SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #728 (95), Friday, December 7, 2001
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TITLE: Yacht Mixing PR With History
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: On July 1, a 13.5-meter local yacht with a four-person crew will embark on a two-year, around-the-world mission to promote St. Petersburg and its maritime legacy.
 
"The yacht will become St. Petersburg's floating embassy and will help attract more interest to the city, as well as investments and tourism," Pavel Ko she lev, a representative of the City Hall Culture Committee, told reporters Friday.
 The yacht will stop in a total of 40 countries, participating in events and exhibitions organized in partnership with institutions such as the State Hermitage Museum, the State Russian Museum, the Museum of the History of Religion and the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
 When the ship makes San Francisco on May 23, 2003, crew members will take part in the unveiling of a memorial to 19th-century Russian sailors who explored the Pacific coast of North America. The monument was designed by artist Mikhail Shemyakin.
 The project, which will cost an estimated $600,000, is being financed by private sponsorship. The general sponsor is LUKoil Arctic Tankers, and other companies - including the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda - are also participating. 
 The cruise is being organized by the St. Petersburg Fund to Revive the Emperor's Yacht Club not only to celebrate the city's 300th anniversary in 2003, but also to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the first Russian around-the-world voyage, which was commanded by Admiral Ivan Kruzenstern and left St. Petersburg in 1803 and returned in 1806.
 After its departure next July, the vessel will cross the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, pass through the Panama Canal and sail across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. It will then proceed through the Suez Canal, cross the Mediterranean Sea, pass through the Strait of Gibraltar and return to St. Petersburg via the North Sea by September 2004.
 Sergei Afonin, who will serve as captain for the voyage, has been sailing yachts since 1974. He says that there are two dangers that are foremost in the mind of anyone contemplating an around-the-world trip.
 "Bad weather and pirates," he said. 
 Afonin said that the most dangerous parts of the trip with regards to piracy are the area around Bali in Indonesia and the region around the Horn of Africa near the entrance to the Red Sea. Yemen and Somalia have particularly bad reputations for piracy, Afonin said.
 "Modern pirates have all kinds of guns and not only rob but also kill travelers," Afonin told, adding that the crew selected the safest routes for these portions of the voyage. 
 As for the weather, Afonin says that they have tried to avoid the most extreme weather conditions, but admits that anything can happen. He added that small vessels such as the St. Petersburg yacht can often ride out big waves even better than large ships.
 Just in case, however, one of the project's sponsors is a group of local insurance companies headed by the Baltic Insurance Society, which will insure the boat and provide life insurance for the crew.
 The crew will consist of three men and one woman, Yulia Yeroshevich, a public-relations professional who will spend the first year on the ship before being replaced by a colleague. The public-relations specialists will be in charge of organizing and participating in the exhibitions at the yacht's ports of call.
 "I love my city," Yeroshevich said, "and I don't regret leaving my family for a year to tell the world about St. Petersburg."
 The $100,000 yacht, which was built in St. Petersburg, will be launched in May. A contest will be held in the spring to name the vessel, organizers said.

TITLE: Council Elects Mironov Speaker
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev and Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Local politician and long-time political ally of President Vladimir Putin, Sergei Mironov, became the new speaker of the Federation Council at a special plenary session in Moscow on Wednesday.
 
The 48-year-old former vice speaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly was elected by a vote of 150-2, with Putin in attendance. The vote had been widely expected since last week when a faction representing a majority of council senators announced that it was supporting Mironov. By the end of the day Wednesday, a plaque with Mironov's name was hanging on the speaker's office door.
 At the same session, Putin lavished praise on the out-going speaker, Oryol Region Governor Yegor Stroyev, who served in the post for six years before stepping down after being elected to a third term as governor. 
 Under a reform package adopted last year, governors and heads of regional legislatures who were senators in the council were required to give up their seats and appoint representatives who would work in the upper chamber full-time. Previously, senators met just twice a month. As of Wednesday, 108 of the chamber's 178 seats had been filled by new representatives, with the rest of the senators to be appointed by the start of next year.
 In the Federation Council chamber on Wednesday, Putin presented Stroyev with one of the country's highest honors, the Order of Service to the Fatherland, First Class, which had previously been awarded only to former President Boris Yeltsin.
 In accordance with the Constitution, Mironov is now the third highest-ranking official in Russia, after Putin and Prime Minister Mik hail Kasyanov. Together with Pu tin and Duma Speaker Gennady Se leznyov, he also becomes the third member of a powerful St. Petersburg triumvirate at the pinnacle of federal power.
 In his acceptance speech, Mironov immediately outlined plans for further reforming the chamber, telling fellow senators he believed that members of the Federation Council should be popularly elected and that the council's work should be further professionalized.
 "We have a unique opportunity to have two chambers working professionally and on a full-time basis," Mironov said Wednesday evening in an interview with RTR television. "It is not hard to imagine that sometime in the near future, they will both be reduced to a common denominator ... and the senators' mandates will also come from the people."
 Mironov, whose term as speaker will last two years, represents the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly in the Federation Council.
 Mironov also said that the Prosecutor General's Office should have the right to propose draft legislation and said that the role of local self-governments should be determined by federal laws.
 Lawmakers who worked with Mironov both in the Federation Council and in St. Petersburg praised his professionalism in developing legislation and his even temper.
 Sergei Mironov, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, worked as a geophysicist in Mongolia until 1991, when he became managing director of a company called Russian Trade Chamber. In 1993 Mironov became managing director for Vozrozhdeniye Peterburga, a local construction company.
 Vozrozhdeniye Peterburga later played a role in financing Putin's 2000 presidential campaign in St. Petersburg, according to local political insiders.
 "If I said that it did participate [in the election campaign], some people would be offended, but if I said that it didn't, some people would be outraged. ... Business structures linked to Mironov were involved," said Alexei Musakov, a political analyst for the St. Petersburg Center for Regional Development.
 In 1994, Mironov was elected to the Legislative Assembly with the support of an election bloc called All Petersburg, which united over 30 candidates from local industrial enterprises and businesses. One of those candidates was Dmitry Ko zak, who is currently the head of Putin's presidential administration. However, only Mironov and Valery Golubev, currently the head of the City Hall Tourism Committee, won seats in the assembly.
 Mironov quickly gained the respect of his colleges, who called him "influential" and "even-tempered." 
 During the first two years of Yakovlev's first term, Mironov was in frequent opposition to City Hall. For instance, he introduced a motion of no confidence against Andrei Mokrov, then the chairperson of the City Hall Media Committee, claiming that Mok rov had attempted to censor local media in 1997.
 At that time, Mironov also leveled sharp criticism against Yakovlev's chief of staff, Viktor Yatsuba, and his adviser, Andrei Koshmarov.
 Mironov chaired most Legislative Assembly sessions in 1997 because of the frequent absences of then Speaker Yury Kravtsov, who was charged with bribery in 1996. Although the charges were dropped in Feb. 1997, Kravtsov was still under attack until 1998, when he was removed as speaker.
 The conflict between Kravtsov and Yakovlev came to a head in January 1998, when the Legislative Assembly adopted a City Charter that significantly increased the legislature's power. Ya kov lev considered that move to be a power grab and accused Kravt sov of harboring unspecified "political ambitions."
 In April 1999, the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office filed another set of charges, this time against both Kravtsov and Mironov, alledging that they had overstepped their authority in 1996 and 1997 by providing loans of 300 million rubles (about $50,000 at that time) to the daily newspaper Smena. For a time, Mironov was not allowed to sign official documents at the Legislative Assembly, but the charges against him were dropped later that year. Court hearings concerning the charges in this case against Kravtsov continue to this day.
 "Initially, [Mironov] supported me, but later he turned around," said Kravt sov in an interview Tuesday. 
 According to a former Legislative Assembly deputy who spoke on condition of anonymity, Mironov "surrendered Kravtsov" in 1998, agreeing to help draft a bill to remove Kravtsov. The speaker's allies in the assembly, however, staved off these efforts.
 "He was just a careerist. He showed up in [Kravtsov's] office and said that he couldn't resist anymore," the source said. "You should credit him for admitting it at least."
 Putin, who worked closely with Mironov during his years as deputy mayor under Anatoly Sobchak, told the Federation Council on Wednesday that the new speaker was a "decent, young, energetic politician with whom you are sure to find a common language."
 Local politicians say they expect that Mironov's elevation will further increase the city's ability to influence decisions and protect its interests in Moscow.
 "All that remains is for [chairperson of the Legislative Assembly's Budget Committee] Sergei Nikeshin to be named prime minister and everything will be just fine," said Viktor Yevtukhov, an assembly deputy from the pro-Kremlin Unity faction, on Thursday.
 "We have our own man there, which we can use to present our point of view and make sure that it is taken into account," said Leonid Romankov, a Legislative Assembly deputy with the Union of Right Forces faction.
 "We can now put forward amendments to federal legislation that were ignored before. We have already preppared amendments to the Criminal Code and to the law on culture, for example," he added.
 Yakovlev's spokesperson Alexander Afanasiev expressed hope that Mi ronov will help secure additional funding from the federal budget for the city.

TITLE: Berezovsky: It's Time Yeltsin's 'Family' Left
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Boris Berezovsky, once a key figure in former President Boris Yelt sin's inner circle - widely known as "the Family" - came out this week calling on those Family members still in power to step down and start building a liberal opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
 
In an open letter published in his Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily on Tuesday, Be rezovsky advised Unified Energy Systems head Anatoly Chubais, presidential chief of staff Alexander Vo lo shin, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other Yeltsin-era officials to resign, rather than wait to be pushed out by the powerful team of military and intelligence officers who have received high posts under Putin. 
 "Show some courage, don't wait to be shown the door. Hand in your resignations voluntarily. Doing so is the most effective way you can help the president realize his mistakes and ... retain your authority," wrote Be re zovsky, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Europe since last year.
 Berezovsky, who benefitted greatly from cozy relations with the Kremlin as a businessperson in the early 1990s, used to brag that he had brought Putin to power. But last year he began speaking out against the new president, criticizing Putin's moves to limit the power of regional governors and establish "a dictatorship of law."
 Speaking by telephone from London, Berezovsky said he was not so naive as to think that his letter would convince anyone to resign.
 "I just think that those remaining from the previous team, Yeltsin's team, are very important for society. The authority and experience they have can help in creating a liberal opposition," said Berezovsky.
 Public reaction from Kasyanov and Voloshin was not immediately available Tuesday. But Chubais brushed away the letter as nothing serious.
 "It is surprising how a brief absence from Russia makes a clever man lose any idea of what is going on in the country," the UES chief said in a statement. "Therefore, I do not see any point in giving any kind of assessment of his statement."
 Berezovsky's letter appeared on the heels of several probes launched by the Prosecutor General's Office into a number of federal agencies headed by people associated with the old Yeltsin elite. 
 On Oct. 22, a criminal investigation was opened into Railways Minister Nikolai Aksyonenko, until recently considered one of the most influential cabinet members. The minister was charged with abuse of office and prosecutors said his misconduct has cost the government 70 million rubles ($2.3 million).
 Both Kasyanov and Chubais came out in Aksyonenko's defense, despite months of strained relations between UES and the Railways Ministry over mutual debts and general animosity between Aksyo nen ko and Chubais.
 Last week also saw a renewed round of rumors that Voloshin would lose his spot as head of Putin's administration as a result of the battle between the two clans flanking Putin, the Yeltisn-era elites and the so-called <i>siloviki.</i>
 &quot;It is clear that [the Yeltsin-era officials] cannot defeat the secret services. Their days in power are numbered,&quot; Berezovsky said in the telephone interview. 
 Andrei Ryabov of the Moscow Carnegie Center said the oligarch's influence has been waning steadily since last year, when he first announced plans to create a &quot;constructive opposition.&quot;
 He interpreted Berezovsky's latest public appeals as an articulation of the main objective of the Yeltsin-era elites: to maintain the status quo and, thereby, to retain their privileges and clout.
 &quot;These people have no ideology. Their ideology is where their stomach is,&quot; Ryabov said. &quot;The only objective is to defend the positions they've won previously.&quot;
 The closest Berezovsky has come to forming an opposition thus far is providing financial and moral support for the Liberal Russia group, which splintered off from the Union of Right Forces. His attempts to win the backing of powerful governors have fallen flat.
 Ryabov added that any significant opponent to Putin must create an alternative myth, while Berezovsky's statements merely signify a conservative return to the Yeltsin era of post-Soviet &quot;feudal relations.&quot;

TITLE: Vice Governor Quits, Denys Wrongdoing
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Acting Vice Governor Alexander Po tek hin tendered his resignation Wed nesday, vehemently denying that the move had any connection to a criminal case against him initiated last month by the Northwest District Prosecutor's Office.
 
Potekhin said that he had been trying to resign since May 16, 2000, when Governor Vladimir Yakovlev won a second term, but that &quot;for the last 18 months, the governor has not accepted&quot; his resignation.
 Now, however, the situation has changed.
 &quot;The governor agreed to accept [Po tekhin's] resignation, so now there's only one question: when,&quot; said Ale xan der Afa na siev, the governor's spokes person, in an interview on Thursday.
 &quot;But it is not connected to the [investigation], which is a pile of rubbish,&quot; Afa na si ev added.
 The criminal case was initiated against Potekhin and his deputy, Dmitry Solonnikov, on Nov. 21, and prosecutors have said that they expect to file charges soon on counts under a federal law that forbids public officials from engaging in private commercial activity.
 Solonnikov is already facing criminal charges in another case, and his trial in that case is scheduled to begin later this month. Vladimir Goltsmer, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, said Thursday that he did not know when charges would be filed against Potekhin.
 While maintaining Potekhin's innocence, Afanasiev nonetheless said that any conviction based on Article 289 of the Criminal Code would be nullified under an amnesty passed by the Duma.
 &quot;As soon as Potekhin is convicted, he would be amnestied, so it is clear that the prosecutor's office initiated the case merely to create a scandal,&quot; Afa na siev said.
 &quot;But even if Potekhin were amnestied, he wouldn't accept it. Who would want to live out his life with such a brand of shame?&quot; Afanasiev said.
 It was not clear whether Afanasiev was referring to the amnesty adopted by the Duma on Nov. 30 or a previous amnesty. The recent amnesty is specifically targeted at women and minors who have been convicted of nonviolent crimes.
 &quot;As far as I know, Potekhin is neither a woman nor a child,&quot; said Goltsmer.
 However, it is possible that the governor's spokes person was referring to a 1999 amnesty, which was riddled with loopholes. 
 Yury Shmidt, a local lawyer and a member of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, said that this was a possibility.
 &quot;It depends on when the crime was committed. Many amnesties have been adopted in recent years, and they are still in effect,&quot; Shmidt said. &quot;If the crime was committed earlier than 1998, for instance, an amnesty is theoretically possible. However, it is impossible to say, since no information about the case is available because charges have not yet been filed.&quot;
 According to Potekhin, Yakovlev has asked him to continue working for City Hall as an adviser to the governor. Po tek hin has said that he will keep his position as chairperson of the boards of the daily newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskiye Ve domosti and Channel 5 municipal television. He also stated his intention to work for the All-Russia political faction and to work in the media sector.

TITLE: Duma To Consider Alternative Service
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Next spring legislators will review four drafts of a proposed new law on alternative civil service, Eduard Vorobyov, deputy head of the State Duma's Defense Committee told journalists Wednesday.
 
Under the Constitution, draftees have the right to seek alternative civil service - such as working for charities or in medical care - if they cannot perform army service for religious or ethical reasons. However, there is currently no law that encodes this right.
 Vorobyov said that earlier efforts by liberal legislators to provide a legal basis for alternative service were thwarted by the Communist majority in the second Duma after the first draft of the law on alternative service was adopted in 1994.
 Three of the four drafts are currently being drawn up by Duma deputies, and one is being prepared by the cabinet. They are due to be finished early next year.
 &quot;If the government steps up with this initiative, the bill will pass easily through the legislature,&quot; Vorobyov said at a news conference organized by the Union of Right Forces Duma faction. 
 According to Vorobyov, who is a co-author of one of the drafts, the alternative drafts differ on questions of whether the conscripts will have to prove their pacifist creeds to call-up commissions and whether they will serve near their homes or be sent to other regions, as the current law on military service stipulates for regular conscripts. 
 Other discrepancies arise over the duration of service, which varies from two years to four years, and over which state agency - the Defense Ministry or Labor and Social Development Ministry - will take charge of the those exercising their right to alternative service..
 The legal gap has also been a headache for the military, who have often been criticized by public and human rights organizations for dragging into the army young people whose spiritual creeds forbid them to take up arms.
 The head of the Moscow military enlistment office, Vasily Krasnogorsky, said the sooner the Duma passed the law the better. 
 &quot;It will bring clarity to the issue and will satisfy the public,&quot; he said at a news conference on Wednesday.

TITLE: A Brother's Perjury May Have Sent the Rosenbergs to the Electric Chair
AUTHOR: By Richard Pyle
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - Nearly 50 years after convicted Soviet spy Ethel Rosenberg was executed, her brother has admitted that he lied under oath to save himself and says he is unconcerned that his perjury may have sent his sister and her husband to the electric chair.
 
&quot;As a spy who turned his family in ... I don't care,&quot; David Greenglass said in a television interview broadcast Wednesday. &quot;I sleep very well.&quot;
 The admission may shed new light on the Rosenberg case, one of the most infamous events of the Cold War. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in Sing Sing prison in June 1953, two years after a sensational trial on charges of conspiring to steal U.S. atomic secrets for the Soviet Union.
 They were the only people ever executed in the United States for Cold War espionage, and their conviction helped give fuel to Senator Joseph McCarthy's communist-hunting crusade.
 Greenglass, now 79, makes the disclosure of false testimony in &quot;The Brother,&quot; a new book by veteran New York Times editor Sam Roberts, and in a taped interview broadcast Wednesday on CBS television.
 Greenglass, Ethel's younger brother, admits in the book that he, too, was a spy who gave the Soviets information about atomic research and a detonator invented by another scientist.
 When the Rosenbergs came to trial, Greenglass was also under indictment and worried that he and his wife, Ruth, would be convicted. He says Roy Cohn, an assistant prosecutor and later an aide to McCarthy, encouraged him to lie.
 In court, Greenglass delivered what would be the most incriminating testimony against Ethel Rosenberg - that she transcribed his spy notes destined for Moscow on a portable Remington typewriter. His wife corroborated his testimony.
 But now, Greenglass tells author Roberts that he based his account entirely on his wife's recollection, not on his own. In the television interview, he says, &quot;I don't know who typed it, frankly, and to this day I can't remember that the typing took place. I had no memory of that at all - none whatsoever.&quot;
 Roberts writes in his book, &quot;Handwritten or typed, the notes contained little or nothing that was new. But from the prosecution's perspective, the Remington was as good as a smoking gun in Ethel Rosenberg's hands.&quot;
 In the television interview, Greenglass was asked why the Rosenbergs went to their deaths rather than admit espionage.
 &quot;One word - stupidity,&quot; Greenglass replies. Asked whether that makes Ethel responsible for her own death, he answered, &quot;Yeah.&quot;
 Greenglass admits he is sometimes haunted by the Rosenberg case, but adds, &quot;My wife says, 'Look, we're still alive.&quot;'
 Should he ever encounter the pair's two sons, Greenglass says, he would tell them he was &quot;sorry that your parents are dead,&quot; but would not apologize for his part in their execution.
 &quot;I had no idea they would give them the death sentence,&quot; he told CBS.
 In the book, subtitled &quot;The Untold Story of Atomic Spy David Greenglass and How He Sent His Sister Ethel Rosenberg to the Electric Chair,&quot; Greenglass admits to further perjury in court and before a congressional committee - all aimed at gaining leniency for himself and keeping his wife out of prison.
 Sentenced to 15 years, Greenglass was released in 1960. He lives in the New York area under an assumed name.
 The Rosenberg case became a political cause celebre with anti-Semitic overtones. While some historians say evidence against Ethel Rosenberg was weak compared with that against her husband, the pair's refusal to admit spying for Moscow added to public fears of a nuclear showdown with the Soviets.
 &quot;This was a time when people were terrified,&quot; Roberts said in an interview with The Associated Press. &quot;There was no way the Russians could have obtained the atomic bomb without stealing it from us.&quot;
 Roberts said that the late William Rogers, a deputy U.S. attorney general in 1951 and later President Richard Nixon's secretary of state, told him the government had expected Ethel Rosenberg to save herself by providing incriminating evidence against Julius.
 But in the end, &quot;she called our bluff,&quot; Rogers said.
 Some tidbits of Cold War espionage lore related by Roberts are almost comic. According to Roberts, Greenglass admitted sleeping through the first A-bomb test, using atomic implosion technology to make artificial diamonds, and being picked up while hitchhiking by Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, head of the top-secret Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb.

TITLE: Second Tourist To Visit Space
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's top space official said Wednesday his agency had wrapped up a deal with a South African Internet tycoon to fly to the International Space Station. NASA confirmed it agreed to the plan.
 
Despite the deep rift with Washington when Russia first sold a seat on the station to a nonprofessional earlier this year, the United States did not object, Russian Aerospace Agency director Yuri Koptev said at a news conference.
 &quot;We have the understanding of our partners,&quot; he said.
 Mark Shuttleworth, 27, is set to become the second &quot;space tourist&quot; to fly to the station, arriving in a Russian Soyuz rocket next April, Koptev said.
 NASA spokesperson Kirsten Larson said late Wednesday that the United States has agreed to let Shuttleworth fly.
 &quot;We have agreed in principle, but there are still some parts of the deal that we need to finalize,&quot; Larson said, noting that Shuttleworth met several basic physical requirements.
 The Cape Town native underwent a month of tests and training at the Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow earlier this year.
 Koptev said the contract with Shuttleworth would be signed within days. He refused to disclose what Shuttleworth was paying but said it was &quot;no worse&quot; for Russia than the earlier deal with California tycoon Dennis Tito.
 Tito reportedly paid Russia $20 million for an eight-day trip to the space station in April and May.
 &quot;I have always dreamed of space as a platform for inspiration, education and technology and am working to realize that dream for South Africa,&quot; Shuttleworth said in a statement released in South Africa.
 Shuttleworth started a business trading in Internet-security technologies in his parents' garage. Last year the company was bought by the U.S. company Verisign, netting Shuttleworth an estimated $500 million.
 The trip to the space station by Tito, a former NASA engineer, irritated the U.S. space agency. NASA said Tito was not adequately trained and could have jeopardized crew safety.
 The U.S. agency wanted Tito's flight postponed until procedures were worked out for sending nonprofessionals into space.

TITLE: Russia Gives Ground on Oil Cut
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia gave OPEC what it wanted Wednesday, but it may not turn out to be what the crude cartel expected.
 
The country's nine largest oil producers, after meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other top officials, agreed to cut exports from January by 150,000 barrels per day, or about 5 percent - expected to be just enough to trigger a total 2 million bpd cut by major suppliers, mainly OPEC, who want to boost sagging prices.
 &quot;From Jan. 1, 2002, oil exports will be reduced by 150,000 barrels a day,&quot; the government said in an official statement quoted by Interfax.
 OPEC announced last month that it would withdraw 1.5 million bpd from the market starting in January, but only if major exporters Russia, Norway, Mexico and Oman came up with a combined 500,000 bpd cut. While the other three pledged a total of 325,000, Russia held fast, first offering a piddling 30,000 and then upping that figure to 50,000, which provoked OPEC to threaten a price war.
 OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez reacted positively to the announcement on Thursday, saying the cartel now had a deal &quot;in principle&quot; with non-OPEC countries but was waiting for the final word on contributory cuts from some countries.
 &quot;The indications up to now are that we are moving in the right direction and it is going to be possible to apply the agreement,&quot; Rodriguez said from OPEC's Vienna headquarters.
 Kasyanov said that Russia was &quot;counting on the fact that other oil suppliers that have already taken a decision [to cut output] will in fact carry them out,&quot; Interfax reported.
 But Kasyanov's statement was coupled with the lukewarm remark that the government &quot;would do what it could&quot; to make sure the pledge was met.
 Indeed, exports are growing dramatically, and the government failed to announce just how long the cuts will last. Nor did it say what measures it would take to ensure compliance, or even how the cuts would be divided between exporters. And, to top it all off, the cuts aren't really cuts at all - Russia's exports usually drop in the winter due to frozen ports in the north and higher energy demands at home.
 The only thing Russia really accomplished with its announcement was allowing OPEC &quot;to save face,&quot; said Christopher Weafer, head of research at investment bank Troika Dialog.
 Waefer said the 150,000 bpd export cut would actually materialize, but it was rather meaningless as exports through ice-bound northern ports usually drop by around 200,000 bpd during January and February anyway.
 When subtracted from the 400,000 bpd in export volume added in the space of one month - the Caspian Pipeline Consortium and the Baltic Pipeline System both open this month - Russia will actually have a net increase of 200,000 bpd in January-February over November, Waefer said.
 &quot;[It's] a win-win situation, except for OPEC, which must now live with a major exporter on the side of the 'consumers,'&quot; Weafer said.
 &quot;I think Russia has not really committed itself to very much at all,&quot; said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital. &quot;Even though [the cut] may persuade OPEC to cut 1.5 million bpd, the supply-demand equation still looks very, very tight.&quot;
 Both Weafer and Nash said that the dual with OPEC is likely to resume at the end of the first quarter of 2002, when Russia's seasonal export dip will end and global demand falls as usual.
 &quot;Toward the end of the first quarter, at the latest, you'll see oil prices [dropping] and this whole standoff repeating itself,&quot; Nash said.
 Some top oil companies admitted as much Wednesday.
 While top producer LUKoil and No. 3 Tyumen Oil Co. said they supported the cut, No. 2 Yukos and No. 6 Sibneft said there was no slowing them down.
 Sibneft President Eugene Shvidler said in statement that although the agreement &quot;strikes the right balance between the need to restore market confidence and the need to avoid any damaging reductions in output,&quot; it is unlikely to affect the company's aggressive plans to boost production.

TITLE: Research Report Reveals Russian Ad-Sales Boom
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The preliminary results are in, and the winners are ... media companies.
 
Some $1.7 billion will be spent on advertising in Russia in 2001, up some 50 percent over last year and just $100 million shy of the all-time record set in the pre-crisis glory year of 1997, according to de facto media research monopoly Taylor Nelson Sofres/Gallup.
 While the numbers suggest that the market has fully recovered from the 1998 financial meltdown, officials from TNS/Gallup AdFact, the Taylor Nelson Sofres/Gallup's unit that monitors advertising, stressed Wednesday that the estimates are based on media sellers' price lists and thus do not take into account the often huge discounts offered to large advertisers.
 &quot;But the trend is nonetheless clear,&quot; said Oleg Volkosh, Gallup AdFact managing director. Volkosh said the final numbers will be ready in February, when the Russian Association of Advertising Agencies closes its books on 2001.
 Television, the largest sector with more than a quarter of all ad spending, is also the sector with the highest growth rate, up 55 percent over last year, Volkosh said. That number would put the total at $356 million, 11 percent higher than the $320 million predicted by the nation's largest broker of television ads, Video International, in April.
 Magazine advertising is up 43 percent, according to Gallup AdFact, while billboard advertising is up 40 percent. Newspapers are enjoying 30 percent growth, and radio, which suffered proportionally less than other media in 1998, is growing 10 percent.
 Traditionally, Western companies spend the most for television spots, and this year is no exception. Procter & Gamble leads the way with a pre-discount $121 million worth of airtime in the first 10 months, followed by Nestle with $68 million, Unilever with $59 million and Mars-Russia with $58 million. Domestic food and beverage giant Wimm-Bill-Dann is No. 5 with $48 million.
 Cosmetics queen L'Oreal, as expected, leads the magazine category with $8.7 million in the January to October period. Luxury homebuilder Dom-Stroi is a surprise second place at $3.75 million, just ahead of watch and jewelry importer Mercury's $3.7 million.
 Leading operators Vimpelcom and MTS dominate the radio commercial market with $6.85 million and $6.35 million, respectively. Volkosh said the growth is even more surprising because it bucks the trend in Europe in the United States, where ad spending is down some 15 percent this year, largely due to the economic fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
 Vladimir Yevstafyev, president of the Russian Association of Advertising Agencies, said that whether or not the downward trend in the West reaches Russia will show how integrated Russia is in the world economy.
 Yevstafyev said that Gallup's numbers are more accurate this year than in years past, when it made no effort to account for discounted bulk-buying. &quot;My personal estimate is that [total spending] will be even more than what Gallup says,&quot; Yevstafyev said.
 Gallup Media, which was started in 1994 by Finnish company Suomen Gallup/MDC Helsinki Group, joined Taylor Nelson Sofres in January this year.

TITLE: Local Chain Signs Deal With EBRD
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Pyatyorochka<i>, </i>St. Petersburg's largest supermarket chain, which earlier this year moved into the Moscow market, sold a blocking package of shares to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), according to a report in the business daily Vedomosti.
 
While both Pyatyorochka and the EBRD refused to comment on the financial specifics or even the timing of the deal, Sergei Moskvin, Pyatyorochka's press secretary, said Thursday that a deal had been signed and further details would be released in 2002.
 According to the Vedomosti report, the Pyatyorochka deal involves an extra emission of shares to be sold to the East-Siberian Venture Fund of the EBRD. Analysts put the likely price of the share package at about $40 million.
 Pyatyorochka has been aggressively moving into the Moscow retail market as well as increasing its advertising presence in recent months, which likely provided some of the impetus behind the deal.
 According to an official press release from the company, the funds will be spent on developing the company, including the opening 130 new stores in St. Petersburg and 55 in Moscow.
 &quot;Pyatyorochka attracted the EBRD investment because of the size of and opportunities provided by the Russian retail market, the rapid pace of recent development in the supermarket sector and the transparency of Pyatyorochka as a company,&quot; the company announced.&quot;
 Pyatyorochka was created in 1999 by the St. Petersburg company Agrotorg. By the end of this year the company plans to have 65 stores in St. Petersburg and 15 in Moscow. The company's revenues this year are expected to reach $200 million.

TITLE: MTS' Growth Faltering in Home Market
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - While the country's No. 1 mobile operator, Mobile TeleSystems, is in the process of launching its operations in St. Petersburg, its fortunes in the Moscow market are on the skids.
 
Mobile TeleSystems gained around 10 percent of net subscriber additions in Moscow in November, with the lion's share going to second-place Vimpelcom, according to the J'son and Partners consultancy.
 MTS had 15,000 net additions in Mos cow in November, compared with Vim pelcom's 135,000, J'son and Partners said. The two operators command more than 95 percent of the Moscow market.
 A frequently congested network and perceptions of poor service have contributed to MTS attracting fewer net additions, United Financial Group wrote Tuesday in a report. The recent appearance of Moscow's third GSM operator, Sonic Duo, may have also played a part, the brokerage said.
 UFG downgraded MTS stock to hold, saying &quot;the market could be sharply overestimating the company's growth prospects.&quot;
 MTS in late November dropped its prices in Moscow by 10 percent, while both companies have introduced new lower tariffs in recent months.
 &quot;But it appears that MTS' rounds of tariff cuts in November have not had a significant impact on volume growth in Moscow,&quot; UFG wrote.
 MTS thinks that marketing played a role in the recent trend.
 In September, Vimpelcom launched a heavy ad campaign that earned kudos around the industry. However, an MTS spokesperson deemed the ads as &quot;misleading&quot; and &quot;unethical&quot; for their implicit attacks on MTS.
 That month, for the first time in almost two years, Vimpelcom beat out its competitor for net additions in Moscow.
 MTS considered legal action over the advertisements, but held back since the ads do not explicitly mention the company, said MTS spokesperson Eva Prokofyeva.
 Vimpelcom spokesperson Mikhail Umarov shot back, recalling an earlier MTS commercial and slogan that seemed to take a dig at Beeline, Vimpelcom's trademark.
 Subscriber numbers appear more evenly split between the leaders beyond Moscow, with 33,000 regional net additions for MTS and 26,000 for Vimpelcom, UFG reported.
 Anton Pogrebinsky, a consultant at J'son and Partners, estimated that there were some 420,000 new mobile sign-ups in all of Russia in November.
 Sonic Duo, which launched in Moscow under the Megafon brand name - which is affiliated with St. Petersburg provider North-West GSM - two weeks ago and so far has minimal coverage, has taken a marginal slice of new sign-ups. The company had around 5,000 customers at the beginning of December, said Roman Prokolov, adviser to Sonic's general director.
 The question remains whether MTS's Moscow woes will trickle up to the northern capital. MTS has the upper hand for now, as Vimpelcom does not yet own a license for the northwest. That market is currently dominated by North-West GSM.
 With just 11 percent mobile penetration, St. Petersburg appears to have ample room for competition and growth.
 &quot;I don't think potential subscribers in St. Petersburg are following this Moscow story,&quot; Pogrebinsky said.
 MTS started selling to corporate clients Wednesday, and holds its grand opening with fireworks Dec. 11.
 However, MTS's increasingly negative image could hamper the company's position outside of Moscow, said Renaissance Capital analyst Andrei Braginsky.
 &quot;It may take some time for MTS to reassure both existing and potential customers that it indeed offers fair billing,&quot; said Braginsky.
 
 
q
 Mobile TeleSystems is close to gaining a foothold in the Northern Caucasus - seen as the most lucrative region for cellular subscribers outside Moscow and St. Petersburg - by buying a big stake in Kuban-GSM.
 
The deal has not been signed yet, but media reports Thursday indicated it is all but set in stone. Kuban and MTS refused to comment.
 It is still unclear how large of a stake No. 1 mobile operator MTS would take in Kuban, which has been valued at $120 million to $135 million.
 Currently, MTS is the only one of the &quot;Big Three&quot; - the term given to Russia's leading three GSM operators, MTS, Vimpelcom and Telcominvest's Megafon project - that lacks an operating license for the region, with a population of some 5 million people.

TITLE: Miller Says Early Split Of Gasprom Is Unlikely
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Investors should not expect to see the sprawling Gazprom mono poly broken up any time soon, the company's CEO Alexei Miller said.
 
The government has named reform of the gas giant as one of its top priorities and has said the overhaul could include the division of its operations. The appointment of Miller early this summer was seen as a step toward that end.
 But Miller, speaking in an interview with Ogonyok magazine, said no quick solution can be reached because of Gazprom's $7-billion debt load, the need for approval from shareholders and various legal issues.
 &quot;Splitting up Gazprom would pose at least two serious problems: Who would become the legal successor responsible for the debt repayments and who would be able to guarantee the fulfillment of export contracts?&quot; Miller said. 
 The law on gas supplies forbids the breakup of companies that are part of the unified gas-supply system, Miller said.
 Moreover, he said, any major changes would require approval by 75 percent of the board, meaning that consolidated decisions would be required by all shareholders and not only those representing the state's 38 percent stake.
 &quot;Thirdly, Gazprom has promised to run by foreign lenders all deals involving assets worth more than $1 billion,&quot; he said.
 &quot;So talk about breaking up Gazprom can only be considered as theoretical.&quot;
 Gazprom controls 90 percent of all gas production in Russia and the entire gas-transportation system. It is also a key moneymaker for the government, bringing in a quarter of all budgetary revenues. A main advocate for the breakup of the monopoly are Russian oil majors, who are eager to transform into oil-and-gas companies.
 Analysts agreed with Miller, saying that splitting up Gazprom is not necessarily a priority and any steps toward the reform should be taken with caution.
 &quot;The importance of Gazprom's role in Russian economy is so crucial that there is no need to expect a wholesale, speedy reform,&quot; said Vladislav Metnev, an oil-and-gas analyst at Renaissance Capital. &quot;The price of a mistake in this process would be huge.&quot;
 Leonid Mirzoyan, oil-and-gas analyst with Deutsche Bank, said the breakup of Gazprom was much less of a time-sensitive issue than that of another natural monopoly, national power grid Unified Energy Systems.
 &quot;There are some indications that work on the reform will start some time at the end of next year,&quot; Mirzoyan said. 
 &quot;Maybe it is not even Miller's task to reform Gazprom,&quot; he said, adding Miller may be more interested in cleaning up house, harnessing the company's assets and making it more profitable.
 Miller said in the interview that he plans to shed &quot;hundreds of companies&quot; that are not part of Gazprom's core business. 
 Gazprom has already said that it intends to next year spin off one noncore unit, the media arm Gazprom-Media that controls NTV television.
 Boosting gas exports to Europe will also be a main strategy, Miller said. Gazprom already supplies one-fourth of the gas consumed in Europe. Miller suggested Gazprom would also be looking east, saying the Chinese market could one day rival Europe's.

TITLE: CB Chief Sees Strong Ruble
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Central Bank chairperson Viktor Gerashchenko said Thursday the ruble would remain stable despite falling oil prices.
 
&quot;I do not think that the potential drop in prices for energy resources to some critical threshold will reflect strongly on the ruble-exchange rate. I think the ruble will remain fairly stable,&quot; news agencies reported Gera shchen ko as saying.
 The Central Bank submitted its final proposal for 2002 monetary-fiscal policy to the Duma on Monday. The Duma had some objections to an earlier draft, in part because it didn't take into account possible changes in the market for energy resources or in the global economy.
 Gerashchenko defended the Central Bank's slow devaluation of the ruble, saying &quot;theoretically and practically, no country ever reached economic success by continually weakening its national currency,&quot; news agencies reported.
 The Central Bank does not plan to significantly alter the structure of its gold and currency reserves with the advent of the euro, Gerashchenko said. &quot;As long as the main bulk of external trade settlements in our country are made in dollars, there is no big need to keep a keep a significant part of our reserves in euros,&quot; he said, news agencies reported. 
 Gerashchenko on Wednesday again criticized amendments to the Central Bank law, which passed a first reading in the State Duma last year. He sent a letter, posted on the Central Bank's Web site, to Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov calling for the amendments to be returned to a first reading.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Reserves Fall $1.3Bln
 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's gold and currency reserves have made one of their sharpest drops in two years, but analysts said Thursday the country still had enough funds in its coffers to pay debts and support the ruble.
 The Central Bank earlier said that the reserves fell to $37.3 billion by Nov. 30 from $38.6 billion by Nov. 23.
 "The fall in reserves was connected mostly with the repayment on Nov. 27 of the Finance Ministry's debut Eurobond," the Central Bank said in a statement. The Eurobond was worth $1 billion, and Russia also paid $46 million interest.
 Vladimir Tikhomirov, an analyst at NIKoil, said the reserves that the Central Bank reported combined its own and those of the Finance Ministry, which repaid the bond. The remainder was spent on interventions on the foreign-exchange market to support the ruble.
 "This is not a big problem," Tikhomirov said of the reserves drop.
 
 
Chevy-Niva on Horizon
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - The AvtoVAZ-General Motors joint venture plans to release its first Chevrolet-Niva car on Sept. 23, 2002, Interfax reported.
 The joint venture - set up by AvtoVAZ, General Motors and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - is to develop the car in three phases, General Motors CIS Vice President David Herman said at an auto conference in Moscow on Wednesday. 
 The first phase provides for arranging the full-scale production of the car, called the VAZ-2123, which will be sold under the brand Chevrolet-Niva. The second envisions the manufacturing of a new modern engine and transmission, and the third could mark the production of a totally new car. 
 Herman said, however, that it is too early to talk about the third phase. 
 The Chevrolet-Niva will cost no more than $8,000 on the Russian market, Herman said. 
 Full-scale production of 75,000 cars annually will be possible only after the joint venture completes organizing its own painting facilities in 2003, Herman said. 
 
 
Profit Tax Loss?
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - The Tax Ministry warned Thursday that the government could lose up to 100 billion rubles ($3.2 billion) - or 5 percent of 2002 budget revenues - once the 24 percent flat tax on profit comes into effect Jan. 1, Interfax reported. 
 Karen Oganyan, head of the ministry's profit-tax department, said the calculations were made in conjunction with the Finance Ministry. 
 Tax experts said profit-tax revenue were not threatened. 
 "While they may suffer some reductions from companies that are paying taxes at full levels, it should bring more companies into the light by reducing the tax burden," said Steve Henderson, partner at Deloitte & Touche. 
 "Second, it should make Russia more attractive for foreign investors to set up entities that are taxable, because the tax rate is lower than in their home countries."
 "Multinationals could even transfer some of their tax burden to Russia, where the tax burden is lower," he added.
 Oganyan said 417.7 billion rubles in profit tax had been paid into the consolidated budget in the first 10 months of 2001 - 38.1 percent more than in the same period in 2000.
 
 
Big Firms, Big Taxes
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - The 4,122 largest enterprises paid 58 percent of all taxes, or 755.3 billion rubles ($25.21 billion), in the January-to-October period, Interfax reported a Tax Ministry official as saying Thursday. 
 Some 531 billion rubles ($18 billion), or 40.5 percent of the total, were provided by 256 organizations that the ministry monitors on a daily basis - including Gazprom, Unified Energy Systems, the Railways Ministry and oil majors.
 In total, the budget received 1.3 trillion rubles ($44 billion) in taxes over the first 10 months of this year.

TITLE: Russian Cuts Return Attention to Norway
AUTHOR: By Bruce Stanley
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON - OPEC has delayed a long-planned 6-percent reduction in oil output because it has yet to learn how big a production cut Norway is ready to make, a cartel official said Thursday.
 
Although Russia agreed Wednesday to cut its output by 150,000 barrels a day, Norway has became the focus of attention as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries tries to coordinate a cutback in global crude supplies in the hope of shoring up sagging prices.
 OPEC expects Norway, the world's third-largest crude exporter, to match Russia's cut, said the OPEC official, speaking on condition of anonymity from the group's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
 If it does, then OPEC will have a big enough commitment from independent crude suppliers outside the cartel to justify triggering the 1.5 million barrel-a-day cut its 11 members agreed on last month, the official said. Mexico and Oman have promised to curtail their production, and Angola has said it wants to cooperate.
 &quot;As long as we don't have the exact figure from Norway, we cannot go ahead and implement the cut,&quot; the OPEC official said, adding that Norway wasn't expected to announce its decision until at least Friday.
 Norway has so far offered broadly to cut output by 100,000 to 200,000 barrels a day. However, it made that pledge at a time when OPEC was expecting Russia to cut much more than 150,000 barrels.
 Russia's decision to cooperate, to this extent at least, ended a showdown with OPEC that threatened to unleash a potentially devastating price war for crude.
 &quot;We remain optimistic that other producers will follow suit to give strength and purpose to our market stability goals,&quot; OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez said.
 In an unusual act of diplomatic brinksmanship, OPEC insisted last month that non-OPEC producers promise to trim their output by a total of 500,000 barrels a day before it would put its own cuts into effect Jan. 1.
 OPEC is weary of cutting production - by a total of 3.5 million barrels so far this year - only to see outsiders maintain or even boost their output.
 Russia's turnaround appeared to vindicate OPEC's tough stance. Russia, the world's No. 2 oil producer, had said for weeks it would cut its daily output of 7.2 million barrels by just 50,000 barrels.
 OPEC wants independent producers to cut output through the second quarter of next year, when seasonal demand for oil tends to dip as weather warms in the United States and other major import markets. Some countries, Russia in particular, might not want to make such a commitment.
 &quot;Any production cuts must be extended for as long as it takes, if we are going to be successful in establishing a concrete floor under prices,&quot; Rodriguez warned.
 OPEC would almost certainly put its planned cuts into effect if Norway pledged a cut of 150,000 barrels a day, the OPEC official said.
 Mexico has pledged to pump 100,000 fewer barrels a day, while Oman promises to cut output by 40,000 barrels. OPEC is hoping for an additional cut of 40,000 barrels from Angola - enough to take the total cut in non-OPEC production to 480,000 barrels a day.
 &quot;That's going to mean, over time, higher crude prices, which will be reflected in higher refined-product prices,&quot; said George Beranek of The Petroleum Finance Co., a Washington consultancy.
 However, analysts noted that U.S. inventories of gasoline and other refined products are plentiful.
 Contracts of Brent crude for January delivery fell 14 cents to $19.08 in trading Thursday on the International Petroleum Exchange in London. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, January contracts of light, sweet crude were down 26 cents to $19.23 a barrel.
 OPEC's benchmark of crude prices edged up an average of $0.09 to $18.29 a barrel Wednesday, the latest day for which information was available.
 OPEC has a daily production target of 23.2 million barrels and aims to maintain a benchmark price between $22 and 28 per barrel.

TITLE: IMF Stand Keeps Argentina on Edge
AUTHOR: By Laurence Norman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Word that the International Monetary Fund is opposed to an immediate $1.3 billion bailout loan for Argentina triggered renewed worries Thursday that the country could default on its debt load.
 
His country saddled with $132 billion in debt accrued through years of overspending, President Fernando De la Rua met with his economics minister and top aides on a response to the announcement. He also held talks with opposition political and labor leaders.
 In Washington, the IMF said Wednesday it couldn't recommend approval of a $1.3-billion loan desperately sought by the cash-strapped South American country.
 The international lending agency said its 24-member executive board had met informally to hear a report from the head of an IMF team sent to Argentina two weeks ago to study its economy.
 On the Buenos Aires stock exchange, leading shares on the benchmark Merval Index opened up 1.02 percent Thursday, at 231.54. Shares have been battered for months, reaching a 10-year low last week.
 Moments before trading began, Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo moved to soften the blow of the IMF decision by saying his country continued to work closely with international agencies on deficit reduction and other economic reforms.
 &quot;These are truly difficult moments for our country,&quot; Cavallo said, but he predicted Argentina would turn the corner on the crisis.
 Argentina had been urging the IMF to quickly release a $1.3-billion loan installment. The country must make $900 million in debt payments this month and had been hoping to use the bailout funds - rather than having to look elsewhere.
 Economists warned that the decision was a serious blow to Argentina's ability to avoid a default, adding the fallout would have to be seen in Thursday's stock and bond trading.
 &quot;It's a tough decision and a serious one. It brings a default that bit nearer,&quot; said prominent Argentine economist Juan Aleman. &quot;The IMF is saying Argentina has not done what it had to do.&quot;
 Last month, Cavallo announced that his country would run a deficit for 2001 $1.3 billion above what it had originally promised the IMF. Meeting IMF targets was considered essential to Argentina's ongoing access to bailout loans.
 De la Rua's government could raise enough money to pay the debt by tapping pension funds, which on Monday were ordered to purchase government Treasury bills. That step alone was expected to raise at least $1.5 billion.
 However, even if Argentina complies with its December obligations to creditors, it still faces daunting challenges ahead as it tries to meet some $8 billion in debt repayments due before April.
 Unable to borrow at affordable interest rates, Argentina is steeped in a 42-month recession that has sent unemployment above 16 percent and shut down much consumer spending.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Merger Blitz Slows
 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) - The number of companies seeking European Union permission to merge or acquire others is stagnating and will likely drop this year for the first time in eight years, European Commission statistics showed on Thursday.
 Since 1994 the number of companies seeking permission to merge has grown substantially. That growth came to a halt this year, although there have nonetheless been more than 300 deals notified to the European Commission.
 "You have to say it's flattened out at a fairly high level." said Tony Norfield, global head of foreign exchange strategy for ABN-AMRO in London. "It hasn't gone down in any material sense."
 
 
Risk Downplayed
 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The collapse of Enron Corp. is unlikely to pose systemic risks to the global financial system or threaten the survival of any financial institution with exposure to the one-time energy trading giant, Standard & Poor's said on Thursday.
 "Although Enron was the size of a mid-size investment bank and played pivotal roles in certain financial markets, it does not appear to have the kind of systemic impact that would give it 'too big to fail' status," wrote banking analyst Tanya Azarchs. "While some of the exposures may be material, they do not appear, at least on the basis of initial reports, to be life threatening to any institution."
 S&P's assessment mirrors comments on Thursday by New York Federal Reserve President William McDonough. Enron filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday in the largest-ever U.S. corporate bankruptcy.
 
 
Looking Ahead
 

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Lufthansa's supervisory board has approved an order for 15 Airbus A380 jumbo jets, a decision it had put on ice as passenger numbers dropped after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the airline said Thursday.
 "With this decision, we are signaling a future-oriented investment, which will help strengthen Lufthansa's position long term in international competition," Chief Executive Juergen Weber said in a statement.
 Lufthansa said the order, made during an industry crisis, represents a strategic investment. The first aircraft will be delivered in 2007, it added.
 The A380, slated to enter service in 2006, would be the largest passenger plane ever, with 555 seats in a typical three-class layout.
 
 
Suter Steps Down
 

BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) - The founding chairperson of Swiss airline Crossair, Moritz Suter, resigned on Thursday to avoid a looming battle with the airline's new owners.
 Suter's surprise departure cleared the air at what looked set to become an acrimonious meeting of investors backing the fiery 58-year-old entrepreneur and shareholders who have taken control of the firm under a rescue plan for the Swiss airline industry.
 The plan includes a 2.5 billion Swiss franc ($1.5 billion) capital increase for Crossair as it takes over the mantle of Swiss flag carrier from collapsed Swissair Group, a cash injection shareholders were being asked to vote on.
 "Your board decided this morning to resign collectively. If Crossair needs me, I will be there," Suter told the meeting. "What I am doing is in the best interest of the future of the airline."

TITLE: The Short Trip From Vigilence to Paranoia
AUTHOR: By Rick Weiss
TEXT: IN the film &quot;The World According to Garp,&quot; Robin Williams is looking at a house he's thinking of buying when, as if from nowhere, a small plane veers out of control and crashes into the home.
 
&quot;We'll take the house,&quot; Williams tells the dumbstruck real-estate agent. Then he says to his wife, &quot;Honey, the odds on another plane hitting this house are astronomical. It's been pre-disastered. We'll be safe here.&quot;
 That's the kind of thinking the airline industry, the postal service and countless other businesses suffering under the gloom of Sept. 11 wish was more common among Americans. But most human brains are hard-wired very differently from Garp's. If anything, we tend to exaggerate the odds that unlikely events will happen again.
 The human brain is a master of the connect-the-dots game, drawing heavily on its ability to remember the past, make associations in the present and draw conclusions about the future. Indeed, our brains are such talented and overzealous extrapolators that we regularly see patterns where none exist: Given a random array of dots on a page, people will almost always say they recognize a shape or image.
 &quot;The brain is organized for detecting correlations in the world,&quot; says Charles Stevens, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. &quot;We depend on that capacity to stay alive.&quot;
 These days, however, this especially human predisposition is driving the nation to distraction. Thousands of people, aware of subtle tickles in their chests, have worried at least briefly that they have had inhalation anthrax, a non-contagious disease that was diagnosed in fewer than 20 Americans in all of the 20th century. Countless others have canceled or postponed airline travel because they fear further hijackings or crashes.
 It makes sense to pay attention in times of terror, but perhaps there's been too little acknowledgment of the potential costs of doing so - and too little emphasis on the value of skillful vigilance, rather than the indiscriminate alertness we're awash in now.
 You don't have to be a psychiatrist to appreciate that constant vigilance and attention to risk can easily blossom into paranoia. That state of mind is useless in the war against terrorism and can seriously undermine the important goal of maintaining people's trust in their leaders. Just look at what happened two weeks ago when American Airlines Flight 587 plummeted into a Queens, New York, neighborhood: Rightly or wrongly, the link to terrorism was so &quot;obvious&quot; to so many that officials' immediate comments to the contrary often were written off as government spin.
 These kinds of findings can help inform both us and our leaders as we try to cope with the prospect of 24/7 terror alerts. One thing that should be clear given our neurological propensities is that efforts to sweep suspicion under the rug of glib reassurance will be useless, and possibly counterproductive.
 Think back to the first weird and chilling report about the Florida photo editor diagnosed with a life-threatening case of anthrax. Officials called that case &quot;isolated&quot; - but so is the first case of every epidemic, whether spawned by nature or terrorist. Why speak to the present when nearly 300 million American brains are already calculating forward into the future? The word surely lost any meaning it once had when the most recent case of anthrax popped up in Connecticut last week and Governor John Rowland referred to it, too, as &quot;isolated.&quot;
 Nothing is isolated in our connect-the-dots world, and certainly not 18 confirmed cases of anthrax, 11 of them inhalational, in less than two months.
 Similarly, leaders and spokespeople should not think they're going to get away with linguistic gymnastics such as the instant assurance from officials after the plane crash in Queens that there was &quot;no evidence&quot; of a terrorist attack or sabotage. At that point, neither was there any evidence to say the crash was not the work of terrorists. Such statements ring appropriately hollow to a brain that has been conditioned to be on the lookout for danger, and they ultimately engender distrust. Better to admit befuddlement; the brain at least finds that credible.
 &quot;Trust&quot; is the operative word when it comes to maintaining order and calm during an extended time of crisis. After all, there is only so much individuals can do when it comes to defending against chemical, biological and radiological attacks. If ever there were a role for a federal government, this is it.
 But to be believed, the message coming from officials has to at least acknowledge the patterns being recognized - or perhaps generated - by all those avid puzzle solvers in the listening audience. &quot;Even if it seems like a low probability, it should be taken seriously, if only to keep the confidence of the people you're dealing with,&quot; argues Baruch Fischoff, a professor of cognitive psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.
 Of course, part of that honesty is that nobody really knows what is coming next. Hence those infamously nonspecific warnings of &quot;credible threats&quot; announced twice in the past two months by Attorney General John Ashcroft. Those warnings could not be designed better to exacerbate the brain's most debilitatingly creative predispositions by saying, in essence, &quot;Anyone who has not found the pattern in the dots, keep looking!&quot; Under those conditions, Black points out, &quot;Everything now is seen as a threat.&quot;
 A few clues about what to look for, perhaps from our hardened friends in Israel or Britain, might point our antennae where they would do the most good. Generally speaking, more information and candor is always more helpful, because that helps ensure that the patterns we're all concocting, moment to moment, are resonant with reality.
 Brain research conducted years ago on Buddhist monks - now legendary in some psychological circles - may offer something informative, and perhaps inspirational, for those exhausted by government exhortations to remain on the edge of paranoia.
 The monks regularly practiced a form of meditation that involves training the mind to be acutely aware of every sight, sound and sensation _ but not to be dragged into the emotional judgments that typically accompany each moment of awareness. Researchers had the monks and a control group of non-meditators sit in a quiet room, in which the only sound was that of a wall clock ticking. Electrodes were fitted to all the subjects' brains.
 All were told to relax, and by several measures they all relaxed. In both groups, brain readings registered a small blip each time the clock ticked - an indication that the sound had registered in the brain's auditory center. After a few minutes, though, as expected, those blips stopped occurring in the control group, evidence that their brains had accommodated to the regular stimulus and that the sound was no longer registering. By contrast, the brains of the meditating monks kept noticing, and noticing ... and noticing each tick. No stress. No worry. Just noticing. Noticing.
 Yes, those monks practice mindfulness all day. But their experience shows that it is possible, at least, both to pay great attention and remain at ease. In the absence of any end in sight for random acts of terror, that's a skill we might all want to start practicing.
 
 <i>Rick Weiss writes about science for The Washington Post, to which he contributed this comment. </i>

TITLE: Building a 'Free' Press, Just Like America's
TEXT: IMAGINE the following situation: A certain government is conducting anti-terrorist operations. The population and the majority of media outlets support it, but nevertheless the government considers it necessary to maintain tight control of the media's access to information on military operations. 
 
Then, suddenly, correspondents from another country appear on the enemy side of the front line and give the adversary the opportunity to have their say - and what's more, to sound off on live television about civilian casualties. The government decides to punish the subversive reporters.
 What associations does the above situation conjure up? Some will say the case of Andrei Babitsky, others will say Al-Jazir. And both are correct. The main difference between the two cases is in the severity of the punishment. Andrei Babitsky, a journalist with the American Radio Liberty, reported from the Chechen side of the front, was detained by federal forces and suffered physical and psychological damage. The Kabul office of the Qatar satellite television station Al-Jazir, whose reports are picked up and used throughout the world, was reduced to rubble by U.S. missiles.
 Last week, the U.S. president's press secretary, Shaun McCormack, criticized the decision of a Russian Arbitration Court to liquidate the TV6 television company, declaring that this was a step in the wrong direction on the path to a modern, democratic society. I wonder if Washington realizes that in Moscow, not just the words but also the deeds of the White House are analyzed? 
 It is worth recalling that the much-criticized measures to limit press access to information during the second Che chen war were borrowed by the Kremlin not from the totalitarian KGB past, but rather from the propaganda arsenal of the United States and NATO, employed during the Desert Storm and Kosovo operations. Then the Kremlin resisted the pressure. 
 Having observed how relations have developed between the authorities and the press in the United States after Sept. 11, it seems our authorities have reached the conclusion that they didn't act decisively enough on that occasion. The patriotic mood of the press, tight government control over information and &quot;attacks&quot; on those whose opinions differ - this ideal, achieved in the United States, is what our authorities are trying to emulate. For example, from the Kremlin's point of view, TV6 in the hands of Boris Berezovsky is not much different from ABC being run by Osama bin Laden. In the United States, this would be impossible, and thus it shouldn't be possible in Russia either.
 Today many U.S. and international human-rights organizations are concerned about the current state of press freedom in America. Some believe that the media has become too close to the government. The majority, however, believe that this is merely a temporary aberration brought about by the extraordinary conditions of the war on terrorism, and that it won't be long before the press returns to its usual adversarial relations with the government. Perhaps this is the case, or perhaps we are witnessing the birth of a new &quot;information order,&quot; an element of the world order emerging from events of Sept. 11. 
 If this is the case, then the only people left to fight for freedom of speech (as understood in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution) will be odious characters such as Larry Flint, who filed a suit against the Pentagon for not allowing his Hustler magazine to cover U.S. operations in Afghanistan, and TV6 general director Yevgeny Kiselev, who launched the unsavory &quot;Za Steklom&quot; program on his channel.
 
 <i>Alexei Pankin is editor of Sreda, a magazine for media professionals (www.internews.ru/sreda). </i>

TITLE: Free To Take What's on Offer
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: &quot;OUR choice is limited to what's on the pre-prepared menu. If none of the items on the menu take your fancy, then you are condemned to sit in silence.&quot;
 
I was sitting in a restaurant with an American acquaintance of mine whom I hadn't seen for a number of years. We were not, however, talking about the food. Neither of us had any objection to the profferred menu. We were talking about the political situation in Washington and about the alternatives available to citizens of the United States.
 Several days later, I was invited to appear on the television talk show &quot;Svoboda Slova.&quot; On one side of the studio sat members of so-called liberal parliamentary factions, while on the other side sat Gennady Zyuganov and his party functionaries. 
 &quot;Which side would you like to sit on?&quot; merrily asked one of the program organizers. I replied that I didn't feel any great sympathy for either side. To which I was told that I had to choose one side or the other, otherwise I wouldn't be allowed to take the floor.
 I was skimming a Web site the other day when I saw reference to some statement or other of mine, which a journalist characterized as &quot;anti-American.&quot; I wracked my brains to figure what he could have had in mind and then realized that I must have been speaking about the threat of civil rights being violated in the United States with the onset of the &quot;anti-terrorist campaign.&quot; The fact that U.S. human-rights activists themselves have been outspoken on this issue didn't seem to have occurred to him.
 Sometimes the choice we are offered is actually worse than no choice at all, for constantly having to choose the lesser of two evils can be amoral and demeaning.
 Whose side are you on, Bush's or bin Laden's? What do you prefer, crusade or jihad? Which slogans do you prefer to use to justify killing innocent people? What's better - haughty, &quot;Westernizer&quot; contempt for one's own people or Black Hundred-style hatred of non-Russians? Whom should we vote for in elections, a corrupt political intriguer or a war criminal?
 The contemporary rules of the game not only permit, but also require pluralism and a multiplicity of opinions. When only one point of view is tolerated you effectively have a totalitarian system. There should be a minimum of two points of view. However, those points of view shouldbe ranged along a narrow and pre-determined spectrum. Further, critics of the status quo must, without fail, be made to appear even more loathsome than the status quo itself. This provides a guarantee of stability. 
 Thus, while encouraging different opinions, the system rejects nonconformism, i.e. ideas and views that do not fit into the ready-made menu. Everyone is painstakingly herded into one of the several pre-prepared camps. Officially sanctioned opposed positions are little more than mirror images of one another.
 Nonconformism, on the other hand, presupposes the possibility of qualitatively new and different approaches to an issue, and the possibility of breaking with a pre-made selection of positions. This is, in fact, the basis of freedom.
 Fortunately, of course, there is no such thing as a complete lack of alternatives. There is always some means of voicing one's position.
 The main thing is to follow one's own path and not to be taken in by public-opinion polls; to use as one's compass not officially sanctioned positions, but one's own fundamental understanding of honor, conscience and personal responsibility.
 If one does this, simple and self-evident things come to the surface. For example, the fact that one can defend one's civil rights and democratic freedoms without being a terrorist and wanting to &quot;blow up civilization;&quot; that those responsible for many of our problems need to be sought not in the &quot;West&quot; or the &quot;East,&quot; but at the top echelons of our social hierarchy; and that defending one's rights not only does not run against the grain of democracy, but on the contrary lies at the very heart of democracy.
 It is quite possible that others will draw different conclusions. The main thing is to break out of the straitjacket of the officially sanctioned menu.
 
 <i>Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist. </i>

TITLE: Is the West Interested in Democracy in Central Asia?
AUTHOR: By Paula Newberg
TEXT: WHAT a difference a war makes. Last year, the United Nations mustered barely enough money to keep its basic operations going in Afghanistan, raising pitiful sums to combat a lethal drought affecting Afghanistan and central Asia.
 
This month, it is launching a reconstruction effort projected to cost at least $10 billion. Germany has offered $70 million. The United States has pledged more than $100 million in humanitarian aid for the region this autumn. And, of course, there is the estimated $1-billion-a-month cost of the war, including small-print allocations to firm up alliances across the region. As the late Senator Everett Dirksen remarked during the Vietnam War, a billion dollars here, a billion dollars there - and pretty soon, you're talking about real money.
 But beware. The best politics that money can buy in Afghanistan and among its neighbors may not be good enough to sustain peace. Indeed, some of the relationships emerging between the United States and its anti-terrorism allies in south and central Asia may extinguish democratic hopes. Serious differences of strategy, policy and politics may risk long-term regional security for the appearance of short-term gain, leaving Afghans and their neighbors perilously enfeebled and at the mercy of local strongmen and outside powers.
 Take central Asia: five cash-poor, weak states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - run by blustering authoritarians, to whom the war on terrorism has given a renewed lease on political life. Turkmenistan's Saparmurad Niyazov's nearly unlimited powers haven't helped him peddle the country's enormous natural-gas reserves, which have been held hostage to Afghan wars and the difficult politics of the Caspian Sea region. Niyazov has spent years promoting various political settlements in Afghanistan in pursuit of Turkmen profit. But his well-documented habits of treating state funds as his personal treasury have made him the scourge of international lenders, and his rights abuses have earned him rogue status in a region marked by misbehavior. Until now, that is, when the war against terrorism has turned the former U.S. foe into useful U.S. friend.
 Or Uzbekistan, whose president, Islam Karimov, has catapulted to global importance by offering air bases to the U.S.-led anti-terrorism alliance. Uzbeks have supported elements of Afgha ni stan's Northern Alliance for years, particularly General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was in charge of the fort where hundreds of imprisoned Taliban fighters were massacred after they staged an uprising. U.S. President George W. Bush has now endorsed Karimov's view that his primary political headache, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), is a terrorist organization of global reach.
 The IMU has also contributed to Tajikistan's civil strife, which tore at the country's political identity and almost emasculated its bare economy, now overcome by drought. President Emamali Rakhmonov's balancing act - supporting Tajik-speaking freedom fighters in Afghanistan while fending off Uzbek ambitions at home - has reinforced his overreaching powers. Regional chaos is unlikely to loosen his grip.
 These leaders and their colleagues in central Asia all profess to want peace and stability. But they also maintain closed borders and barely disguised antipathies that work against regional harmony, which is a mainstay of a global campaign against terrorism. America's goal of a broadly based but non-Taliban government in Afghanistan doesn't easily mesh with these authoritarians' interests in carving out spheres of influence that demarcate trade routes and leave room for cross-border meddling.
 In attitude if not in tactics, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan don't differ all that much from Pakistan, whose long border with Afghanistan has offered its leaders the illusion that Kabul should take political instructions from Islamabad.
 Equally important, central Asia's leaders don't seem seriously interested in sharing power with their citizens. Democracy advocates have been rightly chagrined to watch basic liberties in these countries take a back seat to show trials and imprisonments, and recent events continue to justify their attitudes. Last week, the leader of Uzbekistan's only credible democratic opposition party, and the only serious challenger to Karimov, was detained in Europe at the request of Uzbek authorities after he fled harassment at home.
 For central Asia's citizens, the price of the anti-terrorism war is therefore high. If America's new alliances in central Asia stimulate openness in regional politics, then democracy, fairness and justice stand a chance. But if the expedient bargains of war simply validate unfair rule, the effectiveness of the alliances will diminish, and so will the international effort to secure Afghanistan and extirpate terrorism.
 America's alliances in central Asia parallel its long, strained relationship with Pakistan, an anti-terrorism partner alreading straining at the alliance bit. For three decades, Pakistan's involvement in Afghanistan has gone hand in hand with its relationships with the West. Pakistan has meddled in Kabul politics to counterbalance its fragile, contentious relationship with India, most blatantly (and with U.S. help) during the anti-Soviet war of the 1980s, and to ensure its place in the queue for foreign aid and diplomatic support. Little wonder that General Pervez Musharraf, who presides over a skidding economy, failing polity and, until recently, pariah diplomacy, was keen to hear British Prime Minister Tony Blair affirm Pakistan's interests in Afghanistan.
 The price for Pakistan's support in the war against terrorism is steep, financially and morally: $1 billion in U.S. contributions; budgetary support organized by the International Monetary Fund; trade concessions from the European Union; a convenient amnesia about the military's economic mismanagement; a turned cheek concerning Pakistan's role in supporting the Taliban; and a rosy glass through which to view Pakistan's potential interference in Afghanistan's future governance.
 The cost to Pakistanis, whose military ruler is now likely to hold power indefinitely? Well, that's another story. Politicians, economists and most Pakistanis long for a society that is orderly and stable enough to sustain political debate free from threats by thugs, religious groups and private militia that do the army's bidding in Kashmir and Afghanistan. 
 Until recently, this was not the military's agenda, and it's still not clear that it is now, either. Pakistan's constitution remains in abeyance, the rule of law is personal and political participation is subjected to the army's interpretation of security and Musharraf's limited version of electoral democracy. Under these circumstances, Pakistan's capacity to transform itself into a vital, profitable, democratic political economy is limited indeed. Will our new friends in central Asia be any different?
 Pope Paul VI used to advise those who sought peace to seek justice. For now, however, the United States is marching with partners that may be neither agreeable nor reliable and for which justice is a sideshow and peace potentially inconvenient. Relying on our old diplomatic habits isn't likely to help us exploit the enormous opportunity that misery has provided us - to remove any incentives for anyone to pursue terrorism. Surely, we can find ways to make the effort worth the price.
 
 <i>Paula Newberg is the author of &quot;Politics at the Heart: The Architecture of International Assistance to Afghanistan.&quot; She contributed this comment to the Los Angeles Times. </i>

TITLE: History Does Not Justify What Bush Wants To Do
AUTHOR: By Robert Reno
TEXT: IT'S amazing the number of dead presidents who've been exhumed to prove it's all right to trash the U.S. Constitution. I'm referring to people who cite the authoritarian excesses of previous chief executives as reasons we shouldn't fear that President George W. Bush's plans to run terrorists through military courts.
 
If these seriously threaten the rule of law and principles of civilian supremacy, so what? Some commentators have dusted off the corpse of John Adams, the second president, who rammed through the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, a hateful package of legislation aimed at Irish immigrants and dissenters who dared criticize the government. In 1800, Adams was mercifully defeated by Thomas Jefferson. America went back to the normal rules.
 Since we only occasionally get presidents as great as Jefferson, I'm not sure how reassured I am. Abraham Lincoln may be a better example than the unfortunate Adams. He suspended the right of habeas corpus during the Civil War, a bit of overkill hardly justified when the Union enjoyed such disproportionate advantages of manpower and industrial resources. Woodrow Wilson imagined himself one of the most high-minded men who ever lived. But he allowed his attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, to practice indiscriminate persecution of suspected radicals that went down in history as the infamous &quot;Palmer Raids.&quot;
 Franklin D. Roosevelt harnessed wartime hysteria to justify herding American citizens of Japanese ancestry into concentration camps. Future generations were so appalled that Congress voted cash reparations in 1988 for the survivors. The whole point is, I guess, that even our most saintly presidents commit atrocities that on longer reflection we wish they hadn't. But why are we so slow to learn that national emergencies are as perilous to civil liberties as the &quot;evildoers&quot; who make up the ranks of the known enemy?
 J. Edgar Hoover's reputation with the right wing is not as exalted as it was when he was using a pathetically weak domestic communist menace to justify many of the extra-legal excesses for which his agency is remembered. For one thing, conservatives squirm uncomfortably at evidence he led a double life dressed in sequined ball gowns. 
 Would that President Bush's track record suggested greater resistance to incautious infringement of civil liberties in the name of security. He gives a sense that if someone showed him a copy of the Alien and Sedition Acts he would leap at the idea and recommend it to his attorney general.
 If J. Edgar Hoover had had his life to live over again, there's no evidence he wouldn't be the same paranoid, self-promoting oaf. But who doubts that Adams, Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt would have preferred a place in history less flawed by their momentary lapses of good sense? I hope Bush knows enough history to realize his place in it is at stake.
 
 <i>Robert Reno is a columnist for Newsday, to which he contributed this comment. </i>

TITLE: opening up a world of sound
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Authentic world music has taken center stage in St. Petersburg lately, with recent concerts by Pakistani, Armenian and Azeri folk artists receiving both critical and popular acclaim. Naturally enough, people have increasingly been looking for world-music recordings as well.
 
&quot;World music is in high demand now,&quot; said Yelena Petrenko, assistant manager of the Kailas music store. Kailas, which started as a small pirate shop on Bolshaya Morskaya, opened at 10 Pushkinskaya Ulitsa last December and since then has been playing a prominent role in promoting sounds from around the globe.
 &quot;While three years ago, only a few people were interested [in world music], now it has reached wide audiences,&quot; Petrenko said.
 Local audiences seem to have noticeably expanded their horizons, actively seeking out cultures that are as different from what they are used to as possible.
 &quot;They are interested in something completely the opposite - in psychology, in music,&quot; Petrenko said. &quot;Even if they have never heard any Chinese music, they buy it without even listening. They want music from Japan, Vietnam, Korea and Nepal.&quot;
 In addition to world music, which makes up about 20 percent of the 10,000 titles that Kailas has in stock, the store specializes in jazz, art rock and classical music.&quot;This music is closest to us,&quot; said co-owner Ivan, who asked that his last name not be used. &quot;Sellers promote the music that they listen to and people with similar tastes come by. We don't listen to rap or DJs, so we don't carry this music.&quot;
 Ivan has also noticed a considerable increase in local interest in world music over the last 18 months, dating back to the time when cheap, Russian-produced CDs began appearing on the market. He notes that the same thing happened with jazz about four years ago.
 &quot;Ethnic music is very promising,&quot; he said. &quot;If producers continue to release it, it can grow considerably next year, because it's virtually virgin territory. Even if we just consider the music of former Soviet Union, people will buy it. If somebody decides to release folk music from the Baltic countries, for instance, people will go for it.&quot;
 In order to foster a club-like atmosphere, the shop has hosted acoustic concerts of medieval music and Tibetan throat singers. Last month, Kailas launched an eponymous label, releasing as its first CD a collection by the local band Renaissance Winds.
 In addition to music, Kailas sells oriental paraphernalia like incense sticks and oils that the owners think go well with the music the shop offers. There is also a small rack of mainstream pop CDs that Petrenko almost apologetically describes as &quot;a starting place for neophytes.&quot;
 &quot;They come, get what they want and then we start getting acquainted with them, working with them,&quot; Petrenko said. &quot;We suggest some different kinds of music at first and try to see what is interesting to each person. Then we start moving further in those directions.&quot;
 &quot;We speak to everybody and we are interested in suggesting that people listen to things they have never heard before. We have people who came in for Madonna a year ago who now listen to nothing but jazz or art rock,&quot; Petrenko explained.
 
 <i>
Kailas record shop, 10 Pushkinskaya Ulit sa, M: Mayakovskaya/Ploshchad Vos sta niya, 320-9147. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. </i>

TITLE: a mixed bag of modern choreography
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The late ballet master and artistic director of the Vaganova Ballet Academy Igor Belsky used to greet new students by warning them that staging ballets is not something that can be taught. All he offered his students was guidance and advice. Either one can think creatively, or one can't.
 
Therefore, audiences should not be lulled into thinking that merely because a choreographer holds a professional degree, he or she is capable of producing an original staging. This truth was strikingly evident to audiences at the Mariinsky's Evening of Modern Choreography on Dec. 1 and 2, an event that turned over the venerable stage to five young choreographers who presented one-act specially created ballets.
 Of the five featured choreographers, three hold ballet masters' diplomas. Svetlana Anufrieva graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory; Indra Reinholde from the St. Petersburg Academy of Culture; and Vla di mir Angelov received his degree from the choreography department of the American University in Washington, D.C. Yet the ballets staged by these three choreographers were strikingly conventional. 
 Overall, most of the compositions - lasting between 15 and 40 minutes - demonstrated technical proficiency and awareness, but failed to break any new ground. Most of the ballets simply weren't original. It was nearly impossible, for instance, to distinguish significant stylistic differences between Angelov's &quot;Last Horizon,&quot; Reinholde's &quot;Reflections,&quot; and Anufrieva's &quot;Dolce, con fuoco.&quot; Although Angelov mixed neo-classical and modern elements while Anufrieva stayed much closer to classical traditions, neither work had anything new to say.
 These three abstract pieces were intended to explore human relationships and passions. All three choreographers resorted to cliched expressive devices that mirrored one another: exaggerated hand gestures conveyed despair, while stylized embraces evoked tenderness. Invariably, heroes and heroines collapsed breathlessly when worse came to worst. Innovative, expressive choreography was distressingly absent.
 All was not bleak, however. Mariinsky dancer Kirill Simonov offered an intriguing spectacle. His 25-minute &quot;Come In!&quot; brought a fresher interpretation to the theme of love. As the major musical theme of Vladimir Martynov's piece is repeated, the ballet's main theme replays and evolves as well: love &quot;comes in&quot; to the dancers in about as many different ways as is possible among human beings. Perhaps because the piece's purpose was so well determined, the dancers were confident and this ballet demonstrated well synchronized work by the <i>corps de ballet</i>.
 Simonov's style - smooth, unfolding, melting movements - was not fully appreciated in the version of &quot;The Nutcracker&quot; that he staged for the Mariinsky last season. There, the choreography was overwhelmed by the luxurious sets and direction of artist Mikhail Shemyakin. In &quot;Come In!,&quot; however, Simonov's signature style evolves, demonstrating obvious potential and originality.
 Jiuliano Peparini offered a smooth and well-rehearsed piece, though he was forced to cut the original 55-minute piece back to just 35. His &quot;Loulou: Dream of an Anti-Star&quot; recreated the authentic feel of the 1930s, even though some of the seams from the cuts were apparent and the production occasionally seemed disjointed. The piece coherently targets the relations between 1930s movie icon Louise Brooks and the coquettish character Loulou, who made Brooks a star. One certainly hopes that Peparini someday gets the opportunity to finish this very promising piece. 
 Dancer Yana Serebryakova proved an excellent choice for the challenging role of Loulou, giving an engrossing depiction of a subtle, yet powerful woman. Yelena Bazhenova, as Brooks, was lacking the depth that would have helped the audience understand how Loulou was influencing her personality and, likewise, how much of Loulou is contributed by Brooks.

TITLE: return of the master
AUTHOR: by Gulara Sadykh-zade
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov's arrival in St. Petersburg for two concerts Dec. 1 and 2 was something of a sensation. This legend of Russian conducting has made precious few appearances in his native country since the regrettable scandal that unfolded around him two years ago when Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi unceremoniously dismissed Svetlanov from his post as head conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra, a position he has occupied for 35 years. To make matters worse, the dismissal came just as the musical world was celebrating the master's 70th birthday.
 
Svetlanov is a unique figure, both in terms of the breadth of his talent and the scope of his personality. During his peak years - the 1970s, 1980s and even the beginning of the 1990s - the State Symphony Orchestra shone like never before, demonstrating under the maestro's baton clarity, power and balance. The fact that Svetlanov managed to complete the massive work of recording the entire oeuvre of Russian symphonic music, creating the famous &quot;Anthology of Russian Music&quot; series, is itself enough to secure his place in history. The vulgar treatment that Svetlanov received from the &quot;culture&quot; bureaucrats was barbaric.
 Inevitably, therefore, Svetlanov's appearance in the Bolshoi Hall of the Philharmonia with this distinguished orchestra took on something of the air of revenge against official Moscow. Petersburg, as the guardian of tradition and conservative orchestral tastes, was obliged to show that it maintained its own attitude toward Svetlanov.
 Formally speaking, Svetlanov's triumph was complete. The hall was full both evenings; the orchestra brought out all the previously unheard elements of these symphonic arrangements; and the audience applauded rapturously.
 However, one look at the master as he slowly made his way to the podium caused one to gasp involuntarily. Two years of inactivity and the serious operation that Svetlanov underwent last summer have taken their toll, as has the betrayal of colleagues with whom he worked arm in arm-for-more than half of his life.
 Nonetheless, Svetlanov's musical mastery was fully evident, as was his genius as a conductor. His wisdom, his impeccable timing, his delicate and profoundly touching intuition in working with the orchestra are the same as they were during his peak years. These qualities enabled him to captivate the hall for the entire program, which featured a selection of Wagner's &quot;hits&quot; from <i>Der Ring des Nibelungen </i>and <i>Parsifal. </i>To the credit of our local orchestra, it coped with this unfamiliar music admirably.
 The only lapses were the horn section's flogging of the beautiful introduction to &quot;The Gold of the Rhine,&quot; which certainly did not sound as smooth and synchronized as audiences used to Valery Gergiev's interpretations of Wagner at the Mariinsky have come to expect.
 But Svetlanov's concerts had plenty of bright moments, including in particular the marvelous French horn solo by Igor Karzov.
 Engulfed by the affection of the public and the lavish attention of local journalists, Svetlanov eagerly basked in the fading light of his previous glory. But, in the end, what is such earthly acknowledgement for someone who has already earned his place among the immortals?

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Local club favorites <strong>Markscheider Kunst </strong>will showcase their new album with a concert at Red Club on Saturday. Called &quot;Krasivasleva,&quot; it was released on the Moscow-based Gala label, also responsible for St. Petersburg's Leningrad and Kirpichi. 
 
Even though the band is one of the hardest working groups in the city, playing lots of concerts in both capitals and touring European clubs, &quot;Krasivasleva&quot; is their first CD.
 Previously, only a tape of early recordings was available. It included tracks that Markscheider Kunst recorded at the now-defunct TaMtAm club and was released on the TaMtAm label in 1998 - almost two years after the punk club closed.
 The new album was released in October when the band was touring Germany and was first presented to public at Moscow's Tochka club last Saturday.
 According to singer Selengi &quot;Serafim&quot; Makangila, the album is more interesting than the CD single released earlier this year, because it better represents the band's current music, which is suffused with Colombian, Cuban and African elements.
 <strong>Dr. Green</strong>,<strong> </strong>a ska-punk band from Lithuania, has arrived in town to play a series of club dates. If you missed them at City Club, Front and Moloko earlier, check them out at Red Club on Friday or Fish Fabrique on Saturday.
 &quot;There are few bands here who play at their level,&quot; says Denis Kuptsov of the local band Spitfire, which plays in a similar style. &quot;And they seem to be the only surviving Lithuanian alternative band. Interesting projects appear in Lithuania from time to time, but for some reason they soon vanish.&quot;
 As the band's official biography states: &quot;Dr. Green stands for cannabis decriminalization and against all of this macho, nazi/racist bullshit, violence and a pop way of life. [Dr. Green] always supports an honest 'do-it-yourself' concept.&quot;
 <strong>Klub Sputnik</strong>,<strong> </strong>a somewhat ephemeral structure that occasionally brings local bands to Helsinki and vice versa, will be staging a concert with three Finnish bands called &quot;Klub Sputnik and Club Never Sever United&quot; at Moloko on Dec. 14.
 Chainsmoker, Mother Goose and the PollyVox will be here to give a taste of the garage-rock-oriented Club Never Sever United, which is located in Kallio, the Helsinki workers' district dubbed &quot;Helsinki's Bronx.&quot;
 If you like Cramps, Air, Sonic Youth, Jesus Lizard, Shellac or Masfel, you'll probably enjoy the show.
 This week's main electronic event is Italy's <strong>DJ Leo Young</strong>,<strong> </strong>who will be brought to the city by the Baza store and will perform two shows on Sunday. At 11 p.m. he will appear at a &quot;semi-exclusive&quot; party at Akvarel - a new restaurant near Birzhevoi Most on the Petrograd Side, which plans to promote lounge and easy-listening parties about twice a month. He'll be making a more democratic appearance at a party at Mama, which starts at around 2 a.m.
 And the main acoustic event is <strong>Vladimir Tarasov</strong>,<strong> </strong>Vilnius' drummer extraordinaire, who will play with local double bass player Vladimir Volkov at the JFC Jazz Club this Friday.
 Meanwhile, <strong>Tricky </strong>posters appeared around town last week, and tickets are now on sale. They cost between 280 and 850 rubles ($9.33 and $28.33) and are available from the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall, street box-offices and the Titanic, Saigon, Iceberg and Kailas music stores. The concert will be on Dec. 19.
 
 <i>- by Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: paprika is the flavor of hungary
AUTHOR: by Robert Coalson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: There are some wonderful restaurants in town that for some reason choose to keep too low a profile. I remember stopping in at the Hungarian restaurant Chardash when it first opened and enjoying an excellent meal - with a delicious Hungarian wine - next to their blazing fireplace. I distinctly remember thinking that this is a place to keep in mind. 
 
However, life being what it is, I soon forgot about Chardash. Time passed, apparently, and I was shocked to walk into this comfortably elegant restaurant this week and discover that it was already celebrating its second anniversary. I couldn't believe that two whole years had passed since I'd been there.
 Luckily, Chardash remains the same wonderful restaurant that I remembered. It is somehow able to combine a formal, fine-dining experience with a cozy and family-oriented style that is, to my mind, exactly what dining out should be: half theater and half easy-going camaraderie. Any place with both a children's menu (six pages!) and linen napkins is O.K. with me.
 As we unfolded our napkins last Sunday afternoon, we immediately bemoaned the fact that the welcoming fireplace was cold and dark this time. Otherwise, everything - from the service to the decor to the food and drink - was flawless. Even the red, white and green Hungarian flag on the wall contributed gleefully to Chardash's understated but cheery Christmas decorations. 
 Reading Chardash's extensive menu is a pleasure in itself, with the imagination especially lingering over the boar in honey-mustard sauce for two going for 1,600 rubles ($53.33). We quickly set our sights, however, on the vast range of more modestly priced fare, mentally filing away the boar for a special occasion. 
 There is plenty more food for thought on Chardash's bill of fare, however, including a page of vegetarian entrees and a nice assortment of fish dishes. Although Chardash provides a modest salad bar that is included in the price of the entree, we started off with salads from the menu: the chicken and grape salad for 95 rubles ($3) and King Matyash's Salad for 110 rubles ($3.67).
 The former was generously portioned vegetable salad with chicken chunks, served warm with an oil dressing. The sweetness of the plump, purple grapes made an intriguing contrast to the flavor of the chicken.
 King Matyash, it turns out, preferred a salad of salami, marinated mushrooms and tomatoes served in a mayonnaise-based dressing flavored with paprika. I don't know if this dish is authentic, but it is certainly what one would imagine traditional Hungarian fare to be. 
 I followed my salad with the chicken wings in barbecue sauce for 90 rubles ($3). Although the sauce, which was thick and seemed to have been based on sweet relish, had nothing to do with barbecue, it was very good and the five large wings were baked to perfection.
 My dining companion went for what turned out to be the highlight of the meal, the Bograch-Goulash for 90 rubles ($3). Served piping hot in a crockery pot, this concoction of vermicelli, salami, potatoes and the like came reeking of paprika. Our mouths were watering before the waiter got anywhere near our table, and our expectations were not disappointed. If this isn't the way they are doing goulash in Budapest, then they should take a lesson.
 We then proceeded to our main courses of veal paprilash (190 rubles, or $6.33) and beef <i>po-budapeshtski </i>for 160 rubles ($5.33).
 The veal was a large plate of tender veal chunks swimming in a thick, creamy sauce generously seasoned with - no prize for guessing - paprika. The veal itself was perhaps a touch dry, but the sauce was superb.
 The Budapest beef was a very nice beef fillet baked in a sauce of mushrooms and chicken liver. In this case, the cut of beef was very fine and cooked with a delicate touch, but the sauce, although delicious, seemed a touch greasy to our taste. 
 Stunningly, the restaurant was out of coffee when we were there, so we trundled off drowsily with the taste of paprika still fresh in our mouths, promising ourselves that we would not let ourselves forget about Chardash.
 
 <i>
Chardash, 22 Nab. Makarova, 323-8588. Open daily from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. Dinner for two with beer, 1,070 rubles ($35.67). Menu in Russian only. Credit cards accepted. </i>

TITLE: 'Friendly Fire' Deaths Under Investigation
AUTHOR: By Kathy Gannon
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KABUL, Afghanistan - With an investigation under way into how an errant satellite-guided bomb killed three Americans, U.S. warplanes on Thursday hammered Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan as well as an al-Qaeda cave hide-out in the mountainous east.
 
North of the Taliban's last bastion of Kandahar, meanwhile, the leader of Afghanistan's new interim government said he is offering a general amnesty to Taliban fighters who surrender. Speaking by satellite telephone, Hamid Karzai said the amnesty will not apply to the movement's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
 Karzai, who was chosen for the leadership post by Afghan factions at a meeting in Germany, held a second day of talks Thursday with top Taliban officials to discuss his amnesty offer. He is to take power Dec. 22, and he said he expects Kandahar to collapse long before then, allowing him to be in the capital of Kabul to meet his 29-member cabinet.
 &quot;Sure, definitely it will have fallen by then, long before then,&quot; he said. &quot;Inshallah&quot; - God willing.
 Elsewhere Thursday, opposition forces said that, for the first time in weeks, no bombing was reported in or immediately around Kandahar, near the site of Wednesday's friendly fire incident.
 While Kandahar was spared, residents in the Pakistani border town of Chaman said bombs hit Taliban positions near Spinboldak, 100 kilometers to the southeast. They said a Taliban ammunition depot and an oil storage site were targeted.
 At least four people, including some Taliban fighters, were killed and four were wounded, hospital officials in Chaman said. The reports could not be independently verified.
 In Wednesday's friendly fire accident, five allied Afghan fighters were killed along with the three Americans when a U.S. bomber dropped ordnance too close to their positions north of Kandahar. About 20 U.S. personnel and an undetermined number of Afg hans were wounded.
 U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered an inquiry into the bombing.
 &quot;In every conflict there are unexpected, unintended deaths,&quot; Rumsfeld said in an interview with CNN. &quot;And it is a shame, but it happens.&quot;
 Anti-Taliban Pashtun tribesmen, backed by U.S. bombing and American special forces, have been closing on Kandahar from the north, south and the east, including a force led by Karzai. Karzai was in the area where the stray bomb landed. He said he was slightly wounded in the face and head when he was hit by shards of flying glass.
 At Tora Bora, in the rugged White Mountains near the eastern city of Jalalabad, American B-52s dropped 115-and 230-kilogram bombs onto an elaborate tunnel-and-cavern complex, setting off orange flashes and plumes of smoke in the forested mountains.
 Dozens of planes flew missions there overnight and Thursday morning after anti-Taliban forces used tanks and mortars to attack al-Qaeda guerrillas loyal to prime terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.
 Residents in Jalalabad, 55 kilometers to the northeast, said shock waves from the bombardment were rattling the windows of their houses.
 Doctors at Jalalabad's main hospital said that an officer, from the eastern Shura anti-Taliban group, and five of his men were wounded in an al-Qaeda ambush.
 Local tribesmen believe bin Laden might be holed up inside the Tora Bora caves with Arab, Pakistani and Chechen defenders. As many as 1,500 tribal fighters pushed down a valley toward the fortified complex.
 At the Pentagon, spokesperson Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said U.S. special forces were in the area helping direct airstrikes and were gathering intelligence. He said Afghan fighters had already entered some caves in the hunt for al-Qaeda members.
 Commanders in the biggest anti-Taliban faction, the Northern Alliance, however, suggest it is more likely that bin Laden is hiding somewhere around Kandahar, which the Taliban say they will defend to the death.
 Meanwhile, U.S. Marines who have been building up a base in the desert outside Kandahar for days have now moved to offensive operations for the first time, helping to cut off roads and communications into the city and cutting off possible Taliban escape routes, U.S. officials said.

TITLE: Afghan Children Face a Life Of Poverty and Land Mines
AUTHOR: By Kathy Gannon
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KABUL, Afghanistan - Roya stopped talking for a minute to think about what she would like to be when she grows up. Her brow furrowed and then suddenly it was clear: &quot;A tailor, because I would like to make my mother a pretty dress.&quot;
 
Roya is one of more than 30,000 children in Kabul who scrounge for food, metal - anything that can bring in a few cents or a crust of bread.
 The fact that 11-year-old Roya is in school, practicing the Persian alphabet and multiplication tables and thinking about pretty dresses, highlights how Afghanistan has changed since the ouster of the Taliban that forced women off the job and girls out of school.
 But an awful lot remains the same.
 Roya spends much of her day collecting scraps of paper and pieces of firewood among the crumbling mud ruins on streets still littered with land mines and booby traps from past factional fighting. Each day fresh victims are brought to Kabul's hospitals, many of them children who have lost a hand or a foot, say hospital and Red Cross officials.
 Kabul, a city of more than 1 million people, is populated by the poorest - those who couldn't afford a ticket out of town during the civil war or the Taliban's five-year regime. At one time it was the most heavily mined city in the world.
 Aschiana, the Afghan charity whose center Roya attends, gives lessons in land mines and unexploded shells. A teacher points to diagrams of the mines and then holds up an anti-personnel mine, an anti-tank mine and a rocket launcher.
 At least six children had already seen an unexploded mine. Thirteen-year-old Mehrab, his secondhand baseball jacket torn and filthy, says his older brother lost a leg to a mine.
 Funded by the European Union and Terres Des Hommes, a Swiss-based organization, Aschiana, which began in 1995, uses its meager annual budget of about $200,000 to feed and school about 1,500 street children, teach them basic hygiene and the beginnings of a trade.
 A social worker from Aschiana found the children digging through garbage on the rocket-rutted roads, picking up scraps of metal and lugging heavy sacks of wood, paper and plastic to sell. Many were simply begging.
 Classes are segregated however, and the influx of girls has forced some of the boys to move their class to a cement patio. There they sit in rows, painting or practicing their calligraphy. Twelve-year-old Potcha held a tiny yellow rosebud in his grease-blackened hand. It was made of paper. He had made it himself. He held it gently as his small fingers wrapped one piece of paper after another to make the delicate petals.
 One day, Potcha says, he will be able to sell paper flowers for a living.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Kashmir Bomb
 

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - At least 17 people were wounded, including a one-year-old child, on Thursday when militants threw a grenade in a crowded marketplace in the heart of Indian Kashmir's main city, security forces said.
 A paramilitary spokesperson said the child suffered serious wounds in the blast in Maharaja Bazaar in downtown Srinagar, the summer capital of revolt-torn Jammu and Kashmir state.
 "Militants hurled a grenade at a security-force vehicle which missed the target and exploded on the road," the spokesperson said.
 No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in which two Indian Air Force personnel were also wounded. Earlier on Thursday, Indian security forces killed four separatist guerrillas in two gun battles in the Himalayan region, police said.
 Separatist violence in Kashmir has escalated since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in November. Authorities say more than 30,000 people have died in nearly 12 years of revolt but separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.
 
 
Suspect Arrested
 

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African police said on Thursday they had arrested a security guard in connection with the murder of Marike de Klerk, the ex-wife of the country's last apartheid president.
 The 64-year-old ex-wife of former president F.W. de Klerk was stabbed and strangled to death in her high-security beachfront apartment on Monday, becoming one of the most prominent victims of South Africa's rampant crime.
 "Police detained a suspect in the early hours of this morning for questioning, which will continue through the course of the day. I can confirm that he is a member of a security company," police Superintendent Wicus Holtz hausen said.
 A spokesperson for Securicor Gray, who won the contract to guard the Dolphin Beach apartment complex a year ago, said the suspect was a young guard with a near impeccable record.
 De Klerk, who divorced his wife of 39 years in 1998, arrived in Cape Town early on Thursday after cutting short a trip to Stockholm.
 State pathologist Deon Knobel said after a post-mortem examination on Wednesday that Marike de Klerk was hit in the face at least twice and stabbed in the back with a steak knife, which broke, leaving the blade embedded in her body.
 
 
Romanian Adoptions
 

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - The Romanian government on Thursday allowed 49 Romanian children to be adopted by U.S. families, despite a ban on international adoptions.
 The decision by the government of Prime Minister Adrian Nastase came after pressure from the U.S. government, international adoption brokers, and would-be parents.
 Earlier this week, Nastase allowed 14 Israeli and 22 Spanish adoption cases to be settled. At least 3,500 adoption cases were believed to be in the system when the ban went into effect in October.
 The European Union, which Romania wants to join, had urged the ban due to rampant corruption in the adoption process.
 The EU criticized Romania in a draft report published in June for "persistent abandonment of children, child abuse and neglect, international adoption and child trafficking." 



TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: The Losing Teams
 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Baseball's operating loss was $232 million this year, including a major league-leading $52.9 million by the Toronto Blue Jays.
 Commissioner Bud Selig, summoned to testify Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, released an unprecedented amount of financial information on the 30 major league teams.
 While the Arizona Diamondbacks were a success on the field, winning the World Series in just their fourth season, they were a bottom-line bust, with an operating loss of $32.2 million, according to the report, obtained Wednesday night by The Associated Press.
 That was the third-highest operating loss in baseball, trailing only Toronto and the Los Angeles Dodgers ($45.3 million).
 Eleven of the 30 teams had operating profits before revenue sharing, led by the New York Yankees at $40.9 million. Seattle was second at $34.3 million, followed by San Francisco at $19 million and Milwaukee at $14.4 million.
 Baseball's operating loss came on record revenue of $3.5 billion. The report showed an additional loss of $112 million in interest costs, which includes borrowing to fund teams' payments for new ballparks.
 
 
Olympic Heist
 

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Reuters) - The Salt Lake City Organizing Committee (SLOC) for next year's Winter Olympics are confident clothing made for International Olympic Committee (IOC) members that was stolen from a truck was not linked to any terrorist plot, it said on Wednesday.
 Approximately $28,000 worth of winter clothing, including 40 coats and jackets designed specifically for IOC delegates, was taken from a secure parking lot on the evening of Nov. 28.
 The SLOC said the Salt Lake City police were investigating the theft and dismissed any suggestion that the clothing could be used by terrorists to infiltrate secure areas during the games, which begin on Feb. 8.
 "A lot of questions have been asked about the thefts in regards to the security issue and we believe it has nothing to do with it," said SLOC spokesperson Linda Lucetti. "Apparel doesn't get you into secure areas, credentials do.
 In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington, security has become the number one issue for SLOC, with nearly $250 million budgeted for the protection of athletes and spectators.
 
 
Lewis Against Fight
 

LONDON (Reuters) - World heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis has gone to court in a bid to prevent Mike Tyson fighting Ray Mercer on Jan. 19, British newspapers reported on Thursday.
 Lawyers representing Lewis, 36, have applied for an injunction in Manhattan Federal Court which would stop the Tyson-Mercer fight, the reports said.
 The Briton is concerned that Tyson, 35, could get injured against Mercer, 39, and put in jeopardy his projected showdown with Lewis next April.
 Many predict the Lewis-Tyson encounter will be the richest bout in boxing history.
 Lewis won back the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation titles when he knocked out Hasim Rahman in the fourth round in Las Vegas last month.
 
 
Familiar Name
 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pete Sampras has hired the twin brother of Tim Gullikson, his former coach who died of cancer in 1996, as his new coach.
 Sampras has joined forces with Tom Gullikson, a former U.S. Davis Cup captain, after parting with his coach of seven years Paul Annacone, whom he dismissed last month.
 "Tom is a really good man, and I have confidence he'll do a good job," Sampras told tennisreporters.net. Tim Gullikson died in May 1996 from cancer aged 44.
 The 30-year-old former world No. 1 has endured a miserable season. He is ranked 10th in the world after failing to win a Grand Slam title for the first time since 1992.
 "It was my decision to go another direction away from Paul," said Sampras.
 "I have a lot of respect for him, we have a great relationship and he is still my friend, but I needed a change, a breath of fresh air.
 
 
Jordan on Ice
 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michael Jordan said at the start of his comeback campaign that he aimed to play in all 82 regular-season games, but the NBA star may be looking at more time off after missing Tuesday's game with an ailing right knee.
 Washington Wizards coach Doug Collins said Jordan, who returned to the NBA hard courts after being retired for three years, may have to sit out some games because his troublesome knee will not heal without prolonged rest.
 "It can be that as the season goes on he doesn't play in back-to-back games," Collins told the Washington Post.
 "It could be a lot of things like that, where it could be we have to pick and choose the games that he plays. What I'd like to be able to do when he comes back is play him eight minutes a quarter but there's no guarantee that fluid is going to stay out of his knee."
 The 38-year-old Jordan had an MRI exam on his knee Monday and no structural damage was found, but the 10-time NBA scoring champion had fluid drained from it for the second time this season and did not play in Tuesday's 103-88 loss to the Spurs.
 
 
Re-Juve-Nation
 

MILAN, Italy - Juventus has already proved its prowess on the pitch and on Wednesday the club presented plans to translate that success to the stock market.
 Juve, Italian league champions a record 25 times, unveiled the terms of its initial public offering (IPO) of shares and valued itself at up to 508 million euros ($453.6 million).
 The valuation is only slightly less than the world's richest club, English premier-league champions Manchester United.
 An IPO marks the first time a company's shares have been sold to the public, and the club said it would offer a mix of old and new shares at 3.5 to 4.2 euros ($3.11 to $3.73) each to raise money to boost off-field activities, including a new sports center in Turin.
 At those prices, the club is currently worth up to 437 million euros ($387.8 million)but, including a planned capital increase of 16.9 million shares, the value swells to 508 million ($450.9 million), or more than triple the market value of arch-rivals AS Roma.