SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #859 (27), Friday, April 11, 2003
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TITLE: Hussein Ouster Reality in Iraq
AUTHOR: By Chris Tomlinson and David Crary
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD - U.S. forces battled holdout fighters Thursday at a palace and a mosque in Baghdad, with one Marine killed and up to 20 wounded. After dark in the capital, a suicide attacker blew himself up at a U.S. checkpoint, injuring four Marines.
 
In northern Iraq, America's Kurdish allies triumphantly entered the city of Kirkuk near some of the country's most productive oil fields.
 U.S. President George W. Bush, in a remarks televised throughout Iraq, told its citizens, "The long era of fear and cruelty is ending ... The future of your country will soon belong to you."
 In the city of Najaf, a crowd hacked to death two Shiite Muslim clerics - one a Saddam Hussein loyalist, the other a returning exile who had urged support for U.S. troops - at a meeting meant to forge reconciliation in one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, witnesses said.
 The suicide attack occurred about 7:30 p.m. near the Palestine Hotel, where most foreign journalists are staying. It also is near Firdos Square, where a large statue of Hussein was pulled down a day earlier.
 Marine Captain Joe Plenzler said that according to initial reports, "a man strapped with explosives approached a Marine checkpoint and detonated himself." He had no further details on the condition of the wounded.
 Skirmishes and widespread looting continued in Baghdad, a day after U.S. officials declared that Hussein's regime was no longer in control. U.S. Central Command said Marines engaged in "intense fighting" with pro-Hussein forces at the Imam Mosque, the Al-Azimyah Palace and the house of a Baath party leader.
 Major General Gene Renuart, director of operations at Central Command, said U.S. troops acted on information that regime leaders were trying to meet in the area. During the operations, he said, Marines were fired on from the mosque compound.
 Renuart said those resisting the U.S troops were captured or killed, but he provided no details. Baghdad is now completely encircled by U.S. forces, he said, but "is still an ugly place," with pockets of resistance.
 At least two explosions rocked the southern end of the Old Palace presidential compound Thursday evening, starting several small fires. U.S. Army troops occupying the compound appeared to return fire with tank cannons. There was no report of casualties.
 Aside from those incidents, the largely one-sided battle for Baghdad seemed nearly over, and U.S. commanders were focusing on plans to oust pro-Hussein forces from their handful of remaining strongholds in the north - including Hussein's heavily defended hometown of Tikrit and the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk near the northern oil fields.
 Renuart said U.S. forces have covered "about half or 60 percent" of Iraq, mostly in the south.
 "There's a long way to go still," he said. "We're not sure when a military victory will be complete."
 After Wednesday's momentous celebrations in Baghdad, and after perhaps the quietest night since the war began, residents of the capital were back out on the streets Thursday.
 Motorists flew white flags on their vehicles. Many people embarked on a new wave of looting, setting fires to some Interior Ministry buildings and making off with carpets, furniture, televisions and air conditioners from government-owned apartments, abandoned government offices and the police academy.
 Also looted was the German Embassy - representing a government that had emphatically opposed the U.S. decision to go to war.
 In Hussein City, a densely population Shiite Muslim district in Baghdad, some residents set up roadblocks, confiscated loot being brought back from the city in wheelbarrows and pushcarts, and sent the booty to a nearby mosque.
 Some U.S. units received word Thursday that they should try to stop the looting, but strategies for doing so remained incomplete.
 "There's civilian looting like crazy, all over the place," said Lance Corporal Darren Pickard of Merced, California "There just aren't enough of us to clear it out."
 One man, Adel Naji al-Tamimi, 49, said had spent 17 years in prison for writing anti-Hussein articles.
 "He made himself a legend and a myth," al-Tamimi said. "His atrocities and oppression controlled our feelings and we're still afraid."
 In many parts of the country, civilians struggled with serious shortages of food, medicine and clean water. Several major international aid groups are demanding swift access to Iraqi civilians, without interference from U.S. or British troops.
 "We need the independence to move around and do our assessments and we need security," said Kathleen Hunt of Care International. "The images we see on television (of widespread looting) are not very encouraging in terms of lawlessness in certain parts of the country."
 Hoping to restore some degree of order to the southern city of Basra, British troops on Thursday asked residents to turn in their guns - no questions asked. Renuart said coalition commanders had been heartened by cooperation from Muslim clerics in Basra, who were seeking to curtail looting and assist in reducing the number of guns in the community.
 Hussein's fate remained unknown. Hoping to resolve the mystery, U.S. special operations forces examined a site in a Baghdad neighborhood that was bombed Monday based on intelligence that Hussein was there.
 Across the Arab world, the fall of Baghdad - and the televised scenes of jubilation and looting - provoked shock, disbelief and bitterness. Some Arabs expressed hope that other oppressive regimes in the region would crumble; others were disappointed that Hussein's forces offered such weak resistance to America.
 According to the Pentagon, 101 American troops died in the first three weeks of the war, 11 were missing and seven were listed as captured. The British said 30 of their troops were dead. There are no reliable estimates for Iraqi casualties; an Army spokesperson said 7,300 prisoners had been taken.

TITLE: 28 Dead After Fire In School For Deaf
AUTHOR: By Sergei Rasulov and Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MAKHACHKALA, Dagestan - A fire roared through a boarding school for the deaf early Thursday, killing 28 young boys as they slept, unable to hear calls of alarm.
 
Firefighters and police officers were able to save 131 of their schoolmates, but 106 of them remained hospitalized on Thursday suffering from burns and smoke inhalation, with 22 in intensive-care wards, local emergency officials said.
 The tragedy occurred just three days after a fire at a rural Siberian school took the lives of 22 children, and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Thursday ordered an urgent assessment of fire safety in all Russian schools.
 Dagestani investigators said they suspected the fire was caused by a short circuit, the same explanation offered by those investigating the fire in the Siberian republic of Sakha.
 The latest fire began late Wednesday in the school's assembly hall, adjacent to the main two-story building of yellow limestone bricks, local firefighters said. At about 2 a.m. Thursday, perhaps smelling smoke, a staff member opened the door to the hall, creating a powerful backdraft. Flames surged into the main building and set ablaze the stairs leading to the dormitories on the second floor, the firefighters said.
 Ramazan Kurbanov, who lives near the school, was among the first who came running.
 "The corridor on the second floor was on fire and the only way to get the children out was through the windows," he said. "The fire crews that arrived on the spot had no ladders with them, and we, the neighbors, brought them ours."
 The rescue operation was slowed as each child had to be awakened individually because they could not hear the alarms, witnesses said.
 "When seemingly all the children had been rescued from several dormitories, someone shouted that some of them could be hiding under beds, and the firemen climbed into the windows again. Indeed, several scared kids were saved then from under the furniture," Kurbanov said.
 Girls and boys slept in separate dormitories, explaining why the children who died were all boys, most of them among the youngest at the school, emergency officials said. The pupils ranged in age from 7 to 14.
 It took three hours for 17 firefighting crews to put out the fire, which was fanned by high winds.
 On Thursday morning, thin smoke still swirled from the debris on the school's second floor. Charred children's shoes and boots were scattered across the floor.
 The ground floor, where the classrooms were located, looked almost intact except for the shattered windows.
 Of the school's 220 students, only 159 were sleeping there the night of the fire, Dagestani officials said.
 The children's parents rushed to the school Thursday morning. Women sobbed loudly on the street outside, but some of them calmed down when municipal officials standing near the scorched school told them that their children were alive. All the surviving children were taken to Makhachkala hospitals, and the officials had lists of who was where. Some of the children were released to their parents Thursday.
 Kasyanov said Thursday that the fire in the Makhachkala school seems to be part of systemic problem.
 He ordered the Education Ministry to check all Russian schools for fire safety and the conditions of their electrical systems. Earlier this week, the ministry told Izvestia that 700 schools had been damaged by fire in 2002.
 According to Emergency Situations Ministry figures, 750 Russian children died in fires last year, not all in schools.
 Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky traveled Thursday to Makhachkala to head the investigation.
 President Vladimir Putin said the authorities will do everything in their power to help the families of the dead and injured children.
 "These are our common children, this is our common tragedy," Putin said in remarks read by an anchor on Channel One television.
 State Duma members stood in memory of the dead children Thursday.
 "The Americans in these several days lost fewer people [in Iraq], than we did in two or three days when a total of 50 children died in fires," Deputy Valery Dorogin said, according to Interfax.
 A day of mourning was declared in Dagestan on Friday, when the dead children will be buried, Interfax reported, citing the speaker of the republic's parliament, Mukhu Aliyev. Several bodies still have not been identified, he said.

TITLE: New Prosecutor Breezes Through Confirmation
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Promising to speed up work on a number of criminal cases and to be more involved in the assessment of draft laws than his predecessor, Nikolai Vinnichenko was confirmed by an overwhelming majority in the Legislative Assembly as St. Petersburg's new City Prosecutor.
 
Vinnichenko, who received 42 of 43 votes - one deputy abstained - replaces Ivan Sydoruk, who left the office last month to take an advisory post to Russian General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov. The new City Prosecutor worked as a deputy for his predecessor before leaving for a position with the office of the presidential representative in the Northwest Region in 2001.
 In a Wednesday interview with RTR television, Vinnichenko placed heavy emphasis in cleaning the backlog of criminal cases in the city, but said that he would not differentiate between those of the high-profile variety and others.
 "These cases which had been submitted to court, the case of [lawmaker Yury] Shutov in particular, will be heard first and we will put all of our energy into bringing it to a positive solution," Vinnichenko said. "But the approach to these more famous cases, of which everyone is aware, won't change."
 But members of the assembly are looking for some changes.
 "We hope the prosecutor's office will work better now. This move is a strengthening of the Prosecutor's Office," Mikhail Amosov, the head of Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly, said in an interview on Wednesday.
 "At a meeting of our faction's members with him, we pointed out two particular issues that concern us," Amosov added. "First, we want the Prosecutor's Office to pay more intention to draft laws. Previously, the Prosecutor's Office has largely ignored this work."
 "Second, we want the prosecutor's office to pay attention to investigating violent acts committed against national minorities, which are occurring with greater regularity. A perfect example is the Azeri man who was killed in the city last year. He was simply selling melons peacefully, and he was killed."
 Others have different expectations. Under Sydoruk, the Prosecutor's office was active in trying to block laws that had been passed by the assembly from coming into effect. A number of lawmakers are looking for a more constructive relationship.
 "We're concerned about how he will work with the Legislative Assembly," Igor Mikhailov, an independent lawmaker, said in an interview on Wednesday. "Before [Vinnichenko] this relationship was not constructive ... The Prosecutor's Office should choose between filing a huge number of protests over legislation passed, which takes an inordinate amount of time, and the judicial examination of laws while they are still in the draft stage. I think that the second option is much more effective."
 Stanislav Zhitkov, a Communist party lawmaker and member of the United Russia faction, was more interested in economic questions, saying that he hopes Vinnichenko will keep a closer eye on City Hall budget questions.
 "I would like to see the new prosecutor to look more into business issues. A number of vice governors have had criminal cases initiated against them, most of which were linked to budget issues," Zhitkov said in an interview on Wednesday, "We were told recently that billions of rubles of city-budget money are just sitting in bank accounts here and, we think, being used for other purposes ... This is the kind of mess that has existed in City Hall's dealings since 1998."
 Since 2001, five vice governors in Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's 13-member administration - Valentin Mettus, Victor Krotov, Anatoly Kogan, Valery Malyshev and Alexander Potekhin - have had criminal investigations opened into their activities by the Prosecutor's Office. Only one of the five, Kogan, was ever charged. He was found guilty of abuse of office on March 4, but was immediately released because the statute of limitations on the crime had expired.
 Malyshev died last May of a stroke while still under investigation. City Hall blamed his death on the constant pressure it charged was being brought to bear on Malyshev by the Prosecutor's Office.
 Zhitkov also said that a decision should be reached on Shutov's case.
 Since his arrest on Feb. 16, 1999, Shutov, an independent lawmaker in the assembly, been detained in prison on charges that he was behind at least seven high-profile contract killings.
 A few days before Wednesday's vote to confirm Vinnichenko, Shutov sent an open letter to the Legislative Assembly, charging that the proposed candidate did not meet the professional qualifications the office required.
 "Nobody else is going to be brave enough to tell the truth about Vinnichenko," Shutov wrote in the letter. "If [Vinnichenko] becomes [City] Prosecutor, it is almost a certainty that he will pour a terrible wave of an arbitrariness and illegitimate actions over the heads of defenseless citizens."
 Given the difficulties faced with the Prosecutor's Office under Sydoruk, Smolny seems to be hoping for a little bit of peace. Vice governor Anna Markova said that the hope is that Vinnichenko will stay out of political conflicts.
 "We just hope that the period of political intrigues has come to an end and that normal, constructive work will begin," Markova said in an interview on Wednesday. "The Prosecutor's Office main job is to carry out investigations and maintain order in the city."

TITLE: New Guidelines Set For Entering Russia
AUTHOR: By Robin Munro
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Starting Monday, immigration officials will start taking a closer look at foreigners entering and leaving the country, and foreigners may find themselves barred for a reasons such as failing to pay taxes or fines, lacking medical insurance or not having enough money for the visit.
 
The new rules are amendments to the law on entry and exit and will give the government greater control over those who need visas to enter, stay in and leave Russia, lawyers said.
 The changes end the relaxed visa system that had been in place for the past decade and had placed visas into three broad categories: multi-entry, double-entry and single-entry.
 It remains to be seen whether the changes will create new visa headaches for foreigners from the West. 
 "The law improves identification and monitoring of the purpose of foreigners' stay in Russia," said Mariana Marchuk, an associate at the Moscow office of the Baker and McKenzie law firm.
 "It will be like in the United States, where if you have a B2 visa you are a tourist and aren't supposed to be in an office or other work place," she said. "If the authorities find someone who is negotiating in a conference room has a tourist visa or a private visa, it will be a violation of the visa regime."
 The local office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said the effect for refugees will be positive.
 "The amendments stipulate, in particular, that recognized refugees can exit and enter Russia on the basis of a refugee travel document," it said in a statement.
 Nevertheless, the office warned, it is important to see how the law will be implemented.
 The amendments contain two lists; one spells out reasons for mandatory denial of entry and the other for possible denial of entry.
 A foreigner will be denied entry if he or she:
 
. has been convicted of a serious crime in Russia;
 . lacks medical insurance;
 . is deemed a threat to state security or previously hindered Russia's ability to defend state security;
 . has been deported or expelled from Russia. Russian law makes a subtle distinction between these two categories but, either way, a foreigner cannot return for five years after being deported or expelled;
 . is considered a risk to public order or public health. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov last week signed off on a list of diseases that are reason for refusing work permits and temporary or permanent residency permits; they include HIV, leprosy, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and chlamydia. However, this rule will not be enforced until the Health Ministry decides how it will be enforced. It is unclear when the decision will be made;
 . is on a Russian blacklist. Kasyanov signed an order this week of the government agencies authorized to decide who goes on the blacklist; they are the Federal Security Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Financial Monitoring Committee and the Interior, Defense, Foreign, Health and Justice ministries;
 . has insufficient funds to support him or herself and pay for his or her departure from Russia. However, the government has yet to decide how to enforce this rule.
 
A foreigner might be denied entry if he or she:
 
. failed to submit a migration card the last time he or she left Russian soil;
 . has been convicted of a crime abroad or has participated in an activity that is recognized as a crime in Russia;
 . violated the rules of crossing the border, including customs rules and sanitary rules;
 . is carrying falsified documents or provided false information in his visa application;
 . failed to pay taxes during a previous visit;
 . has been fined at least twice for administrative violations in Russia during the previous three years;
 
"Accordingly, administrative violations are not insignificant incidents, and administrative fines are not something to be viewed just as economic costs any longer," Marchuk said.

TITLE: Anti-War Three To Meet Here
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: French President Jacques Chirac will travel to St. Petersburg this week at the same time as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and the two will discuss Iraq with President Vladimir Putin, Russian and French officials said Tuesday.
 
Chirac will travel to St. Petersburg on Friday and Saturday at Putin's invitation, the Kremlin said. Schroeder was already scheduled to visit Russia's former imperial capital on those days.
 In Paris, Chirac said Putin had invited him and Schroeder "to discuss all aspects of the situation" in Iraq. It will also be "an occasion to discuss postwar Iraq," he said.
 France, Germany and Russia sought to avert the U.S.-led war in Iraq, pushing for weapons inspections to be extended for several months as an alternative to a proposed UN Security Council resolution that would have authorized war. France and Russia both said they would not let the U.S.-backed resolution to pass, and it never came to a vote. 
 The visits come amid international discussion of the role of the United Nations - and of countries not part of the U.S.-led coalition - in the postwar reconstruction of Iraq. 
 The United States remains at odds with much of the council, including its closest ally, Britain, on what that role should be.
 The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush says the U.S.-led coalition fighting in Iraq must take the lead in running and rebuilding Iraq. The European Union wants the United Nations to be a major player.
 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday advocated "an important role" for the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq, stressing that only the world body can bring legitimacy to the job.
 The St. Petersburg visits - which will bring the leaders of the three chief European opponents of the war together for the first time since U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq - also comes as the United States and Russia seek to ensure their relations are not ruined by their sharp disagreement over the war.
 Putin has continued to criticize the war and the U.S. decision to fight without UN approval but has emphasized the need to maintain close cooperation with the United States. 
 The weekly Moscow News on Tuesday quoted a senior U.S. State Department official, Richard Haas, as saying that Russia would have better chances of participating in restoring the Iraqi economy if it took a "constructive" stance alongside the United States when the United Nations debates reconstruction plans.

TITLE: UN Chief Cancels Visit to Petersburg
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's spontaneous trip to join President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Germany and France in St. Petersburg this weekend was called off only hours after it was announced.
 
The quick turnabout underscores the sensitivity of the diplomatic game being played in world capitals as the Iraq war appears to be wrapping up. At issue is who will control postwar Iraq and, namely, what role the United Nations - and countries that are not part of the U.S.-led coalition - will play.
 The Kremlin announced Tuesday evening that Annan would visit St. Petersburg on Saturday, where Putin has long planned to hold talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The UN Information Office in Moscow, according to Interfax, confirmed the trip.
 At about the same time, the news came that French President Jacques Chirac also was making the trip, bringing together the three main European opponents of the U.S.-led war.
 If Annan had joined them, it would have been seen as a slap in the face of the United States, which has insisted that the U.S.-led coalition now fighting in Iraq has the right to control how Iraq is run and rebuilt.
 Only hours later, though, Annan's visit was canceled. He had planned to leave Wednesday on a trip to Britain, France and Germany, continuing on to Russia.
 Annan's office in New York said Wednesday that the entire European tour was scrapped in favor of attending the European Union enlargement ceremony in Athens on April 17.
 "Since all the European heads of state are going to Athens, it would be much more convenient for him to meet all the European leaders there," Annan's deputy spokesperson, Hua Jiang, said Wednesday by telephone from New York. "I know the press reported the general secretary would be going to St. Petersburg. From our side, we never ever announced that. I don't know where it came from."
 Putin was invited to Athens, but will be represented by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, The Associated Press reported, citing the Greek government. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said it could not confirm officially that Ivanov is going to Athens, and Annan's press service also said it did not know if Ivanov would be meeting with the UN secretary general there.
 Alexander Gorelik, the head of the UN Information Center in Moscow, said Wednesday that, according to information he received from UN headquarters, Annan's trip had been seen as a way to bridge differences between Security Council members, and he had initially only intended to visit London and Paris. "Then, Germany was added and, absolutely surprising for us, Russia," Gorelik said.
 "There is a logic to this - these are the central players," he said. "But, from a logistical viewpoint, it is extremely difficult to fly out of New York on Wednesday and visit four capitals by the end of the week."
 Even without Annan, the meeting in St. Petersburg has caused displeasure in Washington. "I would hope that rather than focus on what the UN alone should have as a role in [rebuilding Iraq], it would be nice if these people would talk about ... the Iraqi people first," White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said Wednesday, referring to Chirac's comment earlier in the week that the United Nations alone should be responsible for administering Iraq.

TITLE: Fallout Continues From Convoy Fire
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Russian diplomatic convoy that came under fire as it evacuated Baghdad might have been carrying secret Iraqi files that U.S. intelligence officers wanted to seize, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Wednesday.
 
The report was quickly denied by the Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR. "It's sheer nonsense," SVR spokesperson Boris Labusov said.
 Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, has accused U.S. troops of intentionally firing Sunday on his convoy outside Baghdad, but U.S. officials have insisted that it was still unclear who was responsible for the shooting.
 Nezavisimaya Gazeta claimed Wednesday that U.S. forces opened fire on the convoy in an attempt to seize classified materials it was taking out of Iraq - the outcome "of a dangerous game involving the SVR and the CIA." "One was taking out classified Iraqi archives, and the other was trying to hamper it by force," the newspaper said.
 It said that the firing on the Russian convoy appeared intended to incapacitate the vehicles but spare the diplomats, explaining why just one person was seriously wounded.
 "They expected that the diplomats wouldn't carry the cargo on their backs and it would be possible to seize it," the newspaper said, adding that the plan had apparently failed because of the Iraqis who fired on the Americans.
 Nezavisimaya Gazeta had reported earlier that Russian intelligence agents had been sent to Baghdad to gather archives of the Iraqi secret service in case President Saddam Hussein's regime fell.
 The newspaper speculated that the archives could be highly valuable to Russia in three major areas: protecting Russian interests in a postwar Iraq; determining to what extent the Hussein regime may have financed Russian political parties and movements; and providing Russia access to intelligence that Iraqi agents gathered in other countries.
 U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow told Ekho Moskvy radio on Tuesday that the convoy had changed its itinerary without informing U.S. officials, which members of the convoy confirmed Wednesday.
 "We turned away from the route that we had discussed in detail with the Americans and the Iraqis," Roman Yudanov, who worked in the Russian Embassy in Baghdad, told the newspaper. "We drove in the direction we were told, and there was a fight there."
 TV Center camera operator Alexander Terentyev, who was traveling in the convoy, said the vehicles were redirected by the Iraqis. "The highway we went along was blocked. The Iraqis redirected us. We went to the right," he told Gazeta. "Civilian cars were stuck in a traffic jam there, and then shells began to explode in a broken tank on the side of the road."
 
 <i>(AP, SPT) </i>

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Balkan Withdrawal
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - The military chief of staff confirmed Thursday that Moscow will withdraw its peacekeeping forces from the Balkans, saying the pullout would occur within the next two months or so, news agencies reported.
 The Russian leadership has approved a Defense Ministry proposal for the withdrawal of Russian troops in the NATO-led peacekeeping contingents in Bosnia and Kosovo, Interfax and Itar-Tass quoted armed forces Chief of Staff Anatoly Kvashnin as saying at a news conference. 
 "There are no longer any military tasks in that region and they are unlikely to appear in the near future," Kvashnin was quoted by Interfax as saying. 
 He said the Russian units would be pulled out within about two months, Interfax said. 
 According to Itar-Tass, Kvashnin said Russia spends $26.9 million per year on the forces. "This money will now be used for the building and development of the armed forces, for combat preparation and for other purposes," Kvashnin said.
 
 
<b>Chinese-Tour Ban
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's chief epidemiologist ordered a ban on organized tours to certain Chinese regions because of the mystery illness known as severe acute respiratory syndrome, news reports said Thursday. 
 Gennady Onishchenko said in a letter to regional epidemiological services that Russian organizations should be prohibited from sending Russian citizens to China's Guangdong, Sichuan, Shanxi and Hunan provinces, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hong Kong, Interfax reported. 
 
<b>CIS Travel Rules
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - A foreign passport will soon be the only travel document that citizens of some CIS countries need to enter Russia, Interfax reported Thursday.
 The Foreign Ministry said the eased rules would be applied to citizens of countries with visa-free agreements with Russia and that Russians should be able to have the same travel rights, Interfax reported. Those countries include Uzbekistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
 The report said citizens of these countries are currently required to carry identity documents issued by other than federal authorities, internal passports, military identity cards and birth certificates. Processing the documents has imposed a huge burden on migration authorities, the Foreign Ministry said.
 
 
<b>5,800 Evacuated
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - Spring floods have forced the evacuation of more than 5,800 people in the southern Volgograd region over the past few days, Interfax reported Thursday.
 More than 6,000 homes have been flooded in the region, while floodwaters have swamped 562 houses in the Rostov region, Interfax said, adding that thousands of Emergency Situations Ministry troops have been called in to help.
 NTV television showed village streets covered with river ice, and people weeping over their damaged houses and dead cattle. 



TITLE: Kurds Take Control in North
AUTHOR: By Brian Murphy
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish fighters poured into the Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday, facing little resistance, in the clearest sign yet that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's authority in the north was crumbling.
 
Soon after, Turkey announced it was sending military observers to Kirkuk with U.S. approval. Turkey has said repeatedly that it will not accept Iraqi Kurdish control of the city, fearing it could encourage the creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq and inspire Kurdish rebels in Turkey.
 At a U.S. military briefing in Qatar, Major General Gene Renuart stressed that U.S. Special Forces in northern Iraq have established a relationship with Kurdish fighters in the area. &quot;Operations that may occur will be done in close coordination with and under the control of our U.S. forces,&quot; he said.
 Kirkuk was Iraq's No. 2 oil center, and wresting control of the city from Hussein has been a long-held dream of the Kurds. The north's other major city - Mosul - remained under regime control.
 Arab TV stations carried live images of residents of Kirkuk climbing on a huge statue of Saddam in Arab dress, in front of a crowd of hundreds. The men wrapped a rope around the neck and the raised arm and started tugging at it, similar to scenes in Baghdad on Wednesday. The letters &quot;USA&quot; were spraypainted on the base of the statue.
 Al-Jazeera television also showed a steady stream of cars entering Kirkuk, past abandoned sandbagged positions.
 Elsewhere in the north, Kurdish Peshmerga forces swept unopposed into the strategic city of Khaneqin on the Iranian border, and combined with U.S. special operations troops to rout Iraqi soldiers at Altun Kupri, about 30 kilometers north of Kirkuk.
 It was unclear if any Iraqi forces were still in Kirkuk. Shooting was heard on the northwest edge of the city.
 Kurds consider Kirkuk and Mosul part of their historical ethnic territory, but neighboring Turkey has threatened to send troops into Iraq if the Kurds took control of the two oil cities.
 Turkey argues the Kurds may not share the oil with other Iraqi groups after the war. The Turks also fear that Iraqi Kurds would declare an independent state if they controlled the valuable oil resources.
 More than 100 vehicles - ranging from cars to pickups to even a garbage truck - drove though the streets of Kirkuk at will Thursday, heavily laden with Kurdish fighters. Local people ran out of their homes to cheer and throw roses as the fighters passed.
 Kirkuk had been controlled by Hussein's regime, but most of its population was Kurdish.
 The cars and trucks flew the flags of the two major political parties who rule the two sectors of the autonomous region; yellow for Kurdistan Democratic Party and green for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
 At Khaneqin, another oil-producing city along the Iranian border, hundreds of Kurdish troops moved through the city Thursday, greeted by cheers. Residents said the city of 100,000 people had been under a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m curfew for several days.
 Shortly after Iranian TV broadcast images Wednesday evening of Baghdad's fall, people emerged from their homes and found that Iraqi soldiers and members of the ruling Baath Party had gone. Kurds said they met no resistance in the morning.
 The push into Kirkuk was set up earlier in the day, when Kurdish forces and U.S. special-operations troops moved unopposed into the town of Dibis, on a road running along the western edge of the Kirkuk oilfields.

TITLE: Iraqi Diplomats Destroy Former Links to Hussein
AUTHOR: By Tony Czuczka
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BERLIN - Iraqi diplomats burned or shredded documents at their embassies as President Saddam Hussein's government collapsed and left them without orders or unsure of who their new leader will be. The most abrupt about-face came from Iraq's UN ambassador, who claimed &quot;no relationship&quot; with Hussein after weeks of swaggering rhetoric.
 
&quot;The game is over,&quot; UN ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said outside his New York residence on Wednesday. Although one report said he fled the country, a reporter for Associated Press Television News said he was seen going inside the residence on Thursday.
 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he didn't know where Al-Douri was, adding that the Iraqi did not ask for asylum when they met Monday.
 Al-Douri, who had mocked the coalition for expecting to be welcomed in Iraq with &quot;hugs&quot; and &quot;flowers,&quot; said he had a new mission.
 &quot;My work now is peace,&quot; Al-Douri said Wednesday. &quot;I hope the peace will prevail. I hope the Iraqi people will have a happy life.&quot;
 Around the world, Iraqi diplomats seemed to be left in limbo.
 &quot;I haven't had contact with Baghdad for two or three weeks,&quot; Muaead Hussain, the Iraqi charge d'affaires in Berlin, said through the locked iron gate of his embassy Thursday. &quot;I have no idea what's going on there.&quot;
 Hussain insisted he still represented Hussein's's government. But asked whether he might switch allegiance, he said: &quot;Why not? I am serving my country.&quot;
 The scene was peaceful outside the three-story villa on a tree-lined suburban street - a contrast with last August when the embassy was stormed by a group of Iraqis who took four hostages, including Hussain, for hours demanding Hussein's removal. Six people are on trial in Berlin over the siege.
 But Hussain said he was not worried about security. Police increased their presence outside the embassy after regime opponents broke into an Iraqi diplomatic office in London on Wednesday, leading to 24 arrests.
 Where a single police officer stood guard outside the Berlin embassy previously, several were now on patrol, including one with a submachine gun. Inside the embassy, blinds and drapes were drawn.
 Elsewhere, there was housecleaning to attend to. After TV showed Hussein's statue come tumbling down in Baghdad, Iraqi diplomats in Brazil carried box after box of papers out of their embassy - and set them on fire. Then they denied police reports that documents were being destroyed.
 &quot;It's all lies,&quot; said Brazilian embassy official Abdu Saif. &quot;We are only burning debris and recently cut tree branches.&quot;

TITLE: Gazprom and Turkmenistan Ink New Deal
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Gazprom said Thursday that it had signed a huge long-term gas-import deal with Turkmenistan in a move designed to help the world's largest gas firm supply its Western customers.
 
Under the deal, ex-Soviet republic Turkmenistan, which sits on the world's third-largest gas reserves after Russia and Iran, will sell Gazprom 6 billion cubic meters of gas from 2004, with volumes set to rise to 10 bcm from 2006 and to 80 bcm from 2009.
 Gazprom agreed to buy Turkmen gas for $44 per 1,000 cubic meters, paying 50 percent in cash and 50 percent in goods and services.
 Nezavisimaya Gazeta speculated that Russia might trade weapons for gas.
 Gazprom, which supplies Europe with one fourth of its gas needs, sells gas in Europe at $90 to $120 per 1,000 cubic meters, but at just $21.50 at home, where prices are capped by the state.
 The 25-year deal, which comes into force next year, was signed on the sidelines of a summit between President Vladimir Putin and Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov.
 Interfax quoted Niyazov, who enjoys virtually unlimited powers in his Central Asian state, as saying that his country would earn $200 billion throughout 2028 by supplying Gazprom up to 2 trillion cubic meters of gas, while Russia's benefit would be around $300 billion.
 &quot;This is a major breakthrough in the gas relationship between Russia and Turkmenistan. It will determine the relationship between the two leading gas countries for the next quarter of a century,&quot; Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said in a statement.
 The deal appears to be lucrative for both sides, unable for two years to agree on the export price for Turkmen gas.
 Turkmenistan relies heavily on gas-export revenues. Its main gas-export market at the moment, however, is cash-strapped ex-Soviet Ukraine.
 Indebted Gazprom, which produces 530 bcm a year, needs Turkmen gas to cover the costly development of new gas fields lying beyond the Arctic Circle. 
 The two leaders also signed an agreement on cooperation in the security sphere and a protocol on ratifying the two states' friendship treaty, which was concluded last year. 
 &quot;Friendly interaction and businesslike cooperation are the characteristic features of our relations with Turkmenistan,&quot; Putin was quoted as saying at the start of his meeting with Niyazov. 
 The question of extraditions also almost certainly arose. The Turkmen government has expressed willingness to return four Russian citizens accused of involvement in an alleged November assassination attempt against Niyazov. 
 However, it has also demanded that Russia extradite two of the alleged conspirators, ex-Central Bank chief Khudaiberdi Orazov and former ambassador to Turkey Nurmukhammed Khanamov, both of whom are exiled opposition members who hold dual Turkmen-Russian citizenship. 
 
 <i>
(AP, Reuters) </i>

TITLE: Sibneft Makes Gains on Rumors of Major Western Suitor
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Shares in Russia's fifth-largest and fastest-growing oil firm, Sibneft, extended this week's gains Wednesday on a fresh round of rumors that a Western major is poised to buy a stake in the company.
 
Vedomosti reported that a source close to Sibneft shareholders said the rumors circulating in the market were not without foundation, which boosted Sibneft shares 0.9 percent to $2.21. The stock has gained about 6 percent this week. 
 The report named Royal Dutch/ Shell, ExxonMobil Corp. and TotalFinaElf as potential buyers of 25 percent to 51 percent of Sibneft. None of the companies mentioned would comment on the reports. Last year, similar rumors circulated at least three times.
 &quot;Management has always said a deal is entirely possible if the price is right,&quot; a Sibneft spokesperson said Wednesday, emphasizing that any talk of a deal remains only a rumor.
 BP, the world's third-largest oil company, pledged a $6.75-billion investment in Russia in February through a deal to buy a 50-percent stake in Russia's third-largest oil firm, TNK.
 The move was the biggest foreign investment in Russia in the post-Soviet era.
 Michel Sito, a salesperson at Troika Dialogue said the rumors, coming so soon after the BP deal, were bound to excite the market. &quot;But that deal was a long time in the making, and we don't think anybody else is positioned well enough yet to do anything,&quot; he said.
 Martin Diggle, a director at Brunswick UBS Warburg, said that the rumor had surfaced last week.
 &quot;The market is treating it with a high degree of skepticism. If people were really running with it, the price would be a lot higher,&quot; he said.
 Last year, Sibneft increased crude-oil production by 27.4 percent to 26.344 metric tons, or 520,384 barrels per day. It plans to hike output by another 25 percent to 33 million tons this year, and bankers said such growth is bound to attract attention of major oil companies.
 &quot;Sibneft has been saying for years that it would sell, but the price was never right,&quot; Troika Dialog oil and gas analyst Valery Nesterov said.
 Sibneft's market capitalization has sharply increased, he said, &quot;so Sibneft could be pushing to sell ahead of an expected worsening of the financial situation,&quot; as increased oil supply following the resolution of the conflict in Iraq may drive down prices.
 Banking sources said that the oil majors were natural buyers of Russian oil interests.
 &quot;The owners of Russian oil companies like Sibneft have a huge amount of wealth tied up in an illiquid position,&quot; said another banker with knowledge of the Russian market.
 However, bankers added that any sale was fraught with difficulties and that talks between the parties did not reflect firm intentions to buy or sell.
 &quot;They're all looking at what to do. Everybody talks to everybody, it's no secret,&quot; the banker added.
 However, BP's recent acquisition in Russia could be a catalyst.
 &quot;When one goes in there like BP does, it enhances the urgency for the others,&quot; another banker said, but adding that BP's appetite for such a risk was probably greater than the other majors.
 Last month Sibneft said that it would increase dividend payments for 2002 by 18 percent to $0.23 per share. It paid out $1 billion in dividends last year.
 
 <i>(Reuters, SPT) </i>

TITLE: PM Plans To Ease Tax Burden
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Thursday that the overall tax burden in the country will be reduced next year from the current 35 percent of gross domestic product to 33 percent.
 
&quot;The government has worked out a plan how to do this,&quot; Kasyanov told his cabinet, adding that, to achieve this, the government is now looking at spending items to reduce in next year's budget.
 &quot;These measures should be urgently calculated and become a part of economic policy,&quot; Kasyanov said in remarks posted on the government's Web site.
 However, he did not specify which taxes would be cut, or how the government intends to achieve its goal and balance the budget or even run another surplus. He did say, though, that the sagging manufacturing sector, which the government has been trying to find ways to bolster, would see the greatest relief.
 With gross domestic product estimated to hit $400 billion this year, the total amount of tax relief amounts to $8 billion, and with federal budget spending locked in this year at just $72 billion (on the assumption of an average rate of 33.7 rubles to the dollar), it is clear that trimming federal spending alone cannot make up the difference.
 Indeed, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who is in charge of a special government commission on optimizing spending, said that federal-budget outlays would only be lowered by 28.5 billion rubles, or about $900 million.
 The task given to the commission was to find ways to cut the tax burden by at least 1 percent and, in this task, Kasyanov and the cabinet generally agreed that it was successful, Kudrin was quoted by Interfax as saying.
 &quot;Most of [our] proposals were not questioned,&quot; he said.
 The cabinet is scheduled to meet later this month and at least once more before July 1 in order to finalize the government's tax and budget blueprints for 2004.
 Kudrin, however, stressed that at least four categories of spending - defense, education, science and culture - would be spared the fiscal axe.
 &quot;These are the sectors that will be the least affected by optimization, where funding will be concentrated,&quot; Kudrin said. &quot;The rest will be funded only after these areas are fully funded.&quot;
 Listing targets for fiscal streamlining, Kudrin said that 2.7 billion rubles could be saved by restructuring state-subsidized enterprises and organizations in the agricultural sector alone, adding that similar savings can be achieved by improving efficiency in nearly every sphere funded by the budget.
 &quot;The reduction of the tax burden and the optimization of government expenditures are closely interconnected because, as a result of optimization, fewer funds will be needed for the same amount of government functions,&quot; Kudrin said.
 Although reducing the tax burden is generally recognized as a positive step for developing economies, analysts were left puzzled over how Kasyanov expects to achieve such an ambitious target as reducing taxes by 2 percent of GDP in just under eight months.
 The current windfalls from high oil prices either go to the Central Bank via mandatory hard-currency sales for exporters, or are locked away in the &quot;second budget,&quot; or reserve fund, which was set up to hold unexpected tax revenues as a result of high oil prices. 
 &quot;Before any tax cuts are implemented it would make sense to see how the budget functions with normal oil prices,&quot; said Peter Westin, chief economist at the Aton brokerage. Russia's benchmark Urals blend of crude has averaged $25 per barrel over the last few years, but few expect the trend to last.
 Al Breach, chief economist at Brunswick UBS Warburg, said that this year's peak debt repayments will mean less money will need to be set aside for servicing external debt next year, which might allow for some room to lower taxes.
 But both economists said it would be wiser to keep the existing budget surplus intact for at least a few more years.
 &quot;It is still too early to end the impressive fiscal austerity of recent years,&quot; Breach said.

TITLE: IMF Cuts Forecasts for Russian, World Growth
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: <strong>GROWTH </strong>
<strong> GDP Growth, %
 2003 (*) 2004
 </strong>World 3.2 (3.7) 4.1
 Russia 4.0 (4.9) 3.5
 U.S. 2.2 (2.6) 3.6
 Euro zone 1.1 (2.3) 2.3
 Germany 0.5 (2.0) 1.9
 France 1.2 (2.3) 2.4
 Italy 1.1 (2.3) 2.3
 Japan 0.8 (1.1) 1.0
 Britain 2.0 (2.4) 2.5
 Canada 2.8 (3.4) 3.2
 <i>* Previous IMF estimate for 2003
 Source: IMF </i>

 MOSCOW - The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday doused optimism among state officials that the country's economy could buck the global economic downturn with robust growth this year, in spite of the war in Iraq.
 
Having said last week that it would do so, the IMF scaled back its forecast for Russian economic growth this year as part of revisions to its global outlook.
 The IMF revised expectations for gross-domestic-product growth this year from 4.9 percent to 4 percent, citing the country's vulnerability to oil-price fluctuations. For 2004, the fund's forecast for growth is lower still, at 3.5 percent.
 The IMF's move came as something of a surprise to analysts, many of whom had recently upgraded their expectations for economic performance. The government's official forecast is 4.4 percent, but key officials have said that they expect the country's GDP to grow by 5 percent this year.
 Commenting on its rationale for lowering the outlook, the IMF said in a statement that &quot;the boost from higher oil prices is more than offset by slowing investment in the non-oil sector.&quot;
 The fund also noted that the pace of structural reform in Russia slowed last year, which reflects &quot;resistance from vested interests and, in energy exporters, the easing of financial constraints associated with higher oil prices,&quot; the report said.
 The IMF's Moscow office could not be reached for comment, but a source close to the fund attributed the disparity of predictions to the difficulty of accurately calculating Russia's economic performance.
 &quot;To a large extent, the IMF trusts the opinion of its Moscow office and their understanding of the situation,&quot; the source said.
 Al Breach, chief economist at Brunswick UBS Warburg, said that he had no intention of revising down his GDP-growth forecast of 6.5 percent, adding that he expects growth to accelerate throughout the year.
 &quot;There is huge momentum for growth, with [the number of] people investing money and credits into the real sector increasing dramatically due to low interest rates,&quot; he said. &quot;I think the IMF is just not picking up on that acceleration.&quot;
 The Aton brokerage recently upgraded its 2003 forecast to 4.8 percent. Aton's chief economist, Peter Westin, said that he thought high oil prices and ruble appreciation might impede the diversification of the economy, but they both have a net benefit on growth.
 &quot;I think the IMF is wrong,&quot; he said. &quot;But, in general, it does not matter, because investors look at other factors when they talk about Russia these days,&quot; Westin said.
 Though the IMF's outlook for Russia is dimmer than that of market players here, it is nonetheless brighter than for other parts of the world.
 The new IMF report updated the numbers it published in September. In the new report, the fund shaved its forecast for 2003 global economic growth from 3.7 percent to 3.2 percent.
 &quot;Since the end of 2002, the pace of global recovery has slowed, particularly in industrial countries, amid rising uncertainties in the run-up to war in Iraq and the continued adverse effects of the fallout from the bursting of the equity market bubble and the depreciation of the dollar,&quot; the IMF said.
 The IMF's outlook for the United States this year, for example, was lowered to 2.2 percent growth from 2.6 percent, citing the risks posed by the country's ballooning budget deficit, which could exceed 5 percent of GDP if the war drags on much longer.
 For the euro zone, the IMF slashed its forecast to 1.1 percent from 2.3 percent, as economic conditions in the single currency area have sunk to a six-year low. German GDP growth is now seen at 0.5 percent, down from last September's forecast of 2.0 percent.
 Japan's growth forecast was narrowed to 0.8 percent from 1.1 percent, while Britain's forecast was lowered to 2 percent from 2.4 percent.

TITLE: NRB: '5+5' Plan for Electricity Giant Does Not Add Up
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - UES minority shareholder National Reserve Bank on Wednesday made good on its promise to hound the power monopoly over its restructuring strategy, saying that the latest blueprint leaves the door open to unequal distribution of the company's assets.
 
NRB, owner of about 3 percent of Unified Energy Systems, said in a statement that the long-awaited &quot;5+5&quot; plan for splitting up the company through 2008, which was debated by the UES board for the first time late Tuesday, &quot;[does not] reflect or clarify a number of issues of paramount importance to minority shareholders and investors.&quot;
 NRB's position was seconded by Alexander Branis, who also represents minority shareholders on the board. &quot;The draft does not include those things that are most fearful to shareholders ... outright bans on either asset sales or a non-pro-rata distribution of assets,&quot; he said.
 The 15-member board opted to continue discussing the plan at a meeting ahead of the May 30 annual shareholders meeting, when powerful new shareholders Russian Aluminum and MDM are expected to shake up the makeup of the board.
 UES watchers, including Branis, who is part of a working group that has been drafting the 5+5 plan for months, said RusAl and MDM will try to use their estimated 10 percent of the company to carve out key assets for themselves.
 &quot;The new strategic shareholders, which include MDM and RusAl ... will probably oppose a large-scale pro-rata share distribution and, instead, seek control of specific assets,&quot; Renaissance Capital wrote in a research note Wednesday.
 MDM is the country's largest miner of coal, which is used to produce electricity, while RusAl is keen to secure cheap sources of electricity, one of the biggest cost items in producing aluminum.
 A government resolution, although largely considered a technicality, is needed before UES can begin to be carved up. The head of the government's energy commission, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, is scheduled to issue the resolution by the end of April.
 While the version of 5+5 presented Tuesday calls for distributing assets to shareholders pro rata, it does not forbid non-pro-rata distribution. Nor does it specify the exact mechanism for how UES's generation assets will go from being grouped into 10 wholesale and 30 regional generating companies and, then, into single shares that can be traded independently of UES.
 &quot;The strategy allows for a dubious interpretation of the principle of pro-rata distribution of companies' shares, which will be formed during UES restructuring,&quot; NRB said in a statement.
 UES plans to start splitting the generation, sales and distribution assets of local energos in June. It also wants to spin off one wholesale generating company, the only thermal one, and the Federal Grid Co. in the third quarter of 2004.
 UES said Wednesday that its net profit to international accounting standards in the first nine months of 2002 dropped more than a third, to 2.12 billion rubles ($67.77 million).
 Higher purchase volumes and prices for nuclear power and problems with restructuring debts owed to it by customers were among the factors it cited for the decline. However, cash flow rose 200 percent, to 24.22 billion rubles.

TITLE: Reflecting on the Aftermath of the War in Iraq
AUTHOR: By Ken Adelman
TEXT: WHAT a difference a week makes. The chump-to-champ cycle usually takes longer, even in Washington.
 
Critics of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush should feel shock over their bellyaching about the wayward war plan. All of us feel awe over the professionalism and power of the U.S. military. Now we know.
 On Feb. 13, 2002, I wrote a sleeper-cell op-ed for The Washington Post. It lay dormant, being virtually ignored, until springing to life more than a year later. Its title, &quot;Cakewalk in Iraq,&quot; contained that &quot;c&quot; word (also found in the piece), which was scantly speakable one week ago.
 Granted, that word carries a connotation that the piece itself explicitly dismissed: &quot;No one favors a 'casual march to war.' This is serious business, to be treated seriously,&quot; I wrote then. Having served in the Pentagon and knowing full well that any loss of life is grave, I intended nothing but the most serious treatment of a serious matter.
 The piece was &quot;taking exception&quot; to one of the host of fear-mongering articles then being put out, this by Brookings Institution analysts Philip H. Gordon and Michael E. O'Hanlon. They had concluded, among other dire warnings, that &quot;the United States could lose thousands of troops&quot; in any war in Iraq.
 Other commentators were far scarier. Any U.S. attempt at &quot;regime change&quot; would, they warned, trigger Scud and other missile attacks to obliterate Israel and U.S. troops stationed in the region; provoke the igniting of hundreds, no thousands, of Iraqi oil fields; prompt a wave of terrorism across America; impel mobs into the Arab streets to foment revolution against &quot;friendly regimes;&quot; cause flooding across Iraqi plains; induce Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, his back against the wall, to attack us and his own people with chemical and biological weapons.
 This list could go on. Taking first prize among the many frightful forecasters was the respected former national-security adviser Brent Scowcroft. His influential Wall Street Journal piece of Aug. 15, 2002, said Israel &quot;would have to expect to be the first casualty,&quot; which could easily cause that country &quot;to respond, perhaps with nuclear weapons, unleashing an Armageddon in the Middle East.&quot; We in the liberate-Iraq camp have been castigated for exaggeration, but nothing any of us said, or even suggested, can match that.
 Predicting that the next war in Iraq would be a &quot;cw&quot; - for my sake, now think &quot;crushing win&quot; - my early-2002 article established the baseline: &quot;It was a cakewalk last time,&quot; during the first Gulf War. Granted, I'm an incurable optimist, but even I could never have envisioned the coalition controlling the enemy capital within three weeks - less than half the time, with less than half the U.S. casualties, of the first Gulf War. And with none of the above disasters happening.
 Now is not an occasion for gloating. Much remains to do in Iraq to help build the first freely elected and legitimate Arab government. U.S. ties with Germany and France are raw. These longtime allies will become even more antagonistic now, after the awesome success of the Anglo-American war effort and yet clearer evidence of the horror show that was Iraq under the regime they backed, commercially and politically.
 But now is an occasion for pride, and for thanks to our fighting men and women and those leading them. My confidence 14 months ago sprang from having worked for Don Rumsfeld three times - knowing he would fashion a most creative and detailed war plan - and from knowing Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz well for many years.
 Admittedly, along the way came some big surprises. First, I never imagined that Hussein would have another year-plus to beef up his resistance. Turkey proved a disappointment in its decision not to allow U.S. ground troops to rush in from Baghdad's north. Nonetheless, having an Islamic democracy is worth the wrong decision it made.
 Third, I should have anticipated that a terrorist leader would form terrorist units in his armed forces. That seems a stupid error now, as Hussein's Fedayeen and other hit-squad units proved a potent force for a time.
 Last, and another oversight, was how a totalitarian regime could so pulverize its people and military as to intimidate them, at least for a time, out of celebrating even their own liberation.
 But at least now we know.
 
 <i>Ken Adelman was assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from 1975 to 1977 and a UN ambassador and arms-control director under President Ronald Reagan. He contributed this comment to The Washington Post.
 </i><b>By Bob Herbert</b>
 FORMER Secretary of State George Shultz is on the board of directors of the Bechtel Group, the largest contractor in the United States and one of the finalists in the competition to land a fat contract to help in the rebuilding of Iraq. He is also the chairperson of the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a fiercely pro-war group with close ties to the White House. The committee, formed last year, made it clear from the beginning that it sought more than the ouster of Iraqi President Sadaam Hussein's regime. It was committed, among other things, &quot;to work beyond the liberation of Iraq to the reconstruction of its economy.&quot; War is a tragedy for some and a boon for others. I asked Shultz if being an advocate of the war, while sitting on the board of a company that would benefit from it, left him concerned about the appearance of a conflict of interest.
 &quot;I don't know that Bechtel would particularly benefit from it,&quot; he said. &quot;But if there's work that's needed to be done, Bechtel is the type of company that could do it. But nobody looks at it as something you benefit from.&quot;
 Jack Sheehan, a retired Marine Corps general, is a senior vice president at Bechtel. He's also a member of the Defense Policy Board, a government-appointed group that advises the Pentagon on major defense issues. Its members are selected by the U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, and approved by the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
 Most people have never heard of the Defense Policy Group. Its meetings are classified. Members disclose their business interests to the Pentagon, but that information is not available to the public. The Center for Public Integrity, a private watchdog in Washington, recently disclosed that, of the 30 members of the board, at least nine are linked to companies that won more than $76 billion in defense contracts in 2001 and 2002. Richard Perle was the board chairperson until a few weeks ago, when he resigned amid allegations of a conflict of interest. He is still on the board. Another member is former CIA director James Woolsey. He's also a principal in the Paladin Capital Group, a venture-capital firm that, as the Center for Public Integrity noted, is soliciting investments for companies that specialize in domestic security. Woolsey is also a member of the Committee to Liberate Iraq, and is reported to be in line to play a role in the postwar occupation.
 The war against Iraq has become one of the clearest examples ever of the influence of the military-industrial complex that U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower warned against so eloquently in his farewell address in 1961. This iron web of relationships among powerful individuals, inside and outside the government, operates with very little public scrutiny, and is saturated with conflicts of interest.
 Their goals may or may not coincide with the best interests of the American people. Think of the divergence of interest between the grunts who are actually fighting this war, who have been eating sand and spilling their blood in the desert, and the power brokers who fought like crazy to make the war happen and are profiting from it every step of the way. The U.S. military is largely working class. The power brokers homing in on $100-billion worth of postwar reconstruction contracts are not.
 The Pentagon and its allies are close to achieving what they wanted all along: control of the country of Iraq and its bounty, which is the wealth and myriad forms of power that flow from control of the world's second-largest oil reserves.
 The transitional government of Iraq is to be headed by a retired Army lieutenant general, Jay Garner. His career path was typical. He moved effortlessly from his military career to the presidency of SYColeman, a defense contractor that helped Israel develop its Arrow missile-defense system.
 Those who dreamt of a flowering of democracy in Iraq are advised to consider the skepticism of Brent Scowcroft, the national-security adviser to the first President Bush. He asked: &quot;What's going to happen the first time we hold an election in Iraq and it turns out the radicals win? What do you do? We're surely not going to let them take over.&quot;
 
 <i>Bob Herbert is a columnist for The New York Times, where this comment first appeared. </i>

TITLE: Burenin on the Money at Budget Committee
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
TEXT: IT seems to me that anyone interested in getting a first-hand idea of the partisan character of Legislative Assembly politics would do well to start out with meetings of the parliamentary budget committee.
 
I say this because I sat in on a session this Tuesday, and was amazed at the shift in the discussion about this subject since last year. This year, the deputies on the committee seem to be focusing on the question of whether budget money has been spent properly. It was a bit of a novelty for me.
 I think that it was a bit of a novelty for Dmitry Burenin, the head of the St. Petersburg Audit Chamber, as well. Burenin spent a good part of last year trying to fend off pressure from both City Hall and the Legislative Assembly Budget Committee, which was controlled at the time by pro-Smolny deputies, over reports of a number of violations - large and small - in the way that the city was spending its money. He lost two deputies in the battle (nothing fatal - they were only fired) and survived a review of his own work at the chamber in battling against what had all the appearances of a campaign to get him to just shut up. Needless to say, he's pleased.
 &quot;I hope that this means that the situation is going to be better from now on,&quot; he said.
 In the short term, I think that Burenin will probably get his wish. In the long term, I'm not so sure.
 Assuming that he doesn't leave office earlier (the rumors continue to swirl around and multiply), there will be a new occupant in the governor's chair next May. There's a very high likelihood that this occupant will be someone from the Kremlin camp (a good portion of the positions in President Vladimir Putin's administration are filled with St. Petersburg natives so, he could argue, it's about time the Kremlin started sending something back). A situation in which the three main centers of power in the city (the governor's office, the Legislative Assembly and the office of the presidential representative for the Northwest Region) are all under the control of one group (a new governor, the pro-Kremlin United Russia faction and Valentina Matviyenko - assuming that she isn't the next governor - respectively) isn't really the best for independently minded auditors.
 But this is all in the future, so we should enjoy the good times while they last. Some day, we may refer to these as the glory days of the budget committee.
 Burenin's report on Tuesday highlighted a number of instances of what, in professional politspeak, is called &quot;the inappropriate use of budget funds.&quot; If you are not working while you read this, you don't have to be so professional. You can use alternative terms, such as &quot;theft,&quot; &quot;graft&quot; or &quot;pilfering.&quot;
 Examples include a City Hall decision to grant a 49-year break on property taxes for the local representative office of state savings institution Sberbank (cost: 4.7 billion rubles, or a little less than $3 million per year) and the fact that local administrations spend as much as 33 percent of their tiny district budgets just for administrative expenses, a tradition that hangs on doggedly from Soviet-era budget policy. Another claim from Burenin was that City Hall leaves targeted resources sitting in its accounts longer than necessary, not only slowing down the financing of different budget programs, but also providing a bit of a windfall for those looking after the money.
 All of this bad news appeared to come as good news to Vladimir Barkanov, the new head of the budget committee.
 &quot;So, [please] can you tell us, what is the most exciting information you believe you have turned up so far on these questions?&quot; Barkanov asked a number of times, whenever Burenin paused from speaking.
 Burenin labeled the Sberbank case as the most &quot;exciting,&quot; calling it the &quot;top story in recent local economic history.&quot;
 About the future? I have a feeling that this is all pointing toward a real battle over the budget for 2004, particularly if Governor Vladimir Yakovlev remains in office. Hearing lawmakers agree with Burenin's assertion that revenues for 2003 are likely to be much higher than had been forecast was one early indication.
 For now, what we have are accusations. I'm sure, however, that the new General Prosecutor for the city, Nikolai Vinichenko, who also has close ties to the Kremlin, will be interested in taking a closer look.
 This is all how it should be but, by this time next year, we could have a governor with close ties to the Kremlin looking to pin whatever blame they can on the old Smolny administration.
 Burenin stuck to his guns and, by all appearances, tried to steer a straight path while surrounded by pro-Yakovlev faces. I hope that he will still work this way when all of the new faces have arrived.

TITLE: coming north was a success
TEXT: The Golden Mask festival, the annual showcase event of the best of the past year in the performing arts, wraps up with its award ceremony on Monday at the Mariinsky Theater.
 
This year, the festival is being held outside Moscow for the first time in its history, coming north as part of St. Petersburg's 300th-anniversary celebrations. Since March 27, more than 40 shows from 13 Russian towns have been performed at venues around the city as the competition for the coveted masks heats up.
 Apart from a few &quot;inevitable&quot; disappointments, Golden Mask Director Eduard Boyakov has been pleased with this year's festival, as he told Staff Writer </i><strong>Galina Stolyarova</strong><i> this week.
 </i>
 
q:<i>Now that we're over half way through this year's Golden Mask, have your feelings about holding the festival in St. Petersburg changed? Do you like the idea any more or less?
 </i>a:No, my feelings haven't really changed. And I must say that, in theory, my colleagues and I are not the kind of people who would do anything they would later regret - or, rather, the kind of people to regret what they've done. In my opinion, looking back at the past and regretting it is not a very sensible quality. It makes much more sense to look into the future and, more importantly, to focus on today, trying to make things unregrettable.
 
On a less philosophical note, we still love the idea of having the festival in St. Petersburg. We are very happy to see that the productions have been extremely well received here - at times, it is even surprising. I was amazed to see the Mariinsky theater overcrowded on April 4, when the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater performed its production of [Bizet's opera] &quot;Carmen&quot;. People were standing in all the boxes, even in the third circle. And this was an audience of the Mariinsky Theater, which is head and sholders above the rest of the country. This illustrates how much audiences trust the festival.
 Many of the productions pick up nuances and resonances [from being performed in St. Petersburg]. For instance, I think that Kama Ginkas' version of [Chekhov's short story] &quot;Lady With a Lapdog,&quot; which premiered at the Moscow Theater of Young Spectators, even benefited from its local venue, the balcony at the Lensoviet Theater. The new venue worked wonders with that show.
 
 
q:<i>There have been some spontaneous cancellations: The Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater and Moscow's ABA Company cancelled their performance of Vincenzo Bellini's opera &quot;Norma&quot; on just two days notice, while the Mariinsky's version of Mozart's opera &quot;Cosi fan tutte&quot; was removed from the schedule just weeks before the festival started. How do you react to events like these?
 </i>a:When you organize a festival of such breadth and intensity, organizing fifty or sixty shows to run within two weeks, such disappointments are inevitable. Someone will always get sick, or a charter flight will be canceled, or there will be a terrible argument between the director and the actors and so on. In that respect, organizing a film festival is much easier: All you do is arrange for the films to arrive, be screened and be judged.
 
The question here really is the proportion of the cancellations. If there had been five or six shows canceled like that, it would, indeed, be alarming. 
 &quot;Norma&quot; was canceled due to purely technical reasons, as the sets couldn't be mounted. The Mariinsky couldn't compromise its foreign tours and our festival - and I can't blame it. It is difficult to work with the Mariinsky Theater, but [Mariinsky Artistic Director Valery] Gergiev and his troupe have enormous responsibilities and a titanic amount of work, especially this year, with the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Gergiev's theater is internationally acclaimed and, perhaps naturally, it is rather hard for our festival to compare with, say, a tour to [premier London venue] Covent Garden and arrangements with Placido Domingo.
 
 
q:<i>It is obvious that no Russian cities - except for Moscow and St. Petersburg - have a sufficient infrastructure to host a festival like the Golden Mask, but which cities have the most intense theatrical life and the most dynamically developed theatrical infrastructure?
 </i>a:Russia's theatrical map is rather complicated and diverse. When we looked into the issues seriously, we discovered that what people often refer to as &quot;provincial Russia&quot; is not a homogenous entity. It is still not uncommon for people to divide theatrical Russia into some sort of triangle - Moscow, St. Petersburg and the provinces. But this is not fair, because the difference between the cities is stunning. 
 

 
q:<i>Does the economy play a serious role in this?
 </i>a:It plays a very significant role. The post-Soviet years brought an end to the times of equality in the way the center treated the provinces. Now, there are rich regions and poor regions. Rich regions build and reconstruct theaters; poor ones don't. Rich regions invite directors of the quality of, say, Yury Alexandrov [whose shows are part of the Mariinsky repertoire], while poor ones don't.
 
But there is another equally important aspect. Theater is the capital's art, because it largely depends on the audiences. That's why, however much money may now be invested in theater in, say, Tyumen or Surgut, it is unlikely that a superb troupe will emerge in the next few years, but only much later. You can hire actors, but you can't hire the audiences. 
 I would say that Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Perm, Saratov, Kazan, Yaroslavl are the most promising, because they are the wealthier regions and they have theatrical traditions - for instance, the Mariinsky theater was evacuated to Perm during World War II, which influenced the development of the ballet school there - and they have the right sort of audiences.
 
 
q:<i>Does the Golden Mask festival have any projects running in the regions?
 </i>a:The regions are one of our major priorities now. We are exploring and researching the theatrical situation in smaller cities, with populations of less than 300,000 people. The social role of theater is absolutely different there. Theater has different tasks, it is totally different culture.
 
Last fall, we organized a theatrical festival in Vyatka [Central Russia] that showcased productions of contemporary plays targeting painful, extreme and current issues, like drug addiction, alcoholism, crime, imprisonment. We were very nervous, and uncertain as to how it would be received. It produced a shock for the audiences, and it became one of our most successful projects. We could sense that the city, with its crippled economy and lack of vitality, needs us badly.
 In May, we are organizing a festival of St. Petersburg productions in Yekaterinburg. We are bringing everything, a full spectrum, from [Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe director Lev] Dodin to puppet theater.
 However, what we do in the provinces is not for charity. We look for a new, different energy there, and we find it.
 
 
q:How much vitality does St. Petersburg have?
 a:It is a city trapped in endless reflection. St. Petersburg is very introspective, which means it is often difficult to find that energy here. That's the main reason we brought the festival here - St. Petersburg has an enormous theatrical legacy, but it isn't open to other influences and an exchange [of ideas].
 

 
q:Have you thought about starting a national theatrical magazine as part of the Golden Mask?
 a:We do have a plan in the sphere of publishing, which we hope to launch next year. I'll be at more liberty to talk about it in more detail then.
 

 
q:<i>Mark Zakharov, the artistic director of Moscow's Lenkom Theater, said he was outraged by the Golden Mask's expert council, which repeatedly ignores his theater's productions, even though they are among the most popular in Moscow and always draw full houses. Although it's obvious that certain popular shows are vulgar and dreadful from an artistic point of view, do you have any plans to create an award for the most popular shows?
 </i>a:I think someone [else] should respond to audience's reactions and create a festival or award for [those shows]. I think the directors of the most popular shows, as well as actors cast in them, deserve recognition for their work, but I don't think it should be part of the Golden Mask. If we began to add various bonuses, it would risk killing the festival. Why doesn't someone create an alternative award? We have grown big enough, and wouldn't be worried by the competition.

TITLE: week 2 of masks springs surprises
AUTHOR: by John Freedman
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The second week of the Golden Mask festival - at least in the configuration playing itself out in St. Petersburg - took a couple of side steps into unfamiliar territory. 
 
Two shows competing for the Innovation award are by troupes from St. Petersburg that seldom play here or anywhere else in Russia any more. The AKhE Theater, which also describes itself as the Russian Engineering Theater, brought its performance piece &quot;Sine Loco&quot; to its hometown for the first time after creating it in Erlangen, Germany in July 2001. A few days later, the Derevo group unveiled its non-verbal production of &quot;Islands in the Stream,&quot; inspired loosely by themes from Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name. This work was originally created in Dresden where the troupe has lived since the late 1990s. 
 Meanwhile, the Omsk Drama Theater showed off an unorthodox version of Nikolai Gogol's novel &quot;Dead Souls,&quot; reinterpreted creatively by Nina Sadur under the title of &quot;Brother Chichikov.&quot; It is nominated for best large-stage production while its director Sergei Steblyuk and designer Igor Kapitanov are up for awards for their work. 
 The AKhE Theater's &quot;Sine Loco&quot; (Without Location) takes its title in part from the fact that the show's 13 episodes are performed in 13 different cubicles lined in a row to which the audience - sitting on a moving platform - is &quot;driven.&quot; For this largely non-verbal performance, a detailed program synopsis tells an involved story revolving around Daedalus. However, with the exception of a central scene in which we see a spoken puppet version of the Daedalus myth and the final scene in which Icarus flees prison and attempts to fly, one might be excused for not making all the connections. 
 Much more than an interpretation of a myth, &quot;Sine Loco&quot; is an extraordinary example of how one makes theater of nothing and how theater and ritual are intertwined. The opening scene, the birth of the Minotaur, consists largely of Daedalus (Pavel Semchenko) fiddling with fire, water, molten metal, electricity and creaking mechanical gadgets. We are fascinated by the detail of his activities and the intensity with which he goes about his business. When a woman appears in a doorway as if by magic, random action suddenly becomes the mystery of theater. 
 Subsequent scenes, such as those in a labyrinth, the murder of the Minotaur, Ariadne's dream of Eden and others, evoke the sensations of dreams and nightmares whose purpose and accomplishment are to affect us on a level that goes deeper than conscious understanding. The 13 mini sets - created by Semchenko and Maxim Isayev, both of whom are nominated for a best designer Golden Mask - make expert use of fire, water, wood and transparencies and are illuminated beautifully by lighting designer Vadim Gololobov. 
 The Omsk Drama Theater's production of &quot;Brother Chichikov&quot; sensitively handles a play that is more a fantasy on the themes of Gogol's novel than a traditional dramatization of it. Gogol's Chichikov is the conman who travels Russia's bumpy back roads buying up &quot;dead souls,&quot; that is, cheaply buying worthless identification papers for dead serfs that will allow him to appear as a wealthy landowner. In Sadur's interpretation, Chichikov emerges as a sympathetic character who is overwhelmed by a world infested with demons. He is no con artist, but rather a simple, thoughtful Russian living in Italy whom a she-devil encourages to return home to undertake the &quot;benign&quot; business of buying up the documents that will provide him with the illusionary proof of wealth. 
 Steblyuk emphasizes the notion of Chichikov as a childlike innocent and a victim of his environment. And as performed by Vladimir Maizinger, he comes across as a man of compassion who is interested in people no matter how eccentric, stupid or cruel they might be. 
 Derevo, which has long enjoyed legendary status in its hometown, returned to an enthusiastic welcome with &quot;Islands in the Stream.&quot; This thoughtful and beautiful performance of semi-connected scenes, presenting the sea as a metaphor for a space where life can be observed passing, was frequently interrupted by applause. During the extended curtain calls and to the delight of the crowd, a female fan with a head shaved clean, apparently in imitation of the two men and women actors in the troupe who are also completely clean shaven, presented a single red rose to Anton Adasinsky, Derevo's founder, director and lead actor. 
 &quot;Islands in the Stream&quot; seems to suggest that Derevo has mellowed some in its 14-year existence. Known for its challenging, even aggressive brand of physical theater, this recent production exhibits a lyrical, even sentimental, side that draws on the movements of dance and even classical ballet. Many of the scenes depicting people confronting the elements or interacting with each other - often as fishermen or sailors - had the distinct flavor of child's play. Even the ominous, synthesizer-based music by Roman Dubinnikov, which could be heard outside the theater before we entered, did not dispel the dominant atmosphere of wonder. 
 Lighting designer Falk Dietrich created several stunning images, including one of actors appearing to put together a planet out of two pieces before releasing it into the universe and the finale, in which a character played by Adasinsky lay dead on a tiny island of light as a sky full of clouds swirled above him. 
 
 <i>
For details of the remainder of the Golden Mask festival, see Stages. Links: www.goldenmask.ru. </i>

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: After the success of his local gigs in February, crossover violinist <strong>Alexei Aigui </strong>returns with another pair of concerts this week. Aigui, who divides time between Moscow and Paris, had been a rare sight in St. Petersburg until recently.
 
As in February, one of the concerts will be Aigui with his band 4'33&quot;. The gig will be based on the group's most recent album, &quot;Schastye, Slava I Bogatstvo&quot; (&quot;Happiness, Glory and Wealth&quot;), released in September, while the other will be a duo with Germany's Dieter Bonnen - and an unlikely set of works by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. 
 &quot;To play Hendrix in a rock manner is meaningless and rather stupid - because you can't play better than he did, which is why we played Hendrix as academic music, with piano, violin and voice, and in an absolutely different style,&quot; said Aigui in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times before his last visit to the city.
 Aigui and Bonnen will perform at basement art club Brodyachaya Sobaka on Saturday. Aigui and 4'33'' will appear at Red Club on Sunday.
 Although former Ramone's drummer Marky Ramone is not bringing his newest band, The Speedkings, as it fell apart on the eve of the Russian tour, he will come alone and front a band called <strong>Marky Ramone and Pinhead Army, </strong>which is actually Ramone and Moscow punk band Tarakany!
 The band will concentrate on Ramones' numbers such as &quot;Pinhead,&quot; &quot;Blitzkrieg Bop,&quot; &quot;Beat on the Brat,&quot; &quot;Sheena Was a Punk Rocker: and &quot;Rock 'n' Roll High School.&quot;
 Ramone, whose real name is Mark Bell, came to St. Petersburg in 2000 to play with his then band The Intruders. Commenting on the fact that The Sex Pistols were more popular in Russia than The Ramones, he said: &quot;[The Sex Pistols] only had one album, and that was it - who knows what they would do afterwards? They were conceived by Malcolm MacLaren, they weren't a real band. He had a lot to do with their lyrics, he had a lot to do with their direction, but the Ramones were the real thing.&quot;
 April 12, which falls on Saturday, is <strong>Cosmonauts Day </strong>in Russia, the holiday expropriated by Russian techno heads who worship Soviet astronauts Yury Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, so every techno/house nightparty in the city will be dedicated to the occasion. 
 However, certain rock fans will probably choose to celebrate the day as the <strong>Birthday of Rock 'n' Roll </strong>and will gather at a special party at rockabilly club Money Honey, where they will be treated to performances from some of the club's house bands. 
 <strong>JFC Jazz Club </strong>will be celebrating a birthday of its own. Nine years ago, it was launched as the New Jazz Club in Tavrichesky Garden, before moving to its current location at 33 Shpalernaya Ulitsa a year later. Headlined by American mainstream alto saxophonist Mark Bernstein, the birthday night will also open the nine-day International Jazz Festival at the venue.
 Finally, urban-folk band <strong>La Minor, </strong>which has lately been in a studio working at its second album, will make a rare live appearance at Griboyedov club on Wednesday. Since the band chose and rehearsed songs for the second album, its sets have, pleasingly, become twice as long.
 
 <i>- by Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: my uncle, a most honest fellow ...
AUTHOR: by Peter Morley
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The story of Onegin the restaurant, it seems, will soon be as established in local folklore as the story of Onegin the Pushkinian cad who displayed an uncanny flair for talking in verse. For anyone who hasn't heard this tale of unrequited love and high society - I'm talking about the restaurant - here is a brief recap.
 
While some sections of the film version of Pushkin's immortal novel-in-verse were being filmed in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s, a certain young local dandy by the name of Mikhail Orlov met - and, according to some reports, fell in love with - Liv Tyler, who played Tatyana in the film. (Incidentally, none of the scenes shot in St. Petersburg include Tyler; she came here because she &quot;wanted to see what Russia was like,&quot; as she said at a press conference for the film's launch, according to the Web site www.hollywood.com.) Orlov, the story goes, decided that there was not a single venue - no, not one - in the St. Petersburg scene at the time that was worthy of hosting the presence of the fair Ms. Tyler. Therefore, he decided to create one.
 So far, so Pushkin. At this point, however, nothing happened (much like in the novel). And it happened for a long time. (Maybe Orlov was busy fighting a duel; maybe he was exiled. In any case, the project existed in rumors and hearsay.) Almost a decade, in fact, until earlier this year, when Orlov's dream was, finally, realized, with the opening of Onegin in a cellar-level venue on Sadovaya Ulitsa, just north of Nevsky Prospect.
 So was it worth it? A first glance at the restaurant certainly makes an impact.
 On entering, my dining companion and I gave our coats to an attendant flunkey - to stick with Pushkinian language for a moment - peering out of a low hole at the back of which was a backdrop of painted flames (the impression is more of Mephistopheles from Faust than Onegin, but let that pass) and were ushered to a table. While studying the menu - a very stylish minimalist affair, with silver writing on thin black cardboard - my dining companion and I tried to work out the restaurant's aesthetic plan.
 At first sight, Onegin seems disappointingly small - a main dining room and another dining-room-cum-dancefloor - until you realize there's another room further back, past the rest rooms. We were in the second chamber, on the soft, leather-upholstered couches to one side of the DJ table. This confused us; Onegin describes itself as a restaurant, but the second room has a modest dancefloor (at least, I assume it's a dancefloor) in the middle, with three tables along one wall, across from the bar.
 That aside, Onegin's decor seems to be a mix of the old - cut-glass chandeliers and candle holders, purple velvet drapes and white stucco flowers on a turquoise ceiling, for example - and the new - a disco-ball, mirrored walls, some uncomfortable, transparent plastic chairs in the second room. A quick look at the third room presents another contrast, with flamboyant red-and-gold wall hangings. In the end, my companion came up with the best phrase, calling it a &quot;combination of the uncombinable.&quot;
 My companion started out with the vegetable salad (12 conditional units; all prices are listed in dollar equivalents). This she declared to be perfectly satisfying, with lots of crisp vegetables, including a couple of relative rarities such as asparagus, and a subtle dressing.
 I began with a cold starter of sturgeon (14 conditional units), a personal favorite. The Onegin version comes smoked, with horseradish sauce, red caviar and prawns. Although the sturgeon itself was slightly on the dry side for my liking, almost crumbling to the touch, the horseradish sauce was subtly spicy, and the prawns were delicious. I accompanied my meal with a couple of glasses of very good white wine (5 conditional units per glass); my abstemious companion stayed with juice (3 conditional units; freshly squeezed juice is also available, at 7 conditional units).
 For mains, my companion ordered duck with fruit and fresh berries (25 conditional units). She had fun with the duck slices, and was impressed with the fresh strawberries, grapes and the baked apple, but had a bit of difficulty with the leg of duck, which, she felt, could have been more tender. (Later, however, she said that she wanted to order the whole thing all over again.)
 I, meanwhile, turned my attention to a large fillet of halibut (23 conditional units), which came on a bed of miniature rice noodles and mushrooms with a mussel sauce. I originally ordered salmon, but there was none left. The halibut was a more-than-adequate substitute, beautifully cooked, and with the same wonderful prawns that came with the sturgeon. The sauce was also excellent, although the mushrooms overpowered the delicate noodles under the fish.
 We finished with the gateau with Philadelphia cheese - presumably the Russian way of saying Philadelphia cheesecake - for my companion, and apple pie for me. My companion greatly enjoyed her gateau, which came with a strawberry coulis and more fresh strawberries, although I thought the texture was a bit marshmallow-esque. The apple pie was also more than acceptable, both in terms of quality and quantity; I would, however, question the wisdom of serving it with a strawberry coulis, which detracted slightly from the delicate combination of thin pastry, fine-cut apple and cinnamon in the pie proper.
 Throughout, our server - fashionably dressed all in black, with an appropriately raffish air about him - was attentive, although his habit of enquiring whether we had enjoyed each dish that we ordered was somewhat grating. 
 So will Orlov fulfil his fantasy of seeing Liv Tyler in Onegin the restaurant? One reviewer recently wrote of the restaurant that Orlov &quot;seems to be expecting a lot.&quot; Given his love of glamour and celebrity - Tolstoy's phrase, describing the central character of &quot;Smert Ivana Ilicha&quot; (&quot;The Death of Ivan Ilich&quot;), &quot;he was inevitably attracted to them, like a moth drawn to the light,&quot; springs to mind - anything is possible.
 
 <i>
Onegin, 11 Sadovaya Ulitsa. Tel.: 311-8384. Open daily, noon to 2 a.m. Menu in Russian only. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, with two glasses of wine: 3,030 rubles (about $97). </i>

TITLE: it's party time for literature lovers
AUTHOR: by Aliona Bocharova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As PR stunts go, the new joint project by the Amphora publishing house and the Bukvoyed bookstore chain appears to be one of the most ambitious to date in St. Petersburg.
 
To launch &quot;Sem Lepestkov&quot; (&quot;Seven Petals&quot;), a new book by hip Moscow journalist Sergei Kuznetsov, the pair are organizing a literary clubbing project at clubs and cultural centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg, culminating with a &quot;Party a la 90s&quot; in London on May 20. &quot;Sem Vecherinok Dlya Semi Lepestko&quot;) (&quot;Seven Parties for 'Seven Petals'&quot;) gets under way with a &quot;Hippie and Reggae&quot; party at Griboyedov club on Tuesday.
 &quot;Currently, there is no real reading culture in Russia, and this project aims to develop it,&quot; said Olga Kulkova, the PR manager of Bukvoyed. &quot;However, young people learned to listen to music by going to clubs, so combining [literature and clubbing] seemed to be the right choice for a book promotion.&quot;
 The main difference between the &quot;Sem Lepestkov&quot; events and a straightforward clubbing night will be the opportunity to socialize with the author - who will be present at all seven parties - and a copy of the book for everyone who attends.
 In addition, a special dress code will be in force at each venue: After the hippie/reggae juxtaposition at Griboyedov, other local events are set to include a &quot;Nostalgic Acid House&quot; party at Tunnel club on April 26 and a &quot;Disco Party&quot; at par.spb on May 1. The other three nights, to be held in Moscow, include a film-themed party at Kult club, another reggae party, this one at B2 club, and a party featuring music from Soviet cartoons remixed by Moscow DJs at Kitch club.
 According to Kuznetsov, &quot;Sem Lepestkov&quot; is a &quot;chill-out book for people who like music and don't have anything against soft drugs.&quot; Indeed, the club context of the parties corresponds to the book's psychedelic detective story, which unfolds in 1994 Moscow, with a plethora of techno rhythms, soft drugs and New Russian house parties, at which two mysterious murders are committed. The heroes of the book, a creative sociological survey, smoke hashish from page to page, and engage in &quot;generational talk&quot; to provide a sheen of serious reality for the detective story.
 &quot;My book is about the 1990s and for people from that decade,&quot; Kuznetsov said. &quot;Of course, I could have written a book about the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s, but so many people have already done that.&quot;
 &quot;Anyway, I felt I owed a story to the 1990s - as a journalist, I wrote a lot during that period, as well as about it,&quot; he said. &quot;However, at some point, I could no longer express all my thoughts and feelings about the era within the confines of journalism.&quot;
 Kuznetsov has been one of the most active figures on the Moscow literary scene for the past decade. In the early 1990s, he translated works by Steven King and Susan Sontag into Russian, and wrote a monograph on the poetics of St. Petersburg poet Joseph Brodsky that was nominated for the Andrei Bely Prize. In the second half of the decade, he became a well-known film critic and contributed stories to most of the capital's glamorous magazines. He also branched out into writing for Internet publications, including the newspaper Web sites www.gazeta.ru and www.vesti.ru, as well as contributing a column to Net-based magazine Russky Zhurnal (www.russ.ru).
 &quot;The 1990s was a time of rapid changes,&quot; Kuznetsov said, his journalistic side to the fore. &quot;All the processes going on in Russian society became more animated, and the middle classes suddenly appeared, enjoying the comfort of the post-Soviet era - until the crisis of [August] 1998, which was almost the end of the world for them.&quot;
 &quot;Sem Lepestkov&quot; is the first part of a 1990s-based trilogy, with the second part, &quot;Grob Khrustalny&quot; (&quot;Cut-Glass Coffin&quot;) due to be released by Amphora in April.
 &quot;Kuznetsov's novel is very attractive to us,&quot; said Amphora PR Manager Olga Chumicheva. &quot;It opens a new horizon in Russian literature - light and entertaining, yet high quality.&quot;

TITLE: lillies not flower power
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Tiger Lillies are a shining example of a band that people either love or hate.
 
Next week, for the third year in a row, the eccentric London trio returns to St. Petersburg, where there is a strong cult following for singer-songwriter Martyn Jacques' songs about the London underworld, prostitution, murder and just about every sex act imaginable - including with sheep, flies and almost anything else that comes to mind.
 The Tiger Lillies - described on their Web site as &quot;the Criminal Castrati's Anarchic Brechtian Blues Trio,&quot; a reference to Jacques operatic falsetto voice - made its debut in the city in May 2001, a year after it first played in Moscow, where it met with great success. The group's Russian agent is the Moscow-based label Bad Taste, which promotes its tours in the country and re-releases its CDs for the local market. The first two years of the band's Russian exploits are documented on the CD &quot;Live in Russia 2000-2001,&quot; which was released last year on Bad Taste.
 &quot;It's quite emotional music. It's quite wild music. It seems to talk to people,&quot; Jacques said in a telephone interview last week, explaining the trio's popularity in Russia.
 &quot;And Eastern people seem generally a little less conditioned by ... capitalist ... market forces, so they can react at a slightly more natural level to music if it's emotional [and] wild,&quot; Jacques said. &quot;And accordions are always quite big in Russia as well, so maybe that has something to do with it.&quot;
 Jacques, who sings and plays accordion, is backed by double-bass player Adrian Stout and drummer Adrian Huge, whose appearance was once described by David Byrne as &quot;James Joyce on drums.&quot; 
 However, the penchant for weirdness is not a purely Russian prerogative, according to Jacques.
 &quot;We play in places like San Francisco, and you get all these kinds of weird people coming out,&quot; he said. &quot;Wild, weird people - they really like it as well.&quot;
 Apart from cabaret songs, German playwright Bertold Brecht and German songwriter-composer Kurt Weill, Jacques' songwriting style is influenced by gypsy songs and the French <i>chanson</i> tradition, from Edith Piaf to Jacques Brel. The band, which started its career playing concerts in small pubs, employs theatrics at its shows, augmenting its music with makeup and stage props.
 Jacques said the forthcoming concerts at Red Club will differ a lot from its first local show, held at the unlikely venue of the Manege Central Exhibition Hall, which he described as &quot;a government town-hall type of place, with pictures on the walls.&quot;
 &quot;I'll be doing more aggressive-type music, faster songs,&quot; Jacques said. &quot;I try to adapt the way we play to the environment.&quot;
 &quot;If it's more a theater-type place, the people are sitting down, it's a more cabaret-type show,&quot; he said. &quot;And if it's people standing up, then I tend to do more aggressive, faster music.&quot;
 The Tiger Lillies, who have accumulated a vast, continually expanding body of songs since starting out in 1989, will probably bring some new ones on this visit to St. Petersburg, according to Jacques - although even he sounded confused at having to select the material for the gigs.
 &quot;I write new songs all the time, so there will be new songs,&quot; he said. &quot;I have a very large repertoire of songs.&quot;
 &quot;I never know what I'm really going to play, so I could be playing a whole set of songs no one heard before,&quot; Jacques said. &quot;Or I could be playing quite a few songs that ... I don't work with lists, I don't start from a list of songs. I just play what I feel is right. As we've recorded ten albums, there's a lot of different songs to perform from.&quot;
 &quot;I just tend to play quite randomly what songs I feel like playing,&quot; he said. &quot;I've got about five or six songs I'm learning at the moment. Probably we'll perform those ones. It'll be a mixture of new songs and other songs - which I may or may not have performed last time I was in St. Petersburg.&quot;
 
 <i>
The Tiger Lillies play Red Club on April 19 and April 20. Both gigs start at 8 p.m. Links: www.tigerlillies.com </i>

TITLE: exhibit plays gulliver's game
AUTHOR: by Andrei Vorobei
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The official catalog for &quot;Dimensions of Design - 100 Classic Chairs&quot; provides many different approaches to understanding the exhibition, but a quote from opera director Bob Wilson seems most appropriate: &quot;I like small objects in big spaces, because they become larger than life.&quot;
 
The exhibition, a joint project organized by the St. Petersburg branch of the Goethe Institut and Berlin's Vitra Design Museum, presents 100 chairs, all exact 1:6 replicas of the originals, mounted on pyramid-shaped plinths inside elgant glass cubes. The Vitra Design Museum is one of the world's leading museums of design, and is itself housed in an amazing feat of design - the first work in Europe by U.S. architect Frank O. Gehry, who was responsible for the Bilbao, Spain branch of New York's Guggenheim Museum.
 It seems that the number of chairs on display has been dictated by a love for round figures rather than any attempt to provide a complete survey of the real state of affairs in the history of chair design. A quick survey of the exhibition is enough to confirm that it represents practically all the major personalities in design, architecture and art who worked with chairs in the 20th century. Thanks to the fashion-oriented mass media and the development of mass-production techniques, many of their works seem to have become the prototypes for different variations on and modifications of chairs in different venues, both public and private - from conference halls and libraries to offices, restaurants, cafes and clubs - around the world.
 The exhibition is divided into nine groups, representing nine time periods, covering the years between approximately 1800 and 1990. It is accompanied by wall-mounted panels that comprise photographs, original drawings and timelines that provide background information on the social, political, economic and artistic developments of each period.
 The exhibition's curators, Alexander von Vegesack and Matthias Kries, start their history of chair design from the moment that chairs first acquired designers and were manufactured industrially, which is generally traced to the work of German Michael Thonet, one of the most important innovators in making wooden furniture in the middle of the 19th century. However, today, the birth of chair design <i>per se </i>and the appearance of the first designers is often connected with the Art Nouveau movement and, in particular, with the activity of a group of architects of the Vienna Secession - a late-19th-century artists group in the Austrian capital that later became known as the Vienna Werkstatte, or &quot;Vienna Workshop&quot; - including Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffman and Adolf Loos, who created the first items of furniture designed specifically for industrial mass production.
 In the 1920s, this was followed by the full-force breakthrough of the Modernist movement, seen in the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Le Corbusier. This trend ran through the 1960s, a time of consumption and protest when the complete emancipation of the chair was certified in &quot;Le systeme des objects&quot; (&quot;The System of Things&quot;), the first key work by French philosopher and essayist Jean Baudrillard, in which he wrote: &quot;Chairs already no longer belong to the table. They have obtained their own meaning.&quot;
 The next step, the obituary to Modernism that was the Postmodernist trend in architecture and design in the 1970s and 1980s. This is shown at the exhibition in curious works by Frank O. Gehry, the eclecticism of Robert Venturi, the humor of works by Studio 65, Stiletto and Ron Arad and, finally, the ironic nature of creations by Philippe Starck. Starck became the apotheosis of that feature of the 1970s and 1980s that can be expressed in the formula &quot;form follows joke,&quot; which, in turn, is a paraphrase of the maxim &quot;form follows function&quot; that defined American and European architecture at the turn of the 20th century.
 In tandem with the exhibition, a series of lectures by the deputy director of the Bauhaus fund and noted German furniture designers are scheduled to be held, along with masterclasses for young designers.
 
 <i>
&quot;Dimensions of Design - 100 Classic Chairs&quot; runs through April 27 at the Museum of City Sculpture's new exhibition hall at 179/2 Nevsky Pr. For details of lectures and seminars, call 325-9835. Links: www.goethe.de/petersburg </i>

TITLE: photos capture the uncapturable
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: It is no secret that St. Petersburgers are an artistic race: &quot;Scratch a St. Petersburger and you'll find an artist,&quot; to paraphrase an old Russian saying.
 
St. Petersburg being the bag of contradictions that it is, however, although many try to capture something of the essence of the city in their works, few succeed.
 A representative of that rare successful breed is photographer Vladimir Semyonov, whose exhibition &quot;St. Petersburg: Light on Shadow&quot; opened last week in the exhibition hall of the St. Petersburg Union of Creative Artists.
 Semyonov's black-and-white photographs - which are reflective in more than one sense of the word - preserve something of the city's legendarily transient, ungraspable nature.
 &quot;Semyonov's evocative photos are taken from the perspective of a native of the city who is enamoured with the city's architectural details, but not with the familiar monuments,&quot; said Yevgenia Zimnyukhova, of the SWASH Foundation for Cultural programs, which is organizing the exhibition with the Washington-based Swashbuckler Enterprises.
 As Zimnyukhova suggests, Semyonov avoids the regular trap of focusing on well-known local landmarks. When he does include them, they tend to be more secondary detail behind the main focus of the picture.
 St. Isaac's Cathedral, for example, appears at the back of a winter rooftop scene or behind part of a ship's rigging.
 Water is another common theme running through both the photographs and the poems by local writer Mikhail Voronin that provide a counterpoint to the pictures in the exhibition's official catalogue.
 Semyonov often takes advantage of St. Petersburg's prodigious precipitation to photograph his targets indirectly, reflected in the city's myriad of puddles, canals and rivers.
 For example, one pictures shows a fractured version of the spire of the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral at the Peter and Paul Fortress, reflected in puddles on the cobblestons in front of the cathedral's entrance.
 Water can also be used to create a distancing effect, for example in the photographs of the spit of Vasilievsky Island taken from the other side of the river at various times of the year, either on a clear winter's day or shrouded in an autumn mist.
 Like the St. Petersburg of Semyonov's photographs, Voronin's verses have a certain intangible quality to them. His &quot;Utro&quot; (&quot;Morning&quot;), for example - as translated in the catalogue by Lyndon K. Allin, II - includes the lines &quot;I never grew and wasn't born/I've only roamed the sleepy piers.&quot;
 
 <i>
&quot;St. Petersburg: Light on Shadow&quot; runs through Sunday in the exhibition hall of the St. Petersburg Union of Creative Artists at 60 Nevsky Prospect. </i>

TITLE: has gergiev met his match?
AUTHOR: by George Loomis
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: NEW YORK - Valery Gergiev's career at the Metropolitan Opera has had its ups and downs since he became its principal guest conductor in 1997. While most would agree that the ups significantly outnumber the downs, a small but determined faction in New York is increasingly vocal in its criticism of Gergiev, the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater. Judging from the recent response of the Western critics, Gergiev's six performances of Giuseppe Verdi's &quot;Otello&quot; at the Met last month can only have fueled their views. 
 
Anthony Tommasini, chief classical music critic of The New York Times, wrote that a &quot;hellbent&quot; Gergiev &quot;drove the tempo relentlessly and pushed the musicians for maximum sound and fury.&quot; The Financial Times said that he conducted &quot;as if only time were of the essence,&quot; adding that &quot;Verdi may not be his metier.&quot; Ironically, &quot;Otello&quot; was the opera of Gergiev's 1994 Met debut, for which he won glowing reviews, a point the critics had either forgotten or chose not to mention. 
 &quot;Otello,&quot; however, is also closely identified with the Met's artistic director, James Levine, a figure much revered in New York, especially by the Met's Orchestra. An element of tension, therefore, permeated the Met last Friday when Gergiev took on another Levine specialty, Richard Wagner's &quot;Parsifal.&quot; Not since 1974 had the opera been led by another conductor. 
 For some, a dose of Gergiev's fiery temperament might have been just what the doctor ordered to liven up the Met's &quot;Parsifal.&quot; A deeply spiritual work about the legendary guardians of the Holy Grail and the recovery from an evil sorcerer of the Holy Spear that pierced Christ's side at the crucifixion, &quot;Parsifal&quot; is a wondrously beautiful, but slow-moving, opera. Performances under Levine were always sumptuous orchestral experiences, but his tempi over the years had gotten so slow that some admirers of the opera got restless or stopped going entirely. 
 Perhaps because of &quot;Otello's&quot; history, however, Gergiev apparently wanted to give the Met audience what it had become accustomed to hearing. Except for Act 2, tempi were on the slow side - not as slow as Levine's often were, but slower than those I remember from Gergiev's performances at the Mariinsky. Yet, where Levine's tempi could be exasperating, Gergiev's always seemed reasonable, even when I might have preferred them a bit faster. This time, the critic Tommasini, a fervent admirer of Levine, was generally impressed. Though he wrote that &quot;the playing was at times curiously unsettled,&quot; he granted that &quot;in whole spans of this mystical Wagner opera - Gergiev captured the music's pulseless shimmering radiance.&quot; 
 For this listener, however, the performance suffered from an absence of the kind of searching attention to detail that typically animates a Gergiev performance. Instead, he strived for a smooth, steady, but undifferentiated musical flow that recalled Levine. Act 2 was another matter. Here, Gergiev maximized the contrast between the act's sensuality and the reverential tone of the surrounding acts with a performance of real excitement.

TITLE: Britain, Ireland Delay N. Ireland Accord
AUTHOR: By Shawn Pogatchnik
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BELFAST, Northern Ireland - In an unexpected diplomatic defeat, Britain and Ireland on Thursday postponed issuing their plan for promoting Northern Ireland's peace accord and reviving a power-sharing government.
 
Aides to the British and Irish prime ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, said they changed plans after receiving indications that the Irish Republican Army was not prepared to make sufficient peacemaking gestures in return.
 Ahern said in Dublin that the two governments &quot;have decided that insufficient progress has been made in their dealings with the parties for their meeting at Hillsborough [Castle, near Belfast] to go ahead.&quot;
 The statement from Ahern's office said that he would meet Blair in London to review how to break the deadlock. Blair's Downing Street office confirmed the setback.
 The two prime ministers hoped to unveil a detailed document outlining what each player in Northern Ireland's peace process must do to salvage key goals of the complex 1998 Good Friday accord.
 It is being designed to inspire clear-cut peacemaking moves from the IRA, which faces mounting international pressure to renounce violence and fully disarm.
 U.S. President George W. Bush made his first visit to Northern Ireland this week in support of the Anglo-Irish push to achieve a breakthrough on Thursday - the fifth anniversary of the Good Friday agreement.
 On Tuesday, Bush, Blair and Ahern issued a joint appeal for the IRA to fade away and for the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party to begin supporting the police force, issues fundamentally important for achieving stability in this British territory after 35 years of conflict that have left 3,600 dead.
 But hours before the Blair-Ahern retreat, Sinn Fein Chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin signaled that such demands would be impossible to meet.
 McLaughlin said the IRA could not accept two key concessions being demanded: that the IRA scrap arms in front of television cameras and that Sinn Fein's right to hold office be tied to the IRA's future good behavior.
 &quot;If there is a demand that the IRA carries out an act of decommissioning in public, or there is an attempt to insert an exclusion clause into the process, then those could be deal breakers,&quot; McLaughlin said.
 Blair and Ahern have been working on the plan since October, when an IRA spying scandal brought down the province's Catholic-Protestant administration, which had been a key achievement of the landmark deal.
 British officials have indicated that Blair planned to promise substantial cuts in troop levels and bases in the British province in the emerging plan - but only if Sinn Fein can guarantee a sufficient new peacemaking move from the IRA in return.
 Other proposed British commitments include reforming the powers of Northern Ireland's judiciary, developing a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights and creating a system allowing about 30 wanted IRA fugitives to avoid jail time.
 Britain has withdrawn about a third of its troops since 1998, leaving about 13,000 - half of them locally recruited Protestants.
 But such offers would come at a price that the IRA, until now, has been unwilling to pay - the group's total abandonment of all activity.
 The IRA largely has been observing a 1997 cease-fire, but the governments insist the time has come to demonstrate that the outlawed group's truce will be permanent, not open-ended.
 The 1998 peace deal envisioned that the IRA would disarm fully by mid-2000. Police estimate that the group retains about 100 tons of weaponry, largely supplied by Libya in the mid-1980s and now hidden in the neighboring Republic of Ireland.
 Britain and Ireland agree that dramatic IRA moves are the only way to revive the Protestant-Catholic administration that gained power in December 1999.
 The major Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, faces potential electoral disaster in Northern Ireland's legislative elections scheduled for May 29.

TITLE: Hong Kong Establishes New Quarantines To Curb SARS
AUTHOR: By Helen Luk
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HONG KONG - Hong Kong said Thursday it will quarantine for up to 10 days anyone who resides with a confirmed SARS patient, in a tough measure to halt the spread of a disease that has killed 30 and sickened almost 1,000 in this city alone.
 
Hours earlier, Hong Kong had reported three more deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and China had raised its death toll by two, to 55. Most of the at least 111 SARS deaths worldwide have been in China and Hong Kong. Fatalities also have been reported in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Canada.
 Hong Kong Health Secretary Dr. Yeoh Eng-kiong said the quarantine measure was going &quot;one step further to help contain the spread of the disease,&quot; but that the decision had been difficult because of a divergence of views on restricting people's freedoms.
 Health Director Dr. Margaret Chan said police will make sure people don't violate the quarantine by making unannounced visits to their homes.
 &quot;This is not a foolproof system,&quot; Chan told a news conference. &quot;The key is based on self-regulation plus checks on compliance.&quot;
 Anyone who does not comply with the order will be removed to designated places for isolation, and could be fined or imprisoned, Chan said.
 The health officials declined to predict how soon they can bring SARS under control or how many people will be affected by the new restrictions.
 People who don't want to stay at home, or elderly people who cannot, will be able to use alternative housing, including outdoor recreation camps that had previously been set up as makeshift quarantine centers for some 240 people from an apartment building that suffered a severe SARS outbreak.
 Some of those people started going home on Wednesday after showing no signs of SARS, which has infected 998 people in Hong Kong.
 Yeoh said the use of the quarantine camps, under a law dating to colonial days to curb the spread of infectious diseases, showed that Hong Kong can support such isolation measures, despite the hardship it poses.
 The Department of Health will provide checkups for those in quarantine.
 Yeoh said the policy was being introduced to facilitate early detection and treatment and to reduce to a minimum the risk of the spread of SARS.
 Those under quarantine will not be allowed to go out apart from &quot;under exceptional circumstances.&quot;
 On Thursday, China raised its death toll by two, but the new figure did not appear to include an American teacher who died after falling ill in the hard-hit southern province of Guangdong.
 The teacher was pronounced dead Wednesday in Hong Kong after being taken there from Guangdong in what a friend contended was an attempt by Chinese authorities to avoid the embarrassment of another foreigner's death on the mainland. Hong Kong, though a part of China, reports its deaths from the disease known as SARS.
 Beijing has been accused of concealing the outbreak that first surfaced in the southern mainland in November.
 James Salisbury, a 52-year-old English instructor at a polytechnic institute in China, already appeared dead Wednesday when he was wheeled into an ambulance in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to the friend, David Westbrook, who was with Salisbury and had been in contact with doctors about his condition.
 Westbrook said mainland Chinese doctors had moved him so there would not be another death of a foreigner from SARS in the mainland.
 A Guangdong health official on Thursday disputed that contention.
 &quot;We wanted to keep him in Shenzhen, but at the request of his family, we moved him to Hong Kong, where he died,&quot; said Zhong Nanshan, an epidemiologist at the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases.

TITLE: Palestians Kill Two In Attack
AUTHOR: By Yoav Appel
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Two Palestinians infiltrated into an Israeli military training base in the northern West Bank Thursday, killing two soldiers before being gunned down by Israeli troops, the Israeli Army said.
 
In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, Israeli undercover troops jumped from a van and opened fire on a car carrying four militiamen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Two gunmen escaped, and it was not clear whether the other two were killed or wounded. Residents saw them lying on the ground, near puddles of blood.
 The Al Aqsa militia, linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack on the army base.
 Spokespeople for the two groups said that the attack was retaliation for the killing of 12 Palestinians, including a top commander of the militant Islamic group Hamas, in clashes and Israeli air strikes in Gaza this week.
 The three militias have been involved shootings and several bombings in the past 30 months of fighting.
 The attack took place at a base near the Israeli settlement of Bekaot in the West Bank's Jordan Valley.
 The two gunmen, armed with assault rifles, infiltrated the Golani Infantry Brigade's training base before dawn, cutting through a fence and opening fire at guards posted at the main entrance to the base, killing one, the officials said.
 One assailant was killed by return fire, but the second continued into the base, killing another soldier and wounding nine more before escaping, the officials said.
 Troops killed the second gunman during searches in the area, the officials said.
 A spokesperson for the attackers said that the two gunmen came from the West Bank city of Nablus, about 20 kilometers away.
 Residents of nearby settlements were ordered to remain in their homes while troops searched for another possible assailant.
 Palestinian militants have repeatedly attacked settlements and military bases in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A similar attempt by a Palestinian gunman to infiltrate the Bekaot base several months ago failed when troops killed the attacker.
 In Tulkarem, Israeli undercover soldiers jumped from a van and opened fire on four members of the Al Aqsa militia traveling in a car in the town center, a spokesperson for the group said.
 Two militants managed to escape, but residents said they saw two others, Jasser Ellami and Fida Tirawi, lying on the ground, before soldiers cordoned off the area and whisked them away.

TITLE: Haiti Officially Sanctions Voodoo Cult
AUTHOR: By Michael Norton
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's government has officially sanctioned voodoo as a religion, allowing ceremonies from baptisms to marriages to be performed with legal authority.
 
Many who practice voodoo praised the move, but said that much remains to be done to make up for centuries of ridicule and persecution in the Caribbean country and abroad.
 Voodoo priest Philippe Castera said that he hopes the government's decree is more than an effort to win popularity amid economic and political troubles.
 &quot;In spite of our contribution to Haitian culture, we are still misunderstood and despised,&quot; said Castera, 48.
 In an executive decree issued last week, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide invited voodoo adherents and organizations to register with the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
 After swearing an oath before a civil judge, practitioners will be able to legally conduct ceremonies such as marriages and baptisms, the decree said.
 Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, has said that he recognizes voodoo as a religion like any other, and a voodoo priestess bestowed a presidential sash on him at his first inauguration in 1991.
 &quot;An ancestral religion, voodoo is an essential part of national identity,&quot; and its institutions &quot;represent a considerable portion&quot; of Haiti's 8.3 million people, Aristide said in the decree.
 Though permitted by Haiti's 1987 constitution, which recognizes religious equality, many books and films have sensationalized voodoo as black magic based on animal and human sacrifices to summon zombies and evil spirits.
 &quot;It will take more than a government decree to undo all that malevolence,&quot; Castera said, and suggested that construction of a central voodoo temple would &quot;turn good words into a good deed.&quot;

TITLE: Juniors Looking To Shine At This Year's Bolshoi Priz
AUTHOR: By Christopher Hamilton
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: If you want to see some of the future stars of world ice hockey, head to the Yubileiny Sports Palace this weekend.
 
Saturday through Wednesday, junior teams from the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and the rest of Russia will join Team St. Petersburg to compete for the 29th annual Bolshoi Priz Sankt Peterburga, or St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
 The first Bolshoi Priz, then known as the Four Nations Tournament, was held in Riga in 1975 and moved to St. Petersburg the following year. It was originally conceived as a testing ground for national B teams of Europe's leading ice-hockey powers. Players who proved themselves at the Bolshoi Priz were often, subsequently, called up to fill the rosters of the national A teams, which were preparing for the World Championships, which usually start in late April.
 Over the last decade, the tournament has evolved into a youth competition and, this year, teams will primarily comprise players born in or after 1984. In order to maintain the tournament's original aim of testing players for the World Championship, each team can have five players over 20. According to unofficial information from the tournament's press officer, Vladimir Kuzmin, only Team St. Petersburg and the Czech Republic have opted to exercise this option.
 The focus on youth at the Bolshoi Priz is no secret, which is why the competition attracts approximately 50 NHL scouts hoping to evaluate or find prospective players before the NHL draft, which takes place in June. Some of the tournament's more famous previous participants were Sergei Federov, Dominik Hasek and Vladimir Konstantinov.
 Team Russia will be coached by Rafil Ishmatov, a St. Petersburg based coach who lead the country's national junior team to the gold medal at this year's world under-20 championships in Canada in January. That team was comprised primarily of players born in 1983 who are, for the most part, ineligible for this year's Bolshoi Priz.
 Russia's leading NHL draft prospects, Nikolai Zherdev from CSKA Moscow and Igor Mirnov from Dinamo Moscow, will be most likely be team leaders at the Bolshoi Priz, with other junior players from Russia's Superliga.
 Unfortunately for Ishmatov, 18-year-old Alexander Ovechkin, who wowed the crowds in Canada, will be playing for the Russian team at the world under-18 championships taking place in Yaroslavl this month.
 
 <i>
The Bolshoi Priz gets under way with an official opening ceremony at 6:15 p.m. on Saturday. Two games will be played each day, starting at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., respectively. Call the Yubileiny Sports Palace at 323-9303 for details. </i>

TITLE: Woods Not Only Focus At Masters This Year
AUTHOR: By Paul Newberry
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: AUGUSTA, Georgia - The men in green stood together, a defiant show of support for Augusta National Golf Club and its steadfast belief that only men should wear those coveted jackets. 
 
With Tiger Woods set to pursue an unprecedented third straight Masters title beginning Friday - play was cancelled Thursday after officials ruled the course unplayable due to heavy rain - Augusta National got another chance to make its case for having an all-male club. 
 With the spotlight on Hootie Johnson, the club chairperson used his annual state-of-the-Masters address to make a no-apologies statement about the exclusive membership policy. 
 &quot;Men like to get together with men every now and then, and women like to get together with women every now and then,&quot; the 72-year-old Johnson said Wednesday. &quot;That's a simple fact of life in America.&quot; 
 Martha Burk wants to change that part of American life, at least at Augusta National, though a federal appeals court turned down her request to protest Saturday outside the front gate. 
 &quot;Clearly, they put this club over the Constitution,&quot; she said. &quot;That ought to be a concern for everyone in this country.&quot; 
 Burk and her supporters will be relegated to a grassy field about half a mile from the main entrance to Magnolia Lane - unless she defies local authorities and risks arrest. 
 &quot;If we ask folks to move on and they refuse, they are breaking the law,&quot; Sheriff Ronald Strength said. 
 Johnson said his club isn't breaking any laws: It is simply a private club that has the final say on who gets in - and who stays out. 
 To dramatize the club's position, more than 60 green-jacketed men - about 20 percent of the membership - flanked Johnson during a news conference dominated by questions about membership policy. 
 &quot;If I drop dead this second, our position will not change on this issue,&quot; Johnson said. &quot;It's not my issue alone.&quot; 
 At the Masters, it seems, some things never change. 
 The azaleas and dogwoods are bursting with colors. Arnold Palmer still strolls the fairways, carried along by a legion of fans. Woods, as always, is the heavy favorite. 
 And anyone who thought Augusta National might cave in to pressure and allow a woman to wear a green jacket was met - again - by utter defiance. 
 &quot;There may well come a time when we include women as members of our club,&quot; Johnson said. &quot;However, I want to emphasize that we have no timetable, and our membership is very comfortable with our present status.&quot; 
 Burk watched a telecast of the news conference. 
 &quot;I think it's kind of sad,&quot; she said. &quot;He's firmly planting his seat in the last century.&quot; 
 Players have been dragged into the debate, too. Instead of being asked about the slick, contoured greens and the tricky 12th hole planted behind Rae's Creek, they are grilled on whether women should belong to the private club that hosts the public Masters. 
 Woods would like to see Augusta National admit women members, although the world's No. 1 player concedes he has no influence on club matters. 
 Johnson could not have agreed more. 
 &quot;I won't tell Tiger how to play golf if he doesn't tell us how to run our private club,&quot; Johnson said. 
 Woods certainly doesn't need any lessons. 
 Already the most dominant player in golf, Woods looks better than ever after taking two months off for surgery on his left knee. 
 Now, he is on familiar soil, a course he has mastered under every circumstance.
 He can move into uncharted territory: three straight Masters victories. Only Jack Nicklaus (1965-66) and Nick Faldo (1989-90) have also won two in a row. 
 &quot;It's not a golf course where I feel like I'm learning something every time I play it,&quot; Woods said. &quot;I feel as if I have a pretty good understanding of how to play each and every hole.&quot; 
 He has played five tournaments in the last two months and won three times, including an 11-stroke victory at Bay Hill, a course set up for big hitters. 
 Augusta National figures to play longer than ever - another advantage for Woods. 
 &quot;It favors someone who is hitting the ball high and long and straight,&quot; Woods said. &quot;You've got to keep the ball in the fairway, but you've got to get it out there.&quot; 
 &quot;Let's face it,&quot; said Ernie Els, a four-time winner this year and expected to be one of the top contenders. &quot;Tiger's going to be there.&quot;

TITLE: Home Not Where the Wins Are as Snow Blankets Ottawa
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: NEW YORK - Home is where the losses were on the first night of the NHL playoffs. The biggest surprises were in Ottawa and Dallas, where the top-seeded Senators and Stars were beaten Wednesday night. 
 
Ottawa, the Presidents' Trophy winner with 113 points, lost 3-0 to the New York Islanders - the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. New York had 30 fewer points than the Senators in the regular season, but was able to back up coach Peter Laviolette's claim that he had the better team in this series. 
 &quot;We played like a team, and it's good to feel like you're not alone on the ice,&quot; said Alexei Yashin, a former Senators player, who scored for New York. 
 Edmonton, taking on the Stars in the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years, has a rare lead. The Oilers got it with a 2-1 win. 
 Toronto took a 1-0 lead in its best-of-seven series by beating the Flyers 5-3 in Philadelphia. In another Eastern Conference series, New Jersey became the only home team to win on opening night with a 2-1 victory over Boston. 
 New York's Dave Scatchard and Shawn Bates added goals, and Garth Snow stopped 25 shots for his first playoff shutout. 
 &quot;Our team on many occasions in big games has played big games,&quot; Laviolette said. 
 Scatchard and Yashin scored in the first period, and Bates made it 3-0 midway through the second. 
 &quot;We believe that you work for your breaks, and we were working hard and rewarded for it,&quot; Islanders captain Mike Peca said. 
 Ottawa has a history of disappointing its fans. Despite seven straight postseason appearances and three 100-point seasons in five, the Senators have just two series wins and none when they had home-ice advantage. 
 &quot;We were too overanxious,&quot; Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said. &quot;We were running around, trying to finish every check - we wanted to do too much.&quot; 
 
 <strong>
Edmonton 2, Dallas 1. </strong>Ryan Smyth scored a short-handed goal between the legs of Marty Turco, then Shawn Horcoff beat his glove, to send the Oilers on the way to victory. 
 
&quot;It's only the first game,&quot; Horcoff said, &quot;but it's definitely gratifying.&quot; 
 Turco had a record-setting regular season with a 1.72 goals-against average, and he led the NHL with a 93.2 save percentage. But his playoff debut was a disappointing loss, allowing two goals in a 3:48 span early in the second period. 
 &quot;I felt pretty good in terms of nerves,&quot; said Turco, who made 21 saves. &quot;We certainly learned a lesson. We're in for a battle.&quot; 
 Tommy Salo stopped 20 shots to earn just his fourth win in 16 playoff games.
 
 <strong>
Toronto 5, Philadelphia 3. </strong>In Philadelphia, Mikael Renberg scored a power-play goal with 5:39 left, leading Toronto over the Flyers. 
 
The Flyers outshot the Leafs 31-15, but Toronto scored four goals on its first 13 attempts against Roman Cechmanek. Alexander Mogilny had three goals, for his first playoff hat-trick, and Tie Domi also scored for the Leafs. 
 Ed Belfour made 28 saves for Toronto, which has won four straight first-round series. 
 Eric Desjardins, Donald Brashear and Eric Weinrich scored for Philadelphia,which has been eliminated in the opening round four of the last five years.
 <strong>
New Jersey 2, Boston 1. </strong>In East Rutherford, New Jersey, Jamie Langenbrunner scored twice and Martin Brodeur made 26 saves for the Devils. 
 
Bryan Berard scored for the Bruins in the opener, which featured plenty of hard hits. 
 Langenbrunner staked the Devils to a 2-0 lead with goals in each of the first two periods against Steve Shields. Brodeur made three good saves down the stretch after Berard's third-period goal. 
 Shields, not announced as the starter until Wednesday, stopped 26 shots.
 
 
q
 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl won its second straight Russian national title on Wednesday night, defeating Severstal Cherepovets 4-0 at the Almaz Stadium in Cherepovets in Game 4 of the Professional Hockey League playoffs to clinch the best-of-five series 3-1
 
Despite seeing its 17-game postseason win streak snapped by a 4-2 loss in Monday's Game 3, Lokomotiv became the first team to win back-to-back national championships in the post-Soviet era.
 Moscow's CSKA - the Red Army team - strung together 13 consecutive Soviet titles in the 1970s and 1980s.
 Severstal had little time to prepare for the finals, coming off an exhausting five-game semifinals to knock out second-seeded Avangard Omsk. In the third-place series, Avangard defeated Lada Tolyatti 4-1 in Game 1 on Tuesday night. 
 Severstal's semifinal win prevented a showdown between two Czech coaches, Lokomotiv's Vladimir Vujtek and Avangard's Ivan Hlinka. However, the final still had an all-Czech father-against-son clash, as Sverstall had acquired Vladimir Vujtek Jr. during mid-season.

TITLE: Spurs Knock Mavs Off the Top
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAN ANTONIO, Texas - There's a team from Texas atop the NBA overall standings. It's just not the Dallas Mavericks any more. 
 
After leading the league all season, on Wednesday night the Mavs slipped a game behind their fellow Texans from San Antonio when the Spurs beat Portland 84-79, and Dallas lost 112-89 at Phoenix. 
 The Spurs, winners of 10 straight games, are 58-20 and lead the Midwest Division. They aren't thinking about the guys down the road in Big D. 
 &quot;We are not worried about Dallas,&quot; said Spurs star Tim Duncan, who struggled with 11 points and 11 rebounds in the victory. &quot;We are concerned with taking care of our business, and see where it goes from there.&quot; 
 Their business against the Blazers was taken care of by Duncan's defense on Rasheed Wallace, who had only eight points on 4-for-16 shooting. And by reserve Manu Ginobili, who led the Spurs with 17 points. 
 &quot;It's definitely a fun time of the year,&quot; Ginobili said. 
 Especially when you are ahead of everyone. That's where Dallas was since Game 1. Now, with four games remaining, the Mavericks are looking up at San Antonio and are half a game in front of Sacramento in the Western Conference. 
 &quot;I thought for us to have a chance we'd have to win two out of three on this road trip,&quot; Dallas coach Don Nelson said. &quot;We've already lost the first two and it's not going to be an easy game [at Utah on Friday]. Nothing's easy at this point. We were a tired team tonight.&quot; 
 Dallas is 6-5 since Michael Finley strained his left hamstring. Nelson said Finley might be ready to play by Sunday. 
 &quot;We've got to get a mind-set to start playing good basketball going into the playoffs,&quot; Nick Van Exel said. &quot;No matter who we play, it's going to be tough for us the way we're playing right now.&quot; 
 The Suns moved 2 1/2 games in front of Houston for the final Western playoff spot. Seattle is three back. 
 Penny Hardaway got his first triple-double in 1 1/2 years (a symmetrical 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) and Shawn Marion had 31 points and 15 rebounds for Phoenix. 
 &quot;We're hungry. We're starving. We want it bad,&quot; Phoenix's Stephon Marbury said. &quot;I don't know about those other teams, but we want it bad. We want it real bad.&quot; 
 
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Boston 87, Washington 83. </strong>In Washington, the Celtics moved into the postseason as rookie J.R. Bremer scored 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting, including the winning 3-pointer with 0:19.4 to play. Antoine Walker scored 24 and Paul Pierce had 20. 
 
Washington fell 2 1/2 games behind eighth-place Milwaukee in the East.
 Michael Jordan scored 21 points for Washington, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the city's last NBA title.
 
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Milwaukee 112, L.A. Clippers 92. </strong>In Milwaukee, Toni Kukoc scored 26 points, tying his season high. The Bucks reduced their magic number to one for the final playoff berth in the East: One Milwaukee victory or a Washington loss puts the Bucks into the playoffs. Milwaukee has three games to play and Washington has four. 
 
Sam Cassell had 22 points and Gary Payton 21 for Milwaukee. Elton Brand scored 21 points and Corey Maggette 20 for the Clippers.
 
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Orlando 88, Toronto 82. </strong>In Orlando, Florida, Tracy McGrady scored 37 points and had a spectacular two-handed dunk to help the Magic snap a four-game losing streak. McGrady shot 11-of-18 from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range, and was 11-of-16 at the free-throw line. He surpassed 30 points for the 48th time this season. 
 
Coupled with Washington's loss, Orlando's magic number for a playoff berth fell to one.
 
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(For other results, see Scorecard.) </i>