SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #638 (5), Tuesday, January 23, 2001
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TITLE: Women Toughing It Out in City's World of Taxis
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Driving a taxi is one of St. Petersburg's most dangerous professions, where each new fare offers a possible - often unwanted - glance into the city's grim and sordid underbelly, where many a driver has felt the steel of a knife at his neck during robbery or picked up a half-naked girl fleeing a rape. 

Not every man can handle such conditions. But Irina Golubnichaya, one of a dozen female taxi drivers in the city, who has three years experience driving hacks for city Taxi Park No. 2, knows she has what it takes.

"I became a taxi driver for one simple reason. In this life, there are only three things I know how to do: cook borshch, knit socks, and drive a car," said 41-year-old Golubnichaya with a laugh.

In a city with more than 1,000 officially licensed taxi drivers - as opposed to private drivers, or chastniki, who pick up riders to make a little extra cash - she and her female compatriots behind the wheel make up a tiny percent of the city's yellow fleet. 

"In general, it's a tough job, you know, especially for a woman. But I like it," she said. 

Golubnichaya and her female colleagues, however, don't represent a breakthrough population of women into a men's club.

True, the stalwart community of Volga drivers has always been dominated by five o'clock shadows and black marketeers, though the years of communism saw dozens of female drivers, according to old hands around Taxi Park No. 2. Indeed, female hacks are now a dying breed in a society where political and social reform have led, among other things, to more danger on the streets. 

Nonetheless, Golubnichaya, who had spent most of her adult life driving vans, needed a job to feed her three daughters and their grandparents. So, one day in 1998, she applied for a job at Taxi Park No. 2. 

They gave her a job - but it came with an initiation rite: a road race through the city. Golubnichaya, never one to back down from a challenge, took the dare - and won.

And, though the number of female drivers in Russia has skyrocketed since the early 1990s, Golubnichaya and her professional peers say sexism on the road is still an issue. 

Sometimes, she says, potential passengers will send her away when they see she is a woman. Others, she says, will get in - but fasten their seatbelts.

Galina Podosevich, 53, another driver at Taxi Park No. 2 - who has 31 years experience behind the wheel - recounts how, when she started driving at age 22, male clients often mistook her for a prostitute and would proposition her.

"At first, I just cried bitterly after such events, because I thought they didn't see me as a professional," she said. 

"With time, however, it became clear that in such cases you really need to give a tough answer, and so I learned to swear," she said. Golubnichaya added that dulling down her wardrobe to jeans and a jacket - instead of her favorite skirts - became a necessity to avoid similar unwanted advances from some passengers. 

Male colleges, however, take the female drivers in stride.

Vladimir Cheredov, head of the City Taxi Service 053 - a partner to Taxi Park No. 2 - said that his company does not hesitate to hire women.

Sergei, a middle-aged taxi driver who refused to give his last name, agreed. 

"It doesn't matter who drives a taxi - a man or a woman - if they are good at it," he says. "Besides, I've noticed men have more accidents than women, who are safer drivers." 

No one, however, escapes close calls - be they fateful or comic. 

Tatyana Bondarenko, a private taxi driver who is not affiliated to a taxi park, said that her situation is much more dangerous. She does the job to support her three children. 

Because of her private status, she has no transmitter in her car like Golubnichaya and her colleagues. One time, she was robbed by a male passenger who held a knife to her while she turned over her evening's earnings to save her life. 

"When I told him about my kids, he let me keep 100 rubles," she says. 

Golubnichaya recounts the situation of one of her male counterparts who was once hauled in by police for picking up two men who had just robbed a store. Only after hours at the station did he manage to convince police he was not an accomplice. 

On a lighter note, Golubnichaya herself once received an expensive ring from a grateful young woman passenger who, it turned out, needed a shoulder to cry on more than she needed a ride. 

When Golubnitchaya realized how valuable the ring was, she tried to return it, but the young woman refused to take it back. 

Podosevich and Golubnichaya said there is a myth that taxi drivers make bags of money. But Podosevich wryly said that 31 years behind the wheel has certainly not provided her the cash necessary to move out of her room in a crowded communal flat. 

Indeed, income for the drivers is mostly a matter of luck, and of people at the side of the road needing rides. 

Golubnichaya and Podosevich also agree that being a taxi driver requires a thick skin and a sort of sixth sense about who to pick up. 

"Every day you have to deal with all kinds of people in all kinds of moods: angry, tired, impatient, sad, drunk, rude, sick and so on," says Golubnitchaya.

"A taxi driver has to be tolerant and communicative, but also strong and with principle. I can tell a lot about passengers just by the way they open the door."

But appearances are tricky and instincts sometimes fail.

"I had a very respectable-looking fare in a good suit, who left the car without a word - and without paying me," says Golubnichaya. 

But such unpleasantness notwithstanding, Podosevich says that the job becomes a lifestyle. 

"Many of my female colleagues say that they would like to find a safer job," she said. "But after many years, driving becomes a part of you. It is like watching a movie, the end of which you will never see. People get in and start telling their whole lives ... but you will never know the end of the story," she said

TITLE: Borodin Victim of Trickery or Carelessness?
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - With Pavel Borodin sitting in a New York jail, the question being asked is was the former Kremlin property chief foolhardy - or was he just fooled?

Borodin was arrested on a Swiss warrant when he arrived on Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport, planning to travel to Washington to attend George W. Bush's inauguration as president. 

Following a hearing Thursday in Brooklyn Federal Court, Borodin was ordered held until at least Thursday. At that time, Judge Victor Pohorelsky agreed to consider a Russian request to put Borodin under house arrest at the Russian Consulate until the court rules on whether he should be extradited to Switzerland, a process that could take several weeks. 

The facts suggest that Borodin was careless for traveling abroad while the Swiss had an international warrant out for his arrest on charges of money laundering and that U.S. authorities acted no differently than they would in any other case when a wanted man tries to go through passport control.

But theories suggest he may have been fooled, either by the U.S. government or by his own. 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta and others speculated that Borodin's arrest could be a U.S. attempt to put pressure on Russia over the case of Media-MOST head Vladimir Gusinsky or to retaliate for the espionage conviction of U.S. businessman Edmond Pope.

A lawyer for Borodin, Alexander Fishkin, also suggested that Borodin might have been set up, but he did not speculate by whom.

"The arrest warrant is issued on Jan. 10, he receives an invitation to the inauguration on Jan. 13 and a complaint is filed in New York for his arrest on Jan. 17," he said. "It could be a coincidence, yes, but it looks too strange to be a coincidence."

Officials in Washington said the United States was tipped off by someone in Russia that Borodin was on a plane to New York.

While he was en route, the officials said, the Justice Department and State Department determined there was a valid warrant for his arrest, under the extradition treaty with Switzerland, and that he was not protected by diplomatic immunity. By the time he landed, everything was cleared for his arrest, they said.

While the Russian Foreign Ministry responded immediately to the arrest, demanding Borodin's unconditional release, President Vladimir Putin has remained silent. 

Borodin's detention could serve as an embarrassment to Putin, who named him to his job as secretary of the body that governs the Russia-Belarus Union.

But it could also serve as a way for Putin to end a long-standing corruption scandal that has focused on whether two Swiss contractors, Mabetex and Mercata, paid huge bribes to high-ranking officials, including Borodin and others in former President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle.

Putin has a dilemma: defend Borodin and draw accusations of covering up corruption, or stand by and face political criticism for allowing Russia to be humiliated.

Borodin arrived in New York after receiving an invitation to an inaugural "candlelight dinner" from Vincent Zenga, a lawyer and telecommunications executive from West Palm Beach, Florida, and a big time contributor to the Republican National Committee and to Bush's 1998 campaign for governor.

Zenga, who was in Washington for the inaugural festivities, said in an interview that the invitation had been sent to Borodin "inadvertently."

Last year, Zenga and his wife each contributed $20,000 to the Republican committee. In 1998, he and his wife gave a total of $10,000 to the Bush campaign for governor, according to Texans for Public Justice.

"This was a pretty big pop, especially for an out-of-state contribution," said Andrew Wheat, research director at Texans for Public Justice.

Zenga also contributed $100,000 to the inaugural committee, but after Borodin's arrest, Republican Party officials returned the donation and told Zenga not to attend the inauguration.

Borodin, appearing grave in a blue suit and a gray necktie, said little during his brief appearance in the United States District Court.

"Yes, I understand that well," he said through an interpreter, after the judge explained that he was being detained on an extradition request from the Swiss authorities.

Moscow's ambassador to the United States, Yury Ushakov, said he spoke to Borodin by telephone and he has agreed to answer Swiss investigators' questions if he is released from detention, RIA Novosti news agency reported Saturday. 

The Swiss prosecutors say that Borodin, 54, received tens of millions of dollars in payments in return for awarding contracts to two Swiss companies to undertake renovations at the Kremlin, as well as at other government properties.

Prosecutors in Moscow last month dropped their investigation into the same charges, but the Swiss issued a new warrant for Borodin's arrest last week. 

Zenga, 52, said that he had never met Borodin, and that his signature on the invitation had been penned electronically by someone in the Moscow office of one of his companies, Star Capital.

"Neither I nor anyone in our company was aware of his legal problems," Zenga said. "We're trying to get to the bottom of this." 

But lawyers for Borodin in New York said that the Russians had considered Zenga's offer a government-to-government invitation, thereby placing Borodin on official business and affording him diplomatic immunity from prosecution. 

Administration officials denied that the invitation from Zenga amounted to official government business, and said Borodin did not qualify for diplomatic immunity, regardless of the passport he was carrying. 

The Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow closed its files on the investigation on Dec. 8 "for lack of evidence," Ruslan Tamayev, the deputy chief of the major crime branch, said at the time.

According to a complaint filed Wednesday in the federal court in Brooklyn, the Swiss said Borodin concealed kickbacks paid to him by Mercata and Mabetex by creating two fictitious companies. 

- SPT, NYT, AP, Reuter

TITLE: Turner Offering $300M For NTV
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A consortium of foreign investors led by CNN founder Ted Turner is ready to pay at least $300 million for stakes in NTV television and its sister media - provided Turner gets assurances from President Vladimir Putin that the Kremlin will not interfere in NTV's reporting or operations.

NTV is in debt to state-owned Gazprom to the tune of almost $300 million, and its journalists claim the Kremlin is using that debt to squeeze the station's independence. 

Enter Turner and his millions, the "white-knight" investor. 

"If Turner can pick up the phone and tell Putin, 'I'm giving you an elegant way out of this controversy that's damaging your reputation and the reputation of Russia,' it will be a choice that everyone will see," said Christopher Renaud, head of finance and strategic development for Media-MOST, NTV's parent company. 

"Does Putin's government want money, investment and a balanced and free press? Or does it just want control?

"Everything rests on whether they [investors] hear what they want to hear," Renaud told a news briefing Friday. "If they get a phone call that says 'Please come now, put in the money, we won't bankrupt all the companies, we won't throw you in jail the first day you set foot in Russia, licenses will not be taken away,' the deal could be funded and signed in four to five weeks."

Turner knows Putin personally - he bankrolled the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg and met occasionally with then-Dep. Mayor Putin - and in a statement last week he expressed his interest in NTV and was "looking forward" to Putin's reply. 

Renaud says Turner has "increased his efforts" to talk to Putin, so far without success. But over the weekend Alexei Volin, an influential aide to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, offered little encouragement.

"The state has no right to create special conditions for any separate market player," Interfax quoted Volin as saying.

"An agreement with Turner's proposals would be an example of state protectionism and a violation of the principles of free competition."

Using a term for mob protection rackets, Volin suggested Turner was asking Putin to be his krysha, a proposal "that has nothing in common with the rule of law," he said.

Other players surrounding NTV have also spoken up. Prosecutors, Friday seized the house belonging Media-MOST founder Vladimir Gusinsky. On Sunday, prosecutors set off for Madrid, where Gusinsky is under house arrest.

Leonid Troshin, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office, told Interfax the delegation took documents aimed at convincing Spain to extradite Gusinsky, who was picked up there just before Christmas. Prosecutors say that among other things, Gusinsky misrepresented the value of his company's assets to take out loans from state-owned Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly.

Gazprom-Media, meanwhile, the largest shareholder in NTV, said it would not give up stakes it holds as collateral against some $300 million in loans no matter what - although Gazprom-Media director Alfred Kokh did add that if Media-MOST wants to sell other shares to raise money, "Let them sell."

That was not much of a green light: The whole point of selling Media-MOST stakes for $300 million would be to raise enough cash to get back other stakes held by Gazprom & Co.

As that suggests, from Madrid to Moscow and from CNN to Credit Suisse First Boston, the battle for Media-MOST has become mind-numbingly complex. 

Media-MOST owes $261 million to CSFB under a loan that Gazprom guaranteed and which matures in July, and another $40 million borrowed from Gazprombank.

That Gazprom-brokered $300 million was not the only state assistance ever to benefit NTV, the nation's leading independent television station. Media-MOST was built in part upon the sort of special favors and insider deals associated with "oligarchs" like Gusinsky. 

In June 1999, state-owned Vnesh ekonom bank called in a $42.2 million loan. A few months later, Gazprom chief Rem Vyakhirev emerged from a Kremlin meeting to complain of NTV's coverage of the war in Chechnya - and at about the same time, Gazprom started calling in loans.

NTV's journalists say the Kremlin has been trying to muzzle free press. Now they are challenging Putin to prove them wrong - by letting Turner become their partner and buy their independence for them.

"It is a hard choice for [the president]," said NTV general director Yevgeny Kiselyov.

"On the one hand, there is his personal reputation and the country's reputation; on the other hand, a desire to hit on the head the stubborn, scandalous tycoon and the team of reporters who were telling the truth."

Media-MOST and Gazprom-Media on Nov. 17 signed an agreement to sell a 25-percent-plus-one-share blocking stake in NTV to a "recognized international investor." 

That Nov. 17 agreement indicates that as collateral for the CSFB loan guarantees, Gazprom-Media holds a 19 percent stake in NTV and 25 percent stakes in Media-MOST's other subsidiaries. Gazprom also holds another 46 percent outright of NTV.

Last week, the agreement fell apart and both sides turned to courts in London, Gibraltar and Moscow - the issue being who gets to keep the stakes put up as collateral. 

By week's end the picture again changed as Turner's proposal took shape. Renaud said Media-MOST planned to sell to the Turner-led consortium unspecified amounts of unencumbered, Gusinsky-controlled stakes in NTV, TNT second-tier television network, NTV Plus direct-to-home television and the Sem Dnei publishing house, which includes Segodnya newspaper and Itogi magazine. 

The $300 million raised would then allow Media-MOST to pay off CSFB and Gazprombank. That done Gazprom-Media should immediately surrender stakes.

At a briefing Friday, however, Kokh said he would not surrender the 19 percent NTV stake to Media-MOST even if all of the debts are paid

TITLE: Putin Puts FSB in Charge of Chechen War
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Monday transferred control of the war in breakaway Chechnya from the Defense Ministry to the country's main intelligence agency, a Kremlin spokes man said. 

Putin signed a decree giving Federal Security Service director Nikolai Patrushev full authority over Russia's war effort, the presidential press office said. Putin also announced that military forces in the region would be reduced as earlier promised, but did not say when or by how much. 

Putin's order follows months of inconclusive fighting, with scores of soldiers lost in rebel hit-and-run attacks. 

The Federal Security Service (FSB) is the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, and is responsible for Russia's anti-terrorism efforts. Putin and other officials insist the war in Chechnya is against international terrorism, not ethnic separatists. 

Putin said the transfer of authority will not mean less Russian pressure on rebel groups or an end to the military operation, but is rather a change in tactics. 

"This doesn't mean the counter-terrorist operation will end," Putin was quoted by the Interfax and Itar-Tass news agencies as saying at a government meeting on Monday. "It will continue no less intensively, but with the accent on different forces and means." 

Russia's force in Chechnya has been a medley of regular army troops, paramilitary police, troops from the justice ministry, border guards units, FSB personnel and others. 

The decision followed an announcement on Friday by Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky that Russia would reduce its deployment in Chechnya and reorganize the civilian administration. Yastrzhembsky had also suggested a shuffle in the leadership of the Russian war effort was imminent. 

Patrushev's appointment to head the war effort follows a trend of promotions for FSB agents under Putin, himself a former KGB agent. 

Russian army troops moved into Chechnya in 1999 after rebels based there invaded a neighboring Russian province, and after apartment bombings in Moscow and other cities killed about 300 people. The FSB blamed rebels for the explosions.

*******

MOSCOW - Russia denied on Monday reports of large-scale fighting and military losses in rebel Chechnya, saying there had only been minor attacks and shooting.

Russian news agencies had reported street battles between Russian forces and Chechen rebels in Gudermes, the restive region's second town, on Sunday and rebel spokesman Movladi Udugov said fighters had killed at least 20 Russian soldiers.

"There were no large-scale clashes, much less any mass attacks by militants in Gudermes," said an official in the office of Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's chief spokesman on Chechnya.

The official confirmed reports of an attack on a local police post resulting in the deaths of four officers. Itar-Tass news agency said on Sunday that the fighting broke out after rebels fired on a police post, killing an officer of the OMON police force. He also confirmed a bomb explosion in a cafe in Gudermes, which injured several civilians and one soldier.

Yastrzhembsky's office said four Chechen policemen were killed in the fighting and some rebels were wounded. Udogov, speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location, told Reuters the rebels had suffered only three wounded.

- Reuter

TITLE: Publication of MI6 Bean-Spiller Is a Secret in Itself
AUTHOR: By Patrick Lannin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Publishers for former MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson said Monday that they had released his inside story of Britain's spy service - but finding the publishers, the spy or the book was a task worthy of any James Bond. 

Publishers Narodny Variant said a formal launch press conference planned for Monday and which Tomlinson was to have attended had been postponed for security reasons. 

"We have been trying hard to arrange the author's participation," Narodny Variant said on its Web site thebigbreach.com, specially created for Tomlinson's book, "The Big Breach," which Britain has tried to have banned and which has been published in Moscow for that reason. 

"But, unfortunately, several legal advisers told him he might not be able to return to any European country should he leave his current country for Moscow even for a day," the publishers said. 

Head publisher Sergei Korovin also operated in secrecy, refusing to give the address of his offices or his location. 

In a telephone interview, he explained the desire to stay at arm's length by the fact that publishers in other countries had been raided by police after becoming involved with the book. 

"From the beginning, we thought how we could prevent this happening [being raided]," he said. 

Although he feared the reach of MI6 might extend to Mos cow, he doubted it would try court action in Russia. 

Korovin said that, though technically released, the book was not yet available for sale in Moscow but would hit the shops on Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Despite legal efforts by Britain to have the book banned in several countries on official secrecy grounds, Britain's Sunday Times challenged the injunction by publishing excerpts. Extracts can also be read on the Web site. 

Tomlinson, said by the Web site to be "somewhere in southern Europe," worked for MI6 during the early 1990s. Frustrated at the failure of his efforts to challenge his dismissal in 1995, he decided to publish his memoirs. 

He has already served a jail sentence in Britain for giving a synopsis of his book to an Australian publisher. He says he is willing to return to Britain and, if necessary, to go to jail again. 

He said he would donate proceeds from his book to charity as long as he was allowed to take his case against MI6 to an employment tribunal. 

The Sunday Times has backed his cause, saying the security services are "intent on being the last to recognize the more open society in which they operate."

The launch of the book in Moscow sparked allegations that Russia's own secret services are backing the project to embarrass MI6. But officials denied this. 

Korovin said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper on Saturday that he had asked Russia's secret services to help finance the book. 

"But they refused. True, they did not interfere in the preparation of the book," he added. 

He said Tomlinson had sent the manuscript by encoded e-mail and he had met him secretly five times in the last 18 months. Tomlinson had removed the names of current MI6 agents, he added. 

"The print run is 10,000, but it looks like we will have to run much more as we have been getting a lot of interest from British booksellers and a number of orders from amazon.com," Korovin said

TITLE: Moscow Hands Wallenberg Documents Over to Sweden
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia has handed over documents declaring that Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg died a victim of Stalin's terror, but Sweden is still refusing to close the case and declare him legally dead. 

Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov gave the documents to the Swedish and Hungarian ambassadors at a ceremony Friday, 56 years after Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, was arrested in Budapest with his driver."There is no doubt that Wallenberg and his driver were deprived of their liberty illegally and for totally political reasons," Ustinov said. 

"It is a bitter irony of fate that a man who in the eyes of the world was a symbol of the fight for the lives of people threatened with death was declared socially dangerous," he said. "The totalitarian period of our history cost the lives of millions of our people and thousands of foreigners." 

In Stockholm, a Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman made plain his government continued to differ with Russia over Wallenberg's fate. 

"This is a copy of the decision the Russian authorities made in December and does not contain anything new regarding the Wallenberg affair," the spokesman said. 

Russian authorities acknowledged for the first time in December that Wallenberg had been a victim of Josef Stalin's purges and had died in prison. 

Swedish and Russian members of a commission presented different conclusions this month after 10 years of investigation. Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said there was no clear evidence that Wallenberg was dead. 

Wallenberg and driver Wilmos Langfelder were arrested in Budapest in January 1945. On the orders of the Soviet leadership, they were taken to Moscow's notorious Lubyanka jail. The Soviet government lied about his fate for decades, insisting Wallenberg had died of a heart attack in 1947. 

Meanwhile, a Moscow library unveiled a sculpture of Wallenberg with a plaque praising him for saving Jews - but missing a date of death. Jan Wallenberg, a relative, unveiled the bust at the Library of Foreign Literature. 

- Reuters, A

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Blast in City Center

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A bomb exploded on Sunday afternoon in an apartment block on Ul. Rubinshteina in the city's Central district, Interfax reported. There were no casualties.

According to the report, the bomb - which police say contained 300 to 400 grams of explosives - blew up at 4:25 p.m. It had been placed on a landing near the apartment of a businessman, whose name was not disclosed by the police. Windows in the building were blown out by the force of the blast.

Train Brakes Fail

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A faulty emergency brake caused an explosion in one of the cars of a Friday overnight express train to Moscow from St. Petersburg, Interfax reported.

All passengers were safely evacuated to the next car, and the train was not delayed, said the report.

According to Interfax, RTR's Vesti news program included a live broadcast from the scene of the malfunction thanks to the presence of an RTR correspondent on the train. RTR reported that the blast occurred at 7:07 p.m., when the ER-200 superfast express was still within the city limits of St. Petersburg.

The explosion, which was more smoke than fire, was caused by a malfunction in a brake drum in the wheel assembly, Interfax reported.

ER-200s are considered the fastest trains in Russia, able to reach speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour and convey passengers to and from St. Petersburg and Moscow in four hours, according to the report.

Fire Kills 2

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - An as-yet-unidentified man and woman died in an apartment fire Sunday afternoon on Vasilievsky Island's 12th Line, Interfax reported.

The fire started around 3:30 p.m. on the fourth floor of the building, Emergency Situations Ministry officials told Interfax. Fire officials assume that the couple were husband and wife, said the report, which did not list their identities.

Kok Offers Kursk Aid

MOSCOW (AP) - Visiting Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok said that his country was ready to help Russia raise its sunken Kursk nuclear submarine, an ambitious venture expected to start in April and cost $70 million.

"The Netherlands is ready to provide any help to Russia to lift the Kursk," Kok said after meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. He did not say whether the aid would be financial or name any possible sum.

Also, presidential adviser Sergei Prikhodko said Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will come to Russia in June for a visit during which an agreement on bilateral relations will be signed.

Quality Rewarded

MOSCOW (SPT) - Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov took part in the White House ceremony of the Good Quality Awards in Moscow on Friday, Interfax reported.

St. Petersburg's shipbuilding company Admiralteiskiye Verfy and Sibirsky Khimichesky Kombinat from Tomsk - a chemical plant producing nuclear materials - were among the awarded enterprises, according to Interfax.

Klebanov said that the main goal of the Quality Award is to "support Russian manufacturers."

"In the Soviet Union, the quality of a product was not a principal thing in the evaluation of an enterprise's work. Those being awarded with the Good-Quality prize this year are to find a way gradually to international markets," Kle banov was quoted by Interfax as saying

TITLE: Putin U-Turns on Crime Legislation
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Pu tin backed away on Monday from a pledge to amend criminal code procedures to limit arbitrary arrests by prosecutors, changes Russian liberals see as a key to upholding democracy.

But officials said the change of heart was based on technical considerations rather than a new policy direction.

One Kremlin source suggested that broader changes might be in store to government structures and other institutions as the president gears up for his annual state-of-the-nation address.

The deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Dmitry Kozak, confirmed that Putin had withdrawn amendments proposed this month to the Criminal Procedural Code that would have required arrests or searches to be approved by a court order instead of prosecutors.

But Kozak told reporters the changes were vital and said they would be implemented once related "financial, technical and organizational" issues had been resolved.

The bill would have amended the Criminal Procedural Code, which was written in the 1960s and does not correspond to the 1993 Constitution.

According to the Constitution, a person may be detained for up to 48 hours, and a court's sanction is required to hold him any longer. The inviolability of a person's home is also protected.

But the Criminal Procedural Code gives control of arrests and searches to investigators and prosecutors. Thus, prosecutors were not required to go to court before they ordered masked, Kalashnikov-wielding men to raid the offices of Media-MOST last spring. Nor did they need a court order to arrest Media-MOST founder Vladimir Gusinsky in June and hold him for three nights. Federal prosecutors can hold a defendant in jail for up to a year before trial.

Legal experts have welcomed the Duma bill as a long-overdue remedy to a clear constitutional violation.

"The Constitution has been in effect for many years, so it's time that the norms of the Constitution were put into practice," said Pavel Krasheninnikov, a former justice minister and chairman of the Duma's committee on legislation.

His committee was planning to take up the bill for consideration Monday, Vedomosti reported. The bill was expected to sail through the Duma due to Putin's support.

Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin officials as saying Putin wanted time to come up with the extra 3,000 judges and 6,900 legal clerks they said were required. Unbudgeted annual expenditure of about $50 million was also needed.

Disappointed liberals said Putin's decision to halt the changes amounted to caving in to top security officials - the Prosecutor General, the Interior Minister and the head of the FSB domestic security, the job Putin once had.

"[They] really went to work on him and apparently persuaded the president to withdraw his bill," Viktor Pokhmelkin of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party told Reuters. "The president has shown his weakness and dependence on security structures."

According to SPS Duma Deputy Sergei Yushenkov - who said at a human rights conference on Sunday that he had heard of Putin's withdrawal of the bill already then - Kozak was the bill's key author. If the bill was indeed recalled, it would not be the first time that Kozak has been overridden by Putin.

Putin, who advocates a "dictatorship of law" as a cornerstone of society, praised prosecutors this month for eschewing their Soviet-era role of a "cover for lawlessness."

Despite Putin's change of heart, the Kremlin source said the administration was weighing up a series of changes to the way the government and public institutions are structured.

The proposed changes, might involve overhauling ministries, broadening legal reforms, creating labor tribunals and a rethink of health care and education.

It is not certain when Putin will make his annual speech to a joint session of both houses of parliament.

- Reuters, SP

TITLE: Human-Rights 'Emergency' Declared
AUTHOR: By Sarah Karush
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Prominent politicians and former dissidents joined more than 1,000 activists in Moscow this weekend to declare a national emergency for human rights and urge a consolidated fight to protect the Constitution.

Human rights campaigners from 65 regions representing more than 300 organizations attended the two-day Emergency Congress in Defense of Human Rights. Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky and Human Rights Commissioner Oleg Mironov were among the speakers.

The congress, which was sponsored by Yabloko and a half dozen U.S. foundations and labor unions, devoted attention to the war in Chechnya, judicial reform, freedom of the press, civilian control over law enforcement and the rights of workers.

But Yavlinsky and other speakers cited the perceived threat to the Constitution as the primary component of the current "emergency."

"The Constitution, which we did not support in 1993 [when it was passed], has become Yabloko's platform, and we will defend it using every parliamentary and non-parliamentary method," Yavlinsky said in his address Sunday.

Many liberals say a bill pending in the Duma indicates that the Kremlin is considering a major constitutional overhaul.

The bill in question, introduced by Deputy Boris Nadezhdin of the Union of Right Forces, would provide for the formation of a constitutional assembly. Chapters 1, 2 and 9 of the Constitution - which outlines the major principles of governance, the rights of citizens and the procedure for amending or rewriting the Constitution can only be changed by a constitutional assembly. 

Under Nadezhdin's bill, which reportedly enjoys the support of the presidential administration, the assembly would consist of the president, the Federation Council, 100 Duma deputies, top judges and 100 lawyers appointed by the president. Opponents bill say it would create a "nomenclature assembly," since most of its members would be appointees.

The speakers at the congress also issued warnings about a bill on political parties recently submitted by the president. The bill's backers say it would eliminate fly-by-night parties and encourage the growth of a two-party system. Opponents maintain it would wipe out small parties and stop new ones emerging.

"Those countries that have two- or three-party systems don't limit the number of parties that can participate in elections. The system is created by the voters themselves," said Duma Deputy Sergei Kovalyov, a longtime human rights activist and former dissident who was one of the congress organizers.

In his address to the congress, Kovalyov said the organizers debated whether to call the congress chrezvychainy, which can be translated as "emergency" or "extraordinary."

"Some say that nothing extraordinary is happening here. It's a trend. When a former superpower is turning into a second-rate, Third World country, the rise of nationalism is inevitable," Ko valyov said.

Yelena Bonner, the doyenne of the human-rights movement and honorary chairwoman of the congress, could not attend the meeting due to illness. In a written address to the congress, she scolded the human-rights movement for losing sight of its values.

Despite the increased openness of society since the Soviet Union's collapse, moral choices have become more murky, she said.

"Today we have gotten entangled in our adherence to various movements and parties. But it was precisely our clear moral position - that had influence on society - significantly more influence than the hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of human rights organizations that exist today," Bonner said

TITLE: Repairs Rob Families of Heat, Plumbing
AUTHOR: By Molly Graves
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: For nearly 20 years, Natalya Mik hai lova and Olga Savinova and their families have lived in a small dormitory at the Artistic Restoration College, where they have both taught English for almost all of that time. 

But because of an invasive - and hardly artistic - restoration project on the dorm that began and then stalled in 1999, the Mikhailova and Savinova families have been living in the equivalent of a ruin. Since then, their building at 30 Stoikosty Prospect in southern St. Petersburg has had no central heating, hot water, or a functioning bath or shower. 

The rooms themselves are constantly damp with leaky pipes that are slowly eroding the ceiling. Because of the cold, Mikhailova and Savinova, both 43, and their three daughters are forced to wear their coats whenever they are at home. 

"One can hardly imagine how teachers live in St. Petersburg," says Mikhailova, whose monthly salary is 1,000 rubles ($35). 

Rugged as these conditions are, they are problems familiar to hundreds of thousands of St. Petersburgers who are stuck in structures collapsing because of one failed renovation project after another, but who are too poor to take part in the city's periodic construction booms. 

The Artistic Restoration College has hired numerous contractors, but the money always runs out as workers dismantle the building. Mikhailova and Savinova said half the families in the building had moved out, either renting new apartments or moving in with relatives. At present, there are six or seven other families in the building, stuck in the same situation. 

Victor Serov, deputy director of the college, said in a telephone interview Friday that new contractors have been hired - the Petersburg Construction Company. That company's deputy general director, Sergei Mironov, said in a telephone interview Friday that renovations should be complete by the end of 2001.

But Mikhailova said she had heard that before. "The date [of completion] keeps changing," she said. "First they said everything would be done by 2000, and then 2001 - but it's already 2001 and nothing has been done."

In any case, the building, once it has been renovated, is to become private apartments and won't be available to the two teachers, meaning the families will have to move out for good.

Serov said Mikhailova and Savinova had been offered alternative quarters, but that the families had refused them.

One choice was a dormitory in Obukhova in the fara south-eastern reaches of the city - a two-hour commute to work. The other was a dilapidated dormitory on Vasilievsky Island.

Ironically, the families have official registration, or propiska, at this latter address. Had they been registered at their current address 20 years ago, they may have had legal recourse against the college's plans to turn them out. 

But like thousands of others living at city addresses other than their official oncs, they are without property rights. In this case, the stagnated renovations forced the women to approach city authorities for new housing on their own - a process they are finding is more riddled with pitfalls and holes than their dilapidated ceilings. 

Their only recourse was to become ocheredniki - those whose names are added to a waiting list for new apartments. To join the list, an applicant must prove that less than 12 square meters of space is available per resident, and that the average temperature of the residence is below 14 degrees Celsius. 

While the Mikhailova and Savinova families meet those requirements, the list is currently 500,000 names long and moving at glacial speed.

Mikhailova said the problem is with an investment-hungry system itself. Local lawmaker Leonid Romankov agreed, saying most city construction involved investment projects, rather than housing the needy. 

"The main problem is that our government wants us to leave this dormitory," said Mikhailova. "But where shall we go with our children? Our administration has not taken care of us.

TITLE: Putin Blasts Cabinet Over Eastern Freeze
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has ordered ministers to end the heating and power cuts that have made life a misery in vast regions hit by bitter cold. 

"Who is responsible for the situation in the eastern regions of the country? We talk a lot about needed structural changes in the government and its departments and we set up new structures, but nobody is taking specific, personal responsibility for the current situation," Putin said Friday.

Putin told senior ministers that he would not accept as an excuse that officials were surprised by the ferocity of the winter. "We cannot take seriously the references to the severe cold," Putin told top economic, energy, transport and judicial officials at the Kremlin meeting. "Where are the resources, the reserves, the contingency plans for such a turn of events? 

"Are we to conclude that when the temperature falls to a certain level, we doom people to a slow, freezing death?" he said.

Putin said plans for structural changes had gone nowhere, with "departments created and then simply disbanded."

Television has broadcast pictures for weeks of frustrated residents dressed in coats and scarves in apartments with walls coated in ice. Schools have been put onto short hours and hospitals forced to curtail services. 

Residents of districts near the Pacific port of Vladivostok received some relief in the past two days with the arrival of coal to keep power and domestic heating stations running. 

Local energy companies say a surge in demand for electricity due to the plunging temperatures has overloaded their aging energy networks. 

At least two other ministerial meetings this week have been devoted to the issue and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov promised far eastern regions on Thursday that energy supplies would return to normal by next month. 

But officials in the city of Artyom, outside Vladivostok, declared a state of emergency Friday. Several thousand residents remained in unheated apartments with temperatures standing at about minus 14 degrees Celsius. 

A deputy manager at the UES division in Tambov south of Moscow has been taken into custody in connection with the death of a World War II veteran, regional prosecutor's office spokeswoman Nadezhda Istomina said Friday. The 73-year-old man died Monday when his artificial respirator went off during a power cut. 

UES said in a statement that the fault lay with a municipal enterprise that redistributes the power. 

Several other officials have been indicted in connection with disrupted power supplies and ministerial teams have been sent to the Far East to investigate conditions. 

- Reuters, AP

TITLE: Latest Boeing Project Aims at Approaching Speed of Sound
AUTHOR: By Mia Penta
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEATTLE, Washington - Boeing Co. is mulling over plans for a new commercial airplane that could fly at nearly the speed of sound.

Boeing spokesperson Barbara Murphy confirmed Friday that the company is looking at the concept, referred to internally as "Yellowstone," but declined to give specifics. No decision has been made on whether actually to develop the aircraft.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources, reported that the jet would be capable of traveling at Mach 0.95. Mach 1 is the speed of sound.

The jet would carry 200 to 300 people as far as 11,300 kilometers, similar to Boeing's two-engine 767s, the Journal said.

The fastest subsonic commercial jet is Boeing's 747-400, which can fly at Mach 0.92 but cruises at Mach 0.85, or more than 700 kilometers per hour.

The Concorde supersonic jet can fly at twice the speed of sound and crosses the Atlantic at 1,890 kilometers per hour. The Anglo-French plane has been grounded since an Air France Concorde crashed on July 25, killing all 109 people on board and four people on the ground.

Murphy said Boeing constantly studies new designs and materials for possible future use under its 20XX program.

"That's what the Boeing Company does to stay at the forefront of new developments, new technologies and new innovations," she said.

She said Yellowstone is part of the 20XX and the P-2 research programs. P-2 refers to a design that looks similar to Boeing's 777 twin-engine widebody, but could be any size from a 100- to a 600-passenger jet.

Boeing has long studied a possible new supersonic transport, but breakthroughs in materials and engine performance need to be made for the aircraft to be economically practical, she said.

Murphy noted that the improvements associated with the proposed 747X family, which would compete with the recently launched Airbus Industries 555-passenger A380 jet, would allow it to cruise at Mach 0.86. So far, Boeing has not received any orders for the 747X.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Mad Cow Costs

BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union estimated on Monday that dealing with the mad cow crisis across Europe would cost the EU about $1 billion, possibly putting other agricultural programs at risk.

The EU's executive office said that the costs of carrying out mandated BSE tests on cattle over 30 months could cut deeply into the EU's agricultural budget for this year.

To combat mad cow disease, EU countries this month initiated a mass slaughter program, which foresees buying and incinerating up to 2 million head of cattle by the end of June.

Beef sales have slumped by 27 percent across the EU as a result of the latest outbreak.

Bank Chief Departs

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) - Hugh McColl Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Bank of America Corp., is reportedly going to announce on Wednesday that he will leave the company in April, more than a year earlier than originally planned.

McColl is expected to recommend Ken Lewis, the company's president and chief operating officer, as his successor, The Charlotte Observer reported Sunday.

Bank of America spokesman Ellison Clary said Sunday that the company does not comment on "speculation."

McColl was expected to retire in late April at the company's annual shareholders' meeting, though no formal announcement had been made. Now, it seems McColl will make that decision official to bank directors when they meet on Wednesday, the Observer reported.

Nikkei Up Again

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's benchmark stock index posted its seventh straight gain Monday, rallying from early losses as investors went shopping later in the day for select technology issues.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average eked out a 43.30-point gain, or 0.31 percent, to close at 14,032.42. On Friday, the Nikkei rose 115.20 points, or 0.83 percent.

It was the index's best finish since Dec. 19, when it closed at 14,132.37.

The benchmark index has gained a total of 829.35 points, or 6.2 percent, in the last seven trading days.

TITLE: 2001 Super Bowl Telecast To Be Lighter on Dot-Com Ads
AUTHOR: By Jennifer Laidlaw
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK - A year after commercials by Internet companies dominated the airwaves at America's most-watched sporting event, the dot-coms have been punted out of the Super Bowl.

Only three dot-coms will advertise in the U.S. football championship on Jan. 28, a far cry from last year's game when 17 dot-coms took part in the premiere advertising event of the year in the United States.

At the height of the dot-com craze last year, now defunct Internet companies like Pets.com used the Super Bowl as a launching pad for their products and services.

But this year only Web broker E-Trade, recruitment sites HotJobs.com Ltd. and Monster.com, a unit of TMP Worldwide, are back in the big game as the average $2.3 million price tag for a 30-second spot is way out of reach for cash-strapped Internet companies.

More traditional Super Bowl advertisers, such as MasterCard, are making their way back to reach the estimated 130 million U.S. viewers expected to watch the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens battle for the National Football League championship.

The game, being broadcast this year by Viacom Inc.'s CBS television network, is typically among the top-rated events of the year.

The dot-com domination of the year 2000 was an aberration in the history of Super Bowl advertising, traditionally the territory of consumer good giants like PepsiCo Inc. and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc., advertising experts said.

"Last year's Super Bowl was considered amateur hour," said Bob Kuperman, president and chief executive for the Americas for advertising agency TBWA Worldwide, the unit of ad holding company Omnicom Group that created Levi's Strauss' ads for this year's game.

"It was all these crazy dot-coms that were doing silly things," he said. "Some of them you could look at and not know what the company was about."

Advertising experts said too many of last year's dot-com advertisers did not grasp the concept that while the Super Bowl is the final game in a championship drive for a football team, the commercials aired on the game are merely the kick-off for new creative advertising campaigns. There must be follow-through if an advertiser wants to score a touchdown with the public.

"If you are looking at the Super Bowl as a one-shot deal, then you are not really using it in the right way," Kuperman said. "If you go dark or disappear after that, you are not going to imprint your brand name on peoples' minds."

"Our traffic seems to hit record highs after the Super Bowl," said Jeff Taylor, chief executive of Monster.com, a profitable dot-com advertising on its third Super Bowl. He said his site usually gets more traffic at the beginning of the new year and the Super Bowl gives it an extra push. "It really sets the tone for the year," he said.

His company will pay less than $4 million for four 30-second spots, two during the pre-game show and two during the actual game. This year's ads, created by Arhold Worldwide in Boston, will aim to show how people can live better with a better job and have "a little irony and a little more humor than in past years," Taylor said.

Hotjobs.com, on the other hand, is sticking with the theme of "optimism and individuality" in its ads for its third Super Bowl ad campaign, Chief Executive Richard Johnson said.

The company is paying $2.4 million for a 30-second spot during the third quarter of the game, in which a ball from a desk-top toy escapes the corporate grind with the Mamas & Papas song "Go Where You Wanna Go" playing as the soundtrack and runs away and joins a game of marbles.

"The whole idea is following destiny," Johnson said.

TITLE: Daimler's Woes Point To Plant Closures
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: FRANKFURT - German automaker DaimlerChrysler AG's plan to revive its loss-making Chrysler unit could involve cutting 20,000 jobs and closing six plants, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Citing people familiar with the company's thinking, the WSJ Europe reported that over time as many as 6,000 of 30,000 white-collar jobs would probably disappear, along with as many as 15,000 of Chrysler's 95,000 manufacturing workers.

DaimlerChrysler declined to comment on the report.

"We can make no comment until we have presented our restructuring plan," said a company spokesman.

The company is due to announce a sweeping restructuring plan for Chrysler on February 26.

Escalating losses at Chrysler have sent DaimlerChrysler's stock into a downward spiral, culminating in a four-year low of 42.70 euros at the end of December, and have led to questions about the strategic sense of the 1998 merger between Germany's Daimler-Benz and the then highly profitable Chrysler.

At the time, Chairman Juergen Schrempp promised massive cost savings which he has been unable to deliver. What he tagged a "marriage-made-in-heaven" has turned sour and some investors are calling for him to resign.

Some watchers give Schrempp as little as six months to prove he can return the unit to profit. To do so, he will depend on Dieter Zetsche, the head of a rescue mission sent by Schrempp in November to replace U.S. executives at Chrysler.

Losses at Chrysler could amount to $1.25 billion in the fourth quarter and the company has declined to say when it expects the unit to return to profit.

The paper said DaimlerChrysler would report at least one earnings charge this year to pay for restructuring costs. Most analysts expect that to amount to around $2-3 billion.

It also said blue-collar job cuts would come in the main through attrition and early retirement while shutdowns of up to six of the group's 41 plants could be disguised as indefinite "idlings."

Chrysler's hands are somewhat tied, due to long-term union agreements which would make redundancies very costly.

Some analysts have called for a spin-off of Chrysler or at least of its car operations, which are widely viewed as having less earnings potential than its minivan and truck activities.

But the company has denied that it is considering such drastic measures.

"[We will use] all resources to put Chrysler back on the profitable level we have seen in the past," Schrempp told reporters two weeks ago, stressing that Chrysler was an important part of the group's strategy.

Analysts say the company may consider ending production of some models and paring back future production plans.

It has already tried to cut costs. Zetsche told its suppliers they had to cut prices by five percent at the start of 2001 and in addition, the company aims to cut materials' costs by a further 10 percent in the next two years.

Last week the company's stock staged a brief rally as some investors viewed it as oversold and it broke through several technical resistance levels.

TITLE: Statistics Point to Break In Japanese Turnaround
AUTHOR: By Ami Miyazaki
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TOKYO - Data released on Monday showed growth in Japan grinding to a halt in the fourth quarter and the country's central bank said the risk of more setbacks had grown.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said its all-industries index rose 0.4 percent in November from the previous month, with a 0.6 percent rise in the service sector outweighing a 0.8 percent decline in industrial production.

But economists said the index, a rough proxy for gross domestic product (GDP), was down about 0.4 percent in October-November from July-September, suggesting a possible decline in GDP in the fourth quarter.

They had been expecting a marginal increase of 0.1 percent in the November index but said the outcome did not alter the basic picture of an economy that was losing momentum because of still-stagnant domestic consumption and faltering exports.

Peter Morgan, chief economist at HSBC Securities, said the year-on-year rise in the index of 2.1 percent was the smallest since October 1999, pointing to a slowdown.

"The October-November level was 0.4 percent below the July-September level, pointing to a possible fall in GDP in the fourth quarter," Morgan said in a note to clients.

That would spell a return to recession - defined as two straight quarters of contraction - if, as widely expected, GDP figures for July-September are revised to show a sharp fall.

James Malcolm of JP Morgan said the all-industries index was on course to drop at a seasonally adjusted rate of 2.1 percent in the October-December period compared with the preceding quarter.

Because of statistically exaggerated weakness in the July-September period, when the economy now appears to have shrunk at a four-percent annual rate, Malcolm said GDP for the final three months of 2000 was still likely to rebound into positive territory.

But he added: "Ignoring the idiosyncrasies of GDP accounting in Japan, the economy thus slowed significantly in the autumn to the point of growth petering out altogether around the year-end."

In another sign of gathering headwinds, the government revised its leading index of economic indicators for November to 33.3 from 42.9, down sharply from 77.8 in October. The index is a pointer to activity about six months ahead.

The Bank of Japan's monthly economic report merely deepened the gloom.

Although the bank stopped just short of downgrading its view of the economy for the second month in a row, it warned that households were still strapped for cash and that industrial production was likely to slow as export growth flags.

It said super-low interest rates, investment and the impact of a government stimulus package passed in November should keep the world's second-largest economy on an upward trend.

"However, risks of downward pressures on the economy induced by the slowdown in overseas economies, as well as developments in foreign and domestic capital markets, need careful monitoring for the time being," the report said.

The central bank is under intense pressure from politicians worried about an election for parliament's Upper House in July to prop up the stock market and revive the economy by pumping more money into the banking system.

But central bank Gov. Masaru Hayami, who gambled in August that the economy was strong enough to raise interest rates to 0.25 percent from zero, ending an 18-month experiment with free money, is deeply reluctant to comply.

Although Hayami ordered a study Friday of how to inject more cash into money markets, his staff said it was a technical step - not an easing of policy.

"The BOJ is clearly losing confidence about the recovery, although it is not yet ready to throw in the towel," Morgan at HSBC said.

TITLE: Global Slowdown May Spur Reforms in Russia's Economy
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: AT least according to the papers I've read, astrologers are predicting a good year in 2001 "relative to last year." Considering that most analysts think that last year wasn't so bad, 2001 should be spectacular.

Economists, though, are less optimistic. Many are warning of a looming global economic slowdown. Since market economies work in cycles, the present boom cannot continue forever.

The impending global crisis will be particularly bad for Russia. Just two years ago, as a result of ruble devaluation, our economy finally began to really grow. However, that growth has not solved any real structural problems since investment has been chronically insufficient to replace aging plants. Capital flight has continued and even increased. Growth in production is based on miserly wages to workers and, therefore, has not led to a significant improvement in average living standards. The economy continues to be dominated by raw-materials monopolies that are simply not interested in developing the domestic market or in improving living conditions.

In 1998, English economist John Ross observed that under positive economic conditions prices for raw materials increase faster than prices for finished goods. This is good news for Russia. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.

Two and a half years ago, the Asian crisis seemed to many to be the beginning of a global collapse. However, it ended up really hurting only a few Latin American countries and Russia. The West stood firm. In the end, the devaluation even stimulated growth in Russia and we began to think we had weathered the storm.

Apocalyptic prognoses are usually just as superficial as overly rosy ones. Our "patriotic" politicians who are rubbing their hands in anticipation of the collapse of the West are in for a disappointment. The end of the economic boom will not be the end of the world for America, which may well be able to muster resources to minimize its negative effects.

Russia, like all the world's peripheral countries, will have to pay twice. Once for its own mistakes and once for the grandiose financial bubble that the Americans have irresponsibly inflated. But maybe the astrologers are right. The Chinese word for "crisis" is denoted by two characters, one meaning "danger" and one meaning "opportunity." Clearly, the problems of the coming crisis will force Russia to adapt new solutions and listen to alternative ideas. The conceit of our ruling elite will be toppled. And that can't help but be good for society.

Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist.

TITLE: No-Alcohol Brand Joins Baltika's Beer Line
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Russia's largest brewery, St. Petersburg-based Baltika, is launching a new brand of nonalcoholic beer called Baltika No. 0 that will join its lineup of other brews, which include Baltika Nos. 3, 7 and 9, the company said Thursday.

The announcement comes just a week after the Health Ministry provoked an outcry from brewers and market analysts by attacking the industry for selling beer with high levels of alcohol.

But Baltika said the decision to launch the new brand was unrelated to the ministry's remarks.

"If I told you it has nothing to do with the Health Ministry, you wouldn't believe me, but it doesn't," said Adam Tlekhurai, Baltika's director of development.

"We have been long feeling guilty for not offering nonalcoholic brands to our consumers," he said.

The brand Baltika No. 0 Bezalkogolnoye will roll off a brand-new $800,000 production line at the end of March, Tlekhurai said. The German-built line is currently being assembled and will produce 8,000 half-liter bottles an hour.

Baltika expects to sell 20 million liters of Baltika No. 0 in 2001.

Industry analysts said that level would be reachable considering beer consumption has been growing hand over foot for the past few years. In 2000 alone, consumption increased between 20 percent to 22 percent.

Baltika is the unchallenged market leader, with its share estimated to be over 20 percent. No. 2 Sun Interbrew is trailing with about 15 percent.

Baltika owner Baltic Beverage Holdings, which also runs the Baltika-Don and Tulskoye Pivo breweries, saw its sales soar last year, Tlekhurai said. Production jumped by 62 percent to 1.07 billion liters, with the St. Petersburg plant accounting for 776 million liters of that production.

Investments into Baltika reached $80 million in 2000 and are expected to grow to $100 million in 2001, he said.

Troika Dialog estimated Thursday that consolidated sales will reach $313 million with net profits of more than $80 million.

Andrei Ivanov, a consumer market analyst at Troika Dialog, said that the company would probably boost its beer output by another 15 percent in the present year.

"[Baltika] will continue to remain the market leader in 2001," Ivanov said.

Sun Interbrew said its production and financials for last year are lining up with expectations.

"We are pleased with the fact that the year results coincide with what had been planned," said spokeswoman Irina Kibina.

She said that the company would only be releasing the figures at the end of April.

Baltika used good timing in announcing its entrance into the nonalcoholic beer market, Renaissance Capital said Thursday in a research note.

"In addition to making good business sense, Baltika's low-alcohol beer project is a viable counterpoint to misguided government complaints about the beer industry," it said.

Last week, Deputy Health Minister Gennady Onishchenko expressed concern over the growth in consumption of beer on top of already-high levels of vodka consumption. Warning about a looming beer addiction, he said that the government should change the law so that it would recognize beer as an alcoholic beverage and take harsh steps to clamp down on advertizing.

TITLE: Yukos Minority Shareholders Finally Get Financial Reward
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Oil major Yukos is beginning to pay an interim dividend for the year 2000, distributing some $100 million to its shareholders declared in October last year, the company said in a statement Monday.

Until recently, the nation's No. 2 oil firm dividend history was nothing to write home about.

It virtually ignored its minority shareholders, many of whom bought into the company in the hope that it would follow the trail blazed by the nation's No. 1 oil firm, LUKoil, which was for a long time considered a paragon of transparency in the marketplace. Yukos' free float is about 15 percent.

But last year, Yukos moved to patch up its tattered reputation, declaring a dividend of 1.34 rubles (4.8 cents) per share then traded at 70 cents per share.

In October, the company mapped out a new dividends policy, promising to increase the pay-out ratio and switch to biannual payments schedule.

A dividend of 1.26 rubles (4.6 cents) was declared for the first half of 2000 to be paid at the start of 2001.

"The shareholder meeting is likely to increase the dividends payments for 2000," said Alexander Gladyshev, Yukos' head of investor relations.

Under local securities legislation, the board of directors may decide the size of interim dividends, but the amount to be paid for the whole year is the playground of the company owners, who cast the dice at a shareholder meeting.

The company intended to pay a total of about $200 million for 2000, according to earlier reports.

Yukos' shares have skyrocketed from the abysmal low to which they had sunk in the wake of its core shareholders' dispute with outside investor Kenneth Dart and volatility in the marketplace.

Its ordinary shares fetched 5 cents at the end of 1998, just as the company was about to smoke a peace pipe with Dart, down from $6.25 per share in August 1997, which translates into a loss of a hefty 99.2 percent.

Subsequently, the company's shares kept rising without a pause to catch breath.

They finished the year at $1.78 and have gained 14.0 percent since year start to close at $2.03 Monday.

In December, U.S.-based investment bank Salomon Smith Barney initiated coverage of Yukos as a Speculative Buy with an end-2001 price target of $2.81.

Among local brokerages, Troika Dialog rates it as Long-Term Outperform, United Financial Group as a Hold and NIKoil as a Long-Term and Short-Term Buy.

TITLE: Russia Aims To Unite Combat Plane Giants
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government is drawing up a plan to merge the military aviation powerhouses Sukhoi and MiG in a holding, as part of a wide-scale program to streamline the country's bloated defense industry.

The proposal, which has been floated by the government several times but never before drafted, would unite AVPK Sukhoi and MiG Russian Aircraft Co. into the Combat Aircraft of Russia holding, Interfax reported Friday. The plan is being drafted by the Industry, Science and Technology Ministry.

Sukhoi is the flagship of the defense industry with annual sales of more than $1 billion. Sukhoi recently sold a Su-30MKI fight production license to India in a $3.5 billion deal mediated by trader Rosoboronexport. India and China have purchased dozens of Su-27 fighters and their modifications from Sukhoi over the past few years.

MiG, however, has flown into turbulent skies. The aircraft maker has kept its head above water by selling spare parts for exported fighters, and it hasn't paid its employees since November, according to a MiG source who asked not to be identified.

The source said MiG is pinning its hopes on selling up to 60 MiG-29K fighters and the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier to India, a long-heralded deal that has stalled.

Few details have been made public about the latest proposal to merge Sukhoi and MiG, an idea first touted by then-First Deputy Prime Minister Yury Maslyukov in January 1999.

Yury Koptev, head of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, brought the plan back into the spotlight earlier this month, telling reporters at a news conference that steps were being taken toward the merger. He said the holding would also include the cash-strapped Yakovlev design bureau, which hasn't designed a new warplane in years and is seeking financing for its nascent YaK-130 trainer.

A merger could be a way to put the military aircraft sector back on its feet, but the plan would only be feasible if the government awards the holding a contract, the MiG official said.

"It would only make sense if there is a specific project to be united around and there is money to pursue it," he said.

An official at Sukhoi agreed, saying his firm and MiG could work together in building a fifth-generation fighter - but only if they were to get funding from the government for such a program.

The proposed merger is part of a draft government program - which has yet to win the Kremlin's approval - to consolidate most of the defense industry's 1,700 companies into several dozen state-controlled holdings.

However, President Vladimir Putin has signaled that he wants to consolidate the defense sector and a merger between MiG and Sukhoi could get his go-ahead, defense experts said.

TITLE: Chernogorneft Drops TNK Lawsuit
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In a move that apparently ends a long-running feud between oil majors Sidanko and Tyumen Oil Co., Chernogorneft has dropped a lawsuit to have those assets returned and the sale annulled, Tyumen Oil, or TNK, said in a statement Friday.

"Now, basically, there are no serious differences to be settled, especially with Sidanko's foreign shareholders," said Mikhail Fridman, chairman of the supervisory board of directors of Alfa Group, which effectively controls TNK in alliance with the Access/Renova group.

The struggle for Sidanko-owned Chernogorneft, which was left a shell company after a bankruptcy auction of its oil-producing assets to TNK, made international headlines when British Petroleum hotly challenged the sale. BP owns a 10 percent stake in Sidanko.

Under a December 1999 settlement, TNK agreed to hand back the contested production unit to Sidanko without any debt attached. In exchange, TNK would receive a blocking stake of 25 percent plus one share.

Over the past year Sidanko has seen its oil production plummet 47 percent, taking it from being the nation's No. 5 oil major to No. 10. The sharp fall is mostly attributed to the loss of Chernogorneft and Kondpetroleum, another production subsidiary picked up by TNK in the Sidanko bankruptcy.

The reconciliation process between Sidanko and TNK after December 1999 has been plagued with disputes over the way the shares could be issued.

The Interros holding, which owns a 44 percent stake in Sidanko, was for a while unable to provide TNK with outstanding shares that would complete the swap because of defaulted debt that its subsidiary Uneximbank owed creditors. This point of contention was resolved when Interros bought out the credits issued to Uneximbank against a pledge of a 37.36 percent stake in Sidanko last week.

TNK and Sidanko have been wrestling for control of Chernogorneft since early 1999, when it was sued for bankruptcy and placed under the control of an external manager.

In November 1999, Chernogorneft was sold to TNK-Nizhnevartovsk, a TNK affiliate, for $176 million in an auction that was widely criticized as rigged.

"There are some technical issues left to be sorted out, and we hope to solve them in the near future, hopefully in the next month or so," Fridman said.

In saying "technical issues," Fridman is probably alluding to the mechanics of the share issue, said Stephen O'Sullivan, head of research at United Financial Group.

Neither TNK nor Sidanko were immediately available for comment.

TITLE: Russia Seeking Profits in Polar Air Routes
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia is about to bring North America and Southeast Asia closer together - and it could earn over a quarter of a billion dollars over the next decade doing so.

After a two-year demonstration program, Russia on Feb. 1 will officially open its skies to allow regular cross-polar commercial air flights that will cut several hours off flying times for high-traffic routes like New York-Hong Kong.

In addition to the time savings, which will be a blessing to travelers, the new polar routes will be a financial boon to airlines, saving them tens of thousands of dollars per flight in fuel, maintenance and operational costs. And Russia, with an average navigation fee of $71 per 100 kilometers for foreign airlines, will see revenues grow as traffic increases.

The new routes - dubbed Polar 1, 2, 3 and 4 - cross about 4,200 kilometers of Russian territory over the Krasnoyarsk and Yakutsk regions and are separated from each other by 1,000 kilometers. These routes can potentially service 33 pairs of cities, including Atlanta-Seoul, Los Angeles-Bangkok and Vancouver-Beijing.

A feasibility study conducted by the Canadian air navigation authority NavCanada found that Polar 1 and 2 could bring in as much as $96 million and Polar 3 and 4 another $234 million over the next 10 years. Currently, Russia earns $160 million annually in navigation fees.

The money will go toward modernizing the country's air traffic control systems, which will be upgraded as traffic grows, said Viktor Galkin, head of air traffic control for Russia's State Civil Aviation Service.

The NavCanada study also found that a flight from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Delhi, India, for example, could be completed in 13.5 hours, compared with the current 18 hours, by crossing the Russian-Canadian polar zone. Current flights cross the Pacific Ocean.

The NavCanada study also concluded that the reduction of flight time and the elimination of stopovers will save airlines as much as $26,000 for each Vancouver-Delhi flight. And the savings on the New York-Hong Kong route, which will be five hours quicker, could be as much as $50,000 per flight.

A Transaero airlines DC-10 was the first guinea pig, flying from Krasnoyarsk to Toronto in 11 hours in July 1998. Since then, as many as 479 such flights have been flown, mostly by foreign airlines, including U.S. giants United and Northwest and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific. Krasnoyarsk-based KrasAir has also used the new corridors for cargo flights.

Richard Lien, Northwest's top air traffic control officer, said in a telephone interview from Minnesota that he was upbeat about the new routes, which Northwest, United and Cathay Pacific will be the first to use. United has seven flights a week scheduled, while Northwest has six and Cathay Pacific just one.

"It's a success story from the standpoint of opening that airspace, and I believe it will be used extensively in years to come," he said.

Project costs for Canada are expected to be only $4.6 million, while Russia will need to invest about $33 million to update and expand their older air traffic control system. The money is expected to come from either the State Civil Aviation Service or from international lenders like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said Galkin.

Presently the four routes can accommodate just two flights an hour, eight hours a day. But in 10 years, Galkin said, Russia should be able to handle 30 to 40 planes per hour. The NavCanada study said as many as 8,000 flights a year will be possible by 2006.

"Russia has to use its powerful resource - airspace - which unlike oil or gas will never expire, and we have to use it to the fullest," said Galkin.

"It really took the end of the Cold War and aircraft that can fly for 14 to 16 hours to make this feasible," Sidney Koslow, vice president of engineering for NavCanada, said in an interview last year.

Indeed, the project marks not only an aviation milestone, but a political one as well.

Allowing cross-polar routes was unthinkable under the Soviet Union, as national airspace was heavily guarded. In fact, the danger of straying over Soviet airspace was made clear in 1983 when a Soviet jet fighter blew Korean Airlines flight 007 out of the sky over the Far East, killing all 269 passengers on board.

But despite the cross-polar breakthrough, a dramatic increase in traffic will require some cross-Atlantic diplomacy.

Inviting more airlines to use the new routes will require amending existing aviation agreements between the United States and Russia. Negotiations have been going on for months, but a State Civil Aviation Service spokesman said he couldn't comment on their status.

John Byerly, a senior U.S. State Department adviser, said in an e-mail interview earlier this year that the two sides had made "important progress" and that the United States "looks forward to reaching an agreement [with Russia] in the near future ... that includes U.S. airlines operations on a regular basis on the cross-polar routes."

TITLE: Gazprom Readying Bond Issue
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Gas monopoly Gazprom said Monday it is planning to dip its toes in international capital markets for the first time in three years with a $500 million bond issue.

Gazprom spokesman Vladimir Sos kov confirmed a Monday report in The Times of London that a proposal is being drawn up, but declined to give details.

Another Gazprom source said Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and Credit Suisse First Boston have been appointed to manage the float. A roadshow for the bonds is expected to kick off early next month, the source said.

Gas analysts said some of the $500 million collected from the float would probably be used to refinance Gazprom's staggering debt of $11.8 billion that is coming due over the next four years. The debt is owed to a consortium of European banks.

Even though Gazprom is raking in more cash than it has in recent years, expansion plans and a weak infrastructure are fueling its need to reinvest. The bond issue would be a logical way to finance general working capital, analysts said.

Steve Allen, a gas analyst for Renaissance Capital, said the issue could cause Gazprom to review its often-criticized stance toward foreign investors.

"If they're willing to turn to investors for a bond issue, in time, they could come to see the ADR issue in the same way," Allen said.

The American Depository Receipt issue that Allen is referring to is a long-standing point of contention for Western investors. Gazprom has a two-tiered stock system that separates stocks traded in Russia from the ADRs traded on international markets. An international Gazprom share currently trades at more than twice the local price.

Gazprom is Russia's largest company and the world's biggest gas producer, accounting for 25 percent of global production. The gas giant exports much of its gas to Europe and export contracts practically guarantee its cash flows, making it a relatively low-risk borrower.

TITLE: THE LAW ADVISER
TEXT: Food Producers Faced With New Rules for Registration

RUSSIAN Federation Law No. 29-FZ "On the Safety and Quality of Food" of Jan. 2, 2000, stipulates that food and food-related materials and products which are used for the production, packaging and use of food, as well as perfume and cosmetics, means and products for mouth care, and tobacco products, which are produced for the first time in Russia, are subject to state registration. Similarly, such products may be imported into Russia for the first time only on the basis of their state registration, which must be completed before the actual delivery of such items into Russia.

In order to implement these provisions of the law, the government approved a regulation "On the State Registration of Food in Russia" on Dec. 21, 2000, which will come into effect on April 1, 2001.

In accordance with the regulation, the state registration of a product includes the following steps:

. An expert analysis must be made of the specified documents, which must accompany the product, both:

a)describing the properties of the products; and

b)confirming the compliance of those properties and the conditions of the product's production and turnover with the requirements of the applicable sanitary and veterinary rules of the Russian Federation;

. an expert analysis must be made of the results of the specified toxicological, sanitary, and veterinary tests of a sample of the products;

. the specified information must be included in the State Register of Food about the product's producer/supplier; and

. a certificate of the state registration of the product must be issued.

The relevant authorities, which include the Russian Federation Ministry of Public Health and the Russian Federation Agriculture Ministry, must consider the application of a producer/supplier of a product for state registration of that product within 40 days of their receipt of the application and all of the required corresponding documents.

Pursuant to the regulation, a certificate of the state registration of a product is to be valid for the entire period of its industrial production or supply. The registration authorities may, however, terminate the state registration of a Product as the result of any violation by the producer/ supplier of the product of the requirements for the safety and quality of that product.

One should note that the regulation stipulates that information about a product's state registration must be included on any labels and tags which are used for the packaging of the product, on the directions for the use of the product, and in any advertising of the product.

For more information or advice on this matter, please contact James T. Hitch or Elena Mochalova at Baker & McKenzie's St. Petersburg Office (phone: 325-83-08, fax: 325-60-13).

TITLE: Putin Orders Paris Club Debt To Be Paid
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has given the government three weeks to patch up differences with the Paris Club of creditors, an order that is sending ministers scrambling to find the $1.6 billion needed to pay a first-quarter debt they had hoped partially to skip. 
"Russia never refused, and is not refusing, to fulfill its financial obligations to creditors," Putin said Friday at a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other top government, Central Bank and Kremlin administration officials.

"There are problems of a certain character. They are of a technical character and must be resolved within two to three weeks during intensive contacts both with the country's parliament and our partners in international financial organizations," Putin said in televised remarks.

Russia drew a sharp response from the Paris Club after it said earlier this month that it would pay only a small part of the $1.6 billion it owed to the group in the first quarter. The government, eager to restructure $38.7 billion of Soviet-era debt owed to the Paris Club, had said it cannot make full payments of $3.8 billion due this year.

After Putin's intervention, Kasyanov met leaders of factions in the State Duma and announced that the 2001 budget would have to be amended to direct additional revenues toward paying the foreign debt bill.

"We cannot get out of the situation connected to the Paris Club without changing the budget," Interfax quoted Kasyanov as telling journalists.

The budget currently states that if there are additional revenues amounting to up to 70 billion rubles ($2.47 billion), they are to be split 50-50 between domestic needs and foreign debt. If the extra revenues are higher than 70 billion rubles, only a third will go to foreign creditors.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday that the government would seek to amend the budget by mid-February. "We will have some extra revenues that it would be expedient to direct toward paying debts," Kudrin said, referring to an anticipated windfall from exporting oil at a price higher than originally budgeted.

"We are now assessing these possibilities," he said, adding that consultations would take place with representatives of the Duma, the International Monetary Fund and the Paris Club.

Asked about debt payments that might be missed during this negotiating period in the first quarter, Kudrin said: "By mid-February, Russia will determine all of the main periods for settling these missed payments."

Putin, who had previously kept aloof from the debt dispute, made clear Friday that foreign debt payments would not come at the expense of other needs.

"We must fulfill the budget law and fulfill our social obligations to the population," he said. "This means that, on the one hand we are not going to take any measures or actions unilaterally, but the government in the nearest future must speed up its efforts in working with the State Duma and with the International Monetary Fund and the Paris Club."

Russia cannot start formal negotiations with the club before it signs an agreement with the IMF, whose mission is expected at the start of February.

"We are waiting for the IMF mission, and we will agree on final forecasts for this year," Kudrin said Saturday.

Kudrin said the problem with creditors might be resolved by adjusting the 50 percent share of additional budget revenues that is currently allocated for debt payments. "It looks like we will need more, 70 percent would be better. That would help us to deal with the problem," he said.

Much will depend on the international price of oil, one of Russia's main export earners. The 2001 budget projects an average price for the year of $21 per barrel. Russian Urals blend crude is currently quoted at about $25.50 per barrel.

Kudrin said the IMF had originally forecast a price of $28 per barrel, which the government considered unrealistic.

"In December, the IMF returned to a price forecast of $23 per barrel for Urals. This is more realistic," he said.

TITLE: Soviet Carrier Seeks Entertainment Future
AUTHOR: By Ralph Boulton
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ANKARA, Turkey - It was built to be a jewel in the crown of the mighty Soviet navy, though they never got around to installing the engine.

Now the 300-meter aircraft carrier Varyag, sold into ignominy to be used in China as a giant floating casino, languishes in the mists of the Black Sea.

Since July, Turkey has rejected repeated pleas to let it pass through Istanbul's crowded Bosporus to open seas.

The coast guard was on alert, citizens were told, lest it try to "slip through."

"The notion of having this vast floating platform go through alarms me," said one Turkish official who asked not to be named.

"The currents pitch and swirl," he said. "We have to think about the villas along the edge, the palaces, the bridges."

More than 50,000 vessels pass through Istanbul every year, including 2,500 oil tankers.

The treacherous narrow, winding passage has frequently been the scene of sinkings, collisions and spills, which is a source of concern to its 12 million inhabitants.

For Varyag to pass with escort tugs, the strait separating Asia and Europe may have to be closed to other maritime traffic.

Ukraine sold the 55,000-ton Varyag in 1998 for $20 million to a Chinese company identified by Turkish and Ukrainian officials as Agencia Turistica e Diversoes Chong Lot Limitada.

For years it had been, about 80 percent complete, at the naval yard known in Soviet times as Nikolayev and now by its Ukrainian name Mykolayiv.

"For the Soviet Union, Varyag was the culmination of efforts to build an aircraft carrier [capability] ... like the Americans," said Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships in London.

Carriers were a key element in Mos cow's plans, launched in the 1970s, for a navy strong enough to project Soviet power across oceans and rival Washington on the high seas. Money was no object. Billions of dollars were spent on warships, submarines, naval bases and all the technology that attends them.

However, only one carrier of the illustrious Kuznetsov class - Varyag's sister ship, the Admiral Kuznetsov - made it into service before the fateful date of Dec. 25, 1991.

"Years of development went into the carriers and just when they were getting there, everything changed," Saunders said.

The world did indeed change around the hapless Varyag as the Soviet Union collapsed that month with the Christmas Day resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader.

The Admiral Kuznetsov passed to Russia. Attempts to finance completion of the Varyag failed.

Ukraine looked around for anyone who might like an aircraft carrier without an engine.

The $20 million from China was no windfall for a vessel that costs hundreds of millions, but better perhaps than scrap value.

The fate of the Varyag has become a sensitive issue spoken of in rather hushed tones in Ankara since Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan raised it during a visit last month.

The Chinese owners have so far said little publicly, other than confirming their intention to convert it into a floating pleasure palace anchored off the tiny former Portuguese enclave of Macau.

Ukraine has clearly washed its hands of the matter. There is no way back for the Varyag to Mykolayiv.

Its proud new owners now negotiate with Turkish authorities.

Under the 1936 Montreux convention, merchant ships have free passage through the Bosporus in peacetime, but aircraft carriers, covered by a later addition to the treaty, require permission.

For all Turkish reservations, a go-ahead now seems likely.

The slumbering giant, conceived to send 2,500 servicemen more than 6,080 kilometers, armed with 35 warplanes as well as missiles and guns, may in the not too distant future awaken to the shuffle of blackjack cards on green baize, the rattle of steel balls in roulette wheels and the merry clink of champagne glasses.

Las Vegas, for all its casino hotels with mock Egyptian grandeur and volcanoes that erupt on the half-hour, will not have seen the like.

The main hangar, 160 meters long and 30 meters wide, may not provide the most intimate of gaming areas. But the crew accommodation and other zones, perhaps the housings intended for the eight boilers and four turbines, may turn into stylish hotel rooms, restaurants and bars.

If everything becomes a little overwhelming down below, if lady luck proves coy, then a stroll on the 300-meter flight deck might clear the head and change fortunes.

Some Turkish newspapers suggest, however, that the casino idea is but a legend; that once the Varyag is through the Bosporus and Suez canal and home in China, engineers will use it to build Beijing's first carrier.

Saunders of Jane's is deeply skeptical.

"The cost to put that ship right would be enormous," he said. "And anyway, there is more to having an aircraft carrier than just the vessel itself. There is the match of aircraft, the entire corporate knowledge."

The Varyag, then, waits somewhere off the coast of Bulgaria under the power of a tug manned by a Chinese crew.

"Strictly speaking, anything can be moved anywhere," said Andreas Tsavliris, a London-based deep-sea towage expert.

"It's a question of how much you can spend for protection, how many "bodyguards" you need. You need more, you pay more."

Bodyguards, in this case, are tugs.

Such a large vessel might be controlled by large tugs at the front and rear, attached by lines. Two other tugs might shadow either side to "nudge" the ship back on course as it deviates and sways with the current and the wind.

But mystery hangs still over the Varyag. Macau, its putative destination and a prominent gambling center, denies knowledge of the carrier.

"Macau's coastal waters are much too shallow for a carrier to anchor," a government official said.

TITLE: Global eye
TEXT: Water Sports

Hollywood's earnest seekers of spirituality - other people's spirituality, but still - were sadly disappointed last week when they were prevented from setting up luxury tents on the banks of the Ganges to watch millions of Hindu pilgrims purge their sins in the holy river.

Tourist companies had installed sumptuous riverside shelters for such exalted beings as Madonna, Demi Moore and Sharon Stone, who had hoped to loll upon their couches, eating peeled grapes behind exquisite mosquito netting while gazing idly on the repentant believers immersing themselves in the sanctified stream (which also happens to be one of the world's most horribly polluted rivers, but still).

However, the pious hopes of the soulful stars were dashed by protests from the Naga sect, a group of ascetic holy men, sadhus, dedicated to keeping the ancient Hindu faith free from outside pollutants like Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and celebrities, the Daily Telegraph reports. After the Nagas besieged the tourist complex in Allahabad, government officials finally gave in and ordered the luxury encampment shut down.

The Naga were jubilant at their triumph. They had acted to protect pilgrims from the "unholy presence of scantily-dressed Western women," said the sadhus, who are easily recognized in Indian society by their practice of going "sky-clad" - i.e., naked.

Hall of Shame

And speaking of shallow, ignorant celebrities involved in dubious, absurd and quite possibly immoral activities, there's a whole passel of glittery geese turning out this week to take part in yet another immersion of long-suffering pilgrims in brackish water: the inauguration.

Yes, this weekend will see the installation of America's first non-Constitutional ruler. (There have been disputed elections before, of course, but they were all settled - for better or worse - in the manner prescribed by the U.S. Constitution: through the deliberation of the people's representatives in Congress. We don't hold with all that old-fashioned folderol in the 21st century, of course; we let five interested parties on the Supreme Court pick presidents for us now.) And which of our favorite celebs will be on hand to celebrate the final demise of America's constitutional republic? Plenty of B-list retreads (much like the Bush cabinet), and some surprising top names as well.

No celebration of all that is decent and good in America would be complete, of course, without scrotum-squeezed Vegas vamp Wayne Newton and ultra-classy cinema artiste Bo Derek, who will be hosting a gala $25,000-per-table inaugural romp at the Washington Hilton. (Bound to be lots of those "good common folk" that Bush loves so much at that shindig.)

Also popping up at various venues to croon and spoon with the unelected president and his employer, Dick Cheney, will be sitcom reject Nell Carter, "Saturday Night Live" reject Norm McDonald, and has-been ersatz-country singers like Larry Gatlin, Tanya Tucker, Lee Greenwood and Lorrie Morgan.

Providing somewhat higher-profile diversions will be the ambiguously-oriented Latin singer Ricky Martin (who will no doubt assay his "family-values" hit tune, "She Bangs," for the assembled audience of corporate apparatchiks and their gray matrons), along with Kelsey Grammer of ultra-liberal, gay-scripted "Frasier" fame. (Perhaps the hitherto left-leaning Kelsey feels a kinship toward a fellow reformed substance abuser - or maybe, as the highest-paid star on television, he was won over by that great big tax cut George W. is promising.)

Another famous fire-breathing lefty, British comedian Ben Elton, will also be turning his coat and singing for his gold-plated supper with the new president. Elton, who made his name with scathing attacks on Margaret Thatcher and all her works, has evidently been softened up by his recent collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber - who, you will be delighted to know, has penned a brand-new song especially for Bush's big day.

"Don't Cry for Me, Tallahassee," perhaps?

Kid Stuff

And speaking of shallow, ignorant celebrities involved in dubious, absurd and quite possibly immoral activities, the hallowed halls of the Oxford Union will be the site of ex-pop star Michael Jackson's latest bid for rehabilitation, Reuters reports.

Jackson will be flogging his charitable foundation, "Feel the Kids" - sorry, "Heal the Kids" - alongside his new mentor, Britain's "swinging rabbi," Shmuley Boteach, often found holding forth on "Kosher Sex" in that staid rabbinical journal, Playboy magazine. Jackson, who escaped child abuse charges with a $15 million out-of-court settlement a few years ago, will address the Oxford scholars on "nurturing relationships" between parents and children.

Reports that the two swinging sadhus will be lecturing "sky-clad" could not be confirmed at press time.

Privileged Access

And now, our regular Global Eye News Quiz Question of the Day! In keeping with the happy stateside events, today's question is an Inauguration Special!

Please identify the following quote:

"I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country."

Is this piece of stirring rhetoric:

a) A blistering attack by Democratic partisans on George W. Bush, scoring the aristocratic scion of privilege for his shameful record of using a string-pulling stint in the National Guard to duck out of a war he so ostentatiously supported - a stint he couldn't even be bothered to finish, opting instead to booze it up poolside with his buds and kibitz on the political campaigns of his Daddy's cronies (an act of desertion in wartime that would have landed someone of a lesser breed in military prison)?

b) A passage from the memoirs of retired General Colin Powell, recently tapped by that very same George W. Bush to be his Secretary of State, after which, in a moving ceremony for the network cameras, the two men warmly embraced and Powell praised the bold leadership qualities of his new commander-in-chief?

We can't give away the answer, but here's a hint: Looks like Kelsey Grammer and Ben Elton won't be the only ones wearing their coats inside out on Saturday!

TITLE: POWERPLAY
TEXT: Government Needs Checks And Balances

THE defective nature of Russia's system of governance was evident last week during the public scandal between Andrei Illarionov, President Vladimir Putin's chief economic adviser, and the government of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.

Illarionov slammed the cabinet first for its maneuvers in regard to the scheduled debt payments to the Paris Club and, second, for its overall bad institutional performance that will lead, according to Illarionov, to another crisis in the second part of this year.

This is not the first time that Illarionov has publicly criticized the cabinet. Last month, he was equally critical on the issue of restructuring Unified Energy Systems. That time he got support from Putin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin. This time, though, the Kremlin has distanced itself from Illarionov's statements.

I don't mean to discuss whether Illarionov is right or wrong, although it is worth mentioning that Illarionov was among the few who correctly predicted the 1998 financial collapse. My real subject is, why all these public disputes?

In previous years, all one had to do was to figure out which oligarchic group stood behind each side. The purpose of the information wars was to get Boris Yeltsin's attention and to make him issue his divine rulings in favor of one or another group.

This is no longer the case. For one thing, Illarionov is widely known for his independent views. Second, the oligarchs are so scared and exhausted by the constant attacks of different punitive organs - from the Tax Police to the Prosecutor's Office - that they prefer to stay as far away from politics as possible. Finally, Putin has demonstrated repeatedly that he makes decisions without regard for what the elites - and even public opinion - may have to say.

In fact, Illarionov is performing a service for both the president and the public. Under conditions in which the whole system is based on lies and distortions, Illarionov is faithfully executing his obligations as Putin's independent adviser. He presents well-grounded and reasoned positions that disclose what the government would prefer to keep secret.

All this would be good except for the fact that both Illarionov and the cabinet belong to the same branch of government - the executive. Therefore, they are supposed to work in cooperation. Discontent within one body inevitably creates chaos. However, such chaos is the logical outcome of Russia's present institutional structure.

The Kremlin has the power and authority to give directives to the government and even to dismiss it. However, the Kremlin cannot be held accountable for its own directives or for the misdeeds of the government. The cabinet formally bears all responsibility for both the country's economic performance and for the well-being of its citizens. However, no government move can be made without the Kremlin's approval.

Russia's system of government has proven ineffective and too expensive. The executive should be reformed in a way that gives the president both power and responsibility. We simply cannot sustain both a Kremlin and a White House. Russia needs a civilized system of checks and balances under which the executive carries out policy and the legislature and judiciary check its performance. The public must be in an informed position to sit as judge. The system as it is now is nothing but a dead-end.

Yevgenia Albats is an independent, Moscow-based journalist.

TITLE: EDITORIAL
TEXT: Rhetoric Is a Bad Defense Of Rights

LAST weekend, more than 1,000 political figures and civic activists gathered for a two-day Emergency Congress in Defense of Human Rights. Sponsored by the Yabloko political faction and a number of other groups, the congress was convened to draw attention to a number of serious human-rights issues that have emerged over the last year or so.

Activists were particularly concerned by the continued campaign in Chechnya, Kremlin proposals concerning political parties, freedom of the press and Kremlin-sponsored revisions to the Labor Code. When you add all these ominous signs up, they contend, the result is a clear threat to civil liberties and the Constitution.

Russia's Human Rights Commissioner Oleg Mironov told the congress, "The situation with human rights today evokes alarm and concern and can be characterized as unsatisfactory."

We share these concerns. We have written in this space about many of these issues, urging the Kremlin to temper its drive to reassert central control with a heavy dose of concern for human rights and basic human liberties.

We have lamented steps that seem intended to minimize public participation in civic life, and we have urged President Vladimir Putin to adopt an inclusive and open approach to political and economic reform.

We are concerned, however, with the tone that some congress participants adopted. Now is simply not the time to draw sharp battle lines, for it plays into the hands of those people who oppose human rights. Putin's administration continues - at least in words if not in action - to support the Constitution, the rule of law and even human rights. Liberals should exploit every possible avenue for positively influencing policy by pressuring from within to bring the Kremlin's deeds into line with its stated goals - to take the government at its word, and to shame it into action if it reneges on that word.

We do not believe that declaring a "human-rights state of emergency" is a responsible reaction to the present situation, for such rhetoric merely deepens the divide between the government and liberal forces in society. It gives the government every excuse to ignore the views of liberals, and it gives liberals every excuse for refraining from the hard work of constructively developing and lobbying proposals to advance the interests of citizens.

We can understand the liberals' frustration and their fears, but given the strength of the state these days and the weakness of civil society in Russia, the result of starting a war against the state can only have one conclusion.

TITLE: Tax and the Media
AUTHOR: By William Dunkerley
TEXT: THE Putin administration ought to be careful about how it carries out its latest initiative to help the media. Last week Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced an impending expansion of tax deductions that businesses can take for advertising expenses. At first glance, this is a welcome move. If advertising were fully tax deductible, there would presumably be more advertising revenues on which media outlets could sustain themselves. Now, too many newspapers survive by printing paid public-relations stories masquerading as news, or by reporting distorted news to protect the interests of their sponsors or owners. It's a resourceful strategy. But it's hardly a good solution for the long haul.

But the danger in this new tax-deduction initiative is that it is an incomplete solution. What if it does make more advertising revenues available? Newspapers would be limited in how much they could partake legally. That's because the law on advertising caps a newspaper's ad content at 40 percent - not enough to run a really profitable newspaper.

That limitation won't stop many resourceful newspapers from raking in the new ad revenues, though. Let's see. They could boost ad rates beyond what the space is really worth. Then they could make the deal worthwhile to advertisers by throwing in some "hidden advertising" as a value-added feature! Hmm. That's the kind of street survival tactic to which businesses will resort when up against unworkable regulations.

I know this isn't the result that President Vladimir Putin wants to achieve. Indeed, in his first state-of-the-nation address, he commented on the awful situation that now exists in the media sector. Press Minister Mikhail Lesin repeated this sentiment in a Komsomolskaya Pravda interview in December. But the incomplete solution of simply expanding tax deductions will only worsen the problems that Putin and Lesin lament.

This wouldn't be the first time that an incomplete attempt to help the media did more harm than good. In 1995, media companies were granted an exemption from taxes on profits. When that law was passed, I thought it was a good idea. With a tax exemption, I expected, media companies would have an easier time restructuring themselves into profit-making businesses. The exemption would be helpful during this transition period.

But there was no transition. Too many media outlets still operate in the same old, ineffectual way. But because they became tax exempt, they also became sitting ducks for acquisition by non-media businesses looking for a tax dodge. The exemption backfired.

One might think that the expansion of tax deductions for advertising would at least benefit advertisers themselves. But because media outlets serve their financial overlords, not their audiences and advertisers, they don't focus on acquiring readers that have demographic and psychographic characteristics that would make them good customers for the advertisers. Instead, audience acquisition is done rather randomly, or even dictated by political needs. This means ads are exposed to audiences with little or no ability to buy. It's irrelevant to the overlords, but quite relevant to the advertisers. Expanding the tax deduction, without fixing the other fundamental problems with the media, isn't going to make advertising in poorly positioned newspapers look any better. Indeed, it's more likely to send the money toward the better-targeted advertising-only publications.

So, how can the advertising tax exemption be implemented effectively? It must be done within the context of other initiatives and in accordance with a strategic plan. Over the past few months, some Russian and American colleagues and I have been developing such a plan and have offered to present it to the Putin administration. (Some details appear at www.publishinghelp.com/RussianMediaFund.) This plan aims to remedy fundamental problems like: the subjugation of the media by sponsors who seek to distort the news, the practice of "hidden advertising," the control of regional media outlets by governors and mayors for advancing their rivaling political agendas and the inappropriate ways by which media audiences are assembled.

This plan calls for (1) a withdrawal of the profits-tax exemption for the media, (2) granting full tax deductions for legitimate advertising expenses and (3) greatly increasing the allowable advertising content in a publication. The plan outlines the macroeconomic policies needed for legitimate, profitable media businesses to emerge in Russia. The still-significant role of state enterprise in the economy and lingering monopolies - state and private - also inhibit media profitability and independence. These factors retard competition. Advertising is needed, after all, only when competition exists.

Beyond that, our plan includes a massive educational program to realign the media industry along more civilized lines. It would offer independent media operators and advertisers alike the business plans and skills training necessary to switch from the present paradigm of subjugation and dependency, to one of honest and legal self-sufficiency and profitability. With this kind of help, the new breed of consumer-responsive newspapers will by far out-compete the tired, old, self-absorbed, sponsored and partisan press to which Putin rightly objects.

Current state policies, even including the new Kudrin initiative, quite simply do not give the media an even break at breaking even. How will the Putin administration confront this long-standing problem? Will it be to seek a comprehensive solution? Or will it merely throw a sop to the media, perhaps an insufficient relaxation of the restrictions on advertising deductions - a measure that, like a bottle of cheap vodka, may make the media feel good momentarily, but only to awake in due time with yet another headache.

William Dunkerley is a media business consultant who works extensively in Russia and other post-communist countries. He contributed his comment to The St. Petersburg Times.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Spill Threatens Island

QUITO, Ecuador (NYT) - Officials and volunteers for the Galapagos Biological Marine Reserve raced against the clock and nature today to try to keep an oil spill of an estimated 550,000 liters from turning into an environmental disaster.

The Ecuadorean tanker Jessica, loaded with 912,000 liters of oil, rammed into a reef on Tuesday night, 7 kilometers off San Cristebal Island, one of the Galapagos. Crews were able to transfer several thousand liters off the boat before its cargo hold cracked on Friday night and started oozing fuel into the Pacific.

Officials said the most recent aerial surveillance showed an oil slick spread intermittently in an area of 430 to 480 square kilometers.

The Jessica was carrying diesel fuel and fuel oil on a regular supply run to the islands.

New Cardinals Elected

ROME (NYT) - Shaping the future of the Roman Catholic Church and the institution that will someday elect his successor, Pope John Paul II named 37 new cardinals on Sunday, a record number.

When the Pope formally gives these aides, known as princes of the church because of their power to advise and choose popes, their red hats in a consistory on Feb. 21 in Rome, it will be the largest College of Cardinals ever, exceeding by 8 the limit of 120 voting cardinals that was set by Pope Paul VI.

The new names reflect the pope's desire both to follow Vatican tradition - nine are from the Curia, the Vatican administrative hierarchy - and also to broaden his church's reach, particularly in the Third World. He named two from India, where Christians have faced rising persecution, one from Africa, and a Vatican official from Vietnam.

Hacker Offered Job

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Bulgaria's president on Monday offered a job to an unknown hacker who broke into his official Web site last week, leaving a message of despair.

In an interview with the daily 24 Hours, President Petar Stoyanov urged the hacker to give him a call.

"I'll offer him a job in my office without any hesitation. He is obviously very talented because he broke into the site without damaging any information," Stoyanov said.

In his message, signed with the name "Kubaka," the hacker had complained about the dire prospects for young people in Bulgaria who are in search of jobs.

Iranian Rebels Attack

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian opposition rebels launched a mortar attack on judicial headquarters in the capital on Sunday but there was no immediate word on any casualties.

The official IRNA news agency said "four mortar shells rattled northeastern Tehran" without giving further details.

A statement from the Mujahideen Khalq Organization faxed to Reuters in Dubai said the group's guerrillas had fired mortars at the headquarters of the chief prosecutor's headquarters and the city's Islamic Revolutionary Courts.

The MKO have carried out a number of rocket attacks in recent months and assassinations in Iran's big cities as part of their campaign to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Arroyo Starts Work

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippines' new president, swept to power by three days of massive protests, on Sunday began assembling a new cabinet focused on restoring national unity.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's first appointment, Finance Secretary Alberto Romulo, appealed for support for the "great task of rebuilding our nation" following a three-month political crisis.

Previous President Joseph Estrada was escorted cordially from the presidential palace by his military chiefs on Saturday, a day after they and other top advisers joined massive protests over the breakdown of his impeachment trial on corruption charges earlier in the week.

In a statement, however, Estrada questioned the legality of his ouster and did not formally resign.

Marathon Talks

TABA, Egypt (AP) - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resumed talks Monday at this Red Sea resort, even as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said he did not expect much from the "peace marathon."

In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli army tracker was wounded when a roadside bomb went off. Israel responded by closing the main north-south road, cutting the strip in half.

Despite the blast, Israel eased its blockade of the Palestinian territories - in effect during four months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting - and permitted 16,000 Palestinian workers to return to jobs in Israel.

As Israelis and Palestinians launched their "peace marathon" in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba, both sides lowered expectations.

TITLE: Climate Study Points Finger At Pollution
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SHANGHAI, China - In the most emphatic warning yet about the danger of global warming, a meeting of scientists from 99 nations issued a report Monday that sharply increased projected climate change blamed on air pollution and warned of drought and other disasters.

The report, meant to spur stalled world talks on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, said global temperatures could rise by up to 5.8 degrees Celsius over the next century.

"This adds impetus for governments of the world to find ways to live up to their commitments ... to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases," said Robert T. Watson, chairman of the UN-affiliated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which organized the Shanghai meeting.

International talks ended in November without agreement on how to carry out a 1987 agreement by industrialized countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2010. Talks resume in May in Bonn, Germany.

The Shanghai report, meant to be the most comprehensive study to date on global warming, says new evidence shows more clearly than ever that temperature increases are caused mostly by pollution, not by changes in the sun or other natural factors.

"The rate of climate change this century is expected to be greater than it has been in the past 10,000 years," Sir John T. Houghton, co-chairman of the Shanghai meeting and former head of Britain's weather agency, said at a news conference.

The report is the one of the most authoritative pieces of evidence yet to support warnings that air pollution threatens to wreak environmental havoc by causing the atmosphere to trap more of the sun's heat.

TITLE: Congo Mourns Amid Violence
AUTHOR: By Susanna Loof
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KINSHASA, Congo - A weeping Joseph Kabila, newly installed leader of Congo, mourned his slain father on Sunday as memorials for the president shifted to the crumbling capital where he was assassinated five days ago. 
Thousands of supporters grieved in the streets for Laurent Kabila, crying and waving palm fronds as a motorcade bearing his casket wound through the city.

But others in this deeply divided Central African nation expressed little affection for the man who steered the country deeper into poverty and chaos.

While state television trumpeted that "all of Kinshasa is crying for Laurent Desire Kabila," police at a Simba Zikida marketplace were said to be ordering people to line the streets leading to the open-air Palace of the People, where Kabila will lie in state until his funeral Tuesday.

In Luanda, Angola, the presidents of Kabila's three foreign allies - Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, met Sunday and pledged to keep their troops in Congo to support government forces.

In a joint statement they urged all factions in the conflict to "contain offensive military measures."

Only Angola, however, gave public backing to the new president.

After taking power in a rebel march across this sweeping nation in May 1997, Kinshasa residents initially hailed Kabila as a hero. But those feelings were soon replaced by resentment as his corrupt grip on power began to resemble Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator whose 30-year regime he toppled.

*****

About 200 people have been killed, some beheaded or burned alive, in a new spate of tribal clashes in northeastern Congo, rebels and UN aid workers said Monday.

They blamed the violence on long-standing ethnic divisions and said it was unrelated to the shooting dead of President Kabila on Tuesday or the 2 1/2-year civil war in the vast African country.

Lendu warriors using spears and arrows attacked rival Hema tribesmen Friday in Bunia, a trading town on the border with Uganda.

The Ugandan army, deployed in northern Congo in support of anti-government rebels, responded with tanks and heavy weapons, said Ernest Wam ba dia Wamba, a rebel faction leader.

UN humanitarian workers, relying on reports from their office in Bunia, said about 200 people were killed or wounded when Hema youths attacked Lendu civilians in revenge.

TITLE: Clinton Cuts Last Minute Deals
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON - Outgoing U.S. President Bill Clinton kept busy on his last two days in office, cutting a deal on on Friday to escape criminal indictment in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, then pardoning Whitewater figure Susan McDougal and one-time revolutionary and kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst Shaw on Saturday. 
On Friday, Clinton admitted that he had given "evasive and misleading" testimony about the sexual affair with Lewinsky that nearly cost him the presidency.

In return, independent prosecutor Robert Ray concluded his investigation of whether Clinton committed perjury in the Lewinsky case and dropped any plans to indict him after Clinton leaves office on Saturday.

As part of the deal Clinton accepted a five-year suspension of his license to practise law in Arkansas and paid a $25,000 fine.

Clinton, who owes several million dollars in legal fees, agreed not to seek reimbursement that he might otherwise be entitled to under the Independent Counsel Act.

According to a copy of the agreement reached with Ray, Clinton admitted he "knowingly gave evasive and misleading answers" about his relationship with Lewinsky in sworn testimony about her in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case in early 1998.

"I tried to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish this goal and that certain of my responses to questions about Ms. Lewinsky were false," Clinton said in a statement read to reporters by his spokesman.

Ray said, "President Clinton has acknowledged responsibility for his actions. ... The nation's interests have been served, and therefore I decline prosecution."

Clinton moved on to clearing the names of Hearst and McDougal, among others, on Saturday. But after lengthy discussions with his advisers, he decided not to pardon financier Michael Milken, Native American Leonard Peltier and former Justice Department official Webster Hubbell. He also declined a pardon for convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

All told, Clinton pardoned 140 people and commuted the sentences of 36 others. White House papers announcing the actions were released at about 10:30 a.m. local time - 90 minutes before Clinton's term in office came to an end.

Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton, a musician who served a year in jail on a drug offense. Roger Clinton, who says he has kicked his cocaine habit, is 10 years younger than the 54-year-old Bill Clinton.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and former CIA Director John Deutch also received pardons.

Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI about how much money he had paid a former mistress. He remains one of the most popular Hispanic politicians in the United States.

Deutch had reportedly been negotiating with the Justice Department about pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for keeping classified information on his home computers.

Deutch, who was CIA director from May 1995 to December 1996, was stripped of his CIA and high-level defense intelligence clearances in August 2000 for mishandling classified information.

A presidential pardon - providing official forgiveness for criminal wrongdoing - gives convicted criminals benefits enjoyed by full citizens, including the right to vote.

Patricia Hearst Shaw, an heiress to the Hearst fortune, was kidnapped by a terrorist group called the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974 and forced to rob a bank.

But she maintains that she committed the crime after being mistreated by the group, including spending more than 50 days in a closet.

When she was found, Shaw was put on trial for grand theft and convicted. She served nearly two years of a seven-year prison term and was released with help from then-President Jimmy Carter.

McDougal was convicted in connection with an improper loan to pay the debts of the Whitewater Development Co., the Arkansas land company in which Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, were partners.

McDougal spent 21 months in jail for refusing to testify about Clinton to independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

She told MSNBC: "The only reason I went to jail was because I refused to lie for Kenneth Starr ... and now it's been lifted from me and I am so grateful."

TITLE: Bush Inaugurated and Ready To Get To Work
AUTHOR: By Arshad Mohammed
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush threw open the White House to the public on Sunday, saying he had slept "pretty well" on his first night and looked forward to getting to work on his top priority of education reform.

Bush and his wife, Laura, greeted dozens of citizens from around the country and accompanied some of them on a tour of the 132-room mansion.

The newly inaugurated president said he had not done much work on Sunday but was eager to get going. He said his $47.6 billion education plan to hold failing schools accountable, give local officials more control and teach all children to read by the third grade was at the top of his list.

Asked how his first night at the White House had gone, Bush was low-key and joked about being tired out from his reluctant dancing at Saturday night's nine inaugural balls. "It was OK. I mean, I'm exhausted from dancing so much last night," he said.

"It's great, you know, it's an honor," Bush added, saying he had woken early to have coffee with his parents and had spent the early part of the day greeting college friends, campaign workers and supporters. "I slept pretty well," he said.

Surrounded by his family, Bush began the first full day of his presidency at a prayer service, where he heard an appeal to "ignite the soul of America" from Franklin Graham, the son of his family's longtime spiritual adviser, the Rev. Billy Graham.

In his sermon at Washington's gothic National Cathedral, Graham said that despite America's prosperity, there remained a "sense of hopelessness" among some people and "we still face great social, political and spiritual problems."

At his inauguration on Saturday, Bush pledged to work for "a single nation of justice and opportunity" after having defeated Democratic former Vice President Al Gore in one of most contentious elections in U.S. history.

The election gave Republicans the White House and control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the 1950s.

"I am really looking forward to getting to work," Bush told reporters on Sunday, saying education reform would be the first piece of legislation he will send to the Congress and vowing to work with both parties on Capitol Hill.

For all the talk of unity, Bush planned to make his first order of business this week putting forward what one aide called "a statement of principles" about his education program, which includes the divisive issue of school vouchers.

Bush has proposed giving $1,500 vouchers to the parents of students in troubled public schools allowing them to send their children to private schools - an idea resisted by Democrats, who fear it would siphon money from the public school system.

TITLE: Defending Champs Can't Handle the Heat
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LOS ANGELES - The Miami Heat neutralized Shaquille O'Neal and pounded the boards to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 103-92 on Sunday. 
Heat coach Pat Riley had his players repeatedly double-team O'Neal and take their chances with Kobe Bryant's perimeter game.

O'Neal scored 31 points on 12-of-22 from the field but made just seven of 16 free throws as the Heat were content to send him to the line. Bryant scored 34 points but needed 27 shots and had zero assists.

Meanwhile, the Heat had a balanced attack led by former Laker Eddie Jones' 26 points. Anthony Mason scored 23 points and Tim Hardaway added 22.

Indiana 87, New York 84. Jalen Rose scored 20 of his 24 points in the second half as the Indiana Pacers renewed their rivalry with the New York Knicks by rolling to an 87-74 triumph at Madison Square Garden Sunday.

Rose drilled 10 of 14 shots, including two of three 3-pointers as the Pacers took their first meeting with New York since knocking off the Knicks in last season's Eastern Conference finals.

Knick-killer Reggie Miller scored 16 points and Jermaine O'Neal added 14 for Indiana.

Larry Johnson scored 22 points for the Knicks.

Milwaukee 102, Detroit 98. In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Sam Cassell and Ray Allen made big baskets down the stretch and the Milwaukee Bucks took advantage of the absence of Jerry Stackhouse for their seventh straight win, a 102-98 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

Stackhouse, the NBA's leading scorer at 30.1 points per game, was sidelined with the flu.

Dana Barros scored 22 points and Michael Curry added 17 for Detroit.

Toronto 110, Philadelphia 106. In Philadelphia, Vince Carter lost his personal battle with fellow superstar Allen Iverson, but the Toronto Raptors won the war thanks to Keon Clark.

Clark had a season-high 23 points, eight rebounds, four blocked shots and sparked a furious second-half comeback as the Raptors overcame 51 points by Iverson in a rousing 110-106 overtime victory over the league-leading Philadelphia 76ers.

Utah 109, Phoenix 98. In Salt Lake City, Karl Malone dominated up front and John Stockton was his usual self in the backcourt as the Utah Jazz posted a 109-98 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

Malone had his way with the Suns' frontcourt, making 10 of 19 shots from the floor. He also went 10-of-13 from the line in surpassing 30 points for the ninth time this season.

Minnesota 96, Vancouver 94. In Vancouver, British Columbia, LaPhonso Ellis scored nine of his 13 points in the final 5:34 and hit the biggest shot of the game to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 96-94 victory over the struggling Vancouver Grizzlies.

With 45 seconds left, Ellis received an inbounds pass and nailed a fadeaway 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to give Minnesota a 92-88 lead.

Washington 94, Atlanta 90. In Washington, Richard Hamilton helped end the Washington Wizards' latest stretch of futility, scoring 29 points in a 94-90 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

Juwan Howard scored 25 points and Chris Whitney added 18 for the Wizards, who snapped their second nine-game losing streak of the season.

The Hawks lost their third straight game despite a huge effort from Brevin Knight, who scored 31 points.

Golden State 94, Boston 91. In Oakland, California, the Golden State Warriors made a season-high 11 3-pointers but none in the final 12 minutes, when they sank all 12 of their free throws to earn a 94-91 victory over the Boston Celtics.

Golden State, which entered the game with the worst 3-point percentage (.303) in the NBA, shot 48 percent (11-of-23) from behind the arc.

Golden State's Vonteego Cummings scored 12 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, including the decisive free throws with three seconds left.

Antoine Walker misfired on a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer, one of Boston's numerous missed opportunities in the final 30 seconds.

Seattle 109, Sacramento 107. In Seattle, Gary Payton returned from a one-game suspension to score 30 points and Ruben Patterson added 21 off the bench as the Seattle SuperSonics rallied for a 109-107 victory over the Sacramento Kings to end their three-game losing streak.

Peja Stojakovic scored 30 points and Chris Webber added 25 and 18 rebounds for the Kings.

TITLE: Faxon Wins Sony, Sets Sights on Big Season
AUTHOR: By Doug Ferguson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HONOLULU, Hawaii - With a retooled swing to go with a putting stroke that is the envy of the PGA Tour, Brad Faxon could hardly wait for the season to begin. After winning the Sony Open, he's excited about where it might lead.

"I'm thrilled to death," Faxon said after his wire-to-wire, four-stroke victory at Waialae Country Club. "I hope this is the start of a great year."

When he won the Shark Shootout with Scott McCarron in November, Faxon set some pretty lofty goals - getting into the Masters, not having to qualify for either the U.S. Open or British Open, and getting on the Concorde jet in September for the Ryder Cup. Those goals now no longer look like a stretch.

His victory in the Sony Open, where he closed with a 5-under 65 and matched the lowest 72-hole score at Waialae, came with some perks.

For winning twice since Father's Day, Faxon earned a spot in the U.S. Open. And his victory should give him enough points to get into the top 50 in the world rankings - all he has to do is stay there the next six weeks and he's in the Masters.

He also moved up to No. 8 in the Ryder Cup standings, although he's a long way from making his third team.

Tom Lehman would not be surprised to see him at the Belfry, nor would he mind. Faxon showed off his pure putting stroke and par-saving short game when he beat Lehman in the third round of the Match Play Championship in Australia three weeks ago.

Faxon was at it again Sunday, twice rolling in 30-foot birdie putts to keep momentum in his favor, and even holing a 90-foot chip for birdie.

Faxon took only 103 putts all week, a remarkable number considering the size of some of the greens. He also made an eagle in all four rounds, even more surprising because that matches his total from last year.

The final eagle came on the final hole, a 4-wood from 270 yards that bounced short of the green, curled up the side of a bunker and rolled to a stop some 10 feet from the hole.

The putt gave him a 20-under 260, the same score John Huston had three years ago when Waialae played as a par 72.

Lehman played the back nine in even par and finished four strokes back after a 66, while Ernie Els stumbled on the front nine - he missed a 1-foot bogey putt - and had a 69 to finish third at 267.

Faxon began the final round with a three-stroke lead over Lehman and Els, and looked like he might never be threatened after saving par with a 6-foot putt on the first hole and then making an unlikely birdie with his 90-foot chip on the second.

But Lehman's short birdie putt on No. 6, and a rare three-putt from Faxon from 40 feet above the ridge, trimmed the lead to one.

Faxon holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the next hole, and then really stuck a dagger in Lehman on No. 8.

Lehman hit his approach to within 2 feet for a sure birdie that would again pull him within one stroke.

But Faxon made a 30-foot putt up the slope to maintain his cushion, and he was never seriously threatened again.

TITLE: Sakic Reaches Assist Milestone in 4-2 Victory Over Ducks
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: ANAHEIM, California - Alex Tanguay scored one goal and set up another in a four-goal first period, and Joe Sakic picked up his 700th career assist in the outburst as the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 4-2, Sunday.

The Avalanche extended their unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1-0) and have at least a point in each of their last 13 (9-0-3-1). They pushed their league-leading point total to 73.

The teams scored all six goals in the first period, despite combining for just 14 shots.

Anaheim gained the early momentum when Marty McInnis scored the first of his two goals 2:40 into the game.

"You don't really think a lot of milestones right now,'' he said. "I think I've got a few years left in me so this is one of those things that I'll look back on later in my career," Sakic said. "I've played with some great players over the years, players who can score, and that makes it a lot easier."

Calgary 4, Detroit 2. In Calgary, Derek Morris scored shorthanded midway through the second period and Marc Savard added two goals as the Calgary Flames snapped a three-game winless streak with a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

After Calgary's Denis Gauthier was penalized for roughing, Morris found Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood defending Savard near the right faceoff circle. Savard slid the puck to an undefended Morris, who pounded it into the vacant net for a 3-2 lead.

Pittsburgh 4, Chicago 0. In Chicago, Mario Lemieux brought his traveling show to the United Center and scored a goal as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0.

Lemieux gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead with 32 seconds left in the second period, picking up a rebound off the right goalpost and banging it past Jocelyn Thibault while driving in from the left faceoff circle.

It was the 11th goal and 23rd point in 12 games for Lemieux since he resumed his Hall of Fame playing career.

Martin Straka, Rene Corbet and Robert Lang also scored for the Penguins.

Phoenix 5, Dallas 2. In Phoenix, Jeremy Roenick picked up two of his three assists in a four-goal second period and Daniel Briere continued his torrid scoring as the Phoenix Coyotes posted a 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars.

Phoenix scored three times over the final 3 1/2 minutes of the second period and extended its winning streak to a season-high four games.

Briere scored his sixth goal in as many games and seventh in 11 games.

Atlanta 4, New York Islanders 4. In Atlanta, Yves Sarault scored twice, including the game-tying goal with 9:37 remaining in regulation, as the Atlanta Thrashers battled the New York Islanders to a 4-4 tie.

Sarault gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal midway through the first period, but New York fought back and took a 4-3 lead with 12:45 remaining on Brad Isbister's second goal of the game.

Columbus 3, Tampa Bay 1. In Columbus, Ohio, rookie David Vyborny scored the go-ahead goal 27 seconds into the third period as the Columbus Blue Jackets posted a 3-1 victory over the reeling Tampa Bay Lightning.

With two of the worst teams in the NHL tied at 1-1, Vyborny won a battle for the puck in the right corner, skated into the slot, deked goaltender Kevin Weekes and beat him with a backhander for his eighth goal.

Serge Aubin added an empty-netter with 21 seconds to play for Columbus.

TITLE: Hingis and Serena Get Set for Showdown
AUTHOR: By Phil Brown
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MELBOURNE, Australia - Venus Williams overcame a midmatch flurry of wild hitting on Monday to advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Amelie Mauresmo. 
Williams' younger sister, Serena, was more overpowering in a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Daja Bedanova, the 17-year-old Czech who had knocked out Olympic silver medalist and U.S. Open semifinalist Elena Dementieva.

Top seed Martina Hingis, the most prominent obstacle to a Williams sisters semifinal, advanced to a quarterfinal meeting with Serena by beating Rita Grande 6-0, 6-3.

With nearly 6,000 people watching a doubles match involving Anna Kournikova on Court 1, play was briefly interrupted when a 15-year-old boy threw a smoking orange flare on the court. Security apprehended him.

"I was hitting the ball and suddenly something dropped in front of me," Kou r ni ko va said. "I just walked away."

A streaker interrupted one of Kournikova's doubles matches at Wimbledon last year.

Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Olympic champion Venus Williams received plenty of help from 1999 Australian runner-up Mauresmo, who committed 44 unforced errors to 43 by Venus in the slugfest.

But she finished the one-hour-41-minute match in spectacular fashion with a forehand winner down Mauresmo's forehand sideline and two aces.

"I was really having a tough time on my serve today," Venus said. "At the end, I really just went for the gold and got lucky."

Venus, the No. 3 seed, charged the net against Mauresmo's first serve of the match and took the point with two quick volleys. She stayed in command long enough to break serve in the second set's third game.

Then she lost serve in a game with six errors, including two double faults, and was broken again to give Mauresmo a 4-2 lead thanks to four more errors, including her seventh of 10 double faults for the match.

Venus broke in the final set's second game, was broken back in the seventh and gained her decisive break for 5-3.

But she still had to save a break point after a double fault and a backhand down the line by Mauresmo, and came up with her last three big shots.

Next up for Venus is No. 10 Amanda Coetzer, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over Argentina's Paola Suarez.

"I've been through a lot of ups and downs in my career," Venus said. "I know how to deal with certain situations. Luckily enough I was able to pull through."

In the second set, Venus said her sister said, '"Come on Venus, do your best.' That really helped out a lot."

Venus and defending champion Lindsay Davenport, who is the No. 2 seed, were mentioned when Hingis was discussing possible obstacles to her first major tournament title in two years.

"There is Serena, too," Hingis said of the sister who is seeded sixth and beat her in the 1999 U.S. Open final.

Serena has lost only 19 games in four matches here so far, but Hingis has lost only 12.

"I think if I'm playing well, I have the chance to beat anybody out there," said Hingis, who beat Serena 6-4, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of a warm-up tournament two weeks ago.

Hingis also has an excellent record in the Australian Open, where she has won three of her five Grand Slam tournament titles. She lost here to Davenport in last year's final, however, and has not won a Slam since the Australian in 1999.

Hingis was seeking perfection in her match, and threw her racket when Grande started doing better in the second set.

"She was upset because she missed two balls," Grande said.

"I kept lobbing her and she kept hitting overheads," Hingis said. "I was like, 'Okay, one more and I kill myself.'"

Serena said that she had already prepared for her upcoming match against Hingis before she landed in Australia.

"I play enough, I win enough," she said. "Obviously, I wish I won more. A lot of people would pretty much kill to do what I've done."

Bedanova said she wanted to put in more first serves, or come up with harder second serves that Serena couldn't pound away.

"I couldn't get into my game. She didn't give me an opportunity," Bedanova said.

In men's matches, Olympic gold medalist Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 1999 Australian champion and last year's runner-up, solved the left-handed serves of Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra and won 7-5, 7-5, 6-1.

The No. 5 seed advanced to a quarterfinal with No. 15 Arnaud Clement, a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 winner over Greg Rusedski, the man who knocked out top seed Gustavo Kuerten.

Former No. 1 Carlos Moya, coming back from an injury, beat Germany's Rainer Schuettler 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-4. He was awaiting the winner of a night match between No. 4 Magnus Norman, a semifinalist last year, and No. 16 Sebastien Grosjean.

Clement impressed quarterfinal opponent Kafelnikov.

"He doesn't give you any points. You have to earn your points," the Russian said. "He can have a long match, and he never gets tired."

Clement, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last year, said that Kafelnikov simply wasn't playing well in Cincinnati when he beat him.

"He beat me three times before," Clement said. "I have to play my best tennis if I want to have a chance."

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Buck Raises Cash

ST. LOUIS (AP) - St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck has raised $1 million for a local organization that benefits families of slain police officers, firefighters and paramedics.

Buck commissioned a painting featuring Cardinals Hall of Famers Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst, as well as Mark McGwire, Ozzie Smith and Buck. Two hundred prints were made of the painting, and autographed prints sold for $2,500 each during the team's annual Winter Warm-up. The prints sold out during the event that came to a close Sunday at a hotel in downtown St. Louis.

One of the Cardinals ownership partners, David Pratt, has said he will match each donation.

The money will go to St. Louis Backstoppers organization. Buck earlier said he wanted to show his appreciation for the work that police and firefighters do in the community.

Ottawa Trades Prospal

SUNRISE, Florida (Reuters) - The Florida Panthers, who have the fewest wins in the NHL, on Sunday acquired center Vac lav Prospal from the Ottawa Senators.

In exchange for Prospal, the Panthers will give Ottawa their fourth-round pick in the 2001 draft or their third-round choice in the 2002 draft. Florida holds the option on which pick it will trade.

Prospal, 25, has played in 40 games for Ottawa this season, collecting one goal and 13 points. The Czech native has spent his last four seasons with the Senators after being acquired from Philadelphia on Jan. 17, 1998.

Last season, Prospal enjoyed his best campaign with 22 goals and 33 assists in 55 games. He is expected to join the Panthers for Monday's game at Boston.

Pronger Needs Surgery

ST. LOUIS (AP) - St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Pronger, the reigning NHL MVP, is scheduled to undergo knee surgery Tuesday and will be sidelined four to six weeks, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Pronger, the Blues' captain who was slated to start in next month's All-Star game, played nine games after tearing cartilage in his left knee Jan. 4 against Nashville.

He had two goals and 15 points in that stretch, but decided on surgery after playing nearly 31 minutes Sunday in a 3-1 loss at Nashville.

"It's something we need to take care of now before it becomes a problem," Pronger said. "You don't want it to become a problem in the playoffs when everything counts. Four weeks now could turn into two months."

Pronger leads Blues defensemen and ranks fourth among NHL defenders with 41 points, on six goals and 35 assists, and is plus-18.

Woman Wins Rally

PARIS (Reuters) - Germany's Jutta Kleinschmidt became the first woman to win the Paris-Dakar rally at the end of the last 23-kilometers timed stage in Dakar on Sunday.

The Mitsubishi driver beat Japanese teammate Hiroshi Masuoka by two minutes and 39 seconds, while Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser, winner for the last two years, finished third in his Buggy, 23:29 adrift.

Kleinschmidt's triumph brought Mitsubishi a record sixth win in the event and came hours after the Japanese constructor celebrated Finn Tommi Makinen's victory in the Monte Carlo rally.

TITLE: Sumo Grand Champion Calling It Quits
AUTHOR: By Eric Talmadge
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TOKYO - Hawaiian-born Akebono, the first foreign wrestler to reach the highest rank in Japan's ancient sport of sumo wrestling, is quitting. 
The 2.04-meter, 232-kilogram Akebono, formerly Chad Rowan, officially informed the Japan Sumo Association on Monday that he intends to retire.

"My body doesn't listen anymore," the wrestler said at a news conference at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena. "This wasn't an easy decision. I really agonized over it."

Akebono sat out the New Year's Grand Sumo Tournament, which ended Sunday, because of chronic knee problems.

Reports of his expected retirement were carried on Monday's front pages of two major Japanese newspapers, the Asahi and the Yomiuri.

The 31-year-old Akebono's retirement marks the end of a pioneering and very successful career.

Akebono - originally from Honolulu and a naturalized Japanese citizen - made his sumo debut in 1988, and has won 11 tournaments, including the final tournament last year. He has been ranked at grand champion for 48 tournaments, the fourth-longest tenure ever.

"By becoming a grand champion, I've done what the average person doesn't have a chance to do," Akebono said. "I'm so thankful to everyone."

Though Akebono's rise through the ranks of sumo was one of the fastest in the history of the tradition-laden sport, many purists opposed his promotion to its top rank of yokozuna, or grand champion.

Many in Japan initially opposed Akebono's promotion, in March 1993, because they thought only Japanese-born wrestlers should be considered. There were also concerns that the sport would be overrun by bigger, stronger foreigners.

But he has silenced most of his critics, and another Hawaiian-born wrestler, Musashimaru, later joined him at grand champion.

In sumo, two wrestlers try to force each other out of an elevated clay ring. There are six sumo tournaments each year. Wrestlers face a different opponent on each of the tournaments' 15 days, and the one with the fewest losses is declared the winner.

TITLE: Carruth Sentenced to 18 Years for Role in Girlfriend's Death
AUTHOR: By Paul Nowell
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - Former NFL player Rae Carruth was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison Monday for his role in the 1999 shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend.

Superior Court Judge Charles Lamm handed down the sentence against Carruth after hearing emotional testimony from the parents of Cherica Adams, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot four times in November 1999.

Carruth was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years, 11 months in prison and a maximum of 24 years, four months. He will get credit for the roughly 14 months he spent behind bars. 

Carruth was convicted Friday of conspiring to kill his pregnant girlfriend, who was ambushed and shot in her car. A jury acquitted him of first-degree murder, which could have landed the former Carolina Panthers wide receiver on North Carolina's death row.

Defense lawyer David Rudolf said he planned to ask Judge Lamm to vacate the conspiracy and other convictions because they were inconsistent with the murder acquittal.

Lead prosecutor Gentry Caudill declined to discuss the verdicts after court ended Friday.

Adams, 24, was mortally wounded in an attack that prosecutors said Carruth set up to avoid paying child support. Prosecutors said he used his white Ford Expedition to block Adams' car so a hired gunman could shoot the woman, who was eight months pregnant.

Adams died a month after the Nov. 16, 1999, shooting; her baby was saved and lives with Adams' mother.

"I think the jurors fashioned a verdict everyone could live with," said defense attorney Jim Cooney, who was not involved in the case.

Cooney said some jurors may have had a problem convicting Carruth of first-degree murder when the confessed triggerman, Van Brett Watkins, made a deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder.

"Part of it might have been they didn't want to see him get punished more than Watkins," Cooney said. "And part of it was a reflection that Rudolf put up a good character-reference defense."

The jury took the case Tuesday afternoon and told the judge on Thursday that they were deadlocked. When sent back for more discussions, they came up with a verdict the next day.

Foreman Clark Pennell said Saturday he didn't think there was any compromising among jurors to get out of the deadlock. He said the jury was united in the final verdict.

Defense attorney Jim Gronquist, who represents one of Carruth's co-defendants, Stanley "Boss" Abraham, said some members of the jury might have wanted to consider a second-degree murder or manslaughter conviction, but those options were not available.

"Perhaps they were sending a message that they should have been given the options," he said.

TITLE: Rivals Close Gap as Roma Falls To Milan
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - Manchester United surged 13 points clear at the top of the English premier league but Serie A leaders AS Roma slipped to a 3-2 defeat at AC Milan.

Real Madrid was confirmed as winter champion at the halfway stage of the Spanish first-division season while league champion Monaco was the victim of an upset in the French Cup.

Italy. Leaders AS Roma suffered only its second league defeat of the season as it went down 3-2 at the San Siro stadium against an AC Milan side that ended its run of four games without a win.

Roma, with 33 points after 15 matches, went 2-0 down after goals by Brazilian Leonardo and Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko, the league's top scorer.

Captain Francesco Totti pulled one back for the visitors with a long-range effort before Shevchenko grabbed his second goal of the game and 13th of the season. Totti then converted a penalty with three minutes to go.

Second-placed Juventus closed the gap to three points after Filippo Inzaghi's goal secured a 1-0 triumph at Perugia.

Lazio, third with 27 points, won 2-0 at home to Inter Milan with goals from Hernan Crespo and Marcelo Salas (penalty).

Fiorentina is fourth with 25 points following its goalless draw in Bergamo against Atalanta.

England. Runaway leader Manchester United recorded a 2-0 win over Aston Villa to take its points total to 56 after 24 games.

Defender Gary Neville put the home team in front with his first goal since March 1999 and Teddy Sheringham's 18th of the season made sure of victory.

Sunderland, in second position with 43 points, was surprisingly held to a goalless draw at home to bottom club Bradford City while Arsenal, third with 41 points, could only manage a 0-0 draw at Leicester, which had Matthew Jones sent off in the first half.

Liverpool, fourth with 40 points, was another club that toiled in front of goal as they shared a 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough.

The biggest win of the weekend came at Stamford Bridge where Urugua yan Gustavo Poyet's double helped Chelsea to a 4-1 victory over Ipswich, which had John McGreal sent off in the second period.

France. Monaco crashed to a shock 1-0 defeat at third-division Valence in the ninth round, equivalent to the first round proper of the French Cup.

The reigning league champion went down to a 41st-minute goal from Ivory Coast-born striker Marc Eric Guei.

Cup holders Nantes destroyed third-division Pacy-sur-Eure 9-0 but first-division Toulouse lost 10-9 on penalties after being held to a 0-0 away draw by second-division Chateauroux.

There'll be no repeat of last season's giant-killing run by Calais after the amateur side, which reached the 2000 final, was beaten 3-1 by first-division Sedan.

Spain. Real Madrid, which has a game in hand on all its title rivals, had its lead cut to two points after a 2-2 draw at Valladolid.

Jose Luis Caminero gave the home team an early 1-0 lead before Real hit back through Roberto Carlos and Fernando Morientes. But a 75th-minute equalizer by Fernando Fernandez halted the Madrid club's eight-match winning sequence.

Argentine midfielder Lionel Scaloni scored two virtuoso goals to give second-placed Deportivo Coruna a 3-1 win at Malaga.

The reigning champions now have 37 points after 19 games.

Both sides finished with 10 men as Barcelona won 1-0 at Valencia in a meeting of the teams lying in third and fourth places. Dutch international Frank de Boer hit the only goal in the seventh minute with a low shot from 30 meters.

After 19 matches, Barcelona has 36 points and Valencia 35.

Belgium. League leader Club Bruges was held to a 2-2 home draw by 10-man Excelsior Mouscron as the first-division program resumed after a winter break.

Former Belgian international goalkeeper Michel Preud'homme, 41, made a dream start as Standard Liege coach when his third-placed team beat La Louviere 4-0.

Champions Anderlecht, one point behind Club Bruges in second position, had its match at Westerlo postponed.

Portugal. Erwin Sanchez's 64th-minute goal gave leader Boavista a 1-0 home win over Beira Mar.

Dutch international Pierre van Hooijdonk was Benfica's two-goal marksman in a 2-1 win over Porto that was watched by a crowd of 50,000 in Lisbon.