SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #856 (24), Tuesday, April 1, 2003
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TITLE: Cloudbusting Means It Never Rains ... Or It Pours
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: It's hardly surprising that most self-respecting St. Petersburg residents treasure their umbrellas so highly, as the city's climate has been a problem since its foundation almost 300 years ago. The main problem is precipitation: It rains in fall, drizzles in spring, snows in winter, and not even a sunny summer day is immune from a torrential downpour.
 
Sometimes, however, the clouds can hold off for weeks. During the fortnight of the Goodwill Games in summer 1994, for example, the sun miraculously shone all the time - a rather weird, dim light, as though through some fog or shroud. And the first drop of rain from a thunderstorm hit the ground just a minute after the closing ceremony.
 "Yes, we worked hard at that time," said Sergei Okunev of the St. Petersburg Geophysics Observatory, one of Russia's top experts on the practicalities of cloud-seeding technology, or cloudbusting.
 During the Goodwill Games, Okunev said, specially equipped airplanes were kept busy making sure it didn't rain by seeding the clouds with certain chemical reagents that either induce or inhibit precipitation - in other words, to make it rain sooner or later.
 However, he said, cloudbusting is a far cry from the stereotypical image of North American native chiefs banging on wardrums and hollering at the sky. Today's cloudbusters use various chemical reagents, such as iodized silver, liquid nitrogen and solid carbonic acid, either individually or in combinations. 
 "It needs really experienced meteorological experts," Okunyev said. "They have to be able to diagnose the type of cloud, its distance from the desired or undesired location, and how much reagent is needed to get the necessary effect."
 Attempting to control the weather is not a new phenomenon here - Soviet scientists began investigating ways to influence events in the 1930s, following an order by Joseph Stalin. The researchers tackled questions including regulating rainfall, warding off hail, dispersing fog and preventing avalanches.
 "There were quite a number of areas in which those technologies were in high demand," said Viktor Petrov, deputy head of Atmosphere Technologies Agency ATTECH in Moscow, naming "agriculture, aviation, traffic, hydro-electric power, forestry and city life."
 Even with dozens of scientists at meteorological laboratories all across what was then the Soviet Union, it took years to accumulate the necessary know-how to, for example, disperse hail-bearing clouds threatening the entire grape harvest in Moldova and Georgia, redirect rainclouds to drought-hit agricultural areas, or disperse fog from around airports or large road junctions.
 "It was a massive task, which required collaboration between many services, such as forecasters, and those that developed the equipment and the chemicals," said Georgy Schukin, head of the Long-Range Atmospheric Probing Scientific Center, or DPASC, a branch of the Geophysics Observatory.
 The DPASC, located in the village of Voyeikovo, 30 kilometers east of St. Petersburg, spent years working on developing ecologically pure, efficient and cheap reagents for the tasks at hand.
 Petrov said the chemicals used today are ecologically clean and don't damage the health of anyone caught up in the precipitation caused.
 "We use substances originating from the atmosphere itself," he said.
 Another aim of the research was the ability to guarantee sunny weather for large cities during official celebrations, thereby generating the required festive spirit.
 "The country particularly needed the service for big national celebrations like October Revolution Day, on Nov. 7, or Victory Day, on May 9, in Moscow," Petrov said. "Big sports events like the 1980 Olympic Games also needed it."
 In 1986, experts were scrambled to prevent rainfall within a 30-kilometer radius of the nuclear-power plant at Chernobyl, after a reactor exploded on April 26, causing massive doses of radioactive pollution in the area.
 "We were told not to let rainclouds reach the area to save the Pripyat River from radioactive rainfall," Petrov said.
 According to Okunev, the research did not always go as planned.
 "A long time ago, while we were still researching the technology, I had a curious experience when, instead of preventing a hailcloud from damaging a harvest, we caused even more hail to fall, due to miscalculating the amount of reagent," he said.
 Today, Petrov said, the cloudbusters almost never fail, although the work may be seriously complicated by atmostpheric warm fronts, which cover huge areas with rainclouds, or by the prevailing winds.
 "Sometimes, that's hard to explain to the client," he said.
 ATTECH, founded in 1999, was the first commercial cloudbusting organization in Russia. Since then, it has been contracted to work in places as diverse as Uzbekistan, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Italy, Syria and Portugal.
 "Uzbekistan calls us twice a year to provide a clean sky for their big celebrations in Tashkent on March 21 and in September," Petrov said.
 However, the process is expensive: Leasing an airplane can cost from $200 to $800 per hour, depending on the craft's class; fuel adds some $320 per hour; while the experts' time and airport taxes also increase the price.
 "Two days of meteorological defense of Moscow costs 10 million rubles [$322,000]," Petrov said.
 However, with St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary looming like a stormcloud on the horizon in May, Petrov said that no orders regarding the weather have, as yet, been placed by the City Administration or anyone else.
 "Of couse, we would get a team together to help the city," he said. "But nobody's asked us yet."
 Or could it just be that the city wants to sell more umbrellas?

TITLE: Fighting Nears Baghdad, Intensifies
AUTHOR: By Meg Richards
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: IN SOUTH CENTRAL IRAQ - U.S.-led troops fought pitched battles with Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard within 80 kilometers of the capital Monday as coalition warplanes pounded the city and dozens of other Iraqi positions in advance of the battle for Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in fighting for control of the south-central city of Najaf.
 
In the closest ground fighting yet to Baghdad, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division pushed into the Euphrates River town of Hindiyah on Monday. Iraqi soldiers fired from behind brick walls and hedges with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, and U.S. troops returned fire with 25mm cannon and machine guns.
 At least 35 Iraqis were killed and U.S. forces captured several dozen others who identified themselves as members of the Republican Guard - Hussein's best-trained and best-equipped fighters. Their uniforms carried the elite unit's triangular insignia and they said they were with the Nebuchadnezzar Brigade, based in Hussein's hometown, Tikrit.
 Iraq remained defiant Monday; in Baghdad, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri questioned the legitimacy of the strikes and called on coalition soldiers to surrender.
 "America and Britain have no choice but to surrender and withdraw," Sabri said. "They will not leave our land safe and sound if they continue to be stubborn in their aggression. We will confront them with all we have ... No one will be safe."
 "We will turn our deserts into a big graveyard for the Americans and British," he said.
 With constant aerial bombardments on the capital, and ground forces advancing from the south, west and north, U.S. military leaders defended the pace of the war effort Sunday, answering criticism that they had underestimated the vigor of Iraqi resistance.
 "We have the power to be patient in this, and we're not going to do anything before we're ready," said General Richard Myers, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
 There is good reason for caution, as troops face persistent danger from plainclothes killers and warnings from Iraqi officials that there will be more suicide attacks like the one that killed four Americans on Saturday.
 Sabri said more than 5,000 Arabs have come to Iraq to help attack the invaders. Iraqi dissidents and Arab media have claimed that Hussein has opened a training camp for volunteers willing to carry out suicide bombings.
 In the north, U.S. aircraft pounded Iraqi positions near the town of Kalak on Monday, aiding Kurdish fighters as they seized territory from Hussein's fleeing troops. Under relentless attack, Iraqi forces could be seen abandoning positions on a ridge west of the Great Zab River.
 In Najaf, two soldiers from the 1st and 2nd brigades of the 101st Airborne Division were killed Monday when Iraqi fighters, dressed as civilians, opened fire with weapons mounted on vehicles, said Captain Kenric Bourne of the 101st.
 The 2nd brigade is fighting from the north and the 1st is closing in from the south to try to isolate the Shiite Muslim holy city of 300,000 people about 160 kilometers south of Baghdad.
 It was unclear whether U.S. forces would try to capture Najaf or just surround it. There are too many Iraqi fighters to bypass them or leave them unattended; they are a danger to supply lines on the way to Baghdad.
 Coalition forces are also weary of damaging Najaf's holy shrines, which could anger Shiites in Iraq and elsewhere, most notably Iran.
 In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, British forces continued to skirmish with militia soldiers loyal to Hussein. As many as 1,000 Royal Marines and supporting troops destroyed a bunker and several tanks in a commando assault Sunday. About 30 Iraqis were captured and an unknown number were killed. One Royal Marine was killed in the assault.
 Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson, said residents of Basra were providing information about Hussein loyalists in the city, but there were still areas "under the boot of the Iraqi regime."
 "We wouldn't say that Basra is completely under coalition control," he said.

TITLE: United Russia Boosts Its Roster
AUTHOR: By Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Girding itself for upcoming elections, the pro-Kremlin United Russia party got some notable additions over the weekend, plumping its list of high-profile principals with a third cabinet minister, half a dozen regional governors, a career KGB officer and a former intelligence agent.
 
The announcement came Saturday as more than 500 delegates converged on Moscow to vote for a clearer platform and changes to the party's structure - all of them aimed at improving management ahead of the December polls and presidential elections in March.
 "Even a cursory glance at the calendar makes it clear that we have no time to lose. The absolutely urgent task at the top of the list is a resounding victory at the polls," party leader and Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov told a news conference. "This makes it necessary to change the leadership structure and the system of our [local] organizations' work."
 For the past 3 1/2 years, United Russia's legislative arm, the Unity faction, and its allies in the State Duma have faithfully used their majority in the chamber to push through legislation submitted by President Vladimir Putin. Last week, on the third anniversary of his presidency, Putin met with United Russia leaders in the Kremlin and patted them on the head for the party's "unique organizational and intellectual potential."
 However, the party's own ratings have sagged far below the president's 74 percent average. As of last Monday, the respected VTsIOM polling service put United Russia's popularity among voters at 21 percent, 10 percentage points behind the No. 1 Communists. The margin of error in the 1,600-respondent survey was 3.4 percentage points.
 The party scored a tentative public-relations victory on Saturday when Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Khloponin, a promising young politician and former head of the Norilsk Nickel complex, finally agreed to join United Russia's top political body, the higher council.
 Which way Khloponin would decide remained a topic of speculation right up to the eve of the congress. Asked why he ultimately chose to support the party, Khloponin said, "It gives me a good platform for advancing my region's interests."
 One of the party's weakest points has been the lack of a clear agenda. Eager to get control of the next Duma, United Russia has been trying in recent months to win votes by billing itself as a "chicken-in-every-pot" party - optimistic, careful to avoid radical reforms and fighting for national prosperity that will benefit every Russian family.
 "Our ideology is the ideology of national success. From the party's point of view, that means the success of every Russian family and every individual Russian citizen," Gryzlov told the delegates. "Today, thanks to the efforts of the president and United Russia, our country is one of the most stable countries in the world."
 But observers closely watching the party congress were less interested in official rhetoric than in signs of who would be controlling United Russia and its election campaign in the wake of recent personnel reshuffles.
 "United Russia itself is not strong; the power lies in the groups whose interests it reflects," political analyst Yury Korgunyuk of the Indem think tank said Friday.
 While the party is largely the brainchild of the presidential administration, Putin's entourage is hardly monolithic. Two clans have been linked most often with top-level political battles behind the scenes: the so-called St. Petersburg clan, which includes security officials and politicians who worked with Putin in his native city, and the Family, Kremlin insiders left over from the Yeltsin era, like presidential Chief of Staff Alexander Voloshin and his deputy, Vladislav Surkov.
 One advantage secured by the Voloshin clan seemed to be a watering down of party officials' criticism of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov - traditionally seen as a Family man.
 The first victory on that front came last month, when Alexander Bespalov, the flamboyant head of the party's general council and central executive committee, stepped down from his leadership posts amid growing criticism and left to head up public relations at Gazprom.
 "After Bespalov's resignation the balance of power was upset because he was a St. Petersburg man and ... under his leadership there was a clear line aimed at weakening Kasyanov," said political analyst Andrei Ryabov of the Moscow Carnegie Center.
 During their speeches, Gryzlov and another top-ranking party official, Duma Deputy Oleg Morozov, piled plenty of criticism on the cabinet, much of which echoed the reprimands Kasyanov has hurled at his subordinates in recent weeks. Gryzlov said that one of the party's long-term goals was to introduce legislation making political parties the "building blocks" for forming the cabinet, which is currently appointed by the president. Another boost for Kasyanov was the selection of his supporter, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, to the party's top body, the higher council.
 Gordeyev is the third federal minister on the council's roster, along with Gryzlov and Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu. In all, the council got seven new members Saturday, six of them regional governors: Khloponin; Vladimir Chub of Rostov; Viktor Ishayev of Khabarovsk; Vyacheslav Pozgolyov of Vologda; Yegor Stroyev of Oryol; and Aman Tuleyev of Kemerovo. On paper, neither Gordeyev nor the governors are registered party members, since that is forbidden under current law.
 According to official party statistics, its 400,000 registered members include more than 2,000 lawmakers - among them, 151 State Duma deputies and 41 Federation Council senators - and more than 500 local leaders from the executive branch of government.
 In two major changes to the party's structure, the congress augmented the powers of the general council and slashed the authority of the central executive committee, which will now be responsible for technical functions rather than substantive decisions.
 The new general council, whose membership was boosted from 13 to 15, will be headed by Valery Bogomolov, a former intelligence agent who now heads the central administrative office of parliament's upper house. The scaled-down central executive committee - which has lost, among other things, control of the party's purse strings - will be headed by Yury Volkov, a retired KGB officer and two-time senator.

TITLE: Federal Auditors Set To File Complaint
AUTHOR: By Claire Bigg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Federal Audit Chamber announced Monday that it would file a complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office against the St. Petersburg City Administration because the latter "systematically ignores" the chamber's rulings regarding the investigation into mismanagement of federal funds earmarked for the preparations of the city's 300th anniversary.
 
In a press statement issued on Monday, the Audit Chamber said that Governor Vladimir Yakovlev and his administration have failed to provide any replies or information related to statements issued by the chamber after the results of earlier investigations were revealed.
 "During the meeting, the intolerable position of the governor of St. Petersburg, who systematically ignores the decisions of the Audit Chamber, the constitutional organ of state financial control, was discussed. The Audit Chamber has yet to receive an answer to its statements following the results of the latest investigations, which concerned the mismanagement of over 1 billion rubles [$31.9 million] allocated for road reconstruction in the city," the statement reads.
 In April, the Audit Chamber will carry out a review of how the city has followed up on the chamber's findings from earlier investigations.
 Yakovlev was quick to react to the statement, expressing hope that the conflict would be resolved soon and would not affect the preparations for the city's anniversary.
 "However, what is happening today could delay the reconstruction process in the collapsed tunnel on the Kirovsko-Vyborgsky metro line and the completion of a series of items related to the ring road," he told Interfax.
 The reaction from Alexander Afanasyev, Yakovlev's spokesperson, criticized the head of the Federal Audit Chamber, Sergei Stepashin.
 "Stepashin is acting like a radio, making these types of exotic statements for the press. The Audit Chamber is beginning to look like a mass-media outlet more than anything else," Afanasyev said in a telephone interview on Monday. "And his statements have no foundation. He is talking about federal projects, not those that are the responsibility of the city, so he should address his comments to the relevant bodies."
 Dmitry Burenin, the head of the St. Petersburg Audit Chamber, supported the federal chamber's statements, saying that the city administration shows the same disregard for the findings of the local economic watchdog.
 "Unfortunately, I don't see any indication that the situation is going to change," he said in an interview on Monday. "Officials ignore rulings for two reasons: Either because they don't know the law or they simply do it consciously. With regard to Yakovlev and his team, they ignore the Audit Chamber's rulings consciously."
 Burenin cited the example of Deputy Governor Anatoly Kogan, Head of the city administration's Health Committee, who was charged by the City Prosecutor's Office last March with criminal negligence for the mismanagement of over 5 million rubles ($135,000) in city-budget funds earmarked for buying insulin for diabetics treated at city-funded clinics.
 "Kogan has been charged in court ... and not only doesn't ask the governor him to return the money he has mismanaged, but asks him to stay in the government," Burenin said. "This could never happen in another country."

TITLE: Disputed German Art Opens in Moscow
AUTHOR: By Judith Ingram
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Close to three decades after he dragged 364 master drawings and paintings from defeated Germany to the Soviet Union in a suitcase, Viktor Baldin saw a chance to send them back to their owner - the Bremen Kunsthalle.
 
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was about to set out for a state visit to West Germany, and Baldin wrote him to propose that he bring the collection with him as a goodwill gesture. That 1973 letter brought no results - nor did the series he subsequently wrote to top Soviet political and cultural officials, up to the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.
 The Baldin collection remains in Russia, at the center of a decades-long dispute over the so-called trophy art that Soviet troops looted from Germany and its wartime allies. The collection of 362 drawings and two small paintings went on display Saturday at Moscow's Museum of Architecture, along with copies of Baldin's letters and accounts of his quest to return the art.
 The exhibit comes amid a furious dispute between Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi, who is intent on returning the collection to Bremen, and a group led by Communist legislator and former Culture Minister Nikolai Gubenko, who opposes returning trophy art, especially without compensation.
 Last Tuesday, the Prosecutor General's Office stepped into the fight, warning Shvydkoi that it would be illegal to send the collection to Germany.
 Gubenko claims the collection is worth about $1.5 billion.
 Architecture Museum director David Sarkisian said Saturday that a Russian auction house, Gelos, had appraised the collection at about $23.5 million - with one work alone, a Goya portrait, worth more than $4 million.
 The collection is but one of many taken from Germany and its World War II allies. Many Russians see the trophy art as rightful compensation for the 20 million deaths, untold injuries and immense destruction the Soviet Union suffered in the Nazi invasion.
 Baldin, an art restorer who served as a Soviet army captain and later directed the architecture museum for 25 years, "was a front-line soldier," Sarkisian said. "Nonetheless, he always wanted to give the Germans what he carried out of Germany."
 Baldin believed he had saved the collection from destruction. His engineers and sappers' unit had requisitioned a castle, Schloss Karnzow, near the town of Kyritz north of Berlin, and, the night before they were to return to the Soviet Union, a soldier tipped him off about a pile of drawings in the dark, dank basement. The pile included works by Raphael, Titian, Durer, Rubens, Rembrandt and Delacroix.
 He wrote in his 1990 memoirs of spending a furious night cutting the drawings out of their packaging and laying them in a suitcase, taking as many as he could manage. His commanders refused him use of a truck, so he carried the artworks all the way home - along the way trading belts, watches and money for drawings, "mostly nude women," that other soldiers had grabbed from the basement stash.
 Baldin kept his collection for three years under a bed in his office. In 1948, he gave it to the Architecture Museum, and in 1991, it was transferred to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. For more than two decades, he tried unsuccessfully to get it back to Germany.
 "In all spheres, the war is over for us. We're already friendly with Germans, we marry them, we dream of traveling there and they here," Sarkisian said. "But for some reason, there's a terrible war going on for culture."

TITLE: 1991 Coup Plotter Pavlov Dies
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Valentin Pavlov, a former Soviet prime minister who helped lead the 1991 failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, died Sunday following a prolonged illness, news reports said Monday. He was 66.
 
Pavlov began his career as a city financial inspector and rose slowly through the Soviet economic bureaucracy, becoming finance minister in 1989 and prime minister in January 1991.
 In August 1991, Pavlov and other Soviet hardliners, calling themselves the State Committee for a State of Emergency, announced Gorbachev was ill and isolated the reformist leader at a Black Sea resort. Looking glum and nervous, eight of them held a news conference to tell the country their committee was in charge. After just three days, the coup collapsed, Gorbachev was freed, and the plotters were arrested. Four months later, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus announced the Soviet Union defunct, forcing Gorbachev to resign on Dec. 25.
 Pavlov went on to work at Promstroibank and a New Jersey-based software developer. He later turned to economic research. 
 Pavlov remained unrepentant about his role in the coup. In 2001, he and several other surviving coup plotters, in an eerie reprise of their last joint appearance together, defended their actions and praised President Vladimir Putin as trying to achieve the same goals.
 "The current leadership is making efforts to restore control over the country," Pavlov told reporters. "Today, they are trying to do what we attempted to do in the Soviet Union in 1991."

TITLE: Four Killed in Slot-Machine-Parlor Shooting
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Four people were shot dead and another is in serious condition after a gunman opened fire in an electronic-slot-machine parlor at 36 Sredny Prospect on Vasilievsky Island on Saturday morning.
 
All four murder victims - Central District Police Sergeant Pavel Romanov, slot-machine operator Anna Pavlova, cashier Gennady Latyshev and cleaner Galina Shibitova - worked for the gaming parlor, with Romanov providing security under a contract with the city police.
 "The case was handed over to the Prosecutor's Office immediately," Pavel Rayevsky, the head of the St. Petersburg Police press service, said on Monday, adding that multiple killings are always investigated by the Prosecutor's Office.
 The Prosecutor's Office would not release details on Monday about whether any arrests had been made or about any suspects in the case, saying only that an unidentified killer shot the five people in the hall and then fled the scene and that the chances that the murder will be solved are very high. Nor would it speculate on possible motives for the crime, saying only that no money had been taken from the hall.
 According to Yelena Ordynskaya, an assistant to the city prosecutor, the girl in serious condition after the attack is Svetlana Shibitova, the 14-year-old daughter of the cleaner. A number of news agencies on Sunday reported that the girl had also been murdered, dying in hospital later from her wounds. In a telephone interview on Monday, however, Ordynskaya dismissed the reports.
 "The girl has been severely wounded but she was alive this morning," she said.
 Later on Monday, Ordynskaya said that the erroneous report of the girl's death had been deliberate, in order to lead the killer to believe that there were no surviving witnesses who could identify him. She said that it had been hoped that he would act more carelessly and perhaps be easier to apprehend.
 According to information on the Lenpravda.ru Internet news site, the killer was wearing police uniform. The report said that the killer rang the doorbell at the amusement hall at about 7 a.m., when the guard was asleep, and was allowed in by one of the hall's operators.
 The killer said he came to replace the guard, then shot Romanov in the head, followed by the other victims. Without citing sources, the site reported that Saturday was Romanov's 31st birthday.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Hollow Victory
 </b>

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Hollowed out logs are the latest gimmick used by Finns smuggling cigarettes and alcohol from Russia.
 Finnish customs said on Friday it had broken an organized-crime ring that used trucks carrying hollowed out logs to smuggle millions of cigarettes and alcohol from Russia.
 "Out of everything people manage to come up with, this is the first time we have seen anything like this," customs official Jouko Lahti said. "But nothing really surprises us anymore as people have become so imaginative."
 Lahti said police had arrested several Finns, but added that the case could involve a number of people. He declined to give a value of the smuggled goods, which have already been on the market in several Finnish cities
 
 
<b>Collect Calls
 </b>

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - The Russian military detained several Georgian soldiers suspected of stealing underground telephone cables used to link Russian military headquarters in Tbilisi with bases throughout the Caucasus Mountain region, a Russian official said Monday. 
 Colonel Alexander Lutskevich said some Georgian military signalers were detained Sunday after allegedly cutting 200 meters of cable in an underground tunnel. Lutskevich said the soldiers were also believed to be responsible for the March 23 disappearance of 1,700 meters of telephone cable.
 The telephone cable was taken from an underground tunnel located in Tbilisi near both the Russian military headquarters and the Georgian Defense Ministry. The Defense Ministry uses the tunnel for its own telephone communications equipment.
 
<b>Jazz Musician Killed 
 </b>

BOSTON (AP) - Pianist and composer David Azarian, who fell in love with jazz listening to radio broadcasts behind the Iron Curtain and years later followed the music to the United States, has died. He was 51.
 Azarian died Saturday when he was hit by a car while changing a tire by the roadside, according to state police.
 His career spanned decades, from the Soviet Composer's Union to the stage of such legendary jazz venues as the Blue Note and Carnegie Hall in New York. Azarian also taught at Boston's renowned Berklee School of Music.
 Born in Yerevan, Armenia, to a musical family, Azarian began studying music at age 7. But his love for jazz would be formed listening to radio broadcasts on Voice of America. He came to the United States in 1989 for a concert tour and wound up staying.
 
 
<b>Chechnya Court
 </b>

VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia (AP) - Human-rights activists called Monday for the creation of an international tribunal that would prosecute Russian troops and rebels suspected of war crimes in the region - an idea the Kremlin has angrily rejected.
 A group of 40 Russian and foreign activists signed a statement supporting a proposal for a Chechnya war crimes court modeled after the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights said in a news release.
 The statement, issued after a conference in the southern city of Pyatigorsk, said participants were "deeply concerned by the continuing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Chechnya that claim civilian lives and cause enormous human suffering on a daily basis." 



TITLE: For Saddam's Doubles, Head to Dagestan
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: KHASAVYURT, Southern Russia - Saddam Hussein deftly fastened a scope sight to his Kalashnikov rifle, lifted the weapon above his head in a trademark posture and pulled the trigger.
 
No report followed.
 In fact, it could not follow. The gun was a plastic toy, and this Hussein was but a seven-year-old boy.
 Saddam Hussein Umakhanov is one of several Dagestani boys named after the Iraqi leader following the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
 &quot;We liked Saddam Hussein as a true man who alone stood against half of the world,&quot; said Kurban Umakhanov, father of the seven-year-old Saddam. &quot;We decided then to name our first son after Saddam. We didn't even think about other variants.&quot;
 &quot;After all, Saddam is a Muslim,&quot; said Saddam's mother, Muminat, flashing an entire set of golden teeth. &quot;Just like us.&quot;
 Saddam Hussein Umakhanov lives in Khasavyurt, a Russian town near the Chechen border. He is a cherub with piper's cheeks and missing front teeth. But this miniature Saddam can often be a terror. His three older sisters complain that he sometimes treats them like a dictator.
 &quot;He very much likes to give out commands,&quot; 15-year-old Dinara Umakhanova said. &quot;But he never offends us. He is so kind. And our parents love him the most.&quot;
 As in many families in rural Dagestan, the Umakhanov women wear headscarves, even at home. Saddam, however, prefers adult-styled dark suits and black neckties. He is also an avid cartoon watcher. His parents recently bought a satellite dish to satiate his appetite for animated heroes.
 &quot;I like Mask and the Spiderman series,&quot; Saddam said, speaking with a lisp. He skillfully manipulated a complicated remote control to locate his favorite cartoons. &quot;Spiderman is especially good. He helps people and saves them.&quot;
 As for the real world of geopolitical good and evil, which features his namesake as a star player, little Saddam is too young to develop his own opinion. But he knows that Saddam Hussein is an &quot;Iraqi tsar.&quot;
 For the parents, it's not enough to name their son after the dictator. Muminat Umakhanova claims to see a resemblance between her Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Saddam Hussein. &quot;He looks so respectable,&quot; she said proudly. &quot;He doesn't kid around. And he doesn't talk to other children.&quot;
 His sisters claim that no one at school dares tease the first-grader Saddam, since he is the strongest boy in his class.
 He may derive his machismo from his parents who, like many Dagestani couples, rear their son among a pile of military toys. They shower young Saddam with movable miniature soldiers and king-size plastic firearms.
 Such ceremony inspires talk of great deeds. Kurban Umakhanov mentions a recent report about the real Saddam Hussein firing 124 rounds from a carbine at a military parade in Baghdad. &quot;I want my son to become that strong and manly,&quot; Umakhanov said, a deep respect audible in his voice.
 Umakhanov himself has reason to venerate such displays of vigor. After undergoing three surgeries to remove a cyst from his brain, he is now paralyzed on the right half of his body. Umakhanov must lift his limp right arm with his left in order to shake hands. He clearly finds strength and pride through a connection with the Iraqi leader.
 And he is not alone. With the new war tearing through Iraq, sympathies of common Dagestanis toward Saddam Hussein only strengthen. 
 Dagestan recently saw a series of rallies protesting the U.S.-led offensive in Iraq. The republic's representative in State Duma, Gadzhi Makhachev, admitted publicly that 8,000 Dagestanis had volunteered to fight for Hussein in Iraq.
 All saber-rattling aside, an official in Makhachkala's registrar of birth, death and marriages speculated that sentimentality, and not political bias, drives people to name their children after people like Saddam Hussein.
 &quot;For example, there was no such female name as Indira in Dagestan before Indira Ghandi became a world celebrity in late 1950s,&quot; said the official, who chose not to give her name. &quot;After she was assassinated in 1984, Indira became one of the most popular names for new-born girls.&quot;
 The official also claimed a spike in Dagestani parents naming their girls Diana, after the Princess of Wales, who died in a traffic accident in 1997.
 If this pattern holds true, and the U.S.-led coalition succeeds in overthrowing Hussein, his name may stop sounding unusual among the Russian Muslim population. For now, the number of Dagestani Saddams is small, if fierce.
 &quot;I am for Saddam in this war because he is right,&quot; Saddam Hussein Andalayev said with conviction. Andalayev lives in his parents' three-room flat in a crumbling five-story building in the capital city, Makhachkala.
 He was born in July 1991, at the end of the first U.S.-led operation against Iraqi Saddam. For the second go-round, Andalayev has distinct views.
 &quot;He should not give up Iraqi oil to anyone,&quot; he said. &quot;If [U.S. President George] Bush wants oil, he should ask Saddam politely to sell it. And Saddam having chemical weapons was just a fib to launch a war on him.&quot;
 The boy's daily routine includes watching television news from the battlefield and reporting it later when his father, Surkhai, returns home from his job as a bus driver.
 &quot;I named my son after Saddam because I really respect the man for the way he behaved, standing against dozens of countries,&quot; Surkhai said.
 The father's sympathies for Saddam have only grown during trips through Iraq on traditional Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca during the mid-1990s.
 &quot;There is no way Saddam is a dictator,&quot; Surkhai said. &quot;His people live a much freer life than people have in Saudi Arabia, which is an American ally in this war.&quot;
 Like his famous namesake, Surkhai's son is a keen swimmer. The Iraqi Hussein once made a legendary escape from government forces by swimming across the Tigris River after participating in a failed coup in 1959.
 &quot;I can swim 250 meters without a stop,&quot; said the Andalayev Saddam. He also boasts a strong stomach, saying that he hadn't eaten for five days during the latest Ramadan, the traditional fasting month for Muslims. 
 He has hopes of one day becoming a police officer &quot;Not a traffic cop; my father hates them,&quot; he explained. &quot;I want to catch bandits and terrorists.&quot;
 Saddam's father said that a choice of a name for his first son was also influenced by the constant anti-American propaganda the Soviet Army fed him in the 1980s. It's a strong sentiment that has filtered down to the miniature Saddam.
 &quot;If I meet Bush,&quot; he said, &quot;I would tell him that he is an insatiable freak.&quot;

TITLE: Ukrainians Deny U.S. Arms-Deal Allegations
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Ukraine's arms export agency denied on Monday a report in U.S. magazine Newsweek that Ukrainian dealers sold Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles to Iraq in violation of UN- sanctions.
 
&quot;Nothing like that could have gone past us,&quot; Ukrspetsexport spokesperson Alexander Urban said by telephone from Kiev.
 Newsweek reported that Iraq has bought 1,000 laser-guided Kornet missiles and identified the sellers as Ukrainian arms dealers. The magazine cited unnamed Pentagon generals as saying Ukrainian dealers sold about 500 Kornets in January. Iraqi forces have already used the missiles, made by KBP of Tula, to destroy two U.S. Abrams tanks, the sources said.
 The magazine also said Iraq might have acquired missiles from &quot;entrepreneurial generals&quot; in Syria. In 1998 and 1999, the Syrian military bought about 1,000 anti-tank missiles from KBP, including Kornets, which can engage targets at night and have a range of up to 5.5 kilometers.
 The United States accused the Russian government last month of failing to stop Russian companies from selling Kornets and other defense equipment to Iraq in violation of UN sanctions. Monday's Newsweek report suggests that Iraq might have managed to obtain the equipment through third parties.
 Ukrspetsexport said it always demands that customers provide the so-called end-user certificate, which bans the re-sale of the arms.
 Urban said Ukrspetsexport mediates all of Ukraine's arms exports, apart from military aircraft engine sales, but cannot be held accountable if a customer violates the end-user certificate. 
 Officials at the Security Service of Ukraine, which fights arms smuggling, declined to comment Monday. The service said Friday that it had foiled an attempt to smuggle Scud missile components out of Ukraine and noted that attempts to smuggle Ukrainian defense technology have intensified since the war began in Iraq, the Prima-News news agency reported Monday.
 The allegations of new arms sales came after Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma rejected U.S. claims last year that he approved the sale of four Kolchuga radar systems to Iraq in July 2000 - also in violation of UN sanctions. Washington said last week that an investigation into the alleged sale was continuing.
 The Iraqi Embassy said Monday that KBP has not supplied any missiles to Iraq. &quot;All of this is disinformation to justify the military setbacks of the American and British aggressors in Iraq,&quot; Iraqi Ambassador Abbas Khalaf told Interfax. 
 KBP denies selling equipment to Iraq, and Russian government officials on Monday repeated denials that Russian companies had made any sales.
 &quot;We are already tired of commenting on this. Russia has not violated any international arms embargoes,&quot; said an official at the Defense Ministry's military-technical cooperation committee, which clears all Russian arms deals.
 The official, who asked not to be named, said his committee takes pains to ensure that clients of Russia's chief arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, KBP and other companies sign end-user certificates. He added that Russia couldn't be held liable for clients who don't adhere to the certificate.
 Calls to the Syrian Embassy's press officer went unanswered Monday.

TITLE: New Universe for Fyodorova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In a surprise move Monday, President Vladimir Putin named Russia's former Miss Universe as a deputy prime minister. Oksana Fyodorova takes over the post vacated by Valentina Matviyenko, who left the government earlier this month to become Putin's envoy in the Northwestern Federal District.
 
Fyodorova, a ranking police detective and current co-host of the popular children's show &quot;Spokoinoi Noch, Malyshi,&quot; (&quot;Good Night, Children&quot;) will take up her post Tuesday after presenting her last show on Rossiya television.
 The green-eyed beauty, who will be one of four deputy prime ministers, will be in charge of social affairs and oversee the work of the Health, Culture, Education and Labor ministries. 
 &quot;I love social things. I'm healthy, I adore culture and I wanted to work as a teacher - so I think I am very qualified,&quot; Fyodorova was quoted by Interfax as saying at a Kremlin reception, where her fellow deputy prime ministers presented her with a bouquet of flowers.
 Fyodorova, 25, was stripped of her Miss Universe crown after only four months last year. Pageant organizers said she failed to fulfill all her duties and had gained weight. The New York Post reported at the time about speculation that she was pregnant from a well-connected older boyfriend named Vladimir.
 She denied the rumors and said she had not gained any weight.
 Putin said he was sure Fyodorova would prove up to the task.
 &quot;Being a deputy prime minister is not the same as being Miss Universe,&quot; a visibly annoyed Putin said in remarks shown on Channel One and later rebroadcast on &quot;Spokonoi Nochi, Malyshi.&quot; &quot;She has a beautiful mind, will fulfill all her duties and will not gain any weight.&quot;
 Political analysts expressed surprise at her appointment but said her &quot;Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi&quot; puppets Khrui, the piglet, and Stepashka, the rabbit, would go far in cutting wage arrears and encouraging the public to exercise.
 Khrui and Stepashka are believed to be in line for top adviser posts in the government, said one government source.
 &quot;I will be my own piglet, I won't be a puppet for Fyodorova,&quot; the mischievous Khrui said before Monday night's &quot;Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi&quot; ended and it was time for him to go to bed.

TITLE: Baghdad Communications Survive Strikes
AUTHOR: By Hamza Hendawi
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD - U.S. attempts to silence Iraqi television and radio through heavy aerial attacks have failed, with the country's information minister insisting Monday that the state-sponsored broadcasts were unaffected by the latest attacks.
 
Despite repeated bombings of the Iraqi Information Ministry and Iraqi transmitters, the local media operation was &quot;as good as it was before&quot; the attacks early Monday, said Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.
 The minister said he and several colleagues had helped extinguish flames in the ministry in Baghdad, while technicians repaired the damaged transmitters. The Americans had hoped to cut off television and radio transmissions in an effort to halt Iraqi propaganda.
 Iraqi television was off for about three hours Monday morning in Baghdad before the broadcasts resumed. At his Monday briefing, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks of U.S. Central Command said damage to the transmission facilities meant the civilian population &quot;did not see much of the regime at this time.&quot;
 The loss of a local signal doesn't affect Iraqi Satellite TV, which broadcasts 24 hours a day outside Iraq.
 Al-Sahhaf condemned the Americans and the British as &quot;saboteurs of the first rate who deserve nothing less than death.&quot; Al-Sahhaf's comments echoed those of Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, who warned earlier Monday that only surrender could save coalition troops from a &quot;holocaust.&quot;
 Al-Sahhaf also claimed that Iraqi fighters had killed 43 coalition soldiers on Sunday. The officials death count released by U.S. and British officials was 65 killed since the war began March 19.
 &quot;They deny and spread lies&quot; about their casualties, the minister said. Sabri, meeting with reporters, echoed al-Sahhaf's confident tone.
 &quot;Every day that passes the United States and Britain are sinking deeper in the mud of defeat,&quot; Sabri said. &quot; Those two states have no choice but to withdraw early and fast, today before tomorrow.&quot;
 As he spoke at a news conference at the Palestine Hotel, a new air raid was reported in the Iraqi capital.
 The intermittent sound of explosions on the outskirts of Baghdad continued Monday until after nightfall, with the sound of aircraft overhead audible in the city of 5 million. Nearly all of Baghdad's telephone lines appeared out, after at least five telephone exchanges were struck by allied bombings.
 But the city's power supply remains intact and, street lights come on at night without fail.
 Around midafternoon, a low-flying aircraft could be heard over central Baghdad and the sound of two explosions followed. The target was a site on the west bank of the Tigris River. Moments later, a huge cloud of white smoke rose from the spot. The area houses many government departments, and other sensitive sites.
 Earlier Monday, an armada of B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers struck communication and command centers in Baghdad. The U.S. Central Command said it was the first time in history that long-range B-1s, B-2s and B-52s had carried out simultaneous attacks on the same location.
 Cruise missiles set the Information Ministry ablaze in the second such attack on the building in two days. The fire, yards away from a shopping mall named for Saddam Hussein's birthday, was put out after half an hour.
 The 10-story building remained standing. Windows were gone and the outside walls sustained some damage. Witnesses said the interior, especially on the top floors, was severely damaged.

TITLE: NBC Axes Reporter for Interview With Iraqis
AUTHOR: By David Bauder
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV in which he said the American-led coalition's initial plan for the war had failed because of Iraq's resistance. Arnett called the interview a &quot;misjudgment&quot; and apologized.
 
Arnett, on NBC's &quot;Today&quot; show on Monday, said he was sorry for his statement but added &quot;I said over the weekend what we all know about the war.&quot;
 &quot;I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment,&quot; the New Zealand-born Arnett said. He said he would try to leave Baghdad now, joking &quot;there's a small island in the South Pacific that I've inhabited that I'll try to swim to.&quot;
 NBC defended him Sunday, saying he had given the interview as a professional courtesy and that his remarks were analytical in nature. But by Monday morning the network switched course and, after Arnett spoke with NBC News President Neal Shapiro, said it would no longer work with Arnett.
 &quot;It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war,&quot; NBC spokesperson Allison Gollust said. &quot;And it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview.&quot;
 Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, gained much of his prominence from covering the 1991 Gulf War for CNN. One of the few American television reporters left in Baghdad, his reports were frequently aired on NBC and its cable sisters, MSNBC and CNBC.
 Leaving a second network under a cloud may mark the end of his TV career. Arnett was the on-air reporter of the 1998 CNN report that accused American forces of using sarin nerve gas on a Laotian village in 1970 to kill U.S. defectors. Two CNN employees were sacked and Arnett was reprimanded over the report, which the station later retracted. Arnett left the network when his contract was not renewed.
 In the Iraqi TV interview, broadcast Sunday by Iraq's satellite television station, Arnett said his Iraqi friends tell him there is a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain are doing.
 He said the United States is reappraising the battlefield and delaying the war, maybe for a week, &quot;and rewriting the war plan. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan.&quot;
 &quot;Clearly, the American war plans misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces,&quot; Arnett said.
 Arnett said it is clear that within the United States there is growing opposition to the war and a growing challenge to U.S. President George W. Bush about the war's conduct.
 &quot;Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States,&quot; he said. &quot;It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments.&quot;
 At a briefing Sunday in Qatar, General Tommy Franks ticked off major achievements of the war campaign, including the advance of troops to within 80 kilometers of Baghdad. But he found himself answering questions about whether he had enough troops to do the job and denying that coalition forces were stalled.

TITLE: Shvydkoi Highlights Endangered Landmarks
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi on Monday pressed his concern that the U.S.-led war in Iraq could destroy historical treasures, handing the U.S. ambassador a list of architectural monuments and other items of cultural importance that could be at risk.
 
The list of dozens of relics Shvydkoi gave U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow included Babylonian ruins, artwork from Mesopotamia and ancient cuneiform texts, Itar-Tass reported. 
 &quot;Everyone is focusing on oil, but oil is not the only thing of value in [Iraq],&quot; Shvydkoi said on Channel One television. &quot;The relics of Assyrian and Babylonian culture of Mesopotamia may be worth more to humanity.&quot;
 Vershbow, speaking on Channel One, said the United States is &quot;in complete agreement that the protection of cultural sites is a priority.&quot;
 On Friday, Shvydkoi sent a letter to the head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization saying the war was putting Iraq's cultural relics at risk of destruction, and suggested the creation of a monitoring group under UNESCO's aegis that would protect such treasures during armed conflicts.
 Culture Ministry spokesperson Natalya Uvarova said that while U.S. and Russian experts probably have similar knowledge about Iraq's relics, Russia has a large database on the subject and felt that it would be useful to present the list to the United States.
 Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone Sunday with the leaders of Italy and Britain about the war in Iraq.
 The Kremlin press service downplayed Russia's opposition to Britain's role in the war, mentioning Iraq only in the fourth paragraph of a statement about Putin's conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
 &quot;Satisfaction was expressed that, amid their known differences, the points of view of the two countries correspond on the central role of the UN in international relations,&quot; the statement said.

TITLE: More Questions Than Answers at Seminar
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A seminar on Thursday evening that was organized to provide the foreign business community here with answers to questions about Russia's new visa and work-permit rules suggested that it will take more time to iron out some of the bugs in the new system.
 
The seminar, which was co-organized by the St. Petersburg International Business Association (SPIBA) and the St. Petersburg office of international law firm Salans, featured local representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Passport-Visa Service and the External Labor Migration Division of the Interior Ministry and the Federal Employment Service. While little new in the way of information was evident at the meeting, the representatives of the different organizations asked for a little bit of patience from those present.
 &quot;An enormous number of questions have arisen recently that are of a hysterical nature. It is as if we are trying to stand in the way of foreign businesspeople. The reaction has been very emotional,&quot; Anatoly Utyatsky, the head of the St. Petersburg Police Passport and Visa Service, said in his presentation at the meeting. &quot;We don't yet have a clear understanding of some of the requirements [in this situation] yet.&quot;
 Both in his prepared remarks and in answers to those who attended the seminar, Utyatsky said that local immigration officials were not properly applying the new regulations. He said that, while some officials were requiring that holders of multi-entry visas register every time they re-entered the country and received one of the new immigration cards, foreigners with these visas were only required to register the first time they entered.
 One of those in attendance, Christian Courbois, the owner and general director of mail and courier service Westpost, who asked about the requirements for registering children under the new rules. Utyatsky said that children under 18 years old did not have to be registered separately according to the Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens, an answer that seemed to surprise Courbois.
 &quot;Excuse me, but my experience contradicts what you just said,&quot; Courbois answered. &quot;I had to register my daughter [each of the two] times I entered the country within the last two months.&quot;
 &quot;I said that, according to the law, children do not have to be registered separately,&quot; Utyatsky replied.
 Dmitry Cherneiko, the head of the St. Petersburg Department of the Federal Employment Service, said that the service understood that the new system had not been implemented smoothly, and suggested that SPIBA should write a letter to Valentina Matviyenko, the presidential representative for the Northwest Region, suggesting ways in which working with the new rules could be streamlined for foreigners working here.
 &quot;I agree there is a doubling [of functions] taking place,&quot; Cherneiko said. &quot;The Ministry of Labor and the Migration Department often end up speaking different languages. This is just the way it has been historically.&quot;
 Other speakers at the seminar said that, while a lack of bureaucratic coordination was behind some of the problems in implementing the new rules effectively, the different organizations involved were not the only ones to blame. Antonina Chetverikova, the head of the External Labor Migration Department of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Department of the Interior Ministry, said that the new laws themselves were to blame for the present difficulties.
 &quot;Since our service was set up, in 1993, we have been waiting for a relevant law, and were only operating according to a presidential decree,&quot; Chetverikova said. &quot;Now a law has finally been passed but, to be honest, after reading it, I wish that I had never seen it.&quot;
 &quot;But this is the law, whether we want it or not, and we have to follow it,&quot; she added.
 Chetverikova said that, following the procedures set out in the new, it takes at least two months to issue a work permit for a foreign employee, despite the fact that the law says that only 30 days are necessary. She said that the situation became particularly difficult after a new regulation required that all pertinent documents be sent to Moscow.
 She also said that, while the government has set limits on the number of permits for foreign workers that can be processed annually to in each of Russia's regions and cities - the number for St. Petersburg is 14,000, with 6,499 being the limit for the Leningrad Oblast - at the present pace of applications and with the processing period being about three months, the limits aren't a concern.
 &quot;A the moment, we have about 300 cases for St. Petersburg and about 200 for the Leningrad Oblast,&quot; Chetverikova said.
 &quot;With numbers of this kind, I don't believe we will even reach the quotas, so I don't think [Interior Ministry] officials should be worried about exceeding them,&quot; she added sarcastically.
 Chetverikova said that another of the difficulties with the new changes is that the cost of a work permit for a foreign employee has been set at about 4,000 rubles (about $125), plus a deposit in the amount of the price of an airline ticket home to cover the possibility that the worker might be deported.
 &quot;With these conditions, it is quite hard to employ a construction worker from Turkey,&quot; she said.
 The Passport and Visa Service's Utyatsky said that it is not a lack of understanding on the part of the service that was creating the difficulties, but the fact that the serviced is understaffed, and that he expected some improvements after a special Passport-Visa Center is set up to work with foreigners.
 &quot;This will help to speed up the process of registration and to improve the service,&quot; Utyatsky said. He did say when the center would be established.
 While representatives of the foreign business community and companies working with them did not seem entirely satisfied with the answers from the officials that were present, they said that it was a step in the right direction.
 &quot;Nobody found out anything new because all of what we heard is written in the law,&quot; said Natalya Safronova, an associate with Salans' St. Petersburg office in a telephone interview on Friday. &quot;But it's good that [the authorities] showed they are ready [for discussion]. All of them showed up at the meeting on their own time.&quot;
 Sebastian Fitzlyon, the general manager of the S. Zinovieff &amp; Co. real estate firm, who was the moderator for the seminar, summed up the comments by most of the speakers neatly in his closing remarks.
 &quot;The situation is still complicated,&quot; Fitzlyon said. &quot;I have a feeling that it could take a few months to make the situation clearer.&quot;

TITLE: Ministry Slams Door On Poultry From EU
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - After ordering domestic farmers to destroy 360,000 eggs and almost 90,000 chicks to counter a deadly avian-flu strain from the Netherlands, the Agriculture Ministry on Monday threatened to ban all poultry imports from the European Union.
 
&quot;The Russian veterinary department considers the European Commission's measures insufficient to ensure the safety of poultry products imported to our country and demands additional guarantees,&quot; First Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergei Dankvert said, according to Interfax.
 When the virus first appeared in the Netherlands on March 1, Russia imposed a ban on Dutch poultry products - including meat, live birds and eggs - and fodder. Imports from neighboring Belgium have also been suspended.
 The veterinary department, part of the Agriculture Ministry, sent a request Monday to European veterinary services asking them to provide additional safety guarantees.
 If they don't provide such documents, &quot;Russia's veterinary department will ban imports of poultry products and pedigree birds from Europe,&quot; Dankvert said.
 Russia takes up to a third of the EU's poultry exports, importing 264,000 metric tons from the EU last year, or 20 percent of all poultry imports.
 The ministry said the request was sent after antibodies to the virus were found in imported Dutch hatching eggs - meaning they came from infected chickens.
 The eggs were imported to farms in Lipetsk and Voronezh, which are 400 kilometers and 500 kilometers south of Moscow, respectively.
 The veterinary department ordered that 88,000 chicks and 363,000 eggs - both imports and domestic eggs that lay in nearby incubators - be destroyed, Dankvert said.
 No cases of avian flu have been registered in Russia in the past 15 years.
 &quot;We have destroyed the center of a possible chicken avian-flu epidemic,&quot; Dankvert said, adding that the veterinary department is keeping an eye all farms located in a 30-kilometer zone around Voronezh and Lipetsk.
 Dankvert said EU countries have banned the movement within the EU of only live birds and hatching eggs from the Netherlands, but not of poultry products, fodder and fodder additives, which can also carry the virus.
 The virus can survive up to 404 days in frozen poultry, 240 days in live birds' down and 120 days in eggs, Dankvert said.
 &quot;We have no guarantees that a dangerous virus would not come through any other European country,&quot; Dankvert said. 
 Beate Gminder, a European Commission spokesperson for food safety, said the EC had taken measures to prevent the virus from spreading.

TITLE: UES, Gazprom To Team Up
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - Unified Energy Systems and Gazprom, together with five other industrial giants, plan to extend their reach into the country's households with a $700-million investment launching a residential-utility-services joint venture.
 
The UES board has given the green light to the power monopoly's participation in Russian Communal Systems, a new company that will overhaul Russia's floundering state and municipal communal-services sector.
 Gazprom and UES will both hold 25-percent stakes, while the other five investors - Interros, Renova, Kuzbassrazrezugol, Evrazholding and Evrofinans - will have 10 percent apiece.
 The new company will work with regional authorities who currently administrate public services to take management control of last-mile electricity and heat networks, as well as gas, water and garbage disposal, board member David Herne was quoted by Reuters as saying in a letter to investors Monday. 
 Gazprom hasn't yet received approval from its board for participation in the project, UES spokesperson Andrei Yegorov said and, in the meantime, its stake in the venture will be handled through its subsidiary Gazprombank. Gazprom is expected to purchase 10 percent of the Gazprombank shares.
 Yegorov said that the company would be registered in May and would operate by the summer in 11 regions including Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Volgograd, Saratov, Orenburg, Kirov, Chelyabinsk, Rostov, Omsk, Novgorod and Murmansk. By 2005, it is expected to have a presence in 40 regions, he said. 
 To finance the venture, the consortium is seeking to borrow $500 million from outside investors, including the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

TITLE: $500-Million Business Park Seeks Tenants
AUTHOR: By Robin Munro
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A plan to build Russia's first large, Western-style park for light-industry, logistics service providers and warehouses was presented recently at the MIPIM conference for international real-estate professionals in Cannes, France.
 
An estimated $500 million will be needed to construct the massive 250,000-square-meter Nova Park project in St. Petersburg.
 &quot;There have been no big business parks in Russia so far,&quot; said Darrell Stanaford, senior director at Noble Gibbons/CB Richard Ellis. &quot;They are the preferred choice of manufacturers.&quot;
 Skanska St. Petersburg Development - a 50/50 joint venture between St. Petersburg's property committee and Swedish construction giant Skanska - intends to start developing a 64-hectare site in the northeast of the city this year.
 But the joint venture's president, Risto Koppeli, said that the process could take longer because it could take several months simply to obtain planning permission after investors have been found.
 Koppeli said it was difficult to determine the market price for the industrial park's buildings because there are no other projects like it in Russia. An average facility could cost $3 million to $8 million, depending on the infrastructure and utility requirements of the investors.
 &quot;Typically, the facilities will be 5,000 square meters to 10,000 square meters. Allowing for expansion, that will require 2-hectare to 5-hectare sites,&quot; he said in a telephone interview from St. Petersburg.
 St. Petersburg company S. Zinovieff &amp; Co. is marketing Nova Park in the northern capital and Noble Gibbons is marketing it internationally. The target tenants are foreign manufacturers.
 Stanaford said the joint venture would be able to shield its tenants from the bureaucratic problems associated with opening a production facility because one of its members is the authority that issues permits.
 &quot;Many industrial organizations are frustrated with the delays and cost overruns in setting up manufacturing in Russia. The permissions process in Russia is very challenging,&quot; he said.
 The tenants will have an option to take a 49-year lease on their properties.
 Stanaford said Nova Park has a better chance than similar projects because Skanska has already established a development record in Russia.
 Skanska has been working in St. Petersburg since 1995 and has experience in industrial and non-industrial construction in Russia - including three office buildings and factories for Gillette and Rothmans in the St. Petersburg area.
 The company has also built similar parks in Budapest, Hungary, and Riga, Latvia.
 The construction project is expected to last six years, with work starting on the first sites this summer.
 Fifty-six hectares will be dedicated to manufacturing and storage facilities and 8 hectares are to be developed later as a technological park.
 Stanaford said the industrial market in St. Petersburg is almost as developed as Moscow's.
 &quot;The city government and the Leningrad region have been very receptive to foreign manufacturers,&quot; he said. &quot;Costs are generally lower than in Moscow. If you look at greenfield manufacturing projects, the split is pretty even between Moscow and St. Petersburg.&quot;
 Another attraction has been the northern capital's proximity to the border, with Caterpillar and Ford establishing facilities there because of their interest in exporting, he said.
 Rouben Alchoujian, associate director at Jones Lang LaSalle, said Nova Park's size, location and the involvement of Skanska and the St. Petersburg government make the project attractive.
 Despite this, and although demand for industrial space exists, the project's Achilles heel could be a request that investors commit before anything has been built, he said.
 &quot;In a more mature market, this would be more successful,&quot; Alchoujian said.
 Kirill Starodubtsev, managing director of PMC, agreed that Skanska is a good partner but said he was unsure if there is enough demand in St. Petersburg for Nova Park to succeed.
 Little progress has been made on two industrial parks covering about 40 hectares in Moscow - the Moscow Logistics Park and YIT. And the logistics park stalled, despite its location in a reduced tax zone.
 Starodubtsev said one of the problems facing would-be industrial users is that they find it difficult to forecast even three years ahead, whereas their commitment to a site in the Nova Park would be for at least five years.

TITLE: State Lining Up Adviser For Sale of Svyazinvest
AUTHOR: By Larisa Naumenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government will choose a consultant within six weeks to recommend the size, price and timing of the next auction for a stake in national fixed-line telephone operator Svyazinvest, Communications Minister Leonid Reiman said Friday.
 
The adviser will be chosen by, and will join, a group currently working on the next stage of Svyazinvest's privatization, including officials from the Communications and Property ministries and the State Property Fund, Reiman told an investment conference.
 The government has included in its 2003 privatization plan, the sale of 25 percent minus two shares of the holding, which controls all seven of the so-called super-regional telecoms, into which more than 70 local operators were recently consolidated.
 Last month, the Property Ministry said it was looking to get $1 billion for that stake. However, several officials, including Reiman, have expressed doubts about that estimate and have hinted that the entire 75-percent stake may be sold in one go.
 In 1997, the government sold 25 percent plus one share of the holding for nearly $1.9 billion to a consortium that included tycoon Vladimir Potanin and international financier George Soros, who later described it as the worst investment he had ever made.
 Svyazinvest chief Valery Yashin said in a recent interview that the company is now valued at only $1.8 billion, and that the government could get a much better price if it waited a year or two to sell.
 Svyazinvest is expecting net profit for all the companies under its umbrella to grow nearly 30 percent this year to 13 billion rubles ($343 million) on revenues of 140.6 billion rubles ($4.5 billion).
 &quot;It will be possible to sell Svyazinvest at a more expensive price in about ... two years,&quot; Yasin said, adding that the government should eventually sell the whole 75-percent stake at once, but it first needs to work out how to keep control of the company when it no longer owns it.
 Industry analysts are divided on which way the government should go.
 Vyacheslav Nikolayev of Trust and Investment Bank said it would be unrealistic to expect $1 billion, as Property Ministry officials recently suggested, for 25 percent minus two shares.
 &quot;At Svyazinvest's current valuation, the stake is not worth that much,&quot; he said. &quot;It is obvious that the major reform of the fixed-line telecoms - and therefore the increase in valuation - is still to happen.&quot;
 Dmitry Vinogradov of Brunswick UBS Warburg said selling the whole 75-percent stake is more feasible, but the number of bidders would be limited, meaning that &quot;some group of oligarchs&quot; could snap it up relatively cheaply. &quot;Given the high debt levels of the international telecom majors, and their relatively unsuccessful experience investing in emerging markets, the potential buyer would likely be Russian,&quot; Vinogradov said. &quot;There are enough funds in Russia.&quot;
 Vinogradov added, however, that no one would be interested unless it was clear how the stake would be converted into stakes in the super-regionals.

TITLE: Russia Calls for Financial Blacklist of States
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Just five months after being removed from an international blacklist of non-cooperative countries in the global fight against terrorism and money laundering, Russia has decided to create its own catalog of countries considered to be engaged in inappropriate financial activities.
 
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Friday ordered the Financial Monitoring Committee to draw up Russia's own blacklist based on recommendations from the Foreign Ministry, Federal Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service.
 The companies and individuals that are located in the listed countries, or those that have bank accounts in them, will face close scrutiny from the committee, Kasyanov said.
 Committee spokesperson Natalya Konovalova said she doubted the committee's blacklist will be much different from the current list created by the Financial Action Task Force, an arm of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development working to fight money laundering.
 Russia was removed from the FATF blacklist after much negotiation last October.
 The committee's list should be compiled by May, Konovalova said.
 There are currently 10 countries and territories on the FATF's blacklist: the Cook Islands, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Philippines and Ukraine.
 Konovalova said that Russia's own blacklist will not exceed that of FATF and could, in fact, be shorter due to the exclusion of Ukraine. &quot;It is on the way out anyway,&quot; she said.
 The Financial Monitoring Committee, a government watchdog set up to chase dirty money, became operational in February 2002.
 The committee has nearly unlimited access to financial activities throughout the country.
 According to Russia's law on preventing money laundering, the committee receives information about all registered transactions of more than 600,000 rubles ($19,120).
 According to Konovalova, the committee keeps track of firms or individuals who conduct a large number of smaller transactions in short periods of time.
 So far, the committee has received 400,000 individual reports, 4,800 of which have been passed on to law-enforcement agencies.
 The committee also has managed to uncover a number of large-scale money-laundering schemes, which are currently being investigated by several law-enforcement bodies, including the FSB.
 Details on these cases are not available for the public, Konovalova said.
 Although information on almost any remotely significant deal comes to the committee, Konovalova said that most of it never goes anywhere beyond a technical, computer-managed first analysis.
 She also emphasized that the ceiling of 600,000 rubles &quot;is, in fact, very liberal.&quot;
 &quot;In the United States, any transaction over $10,000 is reported, and in Italy it's as little as $5,000,&quot; Konovalova said in a telephone interview Friday.

TITLE: Kudrin Upbeat on Economy, U.S. Ties
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: PARIS - Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Friday that the war in Iraq was unlikely to hurt Russia's economy, and he hoped Moscow's differences with Washington over the war wouldn't damage relations.
 
&quot;We consider that what the U.S. is doing in Iraq is a mistake, but I hope it won't affect our bilateral relationship,&quot; Kudrin said at a news conference following meetings with officials of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
 Russia has strongly criticized the U.S. military action, but has insisted that its disagreement with Washington will not damage ties. Kudrin said he did not expect his country's economy to suffer any negative economic repercussions from the war.
 &quot;We don't believe that there will be any negative impact on the Russian economy,&quot; he said.
 Kudrin said the government has developed &quot;financial instruments&quot; to cushion the economy from potential fallout.
 He also said he hoped contracts that Russian companies had signed before the war to undertake work in Iraq, agreed under international law, would be honored by any new administration in the country after the conflict.
 Russian firms have contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to supply equipment to Iraq, including for power-generation plants, agriculture, and transportation.
 Kudrin, meanwhile, said Russia did not plan any new Eurobond issues in the first half of 2003 and that an issue would be unlikely in the full year.
 <i>
 (Reuters, AP) </i>

TITLE: New Customs Code Aiming To Open World's Longest Frontier
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - For years, the paramilitary State Customs Committee, or GTK, has acted like a state within a state, patrolling the entry and exit points for all goods coming in and out of the country and exacting trillions of rubles in taxes and tributes from importers and exporters alike.
 
Ostensibly enforcing, but often liberally interpreting a voluminous and outdated Customs Code that, in some cases, relies on instructions written in the 1950s, the GTK is expected to collect some $20 billion this year.
 Although the GTK accounts for up to 40 percent of all federal budget revenues, many say that the figure would be much higher if its notoriously pervasive system of graft could be eradicated. A little math illustrates the problem: while the 57,000 employees of the GTK collect an average of $1,000 a day in legitimate duties from traders, their average daily salary is officially just $5.
 Until now, top GTK officials have successfully parlayed the committee's economic clout into political power, resisting reforms by delaying for years the introduction of a new Customs Code designed to streamline trade, stimulate economic growth and ease Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization.
 All that may change next month, however, when the State Duma considers the new code in a crucial second reading - 3 1/2 years after it passed a first reading. And, as GTK specialists put the finishing touches on the draft, legitimate businesses, both foreign and domestic, are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping their more liberal proposals make the cut.
 
 <strong>
A NEW ERA
 </strong>GTK chief Mikhail Vanin has made it clear that Russia's customs regime is in for a radical restructuring.
 
&quot;If before we said that our priority was to collect customs duties, then our goal now is to facilitate trade,&quot; he told reporters at a recent and rare news conference.
 Meeting with President Vladimir Putin to discuss the new code last week, Vanin told the president that &quot;it might have taken a year and a half of working with Duma deputies and representatives of the business community,&quot; but the draft had finally been scheduled for a second reading April 23.
 &quot;The code looks good ... Our partners in the WTO are waiting for it,&quot; Vanin said.
 After it passed a first reading, which sets basic parameters, in November 1999, negotiations to hammer out details of the code were shelved until after parliamentary and presidential elections. Work did not begin in earnest again until some 18 months ago, with lawmakers, businesses, the government and customs officials all weighing in.
 The new code was originally designed to fill in the gaps and loopholes from the previous code, which was hastily passed in 1993 and produced the current &quot;make it up as you go&quot; system.
 This time around, however, participants in the process expect the new and improved code to pass both houses of parliament and be signed by Putin in time for it to come into force in January.
 It hasn't been easy, and changes are still being made to the draft, which is larger than the current code, said Alexei Mordashov, chairperson of steel giant Severstal and head of the working groups on WTO entry and customs reform in the influential Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP.
 &quot;It's a gigantic document and each item presents a problem,&quot; Mordashov said. &quot;We're now trying to forecast any possible consequences of the new code and make it as much of a law of direct application as we can.&quot;
 
 <strong>
PLUGGING THE HOLES
 </strong>Most businesses say that the current code, while not perfect, is not necessarily bad either. But it's too vague, and the GTK has to issue too many precedent-setting rulings or &quot;instructions&quot; that interpret unclear passages in the legislation.
 
&quot;It's the myriad of bylaws and GTK instructions that ruin us,&quot; said Mikhail Mikhailov, IBM's general manager for Russia. &quot;Over 60 percent of our business is regulated by those bylaws and instructions.&quot;
 &quot;Those instructions can completely twist the original meaning of the code,&quot; said one company official who asked not to be identified.
 GTK officials couldn't agree more.
 &quot;The existing system, which has been created in the past decade, is an enormous and volatile mass of documents,&quot; said GTK First Deputy Chairperson Leonid Lozbenko, who served five years as the deputy general-secretary of the World Customs Organization.
 &quot;You sometimes have to refer to a document from 1958 to understand an instruction,&quot; Lozbenko said.
 GTK officials estimate that the number of such instructions is between 2,500 and 4,000 - too many for businesses and even customs officials themselves to keep track of - and new ones are frequently issued without notice, catching importers off guard and leaving them at the mercy of often predatory inspectors.
 This vagueness encourages bribery on both sides.
 In the first nine months of last year, customs officials uncovered 142,037 procedural violations and launched nearly 2,000 criminal investigations. As a result, the state lost an estimated 4.7 billion rubles in duties during the period.
 Meanwhile, the GTK's own figures show corruption within its ranks is growing. In 1999, 179 corruption-related criminal investigations were opened against customs officers. Last year the figure was 243.
 Perhaps tellingly, the GTK gave no figure for the number of convictions.
 The GTK collected 588.26 billion rubles ($18.75 billion) last year, which was 3 percent above target, and this year expects to pull in 638.09 billion rubles. Import duties accounted for about two-thirds of the total, or 392.7 billion rubles, while revenues from export duties amounted to 195.48 billion rubles, up from 301 billion rubles and 235 billion rubles in 2001, respectively.
 By comparison, customs collections in the United States account for less than 3 percent of the country's budget revenues.
 Lozbenko said that while filling budget coffers will remain one of the GTK's key functions, the aim of the new code is to lower trade barriers and improve the overall investment climate.
 &quot;We would like to create if not the best, then perhaps one of the best customs administrations in the world,&quot; he said.
 
 <strong>
DIRECT APPLICATION
 </strong>Lozbenko said the goal is to reduce legal vagaries by making the code &quot;directly applicable&quot; in 70 percent of all situations, leaving GTK officials to issue instructions clarifying the other 30 percent.
 
That's an improvement on the current code, which is hardly &quot;directly applicable&quot; at all, but it falls short of the liberal code with 100-percent direct application some are advocating.
 GTK Deputy Chairperson Yury Azarov said the GTK would reserve the right to issue clarifying instructions because &quot;no law can embrace every activity and every detail.&quot;
 &quot;The new code will clearly set out the rights and obligations of all participants - customs officers and those moving goods across the border alike,&quot; Azarov said.
 &quot;It will clearly describe what data must be shown on a customs declaration and what additional information customs officials can demand to support it,&quot; he said.
 Current law sets no limit as to what information a customs official can demand.
 Another feature of the new code is establishing a system to allow goods to be partially cleared before crossing the border.
 &quot;One of the goals is to accelerate the turnover of goods and remove hurdles in their way,&quot; Azarov said.
 Other mechanisms to improve expedition include reducing the amount of time officials have to clear goods to three days from 10, and introducing so-called &quot;post control,&quot; whereby goods clear the border and then are checked against the books.
 The draft would also defer some of the current power the GTK has to the courts, such as ruling on allegations of unfair treatment at the border. Likewise, the courts, and not the GTK, would have the power to revoke licenses for brokers, temporary storage facilities and other customs-related activities.
 
 <strong>
TECHNIQUES &amp; TECHNOLOGY
 </strong>Along with new rules will come new infrastructure, technology and behavior, Lozbenko said.
 
The World Customs Organization recently agreed to open a training center in Moscow to teach GTK officers of various ranks &quot;how to respond, how to behave, what to say and how to dress,&quot; he said.
 &quot;Vanin put a task before us - any company working on the Russian market that encounters a problem and comes to the GTK ... for help should leave with a solution to that problem or a variant of a solution,&quot; Lozbenko said.
 If there was any doubt that the Kremlin was serious about customs reform, Putin erased it in September when he demoted 43,000 of the then 63,000 GTK officers, ordering them to remove the stripes from their uniforms in order to demilitarize the committee and make them look more friendly.
 Putin's move also reduced the GTK's payroll: Gone, along with military rank, were the perks and privileges enjoyed by military personnel, and at least 5,000 people have quit since his decree came into force.
 But Putin's decree may have also encouraged graft.
 &quot;If you count their perks, 43,000 people suddenly lost 40 percent of their salary,&quot; said one former customs officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. &quot;This only encourages those who didn't quit to grab what they can.&quot;
 Perhaps even more challenging than behavior modifications is modernizing the infrastructure of the service, which includes 140 &quot;houses,&quot; more than 500 &quot;posts&quot; and some 130 highway checkpoints spread across two continents.
 Some checkpoints, especially in the Asian part of Russia, are nothing more than wooden huts, manned by a couple of officers, without access to a telephone.
 It will cost some 200 billion rubles to equip &quot;the longest border in the world,&quot; Lozbenko said, adding that most of that sum will be borrowed from abroad since the government cannot afford it.
 As part of that borrowing program, the World Bank last week signed off on a $140-million loan to improve the GTK's technology, Vanin said.
 &quot;Staring Jan. 1, 2004, and for the next four years, the customs service of Russia will undertake an unprecedented modernization based on loans, a new code and improved staff,&quot; Lozbenko said.
 Part of that effort will be to ensure that declarations can be processed electronically. Last year, the GTK launched a trial system using e-declarations and e-signatures in three of the seven federal districts - Central, Southern and North-Western.
 The GTK says the system reduced clearance times to 20 minutes, but apparently few people participated. The committee wouldn't say how many e-declarations it processed in the trial period, but Izvestia reported that it was just 14 - a far cry from the 2.5 million declarations the GTK handles every year.
 The GTK blamed the low turnout on its software program, but businesses polled for this article said computers were not the issue.
 &quot;OK, a customs officer will get an e-declaration in a split second, but then you will have to provide 5 kilograms of paperwork,&quot; said Alexei Zernov, vice president of the Kaliningrad Association of Forwarding Agents.
 &quot;People are so used to stamped and signed paper documents, it will take time,&quot; said Oleg Ilyin, a customs specialist at Kraft Foods.
 
 <strong>
DOUBT SPRINGS ETERNAL
 </strong>While many businesses express confidence that the draft code will liberalize the system and make trade easier, others are under no such illusions.
 
&quot;The government's proposed code is an absolute clone of the current one,&quot; Zernov said. &quot;All this talk about improvements is akin to applying nail polish to a terminally ill patient - a patient with cancer.&quot;
 Another businessman said: &quot;It's the same code as before, only phrased differently and with additions by the GTK that are written by itself and for itself.&quot;
 &quot;It would be easier to cut the whole code down to just two phrases: Everything should be done in accordance with a customs officer's decision; signed Vladimir Putin. Then we can save on paper,&quot; he said.
 Zernov, however, gave approval to amendments put forward by the Duma budget subcommittee in charge of customs regulations, which is headed by former GTK chief Valery Draganov.
 &quot;Those amendments have been brought together into a system and in fact make up a new version of the customs code draft,&quot; said Sergei Istomin, an independent expert and a former customs official.
 &quot;We want to radically change the rules of the game,&quot; Draganov said. &quot;Making the code liberal will make it easy to fulfill, it will galvanize trade turnover ... and the state will become not a muleteer but a participant with equal rights and obligations.&quot;
 &quot;Under the current, bad code even law-obedient importers violate some rules because the code is impossible to fulfill,&quot; Draganov said. &quot;The code should be created, not so much for customs officials, but for the courts as well, so that there are no doubts as to what the legal norm is.&quot;
 Draganov proposes that importers be required to provide an exhaustive list of documents and information, with which it would not take more than a day to clear their goods.
 &quot;We want to make the code clear and simple,&quot; he said.
 
 <strong>
LETTING THE GENIE OUT
 </strong>Draganov admits that his liberal proposals are unlikely to be fully adopted, but says the debate has already resulted in a victory of sorts.
 
&quot;I've woken up business, let the genie out, and now it has its own opinion,&quot; he said.
 Indeed, the powerful RSPP is backing variants of his proposals.
 Severstal's Mordashov said the RSPP is pushing to make the code as much a law of direct application as possible.
 &quot;One of the main goals here is to create conditions that will prevent abuse and corruption and create difficulties for businesses,&quot; Mordashov said.
 One way to serve this purpose is for the code to clearly identify what information and documents importers are required to present at the border.
 &quot;Every issue must be described in the Customs Code,&quot; he said. And if any instructions are issued, importers should be informed and given a three-month grace period before it comes into force. Otherwise, the government must compensate an importer who suffered because he had not been informed, he said.
 Likewise, he said the code must be phrased in a clear, simple way so there is no ambiguity.
 But most important of all, Mordashov said, is for the new code to fully comply with international standards to ease Russia's entry into the WTO.
 
 <strong>
THE BOTTOM LINE
 </strong>Like other businesses, RSPP members are eagerly awaiting the GTK's final version of the draft, and are reluctant to comment until they see it.
 
&quot;We don't have the text yet,&quot; Mordashov said. &quot;For us, it's important that all views, mechanisms and compromises are reflected in the text,&quot; he said.
 With so many delays in the drafting of the code, many are speculating that it might, once again, be put off until parliamentary and presidential elections in December and March respectively. The GTK had been due to deliver its final draft to the Duma in February, then it was delayed until March, and now it has been set for April.
 &quot;This is a purposeful delay to miss the Duma's spring session,&quot; said Zernov of the Kaliningrad Association of Forwarding Agents. &quot;Then there will be discussions on the 2004 federal budget, then elections - when will the newly elected lawmakers have time to learn anything about customs?&quot;
 &quot;It's ridiculous for the GTK to say that Russia is not ready for liberalization, it is the GTK that is not ready. The GTK is used to having a lot of money, getting almost as much for itself as it does for the state,&quot; Zernov said.
 GTK officials were unavailable for comment this week.
 Art Franczek, who heads the American Chamber of Commerce's customs and transport committee, said the delay is all about power.
 &quot;The reason the GTK is resisting is because a liberal code, with clear definitions of what customs agents can do, will take some power away from it,&quot; he said.
 &quot;The State Customs Committee is an 800-pound gorilla because, by accounting for 40 percent of all budget revenues, it has the clout to do whatever it wants,&quot; Franczek said.
 &quot;This is something that GTK officials bring out anytime they start seeing liberal versions of the code - it's a trump card they play with Putin,&quot; he said.
 &quot;But somebody has to make the case that you can't just play with numbers, that you are going to be picking up more revenue just by moving items from the gray economy into the regular economy.&quot;

TITLE: Trains To Be Cosmic Carriages for Masses
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Futuristic space technology and Russia's creaking train system might seem light years apart, but a construction company in Ukraine is changing all that.
 
Their concept of train cars made with space-age materials may be a reality as early as August.
 Ukraine's Dneprvagonremstroi, once the Soviet Union's leading train car and locomotive-repair plant, last year approached the Railways Ministry with an offer to invent a car with compartments that can metamorphose from two-person luxury sleepers to six-seater suburban commuters in just 20 minutes.
 While Russian train producers have come up with state of the art trains, the Ukrainian invention gives the Railways Ministry a way of meeting demand for not only luxury travel, but also a means of transportation for the country's many budget-conscious passengers.
 Though the idea of such transformer cars is not new, until now no proposals have met federal requirements on durability, weight and public health norms. Traditional materials were either too heavy or too cumbersome, making compartments unpleasantly cramped.
 To avoid this trap, Dneprvagonremstroi specialists have turned to polycarbonate, a durable, flexible plastic most often used in the space industry for the interiors of space shuttles.
 The material will allow them to make cars weighing 2.5 metric tons less than ordinary passenger cars. The cars would also be more ecologically friendly: Polycarbonate can be recycled.
 Designers at the plant in Dnepropetrovsk also plan to install a new type of energy-supply system that would reduce electricity use by 37 percent.
 According to preliminary estimates, a transformer car is likely to cost at least $600,000, or 25 percent more then an ordinary sleeper car. The price could exceed that, depending on the cost and quality of the interior.
 The designers are considering using a U.S.-made shatterproof glass for the doors and windows. The glass can be switched between transparent and dark by running an electrical current through it.
 If Dneprvagonremstroi pulls it off, it will succeed in revolutionizing travelers' attitudes toward trains - and, in doing so, give the company a long-sought foothold in the Russian market.
 &quot;If they can manage it, we are very interested in such a product,&quot; said Viktor Dushkin, deputy head of the Railways Ministry's passenger transportation division.
 Dneprvagonremstroi has said that it will complete work on the detailed technical plans and present the first mock-up of the car to the Railways Ministry by Aug. 4, or Railway Worker's Day. This will be a speedy turnaround, since the Railways Ministry and Dneprvagonremstroi only agreed on the technical requirements for the transformer car last month.
 &quot;Personally, as an engineer, I don't think it's possible, but they are very serious,&quot; Dushkin said. The plant has set up a dedicated engineering center with 120 specialists assigned to the project.
 The transformer car allows each compartment to seat from two to six passengers, allowing a car to serve as a luxury sleeper or a suburban commuter, depending on demand. Conductors will be able to convert the train car among any of its four layouts within 20 minutes.
 A standard four-person sleeper, for example, quickly becomes a two-seat luxury compartment when the two upper berths are completely folded away into the wall.
 From there, the compartment's two lower sofas can each be transformed into three seats, complete with headrests, arms, a socket and an individual light. Such six-seat compartments would be in high demand for suburban traffic and other short-distance routes, Dushkin said.
 Alternatively, for an upscale variation, the middle chairs can become a table, adapting the compartment for only four passengers.
 Each compartment is to be outfitted with mirrors, reading and overhead lights and a wall-mounted television set.
 &quot;We can make very convenient compartments that let us seat various numbers of passengers and ensure a comfortable trip for them,&quot; Dushkin said.
 Dneprvagonremstroi said that it can produce 350 such cars annually, or about the number of cars the Railways Ministry buys each year.
 Innovative as these cars may be, Russia may be their only suitable market.
 &quot;Such cars are not needed abroad where passenger traffic is more or less stable, routes are not very long, and trains are more comfortable,&quot; Dushkin said, noting that foreign trains mostly have seats, not sleepers.
 But Russia needs flexibility and variety in the number of classes and seats due to seasonal fluctuations in traffic volumes and a wide gap in passengers' incomes, Dushkin said.
 Passenger traffic tends to leap in the summer and decline toward winter. About 40 percent of all railway traffic occurs between June and August.
 To meet demand in the summer, the Railways Ministry adds about 6,500 cars to trains in service year-round, and hauls out 300 trains from winter storage.
 The transformer cars would also allow the railways more flexibility when demand for certain destinations spikes temporarily, such as over the May holidays, Christmas or New Year's. Cities within 800 kilometers of Moscow, particularly St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh, see traffic jump significantly during holidays.
 The Railways Ministry, as a state monopoly, feels a social responsibility to fully meet demand, even when that means making exceptions to market prices to make it possible for low income passengers to travel.
 During the summer, the traveler demographics shift along with volumes.
 With almost 40 percent of the population living under the poverty line, most Russians look to trains as the cheap way to travel long distances. At the same time, demand among the wealthy for first-class accommodation on trains has skyrocketed.
 The transformer cars would give the Railways Ministry more ways to meet the summer vacation rush. &quot;When millions of families head to the south, we could refuse to sell as many tickets for two-seat, first-class compartments, letting us transport more passengers in four-person, second-class sleeping compartments,&quot; Dushkin said.
 The price per compartment in the transformer car would be fixed and divided by the number of passengers, so passengers could buy comfort simply by paying more.
 &quot;The more passengers, the lower the price. The fewer the passengers, the higher price. This way, cars would always be profitable,&quot; Dushkin said.
 The ministry has not yet calculated how many Black Sea-bound trains should be replaced by transformers, Dushkin said.
 &quot;No matter how good it sounds, there always are some problems,&quot; he said. For example, he said, the country's public health requirements for seat widths and legroom would make a standard 1.93-meter wide compartment so cramped it would make it a third-class space.
 &quot;Passengers would not like that,&quot; Dushkin said.
 In order to comply with the rules, Dneprvagonremstroi will likely construct an eight-compartment, rather than the regular nine-compartment car.
 It would mean a loss of seats, Dushkin said, &quot;But we insist on meeting sanitary norms rather than saving seats.&quot;

TITLE: Car Output Falls 15 Percent, But Sales Beginning To Rise
AUTHOR: By Simon Ostrovsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A late start in production this year depressed automakers' first quarter figures by almost 15 percent, after the industry shut down due to oversupply at the end of last year.
 
But brisk sales are gradually consuming the glut in inventories, and analysts predict that year-end numbers will be back on track
 The Economic Development and Trade Ministry predicts that Russian carmakers will have made only 212,000 vehicles by the end of March, or 14.9 percent fewer than in the same period in 2002.
 Andrei Kormilitsin, an automobile-industry analyst with Troika Dialog, said &quot;January to January [figures] may look frightening, but year to year figures will be about the same.&quot;
 Not only is it likely to break even, the industry may post 2-percent growth this year, he added.
 &quot;March and April are key months to watch because consumer activity is considerably high then,&quot; Kormilitsin said.
 In November and December, two of the country's top carmakers were forced to halt their assembly lines because warehouses were bursting at the seams.
 They blamed low demand for their models on heavy competition from comparably priced used cars imported from Europe and Japan.
 No. 1 carmaker AvtoVAZ, which churns out 75 percent of all domestically made cars, resumed production in mid-January. No. 2 carmaker GAZ started production shortly thereafter.
 Kormilitsin said he thought the production figures were misleading. &quot;It makes more sense to watch sales,&quot; he said.
 Even in January, sales had started to pick up steam and since then they have continued to grow. AvtoVAZ sold 50,530 cars in January and slightly more, some 56,560, in February.
 Nonetheless, this is still about 20 percent under the 70,000 cars it produced on average each month before the crisis late last fall.
 GAZ was unable to provide sales figures for this year.
 Two hundred and fifty GAZ Volgas intended for delivery to Iraq this month are now waiting in storage after plans for the shipment were scrapped when military actions began. A GAZ spokesperson said the cars &quot;would be shipped as soon as the other side was ready to accept them,&quot; Interfax reported.

TITLE: Looking at the War From Various Sides
TEXT: Editor,
 </i>I can not understand the tight link that U.S. President George W. Bush sees between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people.
 
We in Russia lived under a terrible dictatorship for a long time. Both of my grandfathers, a judge and an economics professor, perished under the Bolshevik regime, in 1919 and 1930, respectively. All of our property was confiscated. I know for sure that my father hated the regime. However, in 1941, he volunteered for the army without any hesitation. He said: &quot;I am strong, hope to be brave and I should help my fatherland.&quot;
 I believe that he was also killed by the Bolsheviks, as he was sent to a place from which nobody returned. It was a place between Kaluga and Tula, where lines between the Russian and German troops had been fixed for more than a year. The Germans were in a village on the high bank of the river and they had field guns. The Russians, with their old rifles, were hidden in small trenches. Every few weeks, all of the Russian soldiers would have been killed and replaced by new ones. This was a usual Bolshevik crime. However, I couldn't forget that my father was killed by a German bullet.
 I see an analogy with this history in the present war. The American and British troops are aggressors in a foreign country. This is an objective fact. The aim of all civilized countries is to prevent Hussein from any aggressive acts against other countries. I am sure that, without foreign interference, Iraq's people would eventually receive more freedom (look at many other new countries).
 But, now, we have this problem and, of course, the death of one pure soul is more important than victory or defeat! I ask Bush to stop the war. It would be an intelligent and gutsy act.
 <i>N.G. Bibikov, Ph.D.
 Moscow
 </i>
 <strong>
<b>Nothing New
 </strong><i></b>
In response to &quot;Anti-War Protests Draw Tepid Response&quot; on March 28.&quot;
 
 Editor,
 </i>Irina Titova's article contains an interesting quotation from Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst at the Sociology Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. According to the article, Kesselman states that few anti-U.S. war protests have occurred in Russia because: &quot;It is obvious that Russian society has become passive. The average Russian today is estranged from the problems of others, and this estrangement is the result of a boomerang effect after the illusions and hopes that the country's population stood up for in the early 1990s proved to be unjustified.&quot;
 
In my view, it is not accurate to suggest that Russians were active in politics in the early 1990s. Most events were confined to Moscow and involved only a tiny fraction of the citizenry. Outside Moscow, for example, the residents of Tula promptly elected a Communist governor in their first free ballot. The problem in Russia is not disappointed hopes, but a political malaise stretching back centuries. Very few Russians were active members of the Communist Party, and very few participated in the overthrow of the Tsar. Not until Russians come to better understand their history and accept responsibility, rather than rationalize, will progress be made in Russia.
 <i>Lenard Leeds
 Atlanta, Georgia
 </i>
 <strong>
<b>Variety of Voices
 </strong><i></b>
In response to &quot;Vox Populi&quot; on March 21.
 
 Editor,
 </i>In my view, after Sept. 11, the United States decided that it would no longer tolerate terrorists or terrorist regimes. In countries that support ridding the world of terrorists, the United States will join with them to eliminate terrorists, including Pakistan, Russia, Georgia, Columbia, Philippines, Yemen, etc.
 
The United States has identified three regimes that support and export terrorism, which are Iraq, Iran and North Korea, although each is different. In those countries, it is the regime that needs to be changed. The regime itself is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.
 With regard to changing the regime in Iraq, the United States understands that the cost is high in deaths to the United States and Iraq. Prior to Sept. 11, the United States was not willing to risk U.S. lives for virtually any war abroad. It did not want to get involved. After Sept. 11, it decided that no other country has the military capability to help the world in eliminating terrorists. No one else could take on Iraq and win.
 Americans are not merely looking at the 20,000 Iraqis who may die in the War. They have been shown that 1 million Iraq babies a year are dying because Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is using UN money from oil to build his own palaces and military. They also worry about the millions that could die from weapons of mass destruction.
 Put a stop to Hussein, and all of Iraq and the world will be better off.
 Americans also believe that ridding the world of Hussein will put a stop to the financing of religious extremists everywhere, including in Palestine, thus allowing that conflict to be resolved peacefully. Americans see Hussein as a butcher who has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people. Americans believe they are risking their children's lives and billions of dollars to help the Iraqi people and the world. When other countries, including Russia, oppose their actions, they feel that such countries represent the old aristocracy of Europe, who never really want to help the poor or oppressed, but simply want to maintain the status quo and keep the butchers in power.
 In addition, Americans feel that the French and Russians oppose the U.S. because they simply want to keep their good oil contracts. In particular reference to the French, Americans feel they rarely stand up for anything. Remember, Americans have been brought up with John Wayne movies, where Wayne always tried to do what was right, even if it involved danger to himself.
 Americans believe that diplomacy doesn't always resolve anything. Americans remember how countries tried to be diplomatic with Hitler, which led to World War II. Similarly, with Hussein, if we avoid dealing with him now, it will cost us more later. Once Iraq changes, the whole region should begin to improve. The extreme Islamic religious nuts are keeping the entire region in the 7th century.
 Russia and China have began trying to westernize over the last 10 years but they still don't understand Americans very well. Remember, it was freedom that Americans fought for in their own revolution. It is freedom that Americans want for Iraq.
 <i>Bill Selman
 Tulsa, Oklahoma
 </i>
 <i>
Editor,
 </i>I do not like war, and I am very sad that it had to come to this. But I believe that it had to come to this. We have many Iraqis living in this country and most are very good people. This war is not against the Iraqi people, but against the monster that rules Iraq. To believe that this man is a monster, all you have to do is listen to one of the many Iraqis living here tell about their life there.
 
I listened to one woman tell of her husband being killed by chemical weapons because he did not do something &quot;right.&quot; After he was killed, she and her daughters were raped numerous times and beaten because she was married to this man who didn't do the &quot;right&quot; thing. It seems that what he actually did was say something slightly negative against one of Hussein's sons. That's all.
 Others tell stories of their own people being killed by chemicals, shot, hung, having limbs cut off and other disgusting things. How can anyone call themselves the leader of a people when this is how they treat them? This monster must not only be taken from his throne, but he must pay for all the wrong that he has committed.
 I could care less about weapons of mass destruction that he has. Your country is closer to Iraq than ours by a long way. I'm sure that the weapons of mass destruction would find Russia before the United States.
 We will win this war and help the Iraqi people rebuild a government of the people, by the people. I only wish that Russia was a partner in this quest with us. You have a lot of very good people over there, as we do here. I have friends in Kazan whom I value greatly.
 I want you to know one thing about which I am as sure as I am about my own name. Oil has nothing to do with this. After we win this war, the oil will be the Iraqi people's and the country will be the Iraqi people's, not Hussein's. 
 May God help to end this conflict quickly. 
 <i>Tom McMaster
 Atlanta, Georgia
 </i>
 <i>
Editor,
 </i>President George W. Bush said there was a decision that had to be made - if people are not with us, they are against us. This splits the world between those who support the war and those who do not.
 
I think we should reinterpret this &quot;we&quot; and &quot;them.&quot; I think of it like this: You are either with Bush and the warmongers, or you are with the people who oppose the war - the rest of us, the vast majority of people in all countries, of all ethnicities, who are always paying the burden for governments' reckless behavior when it comes to waging war.
 Elites make decisions to go to war, and who pays? The innocent in the bombed countries, the innocent who are killed in retaliation, while the elites have special bunkers and receive their paychecks and their children do not fight.
 From this illegal war, I think there is a growing universal desire to unite opposition and strive for peace with a greater effort than those who are striving for war.
 <i>Barrie Hebb
 Antigonish, Canada
 </i>
 <i>
Editor,
 </i>As a loyal and patriotic American, and believing in myself being a &quot;world citizen&quot;, I can speak freely and honestly in regard to President George W. Bush's attack on the innocent people of Iraq.
 
To go against world opinion, to denounce the UN inspections and go against UN voting and Security Council desires, Bush has committed an immoral, unconstitutional, unjust, and ill-conceived war.
 Regardless of what you hear in Russia, the American people are mostly against this war. What you hear coming out of the United States is almost totally twisted by the media, which is controlled by our aggressive, oppressive political administration. Americans everywhere are demonstrating against this war. Our freedoms are in jeopardy, our economy is faltering, and people here are wondering how our government can be so arrogant as to not listen to the people of the world.
 Bush has set into motion a political monster that can easily get out of control and cause world unrest, more terrorism and a policy of aggression which is unprecedented in U.S. history.
 Having spent much time in Russia, I truly respect the views of President Vladimir Putin. Thank you, Putin, for standing up for peace and for speaking from your heart. Let's all pray for world stability and peace.
 <i>Daniel Rivard
 U.S.A.
 </i>
 <strong>
<b>A Good Deal
 </strong><i></b>
In response to &quot;Ivanov: Wait on Ratifying Arms Treaty,&quot; on March 28.
 
 Editor,
 </i>The Russian parliament should not delay in ratifying the Moscow Treaty. Although there is disagreement over Iraq, it should not halt a step forward in reducing the danger of nuclear weapons and, more importantly, improving Russian-American relations in the post-Cold War era.
 
Agreements between countries, such as the Moscow Treaty, can sometimes have long lasting and positive implications. Even in a difficult period such as now, the bigger picture cannot be lost.
 It was many years ago that the United States and Great Britain had numerous disputes. After the War of 1812, the United States and Great Britain signed an arms-control pact. The Rush-Bagot agreement limited the naval forces of both countries on the Great Lakes of North America. This agreement came in the midst of post-war disputes over territories and boundaries. Great Britain and the United States could have forgone an arms-control agreement at that time for those reasons. But that would have been a mistake. Disarming the Great Lakes was extremely significant in improving British-American relations in the early 19th century. A quote in a London newspaper read, &quot;No wiser act was ever agreed upon than to the limitation of the naval forces on the Lakes.&quot;
 It would also be a mistake for Russia to delay ratification of the Moscow Treaty. Relations between Russia and the United States are too important, and one cannot underestimate the significance of one treaty and the impact it may have in the years to come.
 There could be no wiser act than ratifying the Moscow Treaty and setting the stage for future agreements and improved Russian-American relations.
 <i>William Lambers
 Cincinnati, Ohio</i>
 <strong>
<b>Economic Rethink
 </strong><i></b>
In response to &quot;In Case You Missed It ... the EU Is Offering a New Deal,&quot; a column by Igor Leshukov on March 18.
 
 Editor,
 </i>While agreeing with what Igor Leshukov wrote, I think that his comments need to be expanded on. It truly is in the interest of Russia to expand its trade throughout the EU, but to do so at the loss of potential trade with other democratic, Western countries at the same time will, in effect, move its revenue stream from international trade backwards, not forwards.
 
The EU and its member states have been fickle at best in their treatment of Russia economically. On the contrary, assistance in terms of loans and funding to assist Russia in its internal changes have come from the Western powers, not the EU. In terms of world trade and benefits to Russia economically as a whole, the development of trade to the Western powers as a bloc is of more importance then the EU member states overall.
 I would be interested in Leshukov's opinion on this, as he does seem to have a good grasp on the impact of the EU's position. If his reply is for Russia to play a game of chess using the chess board to encompass both the EU and the Western powers to develop trade simultaneously with both blocs of trading powers, I, for one, will agree with him entirely.
 But I would disagree strongly with any opinion that would suggest Russia should consider trade and or a political position that increases trade with one bloc at the expense of another.
 <i>W.J. Edwards
 Plano, Texas
 </i>
 <strong>
<b>Straight Talk
 </strong><i></b>
In Response to &quot;Media Managers Should Lighten Up a Little,&quot; a column by Vladimir Kovalev on March 28.
 
 Editor,
 </i>Language query: Is it a matter of editorial policy to leave items such as the above-mentioned article in rather awkward near-English (&quot;Ringlish,&quot; as it's sometimes termed)? Or is there some other explanation?
 
&quot;Basically, [as people say] would spend the new year the way we celebrated it.&quot; Is this English? Or is it Russian written with English words? In the end, I suppose, minor sins such as these can be forgiven in one trying hard to write &quot;in a lively manner&quot; in a language clearly not his own. But, surely, the editor should have intervened to prevent: &quot;If had all of this equipment, I could have concurred the world in 30 days.&quot; Sloppiness, nothing more.
 It was once remarked that the renowned Russian linguist Roman Jacobson &quot;speaks Russian in six languages.&quot; That may be, but the texts he wrote in those languages of which he was not a native speaker were edited before publication, and Jacobson was not offended. In my view, texts like the one written here in generally quite passable English by Vladimir Kovalev would be well-served by knowledgeable editing. You may not concur.
 I ask only that good sense conquer.
 <i>Richard Thomas
 Moscow </i>

TITLE: Experience Shows Chechnya Needs a Tribunal
AUTHOR: By Malcolm Hawkes
TEXT: THIS week sees Council of Europe parliamentarians meeting to discuss, once again, the conflict in Chechnya. Except, this time, a proposal from one member is set to ruffle feathers. Rudolf Bindig has proposed, for the first time, an international tribunal to prosecute those found guilty of serious human-rights violations. How far is such a step necessary?
 
For the victims of crimes in Chechnya, the answer is clear enough. In the largest single massacre of the current conflict, on Feb. 5, 2000, Russian forces systematically executed 60 mostly middle-aged and elderly civilians in Aldi, a southern suburb of Grozny. In an unrestrained orgy of violence, these forces looted and set fire to dozens of homes. Survivors recounted soldiers running amok, forcing civilians to hand over money and jewelry, killing those who did not pay enough. Other survivors whisper accounts of torture, including rape at the hands of these Russian soldiers.
 Russian forces also visited the home of the Estamirov family that morning, located 10 minutes away from the main Aldi settlement, and executed all five of those present. The victims included heavily-pregnant Toita and her 1-year-old son, Khassan.
 More than three years later, the surviving Estamirovs are still seeking justice, via the European Court of Human Rights, for the killers who almost wiped out their entire family. The Russian courts are not interested.
 The Estamirovs are not alone. To date, no one has been prosecuted for these and a host of other civilian killings in Chechnya; human-rights groups continue to report &quot;disappearances,&quot; a euphemism for abduction, torture and execution, among the civilian population following raids by Russian forces on civilian areas. The Russian authorities consistently fail in their duty to investigate and prosecute violations where their own forces are the prime suspects.
 Against this background, on March 23, the Russian authorities pushed through the holding of a referendum on a new constitution for Chechnya amid reports that Chechens were being intimidated into voting for this new document.
 In this climate, the holding of the referendum appears farcical. Not that the Chechen people do not deserve to have their voices heard by the highest authorities. That is long overdue.
 Rather, when life for many Chechens in the ruined capital and many other towns and villages is a daily struggle for survival, a referendum on a new constitution for Chechnya can hardly be a priority. What additional guarantees will this new document, which contains numerous human rights provisions, bring to the long-suffering Chechen people?
 In Chechnya, a variety of laws already exist and have existed throughout this current conflict to protect the civilian population against the very violations from which they are suffering:
 Russian criminal law prohibits, among other crimes, murder, hostage-taking, torture including rape, extortion, theft and arson, all regularly documented by human-rights groups monitoring the conflict.
 The Russian Constitution states that international human-rights treaties Russia has ratified apply over and above national law, but this is not respected in practice in Chechnya.
 International humanitarian law - the law of armed conflict - exists as an additional layer of protection for the civilian population, yet in Chechnya, it is routinely ignored.
 The new constitution for Chechnya admittedly adds to the strong protection on paper, but as many victims of human-rights violations from the region testify, this &quot;paper&quot; protection is largely meaningless.
 When Russia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998, it opened the door to the European Court. Since that date, nearly 13,000 complaints from Russian citizens have been filed to the court, but only two rulings issued. The majority of cases to the European Court fail largely due to technical reasons. Only last December were the first cases arising from the Chechnya conflict accepted for initial consideration.
 Yet the Strasbourg process is ill suited to dealing with large-scale and serious human-rights violations. Moreover, the European Court can rule only against states, not individuals. For example, even if the Estamirovs win their case, it will be the Russian state that pays them a modest amount of compensation, leaving their family's killers at large.
 Now there appears to be a growing momentum to the call for accountability and the need to address impunity for serious crimes committed in Chechnya.
 On March 13, Bindig of the Council of Europe presented a draft resolution on behalf of the legal-affairs committee. In line with many previous resolutions adopted by the Council of Europe, this draft, to be debated this week, severely criticizes the climate of impunity enjoyed by Russian security forces in Chechnya.
 However, Bindig's draft goes much further; it states that &quot;if the efforts to bring to justice those guilty of human-rights abuses are not intensified, and the climate of impunity in the Chechen republic prevails,&quot; the Council of Europe should &quot;consider proposing to the international community the setting up of an ad hoc tribunal to try war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Chechen republic, modeled on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.&quot;
 The Russian authorities' reaction to Bindig's proposal was indignant. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Yevgeny Voronin, angrily denounced the move, calling it &quot;openly anti-Russian&quot; and stated &quot;no-one can deprive Russia of its right to enforce its own legal system on its own territory.&quot;
 However this, and other similarly highly critical statements, miss the point; international tribunals are only needed when states fail to investigate and prosecute serious human-rights violations themselves. Clearly, the Russian authorities have failed overwhelmingly in their duty to prosecute abuses in Chechnya. Therefore, the proposed Chechnya tribunal is a just and overdue reminder to the Russian government of the seriousness of its failure.
 There remains a way out. Rather than denouncing the proposed tribunal, the Russian authorities could, and should, make it redundant through a meaningful accountability process. That is, the vigorous investigation and prosecution of persons suspected of committing crimes in Chechnya.
 The question remains, does the current Russian administration have the political will and courage to end impunity for its armed forces' abuses in Chechnya? For the Estamirov family, and many others, the answer to that question is plainly &quot;no.&quot;
 As Bindig stated, the principle reason why abuses continue in Chechnya is that the perpetrators, both Russian and Chechen, &quot;nearly always get away with it.&quot;
 
 <i>Malcolm Hawkes is the team leader for the legal protection of individual rights program run in Moscow by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and EuropeAid-Tacis. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Chechnya's Referendum Result Proves Absolutely Nothing
TEXT: CHECHNYA held its referendum last week, and the Kremlin once more declared victory. According to the official government line, fighters who attack Russian forces from now on will be acting in violation of the law - the republic's newly adopted constitution, that is - and against the will of their own people. Following this logic, previous attacks on Russian soldiers were lawful and reflected the will of the people. Following it further, the federal government's actions in Chechnya before March 23, 2003, were entirely out of line.
 
Human-rights watchdogs noted numerous violations over the course of the referendum. Polling stations were not where they were supposed to be. Opponents of both the referendum and the proposed constitution had no opportunity to make their views known. No one actually read the constitution itself.
 Salambek Maigov, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's spokesperson in Moscow, dismissed the referendum results as &quot;vote-rigging in the best Soviet tradition.&quot; The results announced by the Central Election Commission did have the ring of Stalin-era reports of elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR: 95 percent of the electorate cast their ballots, and nearly all of them voted &quot;Yes.&quot; Polling stations located in areas controlled by the fighters outdid themselves, delivering up to 99.5 percent of the vote in favor of the constitution. The only way to explain the official tally is to assume that the fighters, including the Arab volunteers in their ranks, answered Moscow's call and backed the government's initiative.
 The liberal press warned that the referendum in Chechnya was the image of Russian elections to come. But this was not the first war-time election in Chechnya. The 2000 presidential election produced a similar landslide in favor of Vladimir Putin. And the last presidential election in Ingushetia was so plagued by violations that it made the Chechen referendum look almost respectable.
 In short, the Chechen referendum surprised no one and changed nothing, but it did make one thing clear, something even the most zealous Chechen separatist couldn't have dreamed of. The leadership in Grozny not only won independence from Russia and its laws; it also put the Kremlin in its pocket.
 Did the Kremlin really need the referendum? Of course not. It won't stop the war. What it offers in the way of positive propaganda is canceled out by much more serious political costs. Justifying the farce is more complicated than doing nothing. The federal government spent bags of money. It kept the soldiers in their barracks for the most part, allowing the fighters freedom of movement. It made the Chechens all sorts of promises, fully aware that it cannot follow through on them. And after all that, the situation in Chechnya didn't change one iota.
 The &quot;head of the republic,&quot; Akhmad Kadyrov, on the other hand, desperately needed the referendum. His authority has now acquired a semblance of legitimacy. The next step is to hold a presidential election in the republic, barring all serious claimants to Kadyrov's throne from running. Within the next few months, he will go from being the head of the temporary administration in Grozny to the democratically elected leader of Chechnya, whom the Kremlin can no longer get rid of even if it wants to. It organized the referendum and accepted the result, after all. While everyone was busy with the war in Iraq, the powers-that-be in Grozny solved all their problems.
 The Kadyrov clan runs Chechnya like a feudal fief. Chechen sources say that no less than 90 percent of funds from the federal budget earmarked for Chechnya are stolen, making Moscow's embezzlers look like angels. The government's program for rebuilding the war-ravaged republic has already yielded concrete results: The construction of luxurious mansions and the purchase of expensive apartments in Moscow and other favored spots far from the front. Rather than going to rebuild Chechen cities and villages, federal funds are being invested in real estate elsewhere. The Prosecutor's Office, oversight agencies and even the Russian military have no sway over Kadyrov and his cohorts because of their direct access to the Kremlin. Even the Kremlin hasn't been able to do anything with Kadyrov for some time now. It gave full backing to the former mufti, and there is no going back. Putin has been politically taken hostage by a group of Chechen bosses with dubious allegiances.
 In the first Chechen war, Kadyrov fought for independence; in the second war he achieved it - as he understands independence, that is. Russia is watching the rise of yet another dictator, just like those in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. He controls less territory, but he can do what no one else, even the Turkmenbashi, can: Impose his will on the Kremlin, knowing that Putin will obediently follow orders.
 All of this costs Kadyrov absolutely nothing. Eighty thousand Russian soldiers risk their lives every day in order to keep his regime in power in Grozny.
 In the near future, the federal government will allocate around $1 billion for Chechnya. And a new stage in the Chechen reconstruction program will get underway somewhere on the French Riviera.
 
 <i>Boris Kagarlitsky is director of the Institute of Globalization Studies. </i>

TITLE: Global Eye
TEXT: <b>Blood on the Tracks </b>
Before the first cruise missile crushed the first skull of the first child killed in the first installment of George W. Bush's crusade for world dominion, the unelected plutocrats occupying the White House were already plying their corporate cronies with fat contracts to &quot;repair&quot; the murderous devastation they were about to unleash on Iraq. There was, of course, no open bidding allowed in the process. Just a few &quot;selected&quot; companies - selected for their preponderance of campaign bribes to the Bushist Party, that is - were &quot;invited&quot; to submit their wish lists to the War Profiteer in Chief.
 
It should come as no surprise that one of the leading beneficiaries of this hugger-mugger largesse is our old friend, Halliburton Corporation, the military-energy servicing conglomerate. Halliburton, headed by Vice Profiteer Dick Cheney until the Bushist coup d'etat in 2000, is already reaping billions from the Bush wars - which Cheney himself tells us &quot;might not end in our lifetime.&quot;
 Cheney is an old hand at this kind of death merchanting, of course. In the first Bush-Iraq War, Cheney, playing the role now filled by Don Rumsfeld - a squinting, smirking, lying Secretary of Defense - directed the massacre of some 100,000 Iraqis, many of whom were buried alive, or machine-gunned while retreating along the &quot;Highway of Death,&quot; or annihilated in sneak attacks launched <i>after </i>a ceasefire had been called. When, less than two years later, George I and his triumphant conquerors were unceremoniously booted out of office by that radical fringe group so hated by the Bushists - the American people - Cheney made a soft landing at Halliburton.
 There, he grew rich on government contracts and taxpayer-supported credits doled out by his old pals in the military-industrial complex. He also hooked up with attractive foreign partners - like Saddam Hussein, the &quot;worse-than-Hitler&quot; dictator who paid Cheney $73 million to rebuild the oil fields that had been destroyed by, er, Dick Cheney. And while the Halliburton honcho became a multimillionaire many times over, some of his employees were not so lucky - Cheney ashcanned more than 10,000 workers during his boardroom reign. (At least he didn't bury them alive.)
 Old news, you say? Irrelevant to the current crisis? Surely, now that Cheney has been translated to glory as the second-highest public servant in the United States, he is beyond any taint of grubby material concerns? <i>Au contraire, </i>as those ever-dastardly French like to say. At this very moment, while the smoke is still rising from the rubble of Baghdad, while the bodies of the unburied dead are still rotting in the desert wastes, Dick Cheney is receiving <i>$1 million </i>a year in so-called &quot;deferred compensation&quot; from Halliburton. That's one million smackers from a private company that profits directly from the mass slaughter in Iraq, going into the pockets of the &quot;public servant&quot; who is, as the sycophantic media never tires of telling us, the power behind George W.'s throne - and a prime architect of the war.
 This is money that Cheney wouldn't get if Halliburton went down the tubes - a prospect it faced in the early days of the Regime, due to a boneheaded merger engineered by its former CEO, a guy named, er, Dick Cheney. In a deal apparently sealed during a golf game with an old crony, Cheney acquired a subsidiary, Dresser Industries - a firm associated with the Bush family for more than 70 years - which was facing billions of dollars in liability claims for its unsafe use of asbestos. Dresser's bigwigs doubtless made out like bandits from the deal, and Cheney left the mess behind when the grateful Bushes put him on the presidential ticket, but there was serious concern that Halliburton itself would be forced into bankruptcy - unless it found massive new sources of secure funding to offset the financial &quot;shock and awe&quot; of the asbestos lawsuits.
 Then, lo and behold, after Sept. 11, Halliburton received a multibillion-dollar, <i>open-ended, no-bid </i>contract to build and service U.S. military bases and operations all over the world. It also won several shorter-term contracts, such as expanding the concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay, where the regime is holding unnamed, uncharged suspected terrorists in violation of the Geneva Convention. With this fountain of federal money pouring into its coffers - and Bushist operatives in Congress pushing legislation to restrict asbestos lawsuits - Halliburton was able to hammer out a surprisingly favorable settlement deal with the asbestos victims. The company - and Cheney's million-dollar paychecks - were saved. Allah be praised!
 Halliburton is just the tip of the slagheap, of course. Daddy Bush's popsicle stand, the Carlyle Group - which controls a vast network of defense firms and &quot;security&quot; operations around the world - is also panning gold from the streams of blood pouring down the ancient tracks of Babylon. Junior Bush - who, like a kept woman, made his own influence-peddling fortune through services rendered to a series of sugar daddies - has conveniently gutted the national inheritance tax, swelling his own eventual bottom line when his father joins the legions of Panamanian, Iranian, Afghan, Iraqi - and American - dead he and his son have sent down to Sheol.
 Never in American history has a group of government leaders profited so directly from war - never. Like their brothers-in-arms, Hussein's Baathists, the Bushists treat their own country like a sacked town, looting the treasury for their family retainers and turning public policy to private gain. Like Hussein, they feed on fear and glorify aggression. Like Hussein, they have dishonored their country and betrayed its people.
 But the money sure is good, eh, Dick?
 
 <i>
For annotational references, see the &quot;Opinion&quot; section at www.sptimesrussia.com </i>

TITLE: Hong Kong Ups SARS Alert as Cases Rise
AUTHOR: By Margaret Wong
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HONG KONG - Health officials announced a sharp rise Monday in cases of a flu-like disease at a Hong Kong apartment complex and slapped a 10-day quarantine on one building as they scrambled to contain the illness that has killed nearly 60 people worldwide. 
 
The 92 new cases at Amoy Gardens apartments brought the total number infected in the 19-building complex to 213.
 The surge in cases led some health officials to fear severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, could be more contagious than had been initially expected. 
 There is still no known treatment for SARS, which has killed nearly 60 people, with the majority of cases in Hong Kong and China.
 Three new deaths were reported Sunday, one each in Hong Kong, Toronto and Singapore. More than 1,600 people have been infected around the world. 
 A World Health Organization official said Monday that experts believe they can soon identify the virus causing SARS, though finding a cure could take longer. 
 &quot;I think we can identify the causative agent in quite a short time period. We think probably within a few days, at most a few weeks,&quot; said Hitoshi Oshitani, the WHO coordinator for SARs, at a news conference in Manila.
 &quot;But this doesn't mean we will find the specific treatment for this disease within the short time period.&quot; 
 The illness has prompted officials in Asian countries to impose long-unused quarantine laws, close schools and impose new health screening on travelers. Canadian officials declared a health emergency. 
 In Hong Kong, residents at Block E of Amoy Gardens, were ordered to stay in their homes until midnight April 9 or face fines or jail time, while being offered regular medical checkups and three free meals per day.
 Hong Kong officials said 107 people from Block E are sick. 
 Hong Kong's health secretary, Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong, told a news conference the quarantine was forced by &quot;a very exceptional circumstance.&quot; 
 Yeoh was emotional and initially had trouble speaking to reporters. &quot;We haven't done it before and we hope we won't do it again,&quot; he said of the quarantine. 
 Singapore's health minister, Lim Hng Kiang, said the disease may spread more easily than first believed, with some people found to be more infectious than others.
 These people can sicken as many as 40 others, he said. 
 &quot;We run the risk of a huge new cluster of infected people, which could start a chain reaction,&quot; Lim told a news conference Sunday. 
 Yeoh said Hong Kong officials believe the virus was brought to Amoy Gardens by a man infected at a hospital where many of Hong Kong's victims have fallen ill. 
 Asked whether SARS was spreading through the air, Yeoh said that couldn't be ruled out. 
 Officials had said previously the illness, which has killed 13 people in Hong Kong, seemed to spread through close contact and Yeoh said experts still believe the sickness is being transmitted mostly through droplets, when victims sneeze or cough and nearby people are infected. 
 &quot;No one can rule out this possibility of airborne transmission, because the virus can change so quickly these days,&quot; Yeoh said. 
 Police sealed Block E at Amoy Gardens with metal barricades and tape after the quarantine was ordered in the early hours of the morning . 
 Speaking to local television and radio stations, one resident said he would bide his time with the Internet and video games. A woman grumbled that jail inmates probably get better treatment. 
 &quot;They only gave me a loaf of white bread,&quot; said the woman, identifying herself to TVB television as Ms. Lam. &quot;Have they thought about our feelings? I haven't been jailed before, but I understand that prisoners even get newspapers to read.&quot; 
 In China, where the disease has killed at least 34 people, people rushed to buy surgical masks and herbal cold remedies as unease rose. 
 In Canada, another death was reported Sunday to bring the toll there to four. About 100 probable or suspect cases have been reported from the west coast city of Vancouver, British Columbia, to the east coast city of New Brunswick.
 Officials have closed two hospitals to new patients, and hundreds of people have been quarantined in their homes. 
 The World Health Organization recommended that international travelers from Toronto and several Asian cities get screened for symptoms, which include high fever, dry cough and shortness of breath. 
 The International Ice Hockey Federation canceled the women's world championships scheduled to begin Thursday in Beijing, following numerous other cancellations of concerts, anti-war protests and other events in infected areas. 
 The federation said the spread of the illness to Beijing from southern China put the players at risk. 
 Hockey players for Canada, the defending champion, were disappointed but understood. 
 &quot;You could lose your life going there and just being in contact with somebody,&quot; forward Danielle Goyette said. &quot;Life is more important than hockey right now.&quot;

TITLE: Extremist Group Threatens Attacks
AUTHOR: By Karin Laub
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Islamic Jihad will step up attacks in Israel as a show of support for Iraq, the militant group said Monday, a day after a suicide attack wounded 49 Israelis outside a packed cafe. 
 
Sunday's blast in the coastal town of Netanya appears to have thrust both Israelis and Palestinians closer to the war in Iraq, with both sides making the connection to that conflict after largely watching it from the sidelines. 
 Islamic Jihad said the Netanya bombing was &quot;Palestine's gift to the heroic people of Iraq,&quot; and that there would be more attacks. 
 &quot;The Islamic Jihad movement is interested in intensifying its attacks in this phase to make it clear to Arabs, Muslims and the whole world that what is going on here in Palestine is the same as what is happening in Iraq,&quot; the group's leader in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Nafez Azzam, said in a telephone interview Monday. 
 However, the leader of a second Palestinian militia, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, said Monday he has ordered a halt to all attacks on Israelis for the duration of the Iraq war. 
 The militia fears harsher Israeli reprisal to such attacks at a time when the world's attention is focused on Iraq, the leader, identified only by his nom de guerre, Abu Majed, said in a telephone interview from the West Bank city of Nablus. 
 It was not clear whether the order would be carried out; local Al Aqsa leaders in the West Bank towns of Jenin and Tulkarem said they would continue attacking Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank. 
 Israeli officials, meanwhile, said they are bracing for a new wave of bombings. &quot;The [Palestinian] motivation to harm Israel and to help the Iraqi struggle is well known to us,&quot; said Israel's police minister, Tzahi Hanegbi. 
 Sunday's blast was one of dozens carried out by Islamic Jihad and the larger Hamas group in the past 30 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, but the first since the start of the U.S.-led offensive against Iraq on March 20. 
 Islamic Jihad said it has dispatched several dozen Palestinian volunteers from Arab countries to Baghdad to carry out suicide missions against American and British soldiers. &quot;It's not a large number of fighters, just symbolic,&quot; Azzam said.
 Sunday's attack came on a clear day on the Mediterranean coast. The bomber, dressed casually, walked toward Cafe London and detonated nail-studded explosives strapped to his body. The army said 10 soldiers were among the wounded. 
 The assailant was later identified as Rami Ghanem, 20, from a West Bank village close to Israel.

TITLE: Millions Facing Starvation in Eritrea
AUTHOR: By Alex Kellogg
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MENDEFERA, Eritrea - A feeding tube snaking through his nose down to his stomach, the 2-year-old wheezes for breath on the hospital bed as his mother strokes his shriveled leg. Sennait Tesfay brought little Tesfayohannes to Adi Ugri hospital for its emergency nutrition program because she didn't have any food for her children. &quot;This drought has been terrible for us,&quot; she whispers. 
 
More and more mothers are coming to the hospital, as a devastating drought threatens many of Eritrea's 3.3 million people with severe hunger and possible famine. Many of those struggling are subsistence farmers or herders who have no money to pay for food that is available in the cities of Eritrea, which became Africa's newest country in 1993 after a 30-year war to break away from Ethiopia. 
 Aid officials say the formerly self-reliant country in the Horn of Africa is approaching a humanitarian disaster just as the world attention is focusing on the misery in Iraq. Some donors also have cut back aid because Eritrea's government has been accused of abusing human rights. 
 Simon Nhongo, the United Nations' resident coordinator for Eritrea, estimates that 70 percent of Eritreans are affected by the drought. He recently led a mission to the United States and Canada to impress on donors the seriousness of the situation. Only 24 percent of the emergency food aid requested for Eritrea has been pledged, and only a fraction of that has been delivered. Aid officials say the stocks of donated food they have now will run out in May. 
 In Debub province, where Mendefera is situated, more than 80 percent of the 750,000 people are facing severe food shortages in what is normally a productive farming region. 
 Doctors at Adi Ugri hospital in Mendefera, 55 kilometers south of the capital, Asmara, say they are treating a growing number of children who are little more than skin and bones when they arrive. It's often too late, because of complications from other diseases that set in with severe malnutrition, Dr. Eyob Kiflom said. 
 Three dozen doctors in the province have been trained in the delicate process of therapeutic feeding of severely malnourished children, and aid agencies are rushing to train more doctors. 
 It may not help because there is a shortage of special food supplements, medical workers say. 
 &quot;We simply don't have enough therapeutic food or supplementary food,&quot; said Mekonnen Tekle, a registered nurse who works at a health center in May Dma, a small town 30 kilometers west of Mendefera. 
 The muted international response to the appeal for food and nonfood aid for Eritrea is due to a number of factors, including the political situation in the country, aid officials say. In late 2001, President Isaias Afwerki closed private newspapers and detained a number of political dissidents. The government is holding two Eritrean employees of the U.S. Embassy in Asmara without explanation. 
 &quot;There definitely is an undercurrent of the unfriendliness that sharpened in the autumn of 2001,&quot; the UN's Nhongo said. 
 Ethiopia, which is suffering from the same drought, has been able to obtain about half of its requested emergency food. 
 Afwerki's top economic adviser, Woldai Futur, has accused the international community of applying much tougher human rights standards to Eritrea than to other countries with similar records. 
 He said that, however regrettable the closure of the private press and the detention of dissidents, the moves were necessary to safeguard national security. 
 Nhongo now worries that most donor countries are &quot;too busy worrying about the war in Iraq to pay attention to the humanitarian crisis in Eritrea.&quot;
 So Eritrea will have to fend for itself, he said, adding that this will be extremely difficult because of the government's strained finances.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: <b>Milosovic Trial
 </b>

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic denied Monday that he was involved in the slaying of his predecessor as his UN war-crimes trial resumed after a two-week delay due to his poor health. 
 Serbia's deputy prime minister on Sunday linked Milosevic and his wife, Mirjana Markovic, to the 2000 slaying of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic. Stambolic, a political opponent of the former Yugoslav leader, disappeared months before Milosevic was ousted from power in October 2000. Authorities found his remains last week. 
 Milosevic dismissed the allegations as a false media campaign, saying authorities in Belgrade were conspiring with UN prosecutors to damage his family and prejudice his case. 
 "I insist that the link be established between the activities of that so-called prosecutor over there and the media campaign," Milosevic said. "They are being waged against my wife and myself ... to accuse me, try me, and judge me." 
 Hearings in Milosevic' trial were canceled March 18 after doctors in the UN detention unit said Milosevic was suffering from a recurrence of high blood pressure and recommended a few days rest. 
 
 
<b>Dog Fight I
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - The canine winner of the world's biggest dog show may be stripped of its title after being accused of having a secret facelift, The Times of London reported on Monday. 
 Danny, the Pekingese that beat 20,000 contestants to be crowned Supreme Champion at the renowned Crufts show earlier this month, faces an investigation into the allegations, the paper said. 
 Nips and tucks are banned under the show's strict rules and winners found to have gone under the knife can be stripped of their title, the event's organizers, the Kennel Club, told the paper. 
 But three-year-old Danny's owners firmly denied the charges, saying they were the work of jealous rivals in the fiercely competitive world of dog shows. 
 "It is all just jealousy," Albert Easdon, who displayed Danny at the show with Philip Martin, told The Times. "They can't just say 'it's a lovely dog.'"
 
 
<b>Making Radio Waves
 </b>

MBABANE, Swaziland (Reuters) - Listeners to Swaziland's state-run radio station thought it had its own correspondent in Baghdad covering the war - until legislators spotted him in parliament at the weekend. 
 "Why are they lying to the nation that the man is in Iraq, when he is here in Swaziland, broadcasting out of a broom closet?" MP Jojo Dlamini demanded of Information Minister Mntomzima Dlamini in the House of Assembly on Monday. The minister said he would investigate the matter. 
 Announcer Phesheya Dube gave "live reports" purportedly from Baghdad last week. Program host Moses Matsebula frequently expressed concerns about Dube's wellbeing and once advised him to "find a cave somewhere to be safe from missiles". 
 The station declined to comment and referred questions to the ministry.
 
 
<b>Dog Fight II
 </b>

ATHENS, Ohio (AP) - A man was using his free-speech rights when he barked back at a police dog, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday. 
 The 4th Ohio District Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of charges against a man who answered the barks of Pepsie in this southeast Ohio city in September 2001. 
 Jeremy Gilchrist, then 21, encountered the dog, which was in a police cruiser, as he walked along a street with friends. His attorney said he was trying to be funny when he barked back. 
 "The mere fact that the police dog had commenced the barking did not entitle it to a solo performance," attorney Patrick McGee wrote in the appeal. 
 State law makes it illegal to taunt, torment or hit a police dog or horse. Officer Krishea Osborne testified that Gilchrist's barking made the dog "work himself up into a frenzy."
 Athens County Municipal Judge Douglas Bennett threw out the charges last June, saying the law violated the right to free speech. The appeals court agreed. 



TITLE: Kwan Takes World Title for Fifth Time
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - With a smile that could light up the world and a grace unmatched in her graceful sport, Michelle Kwan soared into the record books Saturday night. 
 
Kwan became only the third American to win five World Figure Skating Championships, and she did it with the kind of magnificent artistry that would match anyone who has ever laced on skates. And for those who criticize her for not trying the most difficult jumps, she answered with a technical masterpiece of spins, spirals and footwork that had the crowd in ecstasy. 
 Russia's Yelena Sokolova capped her breakthrough season by winning the silver, and Japan's Fumie Suguri won the bronze. 
 Kwan, the first woman to reclaim the world crown three times, did six triples - two in combination - with the smoothest salchow and lutz you will ever see. While she didn't try a triple-triple combination - Sokolova and several others did - it hardly mattered when everything else was of such high quality. 
 &quot;Tonight, this week, it's been ... I still don't believe it,&quot; said Kwan, who sobbed on the victory stand. &quot;It's like, 'Wow.' I have no words. I never felt such energy from myself and felt so calm. It seemed like I walked through everything.&quot; 
 Sokolova, in her second worlds, but first since 1998, was coming off a concussion suffered when a luggage bag hit her on the head during an airplane flight. She recovered from that, beat Irina Slutskaya to win her first national title and, in Washington, further established herself as the best of the Russians. 
 &quot;Last season, I was not even in the top three in Russia,&quot; Sokolova said. &quot;Now, I will be second in the world.&quot;
 Skating in what they said is their last competition Friday, Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz finally won the gold medal they've chased for seven years. And it was no token going-away gift. They outskated 2002 world champs Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh, and even the judges had to acknowledge it. 
 Bourne and Kraatz were still grinning when they were introduced for the medals ceremony, and she had to hold back tears as their anthem played at the World Figure Skating Championships.
 The Russians weren't nearly as happy, blowing past the media after they saw the standings, a 5-4 split. 
 &quot;I think it was a political decision,&quot; Averbukh said. &quot;I think the gold medal was a reward for the Canadian couple for a long career.&quot; 
 Bourne and Kraatz's program was packed with drama and emotion. They were constantly moving, their bodies an integral part of the choreography of their program. No beat of the music went unacknowledged, no notes were missed. 
 Their straightline footwork was spectacular. Not only did they have tremendous speed and difficult turns, but they were in perfect unison, going from one end of the rink to the other in a mirror image. 
 &quot;It was wonderful,&quot; Bourne said. &quot;It felt great just to skate the way we did. I was so excited with how we performed and to get those marks to win convincingly.&quot;
 &quot;We've been together for so long and tried very hard and never really gave up,&quot; she added. &quot;And we got the gold.&quot;

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: <b>Love Game
 </b>

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida (AP) - Davis Love III pulled away with five straight birdies and closed with an 8-under 64 to match the best final round by the winner in the 30-year history of The Players Championship, known as the fifth major. 
 It was the second time Love has won The Players Championship, and it could be a huge boost to his confidence with the Masters only two weeks away. 
 Love finished at 17-under 271 and won by six strokes over 49-year-old Jay Haas and Padraig Harrington of Ireland, who shared the lead going into the final round but never stood a chance against such a barrage of birdies. 
 Love earned $1.17 million from the richest purse on the PGA Tour. 
 "It's the best round of golf I've ever played, especially under these circumstances," Love said. "It seemed like every time I looked up, it was going right in the middle. It was an exciting round of golf."
 
 
<b>Ridsdale Quits
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - Peter Ridsdale stepped down after five years as chairperson of Leeds United on Monday as the struggling English Premiership club reported increased first half losses and deeper debts. 
 The announcement follows a miserable season for Leeds, which finds itself involved in a potential relegation battle - just two years after reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League. 
 Leeds incurred the wrath of supporters after offloading six key players during the season in a bid to reduce mounting debts.
 The club also sacked manager Terry Venables 10 days ago. 
 Leeds unveiled wider first-half pre-tax losses of Pound17.2 million ($26.93 million) for the six months to December 31 from Pound13.8 million in the comparative period last year, as turnover dropped 10 percent to Pound34.6 million pounds. 
 Debts rose by Pound1 million to Pound78.9 million in the period.