trading 16 cents lower at $31.46 after Middle East tensions had pushed it above $32. U.S. light December crude was 17 cents lower at $32.78. World oil production - at full tilt everywhere outside Saudi Arabia - has little margin for error ahead of a northern hemisphere winter that will see the highest demand in history. U.S. fuel stockpiles apparently at their lowest in almost a quarter of a century have left many wondering if U.S. homes and offices will stay warm if the winter is especially severe. And Middle East tensions are adding extra pressure on nerves in a supply system operating with little slack. "There is no change in sentiment. The market is keeping one eye on Middle East developments," said Tony Machacek of brokers Prudential Bache. "It's one of the unknowns." Renewed Israeli-Palestinian clashes pushed Brent futures up 90 cents to $31.62 a barrel on Friday, while U.S. oil prices jumped by more than a dollar. Although Middle East violence has abated from its peak last week, prices may rise further if the unrest boils over again. The Israeli army threatened on Monday to surround the West Bank town of Beit Jala near Jerusalem to stop gunmen there firing at Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood built on occupied land. Clashes continued sporadically elsewhere during the night in the more than three-week-old wave of violence between the Israeli army and Palestinians. Palestinian medical sources said two more Palestinians had died of wounds sustained last week, taking the death toll in the wave of violence to at least 127, all but eight of them Arabs. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said his government would take a pause from peacemaking after an Arab summit in Cairo used what he called threatening language against Israel. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk has warned Palestinians against unilaterally declaring an independent state, saying it could light a fire that would engulf the Middle East. Palestinians plan to establish an independent state as early as Nov. 15. The market is watching the deadline for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to boost production under a mechanism designed to keep prices stable. Under the terms of the me cha nism, OPEC will release an extra 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) as OPEC's reference basket of crudes remains above $28 for 20 consecutive working days. That deadline will come on Friday, but the order for the release of extra barrels will not be formally triggered until Monday because of a one-day delay in calculation of the basket by the group's Vienna headquarters. Some in OPEC have said the cartel could boost output in late October by choosing to let the informally agreed price mechanism operate automatically rather than wait for a policy-making meeting on Nov. 12. "If OPEC comes out and says we are increasing production by half a million barrels, the price could lose a dollar or two. It all depends on whether the market had been going up or [was] under pressure at the time," said Machacek. TITLE: Market May Take Off After Sluggish Weeks TEXT: The NASDAQ is still in vogue here. It jumped 7.79 percent Thursday and the RTS index ended the week up 7.95 percent at 198.88. The U.S. markets came back to life after Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Merck and other big guns released their third quarter results, putting some glitter on the battered market. The NASDAQ surged 5 percent to 3,483.09 over the week, up 13 percent from a year low of 3,026.11 it had hit the previous week. In the RTS, trading was restricted to the Russian Troika - UES, Surgutneftegaz and LUKoil - which were up 10 percent to 12 percent on the week, an indication of the market's speculative nature. "The market has bottomed out," said Alexei Bachurin, head of sales with IFC Metropol brokerage. "Petro dollars gradually trickle into the market." Bachurin expects the market to take off in the coming months, following a Christmas rally in the global markets. Outside the top three, Norilsk Nickel and Aeroflot were the best picks, gaining respectively 10.2 percent to $7.99 and 21.7 percent to $0.25. But the rest of the pack was rather sluggish. Mosenergo hobbled to 3.05 cents a share, up 1.7 percent, while deadbeat Rostelecom limped up 3.9 percent to $1.34. "There is not much to buy outside the oil sector," said Kirill Maltsev, head of sales with Rye, Man and Gor. "Why would investors buy telecoms, having seen the telecommunications minister moving the goal posts?" "And in the power sector, something is always wrong [by definition]," he added. Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman suggested several weeks ago that Vimpelcom and the MTS share their frequency licenses with a third cellular operator, the joint venture of Svyazinvest and Finnish Sonera. Amid calls of foul play, Reiman put the brakes on the plan, but rancorous market watchers remember the failed scheme. TITLE: Lucent in Trouble as CEO Loses Position AUTHOR: By Bruce Meyerson PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: NEW YORK - Lucent Technologies' board has forced out Richard McGinn as chairman and chief executive after a series of financial disappointments. The maker of telecommunications equipment said Monday that former board chairman Henry Schacht, 66, would replace McGinn in both posts and will lead the search for his successor. At the same time, Lucent warned that its earnings for the current quarter would be below earlier expectations. It said it now expects earnings growth from continuing operations to remain flat on a 7 percent decline in revenue. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial had been looking for Lucent to earn 23 cents a share before charges for the final three months of 2000. Shares of Lucent were down 25 cents to $22.38 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, which is based in Murray Hill, New Jersey, said it would report results for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 after the close of the stock market Monday. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson are looking for earnings of 17 cents per share for the quarter. Earlier this month, Lucent shares skidded 30 percent to a two-year low after the company warned for the third time this year that profits wouldn't meet expectations. Lucent's stock is the second-most widely held in the nation, behind MetLife, with about 5.3 million shareholders. Lucent, which was spun off from AT&T in 1996, has had problems in the growth of its business despite soaring demand for the network equipment being used to expand the Internet. The board said in a statement Monday that it had reviewed Lucent's recent performance and outlook for the current quarter at a meeting over the weekend and "determined that an immediate change in leadership was necessary." TITLE: GE To Acquire Honeywell for $45 Billion AUTHOR: By Brad Foss PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: NEW YORK - General Electric Co. has agreed to acquire Honeywell International Inc. for $45 billion in stock, and GE chairman John F. Welch Jr. is postponing his planned retirement until the end of 2001 to oversee the merger. The boards of GE and Honeywell approved the deal Sunday to create one of the world's largest industrial companies following a last-minute offer by GE that scuttled the plans of industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp. to buy Honeywell for about $40 billion. United Technologies called off its negotiations on Friday after Honeywell revealed it was talking to a new suitor. GE will pay 1.055 of its shares - or $54.99 - for each of Honeywell's 801 million outstanding shares. Based on Friday's close, GE's valuation of Honeywell represents a nearly 10 percent premium over United Technologies' bid. Shares of GE fell $2.88 to $49.63 in morning trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, while shares of Honeywell rose $2.81 to $49.81. Both companies are part of the 30-component Dow Jones industrial average. Under terms of the deal, expected to close in early 2001, GE will also assume an unspecified amount of Honeywell debt. Honeywell's corporate headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, will be closed as part of the deal and about 550 employees there may lose their jobs, said Honeywell spokesman Tom Crane. But the top executives of both companies focused on the deal's upside on Monday, emphasizing areas where GE and Honeywell have overlapping businesses but with few, if any, overlap in products. "GE brings good things to life and we're confident we bring good things to GE," Honeywell CEO Michael R. Bonsignore said during a news conference in New York. Welch said Honeywell was too good to pass up, and derided suggestions that GE should have been shopping for a New Economy company rather than a venerable manufacturer. "This is a high-tech company. GE is a high-tech company. We're merging two real high-tech companies, with real earnings that do real things," Welch said. GE expects the acquisition of Honeywell to boost its earnings per share by double digits in the first full year, excluding any one-time charges. GE is a diversified company that produces power plant parts, aircraft engines, appliances and owns the NBC television network. Honeywell manufactures equipment for aerospace systems, power generation, transportation and factory automation, as well as specialty chemicals, plastics, fibers and other industrial materials. "This is how GE gets a bigger footprint in the global marketplace, increasing its size by nearly a third overnight and adding to its dominance in key areas," analyst Nicholas P. Heymann of Prudential Securities Inc. said Sunday. GE, the world's most profitable company with anticipated 2000 revenues of $130 billion, has been remaking itself since the 1990s into a powerhouse in financial services, business consulting and equipment maintenance, with 70 percent of sales coming from these revenue streams, according to Heymann. "This deal will allow GE to become the pre-eminent provider of productivity enhancement services in the airline industry, utilities and factory automation services," Heymann said. With the Honeywell acquisition, GE would also be able to sell customers Honeywell software that links Web commerce to the factory. GE dominates the market for aircraft engines and servicing, while Honeywell is the predominant supplier of aircraft electronics for commercial jets. Honeywell also dominates the market for air traffic control systems, Heymann noted. Overlap in some areas is expected to raise antitrust concerns among U.S. and European regulators, who could require the combined company to divest some of its businesses as a condition of approval. The two companies are partners on projects such as a $196 million contract to develop gas turbine engines for U.S. Army battle tanks and an artillery system, and on a deal with Fortune Electric Co. of Taipei to develop lighter and cheaper electrical distribution transformers. GE's 11th-hour offer for Honeywell surprised many given the fact that Welch, who turns 65 next month, was expected to hand over control of the company six months from now. Welch is widely credited with transforming a company best known for making light bulbs and appliances into an empire that includes the television network NBC. He shook up GE's management structure and sold major business divisions, including housewares, air conditioning and semiconductor businesses. In his 20 years as chairman of GE, profits have risen from $1.6 billion to $10.7 billion in 1999. Those results set the stage for retirement, and Welch insisted Monday he was ready to go. But the unexpected chance to buy Honeywell demanded that he say, to make the transition work, he said. "I could've gone home early and been a great hero," Welch said. "I'm betting everything, my reputation, that this makes GE a lot better and [individual investors'] investment a lot stronger." Bonsignore said the deal was partly contingent on Welch's decision. "Without a commitment from Jack to stay aboard during this critical period of integration, I think there would've been a high level of nervousness" among Honeywell's board members, he said. Honeywell International was created last December, when Minneapolis-based Honeywell was acquired by AlliedSignal, which is based in Morristown, New Jersey. The company, which set up headquarters in Morristown, has about 120,000 employees worldwide and earned $1.54 billion on revenue of $23.74 billion in 1999. TITLE: Amish Farmers Branch Out Into Saw Mills PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: SPARTANSBURG, Pennsylvania - At first glance, Allen Troyer is typical of the Amish: living simply, traveling by horse and buggy and likely to have his sons follow him into the family business. Except, like a growing number of Amish, Troyer's business isn't farming. Troyer, 33, runs a saw mill, one of dozens that dot the heart of northwestern Pennsylvania lumber country in Crawford County, about 50 kilometers southeast of Erie. "I just never really had the urge for it," Troyer says of farming. Like farmers everywhere, the number of Amish farmers is declining - spurred by low crop prices, rising land prices and more efficient and automated farm techniques that the Amish tend to eschew. The Amish exodus from farming is "consistent, and it's consistent across the nation," said Donald B. Kraybill, a sociologist at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Fewer than half the Amish families in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a center of the faith, now farm, and the figure is closer to 10 percent in Geauga County, Ohio, Kraybill said. Andy Troyer, a New Order Amish man in Conneautville, Pennsylvania., said his community is made up of equal parts farmers, shop workers and business owners. Andy Troyer, no relation to Allen, has been making and selling rope as a livelihood since 1977. "Traditionally, [the Amish] would live on a farm and raise the family," he said. "Dad could have 15 to 20 cows, maybe a dozen hogs and 500 chickens. He would raise his family, work with the children and pay off the farm. He could make money. Today that is gone. Farming is a business, and it used to be a way of life." There are more than 1,500 Amish-owned businesses in Lancaster County, said Kraybill, author of "Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits." The trend away from farming and toward business dates to the 1960s but has accelerated in the last 10 years, he said. "In my judgment, this is the most significant and consequential change since the Amish immigrated to North America," Kraybill said. "It increases their exposure to the outside world." "The problem is ... these vocations put them closer to the village," said Jim Fisher, an Edinboro University of Pennsylvania professor. Andy Troyer said the different Amish groups have varying opinions about the move away from farming and which traditions are worth keeping. The New Order Amish may be in a better position to stay grounded in farming because they embrace the use of electricity in barns and small tractors, which might allow them to compete in the marketplace, he said. "If you are an [Old Amish] carpenter, you have a hand saw and a square. The other guy has a nailing gun and power saws," Troyer says, "How can you compete?" The same is true in farming, he said. "You can't milk 30 cows by hand. It's impossible, but yet all the milk sells for the same price." TITLE: Natural Gas Leaders Get Monopoly From Merger AUTHOR: By Elizabeth LeBras PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: MOSCOW - The Anti-Monopoly Ministry has approved a merger that will significantly strengthen the monopolies of two major players in the natural gas sector and further weaken the position of the country's independent natural gas producers. The ministry's deputy head Andrei Tsiganov announced Sunday that the ministry had granted natural gas monopoly Gazprom permission to enlarge its stake in the Siberian Urals Pet ro chemicals Co., or Sibur, from 18.5 percent to a controlling stake of 51 percent. The Sibur holding was founded in 1995 and consists of nine gas-refining factories in western Siberia, the Perm gas refinery, and the Yaroslav and Omsk tire companies. The company's 1999 earnings exceeded 3 billion rubles ($107.4 million). Sibur produces 40 percent of the nation's output of liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. LPG is also a byproduct of refining crude oil. The Anti-Monopoly Ministry's announcement merely formalized an agreement reached by Gazprom and Si bur in May, according to which Gaz prom increased its stake by 30 percent. The two companies have a long history of collaboration on gas projects. Each year, Gazprom purchases 10 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas from Sibur for use by electric power stations. Gazprom deputy director Alexander Pushkin has a seat on Sibur's board of directors. A final decision on the merger will be made Thursday by Gazprom's board of directors. "It is of course a strategic feat for Gaz prom," said Steven Dashevsky, an analyst with Aton brokerage. He predicted that the merger will strengthen both companies' monopolies. By acquiring Sibur, Gazprom will effectively control the processing of natural and liquefied gas from production to processing to retail. The government is seen as unlikely to move soon to strip the monopoly status of Gazprom in several areas of the energy sector. The merger coincides with an announcement by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Monday that the government has postponed plans to restructure Gazprom until next year. The state holds a stake of about 38 percent of Gazprom. Oil companies, which supply natural gas to Sibur for processing, have long accused Sibur of monopolizing the market for refined natural gas. None of the nation's oil companies has its own gas-processing facilities and they are consequently obliged to participate in an unprofitable relationship with Sibur. Natural gas producers have complained that they must sell their product to Sibur for refining at very low prices that do not correspond to the value of the gas after it has been refined. Anti-Mo no po ly Minister Ilya Yu zhanov told the newspaper Kommersant that he saw no legitimate grounds for compelling Sibur to pay higher prices for deliveries of natural gas and warned that such a situation would quickly lead to Sibur's bankruptcy. The Anti-Monopoly Ministry has imposed conditions on the completion of the merger that are intended to prevent Gazprom from establishing complete control over Sibur. Specifically, the ministry intends to distribute a blocking stake of 25 percent plus one share in Sibur among oil companies. Spokesmen for state oil firm Rosneft and the nation's No. 1 oil firm LUKoil, however, told the newspaper Vedomosti that the acquisition of small stakes in Sibur would not strengthen the position of natural gas producers. Gennady Krasovsky, oil and gas analyst of the Nikoil brokerage, believes that the merger could be a "useful measure" by Gazprom in its efforts to cover the difference between its natural gas production and demand. Krasovsky said Gazprom's shortfall of natural gas in 2000 amounted to 20 billion cubic meters and in 2001, that figure will increase to 50 billion cubic meters. By acquiring Sibur, Gazprom will ensure its virtually unlimited access to the factory's output of refined gas, he said. TITLE: Consumer Spending Is on Rise AUTHOR: By Olga Promptova PUBLISHER: Vedomosti TEXT: MOSCOW - Consumers are spending at such a rapid clip that the State Statistics Committee retailers' confidence index has finally reached pre-crisis levels, according to committee data. Over the first eight months of this year, consumers spent 1.7 billion rubles ($61 million) on goods and services, up 30 percent from the same period last year, the committee said Thursday. The number of people buying durable goods over the summer was more than the same pre-crisis period in 1998, it said, and the proportion of wages spent on goods and services increased from 6 percent to 81 percent from June to August. "[This] is a very positive tendency," said Marina Sabelnikova, a deputy head at the Statistics Committee. "It means that after buying foodstuffs the consumer is able to allow him or herself a little something extra, a product for long-term use. "This tendency was observed in 1997," she added. "[But] after the crisis the market share of foodstuffs, which had just started to fall, increased sharply." The figures suggest that retailers have fully recovered from the crisis and have good reason to feel optimistic about the future, Sabelnikova said. Alexander Demidov, general director at the GFK marketing agency, said his data shows that demand fell about 40 percent after the August 1998 crisis and now stands at about 90 percent to 95 percent of 1997 levels. "There is a steady rise in demand," he said. "It has yet to reach 1997 levels, but it is growing across all indicators." "There are positive changes - the data from our surveys also support this," said Marina Krasilnikova, head of the department for living standards at the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion. Despite the good news, analysts aren't overexcited: These rosy figures have only been posted once before, in 1997. Overall, the economic picture over the past decade has been gloomy and experts fear the country will inevitably revert back to the doldrums. While consumer confidence is growing, about half of the public still consider their financial affairs to be in a bad or a very bad state, according to the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion. "We should not exaggerate these changes," said Krasilnikova. "Only a limited segment of the population is buying durable products." TITLE: Kiev, Moscow Closer To Settling Gas Row AUTHOR: By Alexander Bekker PUBLISHER: Vedomosti TEXT: MOSCOW - The conditions under which Russia will agree to supply gas to Ukraine could cause a political crisis in Russia's southern neighbor. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said a breakthrough on the troubled supplies had been reached at a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Uk rai nian president Leonid Kuchma in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Saturday. "There is every chance that we will conclude an intergovernmental agree ment [on gas supply] before Jan. 1," Kasyanov said. This will happen only if Kiev makes a number of substantial concessions. But if Mos cow's conditions are too tough, Kiev and Prime Minister Vik tor Yu shchen ko's government will find them hard to swallow. The upper house of the Ukrainian parliament and the country's business elite are already gnashing their teeth at Yushchenko's cabinet for its attempt to push through a deficit-free budget and privatize seven energy producers. An agreement with Russia on gas would be depicted by the press as a betrayal of national interests. All of this could create a political crisis and result in the governments being removed. The situation is made all the more prickly by Russia's attempt to build a pipeline bypassing Ukraine through Poland and Slovakia to Western Europe. Natural gas monopoly Gazprom said last week it had signed a letter of intent with German Ruhrgas and Wintershall, Gaz de France and Italy's Snam to create the line. To increase the pressure on Ukraine, Putin has instructed Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko to work towards an international agreement for supplying gas to Ukraine and at the same time to begin negotiations with Polish leaders regarding the construction of a gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine. Khristenko said Putin had also ordered him to examine the possibility of linking Ukraine's electricity power systems to Russia's power grid to organize energy transit to Europe. Kasyanov said Putin and Kuchma discussed gas tariffs and special terms. Kuchma asked Putin simply to transport Turkmen gas to the Ukrainian border. The trump card was Kuchma's offer to transfer Ukraine's national gas transportation and storage utility to Russia at a discount. "Russia's interest must be captured," Yushchen ko said. Russia was offered 50 percent of the Ukr transgaz shares, though not 51 percent because a controlling stake would have been difficult to get through Uk rai ne's parliament. Khristenko said Moscow will work towards an intergovernmental agreement based on several conditions. Firstly, Uk rai ne's gas requirements must be tightly determin ed, taking into account the levels of gas Ukraine produces itself and the volumes supplied from Turkmenistan and Russia, the deputy prime minister said. This would mean re-export to Europe would show up at once on Ukraine's national fuel balance sheet and sanctions would immediately be imposed. Such sanctions should be imposed if Ukraine siphons off gas being transported through its territory, as it happened last year, Khristenko said. An intergovernmental agreement would provide for the automatic conversion of fines into state debt to Russia, he added. Such a formulation would insure Russia against an unpleasant situation: Turkmenistan can simply turn off the supply if Ukraine falls behind with payments. Russia cannot do this because its gas is transported to Europe. Having concluded an agreement with Ashkha bad, Kiev can count on Turkmen gas, but its lack of hard currency makes it tempting to use Russian natural gas for free. TITLE: Baltika Sues Over Knock-Off Cigarettes PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: MOSCOW - The nation's No. 1 brewer, Baltika, has filed a lawsuit in the Moscow region arbitration court against the makers of Baltika cigarettes for trademark infringement. Baltika has also appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office to ban the company Meta-Tabak from using its name and logo on its cigarettes, Interfax quoted Baltika officials as saying Monday. The suit was provoked by an appearance in St. Petersburg earlier this month of Baltika 3 and Baltika 9 cigarettes, which Meta-Tabak makes at its factory in the Moscow suburb of Podolsk. Baltika is asking the court and the Prosecutor General to require that Meta-Tabak "halt the manufacturing, marketing, sale or any other means of introducing onto the market its tobacco products," which employ the Baltika trademark, the news agency said. The brewer is also asking that trademarks and designs that could be confused with the beer company's trademarks and designs be removed from all Meta-Tabak packaging. Grigory Israelyan, a spokesman for Soyuzkontrakt Tabak, the company that owns the factory where the Baltika cigarettes are made, said that a company called VTF actually owns the Baltika brand of cigarettes and the factory "is merely offering its services by producing the product." "We will say that VTF owns these cigarettes. Let [VTF] go to court with Baltika," Israelyan said. Israelyan wouldn't disclose the address or any other details of VTF, citing client confidentiality. He said the Podolsk factory is no longer making Baltika cigarettes. It fulfilled the original order for 120,000 packs and no request for additional packs had been made. TITLE: Fora Invests In Upgrade Of Facilities AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: St. Petersburg Telecom, a local cellular phone service provider which operates in the city under the brand name Fora Communications is planning to expand its network in the city, Alexei Mischenko, the general director of the company, said at a press conference last Thursday. Fora is St. Petersburg's third-largest cellular provider, behind North-West GSM and Delta Telecom, and provides services based on the AMPS, N-AMPs and CDMA standards. The company is the only provider holding a license to operate the most technologically advanced cellular system used at present in St. Petersburg - CDMA. But, while industry analysts see CDMA as the future of cellular communications in the city, Fora has to date built only six base stations in St. Petersburg. "Today the existing CDMA digital standard coverage is being provided by six base stations, which are able to provide service to only a small part of the city," Anna Ivanova, the advertising manager at St. Petersburg Telecom said in a telephone interview on Monday. "That network started operating on Sept. 1, but it isn't very popular so far with subscribers and the board of directors doesn't feel that it is reasonable to develop it further." The new system's lack of popularity is not only the result of the small coverage area, but also the result of the relative expense of the phone sets it uses and the start-up fee. The least expensive sets Fora sells cost 10,000 rubles (about $360), while the phone sets utilized by North-West GSM may be found for less than $100. Hook up to the CDMA system costs about $130, while GSM charges about $90. The decision to build more base stations was made by the company's shareholders at a regular meeting on Oct. 19, but neither the shareholders nor the management of the company know as yet what standard the new stations will be set up to provide. According to Marina Lytkina, the marketing manager at St. Petersburg Telecom, the final decision will be made at a board of directors meeting scheduled for Nov. 30. "That we will be investing in new stations is no longer a question," Lytkina said in interview on Monday. "The question is which network to invest in." According to Mischenko, investors are prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars on that project. "The shareholders understand that the St. Petersburg market has a lot of potential for growth and they are ready to invest money in the new standard," he said. The company has already received $2.6 million from Millicom International Cellular S.A. (MIC), a Luxembourg based company, through its daughter company, Millicom Vol Holding GmbH, which owns 66 percent of St. Petersburg Telecom's shares. The company plans to use these funds to increase their subscriber capacity and to buy software to improve security against those trying to hack into the system. At the end of September, Fora experienced a breakdown of its cellular network, leading to a two-day suspension of service for their customers. But company representatives deny that the incident is responsible for MIC's decision to put more money into the Fora network. "This breakdown was the result of work to upgrade the capacity of our connection system, which was a part of the larger technical reconstruction plan," Lytkina said. "Since December 1999, our number of subscribers has increased from 13,000 to 27,000, but the new upgrade will increase our capacity. However, it's hard to speak about the future of the new system until the decision at the November meeting." "If St. Petersburg Telecom continues to raise its number of subscribers at the same speed as at present, they plan to have about 31,000 active subscribers by the end of 2000, moving them into second place among the cellular operators in the city," Leonid Konik, chief editor of North-West Media Group, which runs the ComNews.ru Internet information site, said in a telephone interview on Monday. "Using CDMA, which is the third generation of digital standard service, seems to be the most logical option for St. Petersburg Telecom." Konik said. "North-West GSM uses about a hundred base stations to provide connections throughout the city. By comparison, all of New York City is covered by around 20 stations working on the CDMA standard." "Looking a few years ahead, any company which uses CDMA should easily be able to overtake North-West GSM." TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: China Short on Ore BEIJING (AP) - China's steel industry will become increasingly reliant on imported iron ore as rapid economic development depletes domestic reserves, state media said Sunday. Experts predict that China's growing appetite for steel and other iron products will exhaust all of its remaining ore reserves - some 18 billion tons - within 40 years, the Business Weekly newspaper reported. With China's mines already unable to keep up with demand, more companies are beginning to seek foreign suppliers or open their own mines abroad, the report said. In five years, China's imports of iron ore will jump by about a third to 80 million tons a year, the report quoted an official as saying. Trade Agreement TOKYO (AP) - Leaders from Japan and Singapore on Sunday agreed to sign a free-trade agreement by late next year that would become Japan's first bilateral trade accord and Singapore's second, a government official said. In a 30-minute meeting, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and his Singaporean counterpart Goh Chok Tong, who was on a three-day visit to Tokyo, pledged to begin trade talks around January, said Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hiroyuki Minami. The countries plan to seal the pact by December 2001, he said. However, the two leaders did not discuss specific accords that would be included in next year's talks. Until now, Japan has entered only multilateral foreign trade agreements. Instead of establishing trade agreements with individual countries, it traditionally has negotiated through the World Trade Organization, Minami said. Singapore's previous bilateral trade agreement was with New Zealand, he said. Daft Adviser Hired ATLANTA (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co., which has reshuffled its management team in the past year, said on Monday that Don Keough, a former Coke president and 43-year company veteran, will rejoin the beverage giant as an adviser to senior management. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said Keough, who served as president and chief operating officer for 12 years before retiring in 1993, will advise Coca-Cola Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas Daft and the company's board of directors. After his retirement, Keough served as an adviser to former Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Roberto Goizueta, who died in 1997. Keough's new role comes less than a year after Daft replaced Douglas Ivester, Goizueta's successor in the top job. TITLE: Duma Passes Draft Budget in 2nd Reading AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW - The draft 2001 budget sailed through the State Duma on a second reading Friday powered by government concessions giving the regions a larger share of the tax take. Deputies voted 302 to 129 for the 1.19 trillion-ruble ($42.7 billion) budget, with only the Communist and Agrarian parties opposed. Lawmakers, angered by government pressure to pass the budget in its first reading, approved the legislation by a narrow six-vote margin on Oct. 6. The Kremlin trumpeted the approval of what would be the first balanced budget in post-Soviet Russia. "An important stage has been passed," President Vladimir Putin was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying. "Deputies have a more refined and acute feeling for the expectations of the people and are not allowing the thin fabric linking citizen and state to be torn." Observers said that the government's decision to leave the regions with an additional 15 percent of total income tax proceeds tilted the vote in its favor. The concession, which hands 30 billion more rubles to the regions, gives them a total of 99 percent of income tax revenues. The government also agreed to increase defense spending by 12.6 billion rubles to 218.9 billion rubles and spending on law enforcement by 2 billion to 131.6 billion rubles. The draft budget sets aside almost 20 percent of its revenues, or 239 billion rubles, to service debt. Spending on foreign diplomatic missions has been pared back by $100 million and the government has knocked down the interest rate with which it will repay its domestic debt from 2 percent to 1 percent. The draft envisions 4 percent growth in gross domestic product and 12 percent inflation. The bulk of the lawmakers who changed their minds since the first reading came from the Fatherland-All Russia party, which cast 40 additional votes. Forty-five of the 46 deputies from Fatherland-All Russia voted against the budget two weeks ago. "We would like to continue our dialogue with the government," said Vyacheslav Volodin, deputy head of Fatherland-All Russia. "We will wait for details of our agreement [with the government] to be written into the budget in the third reading." He gave no details about what deal his party had with the government. It was not clear Friday why Fatherland-All Russia decided to change its stance. Alexei Alexandrov, the only member of Fatherland-All Russia who voted for the budget in the first reading, has since been expelled from the faction. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov met with the head of Fatherland-All Russia, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, behind closed doors to discuss the budget on the eve of the second reading. "The atmosphere during the meeting was wonderful," Luzhkov told reporters afterward. The protests by opposing lawmakers before the vote Friday went mostly unheard. Deputy Nikolai Kharitonov of the Agrarian party said the Duma was about to pass an "anti-peasant budget" and called on lawmakers to think of their relatives living in far-flung villages. Recent Noble Prize winner and Duma Deputy Zhores Alfyorov asked for increased funding for science and research. Both suggestions went unheeded. The second reading - traditionally the most difficult to push through parliament - designates budgetary expenditures ahead of largely formal third and fourth readings. The budget must then get the green light from the Federation Council before being signed into law by the president. TITLE: Global eye TEXT: Storm Warnings As dark clouds gather over the Middle East, it's good to know that an anxious world can take strength and comfort from the wisdom of America's next president. With rockets flying, mobs rampaging and ancient blood hatreds flaring with each fresh atrocity, Texas Gov. George W. Bush had these words of clarity and vision to offer: "It's important to keep strong ties in the Middle East with credible ties because of the energy crisis we're now in," Bush told a campaign crowd last week. "After all, all the energy is produced from - from the Middle East. And so I - I appreciate what the administration is doing. I - I hope to get a sense of, should I be fortunate enough to be the president, how my administration will react to the Middle East." There's a dark cloud gathering over America, too, it seems. Beg Your Pardon Meanwhile, down in the Bush satrapy of Florida, we got a clear hint last week of the kind of thing we can expect to see in years to come, if Georgie's little juggernaut continues to chug-chug toward the White House. George's brother, Jeb, the governor of Florida, made a great show of restoring the civil rights of one of Watergate's most notorious figures. While Jeb, like George, never uses his preemptory powers to, say, commute the death sentence of dubiously convicted citizens of somewhat dusky hue, he did take the time to restore the right to vote, practice law and other privileges of citizenship to Charles Colson. Old Chuckie, as you may recall, was "special counsel" to Richard Nixon, a role he saw as falling somewhere between that of Lavrenty Beria and Joseph Goebbels. Relishing his position as the hard-nosed enforcer of the Chief Thug's whims and whimsies, it was Colson who coined that stirring (and most apt) piece of American political rhetoric: "Grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow." For his role in the Watergate hijinks, Colson was sent to the penitentiary, where his cojones were evidently grabbed by none other than Jesus Christ himself. "Chuck Colson has certainly served his time," Jeb told The Associated Press. "He's a great guy, he's a great Floridian. It's time to move on." Of course, Colson and the other Watergate pranksters have a "special relationship" with the Bush family. After all, Big Daddy Bush was the chairman of the Republican Party during Watergate, and a stalwart defender of Nixon's goodness and purity. And lest we forget, one of Colson and the boys' special projects was Operation Townhouse: funneling secret, illegal campaign funds to be used against Nixon's most hated enemies. One such victim, hit by a series of dirty tricks - including that old Republican favorite, race-baiting - was the liberal, anti-war senator from Tennessee: Albert Gore Sr. What's that old saying again? The more things change ... Different Strokes Speaking of change, we all know that George W. Bush is, as he never ceases to remind us, a "new kind of Republican." He's not like those bad, old-style Republicans who fought tooth and nail against the civil rights movement. No sir, he's "different," he's a "compassionate conservative" with "love in his heart for all people." Bush gave us a good example of this "new Republicanism" during one of the recent debates. Asked to define his priorities for American foreign policy, Bush said the following areas were "vital to our interests:" "Middle East is a priority for a lot of reasons as is Europe and the Far East and our own hemisphere." That pretty much takes in the whole wide world, except for one little area: Africa. "We don't have any allies there," Bush said, dismissing the Dark Continent. Asked why he supported armed intervention in the Balkans but not in, say, Rwanda, Bush said the Rwandan genocide was pretty nasty, all right - "No one liked to see it on our TV screens" - but "there's gotta be priorities." And while Bush was enthusiastic about intervention throughout Central and South America, especially America's Vietnam-in-the-making military entanglement in Colombia, Bush explicitly singled out one country in the region as not worth a moment of America's time. He blasted President Bill Clinton's intervention to save Haiti from a political bloodbath. "I don't think it was a mission worthwhile," he said. Let's see now: Africa not important to "new Republicans," Haiti not important to "new Republicans:" Africa, Haiti - there seems to be a common denominator there somewhere. What could it possibly be? What was that old saying we were just saying? The more things change ... Potted Plant But speaking of dim-witted, undeserving possessors of inherited wealth, privilege and power the Bush boys' distant cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, was caught bogarting a bit of illegal herb whilst on a progress amongst the peons of her realm last week. Britain has some of the most draconian anti-drug laws in the world (not counting such murky pits of unenlightenment as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, China and Texas); the mere possession of demon cannabis can land you in the cooler. So, it's not often Her Majesty is caught breaking one of, er, Her Majesty's laws. The Queen was slipped the bud by Colin Davies, founder of the Medical Marijuana Cooperative, who placed it in a bouquet he presented to Our Brenda during a tour of an arts center in Salford, The Independent newspaper reports. Royal spokesmen said they didn't know what happened to the covert cannabis. However, there were unconfirmed reports, that someone in Buckingham Palace was playing "Dark Side of the Moon" at full blast later that night. TITLE: Gore Told Too Many Tales AUTHOR: By Rueben F. Johnson TEXT: U.S. Vice President Al Gore has become notorious for taking credit for events in which he had little or no involvement. His claims of having "invented the Internet" or of being the inspiration for Ryan O'Neal's character in the movie "Love Story" have become legendary by now during this presidential campaign. And - as the presidential debates have demonstrated - his predilection for embellishing the truth just never seems to stop. However, there is one achievement for which he can take a great deal of the credit, although he is not likely to advertise it as one of the reasons why people should like and vote for Al Gore. Thanks to Al Gore, Iran has been receiving regular assistance from Russia in the development of nuclear technology since at least 1995 and is much closer to having an atomic-weapons arsenal than they would have been if they had been left to their own devices. A classified "Dear Al" letter from former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin that was written in December 1995 and obtained recently by the Washington Times reveals that Chernomyrdin requested that the details of Russia's nuclear assistance to Iran should "not be conveyed to third parties, including the U.S. Congress." In addition, several months earlier, Gore had also signed up to another agreement with Chernomyrdin to keep secret the details of Russian conventional arms transfers to Iran. Gore evidentially kept both of the promises that he made to Chernomyrdin, concealing these technology and arms transfers to Iran even though both nuclear and conventional arms sales to Iran by Russia are supposed to be reported to Congress under the terms of U.S. weapons-proliferation law. When I discuss this revelation with my Democrat friends, they are quick to tell me that I am being holier-than-thou, pointing out that the Reagan Administration sold arms to the Iranians in exchange for the release of hostages during the 1980s. But I really don't think that this comparison does much to bolster Al Gore's case. The architect of the Iran-Contra arms transfers was Lt. Col. Oliver North. When North ran for the U.S. Senate in Virginia in 1994, we were repeatedly told by the Democrats that he was unfit to take a seat in the Senate because he had lied to Congress about the Iran-Contra operation. By analogy, then, what can we say about Al Gore's fitness to be president? He is, after all, a sitting vice president and the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate. Yet he has willfully withheld details of agreements that he and the Clinton administration reached with the Russian government that he was required by law to report to Congress. Can it be that North's lying to Congress about his arms sales to Iran is wrong, but Gore's withholding of information about Russia's transfers of weapons is not? But perhaps the really important question is how did this all happen and what could Gore have been thinking about? Obviously, Gore had long lost his professional detachment and objectivity with regard to Chernomyrdin - demonstrated by what was described in the U.S. press as his "effusive praise" for the former Russian prime minister. At one point Gore angrily rejected a classified CIA report on the extensive corruption within Chernomyrdin's administration. "I don't know because I don't want to know" became the standard response to any suggestion that Chernomyrdin was a less than perfect partner for the vice president in developing policy initiatives with Russia. This refusal to consider bad news about Chernomyrdin is one of sign of the arrogance with which the Clinton Administration has conducted its relations with Russia. The administration's attitude about Russia has long been "we always know best." Advice from outside experts and analysts has been rejected in favor of the ad hoc approach taken by Gore and his staff. As the Washington Post reported in June, Gore's approach amounted to using Russia as a laboratory to test theories on foreign policy. The revelations of the Chernomyrdin letter are evidence of this arrogance. Under a non-proliferation law passed last year, the administration had to make two reports on Russian arms sales to Iran: neither report has been delivered to Congress. The practice of keeping control over sensitive foreign policy options and of personalizing relationships with world leaders is by no means a new development. Presidents at least from Nixon to the present have relied on various back-door channels in order to head off leaks to the media during negotiations on arms treaties or other agreements. But concealing under-the-table deals on Russia's relationship with Iran from Congress falls far outside the norms of this practice. Simply put, the Clinton administration's decision to create a secret "Al-Viktor Pact" that willfully circumvents congressional oversight on this issue is patently irresponsible. The development of a nuclear capability by Iran would lead to the destabilization of one of the most strategically important regions in the world, and that destabilization would have disastrous effects in the economies of every industrialized nation. The present violence in the Middle East shows clearly once again that when a crisis arises, the U.S. president must be seen as credible by all the parties involved if the United States is to exert effective influence in producing a resolution. But having now seen that Gore concealed the transfer of Russian nuclear technology to one of its most feared potential enemies, what Israeli prime minister is going to believe his assurances that America will protect Israel's strategic interests should he become president? What nation is going to take U.S. initiatives in the field of nuclear non-proliferation seriously after these revelations? And what happens when another Russian president or prime minister asks Gore to hide another arms sale from Congress? Neither Gore's relations with Chernomyrdin nor his belief that he knows best how to handle U.S. foreign policy can justify his reckless decision to hide his knowledge of Russia's deals with Iran from the U.S. Congress. Gore's 1995 secret deal with Chernomyrdin shows that he lacks the judgement and the common sense necessary for a U.S. president to conduct an effective and consistent foreign policy. Reuben F. Johnson is an aerospace and defense technology consultant and a Defense Correspondent for Aviation International News and Defense Periscope. He contributed this article to The St. Petersburg Times. TITLE: Vaccine Limits AIDS In Infected Monkeys AUTHOR: By Paul Recer PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: WASHINGTON - An AIDS vaccine tested in monkeys fails to keep the animals from becoming infected but prompts their bodies to mount a powerful defense that keeps the disease in check, researchers report. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, researchers report that rhesus monkeys inoculated with the vaccine, then injected with the AIDS virus, developed a strong army of immune system cells that attacked and controlled the infection. The animals, in effect, did not become ill. The results suggest, but do not prove, that a similar vaccine developed for humans and now in the early stages of testing might be effective in controlling HIV, said Dr. Norman Letvin, a Harvard Medical School professor and senior author of the study. The effectiveness in humans, however, may take years to determine, he said. "The vaccine did not block infection, but it provides substantial containment of viral replication [or spread]," said Letvin, a researcher on the staff of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Letvin said the vaccine works by invigorating CD8 lymphocytes in the immune system. It is the job of CD8 cells, also called killer lymphocytes, to seek out and destroy cells in the body that have been infected with the virus. The CD8 attack controls the population of the virus, but does not eradicate it. Researchers have long thought that to successfully combat the AIDS virus, the body would have to make a large number of CD8 cells that are primed to target the virus. The tested vaccine caused a rapid rise in the number of CD8 cells and enabled the immune system to keep the AIDS virus from causing serious illness in 12 inoculated monkeys, said Letvin. In the seven of the eight control monkeys that received placebo injections and were then injected with the virus, symptoms of illness quickly developed. Half the control monkeys were dead within 140 days. The special vaccine was made with a combination of DNA taken from HIV, which infects humans, and SIV, an AIDS virus that infects only monkeys. Letvin said this combination was used to get results quickly. If natural viruses were used, he said, "the disease course would be so slow that it would be many years" before there were results. A DNA vaccine made for humans, he said, would use only the DNA from HIV. The researcher emphasized that although the monkey study is encouraging, it does not prove that a DNA-based AIDS vaccine will cause such a strong reaction in humans. "Using DNA vaccines is a very good way to induce CD8 lymphocyte response in monkeys," said Letvin, "but it may be a bad way to induce such a response in humans. We simply don't know yet. That remains to be determined." TITLE: Test Can Help Determine Defect Embryos AUTHOR: By Kimberly Lamke PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: SAN DIEGO, California - Most human embryos possess genetic defects just days into their development, a finding that researchers say may explain why many pregnancies fail shortly after conception. Researchers who studied all 46 chromosomes in 3-day-old embryos said Sunday they believe a new test can improve success rates for infertile patients by allowing doctors to choose embryos with normal sets of chromosomes for implantation into a mother's womb. The technology could also decrease the number of multiple births to women undergoing in-vitro fertilization because fewer embryos would have to be inserted into the womb to lead to a successful pregnancy. "This is a technique that allows an unprecedented amount of chromosomal information to be gained from looking at a single cell," said Dagan Wells, one of the researchers from University College in London in charge of the study. The results indicate that uniform cell development often didn't occur in the first few days after conception. Wells said cells instead would often divide unevenly, with chromosomes sticking together in destructive clusters or not dividing at all. Almost all human cells have 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent. Wells and colleague Joy Delhanty studied 12 embryos at 3 days old. Only three contained complete sets of chromosomes. Abnormality occurred in nine of the embryos, including broken or hybrid sets of chromosomes. Three of the embryos had no normal cells at all, Wells said. He added that while the study reveals many embryos aren't viable, the results shouldn't be interpreted to mean that all embryos are flawed, as previous researchers had speculated using less sophisticated tests. TITLE: Albright Holds Historic Talks in North Korea AUTHOR: By Jonathan Wright PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: PYONGYANG- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright held historic talks with North Korea's Kim Jong-il Monday and said Washington was taking a measured approach to rapprochement with the secretive communist state. "No, it is very measured," Albright told reporters who noted some quarters believed the United States may be moving too fast. "We are not going to go faster than it makes sense in terms of U.S. interests." A smiling Kim, in a display reminiscent of his welcome for rival South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung at their epochal June summit, greeted Albright warmly before they settled into talks which went on for much longer than expected. "I am really very happy," said Kim as he met a U.S. cabinet member for the first time ever. A U.S. State Department official said Albright and Kim talked initially for two hours, took a 10-minute break, then met for another session likely to continue a further hour. Although no details were available of the tone and substance of the discussions, Kim suddenly decided to take over as host of a dinner arranged for Albright by Vice Marshal Jo Myong-rok, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission and the highest ranking North Korean ever to go to Washington. Kim thanked Albright for arranging a meeting with President Clinton for Jo. "There was no dispute between our countries, everything went smoothly," Kim said, referring to Jo's recent Washington trip. The talks were another step in reclusive North Korea's efforts to enter the world stage. Within the past year, Kim has also met the presidents of China, Russia and South Korea. While no accords are expected to be signed during her two-day trip, Albright will recommend for or against a visit by Clinton, who could then seal some deals, a senior U.S. official said. Albright was met by North Korean vice foreign minister Kim Gye-gwan in a low-key ceremony at Pyongyang airport on a gray cloudy morning, and her motorcade glided along largely deserted streets on the half-hour journey into the capital. Albright wants to judge how serious Kim Jong-il really is about leading his country out of its long isolation and improving relations with Washington and U.S. allies in East Asia, the official told reporters during the long flight from Washington. European and Asian leaders gave a boost to reconciliation between the two Koreas Saturday when, winding up a summit in Seoul on regional cooperation, they lent support to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's policy of reconciliation with the North. The United States wants to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula, where U.S. and South Korean troops fought North Korea and Chinese forces in the Korea War, and persuade North Korea to abandon the long-range missile program that has been the driving force behind expensive U.S. missile defense plans. U.S. officials believe North Korea, after years of food shortages and economic decline, sees cooperation with the outside world as the best way to bring prosperity without giving up power like the communists of eastern Europe. Albright is particularly interested in learning more about Kim Jong-il's offer to abandon North Korea's long-range missile program in exchange for foreign help with missile launches. The idea, put to Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year, is gaining ground after some initial skepticism. Albright and Kim talked in a luxurious room, across a large table, in a building in the Paekhawon guesthouse complex where the U.S. visitor is staying. Albright sat with four aides on one side, including North Korea policy coordinator Wendy Sherman and negotiator Charles Kartman. Kim and three aides faced her. The 14-member U.S. delegation posed with Kim for a group photo in front of a stormy seascape mural. As they walked to the meeting room, Kim asked Albright if she was having a pleasant stay. "I danced with the children and I'm very satisfied," Albright replied, referring to a visit to the Rangnang Kindergarten, one of tens of thousands of places where the World Food Program (WFP) distributes food to needy children. She stood on the kindergarten steps, kicking her heels and waving her arms, following the lead of a North Korean teacher, under a sign reading, "Thanks To The Respected Generalissimo Kim Il-sung," Kim Jong-il's father and North Korea's founder. Albright's first engagement in Pyongyang Monday morning was a visit to the Kim Il-sung memorial palace to pay respects at the mausoleum of Kim Jong-il's father, who died in 1994. On the eve of Albright's arrival, the Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, Chi Haotian, and a military delegation traveled to North Korea for ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the first clash between Chinese and U.S.-led United Nations forces. The troops - which China says were volunteers, not regular army personnel - aided Pyongyang in the 1950-53 Korean War that resulted in as many as 900,000 Chinese casualties. TITLE: WORLD WATCH TEXT: Chretien Calls Election OTTAWA (Reuters) - Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Sunday called an early federal election for Nov. 27 in a risky bid to capitalize on his lead in the polls and prevent the further rise of his main conservative opponents, the Canadian Alliance. The 66-year-old veteran overrode the advice of many in his Liberal caucus and his staff in heading to the polls now, rather than waiting until the spring as he had originally hinted he would. Reelected to a second term in June 1997, he did not actually have to call an election until mid-2002. If Chretien's current strength in the polls, a lead of about 20 to 25 points, were to translate into actual votes he would be assured of a third successive majority - the first time this would have happened in Canada since 1945. But he faces a dynamic fresh face, Alliance leader Stockwell Day, 50, who has called for deep tax cuts and pro-family policies while saying it is time for a change. Milosevic Gives Ground BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Slobodan Milosevic's party agreed Monday to pro-democracy demands on the makeup of a new transitional government for Yugoslavia's main republic, supporters of President Vojislav Kostunica said. Such an agreement would pave the way for the Serbian parliament to convene later in the day to approve the new government, which would run Serbia until new elections Dec. 23. Milosevic's Socialist Party agreed to dissolve the current Serbian administration and establish a temporary power-sharing government last week. But the two groups argued over Socialist nominees for specific posts and demands by Kostunica's Democratic Opposition of Serbia for others in the Serbian hierarchy to be fired. Vuk Draskovic, head of the Serbian Renewal Movement, said Monday that the demands by Kostunica's followers "were fully met." Draskovic runs a separate anti-Milosevic movement, but Vladan Batic, a senior official of Kostunica's 18-party coalition, confirmed that a deal had been struck. Montesinos Is Back LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Vladimiro Montesinos, the disgraced former spy who set off Peru's worst political crisis in a decade along with fears of a coup, landed in Pisco, south of Lima, Monday after being refused asylum in Panama. An airport official told Reuters a white Panamanian plane that left Guayaquil in Ecuador five hours earlier had landed at a military airport in Pisco, some 250 kilometers south of Lima, at 5:30 a.m. But it appeared Montesinos may not be planning to stay. The official in the control tower said the aircraft was refueling but he had no information on where it would head next. Montesinos was not seen disembarking from the plane. A corruption scandal involving Montesinos prompted President Alberto Fujimori to announce last month he would call elections four years early and quit in July. Montesinos fled to Panama, but his asylum request was refused Sunday and he left the country on a plane, which refueled in Ecuador. Tamil Tigers Attack COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Tamil Tiger rebels in boats carrying explosives launched a suicide attack on a naval base Monday and shot down an air force helicopter coming to the base's aid. Fourteen people, including eight rebels, were killed and 43 were injured, a military spokesman said. A Sri Lankan navy personnel carrier anchored at Trincomalee port where the attack took place was badly damaged and sinking after it was rammed by a rebel boat, Navy Brig. Sanath Karunaratne said. Shortly afterward, an MI-24 helicopter coming to the aid of the embattled base was shot down by the rebels six miles from Trincomalee, he said. "The chopper has fallen into the sea and the two pilots and two gunners are dead," Karunaratne said. Cole Bomb 'Hi-Tech' WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The attack on a U.S. warship in Yemen showed a "great deal of sophistication" and shared a resemblance with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998, the top U.S. counter-terrorism official said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Richard Clarke, national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection and counter-terrorism, told CBS' "60 Minutes" program that U.S. and Yemeni investigators on the scene of the bombing had found valuable evidence linked to the blast. U.S. officials on Friday said they were looking at a number of militant groups in their probe of the attack on the USS Cole in the harbor port of Aden, and Saudi-exile Osama bin Laden's group al-Qaeda or "The Base" topped the list. Schroeder Is a Hit BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has unwittingly become one of the country's top pop singers and may earn nearly $1 million for his single "Hol mir mal 'ne Flasche Bier," according to Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "Go get me a bottle of beer before I go on strike here," Schroeder said at the end of a long hot day touring eastern Germany last summer, a remark recorded by journalists and turned into the refrain for a country-western style ballad by a leading German comedian, Stefan Raab. More than 360,000 copies of the song have been sold, putting Schroeder at number two in the German pop music charts ahead of other pop acts such as Madonna and Britney Spears. Music industry executives told the newspaper that Schroeder may earn 1.5 million marks ($700,000) in royalties. The chancellor has already said he would donate any proceeds he receives to a children's charity that his wife works for. TITLE: Bush Holds Slight Lead as Vote Draws Nigh AUTHOR: By Alan Elsner PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: WASHINGTON - Republican George W. Bush's lead over Democrat Al Gore has narrowed to two percentage points in the seesaw U.S. presidential race, according to the Reuters/MSNBC daily tracking poll released on Monday. Fifteen days before the Nov. 7 election, support stands at 44 percent for the Texas governor and 42 percent for the vice president in the poll of 1,204 likely voters conducted Friday through Sunday by pollster John Zogby. Gore had been trailing by four points but had a stronger day of polling on Sunday. The result remains well within the margin of error of plus or minus three points in one of the closest presidential races in decades. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader polled 5 percent; Reform Party hopeful Pat Buchanan scored 1 percent, while 7 percent of voters remained undecided. "Bush leads by one point in the two-way match-up, but it becomes a two-point lead when you include Nader," said Zogby. "Gore actually led in the one day polling on Sunday, which at least for the time being has stemmed the tide toward Bush. Let's see what tomorrow brings," he said. When undecided voters were asked which way they leaned, they broke slightly for Gore, meaning the race may be even closer than this poll indicates. Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they had definitely made up their minds, suggesting that the campaign will likely remain on a knife's edge all the way to the end. Forty-one percent had ruled out voting for Bush and 43 percent for Gore. In the equally close race for control of the House of Representatives, where Democrats need a net pickup of only seven seats to regain the majority, Republicans have a two-point lead. Gore led Bush on both the East and the West coasts. Bush was far ahead in the South but most significantly had opened a 10-point margin in the crucial Midwest region, where many experts believe the election will be decided. Bush was leading narrowly among all age groups except voters of 70 or above. Gore led by five points in that group. While Bush is winning the support of more than 84 percent of Republicans, Gore only has the backing of 78 percent of Democrats. But that was a three-point improvement over Sunday's figure. Some 12 percent of Democrats are now backing the Texas governor. Bush leads among white voters by 50 percent to 36 percent. But Gore was winning among Hispanics by two to one and is taking 79 percent of the black vote. While Bush leads among men by 13 percentage points, Gore's lead among women is 9 points. Reuters and MSNBC will release a new poll every day until the election. Since the poll began on Sept. 29, the race has never been outside the survey's statistical margin of error of plus or minus three points. TITLE: Israel Puts Peace Talks on Back Burner AUTHOR: By Jack Katzenell PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Monday launched talks with the hawkish opposition on the terms of joining his teetering government - a move that, if successful, could freeze Middle East peace negotiations for many months. The start of the formal coalition contacts came a day after the prime minister announced that Israel was taking "time out" from peace talks, to the chagrin of President Clinton and members of Barak's center-left government. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was outright contemptuous, saying Barak could "go to hell." In the West Bank town of Nablus, two Palestinian teenagers, aged 15 and 17, died Monday after being shot during clashes with Israeli troops. The deaths brought to 123 the number of people killed in 26 days of fighting. All but eight of those killed have been Arabs. Also Monday, the army imposed a blockade on Beit Jalla, a Palestinian town from which Palestinian gunmen have been shooting at the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem. On Sunday night, Israel responded to the shooting with missiles and tank-mounted machine gun fire. Beit Jalla and nearby Bethlehem were plunged into darkness, a Beit Jalla factory was destroyed and several homes damaged. Hundreds of civilians have fled Beit Jalla and the nearby Aida refugee camp. The Israeli army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, said life for the residents of Beit Jalla can return to normal only if the shooting from the Palestinian side stops. "If they make it impossible to conduct a normal life on the Israeli side, I do not think we can tolerate such a situation," Mofaz told Israel radio. Barak on Monday launched formal talks to broaden his coalition, which at present controls only 30 seats in the 120-member legislature. Parliament returns from summer recess on Sunday. If Barak fails to bring opposition leader Ariel Sha ron and his Likud party into the government, early elections appear inevitable. Barak and his negotiators were to meet separately Monday with Sharon as well as representatives from the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party and the Meretz factions, both former coalition members. Sharon has said he would not join the government unless Barak distances himself from concessions he offered the Palestinians in July during the Mideast summit at Camp David, Maryland. At the time, Barak was ready to give the Palestinians more than 90 percent of the West Bank, as well as control over parts of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem. Critics said Sharon's presence in the government would dim hopes for peace. "I think a national unity government...would make the prospect of peace more distant and undermine the belief in the world that we really do want to make peace," said Justice Minister Yossi Beilin of Barak's One Israel alignment. "If Sharon will have the right to veto peace negotiations, I will not be able to sit in [the government],'" said Beilin, a key player in previous interim accords. The weekend's Arab summit held Israel responsible for the violence and called for international intervention, but did not make it obligatory for Arab governments who had made peace with Israel to sever their relations with the Jewish state. Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have been trying to get Barak and Arafat back to the negotiating table. While campaigning in New York state on Sunday for his wife's Senate campaign, Clinton spoke to Barak by telephone for 15 minutes. Clinton said he would keep working with both sides to try to get them to honor a truce agreement worked out last week and to return to peace talks eventually, according to White House officials.