SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #803 (68), Friday, September 13, 2002
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TITLE: Russia Threatens Attacks in Georgia
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia rammed home Thursday a warning that it could attack rebel Chechen bases in neighboring Georgia as part of the international fight against terrorism, saying that United Nations resolutions gave it the right to do so.
In Georgia, top security officials debated President Vladimir Putin's stern warning, first issued on Russian television on Wednesday night, behind closed doors, but took no action.
Speaking after a four-hour meeting of Georgia's Security Council, Georgian Defense Minister David Tevzadze said the government would take both diplomatic and internal policy steps to defuse the crisis, but refused to give any details.
Parliament Speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, who took part in the meeting, said government forces need to take "more resolute" action to disarm and arrest militants on Georgian territory.
The council's deputy secretary, Rusudan Beridze, said that Georgia is trying to find a country willing to accommodate militants, but has so far not found one.
The Georgian parliament sent appeals to the United Nations, European Union and other bodies urging them "to take real measures to help Georgia and prevent new military aggression and attempts at annexation by Russia."
Putin said Russia had evidence that rebels in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge helped plan last year's airliner attacks on the United States, and were directly involved in 1999 apartment block blasts that killed about 300 Russians. Shevardnadze called Putin's speech "hasty and groundless."
In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Putin said Georgia had turned a blind eye to rebel bases in Pankisi and shunned Russian offers to help flush out the militants.
"If the Georgian authorities do not undertake concrete actions aimed at destroying terrorists, and if militants continue their raids into Russia from Georgia, Russia ... will undertake appropriate measures to counter this terrorist threat," Putin's letter said.
He said UN Security Council resolution 1368, voted after the deaths of 3,000 people in last September's attacks on the United States, gave Moscow the right to take action. But that did not mean Russia would destroy Georgian sovereignty.
The UN resolution says states "will be held accountable" for harboring those behind the New York and Pentagon strikes.
Russia has long urged Georgia to allow its troops to flush the rebels out, but Georgia said it would do the job itself and invited U.S. military instructors to train its soldiers for anti-terror missions. Georgia sent troops to sweep Pankisi last month, but preceded the operation by warning the rebels to leave the area to avoid bloodshed.
Georgian forces so far have detained 13 alleged criminals and one suspected Arab militant in Pankisi, officials said.
In a letter to world leaders, Putin said the Georgian security sweep hadn't brought any concrete results, because the militants knew about it in advance and relocated.
Georgia countered Russia's accusations by saying that it was Russia that had driven the rebels into Georgia after the start of the second war in Chechnya in September 1999.
Senior Russian parliamentarians also discussed Putin's address, which included an order for Russia's military to draw up a hit-list of rebel bases on Georgian territory. Interfax quoted Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying a list would be ready in a few days.
Most State Duma deputies supported Putin's speech.
"If the Americans were in our place, they would have bombarded everything moving there," Vyacheslav Volodin, of the pro-Putin United Russia group, told Rossiya state television.
Putin's address coincided with the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and the buildup to U.S. President George W. Bush's UN speech saying "action will be unavoidable" against Iraq unless the UN forces Baghdad to disarm.
Russia steadfastly opposes any use of force against Iraq.
Russian and Georgian observers said Moscow was seeking a quid pro quo from Washington - silence over U.S. military action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in exchange for American acquiescence to Russian strikes in Pankisi.
"Russia is offering the U.S. a deal: Iraq in exchange for Georgia," said a front-page article in the daily newspaper Kommersant, alongside a picture of a bloodied Shevardnadze after a 1995 attempt on his life.
Zurab Chyaberashvili, an independent Tbilisi-based analyst, said Putin was aiming more at the U.S. than Georgia.
"Putin wanted to tell George W. Bush that, if the United States can launch strikes on Iraq, Russia can do the same in the Pankisi Gorge," he said.
U.S. army instructors are training Georgian troops to tackle guerrillas. Washington has backed Tbilisi over an alleged Russian bombing raid on Pankisi last month, which Moscow denied.
An overt, unilateral Russian attack on Georgian territory would threaten to reignite unrest in a region where security is tentative at best and where ethnic tensions are high.
Most Georgians already resent the presence of Russian soldiers on two bases in Georgia - a holdover from the Soviet era - and the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions bordering Russia that have been de-facto independent since separatists fought Georgian troops to a standstill in the 1990s.
A Russian assault on Pankisi could drive militants into other parts of Georgia, especially nearby Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Abkhaz officials have said repeatedly that they would ask for a larger Russian military presence if Chechen rebels enter their territory.
(Reuters, AP)
TITLE: City Duma Finally Agrees Date for Election
AUTHOR: By Claire Bigg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Legislative Assembly on Wednesday managed to agree on the vexed question of when elections for its successor will be held, a problem that has been at the center of a heated controversy in the assembly over the past six months.
An overwhelming majority of 40 deputies gave their vote to the decree - drafted by the assembly's deputy speaker, Vadim Tyulpanov, and lawmaker Vitaly Kalinin - that proposed Dec. 8 as the best date for the coming parliamentary elections. One deputy abstained.
Following a proposal made by Yabloko faction leader Mikhail Amosov, Wednesday's vote was carried out on a roll-call basis, a wish that both Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces (SPS) had expressed over the past few weeks, which they say aimed at preventing some lawmakers from secretly disrupting the vote.
"I am very satisfied. 40 votes is a great result," said Amosov. "The date should be definitively settled next Wednesday."
The date is to be confirmed at the next parliamentary session on Sept. 18, after legal amendments are made to the draft law by the legislative committee, which Kalinin heads. The amendments are aimed at ensuring that the date cannot be opposed by those who would try to block the elections on a legal pretext.
Wednesday's vote came as a relief to the supporters of December elections. Indeed, according to federal law, the Legislative Assembly has until Sept. 19 to agree on a date for the legislative elections, after which the task of choosing a date passes automatically to the City Election Commission.
If that happened, the elections could not take place before the end of January, which would leave the city without a Legislative Assembly after the lawmakers' term of office ends on Jan. 6. The current line-up was elected in 1998.
For some analysts, the outcome of Wednesday's session came as no suprise.
"This result was only to be expected. I had this information the day before the vote," said Alexei Musakov, the head of the St. Petersburg Center for Regional Development. "In my opinion, most deputies just followed their own personal interests, and Dec. 8 simply proved to be the most convenient date for everyone."
Politicians and analysts predict that the assembly is likely to be shaken by another dispute in the near future, this time over a potential third term for Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.
Yakovlev has already expressed his desire to run for a third term. Federal law allows this, but the city charter prohibits a third term in office.
To change the charter, Yakovlev requires at least 34 votes from the Legislative Assembly. Most analysts think he will have trouble mustering that many.
There are indications that, if the governor does run again, he will win easily.
A poll conducted by the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Research between July 10 and 15 in St. Petersburg showed Yakovlev to be the most popular politician, with 38.2 percent of the 1,000 respondents saying they would pick him. His nearest rival, Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin, rated 14.5 percent.
"I think this question will come up soon in the Legislative Assembly, but ... Yakovlev is unlikely to get the necessary support," Musakov said.
Amosov, who also doubts the governor will get the number of votes required to change the charter, said the city parliament should not consider any amendments on this issue.
"I wish it were not brought up at all at the Legislative Assembly, it would only serve to disturb its functioning," he said.
While Yakovlev has declared publicly several times that he wants to stand for reelection, he has kept tight-lipped about this topic in the assembly.
After a minute of silence in honor of the victims of the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and the playing of the city's anthem, Yakovlev opened the session, with an address dealing with the upcoming elections and the main tasks for lawmakers in the coming year, including the reconstruction of the metro and Sennaya Ploshchad, the construction of the flood-protection barrier, the 2003 budget, and St. Petersburg's eventual bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
In conclusion, he wished the lawmakers luck in the upcoming election campaign, saying cryptically that "a bad peace is better than a good war."
TITLE: Gorbachev Lays Institute Foundation
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday laid the foundation stone of the Institute of Child Hematology and Transplantation that will be named after his late wife, Raisa.
The new facility is meant to provide medical help to children and teenagers suffering from blood cancer and leukemia.
"The fight with cancer is the most difficult fight that doctors face nowadays," Gorbachev said at the ceremony.
"My wife realized the whole scale of this tragedy after visiting the Republican [Children's Clinical] Hospital in Moscow where mothers of children with leukemia were begging on their knees for help. Since then Raisa kept helping those people," he said.
Raisa Gorbacheva began raising money to finance treatment for children suffering from cancer of the blood in 1989. She herself died of leukemia in 1999.
About 3,000 new cases of leukemia and cancer among children under 14 years old, and up to 5,000 cases among teenagers under 18 years old, are registered in Russia each year, Interfax quoted Alexander Rumyantsev, the country's chief hematologist, as saying.
Rumyantsev said only accidents cause more deaths than blood illnesses among children in Russia. Ten years ago, only 7 percent to 10 percent of Russian children with the disease were alive five years after being diagnosed, while the comparable figure for Europe was 70 percent.
Since then about 75 medical centers have opened to provide help to such children and the recovery rate has increased by a factor of 10.
"This medical center will be the worthy monument to a wonderful Russian woman, Raisa Gorbacheva," Health Minister Yury Shevchenko said at Tuesday's ceremony.
Dressed in white medical gowns, students of the Pavlov State Medical University, which initiated the construction of the institute, put a blackboard with the name of the future center on the construction site.
The new center will be part of the prestigious university, which has performed 270 bone-marrow transplants, 100 of which were made for children, in the last 10 years.
The Gorbachev Foundation supported the idea and found the major sponsor for the charitable project - the National Reserve Bank, which has already allocated the $2 million needed for construction.
"It is hard to realize how many adults and children, suffering from cancer can't receive the essential medical help in Russia," said NRB presdient Alexander Lebedev.
Lebedev said the new five-story, modern institute will be completed by summer next year.
However, the center's equipment may require five times more investment. The Gorbachev Foundation hopes to receive help on the matter not only from NRB, but also from the Health Ministry and foreign guardians of the Raisa Gorbachev Institute.
To raise more money for the project, the Gorbachev Foundation has organized a charity party to be attended by Russian and European political, business and culture leaders in the Russian House near Paris on Oct. 26.
TITLE: LUKoil Executive Snatched From Car
AUTHOR: By Eric Engleman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A top executive in Russia's biggest oil company was seized by masked gunmen on his way to work Thursday morning, the company's press service said.
LUKoil Chief Financial Officer Sergei Kukura, 48, was being driven to work by his driver and bodyguard, when his car was stopped at a railroad crossing by masked men carrying Kalashnikov rifles, the press service said.
The abductors allegedly handcuffed Kukura's driver and bodyguard and gave them a "sleep-inducing injection" causing both to lose consciousness, according to LUKoil. Kukura was then taken out of the car and driven away in another vehicle.
The driver and bodyguard regained consciousness several hours later still in the LUKoil company car.
LUKoil said that the vehicle which took Kukura away had the type of license plate normally assigned to Russian Interior Ministry cars. The Interior Ministry deals with domestic security.
The car that officials believe was used in the abduction was later found in the Odintsovo region, west of Moscow, prosecutor Alexander Mitusov told the Interfax news agency.
The Russian Interior Ministry confirmed Thursday that Kukura was abducted and an investigation was underway, but refused to provide any further details. Interior Ministry officials told Russian news agencies that they still had no theories for the kidnapping, and were working with Moscow police and the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
LUKoil said that Kukura, who joined the company in 1993, is one of its most senior executives. He had access to "classified information regarded as a state secret," the company's press service said, without elaborating.
Russian business executives have in the past been targeted by criminal groups, but Russian lawmakers expressed surprise Thursday that an official with a company of LUKoil's stature was targeted.
"I would describe this incident as the criminal world's invasion into Russia's big business," lawmaker Oleg Morozov told Interfax.
LUKoil is Russia's biggest oil company, accounting for more than 20 percent of Russia's oil exports. The state owns a 7 1/2-percent stake in the company, which last month became the first Russian company to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange.
TITLE: Lawyers Seek $15M Over Midair Crash
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: German lawyers representing the families of those who died when a Bashkirian Airlines Tu-154 jet collided in midair with a DHL cargo plane in July say that they are seeking $15 million in compensation from Swiss air-traffic-control body Skyguide and DHL.
Berlin lawyers Heiko van Schyndel and Elmar Giemulla said they have sent claims to Skyguide and DHL for the collision over Germany that claimed the lives of 69 people on the Tu-154, most of them children from Ufa, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The two pilots of the DHL Boeing 757 also died.
Van Schyndel said that, in addition to damages for the victims' families, the $15-million figure included the value of the Tu-154, the loss of revenue resulting from the crash and the cost of training new crew members.
"We believe their pilot did not react when the pilot of the Tu-154 found himself in the so-called general line of communication, when the radio communication with the air controllers could be followed by all pilots who happen to be in the same area," Giemulla earlier told Radio Liberty.
"The pilot of the Tu-154 joined this zone when the DHL pilot was already there," he said.
"When the Tupolev pilot said 'I am on the 3-60 level,' the DHL pilot should have immediately said that he was at exactly the same level. But he did not say so, which also contributed to the disaster," he said.
Skyguide lawyer Alexander von Ziegler told Reuters in Zurich that he had been in contact with one of the Berlin lawyers, but had not received specific demands.
DHL officials said that their pilots were also victims and that they saw no grounds for a lawsuit.
"Based on everything we know from the preliminary German reports, our pilots were victims just like the 69 on board the Russian plane," DHL corporate affairs director Axel Gietz said at a news conference. "There was nothing wrong with the DHL plane, and both aircraft were equipped with a special on-board collision-avoidance system.
"The computer systems agreed on the two planes' courses, and as our pilots are trained to fulfill the computer instructions, they descended," he said. "The Russian pilots did the same thing, as they followed Swiss air-traffic control advice."
Gietz said that DHL has not been contacted by anyone representing the Russian families.
"It is sad that in such a tragic situation, at a certain point all people think of is money," he said.
Alexander Danilov, country manager for DHL Russia, said DHL's postal business in Bashkortostan and other Russian regions had not been affected by the crash.
TITLE: City Remembers the Terrorists' Victims
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Hundreds of St. Petersburgers and foreigners on Wednesday attended a public memorial service in the Kazan Cathedral for the victims of terrorist attacks in the United States last year.
Many people also left their messages in the condolence book at the entrance to the American Consulate on Sep. 11.
"Innocent people who died under the terrorist attack last year need our attention and memory," said Father Pavel, senior priest of the Kazan Cathedral, at the memorial service.
"Sometimes people prefer not to remember bad things, but thousands of people, fire fighters and rescue workers, who died on Sept. 11 won't be forgotten," said Morris Hughes, U.S. Consul General, at the ceremony.
Hughes, who was in Washington during the attack, said several of his acquaintance were injured in the Pentagon. However, he said, there was no panic and, after receiving an order to leave government buildings, people were calm and just followed the command.
The U.S. Consulate had its flag at half-mast Wednesday. After passing through tight security checks, people laid flowers in front of the building and stopped to leave the sympathy notes in the condolence book.
Among those who left their messages were doctors, engineers, actors, students, pensioners and even children.
"I feel so sorry for America," said Misha Ushakov, eight, who came to leave a sympathy note together with his nanny.
"We should take the people who did that by the collar and throw them somewhere far away ... to somewhere in outer space, so that we would never see them again," he said.
Aza Rakhmanova, the city's chief infections doctor, also left a message.
"As a virologist, I was really concerned by the cases of spreading anthrax in the U.S. I realize how dangerous its pathogenic organism is. And that made me understand even more what Sept. 11 means," she said.
"It was a terrible crime. We remember it, and will remember it for the rest of our lives. We are with you!" wrote a group of actors from the city's Lensoviet Theater.
Alexander Ovchinkin, a retired soldier and father of three, left his address in the book with an invitation to one of the U.S. families, who lost a loved one in the terrorist attack, to visit St. Petersburg next summer and stay in his apartment.
"It was this morning when this idea occurred to me," Ovchinkin said. "I think, it's something real that our family could do for those people."
TITLE: Archbishop Asks for Protests Over Treatment of Catholics
AUTHOR: By Mara D. Bellaby
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia appealed Thursday to Russian and international human-rights groups to protest what he called a "large-scale anti-Catholic campaign" that includes the expulsion of priests and the vilification of Catholics.
"We are seeing once again a replay of the drama of the Catholic Church in Russia, which having endured cruel persecution in the 20th century and being almost everywhere destroyed, is undergoing new trials after a decade of difficult development," Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz said, in an open appeal addressed to human-rights groups and "all people of good will."
Kondrusiewicz noted that five foreign-born Catholic priests have had their Russian visas revoked this year, the latest on Tuesday, when Father Edvard Mackiewicz was turned back at the Belarus-Poland border by Russian border guards, who augment Belarus' border guards.
He said that Catholics have also experienced bans on constructing new churches and vandalism and desecration of existing churches.
"Recently, a large-scale anti-Catholic campaign has been launched in this country," Kondrusiewicz said. As part of the campaign, he said, "a mythological image of a 'Catholic enemy'" is being created.
Tensions have risen around the Catholic Church following Pope John Paul's visits to former Soviet republics and the Vatican's decision to upgrade its so-called apostolic administrations in Russia to full dioceses.
The Russian Orthodox Church complains that Roman Catholics are poaching converts from among people who traditionally would have been Orthodox adherents.
The Catholic Church insists it is not seeking converts, but simply trying to provide pastoral services to Russia's estimated 600,000 Catholics, a tiny minority in a country of 144 million where two-thirds of the population consider themselves Orthodox.
TITLE: A Day in the Revival of War-Shattered Grozny
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: GROZNY - Many Grozny residents scrape together a living by day, selling bricks, produce and anything else of value that they can get their hands on. At night, they hole up in bombed-out buildings to escape the terror of the streets, where anyone with a gun is king.
But the mere fact that a burgeoning trade is taking place in the streets is a sign that life is stabilizing, residents say. The Chechen capital is slowly but surely rising from the ashes, with workers busily reconstructing buildings and putting final touches on a giant new market. Unemployment remains sky-high, but the number of people killed and injured in mine blasts, robberies and shootings is on the decline.
"Things are better now than even a year ago," says Makka Murtazaliyeva, the director of a dormitory in Grozny's Staropromyslovsky district. "Work has started to improve living conditions. But the work is going so slowly that it seems it might take decades to return life to normal."
Murtazaliyeva is one of the lucky few in Grozny who has a job, but her work gives her little pride. She hasn't received a paycheck since 1997. She cannot join the unemployment line for benefits because officially she has a job. She makes ends meet by borrowing money from an uncle and selling goods at a local outdoor market.
Officially, 80,000 people in Chechnya are without work. But many of the rest of the region's 500,000 to 900,000 people - government reports are contradictory - are eking out a living.
Grozny residents who have found work are mostly employed by the local police, the Chechen administration or the oil or construction sectors. The rest try to sell whatever they can find - and for many that means bricks. They spend their days trying to pry old bricks from the walls of destroyed buildings, which are already choked with tall grass and young saplings. The easiest bricks to collect, the loose ones in piles of rubble, have long ago been picked up and sold. The price has shot up to 700 rubles ($22) per 1,000 bricks from 400 rubles in the spring of 2001.
Collecting bricks, like any other work in Grozny, finishes promptly at 6 p.m. At the same hour, small shops and offices close their doors, and vendors who sell anything from fruit to illegally extracted oil, or kondensat, disappear indoors. For the next 12 hours, the only life on the empty streets is thousands of barking stray dogs.
Night is when crime reigns. Federal troops retreat from their posts, and control of the city shifts to whoever holds a weapon. Federal snipers take up positions on rooftops but, in their limited numbers, they can hardly, make a difference.
The city center takes on the aura of a ghost town. Electric lights shine from only a handful of windows, and in the suburbs, where there is no electricity, people bring out their candles. The wealthiest residents switch on small diesel engines to provide power to their lamps and television sets.
When morning rolls around, local cafes and markets are abuzz with talk of the previous night - about the relative or friend who was robbed, wounded or killed. The assailants inevitably are masked, in uniform and deadly silent.
"Who comes at night in masks and uniforms? Who knows," says Shirvani Gadayev, the chief surgeon at Hospital No. 9 in Grozny. "Bandits, federal troops, criminals or drug users - they all look the same, and no one introduces themselves. No one is protected at night, especially in the suburbs."
He says that the number of wounded being brought in for treatment has steadily declined.
"Last year, we had lots of people blowing themselves up on mines, mostly when they tried to collect scrap metal in the ruins," he says. "Now, sappers have taken away many mines, and people have learned to be cautious. But still we help one or several people by a shell fragment, a stray bullet or a direct shot.
"Just last night a woman was brought from Beryozka with a bullet in her knee," he said, referring to a suburb of Grozny. "We will have to amputate her leg. She said soldiers came for a regular check of her house and wounded her."
Gadayev says residents are also easy prey for local thugs.
Residents say life is much easier during the day. Even document checks at the checkpoints around the military-controlled city have become tolerable. "Soldiers now behave like normal people," says one resident. "In 1999, they behaved like they had just been released from prison, like criminals."
However, weapons continue to be fired for no apparent reason during daylight hours. A visitor saw a soldier recently shoot several rounds into the air from atop an armored car while riding down a central street. His comrades were laughing.
"We are lucky that he wasn't drunk," one passer-by says. "Then he would be shooting everywhere, and if someone was killed no one would investigate."
"Our motto to stay alive here is this: Don't show up at the wrong place at the wrong time because if a land mine goes off or someone shoots, the troops will start haphazardly shooting in every direction," a gypsy cab driver says.
Also in daytime, restoration work is steaming ahead. Workers have rebuilt a few hundred homes, several apartment blocks and a handful of hospitals and schools this year. The biggest buildings all seem to be painted pink and beige.
The poshest building is the pink headquarters of Grozneftegaz, the regional oil company and Chechnya's biggest firm. It hosts City Hall's offices in the back, and workers are building a neat park on the side facing Prospekt Revolyutsii.
Residents with money have started buying downtown apartments for $3,000 to $4,000 in hope that buildings in the center will be renovated soon.
Many destroyed apartment blocks still house families who have nowhere else to go. Their apartments are easily spotted, with recently whitewashed windows and balconies. Running water is scarce, and residents rely on water pumps in their courtyards. One inventive family placed a pulley in its fifth-floor window and cranked up buckets of water.
The busiest area of Grozny remains the central market, where land mines are still found regularly and soldiers target traders in document checks. The walls of the sloppily constructed stalls are covered with bits of plastic and cardboard. Piles of garbage are strewn about the ground. But anything - cameras, meat, medicine and designer clothes - can be found for a price. Men with fat wads of cash were exchanging dollars and rubles. On a recent weekend, the going rate was 31.9 rubles to the U.S. dollar, 40 kopeks higher than in Moscow.
Grozny plans to level the market to make way for a new market called Sabita. Former Grozny Mayor Bislan Gantamirov is a co-owner of Sabita, and he borrowed money from a Russian bank to build it, Chechen officials said.
Gantamirov was unavailable for comment.
Sabita will boast six huge open-air pavilions with 372 stalls in each on 25,000 square meters. Under each pavilion will be a giant warehouse. A 1,600-square-meter parking lot has been built nearby, and a hotel for traders is in the works.
Stalls will cost $500 each and 500 rubles a month in rent. Khizir Abayev, the head of construction at the new market, said stalls costing 5 rubles a day will be assembled outside the market for poorer traders. Widows and the disabled will be given stalls for free, he said.
Stalls at the central market cost 5 rubles a day.
The success of the new market may depend largely on whether the central market is shut down. Grozny's chief doctor, Taisia Mirzoyeva, said the old market had to be closed because of its unsanitary conditions.
Another key to its success will be the implementation of a plan to move the central bus station closer. The station, in a huge field near the central market where apartment blocks once stood, is the second busiest place in Grozny, bringing thousands of people to the capital each day on large and small buses.
On the streets, the number of cars has rapidly grown, and many of them are brand-new. Grozneftegaz head Baudin Khamidov promised recently on local television that his company would build two gas stations this year. The city currently only has one gas station, and most drivers buy kondensat on the street.
A number of small enterprises - cafes, hairdressing salons, photocopying shops and even Kodak stores - are mushrooming in the ground floors of destroyed buildings. Many of them bear the names of Chechen women, like Madina or Luisa, but one cafe in the Grozny outskirts is called Chechensky Sled, or The Chechens Did It, a wry nod to Moscow's tendency to blame Chechens for terrorist attacks.
Residents like Murtazaliyeva, the dormitory director, are relieved that things seem to be settling down.
"My only wish is that a new war doesn't break out," she said. "We are so tired of fighting."
TITLE: DHL Invests in Local Market
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: DHL officials revealed their development plans for the Northwest Region of Russia at a press conference Thursday, as well as major plans for investment.
"During 2001, we doubled the volume of our turnover in the Northwest Region, in comparison with 2000, while sales volume in the parcel category showed a 64-percent increase during the first six months of 2002, compared to the same period in 2001," said Axel Gietz, corporate-affairs director of DHL Worldwide Express said at the press conference.
Also speaking at the conference, Alexander Danilov, country manager for DHL Russia, said that "By the end of 2002, we are planning to introduce a number of new client services, including Time Definite Delivery and Deutsche Post Global mail."
"Our investments in the development of our business in Russia have reached $50 million, and we are going to invest 10 percent of our profit each year," Gietz said.
Ten years ago, 90 percent of DHL clients in Russia were foreign companies, with ten times more documents being sent in to the country than out. Now, 50 percent of DHL clients in Russia are local, with only 70 percent more deliveries coming in than going out.
Analysts estimate that the air-express delivery market in Russia is worth about $75 million per year, and that it is growing at an annual rate of 10 percent to 12 percent. According to the Russian Association of Express-Delivery Companies, the postal and cargo-delivery infrastructure in Russia remains undeveloped.
The air-express delivery market is for the most part controlled by foreign companies such as DHL, UPS, TNT, FedEx and EMS. According to research carried out by Research International, a research agency, DHL's market share in Russia was 53 percent.
TITLE: Oligarch-in-Exile Faces Charges for Auto Theft
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva and Simon Ostrovsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Prosecutor General's Office said Wednesday that it has charged self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky and his business associate Badri Patarkatsishvili with car theft.
Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov told reporters in Samara that Berezovsky, who lives in London, and Patarkatsishvili, an adviser to Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, stole 2,033 cars worth $13 million from top automaker AvtoVAZ in 1994 and 1995.
"Through the mass media, I would like to urge the law-enforcement agencies of Britain and Georgia to activate work on returning to Russia ... Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili, his first deputy in LogoVAZ," Kolesnikov said.
Berezovsky set up LogoVAZ in 1989 with Patarkatsishvili and senior managers of flagship automaker AvtoVAZ, including current CEO Vladimir Kadannikov. Ostensibly, the company was created to provide the aging AvtoVAZ factory with automation software. Instead, it quickly began selling cars and became the auto giant's official dealer.
"It's all rubbish from beginning to end," Berezovsky said by telephone from London. "It seems to me that the total sum I am charged with exceeds the Russian budget.
"What is it to ask English and Georgian law enforcement agencies to 'activate work?'" he said. "Doesn't Kolesnikov understand that there has to be an official extradition request to do that? Everyone is going to think I paid him for all this free publicity - but I didn't. I didn't pay him."
An official in the prosecutor's office in Moscow said that no official request for Berezovsky's extradition had ever been made.
When asked if he was worried about being extradited, Berezovsky said no. In fact, he said, Scotland Yard has been guarding him and his house since he was approached a month ago by detectives who told him that there had been a threat on his life.
Scotland Yard said it does not comment on personal matters.
In his book "Godfather of the Kremlin, Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia," Forbes magazine senior editor Paul Klebnikov gives a detailed account of how Berezovsky, through LogoVAZ, took over three lucrative state companies - AvtoVAZ, Aeroflot and Sibneft - by "privatizing" their managers and financial flows. Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili figure in a case currently being heard in which prosecutors allege that $252 million was illegally siphoned out of Aeroflot in 1996 and 1997 through two Swiss companies founded by Berezovsky - Forus SA and Andava SA.
Kolesnikov said that part of the money Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili made from the AvtoVAZ scam financed the construction of three mansions in the Moscow region, which were then handed over to former LogoVAZ deputy general director Alexander Krasnenker, who also figures in the Aeroflot case, and an employee named Magomed Ismailov.
The two also paid $260,000 for a dacha in the Moscow region for Nikolai Tikhonov, a former head of the Soviet Union's Council of Ministers, he said, adding that one of Berezovsky's daughters now lives there.
Kolesnikov also said that they used the ill-gotten funds to buy more than $1-million worth of real estate in St. Petersburg and more than $3-million worth of shares in television broadcasters ORT and TV6, as well as the Ogonyok publishing house.
As for Patarkatsishvili, a spokesperson for the Georgian prosecutor's office said that no request to extradite him had come from Russia since November, when he was "charged as an accomplice in a prison break, but we denied the request because Georgia does not extradite citizens to any country."
She was referring to the attempted escape last year of former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolai Glushkov, who is facing charges in the Forus and Andava affair.
"I will not hide that during the investigation of the [LogoVAZ] case there appeared some very serious questions that Samara region Governor [Konstantin] Titov needs to answer," Kolesnikov said.
Titov's spokesperson, Lyudmila Takayeva, said the governor is ready to answer any questions any time.
In addition to the LogoVAZ charges, Kolesnikov announced that more than a dozen criminal cases had been opened in the Samara region within the last month, including investigations of corruption in the regional construction committee.
TITLE: Sept. 11 Attacks Show Russia To Be Isolated But Reliant
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - There was a little more than hour left in the trading day when the first plane hit the World Trade Center, and then a strange thing happened - the markets actually rose.
"The first reaction in the market was even positive," recalled Timor Nasardinov, who was working the phones at Troika Dialog.
By opening bell Wednesday, however, the gravity of the event had cast a pall over global markets and Moscow was no exception.
"People realized that what happened was more serious than they ever thought possible and everything fell sharply," Nasardinov said. "It was a real panic. People sold everything they could."
The frenzy was felt by national long-distance monopoly Rostelecom, which handled some 60,000 calls between Moscow and America on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 - eight times more than it handled on Sept. 10. "I expected they would have jumped, but when I saw the numbers I was shocked," said a Rostelecom spokesperson.
By Sept. 13, the benchmark RTS index had lost nearly a fifth of its value. And by the end of September it had hit a one-year low.
But against a background of shock and fear that the attacks would derail the already lumbering U.S. economy, President Vladimir Putin quickly supported Washington, raising Moscow's profile and inspiring hopes that this would translate into cash flows.
"It was the first time we started seeing positive stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times," said Peter Westin, an economist at the Aton brokerage.
Within two months, the RTS reached its pre-attack level of 206, and has gained another 67 percent since.
But the stock market was not the only place that significant changes unfolded as a direct result of terrorist action.
The respect Russia earned for supporting America in its time of need opened the eyes of economists and investment sources in that country, said Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow.
"Sept. 11 tore away the veil of ignorance which had shrouded America's perception of common political and economic interests with Russia," Somers said.
Indeed, unlike many businesses around the world, Russian firms came away virtually untouched.
Aeroflot, for example, more than doubled its net profit last year to $20 million, despite losing an estimated $20 million in revenues as a result of the global aviation slump that followed the attacks and a tenfold increase in war-risk insurance. The flagship carrier continues to buck the global trend of airline bankruptcies, and expects to quadruple its profit to $80 million this year.
Most large policies - whether for airplanes or factories - are reinsured abroad. Some industry experts estimates that roughly $450 million, or 5 percent to 6 percent of premiums in Russia, may be reinsured abroad.
As a result of the tens of billions of dollars lost by major Western reinsurers after the attacks, their premiums went up, forcing domestic insurance companies to renegotiate or renew annual contracts.
"Our first reaction was human. We had industry colleagues who died in the attacks," said Vladimir Goryachkin, a director at the Moscow office of international insurance group Heath Lambert. "In general, rates rose between 30 percent and 80 percent."
Staff Writer Lyuba Pronina contributed to this report.
TITLE: One Year After, Much Remains To Be Done
AUTHOR: By Alexander Vershbow
TEXT: IT has been a year since the Sept. 11 attacks produced the same reaction of horror and disbelief here in Moscow that they produced in the United States and elsewhere. Russians from all walks of life responded immediately. It was just before 5 p.m. here when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Within a matter of minutes, Russian citizens were placing flowers, candles, icons and personal notes on the walkway in front of our embassy. By 7 p.m. when I went out to look, there were already more than a hundred such personal expressions of grief. Over the next few days, that number would increase tenfold as the entire front of our block-long embassy came to resemble a living shrine to the victims of Sept. 11. Thousands of Russian citizens lined up to sign a book of condolences.
The Russian government responded just as quickly and decisively. President Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to telephone and offer President George W. Bush his support. Speaking on behalf of Russians and civilized people all over the world, he said, "The series of barbaric terrorist acts, directed against innocent people, has evoked our anger and indignation. ... There is no doubt that such inhuman actions cannot be left unpunished. The whole international community must rally in the fight against terrorism."
Putin and his government have backed up these words with actions. Russia has become a powerful new ally in the war on terrorism by sharing intelligence on terrorist organizations, providing access to its airspace, and joining the international effort to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. Putin's strategic choice to join the anti-terrorist coalition made clear that the United States and Russia could work on the basis of shared interests and values. This new relationship has the potential to become a true partnership for peace and global security in the 21st century.
President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing." Fortunately, we are not alone in this effort to do the right thing. As we have witnessed in this past year, the world has united against the scourge of terrorism, and this has resulted in major gains for our common security. Over 90 different countries have apprehended and detained more than 2,400 suspected terrorists. More than 160 countries have frozen terrorist assets totaling over $100 million. And the people of Afghanistan, once oppressed in a fertile haven for terrorism under the Taliban regime, have taken part in free elections to choose new leaders and a brighter future.
The United States must continue to work together with Russia and other countries to counter the threats of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. These threats, which respect no borders, are transnational and can only be countered by international cooperation. We must be guarded toward countries that sponsor or turn a blind eye to terrorist organizations. If a country possesses weapons of mass destruction, makes itself a haven for terrorists, or both, we must respond. The world did little to thwart the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, and thousands paid the price. We cannot allow this to happen again.
Today, we remember the loved ones, friends, and neighbors who perished as a result of the terrorist attacks perpetrated on Sept. 11, 2001. These acts of terrorism were aimed not only at Americans but at all freedom-loving peoples. Citizens from over 90 countries were killed. As we mourn those innocent victims of one year ago, we must also remember that terrorism still exists and that only a united, civilized world can bring about its defeat. We have accomplished much in the war on terrorism this past year, but a long, hard struggle still lies ahead. Vigilance, perseverance and sacrifice will be needed from each of us for many years to come. Let our commemoration of the tragic events of Sept. 11 strengthen our resolve to fight and defeat the forces of terror that threaten the U.S. and all other civilized countries.
Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
By Grigory Yavlinsky
RATHER than changing the world, Sept. 11 brought to light already existing problems. Mankind was given a clear signal that the key problem of the 21st century must be resolved.
I am referring to the widening gulf around the world between poverty, deteriorating living standards, falling life expectancy and the spread of disease on the one hand, and prosperity, technological progress, rising education levels and growth of intellectual potential on the other. In other words, we are witnessing the widening gulf between the citizens of developed countries and those in many other countries, whose lives have been deteriorating.
Of course, there is no justification for terror. It is rooted in ignoble acts rather than in poverty. However, it is at the very least shortsighted to ignore the circumstances in which this baseness develops, as indeed it is not to understand what feeds this behavior.
After Sept. 11, the international authority of Russia has grown, thanks to the correct and clear-cut foreign policy advocated by President Vladimir Putin.
Over the past year, military efforts in combatting terrorism, primarily in Afghanistan, have failed to yield any significant results, because this problem cannot be resolved by military force alone. Force is necessary, but it is clearly insufficient on its own. And too little has been done in other areas.
When confronted by their own inability to resolve the most acute problems, politicians have with increasing frequency descended into political farce, whether unintentionally or of their own volition.
Over the past year, we have all seen that NATO is an ineffective military and political organization, that relations between the United States and Europe are not as cloudless as they had seemed previously, and that the United States has on many issues been attempting to pursue its own course in isolation from the international community.
However, today there is a great need for close coordination and cooperation between the United States, Europe and Russia to reduce the threat posed by terrorism and increase global stability.
The results of the past year can be summed up as follows: We have a better understanding of the problems and also of their complexity - we now need to hasten their resolution.
Grigory Yavlinsky is leader of the Yabloko party.
TITLE: How To Take Advantage of Your Friends
TEXT: PEOPLE'S minds are very flexible. But, in some areas, flexibility could lead to a catastrophe, even if it does not look so obvious at a first glance.
Looking back on the way that Russian-U.S. relationships have developing since the Sept. 11 disaster, I have a feeling that some key points that Washington was following in previous years in relation to the Kremlin were dropped in favor of pleasing its new partner in war against terrorism.
I mean Chechnya, the place where Russian soldiers have killed thousands of civilians, Russians and Chechens, robbed countless local villages, raped defenseless women, cut ears off prisoners of war, and taken bribes from those who want to enter or leave the republic.
All these facts are well known: Not much has changed in the breakaway republic since Sept. 11. The soldiers still kill, rob, bribe and beat up.
The only difference is that this is no longer on TV around the world. And I wonder why?
"I feel I have to say I'm sorry for things that Russian soldiers have done and do in Chechnya. They are not the Russian people," said one journalist at a recent meeting with Chechen mothers, after hearing and seeing brutal stories and pictures about war crimes committed by the army.
Some people call it genocide. President Vladimir Putin calls it a "war against terrorism," something that sounds right in a current flow of events, but has nothing to do with the ways and goals the U.S. army has set itself in Afghanistan. Civilians were also killed there, but mainly by accident, as far as I know.
It seems almost unbelievable that, just a couple of years ago, the European Union and the U.S. put enormous pressure on Moscow over human-rights violations in Chechnya.
In 1999, I was covering the one-day summit on EU-Russia relations in Helsinki, where the European Commission threatened to cut financial aid to Russia if the Kremlin did not change its policy in Chechnya.
I remember Nicole Fontaine, the president of the European Parliament at that time, was strongly criticizing the Russian government, demanding that it put "effective pressure" on the Kremlin to defend Chechen civilians, who, she said, "are being subjected to the worst possible treatment by the Russian army, with innocent people being blockaded and bombed."
I remember Human Rights Watch's Europe and Asia division filing a chilling report that said: "Since the Russian campaign in Chechnya began, 4,000 civilians have been killed by brutal shelling, missile attacks and bombing. Relative to the size of population, this would be the equivalent of more than 200,000 French, 300,000 Germans or more than 500,000 Russians being massacred. In this light, everybody understands that this is not only a humanitarian catastrophe, but a very serious attempt at a genocide."
Has something changed since then? Looking at the recent news from Chechnya, I can say only one thing.
If it has, that would be political priorities.
Civilians are still dying in Chechnya under bombs and shells, these days falling on Chechen - and now also on Georgian - villages, in the name of a new "war against terrorism."
About 300 Chechens who managed to evade the cordons around the villages of Stariye Atagi and Novye Atagi protested outside the Chechen prosecutor's office in Grozny. They demanded an immediate end to the sweeps and the release of all villagers detained by federal forces. Villagers accused the troops of robbing houses, beating and arbitrarily detaining local men, stripping young women of their clothes and harassing residents, this is just one of rare reports from Chechnya this year, but there many more of them looking quite similar.
The Russian government has noticed that both the U.S. and European Union became surprisingly tolerant, if not ignorant, in relation to human-rights issues in Russia. And this ignorance, which the Kremlin apprehends as a sign of "new friendship," yields its fruit.
Real friends would not sign any deals with their friends' enemies as Russia did in August, preparing to sign a $40-billion agreement about long-term cooperation with Iraq. This agreement is, of course, labeled humanitarian.
But how can anybody be sure that there wouldn't be any military equipment hidden in those food containers Moscow is going to send in Iraq? I find it hard to trust such agreements after a few years ago Russian trucks were caught carrying to Iran materials to build missiles hidden under nuclear power station equipment.
In May this year, I was interviewed by BBC radio after U.S. President George W. Bush met President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. I was asked about "the new friendship" between the two countries, and how Russians have responded to this new development.
I said that friends could not be appointed, and that is why it looks to me more like a partnership than a friendship. As we all know, sometimes partners start shooting each other.
Vladimir Kovalyov, a staff writer for The St. Petersburg Times, is currently on a six-month program at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
TITLE: documenting the unthinkable
AUTHOR: by Helen Tchepournova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: On Sept. 11, 2001 the world was stirred to horror and disbelief, as - literally out of the blue - the most improbable and devastating tragedy struck the United States.
The attacks on New York and Washington claimed more than 3,000 lives, and turned the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center - arguably the city's most famous landmarks, which dominated the Manhattan skyline - into burning masses of metal and, eventually, to rubble.
This week, two contrasting exhibitions opened in St. Petersburg to mark the first anniversary of the tragic events of last fall.
"After September 11: Images from Ground Zero," by award-winning New York photographer Joel Meyerowitz, opened at the Peter and Paul Fortress on Wednesday; "Made in America: Before and After September 11th," by St. Petersburg artist Gennady Zubkov, premiered at the Artists' Union of Russia Exhibition Center a day earlier.
While St. Petersburg may be far removed from Ground Zero in geographical terms, "We all are part of one human family, drawn close together in the face of a terrible adversity," said Morris Hughes, the United States consul general in St. Petersburg, at the opening of the Meyerowitz exhibition.
The exhibition is the high-profile product of a collaboration between the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the city administration's Culture Committee, the Museum of the City of New York, the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and the U.S. Consulate General in St. Petersburg. It is devoted to documenting the painful work of rescue, recovery, demolition and excavation at the World Trade Center site.
This exhibition is unique in its own right, as it presents an opportunity not to be missed: to see scenes that very few New Yorkers have been able to see over the past year.
Joel Meyerowitz was born in New York in 1938, and has had 11 books of color photographs published, as well as a book on the history of "street photography," which he considers to be his primary work, following in the tradition of such greats as Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Meyerowitz - under the auspices of the Museum of the City of New York - has had unrivaled access to Ground Zero where, from mid-September last year through Memorial Day this year (May 27), he was a constant artistic presence.
"A week after the buildings fell I was standing in a crowd five blocks north of Ground Zero," writes Meyerowitz in his notes to the exhibition. "As I raised my camera to my eye, I felt a sharp blow to the shoulder and heard a police officer say, 'No photographs, this is a crime scene.'"
"To me, 'no photographs' meant no history," he writes. "In that moment, I decided to find my way into 'The Zone' to make a photographic archive, which would describe, in all its details, the impact of the devastation."
This archive currently numbers more than 5,000 images, 27 of which were carefully selected for the present exhibition. The photos have already visited 23 countries - including being shown in Moscow earlier this year.
For the anniversary, 10 locations other than St. Petersburg - including New York and Beijing: East and West being brought together and united in art - are running the show concurrently, according to the exhibition schedule posted on the photographer's Web site, www. joelmeyerowitz.com.
Meyerowitz works with a large-format camera, which allows the greatest detail and color reproduction. His powerful color photographs capture the enormity of the human loss and the extent of the destruction, with "Smoke Rising Through Sunlight" on a tragic "Autumn Day," and where they are "Bringing Out the Dead" at midnight. Yet there is courage and determination on the faces of the "Firemen Rescue Team," and stern resolve shows in the eyes of the "Welder Wounded."
"My task was to make a photographic record of the aftermath: the awesome spectacle of destruction; the reverence for the dead; the steadfast, painstaking effort of recovery," writes Meyerowitz.
By way of a contrast, the Gennady Zubkov exhibition - also organized in collaboration with the U.S. Consulate General, as well as the St. Petersburg chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce - takes a totally different approach to the perception of last year's tragic events.
Zubkov, a St. Petersburg painter of some renown, was born in 1940, and graduated in art from the Herzen University. His painting style has been greatly influenced by Vladimir Sterligov's "cup-cupola" methods.
In 1995, Zubkov founded the experimental artistic group "Form and Color." Some of his works are in the State Russian Museum, the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, and numerous art galleries and private collections in Russia and abroad.
His latest exhibition displays 23 paintings, executed in a sort of collage technique, and loosely arranged within three spacious halls of the Artists' Union. The whole place creates a very fresh and uncluttered impression upon the viewer, who should not expect to see piercingly realistic images of ruined skyscrapers, burning planes or twisted metal here.
Zubkov's paintings are not a catastrophe reality show. Instead, he fills his pictures with flowers and trees, fruit and jugs, letters and symbols. The words "Made in USA" are written on most of the canvases, and help to reinforce the artist's initial idea - on which he had begun work before last year's attacks - of creating his personal pictorial U.S. travel diary.
And then came Sept. 11, and a new concept of dealing with the horrible realities emerged. The whole series of paintings comprises 10 paired works: juxtaposing the "before" and "after" periods. The "before" pictures are smaller in scale; they are bright, placid, even transparent; their color palette is devoid of any dark, ominous hues.
In the "after" period, the same forms are enlarged, darkened, and disjointed. The "Chronology of Sept. 11 Events" memorial, set up in the second hall opposite the "Angel of Grief and Sorrow," where everyone is encouraged to light a candle for those who died, enhances the prevailing feeling of deep emotions.
"Saint George and the Dragon Miracle," one of the three unpaired paintings in the exhibition, may seem somewhat out of place here - where the phrase "Made in USA" is so prominent - yet it is not.
When all the commemorations end, just one question will remain: Will the dragon - representing the evil that lives inside each and every human being - be conquered at some point, and replaced by tolerance and understanding?
"After September 11: Images from Ground Zero" runs through Oct. 14 at the Nevskaya Kurtina in the Peter and Paul Fortress. "Made in America: Before and After September 11th" runs through Sept. 22 at the Artists' Union of Russia Exhibition Center.
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Despite recent rumors, it now seems unlikely that Morrissey will appear in St. Petersburg, as local promoters seem unwilling to take the risk of bringing him here (for which read: they probably don't know who he is).
However, he may play Moscow. According to Nick Hobbs of the promotion firm Charmenko - which is taking care of the British end of things - there is a "good chance" that Morrissey will play at 16 Tons on Oct. 29.
The date has been confirmed by the venue, but not yet by the artist, Hobbs said by telephone on Thursday. Watch this space.
Meanwhile, Moscow promotion firm FeeLee has announced that the Diamanda Galas concert, scheduled there for Oct. 5, has been canceled. According to the company, the concert was to make up for the April 24 concert that was nixed by Galas.
"This is the only concert that has been canceled by an artist in the promoter's history since 1988," says FeeLee's Web site (www.feelee.ru). "The differences between the parties are so great that FeeLee Promotion prefers not to experiment with the possibility of a repeat of such a situation, and, despite having suffered big losses, has abandoned further negotiations."
However, Galas insists that the reason for the last-minute cancellation was the poor sound system that promoters put at her disposal.
"The technical set-up in St. Petersburg [for her concert earlier this year], which was technically produced by another organization, was perfect," she wrote by e-mail this week. "However, the technical set-up in Moscow was inferior and was set-up for soundcheck until 3:00 p.m. When I checked the system, I realized there could be no concert. My engineer tried desperately to save the situation, but to no avail."
"I therefore would like to announce that I am afraid it will not be possible to return to Moscow unless I have an offer from another promoter," she added.
Meanwhile, for St. Petersburg's rock scene, it is business as usual.
Another European death-metal band is coming to entertain local headbangers. This time, it is the charmingly named re-formed Austrian act Pungent Stench, which is playing on Friday as part of its Holy Inquisition tour through Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland.
The concert was originally going to be held at local metal venue Poligon but, since that place called it quits on Aug. 1, the band will actually play at techno club PORT.
Other promoters continue to feed Russian rock fans' insatiable nostalgia. Inexplicably, in 1970s Russia, Uriah Heep was even more popular than Led Zeppelin - whom in the U.K. they were accused of aping - so the concert by its former leader Ken Hensley, at Lensoviet Palace of Culture on Sunday, is a guaranteed crowd-puller.
- by Sergey Chernov
TITLE: a place full of eastern promise
AUTHOR: by Peter Morley
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Japanese cuisine seems to be St. Petersburg's latest culinary fashion. The recent proliferation of places specializing in cuisine from the Land of the Rising Sun have meant that sushi, sashami and other such dishes are no longer rarities, but part of the city's vocabulary.
However, I remain to be convinced of the merits of raw fish and seaweed - before you reach for the pen, that exaggeration was made purely for rhetorical effect - and so I and my dining companion ended up at Barbariya, on one corner of Ul. Marata and Razyezhaya Ul.
At first glance, Barbariya (named for the Berber, a tribe in North Africa) is an intimidating prospect, with heavy-looking, intricately carved doors, blacked-out windows and vaguely Islamic-looking gold lettering. Once inside, however, it becomes obvious that this is not some New Russian or mafia hangout, but a relaxed, stylish, eatery.
As with many places that have opened in the past couple of years, Barbariya has been meticulously designed. As the name suggests, it is themed around the Arab world, and this is convincingly replicated throughout, from the tables and chairs - carved in similar patterns to the doors - and the objects standing in subtly-lit niches to the faux-rough-whitewashed walls and the mosaic-patterned tabletops.
The menu - which is, unfortunately, only in Russian - appears at first sight to discontinue the theme, presenting what it labels Mediterranean cuisine, although inhabitants of that region might not entirely agree with this description. However, there is a second, Eastern-themed menu ("for those who love the beautiful") further on. I had to translate the menu for my dining companion, who decided what she wanted before I realized that the Eastern part existed, which led to a somewhat lopsided choice of dishes on our part.
Barbariya's dishes are surprisingly reasonably priced, given the upmarket appearance of the place. Salads on the first menu, which is more conservative, range from 85 to 300 rubles ($2.70 to $9.50), although only one dish - the melon, crab and red-caviar salad - goes that high. Otherwise, it is the usual suspects (tuna salad, Caesar salad, Greek salad). Two king-prawn dishes are the most expensive of the other starters, at 400 and 500 rubles ($12.65 and $15.80). Otherwise, prices range from about 130 to 200 rubles ($4.10 to $6.30), for a small selection of dishes including beef and salmon carpaccios. Main courses are divided into fish and meat sections: The former are mainly trout and salmon, from 205 to 250 rubles ($6.50 to $7.90); the latter range start at 120 rubles, and include a couple of surprises, such as the veal with peach sauce.
The Eastern menu is slightly cheaper, with salads from 55 to 160 ($1.75 to $5.05) rubles, all starters around 100 rubles, and the main courses mainly between 160 and 250 rubles ($5.05 to $7.90). (Vegetarians take note: All of this menu's main courses are meat-based.)
While we were waiting for our starters, we were approached by the maitre d', Alexander, whose curiosity had been piqued by seeing me copying down parts of the menu. I suspected - to my shame - that his attentiveness thereafter was due to the fact that I had told him the reason for our visit. This was not, in fact, the case - the same care and attention was paid to all visitors, and not just by Alexander, but also the rest of the wait staff.
My dining companion plumped for the tuna salad (110 rubles, $3.50), which was pronounced delicious and very fresh, although slightly lacking in tuna. My eggplant, from the Eastern menu's hot starters (150 rubles, $4.75) was also wonderful - thin slices of eggplant and tomato fried in a light egg batter, with diced vegetables on top. Again, this was first-grade fresh, and the batter imparted subtle flavors to the vegetables.
For main courses, my companion had the veal medallions in a mushroom sauce (255 rubles, $8.10), with a side order of potato croquettes (45 rubles, $1.40), which she raved about. The meat was tender, and the rich sauce was positively bursting with mushrooms (and, she thought, a hint of white wine).
Meanwhile, I tucked into the grilled salmon (200 rubles, $6.35), which was gorgeously crispy on the outside and beautifully cooked inside, and accompanied by a semi-smooth tartar sauce (needless to say, this also appeared to be freshly made). I accompanied this with cauliflower in white-wine sauce (also 45 rubles), which was somewhat odd, as the wine overpowered all other flavors that may have been present. However, this was a very small complaint.
After we finally got round to paying the bill - Alexander had insisted on showing me the other rooms, plus the kitchens, which I can assure you were spotless and highly professional - we decided that Barbariya represents brilliant value for money. It can only be hoped that it and other such ventures continue to flourish, and attract even more classy additions to St. Petersburg's dining scene.
Barbariya. 55 Ul. Marata. Tel.: 164-7333, 110-8270. Open daily, noon until the last customer leaves. Menu in Russian only. Dinner for two, with alcohol: 1,250 rubles ($39.55).
TITLE: staging an attack
AUTHOR: by William J. Kole
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VIENNA, Austria - Sergei Dreznin knows that it is risky to debut a musical about Sept. 11 on the anniversary of the attack. It's like presenting such a show about the Holocaust in 1946.
But Dreznin, a Moscow-born composer who lives in Manhattan, says he couldn't resist capturing how the spirit of New York endured after the Twin Towers collapsed. He felt compelled as an artist, he says, "to tell the most important story that could possibly be told."
"Vienna-New York Retour," which premiered Wednesday at Vienna's Metropol Theater, chronicles the events and their aftermath through the eyes of Suzanne, a struggling young singer who lands a dream role on Broadway on the eve of the attack.
Director Jesse Webb, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who now lives in Berlin, said he had to overcome initial misgivings about the piece, which makes its U.S. debut later this year in Washington.
"When Sergei first approached me, I told him, 'You can't do this. You can't write a musical about Sept. 11,'" Webb said.
"Then I realized that a lot of people have never really processed what happened," he said. "It just sat there in their subconscious. We've been careful not to wallow in the sentimental aspect of the attack. We just want to offer a means for dealing with it."
Early on Sept. 11, Suzanne sets out from Queens for her first rehearsal, fretting about being late, when an ominous announcement comes over the subway's public address system: "Service on the L-train to downtown Manhattan will be suspended indefinitely."
Against a backdrop of still photos and video images from the moments before the attack - investment bankers in wingtips toting attaches, children with bookbags heading to school - the scene moves to Brooklyn Heights, where dot.com worker Gerald Ackerman is at his desk with a breathtaking view of the towers just across the river.
"A day like every day. Like every other day. A beautiful day," Ackerman muses. Seconds later, his office is engulfed in screams of "Oh, my God!" and "Oh, Sweet Jesus!"
To the searing guitar licks of Austrian rock band Slash, the action moves to freelance journalist Amy Hendricks, at street level with a video recorder and overwhelmed by the snippets of chaos and conversation swirling around her.
"Screaming fire engines ... ambulances ... masses of people in the street, just staring ... 'Fire in the World Trade Center!' ... great clouds of smoke ... nobody knows what ... 'Sophie! Sophie!' ... My cell phone ... 'Evacuated - thank God.'"
The musical ends with Suzanne struggling to come to terms with a post-attack New York she barely recognizes. As video clips show subway commuters wearing gas masks, she tries to comprehend the sudden sea of "United We Stand" T-shirts and a graffito that reads: "Bomb Muslim Businesses."
"When will we learn?" she asks. "Dresden. Belfast. 'Jews Forbidden.' 'Manifest Destiny.' As from a warm bed into a cold night, we leave the life we had."
"New York Retour's" plot is largely autobiographical: Suzanne Carey, a native of Missoula, Montana, who sings the lead, says she was supposed to meet with Dreznin on Sept. 11 when the fateful events began unfolding.
"Of course, I couldn't get there - the entire subway system was down," said Carey, who now lives in Austria and has starred in numerous productions, including Roman Polanski's "Dance of the Vampires," which premiered in Vienna.
"It was so spooky," she said. "This is a very personal project."
Dreznin admits he's often inspired by the dark side.
His 11 past compositions include "Songs and Satire from Theresienstadt," a death camp cabaret set at the former Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt in what is now the Czech Republic.
Last year, he released "Romeo & Juliet in Sarajevo," about star-crossed lovers Almira and Bosko, a Muslim girl and a Serb young man who were shot dead in Sarajevo in 1993 while trying to escape the siege of the Bosnian capital.
"I'm drawn to the strength of the human spirit against huge obstacles," said Dreznin, 47, who collaborated with Vienna-based American writer Dennis Kozeluh on "Retour."
"We're used to disasters in Russia. It sounds weird, but I felt at home on Sept. 11. It was the constant fear and uncertainty - the feeling that everything was out of control. I hope the events, and this musical, will broaden American minds and not narrow them."
TITLE: the kids are alright at this fest
AUTHOR: by Charles Hoedt
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Heaven on Earth. This must be where children at Children's City 2002 must think they have arrived.
Through Sunday, the "cultural happening" at the Manezh gives kids the opportunity to redesign St. Petersburg, by decorating the white walls of a specially built model of the city's buildings.
The "graffiti" site gives children a wonderful chance to let their imaginations run riot, and to express their dreams, feelings, thoughts and wishes.
"The original part of the project is this: Not only are children looking at art, but they are actually creating it themselves," says Natalya Skorokhod, the project's director and initiator of the project.
Children's City is happening for the second time. This year, the event's main themes are St. Petersburg's history, architecture and children's literature.
Replicas of 14 famous buildings from the city - including the Saints Peter and Paul Fortress and the Petrovsky Stadium - have been put up in the Manezh. At Wednesday's press conference, the miniature constructions were still snow white, and seemed to be crying out for enthusiastic kids to give them a cheerful facelift in all sorts of different colors.
Like last year, the model city is made from paper and cardboard but, says Skorokhod, this year the quality is higher. Within 10 years, she hopes, it may even be built of stone or metal.
And it is all free - not just entrance to the event, but all paint, brushes and paper as well. (Adults have to pay 30 rubles just to get in.)
However, the event is not just about messing around with paint; it has an educational goal as well. Some 18 organizations - including librarires, museums and children's magazines - are also taking part, and children can take part in special masterclasses, to be run by actors and artists, on subjects such as architecture, painting and dance.
The event is not just aimed at Russian children, says Skorokhod, but does aim to show off Russian cultural eduction, of which she is proud.
"We would like to invite as many foreigners as possible, to show them how we feel about children's education," she said. "I think that Russians like their children to be professional in something already at a young age. This will have a positive impact on the child's later education."
In line with this, artists are coming to the festival from the U.K., Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands. The Belgian contingent, from Brussels, is presenting a program based on Russian folk art, using pictures reflecting old Russian city and country life. This was one of the most popular attractions of the first afternoon of the festival on Thursday.
"We want to invite the children to think about themselves, about others and about life," says Patrick Jordens, from the group Belgium Art Basics for Children.
Language Link, a theater group from London, will take kids on a trip through English children's literature, in particular Louis Carroll's perennial surrealist favorite, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."
Last week, part of a unique archive of children's paintings arrived from the small Swedish village of Eskilstun. The archive's oldest work dates back to 1790; the Manezh event, however, will only show works from 1930 onward. The Swedes will also take some of the work created during the festival back to Sweden for the archive.
Unfortunately, Russian bureaucracy has taken its toll on the show: A large amount of the material that some foreign groups - including the Belgians, who have been forced to change their original program - brought with them will not be able to be used, as it was not able to be cleared on time by customs at Pulkovo airport.
Children's City 2002 runs through Sunday at the Manezh. Call 314-0986 for more details.
TITLE: laying bare the horror of war
AUTHOR: by Carlo d'Este
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: There was no more hellish place on earth than Berlin in late 1944 and the early months of 1945. Its people were slowly starving to death in horrific conditions that included a relentless bombing campaign by the Allied air forces. A once proud city, Berlin was daily being reduced to smoking rubble. Even so, the German penchant for black humor was painfully evident during the Christmas season of 1944 when Berliners were heard to quip, "Be practical: give a coffin." Before the war ended there would not be sufficient coffins available to bury those killed in Berlin.
As the city's inhabitants struggled merely to survive another day, it was already clear to virtually everyone but a vain, delusional Hitler that the war was irrevocably lost. Hitler's reckless gamble that he could split the Western Allies with a massive counteroffensive in the Ardennes in December was already a failure, and with the Red Army poised to open a series of fresh offensives in the East, Germany's fate was all but sealed.
Attempts by his field commanders to impose a measure of reality upon Hitler were rebuffed by his insistence that the situation was not as dire as they made out. To the bitter end, neither Hitler nor the detested head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, whom he foolishly placed in command of an army group defending the Vistula River in Poland, believed the grim estimates of the German field commanders. Privately, however, even Hitler realized the war was lost, but he scorned any notion of surrender as heresy. "We may go down," he told an aide, "but we will take a world with us." What ensued during those final, awful months of World War II in Europe is the subject of Antony Beevor's dramatic account, "The Fall of Berlin 1945."
Stalin was obsessed with the possibility that the Allies might somehow beat the Russians to Berlin. In January 1945, the Red Army massed over four million troops along the Vistula for the final offensive against Nazi Germany. At least 8.5 million people living in East Prussia tried to escape the impending Soviet onslaught. Some managed to hide in the forests and those who could fled westward, hoping to reach Allied lines before falling into the hands of the Russians. The majority were not successful. In Koenigsberg, for example, many were machine-gunned; others were simply run over by Soviet tanks. At sea, a Russian submarine torpedoed the liner Wilhelm Gustloff with a loss of 5,300 of the 6,600 civilian passengers. One of the first places liberated by the Russians was Auschwitz and its nearby POW camps. Small wonder that a British POW exclaimed: "My God! I'll forgive the Russians absolutely anything they do to this country ... . Absolutely anything."
Although the appalling atrocities committed by the Germans in the Soviet Union made retribution inevitable, the breadth of Russian vengeance against the German people during the last months of the war was both enormous in its scope and terrible in its fury. After Red Army soldiers learned that Russian POWs had been turned over to the SS for execution, they sent a clear message: "They would take no prisoners."
The collective wrath of the Russians went well beyond the actions of an unenlightened, sexually repressed society, into the entirely uncharted sphere of a mass psychosis of horrific savagery. This was matched by what seems to have been a collective national guilt complex that on the one hand, was bent on revenge, and on the other, sought to assuage its culpability in a sea of alcohol so huge that it "gravely damaged the fighting capacity of the Red Army." German civilians, ranging from very young girls to old women, were gang raped, mutilated, humiliated and then frequently murdered by Red Army soldiers. Beevor, the author of several books of military history, believes that as many as 2 million German women were raped, many more than once.
In unsparing detail, he relates this grim story of the very worst that mankind is capable of, with each participant seemingly bent on outdoing every other in degree of brutality. "The Red Army," Beevor writes, "had managed to convince itself that because it had assumed the moral mission to liberate Europe from fascism, it could behave entirely as it liked, both personally and politically." Marshal Alexander Vasilyevsky, who commanded the Third Belarussian Front, was considered one the most intelligent and enlightened of the Red Army generals. But when asked what he planned to do to rein in the looting and destruction by his troops even he replied, "It is now time for our soldiers to issue their own justice."
Beevor's gut-wrenching tale is told from the perspective of those who lived, fought and all too often died in East Prussia and Berlin. His descriptions of the experiences of individual soldiers and civilians, the street fighting in Berlin and the events taking place in the Hitler bunker and the Kremlin, make "The Fall of Berlin 1945" the best account yet written on the death knell of Hitler's vaunted Thousand Year Reich. Whether painting vivid and unsparing portraits of the key players in the Berlin drama or revealing seemingly minor but poignant details of what life was like for those involved, Beevor has created haunting images of the war's final days.
With unparalleled access to Russian, German and Swedish archives, along with extensive research in British and American sources, Beevor has uncovered a considerable quantity of fresh material, some of it utterly bizarre. For example, he offers an account of how Hitler's jawbone and cranium were parceled out like party favors between the dreaded counterintelligence organization Smersh and the secret police of the NKVD; ultimately they were locked away in a Soviet archive. Hitler's remains, buried until 1970 under a Soviet Army parade ground in Magdeburg, were finally exhumed in the dead of night, Beevor tells us, and disposed of by flushing his ashes into the city sewage system.
In the end, as Beevor notes, it was all a "senseless slaughter which resulted from Hitler's outrageous vanity." His "incompetence, the frenzied refusal to accept reality and the inhumanity of the Nazi regime were revealed all too clearly in its passing." Unfortunately, as postwar events in Africa and the Balkans have shown, mankind has not seen the last of such brutality.
Carlo d'Este is the author of "Patton: A Genius For War" and "Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life."
TITLE: peterhof's other museum
AUTHOR: by Larisa Doctorow
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Thirty kilometers west of St. Petersburg, on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, lies Peterhof, originally the summer retreat of Peter the Great and now the most popular of the suburban palaces. In summer, thousands of tourists flock to Peterhof every day - but not many venture into the Alexandria Park, adjacent to the Lower Park, where another charming former royal residence has been turned into a museum.
The residence in question was built as Nicholas I's dacha, or summer cottage. Set on a hill overlooking the gulf, and surrounded by a splendid park, it is built on a more modest scale than its illustrious neighbors. It looks more like a manor house for a member of the aristocracy than a residence suitable for a tsar ruling over an enormous empire inhabited by 100 million subjects.
Here, in his house set amid trees, bushes and flowering plants, Nicholas could enjoy a simpler life than the pomp and pageantry of the imperial court. Here, his children could study and do gymnastic exercises on the balcony. And here, his wife, Alexandra - after whom the park is named - could do her embroidery.
Completed in 1829, the warm-pink, two-storied, gray-roofed building has two symmetrical facades - western and eastern - with loggias and balconies. The symmetry was broken, however, by the addition of a dining room and open, marble-covered terrace in 1843. The center of the terrace is occupied by a fountain, and a relief "Madonna and Child," by Italian sculptor Ivan Vitali enlivens the wall.
The building shows features of the neo-Gothic movement in architecture that was brought to Russia from England, and this is seen first in the exterior, Gothic elements of which include ogival arches; elegant friezes; thin, seemingly brittle columns; and cast-iron railings painted white on the facades. The same themes run through the interior decoration. A case in point is the staircase, which looks as though it has been taken from some medieval castle. In addition, there is intricate painting on the walls, and molding bearing Gothic motifs.
However, the Gothic themes are not the only things to attract attention: A stone from the Varna Fortress - a trophy that celebrates Russia's successful siege of the fortress during the war with Turkey in 1828 to 1829 - is a powerful reminder of the building's former inhabitants
There are 10 rooms on each floor of the building: The lower-floor rooms are of larger proportions, whereas the upper-level ones are more modest. The rooms lead off the main staircase, and are complete with clocks, candelabras, chandeliers and other reminders of the past.
The most interesting rooms on the lower floor are the drawing room, the library and the dining room, which have arches, thin columns, marble mantelpieces, and wood carvings in light oak that all bear Gothic motifs, which are taken up by the furniture and carpet designs.
The museum possesses a collection of more than 200 paintings, among which are works by well-known Russians, such as Ivan Aivazovsky, and Dutch 17th-century artists, in particular seascape masters.
The period furniture, the extensive collections of Russian and European porcelain, and the stained-glass collection on the lower floor make this dacha a rare museum
The upper floor is home to the tsar's children's' classroom and nursery, as well as rooms once occupied by Alexander III's widow, Maria. These rooms are uncluttered, and create a warm feeling - as though the owners have just left for a short time and will be back soon.
Nicholas I's study is the largest room on the upper floor, and commands a magnificent view, through its bay windows, onto the gulf. The room becomes magical when the sun is sinking into the gulf and its last rays touch the inside of the room.
After 1917, the dacha was nationalized, and made into a museum of local customs, which it remained until the start of World War II, when it was considerably damaged. (When I visited, our guide told us how, just after the war, she used to play near the dacha and would find beautiful dolls with porcelain heads, dolls' houses and other toys that obviously used to belong to the royal family in the ruins.)
After the war, the dacha underwent serious restoration, and was opened as a museum again 35 years later.
Set on a hill nearby, the Alexander Nevsky Church has also been restored. The church dates from the 1830s, and, again, a strong neo-Gothic influence can be seen in its outline, which is dominated by four towers.
The park surrounding the buildings is different from Peterhof's Upper and Lower parks. There are no regular alleys, fountains and pavilions. Instead of a regular, French layout, the 115-hectare park is laid out in a freer, more "natural," English landscape tradition. A mixture of open fields, groves, brooks, open and shady places creates a romantic look; winding trails open up unexpected vistas. This "natural" look, of course, was also thoroughly planned by master drafters.
Despite 80 years of neglect under Communism, the park still bears traces of its original design, with roads - some of them lined with old oaks, and others with shrubs - running parallel with and at right-angles to the seashore. Even now, it is possible to see rare trees, the remains of a once-luxurious collection of vegetation imported from around the world, including the Far East and Italy.
The dacha is open daily, except Monday and the last Tuesday of each month, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 427-9953 for more details.
How to get there. The best public-transport solution is by marshrutnoye taxi from Baltiisky Vokzal, which stops just in front of the entrance to the park and the dacha, which can be reached via a sentry building (another neo-Gothic construction from the same period).
There are also trains and regular busses from Baltiisky Vokzal.
TITLE: Bush: Iraq Regime Poses a Threat to UN
AUTHOR: By Barry Schweid
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: UNITED NATIONS - U.S. President George W. Bush demanded Thursday that world leaders force Saddam Hussein to destroy his weapons of mass destruction, saying the lives of millions of people will be at risk and the United Nations "will be irrelevant" unless it confronts Iraq.
"The just demands of peace and security will be met or action will be unavoidable," Bush warned. "And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power."
"We cannot stand by and do nothing while dangers gather," Bush told the UN General Assembly. "We must stand up for our security and for the permanent rights and hopes of mankind."
Bush made his case against the backdrop of widespread hesitation among U.S. allies - and U.S. lawmakers - to use force against Baghdad. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan cautioned the United States against taking action on its own without Security Council backing.
Annan said that efforts to persuade Iraq to comply with resolutions calling for weapons inspections and disarmament must continue but, if Iraq is defiant, the Security Council "must face its responsibilities," he said.
Speaking before Bush, Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Lafer, reflected the concerns of most states, saying that "force can be used only through the Security Council and if other means are exhausted."
But Bush argued that extended diplomacy would mean betting the lives of millions in a reckless gamble. "And this is a risk we must not take," he said.
In his speech, Bush said that, "Iraq has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance. All the world now faces a test ... and the United Nations, a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced ... or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding ... or will it be irrelevant?"
Bush offered to work in concert with other nations on a resolution "to meet our common challenge." And, he said, "if the Iraqi regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately and decisively" against the Iraqi leader.
When he concluded, Bush virtually sank with relief into his high-backed chair on the massive UN dais. He drew a deep breath and blew out again, with his cheeks puffed and his frame slumped back into the seat.
Later, a senior administration official said that Bush intends a "very short time frame" for the United Nations to take action to force Saddam's hand. But, the official insisted, Bush is still keeping his own options open.
Iraq's UN ambassador assailed Bush's speech, saying it lacked credibility and was motivated by revenge and political ambition.
"He chooses to deceive the world and his own people by the longest series of fabrications that have ever been told by a leader of a nation," said Ambassador Mohamed al-Douri.
Bush's expression of willingness to act through the United Nations appeared to respond to a growing chorus of opposition to unilateral U.S. military action to topple Hussein.
A senior U.S. official said that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell would work on Friday with the four other permanent members of the Security Council - Russia, China, France and Britain - on a resolution that would establish a deadline for Iraq to comply with demands that it admit weapons inspectors.
Bush said that if Iraq defies a new UN resolution demanding the return of inspectors, "the world must move deliberately and decisively" against Hussein.
TITLE: Pakistani Police Seek Al-Qaida Terrorists
AUTHOR: By Zarar Khan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KARACHI, Pakistan - Police stepped up surveillance in middle-class neighborhoods of Pakistan's largest city Thursday, as intelligence agents questioned captured survivors of a four-hour battle with a suspected al-Qaida cell.
The gunfight Wednesday turned an upscale section of this port city into a war zone, killing two suspected al-Qaida fighters and leaving seven government security agents wounded. Five suspects were taken prisoner.
Karachi has been a hotbed of militant activity, and it is suspected that some al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives fled there after the Taliban regime fell in neighboring Afghanistan. Security forces raided the five-story apartment building Wednesday, following leads in the hunt for armed foreigners.
The identities and nationalities of the prisoners were not known, but the Interior Ministry said none were Pakistani.
Meanwhile, the apartment remained sealed and police blocked the lane to traffic. The thousands of shell casings and grenade fragments that littered the street Wednesday had been cleared away.
Intensifying the hunt for more suspected terrorist cells, police said that they asked real estate agents about rentals they contracted in the middle-class Defense area, where the incident happened and in other parts of the city.
"We are not dealing in that area, but the police also asked us to provide details about deals we managed during the past six months," said Meharullah, a real estate agent who uses one name.
Anti-American slogans daubed on walls gave weight to the suspicion that al-Qaida operatives were finding a comfortable atmosphere in Karachi, an overcrowded city of 12 million with a reputation for crime and sectarian violence.
"America Listen, Suicide attacks will continue - al-Qaida," read a slogan chalked on a wall near the raided apartment block.
Police officials, disclosing details of Wednesday's operation, said that authorities traced a satellite telephone call to another Karachi apartment, which they raided Tuesday night. They found four laptop computers, a satellite phone, and $5,900.
The residents of the apartment were gone, but the watchmen led the agents to a second address, which was raided the next morning, said the police officials.
Wednesday's operation, apparently led by the agents of the InterService Intelligence, also revealed discord between Pakistan's premier intelligence agency and police.
Police commanders said that they had no access to the prisoners and had not been briefed about the results of the interrogation, even though the shootout was registered as a criminal case.
Senior police officers also were not informed in advance of the impending raid. Instead, intelligence agents asked midlevel officers to provide backup, not expecting fierce resistance, police officials said.
In a separate raid in Karachi later Wednesday, Pakistani security forces arrested five Islamic militants suspected of planning attacks on American fast-food restaurants in the city. All five men were members of a splinter group of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, or Movement of Holy Warriors, who had received weapons training in Afghanistan, police said.
TITLE: Palestinians Support Resignation of Arafat Government
AUTHOR: By Mark Lavie
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Palestinians on Thursday cheered their parliament for forcing the resignation of President Yasser Arafat's cabinet, widely considered corrupt and inefficient, but many stopped short of criticizing the Palestinian leader himself.
The toppling of the cabinet was a major blow to Arafat's prestige. The Palestinian leader has been weakened in recent months by diminishing international support, Israeli blockades and widespread dissatisfaction at home with his rule.
However, the showdown with parliament did not directly endanger Arafat's political survival, and he appears poised for re-election in January.
As part of his wrangling with legislators Wednesday, Arafat set Jan. 20 as the day for presidential and parliamentary elections. However, there were uncertainties Thursday about whether the vote would take place.
Palestinian officials have said that they could not conduct elections under Israeli occupation. Tayeb Abdel Rahim, an Arafat adviser, reiterated Thursday that, ahead of the vote, Israeli troops have to withdraw to positions they held before the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in September 2000.
The international community "should act immediately to guarantee an Israeli withdrawal," Abdel Rahim said Thursday.
Israel says it can only withdraw troops if there is calm. "Let [the Palestinians] stop terrorist activity, let them stop condoning terror, and then they can have elections," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "The terror is preventing free elections."
Palestinian officials have said that the United States has been seeking a delay in presidential elections to gain time for finding ways to sideline Arafat. One proposal is to have a newly elected parliament choose a prime minister with whom Arafat would have to share power. Arafat has resisted efforts to limit his authority.
Paul Patin, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, said that the United States believes that there was growing support among the Palestinians for a new leadership, "free from association with terror and the taint of corruption." Patin added that elections in early 2003 will serve the Palestinians' interest.
However, if presidential elections take place Jan. 20, it is likely Arafat would be re-elected. His four challengers have little political clout. One is a local dissident, one a little-known lawyer and two live abroad, one in the United States and one in France.
Arafat has not commented in public on his defeat in parliament. A member of his inner circle, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Arafat was upset with parliament. The challenge to Arafat was the most serious since he returned from exile in 1994 to run the Palestinian Authority.
However, even the harshest Arafat critics blamed him only for condoning mismanagement, without holding him personally accountable.
Jibril Rajoub, recently fired by Arafat from his position as West Bank security chief, said he hoped "President Arafat ... will wake up and start to understand that the people around him are not satisfying the Palestinians' needs."
There was widespread satisfaction in the West Bank and Gaza over the resignation of the cabinet.
Tarek Hamdan, 29, a pharmacist in Gaza City, said that he was pleased parliament stood up to the government. "We were waiting for real change, and what took place yesterday, is the first step toward achieving this change," Hamdan said.
Arafat has two weeks to form a new cabinet and present it to parliament for approval. The old cabinet will continue working until then "because there's no government to be found in five minutes," said Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeineh
Work on forming the new cabinet would begin in the coming days, the adviser said, adding that Arafat "is still studying what happened yesterday."
Israeli officials were pleased with the apparent weakening of Arafat's position.
The chief of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, said that the events of Wednesday were "an earthquake in the Palestinian Authority" that would eventually lead to replacement of Arafat.
Palestinians have bristled at Israeli and American attempts to sideline Arafat, noting that he was elected leader in 1996. They charge that Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is at the root of nearly two years of violence, which has been characterized by Palestinian attacks, including more than suicide bombings inside Israel, and harsh Israeli military retaliation.
In another development, Israeli troops demolished two homes in the Gaza Strip, making 42 people homeless, witnesses said.
TITLE: Japan Going Slow on Space Program
AUTHOR: By Hans Greimel
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TOKYO - Completion of the international space station hit a snag Thursday when Japan's cash-strapped space program announced that it would delay the launch of the bus-sized research module it is building for the project.
The research capsule, the only part of the space station developed and run by an Asian country, was scheduled for launch sometime in 2004. Liftoff is now planned for April 2005 at the earliest, the space agency said.
Called "Kibo," the Japanese word for hope, the module's sections have already been assembled by Japan's National Space Development Agency in a hangar outside Tokyo.
But national budget cuts are targeting funds needed to complete final tests, finish building hardware for experiments and pay the salaries of agency technicians, Kibo deputy director Yuichi Yamaura said.
The U.S. space agency NASA, which coordinates construction of the orbiting station, said last year that the American cost of the space station, already estimated at about $30 billion, was heading for major overruns.
An outside committee has since recommended building only a scaled-back, modified version of the orbiting laboratory that would not be able to accomplish many science objectives once envisioned for the multibillion-dollar space station.
The $4.2 billion Kibo is a key component in that vision, and has been under construction since 1985.
Yamaura said that it is too early to say whether Kibo's delay affects the station's overall construction schedule because NASA has yet to decide on how to cut its own costs.
The research pod, which looks like a bus-sized tin can with an auto-oil filter stuck on one side, has room for four astronauts to conduct experiments in a pressurized cabin.
It also is equipped with a 10-meter robot arm that can carry out experiments on an outside platform exposed to the vacuum of space.
TITLE: A's Win-Streak Lead Evaporating After Angels Rally for Win
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - The Oakland Athletics just can't finish off the Anaheim Angels. Shawn Wooten hit a go-ahead two-run double with two outs in the seventh inning Wednesday night as Anaheim rallied for a 6-5 victory over Oakland.
Oakland blew an early 4-0 lead and its lead in the AL West was sliced to one game over the Angels. The A's need to win the series finale Thursday, or all of the lead created by an AL-record 20-game winning streak will be wiped out.
"We're still playing good ball, but we're playing good teams," Oakland starter Cory Lidle said after the team lost consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 11 and 12. "When we started that streak, we weren't playing particularly tough teams."
The Angels have won 12 of 13 to extend their wild-card lead to six games over Seattle.
The big contribution came from Wooten, who made a rare start against a right-hander because Troy Glaus was sidelined with a jammed left ring finger.
"I think I had one other start against a righty this year," Wooten said. "Unfortunately, Troy got hurt. Someone had to step up. Today it happened to be me."
Wooten, who tied a club record with three doubles, hit the first pitch from Jeff Tam (0-1) into the left-field corner. He drove in Garret Anderson, who hit a one-out single off Mike Venafro, and Scott Spiezio, who drew a two-out walk off Tam.
Scot Shields (4-3), who pitched 2 2/3 hitless innings, earned the victory. Troy Percival, the fourth Angels pitcher, worked the ninth for his 37th save in 41 chances.
"I was running on vapor tonight," Percival said after pitching for the fourth time in six games. "I feel OK. It's a good position to be in. When I'm up that many times, it means we're playing good baseball."
The Angels raised their record in one-run games to 27-17, while the A's dropped to 28-10.
Los Angeles 7, San Fancisco 3. This is turning into another one of those great races between the Dodgers and Giants. Los Angeles drew even in the NL wild-card race Wednesday with a victory over its traditional rival. Hideo Nomo remained perfect in San Francisco and Brian Jordan hit a three-run homer and had four RBIs to lead the Dodgers.
"We just knew it was important to win today to salvage the series and leave with it even," Jordan said.
Nomo (14-6) allowed two runs, six hits and five walks in 6 2/3 innings while striking out eight and improving to 8-0 in San Francisco. The Dodgers stopped a four-game losing streak and ended the Giants' five-game winning streak.
"You've heard the word warrior used with this guy," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "All the right words are used with this guy. A battler. He's never going to give in to you ... . I don't know where this club would be without the presence of Hideo Nomo. He's obviously become the mainstay of our rotation."
Kirk Reuter (12-8) gave up four runs in the fifth inning. The teams, which started their battles a century ago when they were in Brooklyn and New York, have four games remaining this season.
Texas 4, Seattle 3. Todd Greene led off the bottom of the ninth with a homer off Arthur Rhodes (8-4) as Texas dealt another blow to Seattle's playoff hopes, beating it for the third-straight game.
The Mariners, who fell six games behind Anaheim in the AL wild-card race, failed to score in the top of the ninth despite two doubles against Francisco Cordero (2-0).
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Unitas Dead at 69
BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) - Johnny Unitas, considered one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, died on Wednesday of a heart attack at the age of 69.
Unitas was involved in routine physical therapy at Kernan Hospital in Baltimore when he suffered the heart attack, a Baltimore Ravens spokesman said. Unitas was transferred to St. Joseph Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
"Johnny Unitas will always be a legendary name in NFL history," said NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "One of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, he epitomized the position with his leadership skills and his ability to perform under pressure."
Unitas had a history of heart trouble. In 1993, he underwent emergency triple-bypass surgery after a heart attack.
"There are not enough words to describe what he meant to professional football and to Baltimore," said Tom Matte, a teammate of Unitas from 1961 to 1972. "There was never a greater quarterback than Johnny Unitas. This guy was a hero to me."
The Ravens are planning to unveil a statue honoring the man known in Baltimore as "The Golden Arm" in a ceremony at Ravens Stadium later this season.
During his career, Unitas completed 2,830 of 5,186 passes for 40,239 yards. He threw at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games from 1956 to 1960, a record that still stands.
Unitas ran the Colts' offense in the 1958 NFL championship game, often referred to as the "greatest game ever played," where he engineered a drive in the last 90 seconds of regulation time that allowed the Colts to tie the New York Giants and force overtime. Unitas put together an 80-yard drive in overtime that ended in a touchdown.
The game was credited with igniting the popularity of the NFL.
Stackhouse a Wizard
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Washington Wizards acquired guard Jerry Stackhouse from the Detroit Pistons in a six-player deal on Wednesday, raising further doubts about the future of Michael Jordan in the team.
The Wizards also obtained forward Brian Cardinal and center Ratko Varda from Detroit while shipping guards Richard Hamilton and Hubert Davis and forward Bobby Simmons to the Pistons. On Tuesday, Washington signed free agent forward Bryon Russell.
"When you have the opportunity to add an All-Star player of Jerry's caliber, you cannot hesitate on the chance to strengthen the team," said Wizards general manager Wes Unseld.
The 28-year-old Stackhouse has a career average of 21.2 points per game.
First for Malik
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Pakistan batsman Shoaib Malik became on Thursday the first batsman ever to be given out leg-before-wicket by the third umpire.
South African television umpire Rudi Koertzen ruled Shoaib had been trapped lbw for one in the opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Shoaib had been hit on the pads by left-arm paceman Chaminda Vaas bowling over the wicket. Umpire Daryl Harper referred the decision to Koertzen who decided the ball had been in line with the stumps.
Under experimental regulations in force for the one-day tournament, field umpires can refer any decision, including lbws and bat-pad catches, to the third umpire.
He, in turn, can then study two television replays in a 20-second period before giving his verdict.