SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #629 (0), Friday, December 15, 2000
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TITLE: Proposed Law Could Eradicate Most Parties
AUTHOR: By Ana Uzelac
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Central Elections Commission is pushing for a new law on political parties that would slash the number of existing political groups by over 90 percent, leaving only a dozen or so major players and barring the rest from participating in parliamentary elections.


If passed, the legislation would wipe out scores of small, regional political groups and could force many organizations - including the likes of Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces - to forge strategic alliances that would ensure their survival.

The draft law introduces the legal concept of a "political party" and establishes it as the only entity allowed to put forward candidates to the State Duma or local legislatures, Yelena Dubrovina, a CEC official and head of a working group on the bill, said in an interview last week. 

A political party, as defined by the draft law, must have at least 10,000 members nationwide and branch offices with no fewer than 100 members each registered in at least 45 regions, Dubrovina said. Now, no such limitations exist for political groups. 

The proposed law would give organizations two years to reregister as parties, Dubrovina said. Otherwise, they will lose the right to put forward candidates for parliamentary seats.

The limitations proposed in the bill would apply only to those seats in the Duma and local legislative assemblies that are distributed via party lists; the remaining deputies will continue to be elected from so-called single-mandate districts and will not need to be members of a political party. In the State Duma, half of its 450 deputies are elected through each method. 

CEC Chairman Alexander Veshnyakov has said he hopes the law would cut the number of political organizations by a factor of 10 - ostensibly, leaving fewer than 20 of the 188 groups registered today.

Dubrovina was convinced all factions in the State Duma would be able to transform into parties during the two-year grace period. "They will have to work hard to get their organizations in shape, but I'm sure they can make it," she said.

But Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank, was less optimistic. 

"I'm sure the Communists will make it, because of the network they inherited from the Soviet Communist party," he said. "Unity will be able to do it thanks to its huge administrative resources and Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democrats will simply buy 10,000 people. The rest - I'm not so sure." 

While the majority of Duma factions have supported the idea of limiting participation in elections to political parties, several of them oppose the new membership requirement.

The most vocal critics have been Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, or SPS - each of which were estimated by Pribylovsky to have around 5,000 members. 

"It [the bill] is an artificial method of clearing the playing field," Yab lo ko's representative to the working group, Alexander Shishlov, said in a telephone interview last week. Shish lov said the main criterion for becoming a party should be a political group's ability to generate voter support - not membership. 

Even Unity's representative to the working group, Alexander Chuyev, called the 10,000-member requirement "problematic." He said in a telephone interview that his faction would try to get the figure reduced to 5,000 to 7,000.

The CEC's Dubrovina said one of the bill's aims is to ensure that parties stay politically active on a federal level and don't limit themselves to lobbying narrow interests: To these ends, the bill stipulates that a party which doesn't participate in State Duma elections at least once every eight years could have its registration rescinded.

"This will force them to recruit new members, keep in touch with their electorate and be far more active on a daily basis - and not just to come out of hibernation before elections," she said.

The law would put an end to the numerous regional political groups, Dubrovina said, calling them nothing more than "governors' pet parties, made to keep them in power."

But Boris Nadezhdin, the SPS representative to the working group, warned that regions stripped of their local parties could become unstable. As an example, he pointed to the republic of Dagestan, where political stability has traditionally hinged on unwritten quotas ensuring the participation of all ethnic groups in local government.

"If these people will now be able to vote in local or regional elections only for federal parties, we could easily end up with all the Avars joining Unity, all the Lezgins joining the Communist Party, etc. This is not just illogical, it's dangerous."

Panorama's Pribylovsky saw the bill's greatest danger in its requirement that parties must disclose the names of their members - if, for example, they are suspected of massaging membership figures. 

"That could scare many people away [from political participation]," Pribylovsky said. "It's a highly undemocratic stipulation."

Some political groups also oppose the CEC's call for a modicum of state funding to be distributed among parties on the basis of election results.

The draft law is expected to be endorsed by the working group - made up of representatives from major Duma factions and the CEC - after one more session sometime before the winter holidays. Then it will be sent to the president, who is expected to present it to the Duma by the end of the month. The CEC is hoping the Duma will consider the bill in a first reading before March, Dubrovina said. Concerns and conflicting opinions notwithstanding, most politicians and observers agree that a law on parties is needed - but it remains to be seen whether the CEC's version will suit the majority of them in its final form.

"It's generally a sensible law," Yabloko's Shishlov said. "It could make Russia go toward decentralization and the development of civil society, but it could also push it towards the total centralization of political life and growing government influence on it.

"The devil is in the details, and the details will not be known before the second reading."

TITLE: A Freed Pope Is Allowed Home
AUTHOR: By Patrick Lannin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Convicted U.S. spy Edmond Pope left Russia on Thursday just hours after President Vladimir Putin freed him from a 20-year jail sentence due to his poor health and the importance of U.S.-Russian relations.


The United States welcomed the pardon, which removed a considerable irritant in ties just as it became clear that Republican George W. Bush would be the next U.S. president.

Pope arrived at a U.S. military airbase in Germany where he was to have a medical check-up before flying on homeward.

U.S. President Bill Clinton, on a visit to Britain, thanked Putin for releasing Pope while insisting that Pope's ordeal was unjustified.

"I welcome today's release of Edmond Pope after eight months of detention in Russia and appreciate President Putin's decision to pardon Mr. Pope," Clinton said in a written statement.

"Mr. Pope's ordeal was unjustified. It is fortunate that humanitarian considerations prevailed in the end," he added.

The decision was a relief for Pope's wife and family, who had feared that the rare form of cancer from which he suffers would re-emerge from remission while he was in prison.

Putin freed Pope from the 20-year sentence for espionage on the first day he could legally issue the pardon after a presidential commission recommended Pope's release last week.

"On the one hand I am glad, on the other hand I am sorry that all this happened," Pope told Russia's ORT public television in comments translated by the television reporter. "I did not want to harm Russian-U.S. relations."

ORT also showed Pope as officials read out Putin's decree pardoning him and he displayed little reaction, only once giving a half grin. Most of the footage was supplied by the FSB domestic security service, which arrested Pope in April.

"This act of mercy towards Edmond Pope cannot be overestimated," Pope's Russian lawyer Pavel Astakhov told independent NTV television in Moscow as the American flew to Germany in a specially chartered plane with his wife, Cheri.

A U.S. military spokeswoman said Pope had landed at the Ramstein airbase in southwestern Germany and was being taken to the nearby military hospital at Landstuhl for medical checks.

"Edmond Pope is on his way home and we're very pleased about that," said White House National Security Adviser P.J. Crowley, traveling with Clinton.

"It did have an impact on the relationship," Crowley said.

"It was something the president brought up repeatedly in their meetings this year and obviously it's something that President Putin has now put behind us."

The FSB domestic security service said the decree was read to the American in a cell in the prison where he has been held since his arrest by the FSB in April.

Prison officials returned Pope's belongings to him and he immediately left for Moscow's international airport.

Pope, a former U.S. navy intelligence officer, had denied the charges of spying and trying to obtain secrets about a high-speed Russian torpedo. But a Russian court last week sentenced him to the maximum 20 years in jail.

Pope had said he was researching material already openly available. He was the first Westerner convicted of spying since the Cold War.

A presidential commission recommended his release days after the sentence was handed down, but Putin could not issue the decree until the sentence came into effect on December 14.

"Being guided by principles of humanity, taking into account the health condition of the convict and his personal appeal and based on the high level of relations between the Russian Federation and the United States of America, I order the pardon of Pope, Edmond Dean," Putin's decree said.

The FSB spokesman said Pope had left the jail in good health, thanking staff for maintaining conditions of imprisonment which, the FSB quoted Pope as saying, were at the level of international standards.

Putin had publicly promised Clinton he would free the businessman and the FSB said the pardon decree had been signed on Wednesday evening, before Putin left Moscow for a visit to Cuba and Canada.

Cheri Pope said on Wednesday that she hoped to bring her husband home this week. Pope's father is terminally ill.

"I don't care if I have to swim home, we'll be out of here as fast as we can. First the doctors, then home to Oregon to see his father," Cheri said on Wednesday. "He needs to hold his dad's hand one more time."

TITLE: Last Chernobyl Reactor Closes
AUTHOR: By Sergei Shargorodsky
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIEV, Ukraine - The site of the world's worst nuclear accident, it came to symbolize the potential dangers of atomic energy. Now, after years of limping along in defiance of international criticism, the Chernobyl atomic power plant is about to be shut down for good. 


Ukraine restarted Chernobyl's only working reactor one last time on Thursday, planning to let it run for a day before Friday's shutdown. Technically, the final shutdown will be a very small step.

Three of the four reactors have been closed for years and the fourth was only operating at 1 percent capacity Thursday morning, the state-run Energoatom company said. But for many here it carries great importance. 

"It is very symbolic that the world will enter the next millennium without the Chernobyl plant," Ukraine presidential spokesman Oleksandr Martynenko said. 

Preparing for the shutdown, President Leonid Kuchma took visiting dignitaries on a tour of the site Thursday. A Friday ceremony at the posh Ukraina Palace in Kiev is to mark the actual closure.

Kuchma will issue the shutdown command through a television link with the plant 85 miles away. 

The Chernobyl tragedy began on April 26, 1986, when reactor No. 4 exploded and caught fire, contaminating vast areas of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus and spewing a radioactive cloud over Europe.

Thousands of people who took part in the cleanup died. A 1,664 sq. kilometer area around Chernobyl that was once home to 120,000 people became a no man's land. 

But Chernobyl's troubles did not stop with the accident. The plant's No. 2 reactor caught fire and was shut down in 1991, and reactor No. 1 was halted in 1996. 

The one remaining working reactor, No. 3, has experienced numerous unplanned shutdowns and malfunctions. Yet energy-strapped Ukraine refused to close it before securing Western aid to build two new nuclear reactors. 

Reactor No. 3 stopped producing electricity on Dec. 6 when it was shut down because of a steam leak. Ukraine's nuclear regulatory body reluctantly approved the reactor's restart to conduct unspecified experiments, as if to give this former Soviet republic something to ceremonially close down. 

"The reactor will be brought to 5 percent capacity, the experiments will take some 24 hours and it will be stopped Dec. 15," said Viktor Stovbun, a senior official at Energoatom. 

Even after stoppage, the reactors will not be considered safe until all nuclear fuel is removed, a process expected to be completed in 2008. 

It will take years to make the leaky concrete and steel sarcophagus that encases the ruined reactor No. 4 environmentally safe. And the government still appears to have no clear program of assistance for Chernobyl's nearly 6,000 workers and their families. Few of them, if any, will rejoice Friday. 

"The decision is taken and we'll close down here," says Chernobyl spokesman Stanislav Shekstelo. "But it will be a sad day for us."

TITLE: Letter Shows Yeltsin Nearly Landed in the Drink
AUTHOR: By Anna Dolgov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Former president Boris Yeltsin's aides worried that the leader was completely losing control after he got drunk and conducted a Berlin military orchestra in 1994, according to a letter published Wednesday. 


The letter, signed by seven presidential aides, urged Yeltsin to cut back on his "unhealthy habits" and chided him for "the well-known Russian overindulgence," a euphemism for drinking. 

Among those who signed the letter was Mikhail Barsukov, former head of the Federal Security Service, who told the weekly newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti that Yeltsin roared with anger when he read the letter. He later forgave his advisers. 

Yeltsin led Russia during the tumultuous years after the 1991 Soviet breakup until his resignation on New Year's Eve 1999. He was succeeded by Vladimir Putin, elected in March. 

Yeltsin had a number of erratic moments in his later years in office, but his shenanigans in Berlin - considered an important diplomatic trip - caused his staff to worry that he could lose the presidency. 

"His work has acquired an irregular character, with rises and sharp falls of activity," read the letter, published Wednesday. 

"It is becoming obvious that contacts with the public, journalists, newspaper and television audiences are becoming increasingly difficult for the president," the letter said. 

In his memoirs, "Midnight Diaries," published in October, Yeltsin conceded that he was drunk when he grabbed the baton in Berlin. The visit marked the withdrawal of the last Russian troops from Germany and was viewed as particularly significant in Moscow. 

But trouble began just after Yeltsin's arrival; suffering insomnia, he summoned then-defense minister Pavel Grachev to his suite, and the two drank until early morning, former aides told the newspaper. 

The next day, Yeltsin floundered through speeches, made awkward impromptu comments, and ultimately moved to conduct the orchestra. 

Calculating that the mercurial president would be more receptive to criticism while on vacation, aides handed the letter to Yeltsin on a plane to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the newspaper reported. 

Initially, the president was furious, but he forgave his advisers and agreed to make changes - a decision he recalled in his memoirs. 

"I walked along the beach in Sochi and realized that I had to go on living. I had to regain my strength," he wrote. Yeltsin, who had heart bypass surgery in 1996, said that on the advice of his doctors, he now limits himself to a glass of wine a day.

TITLE: Probe Into Mabetex Scandal Is Dropped
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Twenty-six months after the case was opened, prosecutors Wed nesday announced they have dropped the so-called Mabetex investigation into the doings of Boris Yeltsin, his daughters and the former president's Kremlin property chief Pavel Borodin.


"The Prosecutor's Office has issued a special regulation declining to open a criminal case against Boris Yeltsin and his family members," said Ruslan Tamayev, deputy head of the Prosecutor General's Office's department of particularly important cases. 

Tamayev told a news conference Wednesday that the Mabetex case was being dropped because no evidence had ever turned up of a crime being committed, despite numerous communications from Swiss prosecutors. 

The result has been to send nearly 19,000 pages of evidence into top secret archives, and to bring to a close a sordid storyline of lucrative Kremlin renovations for kickbacks.

Tamayev said that the last report his office got from Swiss prosecutors was received in late November. "They said they had nothing more to tell us," he said.

Officials in Switzerland refused to comment Wednesday on the closing of the Mabetex case.

Earlier this year, Swiss magistrates indicted five people in the affair and issued an arrest warrant for alleged money laundering against Borodin, who has repeatedly insisted that he is innocent. In September, Swiss prosecutors voiced doubt that their colleagues in Russia were pursuing this and other cases as strenuously as they could.

Tamayev also criticized the handling of the Mabetex investigation in Russia. 

The case was opened more than two years ago by then-Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov. Tamayev, who took over the Mabetex case in October 1999 after Skuratov had been forced out, complained of obscure procedural violations by Skuratov in filing the original Mabetex paperwork.

"Unfortunately, criminal prosecution is driven by political considerations," Skuratov countered in an interview with NTV television Wednesday night. "Prosecutors who take a course of action do not realize that they may fall victims of their own decisions when the political winds change."

Tamayev said the investigation into Mabetex - the Swiss construction company that has carried out renovations on the Kremlin, the White House and Yeltsin's private residence - was officially closed on Dec. 8.

The case was first opened after Skuratov received a letter in November 1998 from one Felipe Turover, a Soviet emigre who worked for a Swiss bank as a debt collector in Russia and was a key witness in the Swiss investigation into alleged bribery of Kremlin officials. Turover alleged in that letter that construction contracts between Mabetex and Borodin's Kremlin property department had been padded by 30 percent to 40 percent, with the extra money going as bribes to Yeltsin and his entourage.

Since then, Russian prosecutors, citing the laws on state secrets, have classified all information about the prices in those contracts. Those documents now go, along with 122 volumes of about 155 pages each, into the state archives.

The Prosecutor General's Office says that after the Turover letter, investigators looked into whether Borodin or any of the Yeltsins kept money in suspect foreign accounts, but failed to arrive at a definitive conclusion.

They did find traces of a joint bank account open in the names of Mabetex head Behgjet Pacolli, Borodin and Borodin's daughter Yekaterina Seletskaya. But Tamayev said Wednesday that there was no evidence that Borodin or Seletskaya had ever signed orders for money transfers.

He also said it was not possible to judge the authenticity of the signatures of Borodin and his daughter on those accounts, because Swiss prosecutors, who have worked parallel to the Russians investigating Mabetex, would only provide photocopies of banking documents.

Evidence of other Yeltsin-entourage bank accounts was never uncovered, Tamayev said.

TITLE: Charities Offering Roles in This Winter's Tale
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova and Molly Graves
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: When conversation turns to donating money to a charity project in Russia, the next sentence is usually about how the donation - instead of going for its intended purpose - will disappear irretrievably into the bowels of some scam. 


Doubt hangs over any transaction in Russia like a cloud. The country is infamous for legal problems and fraud in virtually every field - including charity organizations, which have been tarred with the image of being money laundromats. These "cultural" or "social" foundations are mysterious and often short-lived. They collect thousands of tax-free rubles, enjoy their kind-hearted reputations, and evaporate. 

According to Joseph Smith, regional social services coordinator for the Salvation Army in St. Petersburg, about 4,000 organizations are registered locally to help people in need - but in reality there are probably only about 60 or 70 that are actually doing anything.

Restoring trust in social organizations, therefore, is a painstaking and uneasy process. The problem is made all the more obvious as the Christmas season approaches, as a recent series of interviews with local charity organizations about what they plan to do for the holidays found. 



LOCAL BARRIERS TO GIVING 

For that reason, most charity donations to local organizations come from foreign sources. 


"Wealthy Russians remain indifferent, never mind the fact they live or even were born in the same city and in principle should know better," said Galina Goncharova, chief doctor at the St. Nicholas Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

Representatives of Western charitable organizations are not as harsh in their assessment as Goncharova, pointing to social factors like the ruins of communism - a system where everyone was told they were responsible for the well-being of the country, but arguably no one took the initiative. 

"You have long lived in a situation when everything was provided by the government, and private sponsorship was brought to life again only about 10 years ago," said Susan Hauke of the International Women's Club, or IWC, in St. Petersburg. "That time is not enough for the thing to become natural to people." 

According to Ellen Fridland, co-ordinator of the holiday charitable program at the American Medical Center, fear of fraud also figures into the equation. 

"For the most part, there is a lot of fear in Russia as to why people are doing charity work," said Fridland. 

"There are questions like, 'What is your ulterior motive?' ... Nobody trusts your intentions."

Years in poverty also taught Russians to horde seemingly useless items that may come in handy, should black days bring another crisis upon their heads. 

Despite all this, many of the city's most fragile and vulnerable will not be completely forgotten on Christmas, as many foreign charities mobilize to lend a helping hand. 



THE SALVATION ARMY 

With the coldest days of winter yet to arrive, anticipation is in the air - perhaps nowhere more so than 44 Liteiny Prospect, which will be hosting up to 80 overnight guests each night from now until the spring thaw as the Salvation Army gears up for its annual "Homeless Night" program. 


From now until mid-April, the Salvation Army will nightly open its doors to provide showers, meals, medical exams, laundry service, entertainment, and a warm place to sleep for nearly 80 of the city's homeless.

For services co-ordinator Smith, "the aim is to reach the most fragile of the homeless" - pregnant women, the very elderly and mothers with young children. 

Another of the Salvation Army's holiday programs is a series of events from Dec. 14 to Dec. 24 for the families of HIV-positive patients at Ust-Izhora Hospital on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. 

In the early 1980s, Ust-Izhora was given responsibility for all Petersburg-area HIV-positive patients, consolidating the city's most ostracized and rejected patients in one hospital unit. Currently patients include pregnant mothers and children - including over 40 abandoned HIV-positive babies. 

"They're carrying this terrible burden all through the year, and for a short period they can just relax," commented Smith.



WHAT YOU CAN DO 

Outgoing volunteers are needed to provide entertainment nightly from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. for the "Homeless Nights" program; volunteers are needed to supervise outings for HIV-positive children and families. Donations accepted 24-hours: clothes, blankets, diapers and other products are of particular use. 


Salvation Army Social Work Complex, 44b Liteiny Pr., tel: 327 36 83, fax: 327 36 82, Contact: Joseph Smith. E-mail jjsmith@neva.spb.ru.



THE IWC OF ST. PETERSBURG 

As destitute as Russian health and child care is, any donation to the cause would seem a drop in a bottomless bucket. But as the IWC's Hauke emphasizes, the best donations don't involve any money at all. 


"Nurseries for homeless babies need people to play with the babies, just a couple of hours a day," says Hauke. "It doesn't involve money, only your time."

A look at any shelter for homeless children will tell the same story of neglect and poverty: Ceilings are caving in and paint is peeling; Wobbly furniture breaks with a breeze; Children are barely nourished on watery diets of kasha. 

According to Hauke, volunteers bringing a bag of apples to the leukemia ward at Children's Hospital No. 1 will be greeted with cries of "Wow, fruit!" from the pale, bed-ridden children. 

"We come there once a week, and we can see the kids are waiting for us, we sense they need us, and this is the most rewarding thing for all of us," said Helen Ellwood, also of IWC. 

The IWC, which includes nearly 100 expat women living in St. Petersburg, has been involved in a number of charitable projects with children's hospitals and nurseries. On Sunday, the IWC charity wing - called Peter's Children - held a Christmas Fair to raise money for several local hospitals and orphanages.



CHANGING ATTITUDES

In the past, donations of toys, TVs and the like would sit and collect dust in fear that foreign sponsors would be angered if their donations got broken. 


"We would come and see all the toys lined up along the wall, said Ellwood. 

"It took a long time to persuade them that our gifts are not for furniture, but there to be used, and there is no disaster if the kids break something when playing." 

For their part, Russian recipients were often suspicious of sponsors. 

"Nobody had ever done anything for them for nothing, and when we were offering things for nothing, they simply couldn't understand," Ellwood said.

But over the years things have changed as patrons and beneficiaries have gotten to know each other. 

"We keep in touch with them, come take photographs - which makes us feel closer to each other," Ellwood said."



WHAT YOU CAN DO

Nurseries No. 13 and No. 10 need clothes, diapers, and other children's products. Orphanage No. 26 needs furniture. Volunteers are welcome to deliver fruit to the hospitals. Contact Susanne Hauke or Helen Ellwood at the International Women's Club at 314-7238 or 279-3364, or lindsaye@infopro.spb.su 


Likewise, the American Medical Center is collecting for Orphanage No. 8: Clothes for children age newborn to four, children's products such as diapers, toys, books and food. Bring items to the American Medical Center (10 Serpukhovskaya Ulitsa), as well as Westpost (86 Nevsky Prospect) and The St. Petersburg Times (4 St. Isaac's Square), until Dec. 30. 



BRITISH AIRWAYS

One way that British Airways is finding that it is deepening its roots in the local community is by supporting a toy drive for disabled children. With each donation between Nov. 27 and Dec. 10 at the company's Moscow and St. Petersburg offices, said company representative Inna Katyukhina, donors received a discount on tickets. 


The toys will be given as Christmas presents to disabled children attending the art therapy center of the State Russian Museum.

Katyukhina said the program was warmly received and that most of the donors were Russian. "People were asking about these children, they felt personally involved," she said. 



WHAT YOU CAN DO 

There is no discount anymore, but you can still bring toys to the BA office (1/3A Malaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa, Sweden House, office 23B) till Dec. 22.




HOW CHARITIES CAN IMPROVE

Those doing charity work say that there should be more cooperation between various organizations. Smith of The Salvation Army's mentioned successful alliances with such programs as Alcoholics Anonymous, Al Anon (for families of alcoholics), and Narcotics Anonymous. 


Michael Smith, the St. Petersburg representative of the U.K. organization Children in Crisis, stressed the need for partnerships between foreign and local charities, such as CiC's own work with the local St. Petersburg regional NGO organization Center Innovations.

"Humanitarian aid, while still playing an important role, cannot take the place of more methodological support," he said, adding that he is a proponent of charities that help people help themselves. 

CiC is trying to introduce Russia to a new and more Western way of fundraising.

The charity wants people to get on their bikes, run marathons, trek mountains, and turn the crisis facing thousands of forgotten children around the world into their own personal challenge.

Participants are asked to pay a registration fee of $350 and then raise a minimum of $3,500 in sponsorship donations for Children in Crisis. In return they will receive flights, accommodation, food, services of guides and support throughout the challenge.



WHAT YOU CAN DO 

For information on Children in Crisis or Center Innovations, contact Michael Smith at innovations@peterlink.ru, or Center Innovations at 1/3 Dumskaya, St. Petersburg, tel./fax: 310 04 06, psp@mail.nevalink.ru.

TITLE: Teachers: School Head Is Innocent
AUTHOR: By Masha Kaminskaya
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg prosecutors have finalized and sent to court the case of Yury Basatin, a 49-year-old school director, who is charged with abusing his power and taking bribes from teachers. 


Teachers at city school No. 47, however, are outraged with the investigation and insist that Basatin is being framed.

"Basatin's indictment has been approved of [by the deputy city prosecutor] and the case has been sent to the City Criminal court," said Gennady Ryabov, a spokesman for the City Prosecutor's Office, in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Ryabov would not elaborate beyond his statement, nor name Basatin's lawyer. "That would not be in my interests [to talk]," he said.

It is likewise not known when Basatin's case will be heard, as the court has not yet received materials pertaining to the case. A secretary at the court said that it could take up to six months before a hearing is held. "There are just too many trials [to get through]," she said.

Basatin was arrested on Aug. 28 for allegedly taking bribes from his subordinates. On one occasion, according to prosecutors, Basatin reinstated the school's dean of education in return for payment.

Basatin is also charged with renting out the basement of the school to an unidentified firm and taking the money. Prosecutors say that the money was not properly documented.

"None of us here can believe this is happening, and hope that ultimately justice is done," said a secretary at the school, who gave her name only as Tatyana.

"Our director is completely innocent - this is a put-up job."

"As for the rent, do you know how long it takes to register one's documents at the [City Property Committee]? All this time [Basatin] was earning money for the school, he never took a ruble for himself," said the secretary, adding that on Saturday, all the school's employees sent birthday congratulations to their boss.

Basatin is to be held in remand until his trial.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Shutov Hunger Strike

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Jailed businessman and lawmaker Yury Shutov has declared a hunger strike in his cell, Interfax reported. According to the report, Shutov started a so-called "dry" hunger strike a week ago, refusing both to eat and drink.

Shutov, who has been in jail for almost two years awaiting trail on more than 20 charges - including allegedly organizing several high-profile contract hits - complains that the jail administration is denying him indispensable personal items such as a spoon, a bowl, a mug, a pen and paper, said the report. 

Shutov, whose detention term was prolonged in August, is scheduled to be released on Jan. 26, 2001.

However, on Nov. 29, Interfax reported that the City Prosecutor's Office was initiating a new criminal investigation against Shutov, which Shutov's lawyer Andrei Pelevin said means "two more years in jail."




General Charged

MOSCOW (SPT) - Military prosecutors said Wednesday they have brought corruption charges against the Defense Ministry's finance chief, Col. Gen. Georgy Oleinik.

Chief Military Prosecutor Mikhail Kislitsyn said Oleinik has been charged with abusing power, which carries a sentence of three to 10 years in prison, Interfax reported.

Oleinik has not been arrested but is prohibited from leaving Moscow as the probe continues, he said.

Earlier this year, the media linked Oleinik to an investigation by military prosecutors into the alleged embezzlement of $450 million from Defense Ministry coffers.

TITLE: Gusinsky Apprehended by Spanish Police
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Spanish police arrested Vladimir Gusinsky, who is wanted in Russia on fraud charges, at his home in southern Spain in the early hours of Tuesday morning.


The arrest was made at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow, which issued an arrest warrant for Gusinsky last month after he failed to turn up for questioning in a criminal investigation. 

Prosecutors have charged Gusinsky with stripping assets from his Media-MOST holding, a media empire that includes NTV television, Ekho Moskvy radio and the Segodnya newspaper.

Police arrested Gusinsky at his home in Sotogrande and took him to a police station in the town of La Linea, near the British colony of Gibraltar. He was then escorted to Madrid to attend hearings presided by Baltazar Garson, the same judge who demanded the extradition of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Ekho Mosk vy reported.

A U.S. State Department official, who asked not to be named, recalled that the United States had criticized the previous attempts to prosecute the businessman, who created independent media outlets and championed press and democratic freedom, Reuters reported. 

"As we have said before, the Russian government's aggressive pursuit of Mr. Gusinsky has appeared part of an effort to use the legal system to harass and intimidate him. 

"The case against Mr. Gusinsky and other instances of official pressure against journalists and the press pose a threat to media independence in Russia - a key element of Russia's ongoing transition," the official said, according to Reuters. 

Media-MOST spokesman Dmitry Ostalsky lashed out at the arrest, saying that the case was politically motivated and that Russian law enforcement officials had misled their Spanish counterparts to secure the arrest.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Igor Malashenko, Deputy head of Media-MOST told a Madrid press conference that he was confident Spanish officials would not extradite Gusinsky to Russia, Reuters reported. 

"The aim of all this is to bring Mr. Gusinsky back to Russia to destroy him. The motives are also clear - to punish Mr. Gusinsky for the journalistic line of his media group," said Igor Malashenko, deputy head of the Media-MOST group.

"I do not think it will happen," he told reporters in Madrid when asked about the chances of Gusinsky being sent to Moscow.

"It is a clean-cut political case and our group and Mr. Gusinsky have been under attack for a long time, since the first day of [Russian President Vla di mir] Putin's administration."

Under international law, countries are not obliged to return suspects wanted in cases deemed to be political.

Interpol is seeking confirmation from its Moscow bureau that the case is not politically motivated, according to an Interpol statement issued Monday.

"The National Central Bureau in Moscow has been asked to provide evidence showing that the charge against Mr. Gusinsky is an ordinary law crime," the statement said. "The Moscow bureau has also been asked to provide details of the charge brought in November 2000."

Interpol's Russia bureau refused to comment on the case. 

The arrest Tuesday was the second time Gusinsky has been picked up by the police this year. The Prosecutor General's Office ordered his arrest in June on embezzlement charges in a separate case. The arrest drew an international outcry, and Gusinsky was released after spending three days behind bars. 

Those charges were dropped after Gusinsky agreed to settle multimillion-dollar debts owed by Media-MOST to state-controlled gas giant Gazprom by handing over stakes in its subsidiaries.


- Reuters, SPT

TITLE: Duma Cautiously Upbeat Over Next U.S. President
AUTHOR: By Ron Popeski
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russian politicians said on Thursday that the election of George W. Bush could promote better ties between the two countries. 


The Kremlin has not yet officially commented on the confirmation of Bush's victory, but President Vladimir Putin referred directly to maintaining good relations with the U.S. when he pardoned Pope, a businessman convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of trying to obtain secrets on a high-speed torpedo.

Putin, on a visit to Cuba, issued a decree on Thursday granting the pardon on grounds of Pope's "ill health." 

Some Russian officials said it would be easier for Moscow to deal with a Republican administration not subject to second-guessing from a hostile right-wing Congress. 

"Our relations will become more clear now. The Democrats left much shrouded in fog. Sometimes Russia was a friend, sometimes it represented a threat," Gennady Seleznyov, Communist speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament, told reporters. "Under the Republicans, this won't happen." 

Boris Gryzlov, parliamentary leader of the pro-Putin Unity Party, which sent a delegation to the Republicans' convention, hailed Bush's victory as the start of a new era of pragmatism. 

"We believe it highly symbolic that [the 20th century] ends with the coming to power in the United States and Russia of realists representing a new generation of politicians," he said in a written statement. 

For much of the 1990s, ties between Moscow and Washington were dominated by cheery summits between presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. But disagreements over arms control, NATO enlargement, Kosovo, Iraq and Chechnya have made relations frostier in the past two years.

Bush has pledged a tougher line on arms control, threatening to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty if Russia does not agree to amend it to allow the United States to deploy an anti-missile shield. 

Sergei Rogov, director of Russia's U.S.A. and Canada Institute, said the Republicans would adopt tougher stands, but this would not necessarily be to Moscow's detriment. "A lot depends on their - and our - ability to compromise," he said.

Vladimir Lukin, a former ambassador to Washington and now a member of the Duma, said Russia would have to take account of a more rational, or cynical, approach. 

"We have experts who know all about the Republicans," he told ORT television. "We have to make use of them."

TITLE: Castro and Putin To Talk Trade
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Usachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HAVANA, Cuba - Vladimir Putin, the first Russian president to visit Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union, held talks with Fidel Castro on Thursday as he started a trip aimed at warming up ties between the former Cold War allies.


The two men were already chatting animatedly through an interpreter late Wednesday shortly after Castro greeted Putin at Havana's Jose Marti airport. After posing briefly for photographers, the two presidents sped away in a limousine without talking with reporters. 

In the presence of their respective foreign ministers, the men later talked briefly at the residence where Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, are staying, according to Russian officials. They said Putin invited Castro to visit Russia. 

Cuba was a strategic outpost during the Cold War, and 20 percent of its gross national product is estimated to have come from Soviet subsidies. But it is a much-changed country since the Soviet collapse: Politics is now second to economics as welcome Russian-Cuban trade replaces Soviet-Cuban aid at the top of the agenda. 

During Putin's two-day visit, the two countries will examine ways to help wipe out Cuba's $11 billion Soviet-era debt. Putin and Castro were meeting formally on Thursday morning for talks on economic issues. Putin was to attend a ceremony in the afternoon honoring Cuba's monument to the Unknown Soviet Soldier.

On Friday, the Russian president was scheduled to play tribute to Cuban independence hero Jose Marti and visit Cuba's Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology. He then heads to Cuba's Varadero beach resort for a two-day rest before going to Canada on Sunday.

Both Cuba and Russia hope the visit will breathe new life into a decades-old relationship that thrived during the Cold War era. Cuba was thrown into economic crisis by the loss of its Soviet-bloc trading partners at the beginning of the last decade, but is slowly learning to become economically self-sufficient. From the Russian perspective, Putin said this week his country must revive economic ties with Cuba or risk losing out to companies from other countries. 

Russian trade with Cuba now totals about $1 billion per year, Putin said earlier this week, down from about $3.6 billion in 1991. Putin was expected to promote Russia's participation in completing construction of Soviet-era projects, including the Las Camariocas nickel plant and the Cienfuegos oil refinery, according to Russian media. Russian officials have said six documents were prepared for the trip, including agreements on cooperation in legal affairs and health.

TITLE: Amended Charter Gets Calm Reaction
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Legislative Assembly amended the City Charter Wednesday, changing 29 articles and adding more than 150 amendments, to bring it into line with federal legislation, completing a federal pet project that has been imposed on regions throughout Russia. 


By doing so, lawmakers have just met President Vladimir Putin's deadline of Jan. 1, 2001. They have also slightly shifted the local balance of power in favor of the Legislative Assembly by giving it the power to fire members of Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev's cabinet with a vote of no confidence by voting a simple majority of 26 - twice within a six-month period- as opposed to the previously stipulated 34 votes.

Lawmakers can also fire the governor by obtaining a court that he violated federal or local legislation, or is slack in his duties. After that, if a governor doesn't clean up his act, he can be booted out with a yes vote from 34 of the 50-member assembly. The new amendments also give lawmakers the right to conduct commercial activity and hold jobs with titles, as long as they draw no direct salary for it - something many observers said is easy enough to circumvent by calling salaries by different names, like consulting fees and speakers fees. 

The Charter, a form of local constitution, has been the epicenter of a conflict between City Hall and the Legislative Assembly since the document's passage on January 1998, mainly because it made the assembly a full-time parliament and limited the governor's right to rule by decree. But it also set the required number for a vote of no confidence at 34.

As such, the Legislative Assembly had seen potential votes of no confidence die on the vine because they could not marshal the required number of votes - as witness the case of Alexander Potekhin, Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev's vice governor on Media Questions, who the legislative assembly tried to eject in 1999. 

All the same, the new amendments giving the 50-member body the right to fire city government members with a majority vote of 26 brought little rejoicing for lawmakers. 

"It would be very hard to [obtain a vote of no confidence,]" said Viktor Yevtukhov, a lawmaker with the Yedinstvo faction, in a telephone interview. 

"Especially with the current make of the legislative assembly," which includes six discordant factions and 12 independent lawmakers. 

Yevtukhov also decried the right to hold a - theoretically non-paying - job. 

"Before the City Charter was introduced, you couldn't find lawmakers anywhere because they were all working," he said. 

The offices of Governor General Vik tor Cherkesov, who - under Putin - is responsible for overseeing such changes, commented that the local situation did not affect the City Hall-Legislative Assembly balance of power. 

"Nothing has changed and it shouldn't," said Alexander Fyodorov, head of the governor general's Legal Department. Even so, City Hall recognized subtle advantages for the Legislative Assembly - and discounted them. 

According to Alexander Afanasiyev, Gov. Yakovlev's spokesman, removing a member of the governor's cabinet would take so long as to be pointless. 

"After City Hall took it to court, it would take a long time to remove the person," said Afanasiyev.

"You know how long court proceedings take."

TITLE: City Gets New World Bank Loan
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The City Finance Committee has said that the World Bank will lend St. Petersburg another $100 million for the reconstruction of the historic city center, in a sign that it approves of the way a pilot project has been run.


The news followed World Bank President James Wolfensohn's announcement in Tokyo on Monday that the bank would most likely loan Russia $800 million "in the next period." Russia's 2001 budget plans assume the World Bank will approve the full loan amount. 

Wolfensohn's remarks signal that the bank is ready to resume its large-scale lending program with Russia, which has bounced back from the 1998 crisis. 

Wolfensohn, who met in October with President Vladimir Putin, said bank officials are happy with Putin's plans for economic growth and political reform and are "very anxious" to provide aid.

And the bank appears to be equally happy with the way St. Petersburg has used its first $31 million credit line, opened in December 1997, for the city center pilot project, according to Finance Committee chief Viktor Krotov, who made the announcement at a press conference last Friday.

The news followed a visit to the city last week by Felix Jacob, World Bank manager for the urban projects in Russia. The St. Petersburg government is doing a "very good job," said Jakob in an interview on Friday.

"It could provide a model for the future development of downtown St. Petersburg," he added.

Jakob spent this week in St. Petersburg carrying out what he called "the strict and close supervision by the World Bank" of its Russian projects.

The original $31 million loan, which is to be paid back in installments between 2002 and 2012, is being used to improve the lighting and pavement on Nevsky Prospect; buildings around the State Academic Cappella concert hall on the Moika River to create a commercial zone; and the renovation of plots of vacant land near Nevsky Prospect before selling them off by tender next year. Money raised from the tender will go toward paying of the loan, said Alexei Vasiliev, who heads the city department overseeing the projects.

According to Vasiliev, St. Petersburg has spent $18 million of the loan so far, with future contracts accounting for a further $9 million.

Krotov said that the World Bank and the city would sign a deal confirming the new loan in the summer of next year. As to what the money would be spent on, Krotov said that this would be decided only after the federal governmet has agreed to guarantee the loan.

Vasiliev said the guarantee was certain. "That is a condition of all World Bank credits," he said in a interview on Thursday. "The guarantee has already been discussed and agreed on by the State Duma." But he, too, refused to specify the targets of the new loan.

The World Bank has been among Russia's most generous lenders, and has launched nearly 50 projects in Russia, worth $11 billion, since 1992.



Staff writer Yevgenia Borisova also contributed to this report.

TITLE: Poll Finds Northwest's Executives Optimistic
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: HELSINKI, Finland - Business heads in northwestern Russia are more positive about the future than a year ago, with almost half saying that turnover in 2001 would top this year's levels, a study by Finland's Central Chamber of Commerce showed. 


"Although [Russian 2001 GDP] growth is expected to be slightly slower than in 2000, those polled said they saw growth being faster," Pekka Impio, an official at the Chamber of Commerce, said at a news conference held on Wednesday. 

The survey was the result of telephone interviews with the heads of 1,150 small, medium and large companies in St. Petersburg, Mos cow and North west Russia. 

Company heads were asked to estimate the development of their own turnover, economic and investment development as well as the economic development of Russia in general. 

The study showed the fastest growth in 2000 came from industry, the sector that was the most optimistic about growth in 2001, owing mainly to the competitive price of the ruble, political stability and high oil prices. 

"Industry in general said it saw positive development, with information technology leading the way, which is an important indicator for Finns and other players in this business because it looks like demand is going to grow," Impio said. 

In addition to firms in the industry sector, which includes areas like forestry, metals and information technology, companies most optimistic about the future were larger, internationally active players with more than 50 employees, the study found. 

The service sector showed the weakest growth in 2000, and business heads there expected slower development in 2001 than their trade and industry peers. 

The study also found that 20 percent of those polled could not give any estimate of possible growth in the future. 

"The fact that the one person who absolutely should know the answer to this question could not answer it in 20 percent of cases is an important indicator of a certain degree of insecurity," Impio said after the news conference.

TITLE: LUKoil Ready To Enter U.S. Market With 72% of Getty
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - The nation's No. 1 oil firm LUKoil says it has accepted for purchase the 72 percent of Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. shares tendered in response to LUKoil's $5-per-share offer. 


The deal marks the first time a U.S. public company has been acquired by a Russian corporation.

LUKoil is to acquire the controlling stake despite last-minute legal action to halt the acquisition.

Just hours before LUKoil's offer expired at midnight Friday, a New York court rejected a lawsuit initiated by United Refining to block the merger between LUKoil and Getty, Prime-Tass reported Wednesday. 

United Refining had sought a court injunction on grounds that it had made a superior bid for Getty. United Refining claimed that it had offered $6 per share, while Getty's board said that United Refining's bid was $5.65 per share plus payment of a breakup fee with LUKoil, according to the United Financial Group brokerage.

LUKoil's North American unit said 10,092,081 Getty common shares were tendered in response to the offer. 

Vadim Gluzman, chairman of LUKoil Americas Corp. and head of LUKoil's operations in North America, said LUKoil expected to merge with Long Island-based Getty as soon as possible. 

"The acquisition of Getty Petroleum Marketing marks the beginning of LUKoil's expected expansion into the U.S. market," Gluzman said in a statement. "We plan to work with Getty's experienced management and employees to build a formidable new company." 

LUKoil specializes in oil and gas exploration and production, refining, sales of crude oil products and transportation. LUKoil's coverage includes 40 regions in Russia and 25 other countries. 

Getty Petroleum Marketing is one of the largest U.S. independent marketers of gasoline and petroleum products with about 1,300 gasoline stations and convenience stores using the Getty brand in 13 Northeastern and Middle Atlantic States.

LUKoil is considering acquiring some refineries in the United States to supply the Getty stations, LUKoil's vice president, Leonid Fedun, said recently in comments reported by UFG. Fedun said that such acquisitions could dramatically increase the profitability of LUKoil's U.S. operations. 

LUKoil made an earlier bid to break into the U.S. market in 1997 when it teamed up with four U.S. supermarket groups through its 50 percent-owned affiliate Nexus Fuels of Irving, Texas. 

But LUKoil could not resolve the ownership structure with its U.S. partners and after the 1998 ruble devaluation, the plans were abandoned.


- Reuters, SPT

TITLE: Oil Price Finally Steadies After a 3-Week Decline
AUTHOR: By Richard Mably
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - Feeble oil prices steadied on Thursday after a sharp slump on Wednesday triggered by the resumption of UN-monitored Iraqi crude exports. London Brent futures for the expiring January contract gained 51 cents to $25.65 a barrel after crashing by $1.92 on Wednesday. February Brent was up 19 cents at $26.12.


Brent in three weeks to Wednesday's close had shed a quarter of its value, slumping $8 to its lowest point since May. 

Dealers have decided that a recovery in lean inventories would leave world supplies comfortably placed going into the New Year. Speculators have jumped ship from a market which just two months ago set a 10-year peak of $35. 

Mild winter weather in Europe has allowed heating-oil inventories to build and leave room for exports to the United States, where stocks are lowest. 

U.S. light crude futures slipped four cents to $28.70 a barrel after skidding more than a $1 in New York Wednesday.

Iraq kept oil exports flowing on Thursday by loading a third tanker at its Gulf Mina al-Bakr terminal. The Crude Traveller was set to sail for storage in the Caribbean, industry sources said.

Two tankers chartered by Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) lifted Iraqi crude on Wednesday, marking the end of a 12-day suspension during which Baghdad demanded customers make payments outside the terms of the United Nations oil-for-food deal.

An Indian industry official said on Thursday that India had used diplomatic channels to persuade Baghdad to release oil to state-run IOC without any payment of the surcharge.

Baghdad's request for a surcharge kept its 2.3 million barrels daily off world markets when buyers refused to pay the surcharge for fear of violating UN sanctions, imposed after Iraq marched into Kuwait in 1990.

Icy storms battered parts of the United States for a third day but forecasts of a break in Arctic conditions in the next few days led U.S. natural gas prices to retreat from all-time peaks set earlier this week.

Oil's price slide has sent a nervous shiver through some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah, an OPEC price hawk, said on Thursday that OPEC would review its output ceiling when it gathers for an extraordinary meeting in January.

The minister added that a reduction of about 1 million bpd was an option.

Other members such as the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia have indicated in the last few days that a production cut might be necessary sooner rather than later ahead of weaker world demand in the second quarter.

OPEC has pumped up production four times this year by a total 3.7 million bpd to stem the price rally that was damaging the world economic outlook.

OPEC's most influential member, Saudi Arabia, said on Monday that suggestions of the cartel curbing output were premature.

TITLE: Pledges Made in Giant U.S. Media Merger
AUTHOR: By Kalpana Srinivasan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - After months of scrutinizing potential competitive harms, antitrust regulators secured additional concessions from America Online and Time Warner in the final hours before a critical review and expected vote on the deal. 


The Federal Trade Commission, meeting Thursday to decide whether to approve the $111 billion merger, gained pledges aimed at protecting consumer choice for Internet content and access. 

The companies, in those assurances late Wednesday, sought to allay concerns that the combined business could make it difficult for competitors to get Time Warner's vast array of content, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. 

Some believe the concessions offered by the firms that would limit their ability to dominate still-emerging Internet services will be enough to win over a majority of the five-member commission. 

At least three commissioners still were weighing how to vote Wednesday, sources familiar with the agency's review said. 

In a rare move, the agency's staff has issued no recommendation on the deal before the vote. 

One commissioner, Orson Swindle, has indicated he supports the deal, sources said, but other commissioners have reservations. They include commission Chairman Robert Pitofsky, who in recent days has met with merger opponents to hear their lingering fears. 

Commissioner Mozelle Thompson, who has spoken of a number of problems with the merger, appears most likely to oppose it, sources said. 

"It wouldn't be unusual in this kind of setting if people waited to make their mind up at the table," said Kevin Arquit, a New York antitrust lawyer and former director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition. "There are people that want to hear a discussion." 

Officials of the companies refused comment, but some people familiar with the review, as well as financial analysts, believe the deal ultimately will be approved with strings attached. 

"I think it will go through with strong conditions," said Scott Cleland, an analyst with the Precursor Group. 

European regulators already have signed off on the merger. 

Even if the FTC approves the deal, the companies still need clearance from the Federal Communications Commission, which has said it would act by year's end. 

The major hurdle has been the FTC, which has struggled for months to grapple with the unprecedented marriage of old and new media. 

Media powerhouse Time Warner runs some of the best-known names in entertainment, including HBO and movies and music from Warner Brothers, and in journalism, such as CNN and Time Inc. 

The government feared that together, the two companies could shut out competitors for emerging Internet services, such as superfast Web access. Time Warner is offering such service - dozens of times faster than today's dial-up connections - on its cable pipes. 

The FTC wrangled assurances from the companies that they would give customers a choice of online providers, other than AOL, on Time Warner's cable Internet systems. 

To cement that pledge, Time Warner forged an agreement to offer AOL's chief rival, EarthLink. The FTC has been reviewing terms of that arrangement to see that Time Warner's prices and terms are fair. 

The agency wants a blueprint in place so other Internet providers, such as Microsoft's MSN service, could reach similar agreements with Time Warner. 

Small- and medium-sized online companies have raised red flags that the EarthLink deal's still-undisclosed terms won't let them get on Time Warner's systems. 

If that's the case, "innovation is going to slow to a snail's pace," said Stephen Heins, director of marketing for NorthNet, a Wisconsin Internet company with 2,500 customers.

TITLE: Europe Moves To Halt Overfishing
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union fisheries ministers will decide some of the deepest ever cuts in catch quotas Thursday following dire predictions that stocks of North Sea cod are close to collapse.


"These are very tough measures but something must be done," Gregor Kreuzhuber, spokesman for EU Farm and Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler, said Wednesday.

Scientists have warned that over-fishing now threatens the survival of cod, hake and whiting in many waters around Britain, prompting the European Commission to propose slashing quotas by up to 74 percent in some areas.

The proposed total allowable catch (TAC) for North Sea cod has been reduced by almost half to 48,600 tons, of which 17 percent goes to Norwegian trawlers, a measure the Scottish fishing industry says will be devastating.

The British government has acknowledged the gravity of the situation but the traditional end-of-year talks Thursday are still expected to be fraught and may last into the night.

"We expect a high degree of understanding from member states affected. There will be haggling and bargaining, but everybody, including the industry, accepts it's serious," Kreuzhuber said.

Industry representatives said Fischler's plans, announced two weeks ago, spelled disaster if not amended.

"This is very bad news," said Ian Duncan of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, adding that they would deliver "a near fatal blow to large parts of the industry."

The Commission says it has little choice.

North Sea cod numbers have been falling steadily since records began in 1963. EU officials say there are now some 70,000 tons of adult cod in the area, way below the 250,000 tons in 1970 and about half the minimum scientists say is needed to guarantee the survival of the species.

Scottish trawlermen have recently only managed to catch around 60 percent of their annual North Sea cod quota, simply because they could not find the fish, EU officials say.

And it is not just the North Sea that has problems.

The Commission has proposed cutting next year's quota for the northern hake stock, which inhabits waters northwards from the Bay of Biscay, by 74 percent from 42,000 to 11,000 tons.

And in waters off the west of Scotland, the planned cod quota would be cut by more than 50 percent to 3,300 tons and the whiting quota would be 35 percent down at 2,800 tons.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Crude Tariffs To Rise

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The export tariff on crude oil will rise to 48 euros a ton from 41 euros at a price of $30 to $32.50 a barrel, a spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday. 

Gennady Yezhov said the export tariff on fuel oil would increase to 31 euros a ton from 27 euros a ton and fuel oil to 39 euros from 32 euros. Light and medium distillates will be subject to a tariff of 39 euros a ton. 

Yezhov said the increase would take effect one month after the changes were published in the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. 



EBRD Pipeline Loan 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - State pipeline monopoly Transneft expects a $150 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to build a pipeline bypassing Ukraine, Transneft president Semyon Vainshtok said Friday. 

"We've already reached an agreement in principle. We are counting on the money being issued some time in February 2001," he said. 

Vainshtok said the money would allow Transneft to complete the project possibly in about half of the originally forecast 19 1/2 months. 

Part of a pipeline that now carries oil to the Black Sea ports of Novorossiisk and Tuapse crosses the territory of Ukraine.



Lithuania in WTO

GENEVA (Reuters) - The former Soviet Baltic state of Lithuania got the green light Friday to join the 140-member World Trade Organization in a move the country's president hailed as historic. 

The WTO's ruling General Council approved a package entry agreement after six years of sometimes-difficult negotiations at a session attended by Lithuania's President Valdas Adam kus and Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis.

TITLE: Mailbox
TEXT: Dear Editor,

With the world's focus still firmly fixed on the battle over Florida's votes, few have noticed that as many as 2.5 million Russian citizens have also become "disenfranchised" in their new democracy.


These people recently signed a petition all across Russia's vast territory in order to hold a nationwide referendum on Russia's beleaguered environment. With eleven time zones worth of territory, the deplorable state of Russia's environment is of concern to the entire world. Russia itself has acknowledged that tens of millions of citizens inhale toxins at far beyond maximum permissible concentrations, that many, if not most, of the country's waterways are so heavily contaminated with industrial and agricultural runoff that the water is dangerous to drink, and that the safety conditions in its nuclear energy sector are worsening year by year.

The petition drive, organized by the Russian chapter of Greenpeace, was spurred on by two proximate issues. The first concerned the re-establishment of the Russian State Environment Committee, the independent environmental agency abolished by President Vladimir Putin in May. The watchdog duties of the committee were improbably and inexplicably handed over to the Natural Resources Ministry, an organ of the state which oversees the exploitation, not the protection, of Russia's vast natural riches.

The second issue at stake concerns plans by the Nuclear Power Ministry (MinAtom) to begin importing up to 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from around the world. This entails changing Russian law, which currently prohibits the import of nuclear waste for storage. Draft legislation to this effect is making its way through the Duma right now. The calculated revenue from this program, which according to MinAtom would be tens of billions of dollars, could go toward the financing of new nuclear power plants in Russia.

But last week Russia's Central Election Commission denied the petition's request, claiming that several hundred thousand of the signatures were invalid. With only 1.9 million valid signatures, the petition falls short of the mandatory 2 million required for the holding of a referendum.

Russia's environmental advocates are up in arms, and with good cause. Having mobilized brigades of citizens in more than 60 regions to collect the millions of necessary signatures, the effort marks the greatest and most visible civic environmental action in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

With Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shoigu having noted that last year alone there were more than 16,000 violations of safety standards in the nuclear energy sector, the whole world should be concerned about a plan which puts Russia in charge of so much additional nuclear material. 

Unless a massive amount of support from Western or international sources is forthcoming to help Russia reprocess or store the nuclear waste safely, countries seeking to export their spent nuclear fuel should pause long and hard before shipping it off to a country which just last month denied the findings of a report released jointly by U.S. and Russian scientists documenting an alarmingly high concentration of radioactive elements in two Siberian rivers.

The CEC's recent decision to prohibit a nationwide referendum on a subject affecting the health and well-being of perhaps millions of people is one which should not go unchallenged.


Leslie Powell,

New York


Dear Editor,

I write in response to your Dec. 5 article, "Rights Ombudsman Crticized by Own Staff," which was brought to my attention. The article reported on various accusations against Human Rights Commissioner Oleg Mironov made by members of the commission staff in an open letter to President Vladimir Putin on Dec. 2.


Without knowledge of the facts, we at the Center for Democracy take no position on the internal conflict evidently disturbing the commission. However, we must protest the false, outrageous, and unfounded allegation made in this open letter that our center, a respected, privately-funded, bipartisan nonprofit organization headed by leaders of both U.S. political parties, is a "dubious foreign organization" that "receives funding from the CIA." 

We receive no such funding. Nor have we ever received such funding. Nor have we ever had any link to the CIA whatsoever. Rather, a review of the center's financial accounts, which are publicly available, reflects the typical challenges of a non-governmental, non-profit organization in securing funding each year from individuals, corporations, and foundations.

We are particularly proud of the center's worldwide achievements since its founding in 1985 and its history of openness and perseverance in fulfilling our overall mission. This mission has included a strong commitment to supporting Russian democracy and closer U.S.-Russian relations over the past decade. As mentioned in your article, in June 1991, we did present our International Democracy Award to newly-elected President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation within the then-USSR. Since then, the center has engaged in numerous activities to support the democratic process in Russia. 

Most recently, in early November, we hosted Dr. Mironov in New York and Washington for a week of election-observing activities and meetings with U.S. government officials and human rights non-governmental organizations, reciprocating the hospitality shown to us by the commission during our own similar election-observing trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg this past March. Dr. Mironov's visit, I should note, received full support by and participation from Russian diplomatic officials in both New York and Washington.

As a longtime American friend of Russia, I find the dreary, Cold War-era rhetoric used by the authors of the open letter to try and discredit legitimate organizations such as ours both pathetic and disappointing. Regardless of the truth, or lack thereof, of grievances against their employer, their argument surely is not bolstered by blatantly false accusations against the Center for Democracy, whose president and directors some of these same commission staff members greeted so warmly during their visit to the commission earlier this year.



Allen Weinstein

President & CEO

Center for Democracy

Washington, D.C.

Dear Editor,

The outcome of the Edmond Pope trial does an injustice not only to Pope but also to all people of Russia. I was very saddened to see such an outcome when there should not have even been a trial in the first place.


Why aren't the people who made the decision that the information Pope received was not classified on trial? Why isn't the Russian government not on trial for being such a poorly organized institution? Why doesn't one bureau not know what the other is doing, or what the policies of other bureaus are when they share jurisdiction over matters or items at hand?

I have great fondness for Russia and the Russian people, and respect for the fact Russia is one of the more literate nations on this planet. So I wonder, where does such an idiot as Judge Nina Barkina come from? This is one judge who apparently has no idea of what justice is all about.

I have heard that Russia has a literacy rate approaching 99 percent. I guess that the rest must have government jobs.



David Tubbs

Memphis, Tennessee

TITLE: COMMENT
AUTHOR: By John Passacantando
TEXT: PRESIDENT Bill Clinton still has an opportunity to put impeachment and other mishaps behind him and achieve a legacy he can be proud of: a meaningful worldwide treaty on organic pollutants.


During the Cold War, the Soviet Union undermined its own potential for economic growth and democratic reform because of its focus on world domination and the arms race. When U.S. President Ronald Reagan said in a speech at the Berlin Wall, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," he spoke for the world. By letting the wall come down, Mikhail Gorbachev will be remembered as the most important force for ending the Cold War. 

Now it is Clinton who stands behind a wall erected to support the aging U.S. industrial base, namely the auto, coal, oil and energy industries. These dinosaurs pushed the Clinton administration to insist on loopholes in the global-warming treaty so large that the 181-nation talks broke off last month in the Netherlands. The nations of the European Union pulled the Americans toward closing the loopholes on limits to greenhouse gas emissions, but time is running out for an agreement. 

Meanwhile, this week in South Africa many of those same nations are convening to hammer out details for the treaty on persistent organic pollutants. This is a global effort to rid the world of the most toxic chemicals that accumulate in the food chain and body tissue, including yours and mine, causing a wide range of environmental and human health maladies such as diabetes, cancer and birth defects.

Sadly, the United States is again the ringleader pushing for loopholes for its chemical manufacturers, fighting an all-out ban on dioxin and secretly lobbying Brazil, India and South Africa as a means to divide countries that are pushing for a ban.

This is not new behavior by the United States. For three decades, the United States has lobbied to weaken such treaties. It has convinced other nations they must lower their standards in order to get U.S. support and has refused to ratify the watered-down treaty. 

The tragedy of this is that opposition to these treaties serves only the commercial interests of yesterday. It hurts the competitiveness of the United States by stalling development of technologies that not only serve as the solution to environmental problems but also as job creators in the export market. It hurts the health of people and it undermines the U.S. role in spreading democracy and environmental security globally. 

By pushing for global warming and organic-pollutant treaties and abandoning the 30-year history of undermining agreements on behalf of industrialists, Clinton could go down as the global leader who took the first important steps against these threats.

Mr. Clinton, tear down your barriers to these treaties.



John Passacantando is executive director of Greenpeace USA. He contributed this comment to the Los Angeles Times.

TITLE: What Other Papers Are Saying
AUTHOR: by Ali Nassor
TEXT: Street demonstrations, police detentions, hoax bomb calls and threats of court battles were the on the menu as Russia's seventh Constitution Day was celebrated this week, while the Duma was busy reintroducing the new/old national anthem. The press speculated that the adoption of the Soviet anthem signified the end of Yeltsin's legacy and his constitution, and the dawn of a new era in which a modified version would serve the interests of his successor.




Golden Oldie


Pending the approval of President Vla dimir Putin this month, on hearing the Soviet-era-turned-democratic-Russian national anthem "in an official atmosphere" everybody, without exception, will have to stand up - and if they are male, take off their hats - in reverence, says Kommersant. 


The law on the national anthem was passed by the Duma on the weekend and this was just one of its stipulations. State-run broadcasting media, reluctant to play the communist melody at least twice every working day - both coming on and off air - will have to deal with the state prosecutors once the law is signed by Putin, predicted the paper.

As the new legislation breezed through the lower house of parliament, police outside were busy detaining protesters who had gathered to oppose the law, and even the prosecution-immune parliamentarians and their aides who dared get out in support of the protesters did not escape the clutches of the cops. One deputy was reportedly detained just on the suspicion he would join the protesters, according to the paper.



Tale of 2 Issues


When Duma Communist Speaker Gennady Seleznyov made his somewhat sarcastic remarks about the senility of the elderly - referring to former president Boris Yeltsin's stance against the Alexandrov anthem - SPS Deputy Sergei Yushenkov, who dared criticize the speaker for his comments, narrowly escaped a one-month ban from taking the Duma's microphone.


Outside, clashes between communists and anti-anthem demonstrators led to several injuries. Later, a deputy in the Duma received a hoax bomb threat call on his mobile phone, the paper says. 

But was it a coincidence, asks Peterburgsky Chas Pik, that the anthem saga took place on Constitution Day?

The paper says there's a hidden agenda at work here: Seven years ago, Yeltsin used the issue of the Constitution to strengthen his own position - and Putin is doing the same with the nation's symbols.

Just as Yeltsin needed to make a play for public confidence with a referendum on the Constitution to consolidate his powers, Putin now has his strong-government policies being challenged by a more mature opposition. Instead of the outdated Constitution issue, we now have the more timely anthem issue, says the paper.

With a slight twist, Argumenty i Fakty seems to back the idea, saying Putin had come up with an idea to provide Russia with the new-old anthem prior to Constitution Day and even courted the Duma to his side, because he had his own motives beyond just the "Constitution Day gift." 



Identical Twins


But Vlast interprets Putin's insistence on the old tune as evidence he and his government are heirs to the Soviet regime.


The journal draws parallels between Soviet power and Putin's government with a look at Putin's economic and judicial policies, where the state fights private businesses and where the nation's capital is concentrated in a handful of state-run banks, where judges are above the law and prosecutors are merely programmed tools of the state.

And in Putin's government, just like the Soviet one, politics is a question of who's on the left and who's on the right, and the rich man is always a thief, the paper concludes.

TITLE: EDITORIAL
TEXT: A Beast That Took Too Long To Kill 


WITH a ceremonial flick of a switch today, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will shut down. Forever. Good riddance.


On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster. Thirty-one people died immediately; thousands more have perished since.

Valery Pishchikov, the Ukrainian Health Ministry official in charge of dealing with the Chernobyl aftermath, said last month that one in 16 Ukrainians - 3.4 million people - suffers from serious health problems because of the disaster. In both Ukraine and Belarus, hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in irradiated zones that are, by any reasonable standard, not fit for habitation.

However, Chernobyl is also a symbol of something else. As glad as we are to see this monster laid to rest, we can't help but wonder: What took so long? After all, the plug is being pulled on Chernobyl just a few months shy of the fifteenth anniversary of the catastrophe.

The answer is that the world's half-hearted effort to shut down the plant has been a disgrace and a slap in the face of world public opinion. Chernobyl is a symbol of the failure of the international community to cope vigorously with a straightforward problem.

Although virtually everyone has spoken out against Chernobyl-type reactors, 14 of them continue to operate to this day. Experts affirm that the system "raises very serious safety problems." 

Very little Western assistance has been dedicated to this issue, and much of what has been given has been frivilously wasted. In March 1999, all 20 members of the European Commission resigned amid scandalous fraud accusations. One of the key charges was that $300 million set aside for improving nuclear safety at Chernobyl-type plants had been "almost entirely ineffective." 

Even worse, the West continues to purchase low-cost electricity from the former Soviet Union, sometimes even shutting down its own, safer nuclear plants and subsidizing the continued operation of these dangerous time bombs. 

It is certainly true that successive Ukrainian governments have "played the Chernobyl card" in order to get Western attention and assistance. However, this does not excuse the West's failure to actively engage or even pressure Ukraine to cooperate on this problem or its failure to tackle the problem of potential Chernobyls in Russia. Governments that call themselves democratic should not be so contemptuous of global public opinion.

Even dismantled, Chernobyl remains a symbol that we cannot afford to forget. Those who live with its consequences certainly won't.

TITLE: COMMENT
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: The Public Isn't Divided - It's Schizoid 

PUBLIC opinion polls in Russia are a hopeless matter. Each year Russian sociologists conduct complex research into the public mind and in every study we are told that Russians do not want to choose between the two evils that politicians and intellectuals are always putting in front of them.


We live in a land of strange people. About a quarter of the population has leftist or communist views. Slightly fewer hold "liberal" values. And no matter what happens in the country, these figures stubbornly refuse to change. Over the course of nearly a decade of "liberal reform," the number of liberals has decreased slightly, but not dramatically. The most important thing to note is that the overall number of people who have clearly defined ideological views is becoming smaller and smaller.

So, what about the majority?

Most just want to be happy. That means that they are categorically opposed to nationalization while at the same time thinking that most privatized enterprises should be immediately returned to the state without any compensation. They believe in a free market, but only under the condition that the government maintain strict price controls. They fear inflation, but advocate sharply increased state spending and sharply reduced taxes.

Only at first glance would you think they support a mixed economy. In reality they are definitely for certain principles. The problem is that these principles are mutually exclusive. The people long for radical change, but are deathly afraid of revolution. For this reason, they esteem Stalin more than Lenin and Leonid Brezhnev more than Boris Yeltsin. 

They are for a firm hand unrestricted by laws or "formalities." At the same time, they value liberty and oppose the smallest violations of civil rights. They seem to want a Pinochet, Ivan the Terrible or Stalin running Russia, but only if strict constitutional limits are observed. And without mass repression. Although, some people should be arrested ...

Of course, it is easy to make fun. A lot of this kind of "analysis," though, is unfair, especially concerning economic issues. After all, there are ways of increasing state spending without significantly increasing taxes and there are ways of expanding the public sector that don't amount to nationalization. However, it is hard to imagine a harsh dictatorship that guaranteed personal liberties.

The problem is not so much the contradictions - Russia is not the only society with such views - but the fact that the people don't seem to acknowledge their existence or scale. During Soviet times, we were conditioned to believe the authorities could do anything - and apparently we still do. 

In other words, the public not only desires completely contradictory things, but also is fundamentally convinced that the government is capable of doing this if only it can muster the will. The so-called "Putin effect" can be explained by the fact that he originally presented himself to the nation as someone who really can be everything to everyone. He was supposed to be simultaneously a pitiless dictator and a confirmed democrat. A believer in the free market and a leader capable of controlling the smallest detail of every enterprise in the country. 

Already, though, this image is coming under fire. For now, most of his support comes from people without ideological views. The pro-Kremlin Unity faction is designed precisely to reach this group. 

Unfortunately, a party without an ideology is capable of winning power but not of ruling effectively. It is Putin's fate that he will create crises with any action he takes. And he will create crises if he fails to act as well. After all, society can't wait forever.


Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist.

TITLE: Church Has To Reconsider Old Borders With the State
AUTHOR: By Lawrence Uzzell
TEXT: THIS month the Keston Institute posted on its Web site (www.keston.org) two of the most unjustly neglected documents of the Russian Orthodox Church under Soviet rule. Dating from the first decade of the Bolshevik regime, these documents are manifestos from bishops imprisoned at the Solovki monastery. They explode the oft-heard myth that religious freedom is contrary to the fundamentals of Orthodox Christianity. Though written in 1927, these texts pose a direct challenge to today's Moscow Patriarchate as it struggles with its lingering Soviet mentality of servility to the state. We can only hope that someday a truly awakened and renewed Russian Church will reprint these classic texts and distribute them. 


The two appeals from the so-called "Solovki bishops" came from an island monastery in Russia's remote northern White Sea that the Soviets had turned into a labor camp. The captive bishops set themselves humbly but resolutely against the collaborationist policy that was soon to become the hallmark of the Moscow Patriarchate. To use the formula offered decades later by writer and dissident - and fellow gulag prisoner - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, they refused to "live by lies." 

Unlike the collaborationists, the Solovki bishops publicly called on the new Soviet regime to abandon its systematic persecution of religious believers. They refused to whitewash the Soviet program of trying to eradicate religion. They insisted on calling things by their proper names, condemning the state's violation of its own laws by its constant meddling in the Church's internal life. They rejected the argument often advanced by collaborationists within the Church that the Soviet state's goals and interests were identical with those of the Church. Instead, the Solovki bishops pointed out that all governments sometimes commit unjust acts and that such extremely close identification between the Church and the state would be wrong with any type of government.

They refused to paper over the fundamental disagreement between the Church's and the Soviet state's worldviews, making clear that the deep divergence between the two precluded any kind of internal reconciliation. "The church recognizes the existence of a spiritual principle that communism denies," they wrote. "... 'tis the very soul of the Church, the condition of its being and the meaning of its existence that communism categorically rejects."

At the same time, the bishops made it clear they would not lend their support to counter-revolutionaries, but would simply be neutral on politics. They insisted this was the only true means of preserving the Church's internal spiritual freedom and preventing it from becoming merely "a servant of the State." In dramatic contrast to the collaborationists, the Solovki bishops spoke out against sacrificing the Church's conscience and fundamental principles merely for the sake of preserving its external administrative structures. Their coda resoundingly proclaimed that "if its petition is rejected, the Church will be ready for the material deprivations to which it could be subjected and will face this calmly, remembering that its strength does not depend on the existence of an undamaged external structure, but on the unity of faith and love of its faithful children. It will rely all the more on its Divine Founder, over Whom nothing hath dominion, and on His promise that nothing can prevail against His Creation."

The bishops' 1927 appeals are also interesting for their rejection of "renovationism" - an early form of "liberation theology" the Soviet state supported in the 1920s as a means of fomenting schism within the Orthodox Church.

The Solovki bishops' words have direct implications for today's issues of religious politics. Essentially they called for mutual renunciation, a genuine rather than a dishonest separation of church and state. They declared that "every believer must use his own mind and conscience to find out how best to organize the State." 

"In view of such an irreconcilable ideological disagreement between Church and State, the only way to avoid the two clashing in their day to day activity involves meticulously implementing the law separating Church and State, according to which the Church must not interfere in the civil government's work for the benefit of the people and the State must not restrict the Church in its religious and moral activity." The bishops implicitly rejected "old political theories which viewed the religious unity of citizens as essential for strengthening all political associations."

If today's Moscow Patriarchate took this view seriously, for instance, it could never have demanded the 1997 law restoring state control over religious life. As the bishops wrote, "the Church must state with complete justification that it cannot recognize as just and welcome either laws that limit it in the fulfillment of its religious duties or administrative measures that greatly increase the restrictive burden of these laws."

Fortunately, the Patriarchate now seems to be moving slowly toward giving the Solovki bishops their due recognition. The Patriarchate's recent canonizations included some bishops who signed the Solovki appeals. I hope this is an encouraging sign that the Patriarchate is beginning to come to terms with its tainted past. Like the Roman Catholic Church's declaration on religious liberty from the Second Vatican Council, the Solovki texts should be studied by all Christians interested in church-state relations. We can only hope the Church itself will take these still-relevant echoes of the past as seriously as they deserve to be.


Lawrence Uzzell is director of the Keston Institute of Oxford, which monitors religious freedom in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He wrote this comment for the Keston News Service.

TITLE: dinner on the orient express
AUTHOR: by Masha Kaminskaya
TEXT: The Orient Express restaurant, which has just opened in a downtown district on Ulitsa Marata, has surely made the right choice for a place to settle down. No, the location is not exactly one of the most fashionable in the city. No, the outside view doesn't promise you the classical beauty of imperial St. Petersburg, but the constant cling-clang and seismic-like reverberations of a tram line just beyond the windows will provide you with the sort of sensations one usually has while on a train.


True, the designers of the place may have gone to much effort to make their clientele feel like passengers: the walls and table napkins bear pictures of locomotives, and there are a few cute train models worth a minute of your attention. But unless you're alone and miserable, you will hardly spend time scrutinizing your napkins, especially when having your food, which is excellent here.

While not being quite as exotic as you would expect from an Orient-oriented restaurant, the menu will offer you a wide choice of dishes. Those who - just like my husband - always crave a shashlyk everywhere, will be pleased to be able to pick among half a dozen different varieties served right from the cozily glowing mangal standing nearby.

We started, however, by ordering cold and hot hors d'oeuvres, and waited for those while listening to - guess what? - pop music old Soviet style, the songs repeatedly drowned out by the familiar sounds of a rattling train. One wonders at times why so many restaurants in this city want you to eat to the strains of an old Alla Pugacheva number, but here... remember what you always have to wake up to on a Russian train? Exactly.

The Poseidon salad (120 rubles) - an hors d'oeuvre elegantly called a "cascade" of fresh vegetables and pink shrimps - came rather as a culinary chef d'oeuvre, its tomatoes, lettuce, shrimps and pieces of oranges pouring out of a star-like tartelette made to look like a seashell. A tender pink red wine sauce gave it a light and delicate savor.

The hot Orient Express appetizer (100 rubles) followed - chicken fillet topped quite unexpectedly with slices of peaches and what was called in the menu "piquant sauce," which tasted as if it was designed for a dessert. But this is probably more like what oriental cuisine is supposed to be, and it was good.

My husband meanwhile was offering me a bite of his Mushroom Dumplings (80 rubles) - a perfect choice for those who can't decide between a hot appetizer and a soup and can't take both for fear of overeating.

His main course was the steamingly hot "Hunting Shashlyk" (140 rubles), made of beef, pork and chicken, and brought on a wooden tray right from the mangal. Already charmed enough by the elegance of the restaurant (I'm not counting the "elevator" music), I was especially impressed by the Rainbow trout (170 rubles). A whole big fried fish, it came - if not descended - onto my table, reigning on the plate with an escort of baked potato brioches and pickled mushrooms.

But while it was a successful idea to give both the shashlyk and the trout a natural look - as if reminding you it is high time you took your husband for a hitch-hiking tour in the country - the same idea fared worse with the taste of the fish, which, closer to its head, tasted precisely as it would had it been cooked on a fire in the woods during a hitch-hiking tour. I wished it had had a more elegant taste, as the rest of this meal did - not something you can usally say about a meal served on a tray.



Orient Express, 21 Ul. Marata. Open from noon to midnight. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two: 740 rubles ($27). Tel. 325-87-28, 325-87-29.

TITLE: new-look german cinema comes to leningrad
AUTHOR: by Kirill Galetski
TEXT: German cinema has experienced revitalization over the past decade. With a growing economy and improvements in cinema infrastructure, film production in Germany has increased and so has international interest, piqued by such popular hits as Tom Tykwer's "Run, Lola, Run." Despite the increase in production, attendance is waning somewhat in Germany, but festival showings abroad of German cinema are increasing steadily, with new German festivals in Rome and Los Angeles starting this year.


The result for Russia and the Baltic republics has been numerous festival showings strongly supported by local chapters of the Goethe Institute. The recent Black Nights International Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, which ran from Dec. 3 to 10, focused heavily on German cinema. Tykwer's latest, "The Warrior and the Empress" (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin) was an eagerly anticipated work. Films by two directors who were in attendance at the festival, Hendrik Handloegter's "Paul is Dead" and Thorsten Schmidt's "Snow on New Year's Eve" (Schnee in der Neujahrsnacht), captivated audiences.

"Paul is Dead" is the semi-autobiographical story of a young Beatlemaniac with an overactive imagination, living in suburban Germany in the '80s. He buys into the popular myth that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and that Brian Epstein hired a double to continue his career. Despite favorable attention from the German press, the film will almost never see the inside of a movie theater, as it features original Beatles cuts on the soundtrack, and is consequently subject to draconian international music copyright regulations.

The St. Petersburg branch of the Goethe Institute is presenting New Cinema from the New Germany Festival, Dec. 15 to 19 at the Leningrad Cinema. This compendium, which recently toured Latvia and Lithuania, features a multifaceted program of feature-length, short, animated and documentary works, some of them debut films. It also boasts a premiere of "The Legends of Rita" (Die Stille nach dem Schuss,) a new film by veteran filmmaker Volker Schlondorff, who has been in attendance at a number of festivals presenting the work of promising young filmmakers, including St. Petersburg's own Message to Man Film Festival.

"I know from my experience with [my first feature] 'Young Torless,' that debut films are often the strongest, wildest of works," observed Schlondorff at the recent Tokyo International Film Festival German Film program, "You are not yet tamed and go against all of the rules, yet with a fresh view of the world."

Not all young German directors are heartened by Schlondorff's overtures, however, and are not overly enthusiastic about the Goethe Institute's activity.

"Schlondorff is a dinosaur!" fumed Handloegter in an interview at the Tallinn film festival. "He's sitting on top of all the money, and he should move over!"

Dominik Reding, who directed the gritty, controversial, independent skinhead drama "Oi! Warning," which showed in Tallinn, remarked: "I'm not counting on the Goethe Institute [to help show our film.] They like comfortable stuff like Veit Helmer's 'Tuvalu,' but not our film, which criticizes a segment of German society."

Schlondorff's new film, which was also shown in Tallinn, is a sober drama with an uncanny, almost documentary-like feel that explores the world of former terrorist Rita Vogt, played by Bibiana Beglau. Forced into hiding in East Germany when her Red Army Faction unit fails on its mission, Rita assumes a number of "legends," or false identities provided to her by Stasi agents with an interest in seeing her work covered up. Rita's relative safety is completely demolished when the Berlin Wall is toppled.

Schlondorff's film is indicative of a recent trend in German cinema, where life in Eastern Germany and the aftereffects of the Wall coming down are persistent themes. Other films that exemplify this are Oscar Roehler's "No Place to Go," Germany's Oscar hopeful, which was shown in Tallinn, and Vanessa Jopp's "Forget America" (Vergiss Amerika) which is part of the St. Petersburg program

TITLE: 'last of the mohicans' comes to play st. pete
AUTHOR: Sergey Chernov
TEXT: David Thomas, who has led the seminal U.S. band Pere Ubu for 25 years, is one of the most influential musicians of today. With his unmistakable vocals and accordion, he developed a sound which combines traditional rock elements with avant-garde and improvisation.


Now London-based, Thomas will come to play a concert in St. Petersburg next week with one of his most recent projects "David Thomas and two pale boys," featuring younger British musicians with an avant-anglodance, techno-influenced background, Andy Diagram and Keith Molin.

Sergey Chernov interviewed Thomas by email on Monday.



Q: Please tell us about your first trip to Russia in 1993. Weren't you collecting material for an article for Spin magazine? Did you manage to find anything interesting? What was the article about?

A: I went to Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Kyzyl, Moscow and St. Petersburg. I had ideas about the exploitation and trashing of American culture by foreigners. The populist view is that Americans have tried to spread their culture in some sort of imperialist hegemony. Nonsense, I thought. It is foreigners who have ransacked American values adopting perverted counterfeits as fashion accessories, in the process devaluing the currency of the culture itself. I had ideas of the nature of the media and their role in this. I wanted to look at the conflict between commercial and non-commercial music within the east/west divide of the USSR itself as mirroring the bigger west vs. east divide of Russia, for example, vs. New York City or London. I had some ideas about the value of isolation. I had some ideas about the universality of the "Masonic" brotherhood at the heart of the musician's craft and the nature of the creative process in a social setting. Spin never published the article. They thought it was wonderful but not for their readers. They paid me anyway.




Q: You played at the pioneering TaMtAm club in St. Petersburg, which doesn't exist anymore, during that visit. What were your impressions about the place, the public and its reactions?

A: I don't remember. It was another gig in another town. I went back and looked at my notes. This is what I wrote at the time: "Bands play on a small stage in a small room. People stand, drink bottles of beer and watch. This, of course, describes every rock bar in America and is hardly worth mentioning except that in Russia it seems to represent an evolutionary leap beyond the usual career prospectus of an occasional appearance at a festival staged in a theatrical space in front of a seated audience wherein nervous musicians, having eyed the vast spaces beneath the proscenium arches and having sweated cold fear, saying to themselves 'boy, this space needs filling,' proceed to bring on the 'clowns' - dancers, costumes, theatrics, art pretensions, something, anything, oh please, to fill space and appease wolf-like audiences. THEATER CORRUPTS MUSIC ALWAYS and Russian rock groups have labored years stricken by its cancer."


I don't remember anything else. The people were nice but the people are nice everywhere. I liked Seva Gakkel [TaMtAm's founder and co-ordinator] very much. He was the most impressive thing about St. Petersburg. That, plus seeing a band from Magadan, Mission Anticyclone. They were opening for some hideous Russian ska group that the crowd loved. I thought the Magadan band was overwhelmingly good but nobody liked them. I watched slack-jawed, amazed and NOBODY else thought they were any good at all. They had saved their money for a year, flown halfway across the world to do two shows where nobody liked them - they were stunning and the other band was an anodyne imitation of an imitation of an imitation. It reminded me of a lot of things.



Q: You used to be a journalist before you became a musician. What made you change your profession?

A: I thought to myself, "If you're so smart why don't YOU do it." So I did.




Q: You seem to have a negative opinion about music critics. Why? Are there any music journalists that you respect?

A: Few music critics are as good at their jobs as I am at mine.


Q: Your art is a blend of rock, blues, folk, jazz and theater. Why do you call it "rock music?" Do you think the term is still relevant nowadays?

A: I call it rock music because that's what it is. Your question illustrates a number of prejudices shared by many. Rock music is the native music at the heart of American culture. Artemy Troitsky [Russian rock critic and Russian Playboy's founding editor] said to me, "The most ordinary rock band playing in a garage in Nebraska has an authenticity and urgency that cannot be found in even the best bands from England because they are playing their own music." Rock music is in my blood. It's not in yours. You presume too much to think it is. I do not claim Tolstoy. You cannot claim Elvis. Your question also presumes that culture is something that can be frozen in time. It presumes that rock music was never anything other than a youth phenomenon designed to sell clothes and provide tight-jeaned boys to chicken-hawkers. The Beatles will be a footnote in 50 years and forgotten totally in 100. Don Van Vliet, Sky Saxon and Brian Wilson will still be honored.




Q: Many rock writers saw punk as being progressive at the time. You said, punk rock was invented to sell clothes. Can't this charge also be applied to rock music, which to a great extent is part of mass culture?

A: See above. Rock music is folk culture. SO the question needs to be re-arranged. For example, is Oasis a rock band? Clearly not. (1) They are not American and, (2), they do not show any evidence of emerging from a native folk tradition. I am a native American. We have a native culture. Maybe you don't want to give us one. Maybe you want our native American culture to be confined to granny sitting in a rocking chair in the Appalachian mountains or field Negroes singing spirituals as they pick cotton. WAKE UP! There are NO grannies sitting in rockers in the Appalachians. There are NO field Negroes picking cotton. Talking in terms of "mass culture" leads nowhere.




Q: You call yourself the "Last of the Mohicans" who will be followed by barbarians. What makes you think so? Who else do you attribute to the tribe?

A: What makes me think so?!? Because I SEE it. I am the last. There are no others.




Q: Cleveland - the city that you grew up in - seems to be important to your work as you even prefer to play with musicians from the city. What's so special in Cleveland and the Midwest?

A: It's my home. It's not more special than anywhere else. But it's my home. Geography, to an unappreciated degree, determines who we are and how we see. It's certainly more important than blood or politics or history or genetics or social pressures. The people in Cleveland can see what I see and know what I know more accurately if only because we share the same language at the fundament of our consciousness.




Q: What made you leave the city and take residence in London then?

A: Family reasons.




Q: You see your projects as massively unpopular and "good at being unsuccessful." Are you totally satisfied with the situation?

A: What choice do I have? I am not talented enough to sell lots of records. I sell a few. I am not talented enough to attract many people. I attract a few. In my profession I am a failure. Many years ago I came to a separate peace. I am old now and I am free.




Q: What's the idea behind the project you are coming with: David Thomas and two pale boys?

A: Life and life only.




David Thomas and two pale boys play next Thursday.

TITLE: don juan production lacks sense of divine
AUTHOR: by Natasha Shirokova
TEXT: Moliere's Don Juan is one of the most popular plays in the repertoires of theaters around the world. In Russia the tradition is to interpret the subject tragically. It goes back to Pushkin's Little Tragedies, where the poet depicted Don Juan as a lonesome life-loving philosopher, who contradicts earthly and heavenly laws. Moliere's character is not alien to philosophy either. He is sophisticated and lighthearted, but the play itself has the spirit of a true comedy. Gennady Tros tya netsky, who premiered Don Juan at the Alexandrinsky Theater last Saturday, tries to combine both tragic and comic elements.


"It's not a tragedy," says Nikolai Burov, who plays Don Juan. "On the contrary, throughout the performance we are on the verge of farce. It becomes evident just at the end, when Don Juan is dying, that while we are laughing and enjoying ourselves something serious and horrible is about to happen. You would have to be blind to miss it, and when it happens it is terrifying."

The subject itself is not new for Trostyanetsky, as he staged Pushkin's Little Tragedies in Novgorod a few years ago. In addition, he has two more Moliere productions currently running, Le Malade Imaginaire at the Lensoviet Theater and L'Avare at the Theater on Liteiny.

A new production by Trostyanetsky, who is famous for his sharp, grotesque style, has long been expected. His previous productions of Moliere sparkle with humor, and show him to be a director with a rich imagination. Don Juan also abounds in stunts and jokes, which often seem self-sufficient, even more interesting than the actual story.

Playing with different theater genres, the director has Don Juan wear the costume of Pierrot with the cap of Harlequine, which underlines the double nature of this personage, a jester and a restless unfortunate soul at the same time. The whole world seems to be turned by the director into a "divine" carnival or masquerade, which Don Juan opposes.

"This work of Trostyanetsky is eclectic," comments Burov. "This is what he strives for. It's a separate artistic genre."

Burov in the role of Don Juan and Sergei Parshin as Sganarelle are experienced Alexandrinsky Theater actors, working in the theater for more than 10 years and appearing in most of the theater's productions. 

Burov plays Don Juan as soft and genteel. He plays a mature and sophisticated man, bored with pleasures, but different from all others and looking for peace in this world, which has become a grotesque masquerade.

Parshin makes his character a sincere servant, funny and devoted, who takes care of his master up to the very end. In this part he makes extensive use of improvisation, immediately winning the audience over.

But if the form in this production is elaborate, the point of Don Juan's struggle is lost. The main conflict in Moliere's play is that Don Juan rejects faith in God and when he challenges heaven, he dies, meeting God's envoy, the statue of the killed commander. And if the director gives a full portrayal of the Don's relations with women, the mystic episodes - though masterfully performed - seem to be devoid of their original meaning.

TITLE: UN Highlights Trade in People
AUTHOR: By Philip Pullella
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: CATANIA, Sicily - Trafficking in people, taking women and children into slavery and prostitution, is producing profits second only to those from the drug trade for organized crime, a UN official said on Thursday.


Calling on governments to unite to combat the trafficking, Pino Arlacchi, a UN under-secretary general, told a forum in Sicily that its victims were exploited repeatedly.

"It is painful to contemplate that, unlike illegal drugs, women and children are often sold again and again. Their abuse and pain are multiplied as the transactions increase," said Arlacchi, executive director of United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.

"The trafficking in people is the fastest growing transnational criminal activity. ... Never before has there been so much opportunity for criminal organizations to exploit the system."

Arlacchi, speaking in the city at the base of Mount Etna, said traffickers of people make annual profits of some $7 billion from the global market in prostitution alone.

According to a review of figures from governments and Non-Governmental Organizations, between 700,000 and two million women and children are victims of trafficking each year.

London-based Anti-Slavery International estimates that more than 200 million people worldwide are now reduced to slavery, many of whom have been trafficked across borders.

Arlacchi called trafficking of people "the biggest violation of human rights in the world" and said that while profits to transnational crime groups were still bigger in the illegal drug trade, the gap was narrowing.

Much of trafficking of humans involves criminal groups who exploit migrants who want to be smuggled into countries to begin new lives but are then forced to work for them in order to pay back the cost of the voyage.

According to UN documents, the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, has maintained a significant presence in Southeast Asia, where Japanese criminals have become a main organizing force in the sexual slavery of women.

Frank Loy, U.S. under-secretary of state for global affairs, said tens of thousands of people each year were victims of traffickers in the United States.

"When there are people who are held in quasi-slavery in sweat shops in California, in prostitution in Florida, in domestic service in New York, it's a crime that we want to address ... and I think this convention will help," Loy told Reuters in an interview.

In Italy, criminals operate an extensive and elaborate ring that lures Nigerian women into the country on the pretext of getting work. They are then sold to pimps for about $12,000 each.

"The girls are slaves. There is no other way to define it," said Father Oreste Benzi, a priest who founded an organization to help women leave forced prostitution and start new lives.

"The pimps want to make a four-fold profit on their investment, meaning the girls have to pay $48,000 before they are free. They are told that if they flee or talk to the police, their families in Nigeria will be killed," Benzi told Reuters.

The forum was part of a four-day conference on the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime taking place in Sicily.

One of the protocols attached to the Convention involves a commitment by the countries that sign it to work together to combat the problem.

TITLE: Continued Violence Hurting Barak
AUTHOR: By Mark Lavie
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israeli troops fired on a Palestinian car at a military checkpoint in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing the driver and wounding at least two passengers near the site of a major gun battle a day earlier. 


The Israeli army said one of the Palestinians drew a pistol at the checkpoint in the southern Gaza Strip, prompting the soldiers to open fire on the car. Israel's army radio described it as a planned action against a group of militants who were believed to be on their way to carry out an attack. 

However, a Palestinian security official told the radio that the Israelis fired without provocation, and that the dead man was a taxi driver, Hani Abu Bakr.

The army said it found and safely detonated an explosive device near the Jewish settlement of Morag. Soldiers in the area came under fire, and shot back, the military said. 

Nearly 320 people have died in the violence, most of them Palestinian. The fighting led to a suspension of peace negotiations, though Israeli and Palestinian leaders indicated they are considering the prospects of renewing talks. 

A Palestinian official said that contacts were underway, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke of the need for a negotiated settlement. 

Mahmoud Abbas, deputy to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said there were contacts with Israeli officials "at different levels," but he did not believe a peace agreement could be signed in the coming weeks unless Israel accepts all Palestinian demands. 

Barak needs a peace agreement with the Palestinians to boost his re-election chances, according to analysts. Elections were tentatively set for Feb. 6 after Barak turned in his resignation Sunday. Barak is trailing former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in public opinion polls. 

Netanyahu is technically ineligible to run for prime minister, since he is not a member of parliament. The parliament took a first step toward changing the law Wednesday to allow Netanyahu to challenge Barak, who defeated him soundly just 19 months ago.

TITLE: Kenyan Women Seek Circumcision Ban
AUTHOR: By Chege Mbitiru
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NAIROBI, Kenya - A leading women's law group in Kenya is pushing for a law banning female circumcision, saying this week's court ruling against the tradition is not enough. 


"It is high time we had a law that clearly criminalizes the practice," Martha Koome, head of the Federation of Women Lawyers, said Thursday. 

Koome spoke a day after Magistrate Daniel Ochenja issued a permanent injunction against farmer Pius Kandie to prevent him from forcing his 15 and 17-year-old daughters to undergo customary circumcision. The injunction handed down in Iten, a farming center 260 kilometers northwest of Nairobi, represents the first time a Kenyan court ruled against the forced circumcision of girls. 

In his ruling, Ochenja also ordered Kandie to continue providing material and financial care for his daughters, who are both in secondary school, despite their defiance. 

Koome said attorneys for the girls won the case not on the basis of law but because Ochenja exercised his discretion. "The outcome could have been different, depending on the magistrate or judge, because there is no clear law," she said. 

Circumcision of boys and girls is widely practiced in Kenya as a rite of passage to adulthood and is not illegal. For girls, the practice can involve clipping or burning the clitoris and cutting the external genitals. Defenders of female circumcision argue that the practice is allowed under customary law. 

Ken Wafula, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy, which took the case to court, said in a telephone interview that Ochenja based his ruling on the premise that female circumcision constitutes assault. Wafula said customary law, which is recognized in the Kenyan constitution, supersedes statutory law "only when it is not repugnant to justice and morality."

Wafula said Kandie told him he wanted the girls circumcised because he feared they might be returned home after marriage when their new husbands discovered they had not undergone the ritual. In such an event, Kandie would have to refund the dowry, which in Kenya is usually made up of cows, goats and sheep. 

Koome said Kenya is signatory to several international conventions that call the circumcision of girls female genital mutilation and define it as a human rights violation. "Cutting a little girl is criminal," she said. 

Some groups, among them the Kenya Family Planning Association, want to preserve the ritual connected with female circumcision. They favor a symbolic ceremony that involves no cutting of the female genitalia but does recognize the importance of the passage to womanhood.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Italy Backs Libya

ROME (AP) - Italy prodded the United States on Wednesday to move more quickly on ending Libya's isolation as a past supporter of terrorism, saying Libya had proved itself with moves like the surrender of the Lockerbie suspects. 

"Libya is not a supporter of international terrorism," said Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, whose country has positioned itself as Libya's sponsor as it strives for long-denied international acceptance. 

The UN Security Council suspended its 8-year-old sanctions against Libya last year after Moammar Gadaffi's regime surrendered for trial two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988. But the United States extended its 20-year-old restrictions on travel by Americans to Libya last month. 

Italy ruled Libya from 1911 to 1941. Libya today supplies one-quarter of Italy's petroleum, making it Libya's largest trading partner. 



Saddam Opens Palaces
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Saddam Hussein is welcoming Iraq's poor to religious meals in his palaces, mansions that have become symbols of both his opulent lifestyle and his secretive government.

The palaces are serving the main fast-b reaking meal to hundreds of Muslim faithful during the holy month of Ramadan, official media reports said Tuesday. 

Access to Hussein's palaces has been a touchy subject since UN weapons inspectors were repeatedly denied access to them following the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S. government has criticized the Iraqi leader for using scarce funds to build palaces instead of alleviating the hardship facing Iraqis as a result of sanctions imposed on the country for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. 



Observers Freed

TBILISI, Georgia (Reuters) - Two UN military observers kidnapped in Georgia's remote northwestern Kodori gorge were released on Wednesday, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze's spokesman said.

"They were released ...They feel all right," Kakha Imnadze said.

He said the observers had been freed without any conditions.

"What I don't know so far is who were those traitors [who carried out] this terrorist act, but what I do know is that the release was unconditional," Imnadze said.



Eritrea War Ends

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Ethiopia and Eritrea formally ended their two-year war on Tuesday, signing a peace agreement that halts a conflict over a barren patch of land that left tens of thousands dead. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki signed the accord before a crowd of applauding diplomats, many of whom participated in the peace process. 

The peace agreement establishes commissions to mark the 1,000-kilometer border, exchange prisoners, return displaced people and hear claims on compensation for war damages. About 4,200 UN peacekeepers will monitor the cease-fire.

No timetable has yet been set for the peace process and demarcation of the border. 



38 Die in Algeria

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - A series of clashes between Algerian security forces and Islamic militants has killed 38 people in Algeria this week, including 24 rebels, local media said on Wednesday. 

The deaths come several weeks into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, typically a tense and bloody period for this North African country. 

More than 100,000 people have been killed in an Islamic insurgency that began in 1992, when the military-backed government canceled elections that a now-banned Islamic party was set to win. 



China Moves 1,000s

BEIJING (AP) - Authorities will accelerate efforts to clear the way for China's massive Three Gorges Dam, moving 50,000 people next year from areas that will be inundated to other parts of the country, state-run media said on Thursday. 

The 50,000 will be the largest group of people resettled from the dam area since the project started in 1994, the official Xinhua News Agency said. 

Chongqing authorities relocated 10,000 people this year. In all, the dam's rising waters are expected to displace 1.13 million people from their homes by the time its reservoir fills in 2009. The dam is said to be the world's largest hydroelectric project. 



Hirohito 'Guilty'

TOKYO (AP) - In a mock tribunal on Japan's wartime policy of forcing women into sexual slavery, an international panel of judges on Tuesday found the late Emperor Hirohito guilty and demanded the state compensate and apologize to victims. 

A Tokyo court of law saw it differently, however. In rulings handed down just days before Tuesday's mock trial, the Tokyo court said women raped by soldiers during World War II should not get government compensation because, among other reasons, the statute of limitations had expired. 

Victims said time had not eased their agony. 

Historians say Japan forced about 200,000 women to work in military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Tokyo has admitted this was the case but refused to provide compensation or an official apology to individuals. 



Torah Returned

VILNIUS, Lithuania (Reuters) - The Lithuanian government said on Wednesday it would study ways to return hundreds of Torah scrolls to Jewish communities at home and abroad.

Thousands of Torah scrolls were lost or plundered throughout central and Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Some 361, mostly fragments, were recovered in Lithuania after World War II and hidden away during five decades of Soviet rule.

A bitter debate simmered for years over ownership and restitution until parliament voted in October to return the scrolls to Jewish communities.

More than 90 percent of Lithuania's Jewish population was wiped out in the Holocaust.



Serial Killers Tried

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) - Prosecutors opened their case Monday against four men charged with killing 10 people and disposing some of the bodies in barrels of acid. 

Court officers read out murder charges against the four, beginning what lawyers said would be a long, complex legal case in Australia's worst-ever serial killing. A magistrate will decide if the evidence warrants a later jury trial. 

The charges stem from the discovery last May of two bodies buried in a backyard in the state capital of Adelaide, and eight bodies in barrels of acid in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, 150 kilomters to the north. 

The killings are alleged to have taken place between 1995 and 1999.

TITLE: Penguins In a Flap as Toronto Comes From Behind
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - The return of Mario Lemieux can't come soon enough for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who watched a two-goal lead disappear in a flurry of Toronto scoring.


Alexei Kovalev had a short-handed goal and an assist on Martin Straka's power-play tally to stake Pittsburgh to a 2-0 lead before the Maple Leafs stormed back on the way to a 7-4 National Hockey League victory that stretched their unbeaten streak to six games.

The Leafs erupted with five consecutive goals - three in a 2:06 span of the second period Wednesday night.

Toronto had six different goal scorers, including Yanic Perreault who had the final two for Toronto to go with an assist. Gary Valk capped the second-period, three-goal burst that put the Maple Leafs ahead to stay and added two assists.

Curtis Joseph made 31 saves for Toronto, which is 5-0-1 in its last six games to move two points ahead of second-place Ottawa in the Eastern Conference.

Jaromir Jagr snapped a four-game goal-scoring drought with his 15th of the season, but the Penguins had their home winless streak reach five games (0-4-1).

Hall of Famer Lemieux, who led Pittsburgh to its two Stanley Cups, announced his return after 3 1/2 years in retirement and is expected back as early as next week.



Dallas 5, Edmonton 2. In Dallas, Brett Hull had a goal and two assists as the Stars continued their mastery of the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-2 victory.


Snipers Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Modano also scored for Dallas, which outshot Edmonton 28 to 16 to extend its unbeaten streak against the Oilers to nine games (7-0-2).

Jamie Langenbrunner and Grant Marshall added special-teams tallies for the Stars, who are 23-3-3 against Edmonton since the 1993-94 season.

Edmonton goalie Tommy Salo fell to 0-8-1 lifetime against the Stars, while Ed Belfour, who had to make just 14 saves, is 10-0-2 against Edmonton since joining Dallas.



Detroit 3, Florida 3. In Detroit, Darren McCarty got the equalizer with 8:25 left in regulation and Manny Legace made 32 saves as the Red Wings pulled out a 3-3 draw with the Florida Panthers.


Pavel Bure scored his 18th goal for Florida, which blew a pair of leads but salvaged a tie thanks to Trevor Kidd, who made five of his 32 saves in overtime for the Panthers.

Sergei Fedorov and Pat Verbeek scored the other Detroit goals. Scott Mellanby and Mike Sillinger scored for Florida.



Philadelphia 3, Colorado 3. At Denver, Simon Gagne knocked a puck out of the air and into the Colorado Avalanche goal with eight seconds left in regulation as the Philadelphia Flyers managed a 3-3 draw to stay unbeaten under new coach Bill Barber.


Eric Messier and Milan Hejduk had put Colorado ahead 3-2 with third-period goals before Gagne struck.

Daymond Langkow assisted on all three goals for the Flyers, who are 1-0-2 since Barber replaced the fired Craig Ramsay

TITLE: Reds Slip Past Pretenders in Cup Match
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LIVERPOOL, England - Michael Owen celebrated his 21st birthday a day early on Wednesday when he guided Liverpool to a 3-0 extra-time victory over Fulham to reach the League Cup semifinals.


Owen, who came on as a 73rd-minute substitute, swept the ball home in the 104th minute, Czech winger Vladimir Smicer bagged the second and another substitute Nick Barmby drilled home the third in a rainswept quarterfinal at Anfield. The final scoreline was a particularly harsh one for Fulham, who played the fluid attacking football which has earned them a 10-point lead at the top of the first division.

But they failed to take any of their few clearcut chances and were eventually worn down and then outgunned by their premier league opponents. 

Liverpool's Emile Heskey, who missed a sitter in Sunday's 1-0 league defeat to Ipswich, had a clear chance in the 18th minute but his angled shot from the edge of the six-meter box flew straight to Fulham goalkeeper Maik Taylor.

The two met again on the left-hand side of the penalty area just before the break, this time Taylor getting a hand to block Heskey's flick shot after racing through. Fulham's confidence grew in the second half with elegant midfielder Fabrice Fernandes and fellow Frenchman Louis Saha up front causing the Reds all sorts of problems.

Owen replaced fellow England striker Robbie Fowler as Liverpool coach Gerard Houllier reshuffled his pack in search of a winner.

The goals came thick and fast in extra-time as Owen's header was cleared off the line but the England marksman scooped the loose ball back into the roof of the net.

Smicer made it 2-0 in the 114th minute with a one-time shot after Barmby had got behind the Fulham defense and cut the ball back. Barmby was rewarded for his efforts in the last minute when he beat two Fulham defenders and steered a low shot beneath Taylor. 



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MOSCOW - Chechen soccer team Terek Grozny, whose region in the south of Russia has been torn apart by two wars in the last six years, has applied to play in the Russian league next season, officials said on Thursday.


"They came to us recently and submitted an application to be included in the championship for next season," said Professional Football League director Vitaly Krechetov.

"But before they can be admitted they must recreate the regional football federation and prepare all the paper work."

Krechetov said the final decision on their future could be made within a month. If admitted to the league, the side will have to start in the second division.

Terek, who played in the first division in the early 1990s, was forced to disband after Russian forces invaded the breakaway republic in December 1994.

Russian soccer officials said Terek must play their home games outside Chechnya because the republic has no suitable stadium because of the war.

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: FIFA Honors Pele

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - In the end, Pele was king, national pride was saved, and Brazilian fans were placated - sort of.

After a survey to choose the century's best soccer player surprisingly named Argentina's Diego Maradona instead of Pele, the sport's ruling body found a diplomatic solution: It awarded two prizes.

Diego Maradona, who won two Italian league titles with Napoli and led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup, won an Internet poll with 54 percent of the online vote, followed by Pele at 19 percent.

FIFA came up with a "football family" award for Pele, a three-time World Cup winner and the sport's career leading scorer. Pele took 73 percent of the ballots cast through internal FIFA balloting, with Maradona third at 6 percent behind fellow Argentine Alfredo Di Stefano with 10 percent.



Capt. McEnroe Jnr.

BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) - For what could be the first time in his life, Patrick McEnroe has a chance to succeed where his older brother failed.

The younger McEnroe was named as the U.S. Davis Cup captain Wednesday, a position that opened when John McEnroe resigned from the post last month.

"I did campaign for the job. I was very passionate about it," said Patrick McEnroe, who has signed for two years.

John McEnroe, who also campaigned vigorously for the captaincy, walked away in frustration after just one year in a post that saw an injury-depleted U.S. squad defeated by eventual champions Spain in the semifinals.



Hardaway Charged

PARADISE VALLEY, Arizona (Reuters) - Phoenix Suns guard Penny Hardaway was charged Wed nes day by the Town Attorney's Office with threatening his one-time girlfriend and mother of his child.

Paradise Valley Town Attorney An drew Miller charged Hardaway with one count of threatening or intimidating, a misdemeanor, after reviewing a police complaint made by LaTarsha McCray on Dec. 1 alleging Hardaway pulled a gun.

Miller said his office will serve attorneys for Hardaway with the charge Thursday and arraignment should follow in two weeks in Paradise Valley Municipal Court.

Misdemeanor threatening or intimidating carries a sentence of no more than six months in jail and a $2,500 fine. There is no gun charge.

TITLE: Robinson Shines Late as Bucks Rock Jazz in 2nd Straight Upset
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - One night after downing the defending National Basketball Association champion Los Angeles Lakers, the Milwaukee Bucks picked off another Western Conference power with a 111-102 victory over the Utah Jazz.


Glenn Robinson scored 18 of his 32 points in the third quarter and Ray Allen scored 16 of his 25 points after halftime for the Bucks.

Robinson, who scored just eight points on four-for-11 shooting in the first half on Wednesday night, caught fire after intermission, scoring Milwaukee's final 14 points in the third quarter to put the Bucks ahead - where they stayed.

Lindsey Hunter scored 15 points and Tim Thomas added 13 off the bench for Milwaukee.

Sam Cassell, who hit the winning basket against the Lakers, contributed 14 points for the Bucks, who made 40 of 42 shots from the free throw line.

Karl Malone scored 35 points for Utah and NBA all-time assists leader John Stockton added 16 points and nine assists, including the 14,000th of his career.



Portland 96, Los Angeles Lakers 86. In Portland, Oregon, Rasheed Wallace had 25 points and 13 rebounds and Damon Stoudamire scored all 21 of his points in the second half to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 96-86 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.


Stoudamire scored 11 in the third quarter, which ended with the game tied 64-64.

He went on to add 10 points more in a three-minute span of the fourth, when Portland pulled away in the rematch of last year's Western Conference finalists.

NBA scoring leader Kobe Bryant had 35 points for the defending champion Lakers, losers of four of their last five games.

Shaquille O'Neal added 19 and 13 rebounds.



Phoenix 103, San Antonio 93. In Phoenix, Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion scored 17 points apiece and Marion pulled down a total of 16 rebounds as the Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs 103-93.


Phoenix led 60-44 at the half on the way to their third straight win and second in as many meetings with San Antonio this season. Derek Anderson scored 26 points and David Robinson added 18 for the Spurs.



Detroit 92, Atlanta 69. In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Jerry Stackhouse scored 11 of his 30 points in the first quarter as the Detroit Pistons ran out to a 16-point lead and cruised to a 92-69 rout of the Atlanta Hawks.


Dana Barros added 19 points for Detroit, which held Atlanta under 32 percent shooting.

The Hawks committed 19 turnovers in matching their lowest point total of the season.

TITLE: Baseball Throws Major Money at Free Agents
AUTHOR: By Ronald Blum
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Back home from the winter meetings, teams showed off their stars.


Manny Ramirez's $160 million, eight-year contract with Boston was finalized Wednesday, as was Todd Hundley's $23.5 million, four-year deal with the Chicago Cubs.

"This kid has been the most gifted hitter in the business," Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette said at Fenway Park.

"We're a lot stronger than we were."

There were new deals, too.

Shortstop Alex Arias agreed to a $1.3 million, two-year contract with the San Diego Padres; Atlanta agreed to a one-year contract with infielder Rico Brogna and a minor league contract with infielder Kurt Abbott; and Toronto agreed to minor league contracts with seven players, including right-hander Jaime Navarro and outfielder Ryan Thompson.

Texas picked up three more free agents, agreeing to minor league contracts with outfielder Ruben Sierra, left-hander Mike Munoz and right-hander Kevin Foster.

On Monday, the Rangers agreed to a record $252 million, 10-year contract with shortstop Alex Rodriguez, causing intense criticism of the Rangers. A day later, Rodriguez criticized the Mets and general manager Steve Phillips.

"All I can say is I wish I could play against Steve Phillips' team and lead 24 guys to beat 'em up," Rodriguez said.

Phillips responded Wednesday:

"I think he doth protest too much for having a $250 million contract," he said. "We wish him the best."

In Boston, Ramirez said he wants to help the Red Sox overtake the New York Yankees, who have won three straight World Series titles and 26 in all since Boston last won in 1918.

In Cleveland, Indians general manager John Hart was ready to move on.

"He's the enemy now," Hart said.

Cleveland offered $136 million to retain Ramirez, its best hitter.

"It came down to the Boston structure was significantly different than ours," Hart said. "We had a signing bonus, but they had a bigger signing bonus and so much more was paid into the first three or four years of the deal, where ours was backloaded to fit our payroll structure. This wasn't like we were low-balling him or anything."

In Chicago, the Cubs announced their deal with Hundley, which was agreed to in Dallas, pending a physical. Hundley grew up as a Cubs fan, watching his father, Randy Hundley, catch for them.

"This is really a dream come true. More like a fantasy come true," the younger Hundley said. "I've always wanted to play here and to come home to the organization."

Arias, 33, hit .187 in 70 games last year and is a career .269 hitter with 16 home runs and 184 RBIs. In 1999, he set career highs with a .303 average, 105 hits, 20 doubles and four homers.

Arias is a nine-year veteran, the last three with Philadelphia. He will make $550,000 in 2001 and $750,000 in 2002. He can make an additional $250,000 in performance bonuses each season if he has 600 plate appearances.

Two days after signing A-Rod, the Rangers brought back Sierra and Munoz.

Sierra, a 35-year-old outfielder, hit .233 with one homer and seven RBIs in 60 at-bats with the Rangers last season after spending a year with Cancun of the Mexican League. With Triple-A Oklahoma, he had 18 homers and 82 RBIs.

Munoz, a 35-year-old left-hander, was 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA for the Rangers in seven relief appearances before tearing a tendon in his pitching elbow in April and missing the rest of the season.

Atlanta, which lost Andres Galarraga, brought in Brogna, hampered last season by a broken left forearm.

Brogna, 29, averaged 21 home runs and 96 RBIs from 1997 to 1999 with the Philadelphia Phillies. Last season, he hit .248 with one homer and 13 RBIs in 38 games with the Phillies before being claimed off waivers by Boston in August. He hit .196 with one homer and eight RBIs in 43 games with the Red Sox.

Abbott, 31, hit .217 with six homers and 12 RBIs for the Mets last season. He had a career-high 17 homers and 60 RBIs for the Florida Marlins in 1995.

Navarro spent this year with Milwaukee, Colorado and Cleveland, going a combined 0-6 with a 10.53 ERA. He has a 116-126 career record with a 4.72 ERA in 12 seasons with Milwaukee, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland.

Thompson, a former Blue Jays prospect, split the season between the Yankees and Triple-A Columbus, hitting .260 for New York with three homers and 14 RBIs.