SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #709 (76), Tuesday, October 2, 2001
**************************************************************************


TITLE: Construction of Ring Road Hits Snag
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Construction of the ambitious $1 billion Ring Road around St. Petersburg could be delayed by a recent Supreme Court decision, project managers and Legislative Assembly lawmakers said on Monday.
 The court ruled last week that the federal government had broken at least five federal laws, the Land Code and the Federal City Development Code with a decree it issued in March in order to speed up construction of the project.
 The 154-kilometer Ring Road was begun in 1994 and is intended to reduce the volume of traffic in downtown streets by as much as 50 percent. The project includes a 1.8-kilometer suspension bridge across the Neva River and a flood-control dam in the Gulf of Finland.
 The Supreme Court ruling came in response to a suit filed this summer by the Izhora Green Movement, a non-governmental organization based in the Frun zensky District, that alleged that the rights of area residents had been infringed by the project management, particularly by a government order this spring authorizing construction to proceed.
 "[The project's managment] has completely ignored the interests, rights and opinions of the local population and local self-government bodies, including those of Metallostroi, with a population of 30,000; Ust-Izhora; and Pontonny," the Izhora Green Movement petition reads.
 According to a project document entitled "The Structure of Traffic Flow on the Ring Road," traffic volume on this part of the road will increase by nine times by 2020, reaching an estimated 45,300 vehicles per day.
 Vera Gordienko, head of the Izhora Green Movement, authored the petition, in which she complained that construction on the project began even before a plan had been approved or required state environmental and sanitation reports had been filed. She also noted that the views of local residents had not been taken into consideration.
 "No financing has been allocated and no measures have been planned to reduce the impact of traffic noise and exhaust fumes along the section from St. Petersburg to Kirovsk, which is a clear violation of our constitutional right to a safe environment," Gordienko said.
 Sergei Podkuiko, a spokesperson for the project management, confirmed that the documentation cited by Gordienko had not been prepared in advance.
 "Government decree No. 305 authorized us to expedite construction in this way in order to complete the work more quickly," Podkuiko said on Monday. "The project plan will be approved on Oct. 15, which will eliminate one of the major reasons for the suit."
 In the summer of 1998, the city administration took over control of the Ring Road project because the previous management had had little success attracting foreign investment to the project. The city oversaw the completion of a 22-kilometer section on the north side of St. Petersburg last year. Last year's municipal budget allocated about $7.5 million for the project.
 However, the federal government felt that progress was still too slow and direct control was handed over to the Transport Ministry last year. 
 Since then, attention has focused largely on the eastern segment of the Ring Road, the cost of which is estimated to be about $700 million. The Transport Ministry allocated 2 billion rubles ($67 million) of this funding in the 2001 federal budget, of which 1.5 billion has been spent, and intends to include the remainder in the 2002 and 2003 budgets. 
 This sum represents about half of the total funding that the federal government has promised to prepare St. Petersburg for its tercentennial in May 2003.
 After government decree No. 305, the Transport Ministry held a tender in March to choose construction companies to build this part of the road, and construction began this summer. The eastern portion of the Ring Road is scheduled to be opened by May 2003.
 However, this timetable could be upset by the Supreme Court ruling, Podkuiko said. "The people who have done this know very well how the bureaucracy works. If somebody wants to, it is very easy to slow down the project," he said.
 According to Podkuiko, the environmental-impact report cited as missing in Gordienko's appeal is one way to slow down the project significantly.
 Viktor Yevtukhov, a member of the Legislative Assembly's Ring Road initiative group, said the assembly had asked City Hall for money to conduct an ecological evaluation of the project. The initiative group is made up of nine lawmakers whose districts are directly affected by the project.
 "Nobody is against the project. Lawmakers just want the road to be located away from residential areas," said Oleg Alexeyev, an assistant for Deputy Oleg Sergeyev.
 City Hall could not be reached for comment on Monday
 According to Podkuiko, the Ring Road management has allocated about $78 million to relocate about 1,000 families living within the construction zone.
 Officials at the Transport Ministry say that there is no cause for concern and the project will not be held up.
 "This road is necessary and it is for the people. I assure you that the eastern half of the Ring Road is going to be completed by May 2003. It may have four lanes instead of eight, but the road will function by 2003," said Arkady Ivanov, head of the federal coordinating council overseeing the project.
 He added that the ministry has 10 days to appeal the Supreme Court ruling to the Constitutional Court and that it "definitely" will do so.

TITLE: Duma Gives 2002 Budget First Nod
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The State Duma easily pushed through the draft 2002 budget in a first reading Friday despite sharp criticism that the plan would strangle the economy in its effort to ensure funds were available for foreign debts.
 "The budget is realistic, socially oriented and aimed, as much as possible, at the future," said Vladimir Pekhtin, head of the pro-Kremlin Unity faction.
 But most lawmakers agreed that volatile oil prices could easily upset all budget projections.
 The 2.12-trillion-ruble ($67.3 billion) budget, which was approved by the cabinet earlier last week, sets spending at 1.94 billion rubles and foresees a surplus of 178 billion rubles, or 1.63 percent of gross domestic product.
 GDP - budgeted at 10.95 trillion rubles ($347.6) - is expected to grow by 4 percent after a projected increase of 5.5 percent in 2001.
 The surplus is to be spent on debts. Of the surplus, 68.56 billion rubles is to go for maturing foreign debt next year, while the remaining 109.76 billion rubles is earmarked for a peak of $19 billion in debt payments in 2003. The surplus is to go into a yet-to-be-formed state debt reserve.
 The draft budget is based on the so-called optimistic scenario - the average price per barrel of Urals blend crude next year is set at $23, a couple dollars more than the price Urals is currently trading at.
 The exchange rate will average 31.5 rubles to the U.S. dollar, and inflation is set at 10 percent to 13 percent compared with the 16 percent to 18 percent expected this year.
 The draft, which was approved 262-125 with two abstentions, was backed by most Duma factions. Communists and Agrarians, traditional government opponents, rejected the bill, while none of the 12 members of Vla di mir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party voted.
 Faction leaders almost across the board criticized the government for making foreign-debt repayment the priority for 2002.
 "The privilege of paying off all debts is for a well-off country, and we are not such a country," said Oleg Morozov, head of Russia's Regions.
 "[Russia has] catastrophically archaic assets, aging infrastructure and skyrocketing technological degradation," he said. "A couple more years and such an economy will become a self-devouring monster because it is not renovating its main components."
 Boris Nemtsov, leader of the Union of Right Forces, called for debt-restructuring negotiations with Western creditors.
 "Pakistan had its debts quickly forgiven. Such a window of opportunity for Russia has also opened," Nemtsov said, hinting at a possible deal in which Russia might participate in the counter-terrorist operation in Afghanistan in return for debt forgiveness.
 The West recently rescheduled hundreds of millions of dollars of Pakistani debt after the country agreed to cooperate in the hunt for terrorist suspect Osa ma bin Laden.
 Audit Chamber head Sergei Ste pa shin, meanwhile, took some deputies by surprise by announcing that the government has yet to create a system to administer foreign-debt repayment and even lacks documentation proving that $5.7 billion in Soviet-era debt has been repaid.
 "How is this possible?" said Gennady Raikov, leader of the People's Deputy faction. "A year ago, we commissioned the government to look thoroughly into the foreign-debt situation. Why didn't they do so?"
 Pro-Kremlin faction leaders and the opposition alike voiced concern that the budget is prone to the unpredictable fluctuations of oil prices after the terrorist attacks in the United States.
 Oil, metals and gas account for a third of hard-currency budget revenues.
 Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has said a $1 drop in the price of a barrel of oil translates into a loss of $1 billion for the federal budget.
 Lawmakers urged the government to decrease the budget's dependence on oil exports and consider investment into high-tech industries that could give Russia a competitive global edge.
 "This budget offers no such strategic programs," said Igor Artemyev, a member of the Yabloko faction. "We must make the economy more diversified and pay special attention to the development of small business."
 Morozov agreed, adding that the country must mobilize the billions of dollars kept by the population under their mattresses and the "super profits of natural monopolies."
 Pekhtin said that Unity supports funding for the "new economy" - industries that can "fill in the budget even with the downfall of oil prices." He said such industries included civil aviation and space technologies.
 Vyacheslav Volodin, head of the Fatherland All-Russia faction, also called for an increase in investment in the real sector, naming as priorities roads, metro stations and high-tech industries.
 Lawmakers appeared united in saying the draft budget required a substantial overhaul to win their votes in a second hearing scheduled for Oct. 19.
 However, Finance Minister Alexei Kud rin, who looked very satisfied after the vote, said he expected no problem getting the budget passed in the second reading.
 "The second reading will be more difficult, but a compromise, as in the first reading, will be found. The budget will be adopted," Kudrin said.

TITLE: Tax Bill Could Strangle Print Media in Russia
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Publishers are fighting what they say is a life-or-death battle for print media as they lobby over tax bills before the State Duma's budget committee.
 With the law extending the media's tax breaks due to expire Dec. 31, the committee is looking into two bills - one proposing extending the tax breaks for two more years, and the other proposing to strip media of their tax-exempt status and impose a reduced value-added tax of 10 percent.
 Various media associations and publishers are lobbying to extend the tax breaks, but they face opposition from some media groups and lawmakers favoring a reduced tax instead.
 Russian media have enjoyed an assortment of tax exemptions since 1995 under the law on state support for the mass media, which includes an exemption from paying the 20 percent value-added tax. The exemptions were first due to expire in 1998 but were extended after that year's financial crisis.
 Budget committee head Alexander Zhukov said he favors the 10 percent VAT proposal, calling it a temporary measure to help the industry slowly adjust to the practice of paying taxes.
 "The budget committee is considering the 10 percent rate for a transitional period," Zhukov said after a meeting with Alexander Lyubimov, head of the Russian Media Union and deputy general director ofORT television, who proposed introducing the system for a year.
 Vladimir Mamontov, editor of the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, was cautious about the proposed new system after attending the meeting with Zhukov and Lyubimov.
 "The transition to a civilized market must be carried out gradually to make sure the industry does not accidentally get killed during this transition," he said.
 The proposed new system's opponents, who include the Journalists Union and the National Association of Publishers, said that for many regional publishers, it would mean dramatically reducing circulation and boosting prices in a bid to fight bankruptcy.
 Journalists Union head Igor Ya ko ven ko said the new system could bring about the end of independent print media, especially in the regions. Only a minority could rely on state subsidies from regional budgets.
 Alexei Voinov, a legal expert with the National Association of Publishers, said the industry was still recovering after the 1998 financial crisis, and extending the tax exemptions was the only way for most print media to survive. He said major newspapers' new taxpaying status would just mean wrapping up some minor projects, but for tiny regional newspapers, the result was almost guaranteed bankruptcy.
 "We have analyzed both proposals and have come to the conclusion that print media are not prepared for the 10- percent tax now," Voinov said. "We would recommend preserving the existing system for now, targeting a 10-percent rate in future."

TITLE: Russian Museums Plan Union
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: There are nearly 3,000 official musuems in Russia, preserving and exhibiting more than 50 million cultural artifacts. And yet, the opinions of the people who run them are often ignored by the political powers-that-be. That is why many of them intend to form a union.
 The founding congress of a new Museums' Union of Russia will be held Oct. 26-27 in St. Petersburg and, according to organizers, nearly 300 museums from across the country have signed on to join this nongovernmental, noncommercial organization.
 "The idea of such a union has been circulating for quite a long time and took shape last December at a conference of museum workers organized by the Russian Culture Ministry," said Mik hail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum and head of the organizing committee of the congress. "Just like actors or architects, we need a creative union that would coordinate the work of museums across the country."
 "Of course, there are plenty of instructions and regulations, but together we would develop valuable recommendations and advice for one another, especially regarding questions such as fund raising and merchandising, to which many are still new," Piotrovsky said.
 Initially, the new union will focus on developing changes to existing laws in order to make them correspond better to the real situation museums face. Organizers believe it is more likely that such proposals would be heeded coming from a unified organization rather than as a series of disjointed voices.
 Yevgeny Bogatyryov, director of the Pushkin Art Museum in Moscow, said that the country has needed such a union for more than a decade. Unfortunately, museums in Moscow still don't have a local professional organization, and we hope the national union will help us finally to create our own," he said.
 "For smaller museums in particular, the union is an invaluable opportunity to express their problems and plight," said Vladimir Tolstoy, director of the Lev Tolstoy Memorial Museum in Yasnaya Polyana, near the central Russian town of Oryol. "Even the country's giant museums can't always make state officials take their side."
 Tolstoy added that instructions for museums issued by the Culture Ministry are often impractical or impossible to implement.
 Tolstoy also believes that the cultural role of the country's museums is underestimated. "A museum is far more than a mere collection of valuables that need display and preservation. The social and educational role [of museums] is much greater than is generally recognized, especially in the provinces. In very small towns, a museum frequently appears as virtually a pillar around which the local community is united," Tolstoy said.
 The Culture Ministry has welcomed the proposed union. "It wasn't the ministry's initiative, but we recognize the need for a union and will support it," said Anna Kolupayeva, head of the Museums Department of the Culture Ministry. "Regional and municipal museum unions already exist in some parts of Russia, and their experience will serve as a good basis for a national union." 
 Kolupayeva believes that there are already sufficient forces lobbying the interests of culture both in the State Duma and in the federal government. However, she noted that a united voice for the country's musuems has been lacking to date.
 "Whether the Culture Ministry agrees with the union's views or not, the opinion of museum curators deserves to be heard," she said.
 Union organizers also hope that the new organization will play a part in reviving the tradition of exchange exhibitions among the country's musuems. In Soviet times, such projects were funded by the state, but in recent years the cash-strapped Culture Ministry has been unable to finance any of them.

TITLE: Russian Afghan War Vets Predict Tough Campaign
AUTHOR: By Deborah Seward
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Major General Alexander Popov was prepared for the high mountains, bitter cold and blistering heat. But when the Soviet Army crossed into Afghanistan in 1979, he didn't know the caves would be so deep, the tunnels so long or the Afghans so clever at hiding in the daunting terrain that has defied so many invaders in the past.
 "I'd worked in the mountains, but those high mountains and cliffs were really impressive. We had to get over our psychological unpreparedness," said Popov, now a senior officer in Russia's peacekeeping forces. "The mountains are difficult to reach. The level of physical preparation has to be very high."
 Former Soviet officers say top- flight intelligence will be key to whatever operation the United States and its allies may undertake against Afg ha ni stan, where Osa ma bin Laden, the chief suspect in the terror attacks in New York and Washington, is believed to be hiding.
 "Strictly from my experience, I want to say that for the preparation of such an operation, above all, full-scale intelligence in all forms and methods is needed," Lieutenant General Boris Gro mov, who led the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, said in written answers to questions.
 Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said that Russia already is providing the United States with intelligence about Afghanistan as part of the Kremlin's efforts to cooperate with the war against terrorism and the search for bin Laden.
 Russian military officials have declined publicly to be specific about what intelligence their country will provide. But interviews with veterans of the Soviet Union's failed 10-year war in Afghanistan indicate they could have a lot to share.
 "The U.S. secret services must use our experience and knowledge in preparations for the strikes against Afghanistan," said Major Valery Misil, who was a deputy commander of a special KGB task unit in Afghanistan. Misil served in Paktika province south of Kabul near the border with Pakistan.
 "I can draw the maps of this province, and I can recollect how the terrain looks with all the caves, passes and brooks. One of the Taliban bases is located there," said Misil, who is now a reserve officer. "We are ready to share our experience with the [United States] and work with them as military experts."
 Popov, a paratrooper who commanded a tactical unit and a reconnaissance group during two tours of Afghanistan, says knowledge of the country's geography is paramount.
 The United States has sophisticated satellite mapping capability, electronic surveillance and a host of other technological intelligence means. But that's not all it will take to provide a comprehensive picture of the whereabouts of the Taliban forces, and bin Laden.
 The Russians warn that the Americans will have to know the languages, recruit agents and win over the Afghan people.
 Even after a network is established, further dangers lie ahead. Veteran organizations in Russia and other former Soviet republics are testament to the treachery of waging war in Afghanistan. Almost every veteran knows somebody who lost a leg or an arm.
 "One of the most dangerous things is the mines," said Popov. "They are specialists in mines, surprises." Doorknobs, TV sets, even cigarette packages can be mined, he added.
 With all those traps laid so carefully for so long, bin Laden could hide for a very long time, the Russians believe. "If you can't identify where he is," Popov said. "You won't be able to get him."

TITLE: Chechen Rebel Chief Killed, Say Russians
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Russian troops claimed Monday that they killed a rebel chief in Chechnya, the breakaway republic where fighting continues despite a Kremlin offer to begin negotiations on laying down weapons.
 Russian troops clashed with a group of rebels in the village of Starye Atagi south of the Chechen capital Grozny, killing three of them and wounding one in a battle that lasted several hours, said an official with the Kremlin-appointed administration for Chechnya, who asked not to be named.
 One of those killed was identified as Abu Yakub, a rebel chief who worked as the head sabotage and explosives expert for Khattab, a prominent Muslim warlord who is Jordanian by birth, the official said.
 President Vladimir Putin has urged the rebels to sever ties with Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. Russian officials have described Khattab, who remains at large, as a close associate of bin Laden.
 U.S. officials welcomed Putin's offer last week to hold disarmament talks with the rebels and President George W. Bush endorsed Putin's assertion that some rebels in Chechnya are affiliated with bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
 At least 11 Russian troops were killed and about 30 wounded in rebel shellings and mine explosions throughout Chechnya over the past 24 hours, said the Chechen administration official.
 On Sunday, rebels killed the pro-Russian police chief in the southern Che chen town of Shali, Hamzat Ba sha nov, and decapitated his body, local residents said.
 Unidentified gunmen also entered the village of Avtury over the weekend, killing six local residents and burning a house, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the local administration.
 Russian forces launched the new operations against separatist guerrillas in Chechnya on Sunday, a day after a series of coordinated attacks by rebels on a series of towns in the region.
 The rebels announced no new activity, but said the aims of the operation had been achieved several days after Putin issued a call for disarmament and talks.
 Itar-Tass news agency quoted an Interior Ministry spokesperson as saying that 15 operations had been undertaken in the regional capital Grozny and in areas to the south and east where many of Saturday's rebel attacks had occurred.
 Reports said two officers had died and 19 were injured in Saturday's rebel attack on a police station in Kurchaloi. They said no deaths were recorded in a similar strike on military and police buildings in Shali, further west.
 Other reports on Saturday had put the toll in Kurchaloi at three dead and 14 wounded with four dead in Shali. 
 The attacks were the first since Putin last Monday gave the rebels 72 hours to start discussing disarmament with Mos cow. Russian officials have since acknowledged making informal contacts with some rebels, but with little effect on events.
 Chechnya's chief military commandant, Sergei Kizyun, told TV6 that authorities were getting many enquiries about what Putin's statement meant for those handing in weapons.
 "There have been many instances where relatives have tried to make contact with military commandants to find out what was meant by the president's statements, what the consequences might be for people who give in weapons," he said.
 Officers, he said, were explaining that those having committed no crimes involving blood could go free.
 The attacks occurred weeks after rebels launched a big offensive against Russia, attacking several towns and shooting down a helicopter carrying two generals and eight other top officers.
 "We are ready for real dialogue and a peaceful solution to this conflict," Akhmad Zakayev, a member of Chechnya's rebel government appointed to negotiations by rebel leader Aslan Mask hadov, said on NTV television Saturday. He said he had contacted delegates of Putin's envoy Viktor Kazantsev about arranging a time and place for talks. 
 <i>- Reuters, AP, SPT </i>

TITLE: Afghans Live Without Taliban in Kyrgyzstan
AUTHOR: By Russell Working
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - When the Taliban captured Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1992, rockets and mortar fire rained down on the city, and the citizens hid in bomb shelters they dug in their yards. As they rolled into town, the Taliban soldiers - fanatical Islamic students turned guerrilla fighters - seized their enemies and hanged them. The bodies were left swaying in the city park.
 Jobarkhel Lal Muhammad had reason to fear that the bearded soldiers firing AK-47 assualt rifles in the air were also planning to lynch him and his family. He was a general in an air unit of the government army the Soviet Union had backed during its 1979-89 invasion. So they fled their homeland for this mountainous former Soviet republic.
 Since then, Muhammad has nurtured a dream: an Afghanistan rid of the Taliban, which has imposed its extremist version of Islamic law in the remote central Asian country. Perhaps the United States and even Russia could join with the Afg han diaspora in overthrowing the Taliban, he tells anyone who will listen. Non-Afg hans tended to dismiss Muhammad as naive.
 Until now, that is. Suddenly, with the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, a forgotten community of exiles believes that its moment has come. Americans are thirsting for vengeance, and the lead suspect is Osama bin Laden, a Saudi multimillionaire who has made Afghanistan headquarters for his global terror network. As America threatens to punish countries like Afghanistan that harbor terrorists, the eyes of the world have turned to the 300,000 Afghans living in the former Soviet Union. Altogether, nearly 3.6 million Afghan refugees live abroad, according to the nonprofit U.S. Committee for Refugees. After all, many of them have experience fighting against the mujahedin guerrilla fighters who drove the Soviet Army from Afghanistan.
 &quot;I can go and fight again right now,&quot; Muhammad said. &quot;If they don't take me, I can help with advice. I fought there for 15 years on an AN-24 transport aircraft.&quot;
 Bishkek might seem a strange place to find 2,000 Afghans. It doesn't border Afghanistan, and its leafy boulevards could pass for somewhere in provincial Russia. This is a city of the sort slapped together by central planners throughout the former Soviet Union - prefab concrete apartments, a Stalin-era soccer stadium, a vast plaza decorated with grotesque monuments to World War II. Stop a schoolboy at random on the street, and you will find he can converse in Russian.
 But first impressions deceive, for Kyrgyzstan is as much a part of the Islamic world as it is in Russia's sphere of influence. Like Afghanistan, it is more than 90 percent mountainous. Jagged, snowcapped peaks stand just 40 kilometers to the south of Bishkek. Peasants wearing traditional felt hats, like elves in a children's book, drive donkey carts through town. Every block seems to have several outdoor cafes with smoking shashlyk grills. Since independence in 1991, new mosques have sprouted up, their architecture a strange mix of Arabic domes and Soviet-style concrete slabs.
 Many of the Afghans here supported the Soviet invasion, and therefore it was natural that they fled north with their families after the Taliban's victory. Most speak Russian in addition to their native Farsi, and they live in apartments, not the refugee tent camps of Iran and Pakistan. Nevertheless, they have fallen into poverty since leaving their homeland. Physicians earn their living selling fruit in stalls set up by the road; professors sell matches, cigarettes and boxes of tea in the outdoor bazaar. While the Afghans share the Muslim faith of the Kyrgyz majority, they remain a people apart. Kyrgyzstan became more secularized and Russified after its conquest by tsarist armies in 1876, while Afghanistan is a remote country that has long fought off conquerors dating back to Alexander the Great. Islam has always sat lightly on the nomadic Kyrgyz (its people share the Russian penchant for vodka, for one), while Afghans adhere to a stricter Muslim faith.
 The Taliban is the embodiment of this religious conservatism. Composed mostly of ethnic Pushtuns, it enforces a rigid theocracy. Women must be covered from head to toe and men must grow beards. The clerics restrict women's and girls' access to doctors, jobs and school. Afghanistan's per capita income is among the world's lowest, and its infant mortality rate - 149 deaths per 1,000 children - is one of the highest. The average life expectancy is just 47 years. The current government does little to fight these dismal statistics: It spends most of its budget in a war against guerrillas. The war effort is funded in part by drug trafficking; Afghanistan has become the world's largest producer of opium, the CIA reports.
 The Taliban's efforts to export Islamic revolution have touched Kyrgyzstan itself. Insurgents associated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan carried out several attacks in Kyrgyzstan last year. The rebels, whose apparent aim is to impose Islamic Sharia law in Uzbekistan and neighboring countries, operate out of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The U.S. State Department says Kabul supports them.
 Afghan refugees escaping from the Taliban have found little welcome in Kyrgyzstan. Refugees' problems start with the police. Afghans often have trouble securing the documents that would allow them to set up legal residence here, and they risk being deported to Afghanistan, said Sayd Muhammad Omar, chairperson of a local refugee aid foundation. Police frequently hit Afghans up for bribes. Omar's foundation provides visa assistance and has also set up a school.
 Omar exemplifies the ties many Afghans have with the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. He first visited Kiev in 1974, to study to become a military pilot. With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he returned to fight on behalf of the pro-Soviet government. He eventually worked in Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs but was forced to flee with the Taliban's victory.
 &quot;The Taliban is not only Afghani stan's problem, it is a problem for the whole world,&quot; he said. &quot;International terrorism was born there.&quot;
 Nevertheless, in Kyrgyzstan he has found it necessary to do business with the Taliban. In helping refugees with their documents, he must work with the Afghan Embassy in Almaty in neighboring Kazakhstan. The embassy even gave his foundation a car so that he could drive about the countryside and register refugees. The car then caught the eye of Kyrgyz authorities.
 &quot;Two young guys showed up and said they were customs officers,&quot; Omar said. &quot;They said they were confiscating the car. I have been protesting for three months now, and they won't tell me why they took it.&quot;
 Habib Khaliqi has had a close-up perspective on the precariousness of the refugees' lives here. An Afghanistan-born American citizen, he worked until his retirement as the administrator of hospital in Ordway, Colorado. But he and his wife decided they wanted to help Afghan refugees, so they came to Kyrgyzstan, where he is director of a school called the Science, Technology and Language Institute. Women learn to sew, children study Farsi and English, teenagers take high-school equivalency tests. Most children have lost years of schooling and have been traumatized by the war.
 &quot;You could say it's a whole generation lost,&quot; Khaliqi said. &quot;They didn't have any opportunity for school in Afghanistan because of the war, because of migration, because of the breakup of families. Most of them are illiterate.&quot;
 The school would be considered commonplace in most of the world. But even abroad, the education of Afghans can appear subversive. After all, the Taliban have barred women from education. In one room, Australian instructors David and Heather Eckersley teach English to a group of girls and young women. Some wear the traditional Muslim head scarves. Upstairs, children learn to read Farsi. It is both moving and sobering to consider that these classes - with sentences diagrammed on the chalkboard and girls giggling at the presence of a reporter with a camera - would be illegal in Afghanistan.
 Manavara Shesta Kiam, 30, has similar goals with the Mukhadjir Foundation, an organization for women and children that she heads. Educated as an engineer, she found herself under suspicion at home, for the Taliban believes all secularly educated people are communists, she said. Kiam fled Afghanistan.
 Nowadays, her foundation tries to provide the education necessary to find work here. Women hungry for knowledge study sewing, hairdressing, English, Farsi, Russian and even computer skills. &quot;Few of them have ever been in a classroom before,&quot; Kiam said.
 The foundation has also arranged for a local clinic to provide free health care for women. This alone would be a political act in the Taliban's Afghani stan. &quot;A woman is not allowed to go out alone,&quot; Kiam said. &quot;If she needs medical help, a man must accompany her to the doctor. But there are so many widows whose husbands, fathers and sons were killed. So what are they supposed to do?&quot;
 Many Afghans have been waging a political struggle in exile as well. Kiam's foundation is petitioning Kyrgyzstan and other neighboring countries not to close their borders to refugees, particularly now, as thousands are fleeing in fear that the United States will go to war with Afghanistan. The situation is especially difficult for those who try to enter Kyrgyzstan from third countries such as Pakistan, home to millions of Afghan exiles; the Kyrgyz government does not recognize them as refugees.
 Since Sept. 11, the tectonic plates in international relations have shifted, and Kyrgyz Afghans have watched to see what will happen. Afghan leaders here uniformly expressed outrage over the terror in the United States and sympathy for the victims, and Khaliqi echoed the thoughts of many when he said he was relieved to see no Afghan names on the list of suspected hijackers.
 But while Kyrgyzstan's Afghans are too polite to say, &quot;I told you so,&quot; some war veterans hint that the spread of terror is a consequence of America's pouring $2 billion into arming the Afghan rebels in their fight against the Soviet Union. In a struggle against its Cold War foe, the United States unwittingly trained its next enemy: a generation of radical Muslims whose loathing of godless communism is now exceeded by their hatred of the hedonistic West.
 Bin Laden was one of these mujahedin warriors. As a young man, the son of a Saudi millionaire organized an army of foreigners who flocked from all over the Muslim world to fight alongside the mujahedin. He eventually became a key leader for about 20,000 &quot;Afghan Arabs.&quot; He not only bankrolled their war but he himself fought in many major battles, including the 1989 siege of Jalalabad.
 But the guilt over the terror in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania doesn't stop with bin Laden, Omar said. He is convinced that Kabul itself is behind the bombings of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. &quot;I have no doubt that these barbaric terrorist acts were organized by the Taliban,&quot; he said. &quot;Our whole community here was outraged.&quot;
 Even as they digested news of the terror in the United States, Afghans in Kyrgyzstan have been grieving over the death of Ahmad Shah Massood, a rebel leader who was recently assassinated in Afghanistan. This news has rekindled the exiles' wrath against the Taliban.
 But now something may happen, they say. &quot;I hope these horrible things will lead to the liberation of Afghani stan,&quot; Omar said. &quot;All our generals are ready to go to war and help America liberate the country. If anybody from the U.S. Embassy is willing to come seeking our advice, we'll do our best to help them. All the major world organizations should get together and destroy this nest of the international terrorism.&quot;
 Many foreign commentators have pointed to the Soviet invasion as a cautionary tale - any Americans attacking Afghanistan could find themselves bogged down in a bloody guerrilla war. But Afghans here believe that ordinary people will support the foreign invaders this time around.
 &quot;In some sense, this would be seen as a liberation,&quot; Khalaqi said. &quot;I don't think the people will resist the way they resisted the Soviet Union, because they were seen as occupiers. The trouble is, it's very hard to find a recognized, legitimate person who would go and replace the Afghan regime - a leader who is recognized by all the factions and doesn't have blood on his hands.&quot;
 While he welcomes talk of retaliation against the Taliban, Muhammad also worries that the Afghan people might suffer. &quot;We were horrified by the terrorist acts in America, and many of us have relatives and friends in America, too,&quot; he said. &quot;But we don't want deaths of peaceful people in Afghanistan either. That is why it is important to hit the terrorists' bases and not towns.&quot;
 A few weeks ago, the Afghans of Kyrgyzstan seemed like so many forgotten peoples aggrieved by a tyrannical regime: North Koreans in China, Chinese Uighurs in Kazakhstan. Their war veterans resembled former White Army generals huddled in Berlin cafes in the late 1920s, sketching out battle plans for a defeat of the Bolsheviks. Suddenly, pundits and strategists are urging the United States to seek them out and draw on their experience. They believe they have something to offer in fighting the Taliban. But more than that, they believe the time is ripe to cut off the head of the snake.
 Explained Omar: &quot;This is an illness that our country can't cure on its own.&quot;
 
 <i>Nonna Chernyakova contributed to this report. </i>

TITLE: Speculation Mounts Over Russia-NATO Talks
AUTHOR: By Megan Twohey
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In the build-up to the meeting between President Vladimir Putin and NATO Secretary General George Robertson in Brussels on Wednesday, there has been speculation about whether Russia might ask to join NATO. 
 Putin was asked about this possibility during his visit to Germany last week. &quot;Everything depends on what is on offer,&quot; he told reporters. &quot;There is no longer a reason for the West not to conduct such talks.&quot;
 Yet, despite a new climate of cooperation between Russia and the West, which surfaced in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States, it is unlikely that Russia will become a member of NATO anytime soon, experts say. Instead, this week's meeting may open up careful discussions on how Russia and NATO can reconfigure their relationship to serve both parties' needs better. 
 &quot;Putin won't ask for membership,&quot; said Robert Nurick, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow. &quot;But he is likely to continue to use the new anti-terrorist movement as a way to put in place a Russian-NATO agenda that gives Russia more decision-making power.&quot;
 Russia doesn't need to become a member of NATO in order for it to have stronger ties to and more influence in the alliance. Russia and NATO now communicate through the Permanent Joint Council. The council, which was set up in 1997, was designed to give Russia a voice instead of a veto. But Russia has longed viewed the council as a platform through which NATO simply announces its decisions. NATO may now try to draw Russia closer by reforming the council so that Russia is actually consulted ahead of time about key NATO decisions, Nurick said Monday.
 Even if Russia did want to become a NATO member, the country would have to undergo some severe internal transformations. For starters, it would have to comply with current NATO rules, which require full civilian control of the military, a policy that is not in place in Russia. 
 &quot;There can't be more than seven or eight lines on military spending in the preliminary budget the Duma just adopted for next year,&quot; said Alexander Salsavelyev, head of the military-policy section at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences. &quot;That's certainly not enough to claim that the Duma controls military spending.&quot; 
 Russia has given no signals that it's anxious to transform in order to be admitted to NATO. In fact, the messages coming out of Moscow are the opposite. They suggest that Russia isn't interested in joining NATO unless NATO changes. 
 &quot;Some people are saying that the new question is whether Russia should join NATO,&quot; said Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected political analyst. &quot;The real question is how should NATO change so that Russia can join.&quot; 
 To become a member, Russia would want NATO to decrease its military forces and weaponry, Markov said. It would also want NATO to deny membership to Latvia and Estonia.
 If such barriers were overcome and Russia became a member of NATO, the alliance's role in the world would be transformed. With membership, Russia would receive veto power. Because Russia is sometimes at odds with NATO, as was the case with NATO's military action over Kosovo, its right to veto NATO decisions could cripple the alliance's ability to take action supported by Europe and the United States. 
 Perhaps most signficant would be the extension of NATO's land borders to China. Such an extension would force NATO to take China into consideration when debating whether to use the Article 5 mutual-defense clause. &quot;I doubt NATO members would be happy to assume responsibility for the Russian-Chinese border,&quot; said Salsavelyev.
 And, of course, if Russia really wants to become a member of NATO, it will have to apply like everybody else. The Soviet Union made a request in 1953, after the death of Stalin. When Nikita Khrushchev asked to join, the United States and Britain refused.

TITLE: Report: Bin Laden Linked to Russia
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered information that Russian criminal groups have been supplying Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist group with components for chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, The Washington Times reported.
 The Foreign Ministry called the report an attempt to undermine relations between the United States and Russia at a time of increased cooperation.
 The Washington Times, citing U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity, reported last Wednesday that bin Laden is believed by U.S. intelligence to have a secret nuclear-weapons laboratory inside Afghanistan. This is believed to be one of the sites sought for U.S. military strikes, the newspaper said. 
 There is no hard evidence that bin Laden or his followers have actually produced chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. But bin Laden has worked with Russian mafia groups in obtaining components for weapons of mass destruction, according to officials familiar with the intelligence reports.
 The U.S. State Department's latest report on international terrorism says that al-Qaeda continued to seek chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear capabilities, the newspaper said. Intelligence officials say al-Qaeda is probably trying to produce the nerve agent Sarin or biological weapons made up of anthrax spores.
 A former State Department counterterrorism official, Larry Johnson, said the contacts between the Russian mafia and bin Laden could be related to drug trafficking and that such cooperation would not be surprising, the newspaper said.
 The Foreign Ministry said the new report raises a question: &quot;Why should such information be splashed out on newspaper pages instead of discussing it through the channels existing between our countries, including confidential ones?&quot; 
 &quot;One may get the impression that some in the United States oppose the positive tendency in Russian-American relations that has made itself felt recently,&quot; the ministry said in a statement carried by Interfax.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Dysentery Outbreak
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Thirty-six preschool children have been hospitalized with dysentery in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Monday.
 According to the news agency, 609 children and 34 adults were diagnosed with the illness from Sept. 20 to Sept. 30, with the outbreak mostly located in the Vyborg, Krasnoselsky, Ka lininsky and Admiralteisky districts of the city. 
 Authorities believe that the disease was spread through contaminated food, but are still attempting to isolate the source, according to Interfax.
 
 
Get Out the Vote
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The leaders of several local political parties issued a joint appeal Monday urging voters to participate in the Oct. 14 vote to choose a State Duma deputy for District no. 209, Interfax reported.
 "The absence of a deputy from Distrcit no. 209 not only makes it more difficult to resolve a number of social issues, but it is also a blow to the prestige of our city, which is a center of political culture," the statement reads. It was signed by leaders of Unity, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Union of Right Forces, Yabloko, the Communist Party and others.
 Nine candidates are running for the seat, which was vacated when Sergei Ste pashin was appointed to the Audit Chamber last May. They include the director of the Leningrad Zoo, Ivan Korneyev; Deputy Labor Minister Natalia Petukhova and Legislative Assembly Deputy Yury Shutov, who has been indicted on charges of organizing the murders of several high-placed officials, Interfax reported.
 
 
Shutov Trial Opens
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The St. Petersburg Municipal Court has begun hearing the case of a criminal group made up of 16 people, including Legislative Assembly Deputy Yury Shutov, Interfax reported Monday.
 The court had earlier considered and rejected a motion by Shutov asking that the judge hearing the case be dismissed.
 Shutov, who was a close adviser of former Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, was arrested in February 1999 on charges of organizing a criminal gang and masterminding a string of high-profile contract murders. Among other crimes, Shutov is charged with the murders of Dmitry Filippov, chairperson of the board of directors of Menatep-St. Petersburg Bank; Yevgeny Agarev, chairperson of the municipal Consumer Goods Committee; and Nikolai Bolotovsky, chairperson of the board of directors of the defense-contracting firm, Istochnik. Shu tov is also charged with plotting to kill State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Shev chenko, among others.
 According to Shutov's lawyer, Andrei Pelevin, Shutov was not at the hearing on Monday because of poor health. Other accused members of the gang were present, Interfax reported. 
 
 
58% for Neutrality
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - Two weeks after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, an opinion poll has shown the majority of Russians do not support the U.S. decision to retaliate against the countries accused of harboring terrorists.
 According to the poll, conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, 61 percent disapprove of retaliatory actions against the countries accused of harboring terrorists, while 27 percent support them.
 If such actions take place, Russia should be "neutral," said 58 percent of people polled. Twenty-four percent said Russia should support the actions, and 10 percent said Moscow should actively oppose any such action.
 
 
Explosive Situation
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - Two Moscow airports were put on alert Friday as a cargo plane with almost 9 tons of explosives and hundreds of detonators on board was detained by customs officials at Domodedovo Airport while a bomb scare forced officials to evacuate Vnu kovo airport briefly.
 An An-12 plane belonging to the Moscow-based Aerofrakht carrier was detained when it made a planned stop at Domodedovo Thursday night for refueling and a change of crew en route from Vienna to Kazakhstan. The plane was transporting 8.98 tons of explosive material and 594 detonators, a spokesperson for the State Customs Committee said.
 Aerofrakht representative Sergei Fa de yev said the cargo was sent by a Spanish company, Union Espanola de Explosiva, and was meant for the Dzhezkazgan-based Kazakhmys Corporation, a major copper-mining enterprise.
 Domodedovo spokesperson Yulia Ma zanova said the plane was not detained because of its load but over one missing document and one expired document among the carrier's paperwork. The company failed to produce a transit certificate from the Russian Munitions Agency and presented an expired permit for purchasing explosives issued by Kazakh authorities, Mazanova said. 



TITLE: St. Petersburg Companies Going Dutch
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Three days of meetings between a delegation of government officials and businesspeople from the Netherlands and local government officials ended on Saturday. But note before completing discussions in areas ranging from support for developing the local port infrastructure to a plan to ship wood-industry by-products to Holland for energy production.
 The talks were the culmination of the three-week Window on the Netherlands Festival.
 The Netherlands delegation consisted of about 40 businesspeople and governmental representatives and was headed by Foreign Trade Minister Gerrit Ybema.
 On Thursday, Ybema held a meeting with Grigory Dvas, vice governor of the Leningrad Oblast, where one of the topics of discussion was a project to sell scrap wood to Dutch electricity and heating companies. Oblast wood-processing plants produce about 4 million cubic meters of scrap wood annually, much of which is simply thrown away.
 According to oblast representatives, the two sides are looking for ways to eliminate this waste.
 &quot;Dutch energy producers have the technology to use these waste products effectively,&quot; Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Leningrad Oblast's External Economic Relations Committee, who participated in the negotiations, said Friday. &quot;They press them into bricks that can be burned in a very ecologically clean manner. The process produces a lot of heat and very little smoke.&quot;
 Construction and improvement of sea ports in the region were also discussed, particularly in Ust-Luga, which is about 150 kilometers west of the city on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The Ust-Luga project would involve the construction of a cargo terminal in the existing port, which will be used for increased shipping traffic to and from the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
 Peter Strauss, executive director of the Rotterdam Port, had already confirmed the Dutch facility's interest in taking part in the project during a visit last week.
 A second project discussed was the construction of a cargo terminal in the Yermilovskaya Bay port, about 100 kilometers northwest of St. Petersburg, near Primorsk.
 The oblast administration has been talking about the Yermilovskaya Bay project for a while, listing it in its catalogue of investment projects since 1997.
 A consortium of Dutch companies, including leading petroleum retailer Petroplus Engineering Group, business-project management firm Berenschot International Solutions, construction firm Ballast Nedam and the Rotterdam sea port.
 According to a press release issued by Alexander Butenin, press secretary for the oblast administration, their participation will foster stability and transparency in the project, making it easier to attract financing from state and international financial organizations.
 &quot;A preliminary analysis by consortium representatives concluded that the ports in the Leningrad Oblast are in need of greater cargo-handling capabilities to keep up with the increase in traffic in the region,&quot; the press release said.
 Dvas gave Ybema documents from the administration confirming the ob last's interest in setting up the project.
 Other projects discussed included a baking facility in Vyborg; 160 kilometers north of St. Petersburg; supplying feed for fish-breeding farms in the region; and the construction of a warehouse for Sanatra, a Dutch company that supplies meat to food-processing companies in the oblast.
 On Friday, local businesses met with representatives from Dutch companies at an event at the Nevskij Palace Hotel. Russian businesspeople were able to fill out applications via the Internet to meet with officials from specific firms prior to the seminar, which was organized by the Netherlands Consulate. 
 &quot;This is the first official mission of Dutch companies to Russia,&quot; Ybema, who also participated in event, said. &quot;Russia today is a country of difficulties, dynamics and contrasts.&quot;
 &quot;We came here because of the improvement in the economic, political and investment climates.&quot;
 According to Elov Weelinck, senior project manager at the Foreign Trade Agency of the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, some of the firms represented at the event already have active business interests in Russia, while for others it was their first contact.
 While Naryshkin also attended Friday's seminar, St. Petersburg Vice-Governor Yury Antonov, who was slated to attend and represent Smolny, was a no-show. No reason for his absence was given.
 Kirill Avdeyev, the head of the St. Petersburg Administration External Relations Committee, was present. In his address he noted that the Dutch share represents 38 percent of all foreign investment here, ahead of the United States and Finland, in second and third place with 12 and 11 percent, respectively. 
 Businesspeople from both sides said they were pleased with the meetings.
 &quot;We are already involved in business activity here, supplying equipment to dairy and vegetable-processing firms,&quot; said Ton Verhoeven, managing director of Cebeco International Projects. &quot;I don't agree with those who say the agricultural sector is in trouble in Russia.&quot;
 &quot;It's really booming, and new contacts in that market are the main reason I'm here.&quot;
 &quot;Our company has been working for a while in Russia, organizing tourist trips here,&quot; Chantal van Tongeren, office manager at the Go East travel firm said. &quot;On this visit, we planned to find new partners and compare their services with those of the ones we have.&quot;
 According to Valery Tyshkovets, the deputy general director of the Lensovetovsky agricultural production firm, the way for local agricultural firms to compete with produce from other regions is to maintain lower production costs and, as a result, lower costs overall.
 &quot;With modern equipment it's possible to significantly increase harvest volumes, which will decrease costs,&quot; Tyshkovets said. &quot;I'm looking for offers from companies selling agricultural equipment.&quot;
 &quot;Dutch businesspeople are very active, responsible and always open to making contacts,&quot; he said.

TITLE: Iran Talking About New Weapons Purchases
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani arrived Monday to negotiate new weapons deals believed to be worth about $300 million a year.
 Russian officials and Shamkhani also are expected to discuss planned U.S. strikes on Afghanistan, Interfax reported, quoting unidentified government officials.
 A Russian Defense Ministry spokes person said Shamkhani, whose visit was aimed at increasing military cooperation, would meet Defense Minister Ser gei Ivanov on Tuesday.
 He was also due to tour a number of military-industrial plants in Moscow and St. Petersburg during his five-day visit.
 Ivanov said recently he and Sham k hani plan to sign a framework bilateral agreement on military cooperation, which would be &quot;open and non-secret,&quot; according to Interfax.
 Ivanov wouldn't say what specific arms deals may be concluded, but reasserted that Russia would abide by international agreements banning proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
 The United States and Israel have voiced concern over Russia's ties with Iran, saying they could lead to the spread of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. officials have warned that a nuclear power plant Russia is building in Bushehr in southern Iran may help Tehran develop nuclear weapons, and said that some Russian companies already had provided Iran with some missile know-how. 
 Russia and Iran have dismissed the allegations. 
 Russia agreed in March to provide Tehran with an estimated $7 billion worth of arms. Moscow says it would only supply defensive weapons. 
 Ivanov said last month Russia's weapons supplies to Iran are currently small and fulfil contracts signed during the Soviet times, or the early 1990s. 
 Interfax said the Iranians have expressed interest in buying a wide range of Russian weapons systems. They are especially interested in acquiring long-range S-300 air-defense missiles to protect the Bushehr nuclear power plant and other strategic facilities, medium-range Buk M1 and Tor M1 air-defense missiles and Su-27 fighter jets. 
 Iran also would like to buy supersonic Yakhont anti-ship missiles, which have a range of 300 kilometers, and Iskander-E tactical ground-to-ground missiles with a range of 280 kilometers, as well as 550 BMP-3 armored infantry vehicles, Interfax said. 
 Shamkhani was due to visit Russia in early September, but postponed his trip because it overlapped with a Mos cow visit by Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. 
 Shamkhani's trip is part of a process of rapprochement between Moscow and Tehran. It follows Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's March visit to Russia and a trip to Iran last December by then-Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev. 
 Military cooperation featured highly on both those visits. 
 <i>- AP, Reuters </i>

TITLE: Deputy Takes Mamut's MDM Place
AUTHOR: By Kirill Koriukin
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Alexander Mamut has been removed as chairman of MDM Bank's board of directors, following a failed bid at banking reform.
 The board voted at an extraordinary shareholders meeting this weekend to replace him with Andrei Melnichenko, founder and chairperson of MDM, the bank said in a press release. Vladimir Rykunov, Melnichenko's deputy, was made chairperson. MDM did not reveal any details or reasons for the reshuffle.
 Mamut - a reputed Kremlin insider - joined MDM in the fall of 1999 and is believed to have used his political connections to make it one of Russia's top banks. 
 Before joining MDM, he was a senior manager at Sobinbank, and was earlier a manager at KOPF bank, effectively defunct since the 1998 crisis.
 Mamut's departure is believed to be linked to his dispute with the Central Bank over banking reform, said sources familiar with the situation.
 Mamut - on behalf of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entre pre neurs, or RSPP - had proposed a plan for sector reform that would dramatically cut the number of banks. However, the Central Bank fought the plan and won.
 MDM management wanted to dissociate itself from Mamut, who they believed pushed his own political agenda despite the possibility of hurting MDM, said a source who declined to be identified. 
 &quot;This [banking-reform dispute] may have easily been the last straw,&quot; said Richard Hainsworth, head of RusRating, a bank-rating agency.
 An analyst with the Rating Information Center, however, said the reason for Mamut's departure was slightly different. As MDM's chief and majority shareholder, Melnichenko was disappointed with Mamut's failure to push through the reform plan, which could have helped MDM boost its position in the regions, he said.

TITLE: Gazprom, Yukos Broach Siberia Partnership
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Gazprom is in talks with Yukos to partner up in the development of East Siberia's hydrocarbon reserves, a joint effort that could pave the way for exports to China.
 &quot;Gazprom doesn't have a very deep base in Siberia and the Far East,&quot; Gaz prom board member Boris Fyodorov told investors Monday. &quot;It has less than 5 percent of total licenses. Yukos can be one of the big partners with Gazprom in this area.&quot;
 Yukos' press office confirmed that negotiations between the two companies are taking place.
 During the July visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Moscow, Russia and China signed an agreement that cleared the way for a feasibility study on a 1,700-kilometer oil pipeline linking the two countries. Yukos president Mik ha il Khodorkovsky has fought tooth and nail for such a pipeline, and construction could start as early as summer 2003.
 Last week, the China National Pet ro leum Corp. signed an agreement with Yukos and state-owned Rosneft to develop oil fields in the Irkustsk and Sakha regions.
 Gazprom is not as well positioned. Currently, its gas-trunk pipelines stop at Krasnoyarsk, but its alliance with global energy major Shell has emerged as the frontrunner in the bidding to build a gas pipeline to China. Gazprom also plans to participate in the development of the BP-operated Kovykta gas deposit in Eastern Siberia.
 &quot;This is a big strategic point on the agenda,&quot; said Fyodorov, who represents minority shareholders on the board. &quot;It's highly political. There's a direct order from the president to participate and coordinate. The general idea is for Gazprom to grab export business in the Siberian Far East.&quot;
 Gazprom lacks capital to explore and develop Eastern Siberia on its own, a result of years of underinvestment and alleged asset stripping by former management.
 At the Saturday board meeting, members also discussed a 1999 decree that addresses the &quot;solid and stable functioning of a united system of gas supplies.&quot; The monopoly is now in the process of properly documenting its property.
 &quot;There are truckloads of documents that Gazprom has prepared for clearer titles to Gazprom assets,&quot; Fyodorov said. 
 In the past, accusations of asset stripping have been the battle cry for foreign investors. The struggle between investors - including the government with its 38-percent stake - and the old guard led by former CEO Rem Vyak hi rev caught the world's attention, and eventually led to the ascent of new CEO Alexei Miller.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Budget Caution Urged
 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vla dimir Putin called on his government Monday to keep a cool head when deciding on spending in next year's budget, saying resources should only be allocated when they had been gathered.
 The State Duma has approved the 2002 budget in a first reading, including a planned budget surplus. But the second reading, when each section is gone through, is expected to cause much haggling between deputies and the government.
 "We cannot allow ourselves a situation where we allocate what is not in the nation's coffers," Putin was quoted by news agencies as telling a meeting with the government.
 
 
Gas Talks Snag
 

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh said Monday that Ukrainian and Russian officials remained at loggerheads over what interest terms to set to restructure Ukraine's huge gas debts to Russia.
 Kinakh, who said he hoped a deal could be reached by Thursday, when Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov visits Ki ev, said Ukraine was pressing for annual interest of 3 to 4 percent, broadly in line with a recent Paris Club deal.
 "The Russian Federation, defending its position, and I understand this, is suggesting 10 percent annually," he said.
 Kinakh said officials from both sides were working on the problem and that he hoped for a solution by Oct. 4. Kinakh said Russia had agreed the size of the debt at about $1.4 billion and would recognize it as corporate debt of state-owned gas company Naftogaz. 
 
 
$150M Transneft Loan
 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Oil-pipeline monopoly Transneft has obtained a $150 million two-year loan to complete the first phase of the Baltic Pipeline System, the syndication leader said Monday.
 Raiffeisen Zentralbank, the mandated arranger of the loan, said in a statement that the debut international financing deal was based on ruble receivables.
 The loan, which carries a margin of 450 basis points over LIBOR, was also extended by Natexis Banques Populaires SA and Standard Bank London Ltd., Citibank and Commerzbank. 



TITLE: Service Is Up in the Air as Swissair Faces Bankruptcy
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ZURICH, Switzerland - Troubled airline Swissair said Monday it cannot guarantee flights for the rest of the week.
 Callers to the Swissair booking line were told the carrier could not confirm that passengers with flights booked this week would be able to fly.
 Swissair is facing bankruptcy after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States triggered a passenger slump and threw the airline industry into chaos. The airline said losses could amount to billions.
 Booking agents said Swissair hopes to be able to provide its scheduled service and advised passengers against making alternative bookings with other airlines. The airline hopes to provide more information Tuesday, callers were told.
 Shares in Swissair and Crossair, in which Swissair is the majority shareholder, were suspended Monday in Zurich until further notice, ahead of a crisis meeting between Swissair executives and Switzerland's government.
 The cabinet may decide to take measures to save the beleaguered airline.
 To keep the company's planes flying last week, the Swiss cabinet guaranteed third-party insurance claims in case of war-related damage. Many other governments also are guaranteeing insurance.
 The losses since Sept. 11 have added to the pressure facing Swissair in recent months after its failed expansion strategy led to a loss of $1.79 billion in 2000. In addition, a $123 million payout to Belgian airline Sabena is due Monday. Swissair has a 49.5-percent stake in Sabena.
 On Sunday, Switzerland's largest banks UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group said they would take part in a rescue package for Swissair, worth $617 million.
 UBS said it would put up 51 percent of the capital under the proposed rescue plan. Credit Suisse said it would assume the remaining 49 percent.
 Swissair shares have shed about half their value since Sept. 11.
 *******************
 BRUSSELS, Belgium - Sabena pilots went on strike for the fourth day in a row on Monday, forcing the ailing Belgian airline to cancel nearly a third of its morning flights, a Sabena spokesperson said.
 Their strike, which began on Friday in protest at a new restructuring plan, also forced Sabena to bring forward plans to remove Washington as one of its intercontinental destinations.
 The pilots were set to meet Sabena Chairperson Fred Chaffart Monday evening to talk about their opposition to the plan, which Chaffart has insisted needs implementing to avoid going out of business before year-end, Sabena's spokesperson Wilfried Remans said.
 The strike, which disrupted flights throughout the weekend, forced Sabena to cancel 10 out of 22 European flights out of Brussels scheduled for early Monday, said Remans, who had yet to confirm Sabena's other intercontinental flights.
 The plan would cut more than 10 percent of staff, sell off assets, and reduce the entire fleet in an attempt to bring the airline back to profitability by 2005.
 - <i>Reuters </i>

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Another Loser
 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's biggest brokerage house, Nomura Holdings Inc., said on Monday it would post an appraisal loss of 54 billion yen ($452 million) at the end of September for stock held in its affiliates amid heavy falls in Tokyo share prices.
 Nomura Holdings was created on Monday after Nomura Securities changed to a holding company structure while transferring its brokerage operations to a newly created unit.
 
 
Phone Bid
 

LONDON (NYT) - A German bank is preparing to raise an earlier offer for the fixed-line business of British Telecommunications, people close to the discussions said Sunday.
 The revised bid, by Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale of D&uuml;sseldorf, or WestLB, could exceed $36.8 billion, and would include an upfront cash payment, these people said. The new proposal is likely to be formally presented to the chairperson of British Telecommunications, Sir Christopher Bland, and BT's chief executive, Sir Peter Bonfield, once the company has completed the spin-off of its mobile division in early November.
 Executives from WestLB and BT declined to comment.
 
 
Cellular Cuts
 

HELSINKI (AP) - Nokia, the world's biggest cell-phone maker, plans to cut 260 jobs at its plant in Salo, or about 5 percent of the work force at the facility in southern Finland, to improve efficiency and competitiveness.
 The company will begin negotiations with labor representatives soon and expects the layoffs to be completed by the middle of next year, Nokia said Monday. It employs 5,200 people in Salo.
 No other details were given.
 In June, Nokia said it is cutting 1,000 jobs in its network operations worldwide, which employ 23,000 people, and a further 300 jobs at a phone production plant in Bochum, Germany.
 
 
Retail Offer
 

PARIS (AP) - French department- store chain Galeries Lafayette said Monday it has submitted a bid of undisclosed size for French stores owned by British retailer Marks & Spencer.
 Speaking at a news conference in Paris after releasing its first half results, co-chief executive Philippe Houze declined to provide further details or say how many of the 18 Marks & Spencer stores in France his group is interested in.
 "We said in April that we were interested in Marks & Spencer stores for two reasons: prime locations and well-trained staff," said Houze.
 "More than ever, it's true to say that we're interested.'"
 
 
Itchier Triggers
 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Smaller swings in the Dow Jones industrial average in the current fourth quarter versus last quarter will trigger stock-market trading curbs or halts, under the New York Stock Exchange's quarterly revision of the levels.
 The Big Board's new circuit-breaker and trading-collar trigger levels went into effect Monday. The trigger levels have been reduced from the third quarter to the fourth because they are based on percentages of the average daily closing value of the Dow in the last month of the prior quarter.
 The first trigger is a 180-point decline or rise in the Dow, which has been lowered from the previous level of 210 points.

TITLE: DoCoMo Hits Japan With Super Cell Phone
AUTHOR: By Yuri Kageyama
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TOKYO - The world's first superfast cell-phone service started Monday in Tokyo from top Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo, although without its biggest promised attractions, the relay of video clips and music downloads.
 Even in gadget-crazy Japan, boasting some of the most advanced cell phones in the world, things were a bit anticlimactic for the start of so-called 3G, or third generation. The phone relays information at 40 times the speed of current cell phones and includes a videophone.
 &quot;It's new technology, so I wanted to try it out,&quot; said Tatsuya Shiratori, 26, among the handful of people who showed up at a Tokyo DoCoMo outlet to buy the $585 phone.
 Analysts say DoCoMo intends a slow start for 3G and will have no problem meeting its target to sell 150,000 handsets by March.
 Whether being first with 3G is a plus for DoCoMo's global ambitions is more dubious, as the technology is not expected to take off in Europe until next year or later. The prospects for 3G in the United States are even more uncertain.
 DoCoMo has taken minority stakes in European, American and Asian carriers eventually to offer 3G as a global service.
 &quot;Perhaps in a few years, DoCoMo will reap the benefits of all the expertise they gather by being first,&quot; Merrill Lynch analyst Yasumas Goda said. &quot;But the edge is not that critical.&quot;
 Rather than an image boost, 3G has turned out to be an embarrassment for DoCoMo, hurting its previously infallible image, Goda said.
 DoCoMo had initially promised 3G for May 30. At the last minute, it delayed the full commercial service to Oct. 1 because of software problems.
 For the past four months, DoCoMo has made 3G handsets available for free to 4,500 people to work out glitches.
 Three models went on sale Monday, including a videophone with a digital camera that allows users to see the caller on the other end of the line. However, both callers would need a videophone to see each other.
 None of the models so far deliver the flashy features trumpeted as the convenience that will turn 3G mobile phones into glamorous, portable computers that can play on the tiny cell-phone screen video clips of music concerts, movie trailers and sports highlights.
 DoCoMo is planning both services for spring next year. It will need to fine-tune software and prepare an attractive lineup of images to look at and music to listen to.
 Part of DoCoMo's problem is the success of its Internet-connected cell phones, called i-mode.
 I-mode, which offers e-mail, train schedules and restaurant guides, has attracted 27 million users here. DoCoMo dominates Japan's mobile market with a 60-percent share.
 DoCoMo's other problem is the tough competition from rivals at home.
 KDDI Corp., Japan's second-largest telecom company, is planning a similar service for April that uses a different, cheaper technology.
 J-Phone, the mobile unit of Japan Telecom Co. is also planning a comparative phone for release in June.

TITLE: U.S. Asks: Why Do They Hate Us So Much?
TEXT: Editor,
 </i>Why do they hate us so much?
 What could cause a group of individuals to be consumed with so much hatred toward the United States that they are willing to kill themselves while committing premeditated mass murder? The United States is not yet sure who carried out the shocking attacks that rocked the country, but there is no shortage of people with a motive. Millions of Muslims in the Arab world despise the United States.
 Why do they hate us so much? This is perhaps the most crucial question the United States could now ask itself, as in its answer lies the key to defeating terrorism.
 Although heinous and barbaric, terrorism is practiced to effect political change. Political change is desired in response to a perceived injustice. Hate is also born out of this sense of injustice. The greater the injustice, the greater is the determination to effect political change.
 The inevitable and forthcoming American military response may decimate Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, but it won't alter the sense of injustice and hate that gave rise to his organization. 
 The primary reasons for the existing hatred are the following:
 <i>Israel and Palestine. </i>The Palestinians are a legitimate nation with a legitimate national claim to the land of Palestine. This is an undisputed, internationally recognized fact. UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 call for Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. Today, Israel is a thriving and formidable country, and the state of Palestine is still just a gleam in Yasser Arafat's eye.
 For 34 years, Israel has denied the Palestinians the rights to self-determination, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The United States is providing $3 billion a year in financial aid and nearly unconditional political support to the government that continues to deny the Palestinians these inalienable rights. In this sense, the United States has contributed greatly to the continuing injustice suffered by all Palestinians. 
 The Palestinians have legitimate grievances. In 1776, the American colonies went to war with the world's most powerful country to right similar grievances.
 <i>Iraq. </i>In the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq's electrical-generating plants and sewage-treatment networks were wiped out. Iraq's infrastructure - bridges, highways, roads, canals and communication centers - were systematically destroyed. In 1991, UN inspectors concluded that the bombing had reduced Iraq to a &quot;preindustrial age.&quot; Today, the United States and Britain are still dropping bombs on Iraq.
 For the past 11 years, the United States has been the driving force behind UN sanctions against Saddam Hussein and the 22 million Iraqi people. Estimates vary, but World Health Organization and UNICEF studies certify that sanctions are responsible for the death of more than 1 million Iraqi civilians, including approximately 670,000 children. Using those percentages, this is comparable to killing 12.8 million Americans, including 8.6 million children.
 Genocide is taking place right now, every day, in Iraq, perpetrated by the very power that claims to set the standard for democracy, freedom, and justice.
 <i>Afghanistan. </i>In Afghanistan, U.S. cruise-missile attacks launched by then President Bill Clinton failed to kill Osama bin Laden. Instead, the missiles killed a reported 24 civilians, including three children, and wounded several other civilians. The United States may describe these events employing the morally repugnant term &quot;collateral damage,&quot; but the people killed or wounded would in all likelihood describe it as an injustice.
 <i>Sudan. </i>In 1998, U.S. cruise-missile strikes in Sudan destroyed a pharmaceutical plant. At the time of the attack, the United States claimed that the plant was producing chemical weapons and that it had a &quot;financial link&quot; to Osama bin Laden. No evidence has ever been brought forth proving these claims. In fact, Sandy Berger, national security advisor in 1998, has since declared &quot;it is not necessarily the case&quot; that chemical weapons were being produced at the pharmaceutical plant. Berger now says, &quot;I think it is certainly true that the plant was associated with chemical weapons and that bin Laden had made a financial contribution to the military-industrial corporation.&quot; This attack destroyed a legitimate pharmaceutical plant, killed one civilian, and constituted, according to international law, an act of war.
 <i>Economic Sanctions. </i>The United States also maintains sanctions against Iran, Sudan, Pakistan and Afghanistan - all Muslim countries. Though intended to coerce governments into policy changes, sanctions primarily punish ordinary citizens. &quot;To the average Muslim in the street, it appears that the United States is targeting them,&quot; says Said Aburish, a Palestinian-born journalist and author of the book &quot;The Coming Fall of the House of Saud.&quot;
 <i>Saudi Arabia. </i>Osama bin Laden himself has publicly stated that U.S. policy in Saudi Arabia is one reason for his <i>fatwah </i>declaration against the United States. Specifically, bin Laden believes &quot;There is no more important duty than pushing Americans out of the holy land [Saudi Arabia]. They have attacked Islam and its most significant, sacrosanct symbols. The country of the two holy places of our religion.&quot;
 The United States maintains approximately 5,000 troops on Saudi soil, home to two of Islam's most revered religious sites, Mecca and Medina, and the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed. The continued U.S. military presence in one of Islam's holiest of places is &quot;religiously unacceptable to Saudis,&quot; says Aburish.
 Bin Laden's second publicly stated reason behind his fatwah declaration is America's meddling in Saudi affairs and its support of the oppressive, corrupt and tyrannical Saudi regime. Although it is the world's largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia is broke and heavily in debt. Aburish says: &quot;The Saudi government is not terribly different from Sad dam Hussein's regime. People have no voice in the running of the government. People disappear in the middle of the night, and people are imprisoned without being charged. And the government has squandered the country's wealth.&quot;
 In effect, bin Laden has declared to the United States, &quot;Get out of Saudi Arabia, and leave us alone.&quot; These are his demands, and this is the political change he wishes to bring about through the use of terrorism.
 By now, most Americans are familiar with the explanations proffered by the politicians, pundits, and media for the existing hatred: &quot;Their terrorism is not aimed at reversing any specific U.S. policy. It is driven by pure hatred for the values cherished in the West: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our way of life is a mortal threat to everything the terrorists hold dear. It is not what we've done, but what we stand for, who we are.&quot;
 These explanations are only partial truths and dangerously ignore the major culprit - U.S. foreign policy. Neither Osama bin Laden nor any other terrorist has ever committed any terrorist act because &quot;the United States cherishes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.&quot;
 Why do they hate us so much? The hatred exists because U.S. foreign policy is either responsible for or contributing to gross injustices perpetrated against Muslims around the world. The United States may see itself as a good and civilizing force in the world, but the millions of Muslim civilians killed or suffering under U.S. foreign policy do not agree.
 Osama bin Laden is a product of circumstances - the corrupt rule of the Saudi royal family and hostile U.S. foreign policy. Therefore, the United States must view bin Laden and his organization as a phenomenon, not as a group of terrorists to be killed. Kill bin Laden and 10 others like him will spring forward. The United States cannot simply bomb hatred off the face of the planet and live happily ever after. The deep and lasting hatred felt by millions of Muslims requires an acceptance that these are forces that United States foreign policy has helped set loose.
 The war on terrorism will never be won until the United States first asks the question, &quot;Why do they hate us so much?&quot; But it is not enough simply to ask the question. The United States must be willing to analyze the answers objectively, applying a mature understanding of and sensitivity to other cultures and peoples. Only then can the United States develop a foreign policy anchored in the belief that &quot;liberty and justice for all&quot; applies to all world citizens, and that reflects, as Henry Kissinger called it, &quot;America's generosity of spirit.&quot; Until that time, the war on terrorism cannot be won. 
 <i>Marc Bumgarner
 Chicago, Illinois</i>
 
 <i>In response to a letter to the editor by Jan Mehrzai, Sept. 25.
 </i>
 <i>Editor,
 </i>The United States was constrained in its actions after the Soviet Union quit Afghanistan for exactly the reasons that we are often falsely charged with. The United States is accused of colonialism by all the enemies of freedom in the world. In the case of Afghanistan - and for many other countries as well - the United States did not use its influence to organize any government for the country it helped to free from a foreign government and a government imposed from outside.
 Is this writer suggesting that the United States should have set up a government in Afghanistan instead of leaving after the resistance succeeded? How could we have done this? We do not believe in governments that are not democracies and are suspicious of those tied too thoroughly to any specific religion. The only governments we have been involved in organizing that worked out well are those of countries we have defeated in war: Germany and Japan. Most other attempts at creating and influencing governments or regime toppling (Iran under the Shah, Guatemala, South Vietnam) were failures and are much criticized by Americans. 
 We did assist in setting up or preserving the governments of Taiwan and South Korea. Those countries, after a long period of totalitarianism, have given birth to real representative governments of the kind we originally, if naively, thought we were nurturing. 
 Israel was set up as a secular and representative government at the start, but the United States was relatively uninvolved there until the second time the Arab world attempted to eradicate it. Yes, many of us criticize Israel for allowing religion to drive government policy, even though Israel is properly constituted as a secular state.
 The United States has evolved over the years and its citizens (most of them, anyway) understand and condemn the mistakes of the past when we showed callous disregard for other people's freedom during our battle with communism. We hope that we will not make similar mistakes in the war on terrorism, but we must fight this war because it has been declared on us because of our civilization. 
 The only way we could satisfy the terrorists would be to become mindless religious bigots just like they are. The Islamic fundamentalists want to turn back the clock by some 1,400 years to a feudal world and style of government. In essence, they wish to destroy civilization. Granted, there are fundamentalists in other religions who wish a similar fate for civilization and who have not yet created violence and terror, but who speak and preach the same intolerance. The American Jerry Falwell comes to mind.
 I can only hope that the United States will fight this war with honor and with an eye toward the peace that will follow rather than wear blinders that focus on bin Laden and his groups. Too tight a focus and too little thought for peace will just create another round of intolerance and ignorance. We do not desire that.
 <i>Ian MacFarlane
 St. Petersburg, Florida
 </i>
 <strong>English Spoken?
 </strong><i>Editor,
 </i>As a non-Russian-speaking person living here in St. Petersburg, I would like to present for your consideration a way to improve the service you offer to your readers and your advertisers, and, as well, to increase your advertising revenues appreciably.
 Considering that you publish an English-language newspaper, I am surprised each time I read it to see that almost no advertisements, no restaurant reviews and no articles about the various local businesses ever contain one very important ingredient: a simple indication of the availability of English-speaking staff and/or English-language menus or service/products lists!
 What an unwelcome surprise it is to visit a business advertising in The St. Petersburg Times - and in English no less! - only to find that we cannot communicate and that my travel time and efforts expended to visit their business have been wasted. No money changed hands.
 Considering the importance of advertising dollars to your paper and that many of us non-Russian-speaking readers would gladly patronize your advertisers, it would be most sensible to include a simple indicator - perhaps an icon or symbol - that informs about either the degree of ease I may have spending my rubles there or at least a basic &quot;yes&quot; or &quot;no&quot; to the all-important question: Is there English-speaking staff (or menus) on hand?
 Having discussed this matter with various foreigners living here, I have repeatedly heard the responses, &quot;What a wonderful idea!&quot; and &quot;That would be great!&quot;
 Certainly, placing some simple indicator would enhance the effectiveness and usefulness of all advertising in your newspaper. And effective advertising means increased customer response! Sales! After all, you want the readers to support your advertisers! It is only sensible to make it easy for us to do so! 
 And in this manner, everyone wins! The readers know where to go for ease in parting with their hard-earned rubles, and the advertisers receive the benefits they are paying for. And the paper finds selling advertisements and collecting the all-important revenues a much easier and more successful task. 
 Tell us where we can spend our money easily, and we'll tell the businesses where we heard about them!
 <i>Steve Hoss
 St. Petersburg
 </i>
 <strong>Thanks for Floyd
 </strong><i>In response to Global Eye, a column by Chris Floyd on Sept. 25.
 </i> <i>Editor,
 </i>This was an outstanding piece. I couldn't agree with Floyd more. Let's hope and pray that our fellow Americans will come out of their comas and recognize what's going on here.
 <i>Gene Loehrer
 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
 </i>
 <strong>Plato Was Right
 </strong><i>In response to &quot;Civilization Has Come Full Circle,&quot; a column by Yulia Latynina, Sept. 28.
 </i> <i>Editor,
 </i>I read this column this morning and found it very interesting. I teach history in a very large high school near Chicago, and I believe that I will have my students read this and then discuss it. I see great differences between Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries and the United States and the modern world today. 
 In its own strange and yet predictable way (if a person really understood the United States), a powerful and angry nation has been aroused from that sleep that Latynina refers to as Pax Americana. The effect probably could not have been predicted by those outside. This reawakening may have consequences that are good in ways much greater than just a war against terrorism. These consequences may also be terrible. 
 Civilization cannot survive in a world of random, unpredictable destruction and murder. To defend themselves is the work of civilizations in the past and now.
 Failure in the fifth century led to the Dark Ages, which took 1,000 years to overcome. I know of the terrorist attacks in Russia during the past 10 years, and I know that my words are not surprising to you. We must be at our best in the time to come, and then we must grow from the lessons learned. 
 <i>Michael Corey
 Chicago, Illinois </i>

TITLE: Lessons That Russia Can Teach the World
AUTHOR: By Boris Nemtsov
TEXT: RUSSIA has made absolutely the right decision in joining with Europe and the United States in the fight against terrorism. President Vladimir Putin made a very important statement on Sept. 11 when he said, &quot;We are with you&quot; - meaning the United States and indeed the entire civilized world. Unfortunately, we have a lot of experience with terrorism in this country - considerably more than the Americans have - and I believe that there is much we can teach the United States. The most important lesson we have learned from the war in Chechnya is that there is no such thing as an exclusively military solution, and that only a combination of military and political measures has a chance of success. This holds equally for Chechnya and Afghanistan.
 I hope that cool heads will prevail in the White House, in Congress and in America at large, and that the political component of resolving this conflict will not be neglected. I reiterate the formula that I have expounded on a number of occasions: We must destroy the terrorists and open a dialogue with the people. I am not saying we should negotiate with terrorists - the only language they understand is the language of the Kalashnikov. However, it is extremely important to prevent a war against terrorism from turning into a war against an entire nation.
 Furthermore, I believe that we need to form a broad coalition against terrorism, which includes Muslim countries. There is, unfortunately, a great deal of misunderstanding about Islam. Islam is a peaceful religion and is fundamentally incompatible with terrorism. It is a misnomer to equate the concept of <i>jihad </i>with terrorism. A jihad is a defense of one's faith and does not have anything to do with blowing up apartment blocks in Moscow or skyscrapers in New York. It is incumbent upon prominent Muslim figures and the leaders of Islamic states to come out and say this. If, for example, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan come out in support of this position, I think it would be a very important step in the right direction.
 <strong>THE NEW POLITICAL SEASON
 </strong>As the new parliamentary session kicks off, we must build on the successes of the previous session and redouble our efforts to pass legislation conducive to improving the investment climate. Russia needs to present an &quot;asymmetrical response&quot; to the world in order to demonstrate that it is serious.
 Another much-needed reform is modernization of the Russian Army. The Union of Right Forces is calling for the reduction of military service from two years to six months. This would be an important first step toward converting to a fully professional army, with professional soldiers being recruited from among those who wish to continue serving after the 6-month period. We commissioned a survey this summer according to which 75 percent of young people said they would do military service if it was only half a year, while only 7 percent said they would voluntarily do two years of military service. This would additionally have the positive effects of radically altering the social composition of the army and reducing the problem of hazing.
 Another important area is center-regional relations and local self-government. We must close the loophole that allows certain regional governors to run for a third term. This is absolutely vital to prevent the stagnation of the country and to reverse the prevailing trend towards feudalization. This loophole only serves to weaken central authority and encourages regional governors to behave like feudal lords ruling over their private fiefdoms.
 Legislation must also be passed to improve the financial foundations of local government. The federal government heaps expenditure responsibilities on municipalities while not providing them with adequate funds to finance them. Local government, as in the United States, should be given an independent revenue base. Certain taxes, such as income, property and land taxes should be wholly local. In this way, municipal authorities would also acquire a direct stake in the economic prosperity of their municipality, as their tax revenues would depend directly on the health of the local economy. At the moment, most of a local government's budget is made up of funds handed down to it from above. 
 <strong>THE PUTIN ADMINISTRATION
 </strong>Assessing the record of the Putin administration over the last 18 months, there have been major successes in the area of economic reform and in the international arena. There have been major breakthroughs in de-bureaucratization, in the liberalization of foreign-currency laws and in the area of pension reform. However, more remains to be done to reduce the number of government agencies that conduct inspections on businesses and to reduce the frequency of these inspections. This should assist in curbing our bureaucrats' appetites for bribes.
 Insufficient progress has been made in reforming the banking sector and the stock markets. Attempts to reform the bureaucracy have been weak. I don't think that Putin has enough friends in St. Petersburg to replace the whole state machine. Of course, a lot of work needs to be done to raise civil servants' salaries, to improve the prestige of state service and to reduce incentives for corruption. However, at the end of the day it is a question of political will: Does the president want to undertake serious state-service reform or not?
 Freedom of speech and the growing state monopolization of the media remain issues of considerable concern. In fact, this is much more of a problem at the regional level than it is at the federal level. According to data from the Glasnost Defense Foundation, as much as 90 percent of regional media outlets are controlled by regional administrations.
 One way of tackling this would be to apply anti-monopoly legislation to the media. Thus, for example, if the state controls more than 25 percent of the local television market, then it should be made to dispose of some of its media assets. The federal government controls something like 70 percent of national television. Surely one channel - RTR for example - is sufficient for the state to get its message across. The absence of diversity and pluralism in the media is very dangerous. Furthermore, greater media diversity would have a positive impact on reducing corruption. 
 One of Putin's problems is that as a former intelligence officer, he pays far too much attention to the media and is extremely sensitive to media criticism. Regarding NTV, however, I think the doomsayers, who predicted that the channel would completely come under Kremlin control and become nothing more than an official mouthpiece of the administration, have been proven wrong. The channel's main problem is financial and connected with the drop in its ratings.
 The picture is somewhat mixed with regard to the institution of presidential representatives introduced by Putin immediately after his inauguration. On the positive side, they have reversed thousands of unconstitutional acts and have done much to create a unified legal space in the country and to halt regional separatism. They also serve as a counterbalance to the overbearing power of governors and certain mayors. However, the fact that there is no law on presidential representatives - only a presidential decree - is a major problem. Legally, their position is weak and their formal powers limited. They can still be a force for positive change, but their main resource is their access to the president and their ability to control governors' access to the president.
 Overall, my assessment of Putin and the performance of his administration is positive, with the most important successes in the area of economic reform and the main failure being the administration's policy on Chechnya. As far as my prognosis is concerned, Putin's fate is in the hands of OPEC. Unfortunately, the main factor influencing political stability in the country is the price of Urals crude on world markets. As long as the price remains high, Putin's popularity ratings will continue to be high, reforms will be continued and nothing too bad will happen. If the price of oil falls, there could be problems, although it will be the government that will experience them first.
 
 <i>Boris Nemtsov, former first deputy prime minister of Russia, is the leader of the Union of Right Forces political faction and a deputy in the State Duma. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Different Reactions to National Disasters
TEXT: LAST week I returned to St. Petersburg from my first-ever trip to the United States. Naturally, I am full of impressions after what I saw and heard in the wake of the tragic terrorist attacks in Washington and New York on Sept. 11.
 I spent a long time thinking about exactly which topic I should choose to write this column about. Should I describe the children that I saw spontaneously drawing American flags on the sidewalk, complete with &quot;God Bless America&quot; inscriptions? Or should I ponder what it is exactly that made this country pull together so strongly in the first few minutes after these bloody events? 
 &quot;Our freedom has been attacked.&quot; These were practically the first words I heard on the radio on Sept. 11. It only took me a little while to realize that this was not just some lofty expression crafted by a skillful public-relations team. They really meant it.
 Later, I was touched by an instruction issued by the U.S. Department of Education concerning the role that children can play to assist in this moment of national grief. &quot;Children can write poems, draw postcards and collect donations,&quot; the document read.
 Naturally, I started thinking about that rainy autumn evening in 1999 when the first apartment building was blown up by unknown terrorists in Moscow. Then there was a second one. 
 And soon thereafter there was a third in the southern Russian city of Volgodonsk. What were Russians talking about in the wake of those events? What were they doing?
 As best as I can recall, people were afraid and making all sorts of guesses about who might be responsible. And what were our officials saying? &quot;The necessary measures have been taken.&quot; That's all they managed to say and all they managed to do was post a few photographs of alleged suspects at post offices and train stations around the country.
 In the States, I was surprised at how open officials were. Within a few hours, the public already knew who some of the hijackers were. They had been informed about how many FBI agents had been deployed to investigate the case. Within a few more hours, the media were full of the last cell-phone calls of victims.
 I was frankly surprised when the FBI released its plans to go down to some tiny town in Florida the next day. Officials believed that some of the suspects had stayed in the town and trained at a flight school there. They thought that some people linked to them might still be there.
 After a few days, I guess, the authorities came to their senses and started saying that it would withhold some information from the media in order &quot;not to hinder the investigation.&quot;
 In short, it became clear to me that the United States is really a place where freedom exists, where people care about freedom and don't want to lose it.
 When I got back to town, I started talking to a taxi driver about all this on my way back from the airport. 
 &quot;Well, good for them,&quot; he said. &quot;They have things to be proud of. Although we once had a socialist ideal that we could be proud of, we don't have it anymore. We lost it.&quot;
 I then asked him how he felt 10 years ago, at the moment when that ideal ceased to exist. He said that he felt no regret.
 I was left thinking that the American and Russian flags are both the same color. But it is clear that American children love those colors more than Russian children do. Why is that?

TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
TEXT: <strong>Follow the Money
</strong> Why couldn't American agents find Osama bin Laden's money and stop the flow of his support to terrorist networks around the world before they struck on Sept. 11? Because Phil Gramm didn't want them to.
 The hardline Texas senator has long led the fight against international efforts to crack down on money laundering, tax evasion and other financial hijinks beloved of operators taking advantage of the &quot;free flow of capital&quot; around the world. Gramm has successfully lobbied his fellow Republicans - and not a few Democrats - to keep &quot;Big Guvmint&quot; from peering under the rocks where terrorists, drug lords, outlaw regimes and various mafias entwine so comfortably with Big Business and High Finance.
 Last year, as head of the Senate Banking Committee, Gramm killed a Clinton initiative to give federal authorities broader powers to stop money laundering and bar foreign countries and banks from U.S. financial markets if they didn't cooperate with investigators, The New York Times reports. Even after the attack, Gramm was proud of his intransigence.
 &quot;I was right then, and I am right now,&quot; Gramm crowed last week. &quot;The way to deal with terrorists is to hunt them down and kill them.&quot; But not, obviously, to interfere with their financial transactions. After all, some of that cash finds its way back to the pockets of those generous folks in the banking industry - Gramm's political patrons.
 Feisty Phil wasn't the only one opposed to such efforts, however. Just a few weeks ago, the Bush administration - another group well-watered by the murky flow of offshore capital - announced its withdrawal from international treaty talks on cleaning up the money-laundering swamp. Why on earth did they oppose this strike against terrorism and organized crime? Let's ask Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank - no &quot;left-wing fifth columnist&quot; he: &quot;The answer is, it's in the interests of some of the monied interests to allow this to occur,&quot; he told The Nation in June. &quot;It's not an accident; it could have been shut down at any time.&quot;
 And this week, the Bush administration finally reversed the longstanding conservative appeasement of wealthy murderers, at least in part, by freezing the financial assets of Osama bin Laden and his associates and threatening to, er, bar any foreign countries and banks from U.S. financial markets if they didn't cooperate with investigators. Of course, it took them 13 days to get around to blocking the cash flow of their &quot;prime suspect&quot; - but maybe some of their comfortably entwined High Finance pals needed time to get untangled before the freeze.
 Oh well, better late than never, eh?
 <strong>Backward Glance
</strong> Speaking of closing the barn door after the mule is gone, Generalissimo George announced last week the creation of a new cabinet-level &quot;Office of Homeland Security,&quot; Reuters reports. The OHS will oversee the work of 40 federal agencies and departments, including the FBI and CIA, while working with state governors and their agencies to provide nationwide coordination of domestic security efforts for the first time.
 Good idea. Too bad the Generalissimo rejected it when it was first proposed to him - last January. That's when the &quot;U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century,&quot; a bipartisan panel led by former senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, presented the fruits of two years' work on upgrading safeguards against terrorist assaults. Noting that &quot;the persistence of international terrorism will end the relative invulnerability of the U.S. homeland to catastrophic attack,&quot; their report called for the creation of a cabinet-level &quot;Homeland Security Agency&quot; to, er, provide nationwide coordination of domestic security efforts for the first time.
 The Generalissimo, then engrossed in his successful <i>jihad </i>to reduce taxes for the rich, simply shelved the report. He said he would have U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney draw up his own plan for domestic security somewhere down the line - maybe in October or something. No need to be in such an all-fired hurry; after all, there weren't any &quot;domestic security&quot; lobbyists out there pouring dough into Bush campaign coffers, right? You gots to pay to play in this White House, bub.
 The Generalissimo had other good reasons for rejecting the report. First, the commission was appointed by former President Bill Clinton. ('Nuff said right there!) Second, Hart was a liberal Democrat whose political career had been derailed years ago by the same kind of un-Christian trouser hockey that afflicted the Great Arkansas Satan. And third, perhaps worst of all, Republican Rudman had openly supported the renegade John McCain when he dared oppose Dubya's bid for power last year.
 No doubt the Generalissimo enjoyed this little exercise in political pique - and now that thousands of his people lie dead in the smoldering ruins, why not dust off the old report and put its recommendations into practice?
 Oh well, better late than never, eh?
 
 <strong>Old-Time Religion
</strong> You will doubtless be comforted to know that Generalissimo Bush - just like Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar of the Taliban, Adolf Hitler, Vlad the Impaler, Attila the Hun, Hammurabi of Babylon and Ug-Ug, the Neanderthal tribal chieftain - believes he has been chosen by God to lead his people into war.
 Bush's close friends say the atrocity has given the Generalissimo &quot;a reason for being,&quot; The New York Times reports. Mark McKinnon, a senior campaign adviser, says Bush feels the war &quot;is the country's destiny - and his destiny.&quot; Says another, unidentified pal: &quot;I think, in his frame, this is what God has asked him to do&quot; - a conviction, we're told, &quot;informed and shaped by the president's own strain of Christianity.&quot;
 During a White House meeting last week, one Christian-strained mullah told Bush it was &quot;God's plan&quot; that the Generalissimo was enthroned in power at such a propitious time. Quietly, firmly - and probably not smirking at all - Bush replied, &quot;I accept the responsibility.&quot;
 So let's get the theology straight here: It was &quot;God's plan&quot; to murder six thousand innocent people in the most horrendous way possible just so George W. Bush could &quot;find himself&quot; and &quot;fulfill his destiny&quot;?
 Lord have mercy on us all.

TITLE: Mixing Business With Potatoes
AUTHOR: By Tatyana Ustinova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Vitaly Mlynchik's business partner was more than a little surprised when, after calling to organize an urgent meeting, Mlynchik responded, &quot; I can't make it tomorrow, that's the last day I can harvest potatoes.&quot;
 Mlynchik's friends tell this story as a joke, and he is used to hearing jeers like &quot;You'll reap just what you sow,&quot; and &quot;Better stock up for the winter or you'll starve.&quot;
 However, Mlynchik's penchant for potato farming is born not of necessity but of pleasure.
 He is on the board of directors of the investment company Energokapital, which had a turnover of around 3.6 billion rubles ($122 million) in 2000, and is founder and president of Gruppa Nobel, which conducts financial operations and sheet-metal wholesaling. But every spring, Mlynchik succumbs happily to an acute case of potatoitis.
 &quot;I like shoveling earth,&quot; Mlynchik says. &quot;When you're mending stuff or doing something else, your mind is still occupied. Shoveling earth gets all the thoughts out of your head.&quot;
 Despite his wealth, Mlynchik still prefers vacations in the country to trips abroad, a newfound passion for many of his friends.
 &quot;I like going to the country alone. I take as many books as possible and rest and read for the first three days. After that, I go into a potato frenzy,&quot; he says.
 Mlynchik's touching relationship with potatoes developed during his childhood in Belarus. Later, after graduating from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and opting for family life in St. Petersburg, he became interested in securities and founded Energokapital in the early 1990s.
 Work on the securities market was intense, however, and Mlynchik found he had to devise a way to unwind on the weekend. Potato farming provided just the kind of escape he was looking for, and his mother-in-law's dacha, with its 600-square-meter vegetable plot just two hours outside the city, offered an opportunity to indulge his passion.
 At first, Mlynchik planted Belarussian potatoes sent to him by his mother, but they didn't adapt well, so he started using local varieties.
 When his rural neighbors found out about this city businessperson's hobby, they shared their knowledge of potatoes with him, though some locals still scorn Mlynchik for not planting enough - unlike a real peasant.
 Today, Mlynchik's potato plantation occupies 400 square meters and his harvest is usually big enough to eat some new potatoes in the summer and leave enough to plant for next year. Some potatoes even make it to the city.
 Although Mlynchik enjoys eating potatoes - his favorite dish is potato patties, which he orders in every restaurant he visits - he views farming as a form of therapy rather than a source of food.
 &quot;Planting potatoes is a type of relaxation, a change in my field of work,&quot; he said. &quot;It's not a question of quantity. I like to observe how the same variety of potatoes grows under different conditions.&quot;
 He employs many tricks to improve his harvest: sunning the potatoes, carving a groove around potatoes before planting them or burying them at different depths.
 Trial and error has shown that &quot;lost&quot; potatoes - ones that weren't dug up during the previous year's harvest - grow the best.
 To give the land a rest, he sows barley, a trick he learned in Belarus. Other farming knowledge he gains from reading and from word of mouth.
 Mlynchik also gets new varieties of potatoes in the most mysterious ways.
 &quot;About three years ago, I came to work, and the security guard said to me, 'An anonymous man told me to give you this.' He then handed me something wrapped in paper,&quot; Mlynchik said.
 &quot;Well, I planted it, and it turned out to be the most fertile plant I'd ever had. Unfortunately, the unknown man left no contact information, so I don't even know what sort of potato it was.&quot;
 Mlynchik has tricks he uses for attracting labor as well, if only temporarily. Friends and business partners are always up for spending a weekend out in the fresh air.
 Guests examine the neat, labeled rows with interest. They even lend a hand. After all, what else is there left to do when the host is hard at work, planting, weeding and raking?
 Chores are divided up in the family. Mlynchik's son and daughter reluctantly help him plant and dig up the potatoes, and his mother-in-law insulates the potatoes with earth before a frost.
 Every year, patient relatives try to convince Mlynchik to reduce the size of his plot, but to little effect.
 &quot;Once I start digging, you can't stop me,&quot; Mlynchik said.

TITLE: A Facelift for the World's Northernmost Mosque
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: If it seems that the number of buildings covered in scaffolding is increasing daily, there's a good reason. As St. Petersburg prepares for its 300th-anniversary celebrations in 2003, much of downtown has been designated for renovation. Moreover, the city is seeking sponsors to help repair 130 architectural objects around town, from entire buildings to statues and fountains. Among the buildings to be restored is the mosque at 7 Kronverksky Prospect on the Petrograd Side.
 St. Petersburg's mosque is the northernmost mosque in the world, and one of the biggest in Europe, with a total capacity of 5,000 people. Unfortunately, it has long been at least partially covered by scaffolding, part of the huge repairs necessary after the neglect the mosque suffered during the Soviet period. Fortunately, the mosque managed to avoid the fate of such places of worship as the Greek church on Grechesky Prospect, which was razed to the ground in the '60s and replaced by the Ok tyabrsky Concert Hall, which now sees concerts by such singers as Valery Leontiev and Fillip Kirkorev.
 Opened in 1913, the mosque served as a regular place of worship for the city's Islamic community for only four short years, with religious gatherings being severely curtailed after the 1917 Revolution. The mosque was closed down completely at the end of the 1930s and used as a warehouse for medical equipment, just as the Church on the Spilled Blood was used to store vegetables. In 1956, the mosque was reopened, but the damage caused over the years had brought it close to collapse, and the Islamic community was in no position to pay the enormous sums of money necessary to repair it.
 In 1980, 500 square meters of tiling on the cupola fell off, damaging the roof of the mosque. The city administration finally began repairing the mosque, and repair work has continued consistently, if rather slowly, since then.
 The current project is aimed at restoring and reconstructing the decorative ceramics on the western portal of the mosque, and the cost has been estimated at 3.5 million rubles ($117,000). The city's monuments committee is currently seeking sponsors for this project.
 
 <i>For a complete list of restoration projects and for informationon how your can help, check out www.sptimesrussia.com/sponsor/ . </i>

TITLE: U.S. Wary Of Further Terrorism
AUTHOR: By Pete Yost
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - As the Bush administration rejects an overture by Afghanistan's Taliban government, Attorney General John Ashcroft is warning of a &quot;very serious threat&quot; of additional terrorist attacks.
 A Taliban envoy said discussions might be possible to ease the impasse over Osama bin Laden if the United States offers evidence linking him to the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and at the Pentagon. White House chief of staff Andrew Card replied that &quot;the president has said we're not negotiating.&quot;
 &quot;They've got to turn not only Osama bin Laden over but all the operatives of the al-Qaeda organization&quot; that bin Laden runs, Card said on &quot;Fox News Sunday.&quot;
 With little sign of anything besides a military solution in sight, Ashcroft said that &quot;we believe there are others who may be in the country who would have plans&quot; for more attacks.
 &quot;As the United States responds, that threat may escalate,&quot; Ashcroft said on CBS' &quot;Face the Nation.&quot;
 &quot;We're very confident that Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, terrorist organizations are operating in dozens and dozens and dozens of countries around the world,&quot; Ashcroft added on CNN's &quot;Late Edition.&quot;
 Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar told his people in a radio address not to worry about a U.S. attack because &quot;Americans don't have the courage to come here.&quot;
 As for bin Laden, &quot;He's in a place that cannot be located by anyone,&quot; Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef said in Islamabad. 
 The U.S. government turned to defense at home, designating retired Army General Wayne Downing to coordinate intelligence and military resources in the anti-terror campaign. Richard Clarke, who currently heads the government's counterterrorism team, will direct efforts to protect the country's information infrastructure from attack.

TITLE: Albanian Militants Fire Shots at Macedonian Police
AUTHOR: By Misha Savic
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SKOPJE, Macedonia - Macedonia's government accused ethnic Albanian militants Monday of shooting at police in the country's volatile northwest, despite a recent NATO-conducted disarmament. No one was injured in the most serious flare-up in weeks, police spokesperson Viktor Sutarov said, adding that Macedonian police officers returned fire from their targeted checkpoint on the outskirts of Tetovo, the country's second-largest city. 
 The main police station in Tetovo also came under fire, bullets piercing the sandbags placed around the station for protection. 
 A peace monitor from the European Union Monitoring Mission confirmed gunfire could be heard until dawn, but could not provide further details. 
 James Pardew, the top U.S. envoy for Macedonia, was expected to arrive in Skopje to urge the majority Macedonians and ethnic Albanians to preserve and implement the peace accord signed last month. 
 Ethnic Albanian rebels took up arms in February in a fight aimed at gaining broader rights. Macedonians contend the militants want to divide the country and control the mostly ethnic Albanian-populated northwest. 
 Under the peace deal, signed Aug. 13, the ethnic Albanians must end their insurgency while Macedonians must grant the sizable minority - nearly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people - more rights and greater political influence. 
 A NATO mission has collected 3,400 weapons from the rebels, who also said they disbanded their guerrilla force, known as the National Liberation Army. The Macedonian-dominated parliament has yet to adopt the promised legal reforms and pledge amnesty for the rebels. 
 The parliament was expected to continue debating peace-plan provisions Monday. Some lawmakers have proposed that the accord be voted on in a nationwide referendum, which could threaten the peace process because most Macedonians oppose giving ethnic Albanians more rights and the rebels amnesty. 
 Dozens have died and thousands were forced to leave their homes during the armed clashes that largely subsided after the peace accord was signed in August.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Car Bomb Kills 15
 

SRINAGAR, India (AP) - A car bomb exploded near the entrance of the state legislature Monday in the summer capital of Kashmir, killing at least 15 people. 
 A suspected Islamic militant drove the car to the assembly building and blew it up just after most of the legislators had left a meeting being held there, police said. In the chaos, at least 15 dead bodies could be seen on the ground. 
 Thousands of people have died in a 12-year Muslim insurgency in Indian Kashmir, many of them civilians caught in the cross fire between rebels and security forces. 
 
 
Journalist Captured
 

LONDON (Reuters) - A British journalist held by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on suspicion of spying sneaked into the country disguised as an Afghan woman to report the plight of refugees, her editor said Sunday. Yvon ne Ridley, the 43-year-old chief reporter of the Sunday Express, is familiar with world's danger zones and the mother of a small daughter by a former official of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
 She was dressed in the all-enveloping Afghan burqa, which flows almost to the ground and has a mesh over the eyes, when she was detained Friday with her two guides near Jalalabad, about 15 kilometers from the Pakistan border, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
 Ridley's editor, Martin Townsend, said the newspaper's executive agreed with Ridley that she should cross the Pakistani border in disguise after she was unable to obtain a visa.
 The Taliban has asked all foreigners to leave Afghanistan and has said it will issue no visas to journalists.
 "Yvonne did not take the decision lightly to enter Afghanistan illegally. As a highly experienced reporter who has filed stories from some of the world's worst trouble spots, she was aware of the risks," Townsend said.
 The AIP said the Taliban had sent a special investigating team from Kabul to question Ridley.
 
 
Taliban Recapture Area
 

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Taliban fighters Monday recaptured a key area of western Afghanistan lost to opposition forces on the weekend and boosted their ranks with the defection of around 60 Northern Alliance fighters, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said. 
 Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn attack and wrested back Qadis district in Badghis province after three hours of fighting, AIP said.
 The ebb and flow of territory gained and lost is typical of warfare in Afghanistan. Mass defections are also common as local warlords frequently switch allegiance depending on who is in the ascendancy - usually taking all the men under their command with them.
 Two Taliban fighters and three opposition soldiers were killed in the fighting, the report said, adding that the Taliban forces had also captured six prisoners.
 No independent confirmation of the report was available.
 
 
Floods Kill 185
 

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Floods in Vietnam have killed 185 people, including 156 children, and water levels remain high in many areas, officials said Monday. 
 Nearly 225,000 homes were flooded in six provinces in the southern Mekong Delta region, where 22,800 families were evacuated to higher ground but another 20,000 still need to be moved, an official of the Floods and Storms Control Department said on condition of anonymity. 
 Damage from the floods to roads, agriculture and fisheries rose to $37 million, the official said. 
 
 
41 Ships in Gulf
 

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - An Iranian Navy commander said 41 U.S. and British warships had arrived in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman, and Iran was watching closely for any sign of an attack on Afghanistan, the official IRNA news agency said Sunday.
 Admiral Hamid Valamanesh, whose country has campaigned against any U.S. military retaliation against Afg hanistan for attacks on New York and Washington, said his forces were watching the U.S. and British ships "day and night."
 "Forty-one U.S. and British warships have arrived in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman ready to be called into action at a moment's notice," said the admiral, who is based in the Oman port of Chah Bahar, in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
 He said 21 of the ships were moored near the strategic Hormuz Strait, while the rest were in the Gulf of Oman, 45 miles away from Chah Bahar.
 "The Islamic republic is observing their activities day and night," the admiral said, adding that there were also two aircraft carriers there belonging to Pakistan.
 
 
Basque Bombing
 

VITORIA, Spain (AP) - A car bomb blamed on Basque separatists exploded in the regional capital of Vitoria on Monday, causing $1 million in damage to a courthouse and burning cars and ending more than two months of relative peace. The Basque government said one person was slightly injured by flying glass.
 Basque President Juan Jose Ibarretxe blamed the armed separatist group ETA. 
 "Every time ETA attacks, it does so against all of us. Blind violence must stop,'' he said in San Sebastian.
 It was the first full-blown attack attributed to ETA since July 14, when a town councilor and a Basque police officer were gunned down in separate attacks in the Basque region.
 On Friday, an empty nightclub near Pamplona was set on fire. Police said they suspected youths who support ETA were responsible.
 Some analysts in the Basque region say the lull in violence stemmed from debate within ETA between proponents of calling another cease-fire and hardline elements bent on continued violence.
 Monday's 6 a.m. blast shattered windows and destroyed window frames and office equipment at the four-story courthouse, known as the Palace of Justice, and set afire some 20 vehicles parked in the street.