SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #825 (90), Tuesday, December 3, 2002
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TITLE: Election Creating More Work for City Court
AUTHOR: By Claire Bigg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: With less than a week to go before Sunday's elections for the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, the candidates weren't the only ones keeping busy over the weekend. Due to a federal law that came into force earlier this year, the St. Petersburg City Court spent the weekend and most of Monday working its way through a stack of complaints against different candidates.
 
According to the law, which is entitled "Fundamental Guarantees of the Electoral Rights and the Right To Take Part in Referenda of Russian Citizens," which came into force on June 15, applications to have candidates barred from running in the elections had to be filed by Friday at midnight. Prior to the introduction of the new legislation, candidates could be disqualified right up to the day of the vote.
 "Over 150 complaints have been filed since the beginning of the campaign, with the majority of them filed on Friday," said Rita Malova, the head of the City Electoral Commission's information department. "Most complaints involve charges of attempts to buy votes, financial abuses and violations of electoral law," she added.
 Officials at the City Court, which is responsible for examining and ruling on the complaints, would not comment on the process Monday afternoon, other than to say that the panel of 15 judges had yet to disqualify any candidates.
 Interfax reported Monday evening that the court had worked its way through the majority of the applications and that no candidate had been disqualified.
 There are currently 419 candidates running for the Legislative Assembly's 50 seats. Three candidates who had originally registered to run have since pulled out of the campaign.
 However, while Malova says that she sees the high number of complaints filed with the City Court as a sign of "a higher level of concern for legality than in previous years," some candidates say that not much will change with the new law.
 According to Arkady Kramarev, an incumbent deputy from the Power party, who also served as St. Petersburg chief of police from 1991 to 1994, the new federal law is unlikely to make the campaign any cleaner.
 "What is going to happen is that most violations will take place in the last week of the election campaign, when candidates can no longer be disqualified," he said.
 Kramarev also said that the increase in the number of electoral-law violations being reported will not lead to the punishment of many violations that have already taken place.
 "The process itself is proper and civilized, but I think that only about 2 percent of the complaints will result in the disqualification of a candidate," he said. "Many of the complaints are sheer fabrications, or simply inaccurate. This new law is being tested in St. Petersburg for the first time, and there are many points within it that are still unclear and that people haven't interpreted properly."
 "I would say that this year's campaign is slightly cleaner than four years ago, but there has still been a considerable number of violations since the beginning of the campaign," he added.
 Kramarev said that many of the complaints have been filed on the basis of the regulations concerning campaign spending contained in the new law, which lowered the sum that candidates are allowed to spend on their campaigns to 300,000 rubles ($9,400). Candidates whose campaigns exceed this figure by more than 15,000 rubles ($470) can be disqualified, while those exceeding spending limits by less than this figure are subject to warnings.
 Viktor Yevtukhov, another incumbent, agrees that the new federal law has its defects, but says that it has fostered a cleaner campaign all the same.
 "This year's campaign is definitely cleaner than four years ago," said Yevtukhov, a candidate with the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. "There haven't been any loud scandals or dirty campaigning on the radio, the television and in the newspapers. But it is true that the new electoral law hasn't been proved yet, and it contains many points that can be subject to misinterpretation."
 Prior to the court's announcement on Monday, Yevtukhov said that, although the new law has encouraged politicians to report abuses around them, most complaints won't result in concrete sanctions.
 "Not a single candidate has been expelled yet, and I don't think it will happen," he said. "But I still think this new law is useful and necessary."

TITLE: Subsidies Bill Passed In Duma
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - After failing to pass housing reform two days earlier, the State Duma mustered enough votes to pass a government-drafted bill to phase out subsidies for gas, electricity and water in first reading on Friday.
 
The vote was 244-166 with two abstentions - about 20 votes over the required minimum. The legislation failed to pass on Wednesday by five votes.
 Friday's approval averts a showdown over the draft 2003 federal budget, which the Duma passed in third reading late last month. The budget earmarks 7.7 billion rubles ($241 million) in subsidies for low-income households, with the assumption that the rest of the population will pay more of their housing costs.
 Lawmakers backed the legislation Friday as a foundation for housing reform, and will start writing amendments for the second reading, Interfax reported.
 Deputies from the Unity, Fatherland-All Russia, Union of Right Forces, People's Deputy and LDPR parties voted for the reform, while the Communists, Agrarians, Russia's Regions and Yabloko voted against.
 Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov stood by the legislation Thursday, saying it was about time that the dilapidated and subsidized sector became competitive and efficient. He added, however, that some criticism of the legislation was not without merit.

TITLE: India Highlights Russia's Pakistan Comments
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW DELHI, India - Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked Western countries Monday to take serious note of comments by Russia's president expressing concern over the safety of nuclear weapons in rival Pakistan.
 
President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with an Indian newspaper last week that Russia was concerned that weapons of mass destruction could fall into the hands of thieves and terrorists, and that countries such as Pakistan should take preventive measures.
 That warning was echoed Monday by India's prime minister, who said "all other nations, especially allies of Pakistan, must take note of it." Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its global fight against terrorism.
 "That there is a danger the nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction can fall into the hands of terrorists is a serious warning from the Russian president," Vajpayee told reporters.
 In the interview published Sunday by The Hindu newspaper, Putin said, "Our concerns, our anxiety, still persist" despite assurances by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf that his country's weapons are well protected.
 Pakistan rejected Putin's worries over its nuclear weapons and questioned Russia's own nuclear-safety record.
 "There were reports of over 200 cases of attempted smuggling of alleged nuclear material out of Russia," a Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday on condition of anonymity. He insisted that "Pakistan is a very responsible country and no one should have any fears about its nuclear assets."
 Pakistan's military controls its nuclear arsenal. In India, the prime minister, not the military, has primary control over nuclear arms.
 The South Asian rivals, who have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, tested nuclear weapons in 1998.
 Putin, who arrives in India Tuesday, is expected to discuss terrorism, the disputed Kashmir region, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Iraq during his visit, said Kanwal Sibal, a senior official in India's Ministry of External Affairs.
 A joint statement on strengthening India and Russia's strategic partnership, and a host of other agreements relating to trade, counterterrorism, telecommunications and scientific cooperation are to be signed during Putin's visit, Sibal said.

TITLE: $2.5M Pilot Program Set Up in AIDS Fight
AUTHOR: By Robin Munro
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A comprehensive, two-year program to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections among young people in the Altai and Volgograd regions started on Monday.
 
The $2.5-million program is intended to serve as a model for dealing with the AIDS epidemic that could be extended nationwide.
 "The HIV epidemic had a late start here," UN resident coordinator Frederick Lyons said Monday at a news conference. "It's catching up with merciless speed, and Russia is in the region that has had the highest rates of growth in the world in the last couple of years."
 The number of registered cases has gone from 10,993 at the end of 1998 to 220,545 as of last month, and the true number of infected people may be several times greater. The epidemic is hitting young people disproportionately. More than 80 percent of registered cases are people under 30 years old, and more than 20 percent are teenagers, Lyons said.
 However, because the epidemic is concentrated in distinct high-risk groups - intravenous drug users and sex workers - targeted campaigns could make a large impact, he said.
 "We are not without hope," the British ambassador, Sir Roderic Lyne, said. "From our experience in Britain and of our agencies in other countries, we know that there are many different methods of limiting the epidemic. We want to spread those methods."
 The project is being jointly funded by Britain's Department for International Development and the United Nations Foundation. It will involve six UN agencies, USAID, the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) and federal and regional ministries. The program's funding is generous when compared to the federal budget for AIDS, which, this year, amounts to about $6 million and is devoted largely to treatment.
 Tatyana Shoumilina, program coordinator for UNAIDS in Moscow, said the two regions were selected from 17 with which UNAIDS has worked since 1999 to develop a strategic plan to counter the spread of the disease.
 "Those 17 regions have developed a broad and deep understanding," she said.
 The Volgograd and Altai regions were chosen for the commitment shown by the regions' nongovernmental groups and administrators and for their collaboration with each other, as well as for the number of UN agencies already operating. The two regions also complement each other; Siberia's Altai region is agricultural, while Southern Russia's Volgograd region is industrial, she said.
 The program was first intended to run in three regions, but it was decided that the funding would be insufficient for more than two regions.
 According to federal statistics, the number of registered HIV cases in the Volgograd region rose from 1,605 at the end of last year to 3,047 by Oct. 28 while, in Altai, the comparable figures are 2,154 and 2,612.
 Galina Khorosheva, deputy governor of the Volgograd region, said the problem was now spreading to the general population through sexual contact. Only 8 percent of new registered cases were infected through sex last year, while this year the rate is 16 percent.

TITLE: India Stays Mum on Nuclear-Sub Story
AUTHOR: By Rajesh Mahapatra
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW DELHI, India - India's naval chief declined to confirm or deny Monday a report that New Delhi is to lease a nuclear submarine from Russia that would give the South Asian country a new edge over nuclear rival Pakistan.
 
But Admiral Madhvendra Singh did say any nuclear power would have to rely on submarines to defend itself.
 "I would neither confirm nor deny the existence of such things," Singh said, which suggested the deal would be finalized during President Vladimir Putin's visit to India this week.
 The Indian Express newspaper reported Monday that India and Russia were to finalize an arms package that includes the three-year lease of the Akula II-class nuclear submarine.
 The sale of the Russian-made aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, announced earlier this year, also was expected to be wrapped up during the visit.
 The submarine can carry nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a range of about 300 kilometers.
 On Saturday, Putin said in an interview with Indian newspaper The Hindu that New Delhi and Moscow were discussing nuclear cooperation, but there were "certain limitations" because of Russia's international obligations.
 Close defense and trade ties and regional security will dominate talks between Indian leaders and Putin during his two-day visit that begins Tuesday evening.
 Leasing the submarine would give India a so-called nuclear triad - the capability of delivering nuclear weapons by air, ground-to-ground missile or from the sea.
 The naval chief would not comment on the existence of nuclear weapons on Indian naval vessels. But he said any nuclear power would likely rely on submarines to defend itself.
 "The most powerful part of the triad is in the navy. It is not on the sea, it is under water," Singh said.
 The Indian navy has about 18 submarines, some of them are armed with Russian-made Klub missiles, capable of delivering nuclear warheads.
 Singh also rejected criticism that, in buying Admiral Gorshkov, India was wasting millions of dollars on a "sitting duck."
 "There is absolutely no doubt in the minds of the naval staff that we need it," he said, adding the importance of an aircraft carrier was clearly demonstrated during the U.S.-led military action against Afghanistan.

TITLE: Russia Sets Up Kyrgyzia Base
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's efforts to beef up its military presence in Central Asia will gain new momentum this week when a group of its warplanes arrives at an airbase outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
 
Two Il-76 cargo planes delivered equipment and personnel to the Kant base on Saturday, RIA-Novosti reported Monday, citing Kyrgyz Defense Ministry officials.
 Up to 20 Su-25 attack planes and Su-27 fighters were to follow on Monday, but the deployment was put off until later this week because of bad weather, a Russian Air Force official said by telephone.
 The deployment of the aircraft, equipment and personnel will transform the Kyrgyz base into a full-fledged Air Force base that will operate under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty, or DKB, which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia.
 The development of the Kant base, which will have about 500 personnel, will be followed by a reinforcement of DKB rapid reaction forces in Central Asia, Interfax reported, citing a source in the Moscow-based DKB secretariat. The force, which DKB signatories agreed to establish last year, will eventually have 6,000 service personnel, the source said.
 Reached by telephone Monday in Moscow, DKB officials refused to comment on plans for the rapid-reaction force.
 The expansion of DKB's military presence is designed to deter Islamic extremists who seek to overthrow local secular governments as well as to balance the Western military presence "to some extent," according to Alexander Pikayev of the Moscow Carnegie Center.

TITLE: Alternative-Service Wish List Compiled
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Labor Ministry is collecting wish lists from federal agencies of jobs for young men who opt for alternative military service, and the positions being suggested might make draftees think twice before refusing to pick up arms.
 
Labor Minister Alexander Pochinok told reporters late last week that pacifist-minded young men will have "an enormous choice" of employment opportunities at polar stations and in far-flung forests when the alternative civil-service law comes into force in January 2004.
 Others will be able to fight fires, carry out rescue work or make beds at hospitals, Pochinok said.
 The Russian Constitution gives males the right to an alternative to military service, but few have been able to exercise this right in the absence of a law spelling out the details of alternative civil service. The necessary legislation was only passed by parliament this summer, and President Vladimir Putin then signed it into law.
 The law allows men of conscription age - from 18 to 27 years old - to seek civil service, if they can prove that their convictions bar them from joining the military or that they belong to a small ethnic group whose traditional way of life relies on herding, gathering, fishing or hunting.
 The law calls for "most" men in alternative service to be dispatched beyond the borders of their home regions.
 There is, however, a legal loophole: The law has to conform with the Labor Code, which prohibits employers from sending their employees to locations against their will, said Sergei Krivenko, one of the country's top alternative-service experts at the Sostradaniye nongovernmental organization.
 The catch, he said, is that young men who wish to stay near their homes would hardly be able to prove their cases without the assistance of lawyers - whose fees few would be able to afford.
 Thus, the strong possibility of ending up in a remote area will prevent most young men from picking alternative service, said Krivenko, whose organization has, since the early 1990s, employed young Germans who have chosen to opt for alternative service in Russia rather than serve in the German army.
 As many as 340,000 men get drafted every year, with most of them joining the armed forces of the General Staff, which led the effort to draft the tough alternative-service law.
 Virtually every federal agency, and at least several regional authorities, have already sent wish lists to the Labor Ministry, which is compiling a database of employment opportunities, a Labor Ministry official said by telephone.
 The official said the final list will only begin to take shape in the spring. But he stressed it would be completed in time for the start of alternative service in 2004.

TITLE: Refugees Being Sent Home to Chechnya
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia - Hundreds of Chechen refugees living in a tent camp in Ingushetia are being ejected and told to return to Chechnya, human-rights workers say.
 
Russian authorities say the camp near Aki-Yurt is being closed because it poses a fire hazard. They are shutting off gas and electricity and going tent-to-tent telling the occupants to go home, workers who visited the refugees said.
 "I would not say that people are evicted by using force, but it is a forced eviction," said Svetlana Ganushkina of the Memorial human-rights group. "People are practically made to leave."
 Officials have repeatedly announced plans to shut down the refugee camps in Ingushetia. The Kremlin insists that the three-year war is winding down, and a stream of returning refugees would bolster the contention that order is being restored. Fighting still breaks out daily, and human-rights groups say that civilians are taken in security roundups, which often lead to beatings or, in some cases, death.
 "The camps are a strong reminder to the international community that the situation is not normal in Chechnya," said Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch.
 The UN estimates that about 20,000 refugees are living in tent camps in Ingushetia, and another 110,000 are living with relatives or squatting there. Some human-rights workers fear that emptying out the camp near Aki-Yurt is merely a test case, and the others may soon follow. Chechnya's pro-Moscow authorities want all the camps empty by the end of the year. The Aki-Yurt camp is home to about 1,700 people, according to Human Rights Watch. Russia puts the number at 600. It is remote and offers few amenities.
 Ganushkina said humanitarian missions were stopped from repairing old tents Thursday. "In general, they ban any kind of humanitarian aid," she said. "The situation is very nervous, tense."
 In Geneva, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees appealed to Russia on Friday to allow Chechens to remain in Ingush tent camps, instead of forcing them to return home.
 "Our most immediate concern is the Aki-Yurt camp, which houses some 1,500 people, and which authorities said could be closed on Sunday," said Ron Redmond, spokesperson for the UNHCR.
 "It is imperative that real alternatives are available for the displaced people before gas and electricity are cut," he said.
 In Washington, a U.S. State Department official said Friday that Russia has offered assurances that it will not force refugees to return to Chechnya.
 "We believe that any returns of Chechens from that region, where they have sought safe haven, must be voluntary and without pressure or coercion," the official said. "Their concerns about the lack of safety in Chechnya remain a major obstacle to their voluntary return."
 "In response, the Russian government assured us on Wednesday that internally displaced Chechens would be offered 'purely voluntary' choices," said the official, who asked not to be named.
 Chechnya's recently appointed prime minister, Mikhail Babich, said last week that the refugees who return home would get compensation of 6 rubles (about $0.02) for food and 14 rubles (about $0.48) to cover rent every day.
 Human Rights Watch said that, even in impoverished Chechnya, the amount would pay for little.
 <i>(AP, Reuters) </i>

TITLE: Russia Repeats Its 'Hands Off' Warning to OSCE
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A senior Russian diplomat on Monday warned the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe against making any attempts to mediate an end to the war in Chechnya.
 
Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Chizhov said that the new mandate of the OSCE's assistance group to Chechnya should reflect Moscow's view that any attempts at political mediation in Chechnya were &quot;unnecessary,&quot; the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported.
 The assistance group's mandate expires this year.
 The OSCE, Europe's main security organization, embracing 55 member states, played a key role in brokering a 1996 truce that ended the first, 20-month war in Chechnya.
 President Vladimir Putin has strongly criticized the 1996 peace agreement, saying it only emboldened the rebels, who three years later invaded neighboring Dagestan, sparking the second war. Chechen militants were also blamed for apartment-house bombings in several Russian cities.
 &quot;During a certain period, some OSCE officials tried to revive the function of political mediation&quot; which was written in the group's original mandate, but is considered no longer relevant by the Russian government, Chizhov said.
 &quot;Russia had serious complaints about the group's activities&quot; during the seven years of its existence, he added.
 Russian officials have repeatedly stated that they don't want any foreign country or international organization to mediate the conflict in Chechnya, saying it is Russia's internal affair.
 Despite the military's long-held claim that the main rebel forces have been defeated, the rebels stage daily attacks on Russian troops in Chechnya. They also conducted a deadly hostage-taking raid on a Moscow theater in October. After that incident, the Kremlin said negotiations with the rebels were completely ruled out.
 At least three Russian service personnel have been killed in rebel attacks on federal outposts since Sunday, and another two died in Grozny, the Chechen capital, when their vehicle hit a land mine, an official with the Moscow-appointed Chechen administration said Monday.
 Another nine soldiers were wounded, the official said on condition of anonymity.
 About 250 Chechens had been detained by federal authorities in several Chechen cities and villages during the previous 24 hours on suspicion of being linked to the rebels, the official said.

TITLE: Moscow Gives More Evidence On Zakayev
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Prosecutor General's Office says it has provided Denmark with new evidence of Akhmed Zakayev's involvement in war crimes, including the testimony of jailed rebel leader Salman Raduyev.
 
The Izvestia newspaper also has published what it said was new evidence against Zakayev, based on the accounts of several Chechens, which included allegations that he took civilians hostage and gave orders to kill Chechens loyal to federal troops.
 Zakayev, the envoy to Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, was detained Oct. 30 in Copenhagen at Russia's request after attending a congress of Chechen separatists and human-rights activists there, only days after armed Chechens seized a Moscow theater.
 Russian prosecutors were given until Nov. 30, Saturday, to provide evidence documenting the charges against Zavkayev, whose term of detention ends Thursday.
 Prosecutor's office spokesperson Leonid Troshin said Friday that new evidence against Zakayev has been translated and transferred to Danish justice officials. He did not disclose what Raduyev said about Zakayev.
 Gunnar Homann, Zakayev's lawyer in Copenhagen, was too busy Friday to comment on the new evidence, his assistant said.
 Izvestia reported Friday that, in December 1995, Zakayev and another rebel commander, Ruslan Gelayev, led a group that held some 50 people hostage in Urus-Martan and then clashed with local residents demanding the hostages' release, leaving one civilian dead.
 In August 1996, when rebels launched a major assault on Grozny, Zakayev's troops raided the railway station, which was guarded by Chechen police, and at least three police officers were killed and 29 wounded, Izvestia said. Leila Taramova, at the time the head of passenger service of the North Caucasus railways' Grozny department, told Izvestia that Zakayev took part in the shooting. There was no independent confirmation of Izvestia's report.
 It was not clear how the allegations against Zakayev could be reconciled with an amnesty passed by the State Duma in March 1997. The Duma pardoned combatants on both sides in the war from 1994 to 1996 for &quot;dangerous acts in connection with the armed conflict in the Chechen republic.&quot;
 Just last year, Zakayev was considered an acceptable negotiating partner for the Kremlin. He met with Viktor Kazantsev, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, to discuss the situation in Chechnya.
 Troshin said Friday that his office has had enough evidence against Zakayev for months, but the evidence has never been organized because Zakayev was not available for questioning. &quot;We have enough material against him, otherwise we would not dare to go international in demanding his extradition. However, the material we have is raw; we need to question him,&quot; he said.
 Troshin said the prosecutor's office would suffer a major blow if Danish justice officials decide not to extradite Zakayev and release him from jail. &quot;We would just keep on working, we would net him some other time,&quot; he said.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Car Explodes
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - A car exploded Monday near a settlement housing military personnel outside Moscow, an air force official said. News reports said three people were killed.
 The Mercedes car exploded near the village of Zarya, in the Balashikha district about 45 kilometers east of Moscow, which houses top air force officers, said Alexander Drobyshevsky, an air force spokesperson.
 The dead were not military officials, Drobyshevsky said. Interfax, quoting a law enforcement source, identified the dead as a Russian businessperson, who heads a meat trading firm, his driver and bodyguard.
 Soldiers and traffic police surrounded the area where the bomb went off.
 Interfax said the explosion was caused by a land mine, which was camouflaged as a speed bump, and occurred on a highway regularly used by air force staff.
 
 
<b>Deserter Detained
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - Police detained a Russian Interior Ministry soldier who fled his unit in Moscow with a gun and ammunition three weeks ago, sparking a massive manhunt, a police spokesperson said Monday.
 Police found Maxim Karzakov, 19, in an empty house in the town of Pushkino, about 40 kilometers north of Moscow, on Saturday, said Interior Ministry spokesperson Vasily Panchenkov. He was unarmed and surrendered without a fight, Panchenkov said.
 Karzakov fled his Interior Ministry unit base on Nov. 11 armed with an automatic rifle and ammunition. Police mounted a massive search in and around a nearby park, called Losiny Ostrov, or Moose Island, where they found an assault rifle, ammunition, and body armor several days later.
 Karzakov has been returned to his unit and an investigation is underway, Panchenkov said.
 
 
<b>Skating Scandal 
 </b>

VENICE, Italy (AP) - An extradition hearing for Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a reputed Russian mobster accused of fixing figure-skating results at the Olympics, will be held early next week, the suspect's lawyer said Monday.
 Tokhtakhounov, 52, has been held in a Venice prison since July on U.S. charges that he helped secure a gold medal for Russia in the pairs competition at Salt Lake City in exchange for a victory for the French ice-dancing team.
 Tokhtakhounov denies the charges. 
 The Dec. 10 hearing at the Venice appeals court will likely last one morning, said lawyer Luca Saldarelli. Extradition hearings in Italy are closed to the public.
 If convicted on the U.S. charges, he could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of five counts.
 
 
<b>Georgia on Extradition 
 </b>

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze on Monday reaffirmed his pledge to extradite three suspected Chechen rebels to Russia, while the detainees appealed the expulsion order in court.
 "We will honestly fulfill our commitments to Russia" to extradite the Chechens, Shevardnadze said at a news conference, adding that some "formalities" needed to be sorted out before the extradition.
 Meanwhile, lawyers for the three detainees on Monday appealed to the Tbilisi City Court to overturn an extradition order by Georgian prosecutors, said Paata Mskhiladze, head of the international department of the Prosecutor General's Office. 



TITLE: Alfa Group Boss Criticized Over Tankers
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A trading company owned by Alfa Group chairperson Mikhail Fridman is under fire for chartering outdated oil tankers, including the 26-year-old Prestige, which disastrously broke up off the Spanish coast on a voyage for the trader from St. Petersburg two weeks ago.
 
About 20 Greenpeace activists set out to sea in rubber dinghies Friday to try to prevent the departure of another aged tanker hired by the company, the Swiss-based Crown Resources, from the Estonian port of Muuga. They feared a repeat of the disaster because the vessel, the Byzantio, is the same age and has the same weak single-hulled design as the Prestige, which spewed an estimated 20,000 tons of fuel oil into Spanish waters when its hull cracked in a storm. But they failed to stop the Byzantio from embarking on its voyage to Rotterdam with 53,000 tons of fuel oil.
 Calling for an immediate ban on single-hulled tankers, which do not have the added protection against stress as more modern double-hulled vessels, Greenpeace activists slammed Crown Resources for booking the Byzantio despite the demise of the Prestige. &quot;Crown Resources is acting totally irresponsibly,&quot; said Mikael Jovall, Greenpeace spokesperson for the Baltic Sea area, in a telephone interview Friday. &quot;We are very worried about increased exports of Russian oil through the Baltic Sea.&quot;
 Fridman's Crown Resources is certainly not alone in chartering aging single-hulled oil tankers. There are thousands of such tankers plying international waters. But, as Russia ramps up its oil exports, which are up 30 percent over the last three years, to as much as 4 million barrels per day, chances are a lot of these worn-out vessels have been hired by Russian-owned trading companies.
 Russian oil companies have been scrambling to find new routes to export booming oil production and avoid punitive tariffs and restrictions imposed by state pipeline monopoly Transneft for the Druzhba pipeline route into Europe. The majority of exports are shipped by sea.
 Tanker traffic from Russia in the Baltic Sea is soaring. According to the Helsinki Commission, a Baltic Sea environmental watchdog, oil transport in the area is up 40 percent over the last three years. Driving that growth are new shipments out of Primorsk, which came on line at the end of 2001 as the terminus for the Baltic Pipeline System and has a capacity of up to 207 million barrels per year. And, as Russian oil companies forge ahead with plans to ship more oil to the United States by constructing a new terminal in Murmansk, cutting the distance to Western Europe and the United States considerably, environmentalists fear future disasters provoked by ice and tough weather conditions there.
 More than half of the tankers that left Russian ports on the Baltic and Black seas so far this year were single hulled, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit. Of those, more than 65 percent were more than 20 years old. &quot;These are the really dangerous ones,&quot; said James Ryder, oil-trade analyst at Lloyd's.
 Questions are now being raised across Europe about the safety of tankers loaded with Russian oil. Key concerns are the cost-cutting tactics of Russian-owned trading companies in hiring older tankers and the widespread use of so-called flags of convenience to avoid taxes, which make it much harder to trace the real owners of such vessels and blur the responsibility for accidents should they occur. The Prestige was flying a Bahamian flag and the Byzantio is flying a Maltese flag. Both of these flags are on a safety blacklist of one of the world's leading port-inspection authorities, the Paris Memorandum of Understanding. Officials and environmentalists are also questioning the ability of Russian ports to check the safety of the hundreds of tankers that leave every day.
 &quot;We're fed up with oil spills. Things must change. Russia needs to think about what could happen,&quot; said Gilles Gantelet, spokesperson for transport and energy at the European Commission in Brussels. &quot;The Prestige disaster may have happened far away, off the coast of Galicia, but this could happen in the Baltic Sea.&quot;
 &quot;Through bilateral talks with Russia, we must try to see ways to clearly and definitely improve the way goods are transported by sea,&quot; he said.
 Russian trading companies may soon have to pay more to charter more modern vessels for oil shipments through European waters. EU transport ministers meet in Denmark this week to discuss a proposal to impose an immediate ban on single-hulled tankers. European Union Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio called on Sunday for an overhaul of maritime laws and immediate enforcement of the ban, Reuters reported. Current policies propose a gradual ban on these tankers by 2015.
 To take further precautions against future disasters off the northern coast of Spain, a storm-prone area sometimes known as &quot;the coast of death,&quot; the Spanish and French governments agreed last Tuesday to impose tough inspections on any single-hulled vessels aged over 15 years carrying fuel oil or tar.
 It's still not clear how exactly the Prestige disaster happened. But Spanish officials, facing a cleanup bill of up to $2.5 billion, are already considering suing Fridman's Crown Resources for negligence. &quot;This is a very complex situation,&quot; said Alzaver Sahatun, press officer for the Spanish EU mission. &quot;But we will take all the legal measures that are within our rights.&quot;
 Legal liability for the disaster will be very hard to pin down. The Prestige is Liberian-owned, with a Greek captain, was crewed by Filipinos, is registered in the Bahamas and was chartered by Crown Resources. Further muddying the case is that some blame Spain for denying the tanker access to a Spanish port to shelter against the storm and turning it away to be pelted by waves.
 International oil majors Exxon and TotalFinaElf dug up cash to save their tarnished reputations in the wake of the Exxon-Valdez and Erika disasters in 1989 and 1999, even though it was not clear whether they were immediately legally liable.
 But Crown Resources seems unwilling so far to foot the bill.
 &quot;There is no conclusive evidence yet&quot; for how the disaster occurred, said a spokesperson for Crown Resources in London. &quot;In some ways, Crown is a victim of the disaster itself. But it is doing whatever [is] necessary to cooperate with the authorities.&quot;
 Crown was convinced of the safety of the ship before it chartered it, she said. &quot;They were assured by the ship owners that the ship was seaworthy,&quot; she said, adding that the Prestige had been certified by the American Bureau of Shipping, a commercially run ship-safety and classification agency, in May, just before it was chartered by Crown. She also said the Byzantio had passed inspection earlier this year by another commercial ship-safety agency, Det Norske Veritas.
 The harbormaster of the St. Petersburg port where the Prestige began its journey would also beg to differ on EU concerns over safety standards at Russian ports. &quot;When I checked the Prestige's documents, I had no doubts,&quot; said Captain Mikhail Sinelnikov, who also said he was convinced by the clean bill of health given to the vessel by the American Bureau of Shipping.
 But he admits the port is hard-pressed to conduct full inspections as the number of tankers coming in and out of the port has jumped 10 percent every year for the last three years to total up to 250 tankers every day during the summer.
 Even though the Prestige was moored for several months at the far reaches of the port as a temporary storage vessel from which other tankers loaded oil, Sinelnikov said the port inspectors did not have time to conduct a check to the standards of the Paris Memorandum, an international ship-safety accord, because it would have taken two days and because the Prestige carried a warranty up to 2006.
 Instead, he said, his inspectors were satisfied with a one-day check of the vessel that did not find anything wrong. He denied allegations in Western press reports that his inspectors may have taken bribes in deeming the ship safe for passage.
 In the wake of the Prestige disaster and because of its Russia connection, for now it is Russian charterers and ports that are under fire. But it is not just Russian trading companies that charter aging single-hulled ships. Over 50 percent of tankers in use worldwide are single-hulled.
 Industry sources say many international oil majors such as British Petroleum book single-hulled vessels for trade off the coast of Africa.
 More than 50 percent of tankers charted by Russia's No. 1 oil major, LUKoil, so far this year have been single-hulled, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit, making the company the worst offender operating out of Russian ports.
 LUKoil, however, blames this state of affairs on the shipping industry. &quot;There is a big deficit of modern tankers,&quot; said LUKoil spokesperson Mikhail Mikhailov. He said LUKoil has sought to combat this by building its own fleet. Since 1996 the company has built nine tankers but, for now, it has no plans to construct any more.

TITLE: Truck Trade Threatened By Drivers' Union
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The flow of imports entering the country by road could slow to a trickle if Europe's leading truckers union follows up on its threat to stop issuing special permits used by thousands of trucks each month to avoid lengthy customs inspections. 
 
Under an international agreement designed to facilitate European trade, reputable trucking companies can obtain special trip permits sanctioned by the Geneva-based International Road Transport Union, or IRU, for about $100.
 The permits, called Transport Internationaux Routiers (TIR), allow holders to save hours, if not days, by bypassing customs inspections at the border and clear their cargo at their destination.
 But the IRU is threatening to suspend the system in Russia because it says law-enforcement bodies are not doing enough to investigate and prosecute rogue carriers. Under the TIR system, the IRU is liable to pay the customs duties of carriers who don't make it to their declared destinations because every carrier insures their deliveries through IRU.
 &quot;We don't know of a single case in which customs investigated the disappearance of cargo,&quot; Igor Runov, the head of IRU's Moscow office, said Monday.
 Runov said that IRU had given the State Customs Committee $20 million over the last three years to help create a system to deal with the problem, but has little to show for it.
 &quot;By not doing what it should do, customs is essentially stimulating the crime,&quot; he said.
 A State Customs Committee official said Monday, however, that the IRU is just trying to avoid paying its $60 million bill.
 &quot;We have to get what IRU owes us. Why should we forgive them this debt?&quot; he said.
 If the IRU does make good on its threat, however, &quot;movement through the border will just stop,&quot; said the official, who asked that his name be withheld.
 Runov said that the $60 million bill comes from 2,500 cases of fraud at the Vyborg checkpoint on the Finnish border between 1998 and 2000.
 Aside from Vyborg, the other major checkpoints in European Russia are in Kaliningrad, near the German border, and in Smolensk, where trucks entering from Belarus are registered.
 An executive at one of the largest international cargo companies moving goods through Vyborg warned of &quot;enormous delays at the border&quot; if IRU cancels the TIR system. &quot;They are only just coping now even though TIR trucks whisk by without being checked.&quot;
 The customs official said billions of dollars' worth of goods pass duty-free through the border each year under the TIR system.
 &quot;The trucks could be attacked on the road by bandits and the load stolen. Or they can deliberately avoid delivering to their clients, stealing the cargo themselves,&quot; said the customs official. &quot;This is why every cargo is insured by an international and Russian insurer and the guarantee money is transferred to IRU and accumulated by its special branch. But they don't want to pay us.&quot;
 &quot;What is going on here is an absolute abuse of the system,&quot; he said.
 &quot;This insurance system was created to stimulate European trade,&quot; Runov said. &quot;It is based on statistical data and gives insurance guarantees with extremely low interest - just $0.05 per $100.&quot;
 In Russia, the Association of International Road Carriers, or ASMAP issues about 200,000 of the IRU permits each year.
 And trucking companies say if they are halted, they will be hit hard because most can't afford to leave a deposit at the border that offsets the cost of each shipment.
 &quot;It would mean that the whole army of Russian carriers will be paralyzed,&quot; said Vladimir Kayakin, head of Sovtransavto's transportation department. &quot;We will be unable to operate. We don't have the money to deposit at customs.&quot; 
 Runov said IRU will decide whether or not to suspend the system after meeting with top customs and Transportation Ministry officials later this week.
 &quot;If the decision is made, then the suspension will take place in the next couple of weeks,&quot; he said.

TITLE: Source: LUKoil in Negotiations To Sell Off Tanker Fleet
AUTHOR: By Alexander Tutushkin and Ilya Khrennikov
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - LUKoil is negotiating to sell off its fleet of tankers for about $300 million, said a former manager at the oil major's subsidiary, LUKoil Arctic Tanker.
 
The manager, who requested anonymity, said the company is in talks with three interested parties: Sovkomflot, Novoship and the Far Eastern Shipping Co., controlled by Sergei Generalov. 
 The fleet includes 10 icebreakers with a load capacity of 15,000 to 20,000 tons that were built in Germany and St. Petersburg in the last five years. LUKoil also owns five river-sea tankers, two of which are being completed in Volgograd.
 All 15 are owned by LUKoil Arctic Tanker, or LAT, a fully owned subsidiary of the oil major that has debts of $527 million as of Aug. 1. The fleet brings in revenues of about $40 million per year.
 The former manager said LUKoil was selling not LAT, but the tankers themselves, and that the ships would be sold in more than one lot, adding that the present market value of the vessels was about $20 million each.
 He said that LAT would be liquidated and the company's debts would be transferred to LUKoil.
 The manager said demand for the tankers is high in Europe, especially in light of the environmental disaster unfolding along the Spanish coastline in the wake of last month's breakup of the 26-year-old, single-hulled tanker Prestige, carrying thousands of tons of Russian fuel oil.
 Officially, LUKoil would not comment on the sale, but a source close to the company confirmed negotiations were underway.
 Sovkomflot general director Dmitry Skarga said his shipping company had already taken four LAT ice-breaking vessels under technical management and the transfer could be permanent.
 &quot;We are looking them over. LUKoil offered us its fleet, but we are thinking about it. These are very specific technical vessels and we need to find a suitable application for them. If we purchase them, we would need a guarantee that a suitable terminal would be provided,&quot; Skarga said.
 He said LUKoil would likely sell the tankers individually and a certain number could be of interest to Sovkomflot.
 &quot;I heard LUKoil was selling their arctic tankers but, so far, no official offer has been made,&quot; a source at Novoship said. &quot;Lots of outstanding questions hang over LAT - its problems with the Murmansk Shipping Co. [which manages six tankers] and the ships' Russian flags, which mean the vessels' owners must pay VAT and then struggle to get it back.&quot;
 Far Eastern Shipping Co. General Director Yevgeny Ambrosov had said earlier that his company was looking to acquire its own tanker fleet.
 Rosneft and the Primorye Shipping Co. are also considered likely buyers according to industry insiders; however, neither company would confirm this.
 Analysts praised LUKoil for shedding its fleet.
 &quot;This is super news from LUKoil,&quot; said Stephen Dashevsky of Aton. &quot;The company has clearly demonstrated it is capable of not just talking about restructuring, but actually doing it - and much faster than anticipated,&quot; he said.
 &quot;We understood the tanker program, because LUKoil really did need transport for its oil from Timan-Pechora, but it has been delayed by several years, so the sale of the fleet is clearly justified,&quot; said Valery Nesterov of Troika Dialog. Nesterov suggested that LUKoil's own fleet had become obsolete when plans appeared for a deep-water port and oil pipeline in Murmansk.
 LUKoil originally acquired the fleet to ship export crude from Timan-Pechora. However, exploitation of Timan-Pechora has been slow to get off the ground and the icebreaking tankers have made only a few trial runs from the Bay of Varandei to northwest Europe. In the summer, the ships have been used for shipping food and supplies to the Far North and, in the winter, to deliver oil products from Baltic ports to Western Europe.

TITLE: Ukrainians Targetting Russian Market
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: KHARKOV, Ukraine - While Russia's aviation authorities strive to identify which regional jet will roam the country in the next decade, its southern neighbor is throttling up an attempt to break into the market.
 
On Tuesday, Ukrainian airline Aeromist-Kharkov will make its first flight to Moscow with an Antonov-designed An-140 regional airplane. Meanwhile, the plane's maker - the state-owned Kharkov Aviation Plant - is actively trying to persuade Russian carriers to fly it.
 &quot;In two years, we will find ourselves in a situation where the bulk of today's regional aircraft, such as the An-24, will be decommissioned and new aircraft will be needed to replace them,&quot; said Kharkov Aviation Plant's general director, Pavel Naumenko. &quot;We can offer this replacement.&quot;
 Some 2,500 An-24s were produced and, during the 1960s through 1980s, accounted for 30 percent of all air traffic in the Soviet Union.
 According to Naumenko, a quick solution comes in the form of two Kharkov projects - the An-140 and An-74-TK-300 regional aircraft. 
 Developed in the 1990s, the An-140 turboprop seats 52 passengers, has a range of 2,420 kilometers and complies with international stage-four noise restrictions, which will come into force in 2006. Three such airplanes have been built since production began in 1999 and are operated by Odessa Airlines and Aeromist-Kharkov on both domestic and international routes.
 The Kharkov plant is also delivering assembly kits to Iran where a second plane is being assembled, with 22 more planned over the next six years. Overall, Iran may take up to 105 airplanes, Naumenko .
 But Kharkov also has its sights set on the Russian market. While Ukraine can take 15 An-140s in the next 3 to 5 years - the plant has firm orders from several Ukrainian companies - Naumenko said the Russian demand for such planes stands at 100.
 The plant recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Russian cargo airline Volga-Dnepr, which is interested in starting regional passenger operations with six An-140s.
 Naumenko said that although the aircraft is produced outside Russia, it will not be slugged with import duties, thanks to an agreement between the two countries. 40 percent of the plane is made from Russian-produced components.
 The Kharkov plant plans to share production of the aircraft with the Samara-based, Base Element-controlled factory Aviakor. Naumenko said both plants are negotiating to create an umbrella administration and set up a Moscow-registered sales company next year that will promote the craft at home and abroad.
 With its second project, the An-74-TK-300, the Kharkov plant signed a memorandum of understanding with flagship carrier Aeroflot for 25 craft, and will provide a further 10 for other airlines, including St. Petersburg's Pulkovo. 
 China has meanwhile contracted two An-74s. The plane, which seats 52 passenger and has a range of 3,500 kilometers, is in Naumenko's words an interim airplane that can fill the gap in the market until Kharkov is ready to roll out its other project, the An-148 jet. The An-148 can carry 80 passengers, has a range of 11,000 kilometers and is due to make its maiden flight in 2004.
 Antonov would have participated with the An-148 in the tender organized by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency Rosaviakosmos for the development of a regional jet, but as a foreign company, was not eligible to enter. Russian firms Tupolev, Myasishchev and Sukhoi - in conjunction with Ilyushin, Yakovlev and Boeing - are participating in the tender. Rosaviakosmos head Yury Koptev said Friday that a preliminary decision will be made by the end of the year and the winner will be named in early 2003.
 Like Russian manufacturers, Kharkov says its prices are competitive compared with those of analogous Western aircraft. The An-140 comes in at $8.5 million, An-74 sells for $12 million to $14 million, and the An-148 will cost an estimated $14 million to $18 million.
 However, domestic airlines say that, even at these prices, the planes remain unaffordable.

TITLE: Internal Wrangling Puts Cargo At Risk
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Turf wars between the Railways and Transportation ministries are causing havoc with the country's cargo network and threatening economic growth, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov warned top officials from both ministries Friday.
 
Speaking at the government's biennial so-called transport summit, Kasyanov urged Railways Minister Gennady Fadeyev, Transportation Minister Sergei Frank and their top deputies to put aside their differences and increase cooperation for the sake of the economy.
 &quot;The first thing we need to do is overcome all the interdepartmental strife and lack of communication wherever it arises - and we know that this does arise,&quot; Kasyanov told summit participants, who included officials from other ministries and the heads of several cargo and transportation companies.
 In a country the size of Russia, economic development largely depends on a positive working relationship between the two ministries, Kasyanov said, adding that &quot;we need to fine-tune everything so that freight flows smoothly, whether it is domestic or international freight.&quot;
 Fadayev conceded that a failure to harmonize relations with the Transportation Ministry is hampering efforts to boost trade.
 &quot;[We have] debates, frictions - sometimes big - unbalanced policies, huge distances and, as a result, mass interruptions in cargo flow,&quot; said Fadeyev.
 Fadeyev told reporters after the six-hour powwow that he and Frank had agreed to establish a working group co-headed by Deputy Railways Minister Vladimir Yakunin and Deputy Transportation Minister Vyacheslav Ruksha to develop a comprehensive cooperation strategy and submit it to the cabinet by the end of December.
 Frank said the group's mission is &quot;to change completely the architecture of the ... transport system.&quot;
 Frank said annual import-export volumes are expected to jump 30 percent to 350 million tons over the next five years, but Russia will not be able to handle it without developing port capacity and, to do that, the country must first build more terminals for transporting grain, coal and oil products.
 Another priority is creating a unified logistics center to coordinate air, rail, road and sea traffic.
 Frank said it was time to stop debating the issue and create the center based on the Railways Ministry's &quot;unique information facilities.&quot;
 Kasyanov, Fadeyev and Frank said economic developments and a shift in priorities have necessitated changes to the government's strategy to modernize the transportation network through 2010.
 Particularly troubling is the state of the country's sea ports, said Deputy Transportation Minister Ruksha.
 Ruksha said the breakup of the Soviet Union resulted in Russia losing more than half of its sea-export capacity, and of the 44 sea ports remaining, just six are deep enough to handle ships carrying more than 50,000 tons.
 As a result, the bigger ports are overloaded, while the smaller ports are operating at between 6 percent to 35 percent of capacity, Ruksha said.
 Salmon Babayev, head of the Railways Ministry's Privolzhskaya branch in the Volga region, said that while in 1995 it took an average of 50 hours for a sea port to load or offload a rail container, it now takes 72 hours.
 &quot;This is incredible,&quot; Babayev said. &quot;To transport cargo from Kaznacheyevka [a rail hub in Belgorod] to China, it first goes to Finland ... because the transit tariffs are lower,&quot; he said.

TITLE: Chevron Exit Hints At Trouble in Almaty
AUTHOR: By Christopher Pala
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: ALMATY, Kazakhstan - The indefinite suspension of the biggest construction project in the former Soviet Union throws into doubt Kazakhstan's attractiveness to foreign investors, said bankers and oil executives in Almaty.
 
Kazakhstan may be as corrupt and bureaucratic as anywhere in the former Soviet Union, foreign investors say, but it has two major advantages over Russia: There is virtually no mafia-style violence, and the government - often synonymous with the family of President Nursultan Nazarbayev - has the ability to get its decisions carried out in the provinces.
 But last month, Tengizchevroil, or TCO, caused consternation in Kazakhstan when it demobilized contractors and announced that it would stop work on a nascent $3.5-billion project aimed at nearly doubling production at the Tengiz onshore Caspian oil field.
 The field is Kazakhstan's biggest single source of revenue, accounting for 15 percent of the country's budget. Today, it produces 12 million tons of light crude a year and, after a three-year expansion, was due to produce 22 million tons a year.
 ChevronTexaco owns half of TCO, ExxonMobil 25 percent, Kazakhstan state oil company Kazmunaigaz 20 percent and LUKArco 5 percent.
 In a telephone interview from TCO offices in Atyrau, director Tom Winterton declined to discuss the reasons for the suspension, but he said no further meetings between the partners were scheduled.
 He said that, while the existing investment in Tengiz, estimated at more than $2 billion, had been financed mostly through sales of crude, &quot;This is a big project and there's going to be a need for a direct infusion of money from the partners, under the most realistic oil-price scenario.&quot;
 Sources familiar with the negotiations said the government would not agree to the schedule of accelerated depreciation proposed by the oil companies. The companies decided that the schedule offered by the government did not offer a reasonable rate of return, they said.
 The sources predicted it would probably take months for the two sides to wriggle out of the impasse.
 The cancellation of the huge project - nearly double the size of Kazakhstan's annual budget - came at an awkward time for this country of 15 million people.
 Agip KCO, the consortium working on the even larger Kashagan field, has submitted to the government its plan to spend some $20 billion over 13 years to develop the offshore field. Kashagan is the world's fifth-largest field, with recoverable reserves estimated at 13 billion barrels, while Tengiz is sixth with 9 billion barrels.
 The government, which is not a partner in the Kashagan consortium, has until the end of the year to accept or reject the development plan, and sources close to the consortium worry that the government's attitude toward Tengiz make it likelier that Agip KCO would face similar problems.
 In its first 11 years of independence, Kazakhstan has attracted more foreign investment than any country in the former Soviet Union.
 The biggest single investor was Chevron, which, after years of negotiating with the Soviet and then the Kazakhstan government, took control of the giant Tengiz field on the parched shores of the northern Caspian Sea in 1993.
 Tengiz proved highly profitable for the San Francisco-based company. Chevron, now ChevronTexaco, was able to increase production 10-fold and organize the world's biggest railroad-based transport system while overseeing construction of a $2.6 billion pipeline to carry Tengiz crude to the Black Sea.
 In all, analysts estimate, ChevronTexaco has invested close to $2 billion in the field and the pipeline.
 But, for the last two years, ChevronTexaco and other foreign investors have been complaining privately of government pressure to renegotiate contracts and of what one oil executive called &quot;nibbling around the contracts.&quot;
 Perhaps the most visible &quot;nibble&quot; is a $73-million-a-year fine that the government imposed on TCO for storing 5 million tons of sulfur under conditions identical to those allowed in North America. Kazakh officials say the comparison is meaningless because the Caspian climate is different. TCO has appealed the fine.
 &quot;It's about time someone drew the line,&quot; said a source close to the Kashagan consortium. &quot;But it's disappointing that this had to happen.&quot;
 &quot;This kind of thing doesn't happen often,&quot; said another well-informed oil-industry official. &quot;Sometimes you suspend things during negotiations, but it's done quietly.&quot;
 Several sources said there were indications the government had not expected ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil to throw in the towel on the investment project.
 Officials at the Kazmunaigaz state oil concern declined to discuss the case, saying an official reaction may be issued soon. A spokesperson for the Energy Ministry declined comment.
 Nazarbayev's management of the economy is drawing unqualified praise. Growth averaged 10 percent for the past three years and there is a budget surplus and no foreign debt.
 But there was also unanimity among oil-company officials that the suspension of the ChevronTexaco project tarnishes the country's image just as it prepares to offer, for the first time, some 100 offshore blocs for exploration.
 The suspension &quot;will be seen as a clear sign that there's something wrong with the investment climate,&quot; said one senior executive. &quot;There are not many oil and gas companies left with significant resources and who are used to operating in difficult offshore environments, and now this will have ratcheted up their concern one notch.&quot;
 Kazakhstan depends on foreign companies' capital and know-how to lift oil from the country's deep and technically demanding Caspian fields and achieve Nazarbayev's goal of making the country one of the world's top half-dozen exporters by 2015, producing 3 million barrels a day.
 While oil executives point out that in the country's three largest fields it will be years before companies have paid back investments and start making a profit, there is a widespread feeling, even in the Kazakh elite, that the majors took unfair advantage of the country's weakness in the early 1990s when negotiating contracts. Since these contracts are commercial secrets, the truth remains elusive.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: <b>Clearing 9,000
 </b>

NEW YORK (AP) - A strong start to the holiday-shopping season incited more buying Monday, this time on Wall Street, where stock prices rose sharply and the Dow Jones industrials climbed back above 9,000 for the first time since summer.
 In the first hour of trading, the Dow was up 138.43, or 1.6 percent, at 9,034.52, having scored eight straight weekly wins. The Dow has not traded above 9,000 since Aug. 27 when it hit 9,040.04 and it has not closed above that mark since Aug. 22 when it was at 9,053.64.
 The Nasdaq composite index rose 40.79 points, or 2.8 percent, while the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index was up 17.03, or 1.8 percent.
 
 
<b>Cheaper Testing
 </b>

TETERBORO, New Jersey (Reuters) - Laboratory testing-service providers Quest Diagnostics Inc. and Unilab Corp. on Monday said they would amend the terms of their merger agreement, cutting $60 million from the proposed purchase price.
 The deal, in which Quest will take over Unilab, had been valued at about $900 million in cash and stock when it was announced in April. The deal was designed to bolster Quest's presence in California, the country's top market for lab testing services.
 Both companies say they are in talks with a third party to sell a number of California assets to appease concerns raised by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
 
 
<b>Barrel Building
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Monday as anti-government protestors held a strike in exporter Venezuela, and ahead of UN decisions affecting supplies from Iraq where weapons inspections began last week.
 International benchmark Brent crude oil rose $0.20 to $25.36 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures were unchanged at $26.89. Venezuela's vital oil operations were unaffected on Monday morning by the strike to press for an early referendum on the presidency of Hugo Chavez, but dealers fear the action could cut into crude exports if it drags on for days.
 Many opposition figures in the national oil company failed to show up for work, but oil-field operations and key refineries continued normally, a spokesperson said. 



TITLE: We've Been Expecting You, Mr. Bond - A New Finance Game
TEXT: The name is Bond, Corporate Bond. As the Russian market grows bigger and more liquid, bonds have become cheaper and more attractive as a way to raise finances and companies are pumping them out. </i><strong>Torrey Clark </strong><i>reports.
 
 </i>Costs are coming down, demand is high, and they provide financing and an introduction to hungry investors.
 
Corporate bonds are the &quot;in&quot; financial instrument.
 The amount of &quot;marketable&quot; bonds grew 44 percent in ruble terms in the first 10 months of 2002, from $1.31-billion worth in January 2002 to $1.89 billion at the end of September, with another $700 million or so in issues planned by the end of the year.
 The big issues this fall by the bond blue-chips-to-be - Russian Aluminum, Alrosa and Unified Energy Systems have each placed 3-billion-ruble issues - did not push up yields; a clear sign of high demand, analysts say. The 9 billion rubles in bonds issued the week of Oct. 20 to 27 merely halted the month's decline of about 50 basis points (half a percent). Stable yields mean new money keeps coming into the market.
 Players are now looking for the market to become civilized. &quot;The market is getting a lot more civilized, a lot more efficient. But it still has a long way to go,&quot; said Pavel Mamai, corporate-debt analyst with Renaissance Capital. 
 The varying success of bond issues indicates that investors are growing pickier - choosing the bigger, seemingly more profitable companies over smaller, less transparent ones. But is it safer?
 
 <strong>
WHY ISSUE NOW?
 </strong>In pre-crisis Russia, exorbitant yields on government bonds made it impossible for companies to find buyers for bonds at affordable prices. The underdeveloped banking sector was for a long time uninterested in or scared of lending to unrelated companies. Profits (or cash saved through non-payments) thus became companies' main source of financing. But ruble appreciation and increasing competition have squeezed corporate profits and, as capacity limits loom ahead, companies have looked for other sources of financing.
 
At the same time, cash-plump banks have been looking for investments.
 &quot;There is a lot of cash sitting around that needs to be placed. The banking system is not acting as an intermediator between these funds and the companies that need them. So, this market opens up a very significant opportunity to finance the economy,&quot; Mamai said.
 As the market has grown larger and more liquid, companies have been able to issue bonds for less; yields have drawn closer to bank interest rates for borrowing of similar lengths. In January, the average coupon on issues was around 22 percent. By October, it was about 18 percent. 
 Companies are offering bonds for terms of one to three years, which better match investment projects - technically making them notes or bills, while about 80 percent of bank loans are for less than one year. &quot;It seems that banks don't tend to give many loans for two to three years. Such bonds are being issued, which, in Russia, is fairly long-term financing,&quot; said Nikolai Levitsky, president of MDM Group's chemicals division, Eurochim, which has subsidiaries that have issued or are planning to issue bonds.
 Most bonds, however, carry six-month or one-year put options, which allow investors to redeem the bond before maturity. Investors have tended to exercise put options actively, because of the risks with domestic securities.
 For example, UES's recent three-year bond was issued at par (100), with a put strike - the rate at which it can be redeemed - of 102.36 next year. That is, a bond holder can sell the bond back to UES next year at above par, or hold on for three years and redeem the paper with an as-yet undefined company, given that, under the energy-sector reform program, UES should cease to exist by then.
 &quot;Effectively, UES placed a one-year bond,&quot; Mamai said. &quot;UES could offer another put option at a higher price in the second year and get investors to hold the bond for another year. But I don't think that the bond will survive for the full three years.&quot;
 Nevertheless, Mamai said that more and more investors are considering holding bonds to maturity.
 As institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, enter the market looking for longer-term instruments, bond terms are set to grow. Pension reform will also release billions of rubles onto the market.
 
 <strong>
DEBUTS AND TRACK RECORDS
 </strong>Bond issues bring with them costs not associated with bank loans - preparation of a prospectus, commissions and the government's much-reviled 0.8-percent stamp tax.
 
An issue by a medium-sized company is still relatively more expensive than for a large company, said Alexei Tretyakov, fixed-income analyst at Bank Zenit, one of the most active lead managers in the market.
 But State Duma deputies have already begun drafting proposals to lower the stamp tax, and the government has prepared amendments to the laws on issuing and registering corporate bonds, which are supposed to simplify the process. As the market heats up, other costs may fall as well, making it easier for medium-sized companies to enter the market.
 And bonds provide more than just financing to outweigh some of the costs.
 RusAl has said that the main reason for its 3-billion-ruble ($95-million) bond in September was to enter the market. It already has about $1 billion in bank debt and, as RusAl head Oleg Deripaska has said, &quot;The company is very profitable.&quot;
 Many companies have launched bonds to build up a credit history to borrow less expensively in the future.
 &quot;The goal [for an issuer] is twofold: to raise financing and to announce oneself as a public company,&quot; said Kirill Prezanti, managing director of the debt-market division of Trust and Investment Bank, one of the most active underwriter-organizers in the market.
 As the market matures, its usefulness as a source of financing is justifying the early issues, which tended to be small and expensive.
 &quot;There is a real transition going on,&quot; Zenit's Tretyakov said. &quot;If before the corporate bond market was mostly for PR and companies entered to create a credit history, then now, as the terms are growing longer, the market is becoming a real source of financing.&quot;
 &quot;Eurochim could go public in the future,&quot; said MDM's Levitsky. &quot;But this isn't an image project for us. We need real financing to invest in our [subsidiary] companies.&quot; Eurochim's Nevinnomyssky Azot issued one of the more liquid bonds in May this year. Another subsidiary, NAK Azot, is planning a 1-billion-ruble bond by the end of the year, depending on when the Federal Securities Commission registers the issue.
 Nonetheless, the local market provides a way to test the waters.
 &quot;I wanted one simple thing,&quot; said Yury Kalabin, whose company, Energomashcorporation, issued a 500-million-ruble bond on Oct. 15. &quot;I wanted criticism. I needed a mirror.&quot;
 
 <strong>
BUYER BEWARE
 </strong>The question is whether the market is adequately assessing and reflecting company risks. The lack of good quality financial information from issuers can leave investors in the dark.
 
And further lowering transparency is the lack of convention or standardization in the market in terms of setting coupons, put options, terms or even prices.
 The market is still &quot;a universe of customized instruments with no standardization,&quot; Renaissance Capital's Mamai said.
 Some ask whether the lessons of the 1998 treasury-bill, or GKO, pyramid evaporated with the crisis. Or whether Gazprom's last minute, 2.2-billion-ruble ($74-million) bailout of Sibur, which nearly defaulted on a coupon payment and put option in December 2001, should have placated the market.
 &quot;Sibur was a perfect example [of what can happen]. In theory, the company was quite large, active, substantial. But the balance sheet was not good from day one,&quot; said Pavel Teplukhin, president of Troika Dialog Asset Management, a large buyer of corporate bonds.
 &quot;The company was moving toward default every single day of circulation of its bonds,&quot; he said.
 Investors need to be shocked into demanding credit-agency ratings and in-depth financial information, Teplukhin said.
 &quot;The corporate-bond market really needs a default, literally tomorrow if possible,&quot; Teplukhin said. &quot;Right now, there is euphoria. A cooling down effect is needed.&quot;
 Zenit's Tretyakov said that a number of smaller and less well-run companies have begun issuing conveyor-belt bonds, one after another, without assessing the most effective use of their capital.
 &quot;You could call these potentially explosive pyramids,&quot; Tretyakov said.
 Not everyone agrees with Teplukhin's sentiments. Some - including officials at the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange - fear that a default could trigger a crisis that could spread into the banking sector, banks being the main holders of bonds.
 Sergei Lyalin, general director of Cbonds, an Internet-based bond-research company, took a sanguine view - as the number of bond issues increases, the effect of any one default would decrease.
 At the same time, as more issuers enter the market, the likelihood of a default increases. &quot;Predicting a default in the next one or two years is like predicting snow in the next three to four months,&quot; Lyalin said.
 Investors, however, have grown pickier as the choice of bonds has grown, Renaissance Capital's Mamai said.
 &quot;Half a year ago, people were only looking at yields, and now they look at liquidity, at credit risks and they are happy to accept lower yields for less risk,&quot; he said. &quot;So, there is huge demand for good bonds and very little for bad bonds, even if their yields are substantially higher.&quot;
 More companies are recognizing the new attitudes. &quot;To place corporate bonds under reasonable terms, the companies must be in good order,&quot; MDM's Levitsky said. He said that some other Eurochim subsidiaries may issue bonds, but only when they are cleaned up.
 
 <strong>
BLUE CHIPS AND JUNK BONDS
 </strong>Investors' growing wariness has led to greater segmentation of bonds into blue chips, second-tier bonds and junk bonds.
 
Mamai predicted that only four of the major new issues would become blue chips: Alrosa, RusAl, UES and Gazprom, which is planning the largest local bond market issue to date.
 Gazprom may even become the market benchmark, the most liquid and transparently priced of the corporate bonds, as the city of Moscow is for municipal bonds, Mamai said.
 But while any self-respecting borrower in the West is graded, credit ratings are still optional in Russia - the low number of ratings makes any correlation that much harder to find.
 &quot;We have found no correlation between the yields and the quality of the borrowers,&quot; said Dmitry Grishankov, general director of Expert Rating Agency, one of a growing number of companies, including Standard &amp; Poor's and Interfax Rating Agency, offering more finely tuned country-specific ratings.
 The spread between blue chips and junk bonds should widen, some analysts say.
 &quot;Many investors aren't able to judge the risks of issuers,&quot; Tretyakov said. &quot;So, the premium ... is very small. Most issuers borrow at about the same rate.&quot; He said that the risk premium should be at least 5 to 10 percentage points.
 Part of the problem with looking at yields to estimate risk is that a lot of bonds are illiquid. &quot;If bonds don't trade every day, you can't trust the yield figures,&quot; Mamai said.
 Pricing mechanisms - how yields are determined - are still primitive compared to Western markets. Credit risks and interest rates, including the yields on government bonds, have relatively little influence on corporate bond yields. Most important, Mamai said, is the level of ruble liquidity in the financial system, or in other words, how much banks - the main investors in corporate bonds - and other investors have on hand to invest. Other factors include the terms of the next coupon payment or put option.
 Issuers have also begun to understand their possible position in the market.
 &quot;Many issuers used to overrate themselves,&quot; TIB's Prezanti said. &quot;Now, their requests [first of all, for rates and terms] correspond more closely to the market. Many have subsequently begun to understand the market on a fully professional level.&quot;
 Nonetheless, he said that companies are still slow, at least by banks' standards, to disclose information for the prospectus, approve their business plans and make corporate decisions for the issue.
 &quot;And they should be the ones who are interested in getting the money from the issue as quickly as possible,&quot; Prezanti said.
 
 <strong>
BIGGER IS (USUALLY) BETTER
 </strong>Although still only a sliver of gross domestic product, the corporate bond market's growth has raised hopes that it will serve as a new platform for financial intermediation, that is, the transformation of savings into investments.
 
The companies that will benefit from the boom and whose issues will most help develop the market, will be medium to large in size.
 Market experts say that bond issues worth less than 300 million rubles are too small to create liquidity in the secondary market or to be profitable. Of about 35 bonds either issued since September or planned by the end of the year, about three-fourths are for more than 300 million rubles, compared to about half of all the corporate bonds in the market.
 The number of issuers is growing. &quot;But, in saying that, we believe that only the large and medium-sized issuers with revenues of no less than $100 million have real opportunities to secure their position in the market,&quot; Prezanti said.
 Trading volumes in the secondary market through exchanges jumped by about six times in 2001 and 1.2 times from January to September 2002, to a still low 6.7 billion rubles per month, or 330 million rubles per day. Over-the-counter trades account for at least as much volume, although the amounts can only be estimated, said Lyalin of Cbonds.
 Market participants have kept an eager eye on volumes - the higher the trading volume, the easier and cheaper it is to buy and sell bonds.
 Of nearly 145 corporate bonds outstanding, only about 15 are traded more or less frequently in the secondary market, analysts said.
 While many companies are starting small to test the waters, small issues do nothing to increase liquidity or develop the secondary market, experts say. 
 At the other end of the scale, however, major exporters are likely to leave the ruble market, considering it too small, analysts said.
 Large companies, especially major exporters, are likely to focus on the Eurobond market, where more money can be raised for longer periods, and in a currency that matches their revenues.
 The international market, which appeared to lose its taste for emerging-market debt over the summer, has showed more interest in recent weeks, after Moody's rating agency announced an imminent upgrade for Russia.
 
 <strong>
WHAT IS TO COME?
 </strong>Even if some of the larger issuers eventually move out of the market, the market should have grown large enough by that time to remain liquid, analysts say.
 
They estimate that the market could double next year, with new and larger issues and lower yields.
 Nevertheless, the boom continues to attract naysayers. &quot;If you're looking for the next Russian problem, look for it here,&quot; said James Fenkner, chief strategist at Troika Dialog. &quot;These companies will eventually take out too much debt.&quot;

TITLE: The Crash: A Step in the Right Direction?
AUTHOR: By Joseph E. Stiglitz
TEXT: ANDERS &Aring;slund, in his article &quot;How Russia Was Won,&quot; has written another remarkable piece, trying to explain that the recent &quot;success&quot; of Russia is due to it following the advice of the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury Department more faithfully- just as its poor performance prior to that was due to its failure to follow that advice sufficiently faithfully. He argues that the growth of the country since the 1998 financial crisis bears testimony to the fact that he and the IMF are correct, and that the interpretation provided in my recent book &quot;Globalization and Its Discontents&quot; is wrong.
 
Russia's performance since the crisis has been impressive - but the country's GDP is still almost 30 percent below where it was at the beginning of the decade. At 4-percent growth per annum, it will take Russia another decade to get back to where it was before the beginning of transition. Remember, the move from communism to a market economy was supposed to increase economic prosperity. A two-decade transition depression/recession, during which poverty and inequality increased enormously, while a few have become very wealthy, can hardly be called a victory. And the longer-run prospects are far less rosy than &Aring;slund would suggest: With investment at a mere 10 percent of what it was in 1990, even if that investment is better allocated, how can growth be sustained?
 Russia did finally achieve a modicum of success when it broke away from the IMF program that Aslund supports so strongly. The IMF did not want Russia to devalue, and provided billions of dollars to help it avoid devaluation. The high exchange rate and high interest rates that were necessary to sustain it in the absence of capital controls had strangled the economy. Before the devaluation, I recall conversations with the U.S. deputy treasury secretary - the United States effectively dictated IMF-Russia policies, so his views were important - together with some top Russian academicians. These academicians, as well as many economists at the World Bank, thought that there was excess capacity, and that the IMF/U.S. Treasury policies were destroying the economy.
 The IMF and U.S. Treasury worried that any change would restart inflation and that there was little or no excess capacity. This was a remarkable confession: Evidently, they believed that their policies, in the space of just a few years, had destroyed more than 40 percent of the country's capacity, something that no war had ever done. They shunted aside micro-data from Russia, which showed that there was in fact excess capacity, just as they ignored the World Bank's analysis of debt dynamics, which showed that the proposed huge new IMF loans - even if not misused due to corruption - would not succeed in restoring growth of the economy and would only leave the country more in debt. A few at the top of the IMF, and especially the U.S.-appointed first deputy managing director, actually seemed to convince themselves that the programs would work, although, to their credit, many in the IMF, including its chief economist, seemed to recognize that this was simply another example of lending motivated more by politics than economics.
 The results were as I, and the World Bank economists, had predicted: The 1998 bailout did not work, the devaluation did work. There was enormous excess supply; import substitution started to take place, even in the midst of the turmoil. Imports in the year after the crash were down nearly 50 percent relative to the year before the crash, and, while some of this decrease reflected the decline in the overall economy, much of it was due to a switch from buying foreign food, clothes and other goods to Russian-made ones. Later, of course, higher world oil prices gave further impetus to the economy. Profits generated funds for expansion, even when the banking system (which had never done much of what banking systems are supposed to do - i.e., provide finance for the creation of new enterprises and the expansion of old) was slow to recover. Capital controls were imposed, and, instead of looking for the best opportunities for investment in New York, those with money looked for opportunities at home.
 Yes, the market economy can provide incentives for wealth creation. But, unfortunately, under the preceding years of IMF programs, the market economy with high interest rates, illegitimate privatizations, poor corporate governance and capital-market liberalization had provided incentives for asset stripping. Growth was caused by the change in the economic environment, a change that Russia made for itself, over the objections of those like &Aring;slund and the IMF.
 &Aring;slund has another interpretation: The crash was a wake-up call; the new reformist parliament elected in December 1999, in tandem with the reformist administration of President Vladimir Putin that took over in 2000, lowered tax rates, undertook judicial reform, legislated private ownership of land, adopted new banking laws - in short, did all the reforms that they should have done, and hey presto, growth took off, just as the reformers had said it would all along.
 There are two problems with this interpretation. The first is that growth began before these reforms were in place. Even with the turmoil of default and devaluation, even with the usual 12 to 18-month lag in impact of devaluation, Russia was growing by 5.4 percent by the end of 1999. And second, there can be a long gap between legislation and meaningful reform.
 Some of the reforms, like those in taxation, were important mainly because they added to the dynamism already present in the economy. (At the overvalued exchange rates, before oil prices started to increase, even with tax reform, there would have been no profits in the critical oil sector to tax. Any squeezing of that sector would have simply further dried up funds for investment.)
 If &Aring;slund's story made any sense, as the reforms actually get implemented and solidified, growth should be taking off, not declining - especially given the high oil prices. 
 &Aring;slund's ideology shows through most clearly in his final passage. He argues that the form of privatization does not matter and asserts that &quot;no strategic restructuring appears possible before its [an enterprise's] privatization.&quot; These were the central tenets of the IMF/U.S. Treasury program. But they were wrong. Theoretical and empirical research at the World Bank and elsewhere, including the examples of Poland and other countries that took different approaches, has shown that restructuring is possible before privatization.
 In the long run, we should be concerned not just with the pace of economic growth, but also with the kind of society that is being created. To &Aring;slund, evidently, the concentration of ownership in Russia is of no concern, so long as it generates growth. Before the so-called reformers, there was another vision of a market economy based on greater equality, using the power of markets to bring riches not just to a few, but to all of society. That the Russian transition did not achieve this is perhaps not a surprise - it was nowhere in the vision of these reformers. But their view of economics was so tilted, so ideologically driven, that they even failed in the narrower objective of economic growth. What they achieved was a remarkable decline. No amount of rewriting history will change this.
 
 <i>
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a professor of economics and finance at Columbia University. He was the recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economic science. Previously, he served as chairperson of President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and as chief economist of the World Bank. His book &quot;Globalization and Its Discontents&quot; will be published in Russian in the spring. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Foreign Aid Gets A New Approach
TEXT: THE administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is starting to flesh out its promise to expand the United States' paltry foreign assistance. Measured as a share of the economy, the aid budget has fallen from 0.24 percent of GDP in the mid-1980s to 0.1 percent today, making the United States the least generous of the 22 most advanced economies. The Bush administration proposes to increase the aid budget from $10 billion to $15 billion annually. That would probably still leave America last on the list of donors (it could tie with Italy). Still, the extra $5 billion is a step in the right direction.
 
The same could be said for the manner in which the administration proposes to hand out the money. The government's traditional aid programs are distorted by foreign-policy. The additional $5 billion is supposed to be spent differently. It would be administered by a new institution, separate from the U.S. Agency for International Development, and would flow to a select group of countries, chosen according to their commitment to sound economics and honest government and their ability to reduce poverty.
 This new selectivity has its critics. Some worry that the aid would go to successful countries that don't need the help. But the administration promises to target countries whose per capita annual incomes are less than $1,445, and analysis by the Center for Global Development in Washington suggests that at least 20 countries below that level could pass the good-governance test. Other critics worry that misery in badly-run countries would be neglected. This is a risk, but the hard fact is that aid in such settings may be wasted. With luck, backing countries with good policies may create an incentive for countries with bad policies to change their ways.
 The real worry with the administration's thinking is that its break with past aid policies may not be radical enough. As well as being distorted by foreign policy, traditional aid has been captured by U.S. domestic lobbies that deliver food, medical supplies or other aid. USAID's web site has boasted, scandalously, that close to 80 percent of its contracts and grants goes directly to U.S. firms. If the Bush administration is serious about making aid effective, it must free poor countries to spend aid dollars on the most efficient suppliers - including suppliers who themselves come from poor countries. It must also avoid burdening aid recipients with onerous conditions and reporting requirements; the well-governed countries eligible to receive the new dollars are by definition capable of spending the aid responsibly.
 
 <i>
This comment appeared as an editorial in The Washington Post. </i>

TITLE: Cold Blooded Crime or a Case of Calumny?
TEXT: OLEG Misevra, president of Siberian Coal Energy Company Baikal-Ugol, or SUEK, the country's top coal producer, has released details of his negotations with rival Russky Ugol. Misevra alleged that Vadim Varshavsky, head of Russky Ugol, had threatened to have him jailed for murder if he did not hand over a 30-percent stake in Dalvostugol, a major coal producer in the Amur region.
 
Varshavsky has categorically denied the accusation, and pledges to sue Misevra for slander.
 Certain circumstances give Misevra's accusation the look of truth, however.
 SUEK is a subsidiary of the MDM Group, whose MDM Bank is considered the bank of choice of the notorious Yeltsin-era &quot;family.&quot; 
 Russky Ugol claims to produce 30 million tons annually. Independent experts put its output at a rather more modest 2 million tons. The company's founders include Mezhprombank, considered the bank of choice of the St. Petersburg chekists.
 MDM Group's strategy is to achieve a total monopoly on coal production east of the Urals. The strategy of the Petersburgers is to make their presence felt in every sphere controlled by the oligarchs. The result is an unending series of skirmishes.
 The skirmish that erupted over Dalvostugol followed the usual pattern - a reshuffle of top management, cancelled privatization auctions, police, swat teams, and, finally, a 3-billion-ruble debt to the federal government that forced the company into bankruptcy. As a result, the company is now run by an acting director hand-picked by Russky Ugol.
 The acting director's term expires on Dec. 4, however. And on Dec. 3, a new law on bankruptcy comes into force, according to which the government's interests in bankruptcy cases will be respresented by the agency of its choice. At present, the Tax Ministry handles all such cases involving debt owed to the federal government. In the case of Dalvostugol, the Kremlin sides with MDM Group, the Tax Ministry with Mezhprombank.
 At this point, Misevra said that he received calls from Varshavsky demanding that he hand over the Dalvostugol stock, acquired by MDM Group this summer, in exchange for quashing an investigation into the murder of Ivan Kartashev.
 Kartashev, deputy general director of SUEK's trading arm Rosuglesbyt, was murdered on Aug. 11. As late as July, he was himself the general director, but then he was demoted for alleged theft. Smarting from this indignity, Kartashev told Miserva that he was moving to Russky Ugol. Misevra cut Kartashev off and nearly punched him in the face.
 Kartashev's murder inspired a flurry of conspiracy theories. According to one, the corporate climate is such that leaving to go work for a competitor is equivalent to treason. The traitor was executed. Another theory holds that Russky Ugol needed an informer, and Kartashev took the job. He was recruited and then killed. It's important to keep in mind that both of these theories, and many others, are the stuff of fiction.
 It's not that hard to understand the Petersburgers' strategy. They have friends in the prosecutor's office. Companies used to be carved up with the help of hitmen; now cops are used instead. Take the case of Anatoly Bykov, who lost control of Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant after his arrest.
 But Bykov's arrest was just one operation in a war that also involved law suits, a raw-materials blockade, etc. And Bykov was arrested on the basis of a taped conversation with a hitman.
 In the Kartashev case, there is no proof, save a letter sent by an unknown Bashkir deputy to Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov. In the letter, the deputy states that &quot;Kartashev's murder was just one link in the criminal activities of people who will resort to anything to achieve their goals.&quot; In short, if Varshavsky really threatened Misevra, a good idea was fouled up by poor execution.
 
 <i>
Yulia Latynina is the host of &quot;Yest Mneniye&quot; (&quot;Some Believe&quot;) on TVS. </i>

TITLE: Visit Will Strengthen China-Russia Relations
AUTHOR: By Jing-dong Yuan
TEXT: PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin arrove in Beijing on Sunday for a three-day state visit that will be important in at least three respects.
 
First, Putin's visit marks the tenth anniversary of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin's critical Dec. 1992 visit to China that essentially charted a new course for Sino-Russian relations. Second, the visit takes place against major global geo-strategic changes since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Finally, this will be an opportunity for Putin to meet the newly minted Chinese Communist Party General Secretary, Hu Jintao, the fourth-generation leader who will succeed Jiang Zemin as president next spring.
 This will be an opportunity to take stock of the bilateral relationship not only in terms of what the two countries have been able to achieve over the last 10 years but also where their strategic partnership is likely to be headed. This is a particularly pertinent question given the dramatic developments over the last year that may have affected the two countries' strategic interests and foreign-policy priorities.
 Sino-Russian relations have registered major progress over the past decade. President visit continued the thaw that was begun by Gorbachev in the late 1980s and elevated the bilateral ties to the level of a constructive partnership.
 The momentum of Sino-Russian rapprochement in the 1990s resulted in major milestones in the bilateral relationship. These range from developing closer bilateral ties to establishing regional security mechanisms. Beijing and Moscow developed close contacts through summit meetings between heads of state and government and regular exchange visits of high-ranking officials. The two countries consolidated their relationship by elevating it to the status of a strategic partnership in 1996 and the signing of the Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 2001.
 China and Russia, and later on, three other Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - were able to come together inder the name &quot;The Shanghai Five&quot; and negotiate a settlement conderning their over 7,000 kilometer-long borders.
 Russia and China have developed close cooperation in the field of defense over the last decade. China has become a major recipient of Russian conventional weapons systems, including major fighter aircraft, Sovremmeny-class destroyers and Kilo-class submarines, and air-defense systems. In addition, Russia has provided China with military technologies and granted licenses allowing China to assemble Su-27 fighter aircraft.
 Internationally, Beijing and Moscow coordinated their opposition to U.S. ballistic missile defenses, called for the banning of the weaponization of outer space, and the preservation of the 1972 ABM Treaty. Indeed, on a number of occasions, China and Russia issued joint statements, co-sponsored UN resolutions to demonstrate their united opposition to amendments to or the abrogation of the ABM Treaty and National Missile Defense deployment.
 China and Russia have also sought to develop multilateral mechanisms to address regional issues. The Shanghai Five and its successor - the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)- are clearly such endeavors. Originally a multilateral mechanism aimed at stabilizing the border regions between China and the former Soviet Union through confidence-building measures and reduction of military forces, the group gradually introduced regular and institutionalized channels among prime ministers and officials in the ministries of member states' governments. On June 15, 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was formally established and, one year later, they adopted the SCO Charter. 
 Chinese analysts hail the organization as a major development in international relations and a model of security cooperation, arguing that the organization is the embodiment of a new security concept and a new type of multilateral institution in the post-Cold War environment that is not a military alliance directed against any third parties, but a process of dialogue and consultation on an equal basis, and a mechanism for enhancing regional cooperation in political and economic spheres.
 But the relationship is not problem free and deepening the Sino-Russian strategic partnership beyond mere rhetoric under the current global geo-strategic environment remains a challenge for both countries. This will and should be President Putin's top agenda during his visit to China.
 Despite the improved political relations, bilateral economic ties still lag behind. The two-way trade remains an insignificant $10 billion in 2001, far below the $20 billion target set by President Yeltsin in the mid 1990s. While potential certainly exist in the energy, technology , consumer and industrial-goods sectors, the near-term prospects do not look bright.
 While the two countries have resolved their border disputes for the most part, there are still a number of islands that remain unsettled. Russian concerns, in particular in its thinly populated Far East, over uncontrolled and illegal Chinese immigration are real and could ferment &quot;China threat&quot; concerns. 
 Russia's recent major policy adjustments in the areas of missile defense, the ABM Treaty, U.S.-Russian strategic nuclear disarmament, and U.S.-led anti-terrorism endeavors have also raised questions about the viability and the substance of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership. Indeed, since Sept. 11, Russia's positions on these issues have shown clear signs of softening and retreat. Obviously, China's hope of sustaining a united Sino-Russian front could also unravel because of different priorities and fundamental interests.
 Russia's move toward the United States has been seen as a critical factor in a number of SCO member states' closer cooperation with the United States, including permission for a growing U.S. military presence in Central Asia. Indeed, the immediate reactions of the SCO as a viable and effective regional organization have not been viewed favorably by analysts. Many claim its failure to act effectively casts a shadow over the future of the organization as a viable regional security mechanism.
 What is the prospect for the Sino-Russian strategic partnership and what can President Putin's trip accomplish in this regard? There are three issues. The first is that Sino-Russian relations must be placed in the broader context of a re-emerging, yet different, U.S.-China-Russia triangle. Clearly, Russia's interests lie in maintaining a stable bilateral relationship with the United States to achieve its political, economic and security objectives. In this regard, the new strategic relationship developed by Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush certainly has greater weight on the Sino-Russian strategic partnership. One could argue that, in a similar vein, China also places its relationship with the U.S. ahead of its other bilateral relationships.
 This leads to the second issue. There should be a realistic and reasonable expectation of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership in light of the two countries' respective national interests, foreign-policy priorities, and available resources. Given the very nature of such a partnership (despite its &quot;strategic&quot; modifier) - it is not a military alliance and is not aimed at a third party, one should expect that it is but one of a number of mechanisms that policy makers in both capitals can turn to in formulating and implementing their respective foreign policies.
 Finally, there are areas for deepening cooperation between the two countries at the international, regional, and bilateral levels. Even as Russia moves toward the U.S., Beijing and Moscow still share common interests in supporting the United Nations Security Council's role on issues of international security, preventing the weaponization of outer space, and a non-confrontational approach to resolving disputes.
 On regional issues, China and Russia could play a greater role in the longer-term viability of the SCO by facilitating and promoting stability and economic development, energy supplies, and cooperation on regional-security issues. Clearly, one could argue that the signing of the SCO Charter, the Agreement of SCO Member States on Regional Antiterrorism Institutions, and the St. Petersburg Declaration of the SCO Heads of State are indications that, instead of being irrelevant in the post-Sept.-11th environment, the SCO's raison d'etre has only been elevated. The organization's future development will continue to rely on Sino-Russian initiatives and greater political investment.
 President Putin's visit will further consolidate bilateral relations between the two great neighbors. The future prospect of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership will remain promising even as many challenges lie ahead. 
 
 <i>Dr. Jing-dong Yuan is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he also teaches Chinese politics and Northeast Asia security and arms-control issues. He submitted this coomment to the St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Kissinger's Back in an Ugly Case of Deja Vu
TEXT: WASHINGTON-The Bush administration, after resisting it for more than a year, has finally ordered up an investigation into how Sept. 11 came about. The man in charge? A 79-year-old Cold Warrior infamous for dabbling in secret wars, coups and assassinations.
 
I'm already bored with Henry Kissinger and the investigation-that-wasn't. Yes, it's off-putting to again see 9/11 exploited and Kissinger lauded. But Kissinger's political resilience was already legendary; it's long been clear that nothing, not even protecting Americans from terrorists, is too solemn to be gamed; and while Kissinger in his day had the decorum to hide his ugliest behavior from the American public, the Bush administration has no such sliver of self-respecting shame.
 What was foul in fighting communism is now fair in fighting terrorists. During all the 50 years in which America competed with the Soviet Union, assembling tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, massing troops across Europe, and building enormous competing spy-and-cover-action networks around the globe, America never felt the need to, for example, set up a Pentagon office to spy on every American without a warrant; or to create camps to finitely jail indefinitelyAmericans solely as &quot;suspects.&quot; Or to detain hundreds of people in secret.
 Yet all of this unfolds today in America with barely a whimper. Consider John Poindexter, the Reagan administration security tsar who helped devise the notorious Iran-Contra scheme. (The White House illegally and secretly sold arms to axis-of-evil terrorist-sponsoring Iran, then gave the money to terrorists in Nicaragua seeking to overthrow the government, in the name of fighting communism.)
 Poindexter's career collapsed in ignominy when these crimes were unveiled, but Bush has brought him back to assemble - get this - a gargantuan computer database of citizen profiles built from records of our credit-card purchases, travel and phone records and e-mails and Net surfing. It's called &quot;Total Information Awareness,&quot; as in &quot;totalitarian.&quot;
 And what are we to make of the Justice Department's insistence it can hold anyone without charges, without a hearing, without a lawyer, without even revealing their name or location, for as long as they choose to label that someone an &quot;enemy combatant?&quot;
 Or of revelations that camps for those &quot;enemies&quot; are already being chosen? Unnamed U.S. government officials have told the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times that a jail in Goose Creek, South Carolina - one where dirty-bomber suspect-for-life Jose Padilla is held incommunicado - has room to hold another 20 U.S. enemy-citizens. (Why 20?)
 In agreeing to head a 9/11 whitewash, Kissinger solemnly noted that &quot;the president has promised us that all the facts will be made available.&quot; Which is good, since the president is the lone source of post-9/11 truth in America.
 &quot;Dr. Kissinger and I share the same commitments,&quot; countered President Bush. And indeed, Kissinger's discredited decades-old war on communism looks surprisingly fresh and hip in 2002.
 &quot;The secret bombing of Cambodia, which [Kissinger] orchestrated with Richard Nixon, could be argued to be the ultimate act of preemption, a concept on which the Bush administration's new national security doctrine is based,&quot; noted Julian Borger in The Guardian last week. &quot;The same goes for his role in helping oust Salvador Allende from power in Chile, and his replacement by General Augusto Pinochet. The prevailing climate in national-security circles in the age of terrorism favors early action against potential threats, before they pose direct danger.&quot;
 
 <i>Matt Bivens, a former editor of The St. Petersburg Times, is a Washington-based fellow of The Nation Institute [www.thenation.com]. </i>

TITLE: Global Eye
TEXT: <b>Base Bawl </b>.
 
So, it really is true. Osama and the boys really <i>do </i>&quot;hate us for our way of life,&quot; as George W. keeps saying. Funny thing, though: the Western &quot;ways&quot; that the terrorists hate seem to be the same ones that also get up the nose of George W. and the frenzied fundamentalists of his own &quot;al-Qaida&quot; (Arabic for &quot;the base&quot;).
 
Last week, the re-emergent bin Laden penned a &quot;letter to the American people&quot; - a bitter gumbo of mumbo-jumbo outlining the justifications for his jihad. It's written with the same shallow, ignorant, sex-obsessed fanaticism churned out every day by the dull-witted ideologues who have formed the mind of the American autocrat and the extremist fringe he's brought to the center of world power.
 Behold the authentic fundamentalist voice: &quot;You separate religion from your politics, contradicting the pure nature that affirms absolute authority to the Lord and your Creator. You permit acts of immorality, and you consider them pillars of personal freedom. You practice the trade of sex in all its forms, directly and indirectly. We call on you to be a people of manners, principles, honor and purity; to reject immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling and usury.&quot;
 There's more - much, much more - in this vein from the playboy-turned-preacher, who of course does not omit the usual thrice-chewed cud of Jew-bashing: they &quot;control the media,&quot; etc. And there's the customary boasting about the superiority of his own constipated religious views: the only acceptable model of reality, it seems.
 To those of us who have tracked the rise of the militant Christian Right for decades, from its sideshow beginnings in the early 1970s to its monstrous apotheosis in Washington today, bin Laden's belching of fundamentalist bile is tediously familiar. He speaks the same language as the &quot;Christian Reconstructionists&quot; and other splinter sects who populate such shadowy but powerful groups as the Council for National Policy, which is now directing the social agenda for the Bush regime.
 The CNP is a group of hard-right honchos - funded by the usual malevolent millionaires - who &quot;vet&quot; Republican candidates for ideological purity. Past and present members include the usual suspects: Pat Robertson, John Ashcroft, Reagan-Bush terrorist facilitator Oliver North - and that longtime champion of violent Islamic extremism, Grover Norquist, widely acknowledged as one of George W.'s most important &quot;political mentors&quot; and chairman of the &quot;Wednesday Meetings,&quot; a politburo of right-wing activists, media bosses and White House officials who meet weekly to calibrate the latest party line.
 Sitting comfortably alongside these &quot;mainstream&quot; figures on the CNP are Reconstructionists like John Whitehead and R.J. Rushdoony. And what do Reconstructionists believe? Imam Rushdoony puts it this way:
 &quot;We believe that the whole Word of God must be applied to all of life. It is not only our duty as individuals, families and churches to be Christian, but it is also the duty of the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics and every other sphere to be under Christ the King. Nothing is exempt from His dominion. We must live by His Word, not our own. The Christian should therefore not fear laws in support of Christian social goals just because they interfere with personal freedom.&quot;
 This &quot;dominion&quot; includes the death penalty for homosexuals, according to Reconstructionist affiliate American Vision. And what about the Jews? &quot;The god of Judaism is the devil,&quot; says the group. Bush tried to appoint AV official J. Robert Brame III to a top post in the Regime, but the Jesus jihadnik took himself out of consideration after a spate of bad press. Well, those devil-worshiping Jews <i>do</i> &quot;control the media,&quot; right?
 Bush first paid ritual obeisance to Rushdoony and the CNP back in 1999, appearing before them in a secret session that he still refuses to discuss. Now, he's hard at work trying to &quot;tear down the walls between church and state&quot; with his &quot;faith-based initiative,&quot; which will funnel bags of taxpayer cash to his favorite God-botherers. Initially balked by Congress, Bush used bureaucratic subterfuge to start a pilot program this year. The very first tranche of public money went to Pat Robertson (who else?). With the new rubber-stamp Congress, Bush intends to go full bore on his &quot;social agenda,&quot; regime minions tell The Washington Post.
 But the wedding of worldviews between these Muslim-Christian fundamentalists is most perfectly expressed in their mutual hatred for the world's most evil man. You guessed it: Bill Clinton. The CNP was a prime incubator of the perjury trap that snared the Big Zipper; Whitehead, for example, was one of the main legal diddlers pimping Paula Jones. Osama shares their furtive passion for the Arkansas catdaddy.
 He lards his letter with a long list of the United States' foreign policy follies, some of which are indeed worthy of chastisement. But considering the source - a murdering, power-mad, rich-boy religious nut - it is a rather egregious case of the pot calling the kettle black. Anyway, outweighing all these &quot;crimes&quot; - even dropping the atom bomb on Japanese civilians - are &quot;your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the Oval Office. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and be remembered by the nations?&quot;
 Gee, Oz - slavery, maybe? Or did the presence of so many Islamic slave-traders &quot;sanctify&quot; that early example of globalization? Yes, even back then, fanatical Christians and militant Muslims made common cause in maiming the world with violence, repression, death and fear.
 And, Lord help us, both groups are back in the saddle again.
 
 <i>
For annotational references, see the &quot;Opinion&quot; section at www.sptimesrussia.com </i>

TITLE: Inspectors Check Scud, Alcohol Factories
AUTHOR: By Bassem Mroue
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: IRAQ - A UN inspection team on Monday went to a Baghdad factory that made guidance and control systems for Iraq's &quot;stretch Scuds,&quot; Soviet-made missiles that the Iraqis modified to longer range and used in the Gulf War. 
 
The missiles, which have a range of 650 kilometers, are now prohibited for Iraq, and the inspectors presumably want to ensure that work has not resumed.
 Iraqi Information Ministry officials said a second team of inspectors visited an alcohol plant on Baghdad's outskirts. The purpose of the inspection could not be immediately determined. Alcohol is a component of many chemical weapons.
 On Sunday, the director of an airfield north of Baghdad was not even at the base when UN weapons inspectors arrived.
 Montadhar Radeef Mohammed was further surprised when he was kept outside until the inspectors gave him permission to enter the base they were searching for devices that can spray deadly microbes from the air.
 &quot;We are not giving any notice whatsoever and we insist to exercise our full rights,&quot; the top nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, told the BBC.
 &quot;And we intend to have it all the way in that fashion,&quot; ElBaradei added on CNN's &quot;Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.&quot;
 In separate developments, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri complained to the UN secretary general over Sunday's U.S.-British air raids in southern Iraq. Baghdad says allied bombs hit an oil installation, killed four people and wounded 27. The U.S. military reported no casualties.
 In a letter to Kofi Annan, Sabri called for UN protection to prevent further attacks, saying they violated Security Council resolutions and marked an &quot;escalation of the hostile and terrorist campaign by the United States and Britain.&quot;
 In London, the British government on Monday accused Baghdad of systematic human-rights abuses, charging in a report that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime has oppressed ordinary Iraqis through torture, rape and terror.
 Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the report's aim was &quot;to remind the world that the abuses of the Iraqi regime extend far beyond its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in violation of its international obligations.&quot;
 Amnesty International, however, accused Straw of a &quot;cold and calculated manipulation&quot; of the human-rights situation to support its case for a possible war in Iraq.
 During Sunday's inspection in Iraq, the UN experts showed up at the field 30 kilometers north of Baghdad on the fourth day of the renewed search for weapons of mass destruction under a tough UN mandate that Hussein divest himself of illicit weaponry or face &quot;serious consequences.&quot;
 Five UN vehicles entered the site along with several cars of the National Monitoring Directorate, the Iraqi body that deals with inspectors. One UN vehicle parked at the gate to make sure no one left or entered the compound.
 &quot;I was surprised because I wasn't here,&quot; Mohammed said. &quot;I was also surprised that they didn't allow me to enter until they got permission. I wasn't aware of the visit.&quot; The inspectors have routinely sealed sites during their searches.
 The Security Council resolution that sent the weapons inspectors back empowered them to go anywhere at any time to determine whether Iraq is still harboring banned weapons.
 Once he got permission to enter his own base, Mohammed was asked in detail about the activities of the airfield.
 Mohammed said the team took samples from storage tanks and copied some computer files.
 Inspectors could be seen by journalists checking pesticide tanks for possible chemical or biological agents. An inspector was seen filming tanks that are usually filled with pesticides and carried by helicopters.
 After spending 4 1/2 hours at the site, the inspectors left without saying anything to reporters about the day's mission. Once the inspectors left, the Iraqis opened the gate and asked journalists to come in and look around for themselves.
 The UN resolution requires that Iraq give up all weapons of mass destruction. The work of previous inspectors in the 1990s after the Gulf War led to the destruction of many tons of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons and the equipment to make them and dismantlement of Iraq's nuclear-bomb program.
 That inspections regime collapsed in 1998 amid disputes over access to sites and Iraqi complaints that U.S. spies were among the UN inspectors.
 Among the weapons systems still unaccounted for are the toxic-spraying Zubaidy devices believed to have been tested once at the airfield visited Sunday. In 1998, inspectors said at least 12 of the devices were built but there was no record of any of them being destroyed.
 Mohammed said he has been director of the airfield since 1998 but says he knows nothing about the Zubaidy devices. The &quot;Zubaidy&quot; was a device for generating and dispersing an aerosol of lethal microbes, biowarfare agents, from a helicopter. In 1988, the Iraqis - apparently from Khan Bani Sa'ad helipads - successfully flight-tested the Zubaidy device, spraying bacteria, the agency reported.

TITLE: Ivory Coast Army Goes After Rebels In Man
AUTHOR: By Clar Ni Chonghaile
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast's army entered a key city and began flushing out rebels in an assault to push them from the western cocoa-producing region, a senior military official said Monday.
 
Residents of Man woke to the sounds of shooting after a heavy attack Sunday signaled the start of the government push.
 &quot;We entered Man last night. We are now carrying out cleaning-up operations, flushing out rebels from all the places they may be hiding,&quot; the military official said on condition of anonymity.
 Western rebel spokesperson Guillaume Prosper Gbatto confirmed Monday that loyalist soldiers had entered Man, but said they did not yet control the city.
 The previously unknown insurgents - said by residents to include Liberians and Ivorians - captured Man and nearby Danane on Thursday, opening a new front in a two-month rebellion that is degenerating into a many-fronted war in this former French colony.
 Man residents huddled in their homes Sunday night, listening to gunfire on the outskirts of town. Many homes were dark, as the electricity had been cut.
 Minibuses packed with people and private cars flying white flags sped south Monday on the road from Man. Others fled the city on foot - many with just the clothes on their backs. One elderly woman was being pushed in a wheelbarrow.
 &quot;When the shooting dies down a bit, people take their things and try to leave, but the rebels shoot to tell them to go back inside,&quot; said a woman reached by telephone, who gave her name as Colette. She said the rebels had taken positions in the hills around the city.
 Phone lines to Danane appeared to be down Monday, but Gbatto said the town had not been attacked. Villagers south of the town said they had seen loyalist forces heading toward Danane on Sunday.
 Some of those who fled from Man spoke of rival rebel bands - some looting, others shooting looters.
 Rebels have also seized Touba, 110 kilometers north of Man, and Toulepleu, about 95 kilometers south of Danane. It was not immediately clear which rebels were involved.
 A priest in Toulepleu, who did not want to give his name, said some rebels appeared to be on drugs and did not speak much French - a language most Ivorians speak.
 Toulepleu, like Danane, is close to the border with Liberia - itself battered by a brutal seven-year war waged by many anarchic factions.
 Spokesperson Gbatto said Sunday that two insurgent groups - the Ivorian Popular Movement for the Greater West and the Movement for Justice and Peace - had agreed to fight together. He denied the presence of Liberians.
 Peace talks between northern rebels and the government have been deadlocked for weeks. Rebels are demanding that Gbagbo resign - a demand Ivorian authorities refuse to support.

TITLE: Spanish King Visits Oil-Stricken Coastline
AUTHOR: By Daniel Woolls
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MUXIA, Spain - Walking in the muck of an oil-stained beach, King Juan Carlos was received respectfully Monday by fishermen whose livelihoods are imperiled by the massive spill from a tanker that sank off Spain's northwest coast.
 
&quot;We're very grateful that he came to see the problem firsthand,&quot; said Daniel Castro, 46, a skipper. &quot;He went down and got his feet dirty. The only way to resolve a problem is to be in the middle of it.&quot;
 Arriving by helicopter, the king met with residents and the local fishermen's association. He cast an occasional glance at the sticky soles of his shoes.
 &quot;We know that the king can only bring us his solidarity, not a solution,&quot; said Javier Sar, head of the fishermen's association. But even that helps.&quot;
 &quot;We were the last to realize how serious this was,&quot; Sar said. &quot;We were blinded by optimism ... . With every day that goes by, people are more pessimistic.&quot;
 On a chilly, overcast morning, volunteers and armed-forces personnel resumed cleaning Galicia's shoreline while readying more barriers to fend off the floating masses of oil. Specially-equipped ships from several European countries kept suctioning the slicks, the main one about 35 kilometers offshore.
 The oil leaked from the Bahamas-flagged tanker Prestige from Nov. 13, when its hull ruptured in a storm, through Nov. 19, when it broke in half and sank. An estimated 20,000 tons were spilled. The rest, about 57,000 tons, sank with the Prestige.
 An estimated 15,000 birds have perished or been injured by the oil, according to Enrique Diaz of the environmental group SEO BirdLife.
 The spill contaminated 164 beaches, the government stated Monday, approximately from A Coruna, a major port city, south to Cape Finisterre, off the coast of which the Prestige cracked its hull. Towed out to sea, it sank 245 kilometers southwest of the cape.
 The government banned fishing and shellfish harvesting - the main economic activity in Galicia - for several hundred kilometers.
 It's hard to predict when - or where - more oil will reach land, because wind and currents &quot;are fragmenting the big slick into smaller ones,&quot; Bert Backus of the Dutch oil-cleaning ship Rijndelta said in a telephone interview from A Coruna, where his ship was unloading tons of oil it collected at sea during the weekend.
 The government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has tended to downplay what Galicians and opposition political parties call a catastrophe. Top officials at first insisted on lower estimates of the amount of oil spilled. They still claim that what sank with the Prestige will solidify in the extreme pressure and near-freezing chill of the deep sea.
 Aznar still has not visited the stricken shoreline, a fact not lost on the estimated 150,000 Galicians who took part in a protest in Santiago de Compostela on Sunday. It was reportedly the largest demonstration in the city's history.

TITLE: Venezuela Opposition On Strike
AUTHOR: By Christopher Toothaker
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's opposition launched a general strike Monday to protest President Hugo Chavez's defiant refusal to call a referendum on his rule, closing hundreds of businesses in Caracas.
 
But initial reports suggested fewer workers and businesses abided the strike call than during previous strikes. Many shopkeepers and regional business groups said they couldn't afford to lose holiday-season sales after a miserable year of recession. Others are tired of the political turmoil that accompanies each opposition strike.
 Officials at Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., Venezuela's state-owned oil monopoly, said operations were normal. PDVSA is the world's No. 5 oil exporter. National Guard units were stationed at oil refineries to prevent labor trouble.
 Chavez called the strike a thinly veiled coup attempt and said it will fail. His government organized a massive street market in downtown Caracas, and thousands of street vendors and shoppers attended.
 &quot;This is an anti-strike day. We're here to help the people in these difficult times,&quot; said General Jorge Garcia Carneiro, commander of Caracas' army base. His troops handed out food and patrolled the market.
 Caracas' opposition-aligned newspapers didn't publish Monday in a show of support for the strike. The capital's public schools were open but few students attended class, their parents worried about security.
 The Venezuelan Workers Confederation, the Fedecamaras business association and the Democratic Coordinator political coalition called the strike - the fourth in a year. For strategic reasons, they did not say how long it would last.
 &quot;They are calling a strike that is going to fail, more so than the others,&quot; Chavez said Sunday during his weekly radio and TV program, &quot;Hello President.&quot;
 &quot;The objective is [to] put pressure on, so the doors are opened to find a solution to the crisis by way of elections,&quot; said Carlos Fernandez, president of Fedecamaras, the country's leading business association.
 Chavez says he must abide by Venezuela's constitution, which says a binding referendum may be held halfway into a six-year presidential term.

TITLE: Israeli Army Chief Calls for Arafat's Removal, Media Say
AUTHOR: By Yoav Appel
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - The Israeli media reported Monday that Israel's army chief advocated the removal of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and said most Israeli settlements would eventually have to be evacuated. Military officials quickly denied the reports.
 
In continuing violence, two Palestinians were killed Monday, one in an attempted attack on an Israeli settlement in Gaza and another during clashes with army troops in the West Bank town of Jenin.
 According to the Haaretz daily and Israel Radio, army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon said Arafat should be replaced. Yaalon made the remarks in Washington in a closed-door address at the Institute for Near East policy, according to the reports.
 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet has held multiple debates on exiling Arafat, but has so far refrained from taking any such action.
 Yaalon also said that Israelis and Palestinians know that &quot;at the end of the day, most of the settlements will be evacuated,&quot; Haaretz reported.
 Yaalon on Monday denied the report, calling it a &quot;total misrepresentation of what I said.&quot;
 Meanwhile, in Gaza, a Palestinian gunman disguised in Israeli army uniform opened fire on a military outpost near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, before being shot dead by troops, said battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Tal Hermoni.
 Hermoni said the gunman was carrying an assault rifle, a large amount of ammunition, and eight grenades, but was gunned down within a minute after he began shooting. The militant Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack.
 In Jenin, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager and injured 23 others, two seriously, when hundreds of students began throwing stones at eight Israeli armored vehicles that entered the town, witnesses said.

TITLE: Stars on Ice Show City the Need for Speed
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: More than 150 short-track speed skaters descended on the city over the weekend, as St. Petersburg hosted one of the six rounds of the sport's World Cup for the first time.
 
The competitors were drawn from more than 21 countries - a record for a World Cup round - but the center of attention at the Ice Palace was Apolo Anton Ohno of the United Skates, the sport's &quot;bad boy&quot; and winner of a disputed gold medal at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
 Ohno won his contentious medal when he finished second in the 1,500 meters to South Korea's Kom Dong-Sung, but was declared the winner when the referee ruled that Kim had used an illegal block to stay in front. 
 Although Kim was injured over the weekend, Ohno won the same event in the same way on Friday, although this time it was a Chinese athlete, Jia Jun Li - the eventual silver medallist in Salt Lake City - who was disqualified.
 Li gained revenge on Saturday in the 500 meters, crossing the line in 0:42.703, while Ohno was disqualified for impeding in his quarterfinal. Canada's Jean-Francois Monette finished second, in 0:42.770.
 Both Ohno and Li said they hadn't noticed the infringements.
 &quot;But the referee is always right,&quot; Li said.
 On Sunday, Ohno and Li split the remaining two races. Li dominated the 1,000 meters, winning in 1:34.477, with Ohno second, 0:00.134 back. Monette took third, in 1:34.670.
 However, the American came back to take the 3,000 meters, clocking 5:10.544. Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea was second in 5:10.828, followed by teammate Lee Seung-Jae, just 0:00.011 behind. 
 Ohno led from the start, but was overtaken by the Koreans with seven laps to go. With just two laps left, however, Ohno and Li passed the group on the straight.
 &quot;The pressure was on, and I kind of pushed myself for the last couple of laps. I gave more power,&quot; Ohno said. &quot;It was the last race of the day and I couldn't hold anything back. That's why I just went forward.&quot;
 Ohno snatched the victory on the final straight from Li, who stumbled and fell, also taking down the Koreans - who crossed the finish line on their backs.
 In women's racing, China's Tianyu Fu won the 500 meters in 0:45.237, beating her Olympic champion compatriot Yang Yang by 0:00.042. Yang took the 1,500 meters on Friday.
 &quot;I knew my teammate Fu was behind me and I just relaxed in the last meters,&quot; Yang said. &quot;But I was happy for her, because she is our young hope and is to come after me in future.&quot;
 Amelie Goulet-Nadon of Canada was the third in 0:45.404 for her first third-place finish in the World Cup.
 &quot;That was my goal for this season,&quot; said the 19-year-old, who won a bronze medal in the 3,000-meter relay at Salt Lake City.
 On Sunday, China dominated both the men's 5,000-meter and women's 3,000-meter relays. 
 The men's team won in 7:01.353, followed by Canada in 7:01.370. Italy and South Korea were both disqualified.
 In the women's race, the Chinese team clocked 4:20.273. South Korea's team was second in 4:20.879, followed by Canada in 4:20.936. 
 The Russian team was fourth in 4:28.361.
 St. Petersburg hosts the European Short-Track Championships on Jan. 17 and 18, and is also likely to host next year's World Championship.
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard.) </i>

TITLE: Packers Tame Bears To Take NFC North
AUTHOR: By Arnie Stapleton
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GREEN BAY, Wisconsin - Spectacular touchdown-saving plays by two backups named Walker allowed the Green Bay Packers to win their first division title in five years.
 
The Packers won the NFC North by beating the Chicago Bears 30-20 Sunday, despite losing running back Ahman Green to a knee injury after he had produced 123 yards of offense.
 Rookie Tony Fisher, an undrafted free agent from Notre Dame, ran for 91 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries as the Packers (9-3), who were coming off two straight losses, became the first team to clinch a playoff spot and remained the only team without a loss at home.
 They couldn't have done it without rookie receiver Javon Walker, who chased down a cornerback headed for the end zone to prevent the Packers' halftime deficit from reaching 15 points.
 Then nose tackle Rod Walker forced a fumble from the Bears' center on first-and-goal at the Packers' 1 in the third quarter.
 On a cold, windy day at Lambeau Field, Brett Favre threw two second-half touchdown passes and improved to 33-0 at home when the temperature was under 1 degree celsius. He beat the Bears for the 18th time in 22 tries.
 The Packers trailed 14-6 at halftime after Javon Walker ran about 100 yards and chased down Roosevelt Williams as he was about to dance into the end zone at the end of the first half.
 Damon Moore had intercepted Favre's pass at the Chicago 5, but Moore fumbled at midfield. Packers lineman Mike Flanagan recovered but tossed the ball into the air. Williams grabbed it and started running before Walker caught him.
 &quot;It would have been devastating to have them score like that right before the half,&quot; Packers coach Mike Sherman said.
 Green Bay still appeared on its way to another defeat when Rod Walker, filling in for injured Gilbert Brown, snatched the ball from center Olin Kreutz just as he was snapping it to quarterback Jim Miller.
 &quot;Those were two huge plays,&quot; Bears coach Dick Jauron lamented.
 Rod Walker timed the snap perfectly, grabbed the ball and pulled it back to his chest, covering up all in one fluid motion.
 &quot;I had a friend who did it all the time in high school, so I thought I might as well try it,&quot; he said. &quot;I just went directly for the ball.&quot;
 Defensive coordinator Ed Donatell saw something similar in peewee football; some teammates said they saw it in high school, but nobody could remember it happening in college. And never in the pros.
 &quot;I haven't seen anything like that, period,&quot; defensive tackle Cletidus Hunt said. &quot;Ever, ever, ever. Miller didn't even know what happened.&quot;
 Neither did most of the Packers, who figured Miller had simply fumbled the snap.
 Rod Walker said Kreutz told him he'd jumped the gun.
 &quot;He was a little upset that I jumped the snap count a little bit on him, but I told him it's part of the game,&quot; Walker said.
 Miller accepted the blame: &quot;That's just basic football there, the center-quarterback exchange ... . Those things happen.&quot;
 However infrequently.
 The amazing play came after Marty Booker's apparent touchdown catch was called an incompletion, and the Bears lost a challenge.
 The Packers then drove 90 yards - with Fisher accounting for half of them - and went ahead for the first time on Ryan Longwell's 27-yard field goal that made it 16-14.
 Favre added an 8-yard touchdown toss to Bubba Franks, and Fisher scored from 2 yards out with 1:10 left to make it 30-14.
 Henry Burris threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Robinson with 8 seconds left.
 
 <i>
(For other results and standings, see Scorecard.) </i>

TITLE: Sociedad Stretches Surprising Season Start
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MADRID - Surprise Primera Liga leader Real Sociedad kept hold of Spain's top spot for the seventh straight week by beating Barcelona 2-1 Sunday, while Lazio took over the Italian lead with a 3-2 win over Piacenza.
 <strong>Spain. </strong>Sociedad, which last won the league championship in 1982, got a pair of goals from Darko Kovacevic and leads second-place Mallorca by three points. 
 
Patrick Kluivert put Barca ahead at 33 minutes with a shot that hit the post and deflected in off goalkeeper Sander Westerveld, but a Kovacevic header five minutes before halftime tied it.
 The Yugoslav striker was on target again early in the second half to put his team ahead, and Barcelona'a hopes of a comeback were dashed when midfielder Thiago Motta was red-carded 16 minutes from the end.
 In the final minute of injury-time, substitute Marc Overmars followed Motta to cap a sorry evening for the Catalans.
 
 <strong>
Italy. </strong>Lazio took over at the top of Serie A on Sunday after a 3-2 comeback win at Piacenza, while Juventus came back for a 2-2 draw at Roma and AC Milan drew at Empoli.
 
Just a point separates the top four, as Inter Milan ended a three-match winless run in the league by crushing Brescia 4-0. Christian Vieri scored all four goals.
 Three players were sent off in the final minutes in Rome, where Juventus came back from two goals behind to earn a point against Fabio Capello's side who remain stranded in ninth-place, ten points behind the leaders.
 Juve's Alessandro Birindelli and Roma's French wing-back Vincent Candela were dismissed three minutes from the end for wild challenges. Two minutes later, Roma captain Francesco Totti was red-carded for dissent.
 Totti had put Roma ahead in the 12th minute with a left-foot finish after a superb piece of control. The Italy international then produced a delightful back-heel flick to put Antonio Cassano through and the young striker rounded Gianluigi Buffon to double Roma's advantage in the 44th minute.
 Before the break, Alessandro del Piero brought Juve back into the game with a near-post header from a Mauro Camoranesi corner kick and Marcello Lippi's team tried to maintain its unbeaten record in the second half.
 Five minutes from the end, Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved grabbed the tying goal with a rasping left-foot drive into the top corner before tempers became frayed.
 Lazio's victory at Piacenza maintains its 100-percent road record and the Rome side have not lost since an opening-day home defeat to Chievo.
 In a match played in heavy fog, Piacenza took the lead in the 18th minute with a stunning strike from over 25 meters from midfielder Enzo Maresca.
 Nicola Caccia doubled the lead nine minutes later, but Lazio fought back to even the score before the break.
 Three minutes before halftime, Argentine midfielder Diego Simeone headed in a corner kick and then his compatriot Claudio Lopez tied the score with a close-range effort.
 Bernado Corradi thought he had put Lazio in front in the 67th minute, but his effort was ruled out for being offside.
 Deep into injury time, Corradi was left uncovered inside the Piacenza area and confidently headed home to complete the turn-around.
 
 <strong>
England. </strong>Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek dropped a clanger as Manchester United snatched a 2-1 victory at Anfield, while Leeds United suffered another shattering defeat in the Premiership on Sunday.
 
Dudek, selected despite a poor run of form, fumbled a simple back pass to hand Diego Forlan the first of two goals as United ended a run of four straight league defeats by Liverpool.
 A scrappy encounter seemed to be heading for a draw when the Poland international inexplicably failed to hold on to a routine headed back pass by Jamie Carragher after 64 minutes.
 The ball trickled through his legs and Forlan gleefully tapped it into the net for United's opening goal.
 Three minutes later, the Uruguayan grabbed his second, beating a poorly positioned Dudek at his near post with a fierce drive.
 Liverpool was stung into action, and pulled one goal back when Finnish defender Sami Hyypia drove the ball home from 15 meters out, following a scramble after 82 minutes.
 Terry Venables's job at Leeds was in even greater jeopardy after Scott Parker's stoppage-time goal for Charlton Athletic condemned it to a 2-1 defeat at Elland Road, its fifth successive home loss in the league.
 Australian forward Harry Kewell's ferocious 42nd-minute shot seemed to have netted misfiring Leeds a welcome victory over Charlton.
 But Kevin Lisbie's close-range finish with 10 minutes left levelled the score, and Parker completed a remarkable comeback with a fine run and shot in time added on.
 
 <strong>
Argentina. </strong>Independiente completed an astonishing turnaround in their fortunes by winning the Argentine championship for the first time in eight years on Sunday, clinching the Apertura title in style with a 3-0 win at San Lorenzo.
 
Independiente, needing a point to clinch the title, finished with 43 points, three ahead of Boca Juniors who beat Rosario Central 3-1 in vain.
 The Red Devils, coached by Argentina's 1978 World Cup midfielder Americo Gallego, had started the competition under a cloud after finishing in last place in the previous tournament amid a dire financial crisis. Their fortunes changed after a local businessperson helped them invest in reinforcements.
 Fernando Insua put Indepediente ahead in the 32nd minute after being assisted by top scorer Andres Silvera.
 Silvera added the second goal shortly after halftime with his 16th goal of the season.
 Lucas Pusineri crowned the win by scoring against his old club.
 
 <i>(AP, Reuters) </i>