SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #906 (74), Tuesday, September 30, 2003
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TITLE: Putin Casts Doubt on Kyoto Treaty Ratification
AUTHOR: By Greg Walters
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia has not yet made a decision on whether to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and that the government will not do so until it finishes studying the implications that ratification would have for the country. 
 
Putin, speaking at the opening ceremony of the five-day UN World Climate Change Conference, left the future of the Kyoto Protocol in limbo with his remarks and disappointed some attendees, who had hoped he might use the event to announce a ratification date. 
 "The government is thoroughly considering and studying this issue, studying the entire complex of difficult problems linked with it," Putin said. "The decision will be made after this work has been completed. And, of course, it will take into account the national interests of the Russian Federation."
 The Kyoto Protocol calls for signatory countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to their 1990 levels by 2012. Before taking effect, the treaty must be ratified by 55 or more countries and by those responsible for at least 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Ratification by Russia would be sufficient to bring the protocol into force. Without Russia, however, it cannot take effect.
 UN officials taking the podium after Putin offered slightly barbed responses to Putin's declaration and urged the Russian government to ratify the treaty at the earliest possible date.
 "I must admit that I'd hoped that you would have been more specific about indicating an approximate date for Russian ratification of the Kyoto Protocol," said Joke Waller-Hunter, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, addressing Putin. 
 But, she added, "I trust that under your leadership, the Russian Federation will recognize its responsibility for multilateral action on a truly global issue."
 Others in attendance said they were not surprised. "We did not expect him to announce ratification," Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson said. "The government had made it abundantly clear that this was a science conference on climate change, not a political conference on Kyoto."
 Just before a short intermission, Putin addressed the conference again in what appeared to be an impromptu response to those calling for quick ratification.
 "They often say, either as a joke or seriously, that Russia is a northern country and if temperatures get warmer by 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, it's not such a bad thing. We could spend less on warm coats, and agricultural experts say grain harvests would increase further," he said.
 Even so, he continued, "we must think about the consequences of these changes that we will face in certain regions where there will be droughts and where there will be floods."
 The seemingly light-hearted remarks fell flat with some attendees. 
 Norwegian Environment Minister Boerge Brende strongly disagreed that warmer temperatures would be good for northern countries. "Climate change is the biggest and most serious environmental threat we face," he told Reuters. "In Norway, it will lead to much more extreme weather."
 Anderson, however, interpreted that remarks as a sign that Putin is serious about the Kyoto Protocol, despite lingering questions in the Russian scientific community. 
 "He was ad-libbing there," Anderson said. "He pointed out that there are some people [in Russia] who think that climate change is a good thing because it will reduce the amount of cold weather. He pointed out ... that there are even quite simplistic views in Russia which he has to overcome."
 Furthermore, Anderson said, "I'm fully expecting [ratification] to occur within a year."
 Still, Russia's waffling over the issue since last summer ~ when Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announced that Russia would ratify Kyoto soon ~ has seemed mysterious to some experts, who point to the economic windfall the country might receive under the treaty. 
 According to the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, countries producing less greenhouse gases than in 1990 can sell their extra "credits" to overproducing countries, a clause that could provide Russia with an instant international commodity. Putin said Monday that Russian greenhouse emissions have decreased by 32 percent since 1990.
 A few observers have said Russia's consistent refusal to provide a concrete date for ratification seems to be at odds with the government's declared position.
 "Colleagues in our European offices were pretty sure that Russia would ratify, based on what they were hearing from European negotiators, who were talking to the Russia government," said Eric Sievers, an American attorney and part of Baker & McKenzie's Global Climate Change Practice Group. "The signals from the Russian government to them were that Russia was going to ratify."
 Anderson said Russia might be looking to secure markets in Europe for its natural gas, which can be used to help reduce greenhouse emissions.
 "We think that the Russians have reason to make sure that their contributions to lowering greenhouse gases in Western Europe are properly appreciated," he said.
 Sievers said the United States, which has snubbed the treaty entirely, might be pressuring Russia to hold out on ratification.
 "The rhetoric from Washington is constantly that this is a convention and a protocol that is fundamentally flawed," Sievers said. "If the Kyoto Protocol comes into force, that argument loses a lot of strength. It would be a foreign policy disaster [for the Bush administration] if it did."
 The White House has repeatedly denied lobbying the Russian government to take a particular stand on the Kyoto Protocol.
 David Halpern, a representative of the U.S. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy who attended the conference Monday, agreed with Putin that more research was needed. 
 "I think Mr. Putin made a fine address, saying that more knowledge is needed to reduce uncertainty," Halpern said. "Most of the commentators [following Putin] acknowledged there is a large uncertainty, and that's one of the reasons the science continues."
 Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UN Environment Program, disagreed. "Research, as important as it is, should not be an alibi for inaction," he said.

TITLE: Skinheads Held Over Murder
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Police at the weekend detained four skinheads suspected of killing a 6-year-old Tajik girl and seriously injuring a 5-year-old and a 18-month-old in an attack on a gypsy camp south of the city on Sept. 21.
 
"It's still not clear what had happened there. There was some sort of a fight," Mark Nazarov, a police spokesman said Monday in a telephone interview.
 The police say young radicals have been in an ongoing conflict with a camp of about 45 gypsies from Tadjikistan, who this year settled next to the Dachnoye railway station. The skinheads insisted that the gypsies either leave the place or pay them if they wanted to say, local media reported.
 On Sept. 21 a group of skinheads armed with an axe, a knife and a metal rod set up an ambush near a local food store and attacked two women with children.
 A 6-year-old girl died, two girls are in a critical condition and woman was taken to a local hospital.
 Three suspects are in police custody on murder charges. Another suspect was released after pledging not to leave the city.
 The police did not release the suspects' names.
 Nazarov said all the gypsies were detained by police shortly after the attack. He declined to answer any other questions or comment any further on the case.
 Novaya Gazeta reported Monday that some of them had been put on a train to Archangelsk on Sunday.
 "This is disgraceful. On the one hand we're victims, and on the other they kick us out. We don't disturb anyone," the newspaper quoted one of the gypsies as saying at the Moskovsky station. The gypsy declined to reveal his name to Novaya Gazeta.
 Despite the killing taking place more than a week ago, the Tajik Embassy in Moscow was not aware of the fact.
 "We don't have enough information on this matter, we will investigate it and then will work closely with the police," said Dzhurakhon Kurbanov, a Tajik Embassy spokesman, said Monday in a telephone interview from Moscow.
 "I don't think it [the murder] should be taken as a sign that multinational relations are getting worse [here]. Each country has a mix of people and each country has its criminals," Kurbanov said. "The state, I think, is paying enough attention to this problem and if some officials [ignore it], that doesn't mean the situation looks like this as a whole."
 Boris Pustyntsev, head of the St. Petersburg branch of Citizen's Watch, an international human rights organization, said the case appears to be the result of a new approach by authorities to the problem.
 "The Tajik government will always toe the line so as not to confront Moscow," Pustyntsev said Monday in a telephone interview.
 "When Boris Yeltsin was president, everybody knew that any extremist or a racist was an opponent of his regime," Pustyntsev said.
 "These days, authorities play with them to get additional electorate," he said. "This is reflected in the restoration of Stalin's national anthem, for instance, which was sold as an attempt to consolidate society."
 Nevertheless, Pustyntsev said it is positive sign that police in St. Petersburg have opened criminal cases over racially motivated attacks, not just on the grounds of hooliganism.
 This happended last September after about 30 skinheads beat Mamed Mamedov, an Azeri melon trader, to death.
 That case is going through the city courts, with suspects charged with murdering for racist reasons.
 Another three skinheads were detained in February after they allegedly beat to death Atish Kumar Ramgoolam, 23, a Mauritian student at the Mechnikov State Medical Academy.
 "If the police keep following such policies, we will definitely support them," Pustyntsev said.

TITLE: Missing Rubens Painting Turns Up in Moscow
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - It started with the most modern of communications, an e-mail with an attachment.
 
Gerd Bartoschek opened his e-mail account in February and found an Old Master from 400 years ago, a picture of one of the most famous missing paintings in the world - Rubens' "Tarquin and Lucretia."
 The message said the painting was in the hands of a Moscow businessman who was ready to sell.
 Badly damaged and bearing cracks from where it had been folded, the painting was still recognizable in the photo as "Tarquin and Lucretia," painted between 1609 and 1612 by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens and regarded as one of his finest works.
 Experts estimate that the picture depicting the mythological rape of Roman wife Lucretia is worth up to $80 million. "It is a very important painting. Rubens is a pre-eminent name in art history," said Sarah Jackson, head of historic claims from the Art Loss register in London.
 The painting is now being held by the Federal Security Service, after a long journey from Emperor Frederick II to Joseph Goebbels' lover, a Red Army soldier and the Moscow businessman.
 Where it will go next is anybody's guess. The Old Master has brought into the spotlight once again a long-running feud between the German and Russian governments over trophy art. Germany, where the painting was stolen at the end of World War II, is demanding it back. The businessman, Vladimir Logvinenko, is insisting that it is private property bought fair and square and is beside himself over media reports that have linked him to the Russian mafia.
 The spat has caused the painting to be added to the agenda of a meeting between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Vladimir Putin next month, Der Spiegel reported.
 "Tarquin and Lucretia" arrived in Prussia in 1765 when Frederick the Great bought it and hung it in Sanssouci, the rococo palace that he had built just outside Potsdam. It remained there until 1942, when it was moved to a castle in Rheinsberg before ending up in the country mansion of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in the last few months of the war.
 "It hung on the wall of the bedroom of Goebbel's lover," Culture Ministry official Vasily Petrakov said.
 After a victorious 61st Red Army marched into Germany in 1945, a Soviet officer took the painting and spirited it back to the Soviet Union, Petrakov said, citing Logvinenko. It was sold for $800 and went through a number of owners before eventually ending up with Logvinenko, he said.
 Logvinenko had the painting restored and only later found out that it was a Rubens. It was then that he sent the e-mail in hope that he would be compensated about 25 percent of the painting's value, Logvinenko said in an interview published in Izvestia on Monday.
 After Bartoschek, the curator of the gallery at the Sanssouci palace, received the e-mail, he contacted the police but also kept in contact with the then-unknown art correspondent.
 Four months later, in June, Bartoschek and another art historian arrived in Moscow. They were taken to Logvinenko's apartment in the east of the city and shown into a room with a reinforced door. Inside, under a white sheet was, they soon confirmed, Ruben's masterpiece.
 Soon after, Western newspapers were full of stories about the Rubens and the Russian mafia. Der Spiegel at one point reported that a pair of suspicious businessmen with possible connections to the police and the FSB were behind the e-mail. The British newspaper The Guardian ran a story with the headline "Russian Mafia Tries To Cash In on Lost Rubens."
 Logvinenko stressed in the interview in Izvestia that he was a reputable businessman in real estate.
 Petrakov of the Culture Ministry said Logvinenko was an upstanding citizen who saved the painting from destruction and was only looking for compensation for his costs.
 "It's his property," Petrakov said, adding that Russia has learned to value property rights and that Logvinenko has the right to claim compensation for the money spent restoring the painting.
 He said Logvinenko had bought the painting in good faith and paid several thousand dollars for it.
 Logvinenko said the Constitutional Court has ruled that personal treasures taken from Germany do not have to be returned.
 Logvinenko is not completely unknown at the Culture Ministry. Before firing off the e-mail in February, he first approached the ministry to check whether the painting was one of the art treasures taken by official Soviet trophy brigades at the end of war as compensation for the suffering Germany caused the Soviet Union. It wasn't.
 Logvinenko, who handed the artwork over to the FSB last weekend, maintains that the painting is still his property that that he had voluntarily given it up for the time being, said his lawyer, Ruslan Abdullayev.
 Abdullayev said Logvinenko was upset about the mafia allegations and considering legal action.
 German Culture Minister Christina Weiss praised the handover as a "wonderful signal," according to media reports. She said Putin and Schroeder already were working together on the matter.
 Russian and Germany have been at loggerheads for years over the issue of trophy art. "Tarquin and Lucretia" is just one of hundreds of thousands of cultural items looted by Russian and German troops alike during World War II.
 Prosecutors and State Duma deputies thwarted an attempt earlier this year by Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi to return more than 300 drawings taken from Germany by a Soviet soldier.

TITLE: Drug Squad Raids Griboyedov Nightclub
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Popular nightspot Griboeydov on Friday survived a police raid - reminiscent of back-to-back raids on local alternative clubs such as Griboyedov, TaMtAm and Tunnel in the mid- and late-1990s. 
 
However, there were no serious beatings or robberies this time, such as those reported on after similar raids on the venue in Feb. 1996.
 Friday's raid, which started about 11:30 p.m., left many customers feeling shocked and humiliated, while the management complained of financial losses. 
 No comment was available from police Monday.
 "I was about to leave the place, but suddenly there were armed, masked men running down the staircase - they shouted 'Suki, na pol!' [Down, bastards!]," said Griboyedov's art director Mikhail Sindalovsky, 37.
 "I crawled down in the corner, but everyone who passed me gave me a kick - not as hard as they could, but it was still painful."
 Fifteen to 20 OMON special force policemen - all of them masked and with AK assault rifles and handguns took part in the raid, which was ostensibly a search for illegal drugs. 
 Everybody present was forced to face the wall or lie on the floor. 
 The special forces were followed by the same number of men wearing civilian clothes and holding flashlights, some of whom later introduced themselves as drug squad officers. 
 "None of them explained why they had come," said Sindalovsky. "Only later, when I was in the management office being searched, I asked them what organization they were from, and they said, they were from the drug squad."
 Sindalovsky said about 150 visitors were in the club at the time of the raid, most were 18- to 20-year-olds with a small number of 30-somethings.
 Everybody in the club, including the staff, was taken to the office, was searched, and had their passport details recorded and their photo taken. 
 "It was unpleasant to see how they would hit girls in their side a bit," said Oleg Livshits, 37, a visitor, who was in the bar when the raid started.
 "The girls turned out to be bolder [than the men] and tried to protest ... One [policeman] kicked the tray that a waitress was holding, resulting in her nose being cut."
 Igor Bezrukov, 44, was at the bar drinking coffee when the OMON entered.
 "I drove there to get Anton Belyankin [Griboyedov's other art director and Bezrukov's friend] from the club so I drank no alcohol," said Bezrukov who works as a television director and cameraman at the Legislative Assembly.
 "I was sitting and drinking coffee and suddenly they flew in like crows. They grabbed me by the collar and pushed something made of steel, a handgun or something, into my ribs. 
 "Then they threw me on the floor with my face in a pool of spilt Pepsi-Cola. It's was very uncomfortable considering that my weight is 150 kilograms. I have never been so humiliated in my life. I was in a state of shock."
 Bezrukov, who was forced to face the wall with his hands raised for around 40 minutes, said he had complained about his high blood pressure but to no avail.
 "I was told, if you get sick, we'll call the ambulance."
 Sindalovsky said, no illegal substances were found and nobody was detained during the 3.5-hour-long raid.
 The club reopened at 3 a.m..
 "We suffered both big financial losses and our staff and guests were unhappy. They searched 150 people and left empty-handed," he said.
 Of several police raids on Griboyedov in the past, the most violent and devastating was one in February 1996, when several staff and customers were reported to have been badly beaten and the office furniture and equipment vandalized.
 Also the club management said the police stole money (the ruble equivalent of $265) from the office safe, and property including a videocamera, two photo cameras, 30 videotapes, 40 rare CDs, as well as 10 Martini bottles and 5 bottles of vodka in the bar, were missing after the 1996 raid.

TITLE: Chechen PM Flown to Moscow for Emergency Care
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Chechen Prime Minister Anatoly Popov was flown to a Moscow hospital early Monday after suffering serious stomach pain, but his condition later improved and a doctor said there was no sign he had been deliberately poisoned. 
 
Popov arrived in Moscow by plane shortly after midnight and was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, local news agencies reported. Later Monday morning, Popov said he felt better and plans to return to Chechnya on Tuesday. 
 "My condition is normal," Popov told NTV television by telephone from the Central Clinical Hospital, where high-level officials are usually sent when they are sick. "Tomorrow I will already be in the republic." 
 Popov was hospitalized in Chechnya on Saturday evening after complaining of pain as his motorcade was returning to Grozny from Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city, following a ceremony celebrating the official opening of a new gas pipeline. His illness raised concerns that he might have been poisoned. 
 But the chief doctor at the Central Clinical Hospital, Alexander Nikolayev, said there was no evidence to support that. 
 "His diagnosis is a toxic infection from food. There are no signs of deliberate food poisoning," Nikolayev was quoted by Interfax as saying.
 He said Popov's condition was improving and that all signs of the illness would be gone in two to three days. 
 Prosecutors in Chechnya, who were investigating the cause of Popov's illness, also said they had no evidence suggesting deliberate poisoning.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Babi Yar Massacre 
 </b>

KIEV (AP) - Officials, Jewish community leaders and survivors of the Nazi massacre of thousands of Jews at Babi Yar paid tribute to the victims Monday in ceremonies near the ravine where the killings took place 62 years ago. 
 President Leonid Kuchma bowed his head during a moment of silence, and government officials laid flowers at a monument to the dead near the ravine in Kiev. 
 Later in the day, dozens of people including elderly Babi Yar survivors and representatives of Jewish groups attended a memorial ceremony. 
 "All my family was shot here," said survivor Joseph Torchinsky, 85, speaking through sobs. "I came here every year, and mourn, and pray." 
 The massacre began in late September 1941 when Nazi forces occupying Kiev ordered its Jews to gather, bringing their warm clothes and valuables - as if they were to be taken elsewhere. The Jews were then marched to the brink of the steep Babi Yar ravine and shot. More than 33,000 Jews were killed over just a few days. Altogether, between 100,000 and 200,000 people - including non-Jews - are believed to have been killed at Babi Yar.
 
 
<b>Businessman Killed
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The financial director of a food products plant was shot dead in Kirovsky district of St. Petersburg on Monday, Interfax quoted the St. Petersburg police as saying.
 The man was murdered about 9 a.m. in the entrance to the building on Prospekt Stachek where he lived, the news agency said. 
 The man died on the spot after being shot in the head by an unidentified assailant, the report said.
 
 
<b>English Salute the City
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Famous Englishmen will congratulate St. Petersburg residents on the city's jubilee from Wednesday until Oct. 31.
 They will appear on posters in carriages of the city metro.
 "These posters feature the heroes of our country: His Majesty Prince Charles of Wales, the best pop musician in the world, Paul McCartney, the world's best soccer team, Manchester United," Interfax quoted British ambassador to Russia Sir Roderick Lyne as saying Monday at the presentation of the project in St. Petersburg.
 In addition, the posters will contain greetings from British actors, politicians, diplomats, many of who have visited St. Petersburg in its jubilee year.
 Two hundred posters of five types will be displayed on line three and four of the St. Petersburg subway.
 Barbara Hay, the British general consul in St. Petersburg, said the idea occurred to her after she noticed "all people read something in St. Petersburg metro."
 "Now they will also be able to read our greetings," Hay said.
 
 
<b>Teacher Gets 25 Years 
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Leningrad Military Region Court has sentenced Grigory Malyarov, a teacher of the military department at St. Petersburg AeroSpace Instrument Making Academy, to 25 years of hard labor in a prison camp.
 Malyarov was convicted of two especially cruel murderous attacks, Interfax reported.
 On Feb. 24, 1998, Malyarov, stabbed a man he was visiting 30 times. The man survived, but another guest, a police sergeant was mortally wounded. 
 Police arrested Malayarov, but he was released under the condition he not leave the city. In December the same year, a drunken Malyarov stabbed two women to death. 



TITLE: Honoring a General Who is Silenced
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - If asked the way to General Anatoly Romanov's ward in the Burdenko Central Military Hospital, almost any of the staff can give directions. The hospital's department No.18 has been home for almost eight years to the former commander of federal troops in Chechnya.
 
Here in the two-room ward, once the most respected of Russian generals spends his lonely days, sitting in a wheelchair by the window or watching television.
 Having miraculously survived a deadly attack during the first Chechnya campaign, Romanov, who turns 55 on Saturday, does not talk or walk due to the severe brain damage he sustained.
 The general's wife, Larisa Romanova, who has become his spokeswoman and representative, even stepping in to receive military awards for him, said she believes the attack was a political hit, since it came as he was negotiating with the rebels to try to end the war.
 Romanova said she has many questions for his commanders, but sees no point in raking up the past. &quot;What shall we win if I smear everybody? My husband will not rise to his feet and walk because of that,&quot; she said in a recent interview at the Biblio Globus bookstore, where she works as a commercial director.
 Without pointing a finger, she said too many interests were involved in the 1994-1996 Chechen war, and not only Chechen rebels, who were blamed for the attack, would have had an interest in sidelining her husband.
 Romanov was wounded Oct. 6, 1995, when a bomb exploded as his motorcade was passing through an underpass near Minutka Square in central Grozny. His bodyguard and driver were killed, and only a few pieces were left of the jeep that Romanov was traveling in.
 The general, who narrowly escaped death, was rushed to Vladikavkaz and then to Moscow with numerous injuries. He remained in a coma for about a year.
 The attack occurred at a time when Romanov was making progress in peace talks with the Chechen rebels and it was widely seen as aimed aimed at sabotaging the talks. After taking up the post in July 1995, he had traveled extensively throughout Chechnya to persuade rebels to lay down their arms in exchange for a promise of a partial withdrawal of federal troops.
 After the attack, the peace talks stalled for almost a year until another general, Alexander Lebed, and separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov reached a peace agreement in the town of Khasavyurt in neighboring Dagestan.
 Romanov was one of the few military commanders respected by the Chechen separatist leaders. In an interview with Moscow News in July 1996, Maskhadov, then the separatists' military chief of staff, said Romanov was the easiest to talk to.
 &quot;Anatoly Romanov was the opponent and butcher of the Chechen town of Samashki. But it was pleasant to talk with him, because this was a cultured, well-mannered, intelligent man. In Chechnya, people respect this very much,&quot; Maskhadov said.
 &quot;Romanov cannot be forgiven for what he did here, but he grew tired of the war and sincerely wanted to end it. I don't feel the same about others, like [the deputy commander of federal forces in Chechnya, General Vladimir] Shamanov, and [the commander, Lieutenant General Vyacheslav] Tikhomirov.&quot;
 Alexander Lebedev, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry troops, where Romanov served, said he is still highly revered. &quot;There is no way anyone will ever forget him here.&quot;
 Romanov is not a forgotten hero of a past war. On the contrary, at times he gets too much publicity. It has become a tradition for generals and ministers to pose for the camera with him in his ward. But his wife has learned not to be annoyed by the &quot;PR&quot; visits. Romanov said that years of seeing her husband motionless and speechless have taught her tolerance and diplomacy.
 Romanova, whose eyes are often teary when speaking about her husband, said he was skeptical of the success of the campaign his army was leading.
 &quot;He could see the war from the inside, was sick and tired of it and wanted to end it as soon as possible, was telling me that he was close to doing so, but that someone was not allowing him to.&quot;
 In the hospital, Romanov has a team of nurses caring for him 24 hours a day and a cook who makes meals just for him because he cannot swallow independently and eats only strained food.
 His wife said she is appreciative of the care he gets that hundreds of other servicemen crippled in the war do not. &quot;Can you imagine how many crippled soldiers return from the war and their relatives have no money to buy a prosthetic leg or arm not to mention a decent wheelchair, which costs $4,000,&quot; she said.
 Though busy at work, she visits her husband almost every day and has learned to tell his mood by his slight reactions to life around him. Romanov can smile and his eyes follow people around the room.
 Igor Klimov, the doctor who has been treating Romanov since 1996, said the general does not require any therapy. &quot;The last three to four years he has been stable, in a minimal conscious state, but there has not been any progress,&quot; Klimov said in a telephone interview.
 Three months after the bomb attack, Romanov had a tiny device implanted in his upper spinal cord by a Japanese surgeon in an effort to stimulate his injured brain. The electronic device, which cost tens of thousands of dollars, sent impulses to the brain. It had a 40 percent success rate in 150 attempts in Japan, but failed to help Romanov, Klimov said.
 &quot;Unfortunately, groundbreaking and revolutionary methods of treatment for such patients are yet to come,&quot; the doctor said.
 Romanova hopes that her husband lives to the time when a new treatment arrives to &quot;wake his sleeping brain&quot; or at least make it possible for her to take him home.
 &quot;If we could learn to swallow, we could live at home again,&quot; said Romanova, who always says &quot;we&quot; in speaking about her husband.
 Klimov said the nurses who have been caring for the general for years have become very attached to him.
 &quot;Our nurses often tell me that in their dreams they see how he rises up onto his feet and walks,&quot; Klimov said. 


TITLE: Athens Wants More Evidence
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATHENS, Greece - An Athens court on Monday asked Russia to produce more evidence to bolster its request to extradite Vladimir Gusinsky on charges of fraud and money laundering. 
 
The appeals court set a 15-day deadline for material supporting the bid to return the former media magnate. 
 The decision came after a government prosecutor, Anna Zairi, asked the court to reject the extradition request, which she described as &quot;unclear.&quot; 
 The appeals court often follows prosecutors' recommendations, but instead amplified the legal battle of Gusinsky, who claims the Russian accusations are part of a politically motivated vendetta for criticism of Moscow's leaders and policies. 
 Gusinsky was arrested in Athens on Aug. 21 after arriving from Israel. He was released on bail a week later and has stayed at a luxury hotel in Athens. 
 


TITLE: Kadyrov Admits No Plan To Wipe Out Rebels
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ahmad Kadyrov predicted he would win upcoming elections in the republic, but acknowledged he has no concrete plan for wiping out rebels.
 
In an interview with The Associated Press, Kadyrov gave conflicting views about the rebels. At one point, he said the rebels would be wiped out in two years, but later said he did not know when Chechnya would see peace.
 &quot;We have a long time still to fight with the bandits,&quot; Kadyrov said. &quot;In five years, I don't think we'll be going out for walks at night. I don't want to say three years, two years, 10 years, these bandits are bandits. We're hunting for them everywhere.&quot;
 Kadyrov, at times so animated he jabbed a reporter on the knee and in the shoulder, repeatedly came back to the image of Chechnya that Moscow has tried to convey for months: The conflict is not a war but a battle against terrorists.
 He said destroying &quot;bandits&quot; would be the responsibility of the Chechen Interior Ministry. Rebels would perhaps be asked to give up their weapons, &quot;and those who can't do that - we will pursue them wherever they may be.&quot;
 
 


TITLE: Lenenergo Board Paves Way For UES-Initiated Reform
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Temkin
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: ST. PETERSBURG - The Lenenergo board of directors unanimously approved the reform plan proposed by the company's management Saturday. Contrary to the UES template, Lenenergo's plan retains electricity sales in the company's structure.
 
Lenenergo spokeswoman Larisa Semenova said that the plan could be sent for discussion to the UES board of directors as early as October.
 The UES standard for regional power companies calls in the first stage of restructuring for susidiaries to take over distribution of generation, networks and sales, with management coming from the regional company. However, according to a Lenenergo memo made available to Vedomosti, Lenenergo management intends to keep control over sales.
 Vladislav Kuzminov, Lenenergo deputy general director, said that the sales wing of the company will engage exclusively in billing, collecting payments and buying electricity from sources. Last Friday Lenenergo general director Andrei Likhachev announced that the company's top management had created its own management company that will offer to manage Lenenergo assets for shareholders. He declined to discuss the structure of ownership or the name of the company.
 James Herson, a member of the Lenenergo board of directors representing the Lonburg investment fund, thinks that assigning commercial functions to a management company will increase the manageability of assets and reflect favorably on capitalization of all assets owned by Lenenergo. 
 Analysts are not so hot about Lenenergo's plan. Fyodor Tregubenko, with Brunswick UBS, cautioned that a management company without assets would be unable to fulfil the power company's debt obligations or take out large loans.
 UES owns 49 percent of Lenenergo, with the Fortum Finnish power company holding 15.7 percent and the Lonburg British investment fund owning around 5 percent of shares. Net profits for Lenenergo during the first half of 2003 reached 442 million rubles with revenues of 13.8 billion rubles.

TITLE: St. Petersburg Sees Increasing Demand for Elite Apartments
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Prices for residential real estate in St. Petersburg more than doubled forecast levels in the first half of 2003 with the elite sector leading the way, market analysts say. The trend is likely to continue until the end of the year, after which the market may stabilize.
 
Although the supply of residential real estate in St. Petersburg hardly meets growing demand, St. Petersburg's housing situation is the worst in the country.
 Major problems arise from the density of St. Petersburg's population. Slightly under five million citizens live on a territory of 300 square kilometers, which makes the city one of the most densely populated in the world, according to Advecs-Rosstro real estate agency. St. Petersburg covers a territory that is five times less than Moscow's, while the area of Leningrad Oblast, with a population of just 1.5 million, is twice the size of the Moscow region. Some real-estate specialists believe that a merger of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast coupled with development of the transport infrastructure may help solve the problem of overpopulation.
 Unlike in Moscow, high-rise housing is not common in St. Petersburg. There are no high-rises in the center due to bans enforced by the St. Petersburg Administration Architecture Office to protect the city's architectural unity, while on the city's outskirts unstable, wet soil and the inability of fire departments to put out fires higher than 17th floor are limiting factors.
 Another problem is that St. Petersburg has the highest percentage of communal apartments in Russia. According to different estimations, there are about 150,000 communal apartments in St. Petersburg, down from more than 210,000 in the early 1990s. Khrushchyovki - outmoded and worn-out five-story housing for the masses built during the Khrushchev era - also pose a challenge. In both cases the buildings are plagued by problems such as worn-out infrastructure - water supply, sewage system and other utilities - along with a high rate of heat loss.
 Philippe Bogdanoff, a partner at Kirsanova Realty, an affiliate of Sotheby's International Realty that specializes in the top end of the market, says that Khrushchev embarked on mass production after seeing examples of prefabricated housing in France in the late 1950s. &quot;That really solved the problem of housing at that time,&quot; Bogdanoff said. &quot;It was a very good solution. There was just no way that they could have done it differently.&quot;
 According to the St. Petersburg Administration Construction Committee, although these houses built between 1958 and 1970 were intended to have a service life of just 20 years, they are still in use today. About 11 percent of the city's inhabitants live in such houses, which adds up to around 190,000 apartments.
 &quot;After we studied the situation thoroughly, we came to the conclusion that demolishing such houses will not be economically feasible or cost-effective, and decided to launch a program of renovating the khrushchyovki in St. Petersburg,&quot; Natalia Sheludko, the Committee spokeswoman, says.
 In July 2003, the Moscow Administration, which has a good track record of rebuilding khrushchyovki in Moscow, signed an agreement with the St. Petersburg Administration according to which Moscow construction companies will help St. Petersburg solve the problem of renovating these mass-built houses.
 Meanwhile, St. Petersburg's new construction market is booming. Some 795,600 square meters of new residential real estate was built in the first half of 2003, while by the end of the year this indicator is expected to exceed 1.5 million square meters, which is 300,000 square meters more than in 2002. The Construction Committee says the same growth rate is expected for at least two years.
 Along with the increasing amounts of new housing being built, prices and costs are also growing, with stable demand guaranteed.
 In the first half of 2003, prices for apartments in newly built houses grew 15 to 17 percent, against an expected growth rate of only 10 percent. The main reason for this is ruble inflation, shrinking U.S.-dollar purchasing power, the growth of tariffs and building supply costs, as well as the rising wealth of the population.
 According to construction companies, everything built in St. Petersburg finds a buyer, although the share of apartments not sold by the date of state commissioning is growing slightly and stands at 9 percent, as opposed to last year's figure of between 2 and 3 percent. Nevsky Syndicate real estate agency says that apartments not sold during construction may enter the category of &quot;apartments in newly built houses,&quot; while now it's almost impossible to buy a one- or two-room apartment in a new building.
 Peterburgstroi-Skanska analysts say that in 2002 people in St. Petersburg spent $570 million on apartments in houses still under construction, and in 2003 they will spend $851 million. 
 The main cause for such enormous demand is dissatisfaction with present living conditions for most of St. Petersburg's inhabitants, according to research carried out by Systema-Hals Northwest.
 Forty seven percent of St. Petersburg's population is dissatisfied with their living conditions. Statistics say that 16 percent of all families in the city live in communal apartments, while 9 percent rent apartments or rooms.
 Twenty eight percent plan to improve their living conditions, while 46 percent of these people intend to buy an old apartment, 24 percent go for new apartments and 19 percent are investing in apartments in buildings still under construction.
 Sistema-Hals research also shows that market capacity in the next five years amounts to 6.2 million square meters, which translates to investment of about $3.8 billion.
 From the construction point of view, the leading districts are Vyborgsky and Primorsky, while most St. Petersburg residents plan to acquire real estate in the same district they already live in.
 However, most St. Petersburg residents agree that the quality of the house is just as important as location. According to the Toy-opinion research company, major reasons why St. Petersburg residents change their apartments are the low quality of the house and utilities, small size of the apartment and lack of adequate transportation in the district.
 According to research, brick houses are the most attractive kinds of houses, with a popularity rate of 38 percent, while multi-storied panel apartment buildings place second, at a rate of 36 percent.
 Sistema-Hals analysts say that St. Petersburg residents now demand more from apartments in terms of size, layout and building infrastructure.
 &quot;Most people say that they prefer three-meter-high ceilings, so including high ceilings in the design is not so much a competitive advantage for construction companies as a requirement of the market, a norm,&quot; said Irina Payusova, the company's spokes-woman.
 According to Sheludko from the Construction Committee, the most popular kinds of apartments are either one-room apartments or elite real estate. &quot;That just proves again that we do not have any middle class whatsoever,&quot; she says.
 Petersburg Real Estate research also points to the increasing interest of developers in cottage and suburban development with the volume of construction in this sector doubling over the first half of the year. Analysts say that while there is a deficit of construction plots suitable for mid-range and elite housing, suburb areas might be the next popular territories for construction companies.
 Moreover, the overwhelming majority of St. Petersburg residents believe that fiber-optic telephone lines, Internet and water-filtration devices should also be part of the housing package.
 Experts estimate that prices for new apartments vary from $520 per square meter in places like the Krasnoselsky district to between $550 and $570 per square meter in the Kalininsky, Frunzensky and Nevsky districts, and can go up to $636 in the Moskovsky district and $665 in the Vasileostrovsky district.
 The situation in the old-apartment sector looks a bit different. The average price for a square meter of used housing grew from $650 in Jan. 2003 to $735 in June. This resulted in the City Bureau of Registration processing 30,399 contracts for sale or purchase of existing apartments during the first half of the year, which is 6 percent more than during the same period last year. The bureau expects the total number of real-estate contracts for 2003 to reach 67,000.
 Although analysts predicted that prices would not go up by more than 5 percent to 15 percent in 2003, they've already soared 12 percent to 15 percent.
 However, most researchers exclude the so-called elite sector from statistics, mainly because of the limited number of deals and the huge range in prices in this category. Still, according to various real estate agency studies, prices in the elite sector have gone up by 30 to 40 percent over the first half of the year.
 The elite sector is still largely untapped, which is why a number of newcomers have recently appeared on the scene. RBI construction company entered the elite housing market by launching a $50-million project called Star House, which will offer 14,000 square meters of housing and the same amount of commercial space. Prices for apartments in this complex may reach $5,000 per square meter.
 St. Petersburg Renaissance is a veteran of this sector with several elite housing projects underway. The first project is a development of cottages on Kamenny Island, including the reconstruction of the 18th-century Yeliseyev cottage. &quot;This will result in eight new elite cottages and a restored canal between Bezymyanny Canal and Bolshaya Nevka, which was filled in several years ago,&quot; Victoria Pereira, the company's spokeswoman, says.
 Other projects of St. Petersburg Renaissance comprise the reconstruction of the house just under the General Staff Arch at 4 Bolshaya Morskaya, construction of a new building at 135-137 Nevsky Prospect, and a new housing project at 60 Shpalernaya Ulitsa. The latter will take the form of eight towers made from granite and glass with glass halls on top. The total area of the plot is 1,028 square meters, with a planned 22,500 square meters of residential space, 2,400 square meters of commercial space, and 9,000 square meters of parking.
 Pereira says that criteria for elite housing in St. Petersburg differ from those in Moscow. &quot;Firstly, an elite house in St. Petersburg can only be in the center, while in Moscow the notion of the city center has been considerably expanded over the past few years.&quot;
 &quot;Secondly, an elite house in St. Petersburg can't have more than 30 or 40 apartments.&quot;
 However, there are also some similar features, such as use of high-quality building materials resistant to cold and humidity, unique architecture, top-quality infrastructure and location.
 According to Pereira, the elite sector can be broken down into the mid-range, premium and exclusive sectors. &quot;There are some apartment blocks where facade apartments are exclusive, while those overlooking inner yards are considered premium apartments.&quot;
 As for elite locations in St. Petersburg, these are still the historic areas of Nevsky Prospect, Chernyshevskaya metro station, the Petrograd Side and Kamenny and Krestovsky islands, a recreation area before the 1917 Revolution, and reserved for state cottages during the Soviet era.
 Peterburgstroi-Skanska is constructing an elite apartment house at 17 Krestovsky Prospect with 60 apartments consisting of between two and six rooms each, some of which will be as large as 53 square meters.
 Another Peterburgstroi-Skanska project is the apartment building at 2 Tavricheskaya Ulitsa near the Suvorov Museum.
 Experts say that new construction has a promising future because most buyers who can not afford a mid-range or elite apartment now prefer a new apartment in a newly built structure to an old apartment slated for capital repairs. &quot;There's a high demand for expensive, high-quality real estate, which is why new construction in the so-called historic center of the city is inevitable,&quot; says a Petersburg Real Estate study.
 &quot;At the same time, demand is going down for communal apartments bought through resettlement of current tenants. Apartments larger than 150 square meters are hard to sell because of the growing competition from new elite housing.&quot; The study also shows that demand for real estate both in the city center and in suburban districts will continue to increase.
 Dmitry Kiselyov, vice-chairman of the management board of Okhta Group, agrees on this point. &quot;Most buyers are looking not only for an apartment in the center, but an 'elite' place. And now we are witnessing a new trend for St. Petersburg in the migration of elite housing to the suburbs.&quot;
 Most analysts believe that the sector will continue to grow in the near future, mainly because residential real estate in St. Petersburg is underestimated. If the government launches a successful mortgage system, then real estate prices will soar again, experts say.
 Pereira of St. Petersburg Renaissance sounds less enthusiastic and says that the elite sector will level out next year, when both demand and the number of construction lots could stall.

TITLE: Gazprom Eludes Reform Rash
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: The government has put reform of the gas industry on hold after the head of Gazprom, the world's biggest gas company, said a shake-up would spell disaster.
 
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov pulled Gazprom from the agenda of Friday's Cabinet meeting, reversing an earlier decision to discuss reforms even though Gazprom and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry had not yet agreed on a plan.
 The move is the latest turn in a dispute between reform-minded members of President Vladimir Putin's government and Gazprom management, headed by CEO Alexei Miller, which has been strongly resisting efforts to modernize a vast state firm with tentacles reaching deep into the economy.
 Analysts said there would be no more talk of reform before the end of the election season - parliamentary polls are due in December and President Vladimir Putin is seeking a second term in March.
 &quot;The election trumps everything,&quot; said Matt Thomas, an energy analyst at Alfa Bank's London office.
 Russia's highly profitable oil industry was sold off to private investors in the 1990s, but Gazprom is by far the largest business asset still in state hands and is a powerful source of patronage, making any talk of reform highly sensitive.
 Vedomosti said Friday that Miller had written to Kasyanov to express strong opposition to the reforms.
 Government spokesman Alexei Gorshkov said the issue had been removed at the request of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Energy Ministry.
 &quot;A decision to hold a special meeting on the issue and then discuss it again at a Cabinet meeting has been taken,&quot; Gorshkov said. &quot;No date has been set.&quot;
 However, First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Andrei Sharonov blamed the government for pulling the issue, saying he was &quot;deeply disappointed&quot; by the move.
 &quot;We are deeply disappointed that the government dropped the issue once again,&quot; Prime-Tass quoted Sharonov as saying. He added that the government was not ready to discuss the issue.
 He said his ministry fully understands the risks involved in tinkering with the way Gazprom operates, but that &quot;Gazprom should not forget that refusal of any changes and complete unwillingness even to discuss the issue also pose potential risks.
 &quot;Sooner or later these questions must be decided at a high level,&quot; he said.
 &quot;Although Putin has not publicly come off the fence, the fact that he let the reform initiative run so far before this morning's reverse amounts to a colossal political humiliation for Kasyanov and the government reformists,&quot; UFG investment house said in a research note.
 The government said in a statement before the meeting that Gazprom's production and transport units should be separated to make financial flows transparent.
 Earlier last week, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry called for a faster reform and said it wanted the Cabinet to discuss giving foreigners the same rights as Russians in trading Gazprom shares.
 Foreigners can buy and sell only Gazprom's American Depositary Shares, which trade at a huge premium to local shares. Local Gazprom shares lost 2.54 percent to 37.62 rubles ($1.23) early Friday, while ADSs, each of which represents 10 shares, fell 3.56 percent to $23.
 The Cabinet planned to discuss gas reform last December, but Kasyanov canceled the meeting. Miller was reported to have written to Putin saying the reform would damage the firm. Miller, who comes from Putin's home town of St. Petersburg, is widely seen as a protege of the president.
 &quot;It seemed that Miller and his backers in the Kremlin's 'St. Petersburg' clan had been defeated this time - but no,&quot; UFG said.
 Vedomosti quoted Miller's letter as saying the spun-off gas firms would stop investing and that oil firms would buy gas deposits. It would lead to a fall in gas output &quot;to 470 billion to 475 billion cubic meters&quot; from 530 bcm planned for this year. He said the reform &quot;will inevitably lead to creditors asking for an early debt repayment,&quot; leading to default. He also said Gazprom's market capitalization would be wiped out.
 Analysts said Gazprom's arguments were shaky.
 &quot;The government must... be careful in its approach to gas sector reform, but structural changes to the industry... will be value-creative for shareholders,&quot; Troika Dialog said.
 
 <i>(Reuters, SPT) </i>

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Jobless to Hit 6 Million
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - The number of unemployed people in Russia is expected to reach 6 million by the end of 2003, or 8.4 percent of the labor force, Prime-Tass reported the Economic Development and Trade Ministry as announcing on Thursday.
 Unemployment is currently around 5.7 million, or 7.9 percent of the labor force, up from 5.5 million people at the end of August. However, only about 1.5 million are officially registered as unemployed.
 
 
<b>Tele2 Ups Stakes
 </b>

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) - Pan-European telecoms operator Tele2 AB said Thursday it had raised its stakes in five Russian subsidiaries, strengthening its hold on the fast-growing market.
 Swedish-controlled Tele2 said it raised its stake in St. Petersburg Telecom to 86 percent from 61 percent and increased its stake in Oblcom to 97.2 percent from 61 percent.
 Tele2 AB offers fixed and mobile telephony, data network and Internet services under the brands Tele2, Tango and Comviq to more than 20 million people in 23 countries.
 
 
<b>HP Quality Issues
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - U.S. computer giant Hewlett-Packard has given up its Russian-based computer assembly project because of quality concerns, Vedomosti reported Thursday.
 Hewlett-Packard thought it would be cheaper to assemble computers here rather than import them, but it cannot achieve the same quality and has abandoned the two-year-old project.
 Hewlett-Packard imports accounted for 6.9 percent of the market in the second quarter of the year, up from 6.4 percent in the previous quarter, the company said.
 
 
<b>Bad Housing Reform
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - The first phase of Russia's housing and communal utilities sector reform has been "unsatisfactory," Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told a government meeting on the issue Friday, Prime-Tass reported.
 The government adopted a federal program to reform the sector in 2001 and its first phase was to be completed by the end of 2003, "but it is already clear that the first phase has been carried out unsatisfactorily," he said.
 He called the housing and utilities sector "the economy's sore point."
 The number of regions that have introduced efficient economic models "can be counted on the fingers of one hand," he said.
 
 
<b>Yukos Borrowing Binge
 </b>

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Yukos intends to raise $2 billion to $3 billion in credits on international markets in the coming months, the company's chief financial officer said Saturday. "This can be by any market instrument - eurobonds, credits - at the lowest possible interest rates" Bruce Misamore told a Yukos board meeting.
 He said these funds as well as Yukos' own money would be used to pay for 10 percent of Yukos shares the company had bought from shareholders in a buyback scheme aimed to facilitate a merger with its smaller rival Sibneft.
 Misamore said Yukos' current debt stood at $650 million, and that of Sibneft at $1.5 billion. He said total debts of the combined company could be as high as $6 billion.
 
 
<b>YukosSibneft on Oct. 1
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - YukosSibneft will begin operations Oct. 1, Dow Jones quoted sources close to the companies as saying Saturday.
 The two companies will not move into a single office space until later, but they will start consulting each other as they make decisions, the sources said.
 Yukos chief financial officer Bruce Misamore will retain his title, while Ray Leonard, formerly Yukos vice president for new project development, will be vice president for exploration.
 
 
<b>Ritek Bridges GAAP
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - Ritek on Friday became the first second-tier Russian oil firm to report financial results under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. It posted net income of $11.8 million on revenues of $266.2 million for 2002, with $31.7 million in operating income.
 Under Russian accounting standards, Ritek's after-tax profit amounted to $23 million on revenues of $154 million. 



TITLE: Russia's Double-Edged Sword of Bankruptcy
AUTHOR: By Mikhail Delyagin
TEXT: The bullets are flying in Russia. Scarcely a day goes by without news of an attempted hit on a businessman. Such contract murders are no longer regarded as news. Like the reports of federal casualties in Chechnya and terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus, the country has become inured to them. We know that the sun will rise in the morning, and that somewhere a hitman will try to knock off a big-time businessman.
 
This is not a war. It is the dark side of economic growth: the redistribution of property.
 For several years now, the country has been awash in easy money. Factories that no one paid any attention to back when they couldn't even pay their bills have now become a veritable Klondike, churning out fabulous profits. And for several years, these factories have been the target of ruthless takeovers. Organizing and countering such takeovers has become a separate and, probably, the most profitable sector of the Russian economy.
 Bankruptcy remains the preferred mechanism for redistributing property, and the much ballyhooed adoption of a new bankruptcy law did little to change this. In late July, President Vladimir Putin ordered the Prosecutor General's Office and the Interior Ministry to conduct a joint investigation of the practice of acquiring companies through fictitious bankruptcy, though only in the agricultural sector. The fact that Putin had to point out that bankruptcy &quot;is not a legal mechanism for swindlers to line their own pockets by conning people who work on the land and leaving them with no way to make a living&quot; testifies to the ineffectiveness of the existing law.
 Russian bankruptcy law was originally created as a means for prizing property from the fingers of the &quot;bad red directors&quot; and handing it over to the &quot;good&quot; oligarchs. In practice, it became a double-edged sword of economic terror, just as the dreaded denunciation had once been. And like any instrument of terror, it was turned on its creators as well. In time, as the historians warned, economic terror turned into the ordinary sort. Some businessmen, especially those who cultivated close ties with the authorities in recent years, found bankruptcy proceedings too complicated. They preferred to eliminate the owners of their acquisition targets the old-fashioned way.
 As a result, after 15 years of developing so-called market relations in Russia, the very foundation of the market - the protection of property rights - has never been put in place. The only structure that will stand on the quicksand of legalized arbitrariness is a barracks. The hordes of experts who fail to perceive this basic truth drone on about the weakness of the financial system, the insufficient capitalization of Russian banks and the lack of a mechanism for turning savings into investments. They don't understand that when property rights are not protected, investment becomes a game of Russian roulette.
 Under the existing rules of the game in Russia, the U.S. government is just about the only effective mechanism for protecting property rights, but it clearly can not play a decisive role in the everyday economy. Russia itself must eliminate the existing mechanism for redistributing property, which is the chief factor in the criminalization of society, the disorganization of the economy and the disintegration of the state.
 Technically speaking, the solution to this problem is clear. The government must start from scratch and draft a new bankruptcy law. It must clean up the judicial system, especially the arbitration courts, which are no longer fit to be called courts of law. The first step is to ensure that judges are dismissed for corruption, and suitably rewarded for honest work. They should be paid a competitive wage, in the order of $5,000 a month in Moscow. Only experienced and highly qualified judges should preside in cases involving large sums of money.
 The situation cannot be rectified overnight, of course. But even the first step in the right direction would give the Russian economy a much-needed boost. The problem is how to set the process in motion. History suggests that terror comes to an end when the practitioners of terror fully grasp their own vulnerability. This likely applies to economic terror as well.
 To this point, the champions of redistribution have been untouchable. The expansion of big business into all areas of the economy, from oil and gas to newspaper kiosks, has proceeded smoothly thanks to its political and administrative clout. And until now, big business had no interest in strengthening property rights. It was too busy acquiring other people's property.
 Recently, this situation began to change. As the Yukos affair demonstrates, new players have entered the redistribution game. Their nerve and ambition has frightened the economic heavyweights to death.
 But to date they have proven unable to significantly alter the economic and political situation in their favor.
 Nevertheless, big changes are on the horizon. When the economy enters a recession, the focus will shift from acquiring property to defending what has already been acquired. Big business will circle the wagons, and it will have not just a political but a commercial incentive to beat the sword of bankruptcy into the plowshare of protecting property rights.
 All of this will require the government to assume an unusually active role, one that will run counter to many standard liberal beliefs. In working to strengthen property rights, the government will inevitably encounter resistance from the most powerful elements in the business community - all those who built their empires by carving up other people's property.
 Protecting property rights in Russia today will require a concerted campaign against the largest and most commercially viable businesses in the country. Is the government prepared, in the strategic interests of Russian business as a whole, to take on its most vociferous and influential members? And will the government of tomorrow possess the same resolve?
 This is an issue no less terrifying than the problem of Chechnya. It involves treading on the toes of no less influential people. And following the path of reason will lead to confrontation with interest groups no less powerful.
 The issue of protecting property rights in Russia, just as the situation in Chechnya, amounts to a test of the civic maturity of the Russian elite and of society as a whole.
 At present, we are failing this test. Both in business and in the North Caucasus, people are being killed almost every day.
 But the living can still be saved.
 
 <i>
Mikhail Delyagin is chairman of the presidium of the Institute for Globalization Studies. This comment first appeared in Vedomosti. </i>

TITLE: Garden Parties and the Criminal Code
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: As you know, the Prosecutor General's Office has accused Group Menatep chairman Platon Lebedev of violating the law during privatization. Members of the business community who either don't want to get dragged into the fray, or who comfort themselves with the thought that nothing similar could happen to them, offer a different explanation: Yukos didn't play by the rules.
 
This alternative began making the rounds almost immediately after Lebedev's arrest. Under this scenario, the oligarchs sat down with the newly elected Vladimir Putin on the manicured lawn of some government dacha, and a pact was concluded. The oligarchs promised not to meddle in politics, and Putin promised not to meddle in their business. Then Yukos CEO Mikhail Khordokovsky went and developed a taste for politics, thereby breaking his agreement with the Kremlin.
 At first, this justification for the prosecutors' campaign against Yukos was only uttered in private conversations. After all, it would be a little awkward to go on the evening news and announce that the prosecutor's office was well within its rights because Khodorkovsky had violated a pact reached on a dacha lawn. Following this logic, they should have arrested Khodorkovsky and charged him with saying one thing at a garden party and doing another.
 Does the Criminal Code contain an article on garden parties? No? Then put one in and arrest him retroactively.
 Before long, people began talking about the &quot;rules of the game&quot; in the press. The first to go public, I think, was AFK Sistema head Vladimir Yevtushenkov. UES chief Anatoly Chubais added his two cents in a recent Izvestia interview: &quot;Khodorkovsky started playing at politics, but he didn't play by the rules. He undertook to buy up the Duma. In their response, the authorities also broke a few rules.&quot;
 How do the rules covering garden parties differ from articles of the Criminal Code? By their relative freedom of interpretation. Back in the early 1990s, criminals built up their protection rackets in a very similar way. A picnic. A manicured lawn. An underworld type walks up to a businessman, and jokes: &quot;That's a nice car you've got there. Whaddya say you give it to me?&quot; The businessman, in the same joking tone, replies: &quot;Sure thing, pal.&quot; A week later, the underworld type returns for a second visit. &quot;Hey,&quot; he says, &quot;you promised to give me your car. You broke our agreement, now it's time to pay up.&quot;
 That's when the fun starts. In the ensuing confrontation, the businessman's associates complain that he's getting squeezed, while the criminal's associates insist that a man's word is his bond.
 Let's be clear: Anyone who repeats the line about the broken agreement makes clear that he sides with the bandits. The business elite is afraid. It wants to believe that Yukos is an isolated case. That this is not a case of the new president's new friends trying to get their hands on the goodies that the old president doled out to a different group of friends. Yukos is guilty, they insist. End of story.
 The Russian business elite demonstrates no class solidarity, because it is not a class. It's a small group of people all pursuing their own ends, and all happy to devour the empire of a fallen colleague.
 They've done it before. Who do you think perfected the technique of dismantling a private corporation using Vladimir Gusinsky as a lab rat? The siloviki? No. It was the Yeltsin-era Family, which installed its man in the Kremlin, then took care of the media magnate who had been such a thorn in its side. 
 So those members of the business elite who don't want to see the Yukos affair as a conflict between the siloviki and the oligarchs are at least partly right. The conflict is more complicated than that. And it wouldn't exist at all if the people who made Putin president tried to establish the rule of law rather than securing privileges for themselves.
 
 <i>
Yulia Latynina is a presenter of &quot;24&quot; on RenTV. </i>

TITLE: After the Hype of the Summit, It's Time to Act
AUTHOR: By Nikolas K. Gvosdev
TEXT: Bush-Putin summits are like vacation getaways taken by couples seeking to re-ignite the spark in their marriage. But a few romantic days on the beach in Acapulco cannot solve deeper problems of spousal infidelity or a troubled family life.
 
In much the same way, the Russian-U.S. relationship shines at summit meetings. President George W. Bush declared that his Russian counterpart is &quot;a good fellow to spend quality time with&quot; and the official communique proclaims that the two leaders &quot;focused on practical ways to broaden and deepen cooperation and partnership between the United States and Russia.&quot;
 No one doubts that the two presidents have an excellent personal rapport. The problem is not that the leaders cannot find common ground on issues ranging from combating international terrorism to stopping nuclear proliferation. It is that neither president has been successful in translating their personal relationship into effective, broad-based cooperation between Russian and U.S. institutions.
 At Camp David, both presidents issued &quot;specific instructions to their respective governments identifying tasks to be undertaken,&quot; but the reality is that such instructions have a way of losing force as they make their way down the chain of command - unless both leaders are prepared to expend massive amounts of political capital to force change.
 One reporter at the press conference on Saturday afternoon asked whether or not Russian-American relations still exist primarily at a &quot;declarative level.&quot; While there has been progress (as President Vladimir Putin has noted, the volume of bilateral trade grew by more than one-third in the first six months of 2003), there are still major roadblocks that prevent the full consummation of the relationship.
 If the Bush administration cannot get the U.S. Congress to graduate Russia from an archaic piece of Cold War-era trade legislation whose conditions have been fulfilled for over a decade, why should any Russian be confident that Bush can deliver on other promises of assistance? In the past year, Russia has been asked to forgive a large portion of its Iraqi debt, cease profitable trading arrangements with Iran, and accept the possible loss of lucrative contracts in Iraq with no guarantee that the billions in lost revenue (not only to Russian business but to the state itself) would be recouped elsewhere. Many Russians feel they have already conceded so much to the United States - with little to show for it - that further concessions are unwise.
 If the Putin administration, for its part, cannot provide firm assurances that Russian state and private entities are not engaging in activities that impinge upon fundamental U.S. interests, such as supplying critical technologies to rogue states (even if such actions may be technically legal, e.g., by using third parties) and if it is unable to implement policies designed to ensure the fair execution of the rule of law, then Russia's &quot;trust deficit&quot; with Americans will persist.
 Too many on both sides treat U.S.-Russian ties as a Christmas tree, hanging parochial or narrow special interests that weigh heavily upon the branches of the bilateral relationship. Initiatives proposed at the presidential level wither away in the offices of the bureaucracy or on the debating floors of the Congress and the State Duma. I doubt anyone is holding their breath awaiting the unveiling of new programs designed to foster &quot;cooperation in high technology, housing and health,&quot; for example.
 In fact, the inability to reach substantive agreements over Iraq and Iran demonstrates the continuing absence of powerful constituencies, in both Russia and the United States, able to transcend those interests in both countries that are capable of throwing up roadblocks to further cooperation. As long as the relationship is substantively confined to the contours of the two presidential administrations, it cannot sink deep roots in either society.
 Camp David exposed the limits of personal diplomacy. Neither Bush nor Putin can afford to alienate key domestic constituencies, especially not in the run-up to an election year. Thus, the preference for vague declarations about cooperation and the repeated mantra that both sides can agree to disagree on vital issues in place of substantive developments in the U.S.-Russian relationship.
 Two notable exceptions exist. The first has been the slow but steady growth of intelligence sharing in the war against terrorism. The successful &quot;sting operation&quot; that prevented terrorists from acquiring shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles that could down commercial jetliners demonstrates the fruits of such cooperation.
 The second is the emerging partnership for energy security. Close cooperation between Russian and U.S. oil and gas conglomerates is taking place because the private firms themselves realize that it is in their interests to push the relationship forward. Presidential directives signed at summit meetings can aid this cooperation, but have not created it - rather it has grown out of a convergence of concrete interests and closer contacts.
 So, the trick is to transfer the model of U.S.-Russian security and energy cooperation to other sectors, promoting and deepening military-to-military relations, small and medium business investment, ties between educational institutions, and so on. This is not something summit meetings can achieve.
 The talks at Camp David were the easy part. The follow-up is where the real challenge lies. After two years of declarations, now is the time for action.
 
 <i>Nikolas K. Gvosdev is the executive editor of The National Interest and a senior fellow at The Nixon Center. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: President Putin's Sinister Afghan Anecdote
TEXT: WASHINGTON - A reporter this weekend asked why nothing exciting comes from these boring U.S.-Russian summits.
 
&quot;Where do some questions come from?&quot; objected Vladimir Putin. &quot;People expect from us constantly some kind of revolutions.&quot; Instead, Putin said, just be happy Russia and America are friends. Then, in the summit's most revealing and least-noted moment, Putin shared an example of why it's good to be friends:
 &quot;I have never said this in public [before],&quot; Putin said. &quot;When [the U.S.-led] counterterrorist operation began in Afghanistan, we were approached by people, through several channels, we were approached by people who intended to fight against Americans in Afghanistan. And if by that time [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush and I had not formed an appropriate relationship, as we have, so no one knows what turn the developments in Afghanistan would have taken.&quot;
 Wow. So, when U.S. forces moved into Afghanistan, Putin says &quot;we&quot; were &quot;approached&quot; by &quot;people&quot; eager to start killing Americans.
 Who are these &quot;people&quot;?
 Did these would-be American-killers &quot;approach&quot; Putin for his permission, his blessing? Or was their &quot;approach&quot; an invitation to Putin to join them? The account is menacingly vague, so let's brainstorm a bit.
 Perhaps old-guard KGB elements saw a chance to do to the Americans in Afghanistan what the CIA did to the Soviets. Perhaps Russian extremists wanted to wage a terror war, and were hoping the Kremlin might wink and look away, the way Riyadh does for some Saudis.
 But Putin spoke of being approached via &quot;several channels,&quot; and that almost sounds like repeated diplomatic overtures. So perhaps Putin received envoys from, say, the Chinese government, to talk about a covert operation to bog America down in Central Asia and bleed it dry.
 Whatever this was, it was not a good thing. Nor is it good that the Russian president would trot out such an ominous anecdote. It almost works as a mafia-style threat: Deal with me - some of my partners are real gorillas, and I can only hold them back so long.
 Bush had opened the press conference with the usual pleasantries and a welcome to &quot;my friend, Vladimir Putin.&quot; He then offered back-to-back statements that, were they less windy, would make a haiku of disconnect: &quot;For decades, when the leaders of our two countries met, they talked mainly of missiles and warheads, because the only common ground we shared was the desire to avoid catastrophic conflict. In recent years, the United States and Russia have made great progress in building a new relationship.&quot;
 What - we no longer agree on avoiding catastrophe? Look, if we're such great friends, why do we still have around 30,000 nuclear weapons - including thousands on hair-trigger launch alert? (China, in distant third place, has about 400.)
 Under the Nonproliferation Treaty - the one we keep rolling up to whack North Korea and Iran with on the nose - Russia and the United States also have solemn obligations to work toward complete nuclear disarmament. (Pie-in-the-sky? Perhaps, but then so is expecting other nations never to try to produce a single nuke.)
 Consider again the threat lurking in Putin's story.
 So, what happens if some day, when it matters, Putin's not around anymore and his gorilla-partners take over? As long as we're all pals now, wouldn't this be the moment to junk about 29,000 nukes?
 (Dear reader: Please return now to the second paragraph, which begins &quot;Where do some questions come from?&quot;, and continue reading.)
 
 <i>Matt Bivens, a former editor of The St. Petersburg Times, writes the Daily Outrage for The Nation magazine. [www.thenation.com] </i>

TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
TEXT: <b>Feeding Frenzy
 </b>
Now the mission is accomplished!
 
George W. Bush's premature projaculation of victory last May notwithstanding, the real objective of the Potomac Empire's invasion of Iraq was finally achieved last weekend, when the sock puppets of the occupying powers put their rubber stamp to an American <i>diktat</i> opening up the entire nation to plunder by foreign bagmen.
 At the signed order of Bushist viceroy Paul Bremer (emphasis on <i>vice</i>), almost every aspect of Iraqi life - electricity, water, medicine, education, agriculture, transportation, communications and, above all, banking and finance - was laid open to unfettered exploitation by the plutocrats and lootocrats of the &quot;civilized&quot; world. The lone exception to this unprecedented fire sale of an entire nation is, of course, Iraq's oil wealth, which has already been put into the loving, no-bid, open-ended &quot;oversight&quot; of Dick Cheney's Halliburton and associates.
 The measure, announced by surprise last Sunday - not even Bush's so-called &quot;partner&quot; in conquest, the British government, knew about it in advance - permits 100 percent foreign ownership in all non-energy sectors of the conquered land's economy, which will be &quot;privatized&quot; to a fare-thee-well. What's more, the edict allows the &quot;full, immediate remittance to the [investor's] host country of profits, dividends, interest and royalties.&quot;
 In other words, the looters won't have to plow so much as a dime of their swag back into the local economy; every last cent wrung from the bludgeoned Iraqi people will flow into corporate coffers and private pockets in London, Paris, Tokyo, Riyadh, New York, Moscow, Kennebunkport and Crawford. Taxes will be minimal, tariffs almost non-existent, and there will be none of the pesky rules and regulations that occasionally hamper unfettered corporate gobbling in more unenlightened states - like, say, the United States and Great Britain.
 In fact, there will &quot;no government screening&quot; at all of foreign investors, the edict says. If you can pay, you can play. After all, that's free enterprise, isn't it? If Bechtel, Carlyle, Vivendi, or the still-unslain beast of Enron want to buy up Baghdad's water supply and raise rates through the roof, why shouldn't they? If Bush - who just this week issued new regulations opening the federal pork barrel to his favorite &quot;faith-based organizations&quot; - wants to give Pat Robertson a billion dollars of taxpayer money to take over the Iraqi school system, why shouldn't he? What's the point of slaughtering thousands of innocent people and seizing their country if you can't do whatever the hell you want with it? It's not like this was some humanitarian exercise, you know. It's strictly business - as Michael Corleone used to say.
 The lack of &quot;government screening&quot; is only to be expected, of course - because there is <i>no government</i> in Iraq: no constitution, no body of law, no popular representation, nothing even remotely resembling a genuine state with the authority to take such a momentous step: i.e., the surrender of the nation's wealth to rapacious conquerors. And there was rich comedy to be had in watching the American media mandarins try to finesse this inconvenient point. Indeed, The New York Times went so far as to declare that some mysterious entity known only as &quot;Iraq&quot; actually issued these &quot;new laws.&quot; The &quot;paper of record&quot; did refer to the &quot;Iraqi Governing Council&quot; - without noting for the &quot;record&quot; that this body is entirely appointed by the Anglo-American invaders and dast not even sneeze without imperial permission.
 However, Britain's Financial Times - writing for a business audience that needs to know who's <i>really</i> holding the keys to the Iraqi vaults - was more direct. It was the only major paper to note that the laws were actually &quot;signed by Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority&quot; and that the Governing [sic] Council had only been &quot;consulted.&quot; (&quot;Say, Ahmed, you think we should send down to Dubai for pizza while Bremer finishes this edict?&quot; &quot;Yes, pizza would be nice.&quot; &quot;Great. Consider yourself consulted.&quot;)
 There is, however, a hidden side to this brazen daylight robbery. The edict is the clearest signal yet that America intends to control Iraq by force, indefinitely. American power - or more likely, American-controlled proxy armies, local or foreign - must hold ultimate authority in the country or else the edict's proffered sweetmeats will hold no allure for global Lootists. As Bush's Treasury secretary, John Snow, put it in lauding the edict this week: &quot;Capital is a coward. It doesn't go places where it feels threatened.&quot;
 Thus, no Iraqi government will be allowed to impose limits on the flow of cowardly capital in and out - mostly out - of the country, or to nationalize or &quot;Islamicize&quot; the assets now being flogged off by Bremer and the Bushists. The only way to guarantee the investments of the bagmen is to prevent - by force or threat of force - a truly independent government from arising in Iraq.
 That's the plan, anyway. But as anyone with even a passing acquaintance of the history of U.S. foreign policy since World War II could tell you, the reality is likely to be something quite different. To wit: years of wholesale gouging by politically connected foreign firms, accompanied by growing internal strife, massive corruption, guerrilla warfare and terrorist attacks, followed by a gigantic bust-up - civil war, Islamic revolution, military coup, etc. - followed by a panicky pull-out (as in Havana, Saigon, Teheran, Beirut, etc.), followed by years of scab-picking recriminations on editorial pages and political hustings: &quot;Who lost Iraq?&quot;
 But for now the trough is wide open, and you can hear those eager trotters thundering toward the feast.
 
 <i>
For annotational references, see the Opinion section at www.sptimesrussia.com </i>

TITLE: Switzerland's Alpine Cantons Make Hot Tourist Destination
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: &quot;Where's the vodka?&quot; the pilot wondered, rubbing his hands with anticipation and letting go the control stick. I felt very stupid. &quot;Next time,&quot; I mumbled, and he seemed a little disappointed. We were approaching the Matterhorn, exceeding the usual 4,000 meters allowed for a small plane like ours. It would indeed have been nice to toast the two couples hugging on the top of Switzerland's most famous mountain that sunny morning in late August. And vodka would have suited the height and the experience much more than my boring mineral water. Even so, it was funny to be seen as less daring than a Swiss.
 
A flight over the Alps is one of the most exquisite things to do on holidays in the mountains. And the airport at Sion, the capital of Valais canton, is an excellent place to start. There is possibly too much to see, as the area is home to some of Switzerland's most beautiful and fabled resorts - like Crans-Montana, Interlaken, Saas-Fe and Zermatt - as well as the Aletsch glacier and the famed Matterhorn and Jungfrau peaks. 
 One of the oldest towns in Switzerland, known since Neolithic times, Sion stretches over a plateau at the foot of two hills crowned by the ancient Valere and Tourbillion castles. The city was built by Julius Caesar's soldiers on the ruins of a Celtic settlement. Some of the oldest signs of Roman presence here can be seen in the 16th-century Church of St. Theodule, the patron of the city. The church's basement houses the remains of some Roman baths and an ancient cemetery, which was created later, after the Romans left in 450 AD. Both the tombs and the baths were discovered during restoration work in 20th century.
 Individual visits to the basements are forbidden, and there are just two pairs of keys to keep all unwanted guests out: one belongs to the priest and the other is at the city tourist office. The guide will tell you wonders about the quality of the construction works in the baths - the Roman pipes that are left still don't leak - and point to the bones protruding from the petrifactions in several places. The sight can be discomfiting, and there was much debate about such a display being ethical before it was decided to allow visitors to the basement. 
 Hiring a guide is a very good idea in Sion, as they can tell you so much more than any guidebook. Just round the corner from St. Theodule's, for example, they will show you a modest house with green shutters. Although the house is unmarked, it answers the question of why there are so many modern buildings in such an old city. According to a local legend, a resident of that house - a housewife whose name and age are unknown - was responsible for an enormous fire in 1788 that destroyed a good half of the town, including most of the magnificent Tourbillon castle. The lady was just listening to music, thinking back to her wedding, and forgot about the bowl with boiling oil in the kitchen. A strong wind fanned the flames, and the large leather bags from the firefighters' modest arsenal were also soon lost in the fire.
 But the contours of Tourbillion still make for a most romantic view, especially when observed from the opposite hill. On that hill, Valere Castle, built in 1047, boasts the oldest playable organ in the world and amazing acoustics in its cathedral. Since 1969, the cathedral has hosted an international historical organ festival, with concerts held on seven Saturdays from mid-July to the end of August that emphasize less well-known organ masterpieces. The gothic organ, which dates from 1390, has a very special, warm, light and mild sound. Many of its blowers are original. Olga Ranguelov, a Russian emigree born in Paris, has recordings of some of the world's greatest organists playing the instrument in her music shop L'Oiseau de Feu at 4 rue des Chateaux on the way to Valere castle.
 In the city, don't miss the spectacular Sorceress' Tower. Once a part of defensive constructions - and subsequently a torture-chamber - these two medieval rotund towers with spiky roofs, the smaller one adjacent as if huddling closer to the bigger one, now house temporary art exhibitions. Another must-see is the 1505 house of Georges Supersaxo, a powerful politician and rival of Cardinal Mathew Schiner. Supersaxo favored the French as European power, whereas Schiner preferred a union between Rome - i.e., the Pope - and the German empire. The enmity between the two, who accused each other of all sorts of mortal sins, resulted in the death of 100,000 people in battle and took a Pope to resolve. Mocking, grotesque carved images of the cardinal - and some parts of his body - can be found in various places around the house. Part of the building of Supersaxo, who fathered 23 children, is used as a marriage-registration office.
 There is almost an excess of full-day and half-day trip ideas in Sion. They include St. Bernard, known for its monastery-based center for rescue dogs of the same name, and Saillon, the second-biggest thermal resort in Switzerland. Leaflets with details and directions are distributed in most local hotels. The range of attractions around the city is even wide enough to include the largest underground lake in Europe. Located in the village of St. Leonard, the lake is open from March 15 through Nov. 1 every year.
 The cave was known to locals since at least the beginning of the 20th century but specialists discovered it only after an earthquake in 1946 , when it was full of water. Three years later, the cave welcomed its first visitors.
 Rowing through the 6,000-square-meter lake in the seeming absolute silence, and as the guide tells you there there is no life in the cave, apart from a few bats, it is a surprise to hear a clear splash behind the boat. It was caused by one of about 30 trout, deliberately placed here by local staff. The staff have a point: the trout make this chilly cave a bit more cheerful.
 There is no natural food in the lake for the trout, so they get ready made fish food and enjoy the space: the lake is 300 meters long, and 7 meters deep in places. The water is drinkable, but a glass of St. Leonard <i>fendant</i>, a sort of wine, in the cave's bar is much more recommendable.
 Culture vultures will probably want to head to Martigny for the Pierre Gianadda Foundation, a renowned European arts center comprising an open-air modern sculpture park, an archeological museum and a large exhibition hall hosting displays of artists like Manet, Rodin, Klee and Van Gogh. The exhibition hall frequently turns into a concert hall, with performers of the caliber of violinist Yehudi Menuhin, pianist Murray Perahia and mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli.
 Downstairs is the finest automobile museum in Switzerland, boasting a charming collection of cars from 1897 to 1939, with a number of models impossible to find anywhere else. The real standout is a white Mercedes SSK. This gorgeous 1929 sports car can motor along at up to 200 kilometers per hour - something that many drivers would not attempt in modern cars - far ahead of all its rivals in the 1930s. All cars in the collection are in working order.
 The collection features superstar brandnames like Rolls-Royce, Alfa-Romeo and Bugatti alongside the nearly forgotten Pic-Pic (Switzerland), Brush (U.S.) and Hurtu (France). The oldest exhibit is a venerable 1897 German-made Benz, with a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour. The khaki green 1914-1917 Delaunay-Belleville was ordered by Nicholas II, who liked the brand and possessed nearly one of each model. He never enjoyed the last one, though, as it wasn't delivered before the Bolsheviks took power in 1917. 
 The Gianadda Foundation was established in 1978 as a memorial by engineer Leonard Gianadda to his brother Pierre,who died in a helicopter accident in 1976. Immediately after the crash, Pierre was trying to help the pilot and another passenger to leave the cabin. He was badly burned, and died a week later.
 Valais is often referred to as the &quot;Swiss California,&quot; and seeing at least one of its famous resorts is a must, so I headed to Verbier.
 Verbier is a sporty, high-spirited resort in the Region of Four Valleys at an altitude of 1,500 meters. Dominated by the 3,330-meter Mont-Fort, it unveils breathtaking panoramas over several <i>massifs</i>, including Mont Blanc. Verbier's galvanizing atmosphere is utterly provocative and infectuous. Its enviable climate - it is said to enjoy over 300 sunny days a year - is a major contributing factor. I could feel my adrenaline level rising as soon as I got there, and could not resist trying paragliding.
 In line with its sporty image, Verbier's development has been swift. In 1910, it was still a summer pasture, with the first skiers appearing in 1925 and the first ski school opening eight years later. Verbier drew nationwide attention in 1950s, and since then has become an international sporting Mecca. 
 The village has hosted a number of exciting summer events, including the World Paragliding Championships - a sport I tried while I was there - the Grand Raid Cristalp Verbier-Grimentz, the world's longest one-day mountain bike race, and the Grand Concours Hippique National, which brings together Switzerland's best horseriders.
 The really big event, though, is the biennial Patrouille des Glaciers. This race between Zermatt and Verbier across glaciers, summits and mountain passes is for the very tough only. Since the race was launched in 1939 by Lieutenant Rodolphe Tissieres and Sergeant Basile Bournissen as a competition for army patrols, the event has turned into an international contest for both servicemen and civilians. Over its history, the competition has seen several dramas, including three patrollers dying in an accident in 1949 and interruption of the race in 1986 owing to harsh weather conditions with 70 centimeters of snow falling in less than 3 hours. The record for the longer course - the race has two - is 7:03:44. (The official course length is 54 kilometers, but with all the ascending and descending it is actually the equivalent of skiing 115 kilometers.)
 However, Verbier is not all about extreme sports. On a much calmer note, try wandering along local hiking paths at your own pace. This option for the more quiet includes the chance to see chamois, marmots, ibex and other local fauna.
 A very smart resort, with literally all houses designed in chalet style, Verbier is slightly less crowded than other trendy places in the canton. &quot;Leonardo Di Caprio was said to have stayed here,&quot; said a local tourism office manager, and it was clear she was not interested in knowing for certain. In other words, Verbier's respect for privacy is marketed as its strength. And deservedly so.
 History fans will not want to miss Fribourg. This charming, cosy town, the capital of the canton of same name, was founded in 1157. It is famous for its university, medieval quarters and ancient bridges over the Sarine River. The oldest one, Bern Bridge, which dates from 1275 and has a wooden roof, is one if city symbols.
 A stroll through Fribourg's gothic facades - drowning in flowers (over 200 facades have been preseved in their original state), medieval fountains and winding narrow streets paved with cobble-stones - will get anyone into the spirit of the Middle Ages. The stroll takes a bit of a physical effort, as the town was built on a hillside. The only funicular in town has a rather piquant background, being Europe's only cable car to use power generated off local sewage facilities. The route is quite short, though, and does not really save much energy. The smell might betray a hint of the funicular's,origin but not much, and if you weren't in the know you probably wouldn't notice anyway.
 The origin of Fribourg's black-and-white city flag, divided into two equal vertical halves, is traced back to the city's founder. Duke Berthold IV of Zaehringen, it is said, once got lost in local woods. He took overnight refuge in a windmill, sleeping on coal and keeping warm under sacks of flour. The black and white of the flag therefore represent coal and flour.
 Pastry-makers and anyone with a sweet tooth may want to pay tribute to the patron of bakers, St. Ebhardt, in the marvelous 13th-century church of St. Augustine. The church, however, is mainly famous for its ornate carved gothic altar, made of oak, pine and lime wood.
 Chopin and Liszt, when in town, would head to another place, the town's parish church, the 13th-century Church of St. Nicolas. The most attractive thing for the musicians was the sound of its organ, which is still in use and pretty much in the same shape. The Eglise de Cordilieres, dating from 1280, boasts the most sophisticated carved wooden choires, the oldest in Switzerland. When I cautiously touched them, our guide only smiled at me, but I still jumped as I imagined the screams that Russian museum keepers let out when you approach a little too close to their treasures. That agressive guarding style is not the case in Switzerland, which doesn't seem to have put its art at greater risk as a result.
 The four Medieval towers looming over the town - all that remains from a fortress wall once framing the town - tell a slightly less peaceful story. For example, the Red Tower - originally a jail - received its name from bloody executions held within its walls. The Cats Tower was famous for its wild feline inhabitants.
 Just about the only thing Fribourg lacks is a romantic castle, but not far away is one of the grandest in the country. The rotund towers of Chateau de Gruyeres, looking over a small town of same name, are set in idyllic bucolic hillside in the foothills of the Alps around Fribourg. The town takes its name from a crane - <i>grue</i> in French - and the bird is present throught the town in countless incarnations, sometimes in a slightly monstrous way.
 Cranes stare out from porcelain plates and embroidered linen in souvenir shops, from stained glass windows and wooden doors. The town's coat of arms depicts a crane against a red background. As local legend has it, in 400, Gruerius, believed to be the founder of the town, was so impressed by the sight of a crane flying against a sunset that chose this image for the town's heraldics. Very little is known about the fate of this town until the 12th-13th century. But the castle is in excellent condition both inside and the outside, with thick city walls, rotund towers, medieval stained glass, fine carved furniture, tapestry, hunting equipment, an armoury and a grand fire-place.
 Gruyeres is home to a world-famous cheese of almost the same name - Gruyere - so it would be something of a crime not to visit one of cheese-making demonstrations. The Fromagerie d'Alpage in Moleson is set in a 17th century chalet. The predominant memories that I carried away with me were the smell of firewood crackling in the chimney, and the almost brutal cheese-makers, sleeves rolled up high, stirring a creamy mass in large copper vats. Somehow, they made the cheese taste richer when I had a gruyere sandwich for breakfast the next day.
 Another day-trip idea is Murten, the capital of the Region of Three Lakes, which can be reached by a short ride on one of the trains that leave every twenty minutes from Fribourg's central station.
 Murten, first mentioned in Swiss chronicles in 515, is the capital of the lake district of Fribourg canton. This fertile and exuberant land, with a serene light-blue lake surrounded by picturesque hillside, is abundant in vineyards and fruit gardens. Any of the huge variety of boat trips is a most enjoyable and leisurely way to explore the region, as is a stroll through the hills. As a special treat, there are cruises over three lakes - Murten, Neuchatel and Biel - connected by canals that offer divine views.
 Murten is said to be the warmest lake in Switzerland, and is almost always busy. Every two years, dedicated swimmers take part in a 3.5-kilometer cross-lake swimming competition organized by local lifeguards.
 Local history is no less rich than the region's nature. Some messages from the past are very vivid today in this lively medieval town, and don't take much time or energy to find. The cannonballs stuck high up into city walls to the right of the 18th-century Bernese Gate were fired in June 1476, when the city survived a 12-day siege by the Burgundians led by Charles the Bald.
 It is also possible to climb city walls and have a look over the town's red-tiled rooftops - a view almost exactly the same as how the town looked in the 15th century. The local authorities ardently protect the town's historical architecture with some of the toughest laws in the country. Not only is it is forbidden to rebuild or extend houses in the center of the town, but even installing TV antennas on the roof is outlawed and all telephone lines are underground. Even the tiles on each rooftop have to be designed in same &quot;beaver-tail&quot; style to resemble the originals.
 All this, however, doesn't mean that the locals are not allowed to have fun. The impressive clock on the Bernese Gate is wound up every day by the owner of a restaurant downstairs. The town's history doesn't hamper its life and creativity.
 Murten is proud of its spring carnival, summer festivals of opera and classical music, and numerous occasional happenings, including a vintage-car parade. At least one famous writer found Murten inspiring enought to stay here for quite some time. Agatha Christie spent here five years, staying at the Schiff Am See Hotel. Murten's other famous visitors make for an impressive list, including Italian adventurer and legendary womanizer Casanova (1760), German poet Goethe (1797) as well as Napoleon (1797), although the latter - staying in town as part of the French occupation of 1797 to 1802 - wasn't particularly welcome. All three stayed in the Adler hotel - which now has rooms called Casanova, Goethe and Napoleon. 

<strong>TRAVELLER'S TIPS </strong>
<strong>HOW TO GET THERE</strong>
 . Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise (www. pulkovo.ru) runs a high-season schedule to Zurich. This winter's begins on Dec. 21. Swiss International Airlines (www.swiss.com) flies daily from Moscow to Geneva and twice daily from Moscow to Zurich.
 . Within Switzerland the public transport system is legendarily efficient, and provides an amazingly easy way to get around the country. For train travel within the country, you can save up to 70 percent with a Swiss Pass, which provides unlimited rail transport for 4, 8, 15 or 22 days, or 1 month. The passes are valid on all of Switzerland's fabled scenic routes, and also good for the public-transport systems of 35 Swiss cities. Swiss Pass holders also receive many discounts on mountain excursions and other services.
 . Another option is the Swiss Flexi Pass, which is ideal for anyone not planning to travel every day. It is valid for a certain number of days within one month, which do not have to be consecutive. On travel days, Swiss Flexi Pass holders enjoy the same advantages as Swiss Pass holders. Trains between Switzerland's main towns depart every 30 minutes. All the schedules and other information are on the Web site www.rail.ch
 . To get to Fribourg, take a train from Zurich to Bern, then change onto a regional train to Fribourg.
 . To get to Sion, take a train from Zurich to Lausanne, then change to a train for Martigny, and then to Sion. Alternatively, take a train from Geneva.
 

 <strong>
PLACES TO STAY AND EAT</strong>
 <i>Fribourg</i>
 . Au Sauvage (historical hotel). 12 Planche-Superieure. Tel.: +41-26-347-30-60. www.hotel-sauvage.ch
 . Auberge aux 4 Vents (restaurant and hotel). 124 Rte de Grandfey. Tel.: +41-26-347-36-00. www.auberge.aux4vents.ch
 . Auberge de Zaehringen (restaurant and hotel). 13 Rue de Zaehringen. Tel.: +41-26-322-42-36. www.auberge-de-zaehringen.ch
 <i>Murten Lake Region</i>
 . Le Vieux Manoir au Lac. 18 Rue de Lausanne. Tel.: +41-26-678-61-61. www.vieuxmanoir.ch
 . Hotel Adler. 45 Hauptgasse. Tel.: +41-26-672-66-69. www.adler-hotel.ch
 . Confiserie Monnier (tearoom). Hauptgasse, 25. Tel.: +41-26-670-25-42
 . Hotel-Restaurant de l'Ours. Rte de l'Ancien Pont,5, Sugiez. Tel.: +41-26-673-93-93. www.hotel-ours.ch
 <i>Sion</i>
 . Hotel Europa. 19 Rue de l'Envol. Tel.: +41-27-322-24-23. www.zghotels.ch
 . Hotel des Vignes. 9 Rue du Pont. Tel.: +41-27-203-16-71. www.hoteldesvignes.ch
 . Supersaxo Restaurant and Bar. Passage Supersaxo. Tel.: +41-27-323-85-50.
 . Le Jardin Gourmand. 22 Avenue de la Gare. Tel.: +41-27-323-23-10.
 . Le Relais du Mont-d'Orge. La Muraz (2 kilometers from Sion, on the banks of lake Mont-d'Orge). Tel.: +41-27-395-33-46. 
 <i>Verbier</i>
 . Hotel Montpelier. Rue du Centre Sportif. Tel.: +41-27-771-61-31. www.hotelmontpelier.ch
 . Rosalp Hotel and Restaurant. Roland Pierroz is one of Switzerland's top seven chefs. Rue de Medran. Tel.: +41-27-771-63-23. www.relaischateaux.ch/rosalp
 . Restaurant La Marmotte. Les Planards. Tel.: +41-27-771-68-34. www.lamarmotte-verbier.com
 . Cabane du Mont Fort. (Refuge de Haute Montange. Altitude 2,457 meters). Reservations recommended. Tel.: +41-27-778-13-84.
 . Restaurant Le Hameau. Cultural Center Le Hameau. Tel.: +41-27-771-45-80. www.lehameau.ch
 

 <strong>
LINKS </strong>
 www.gvmsion.ch, www.siontourism.ch, www.bainsdesaillon.ch, www.st-leonard.ch, www.martignytourism.ch, www.gianadda.ch, www.verbier.ch, www.verbiersummits.ch, www.fribourgtourism.ch, www.pays-de-fribourg.ch, www.chateau-gruyeres.ch, www. gruyeres.ch, www.murten.ch, www.moleson.ch, www.navig.ch
 

 <i>
With thanks to Switzerland Tourism (www.MySwitzerland.ru) </i>

TITLE: Italy Suffers Worst Blackout Since War
AUTHOR: By Tom Rachman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ROME - A storm-tossed tree branch that hit Swiss power lines helped trigger a massive blackout in almost all of Italy on Sunday, trapping thousands on trains and forcing the pope to use a backup generator to proclaim his new cardinals. The outage, blamed for three deaths, underlined the dangers of Italy's reliance on imported power.
 
It was Italy's worst power outage since World War II. Most of the country's 58 million people were affected - more than in North America's biggest blackout, which left 50 million people without power in Canada and the United States on Aug. 14.
 Power was fully restored Monday.
 As in the North American blackout, there was initially confusion about the cause and finger-pointing among neighboring countries. With scant domestic supply and swelling public demand, Italy imports most of its electricity.
 The blackout began at 3:25 a.m., hitting all of Italy except the island of Sardinia. The lights came back on in northern Italy by early morning and in most of Rome shortly after noon. Power was restored to the rest of Italy late Sunday, according to television news reports.
 The blackout was blamed for the deaths of three elderly women, the ANSA news agency said.
 Two women - one 81 and the other 72 - died in separate accidents when they fell down darkened stairs, the agency said. A 92-year-old woman died of burns after a candle set her clothes on fire.
 As experts tried to work out the cause, none of the three countries involved wanted all the blame. Swiss and French energy officials said the responsibility was Italy's, while the Italians noted that the power cut came from France.
 Initial investigations indicated a chain reaction that started in Switzerland and moved through France.
 In Switzerland, a tree branch hit and disabled a power transmission line. This caused another Swiss line to overload, which then knocked out French transmission to Italy.
 &quot;After that, all connections to Italy dropped out,&quot; said Rolf Schmid, spokesman for the Swiss power company Atel.
 Authorities said there were no indications of foul play.
 Italian energy company Enel agreed with the Swiss description of the chain reaction. But France's electricity grid operator RTE said it was too early to speculate about causes.
 Whatever the cause, the blackout was an ordeal across Italy.
 It brought to a halt some 110 trains with 30,000 passengers on board, and delayed numerous flights in addition to a few that had to be canceled.
 The Vatican was also affected, with St. Peter's Basilica - normally lit up overnight - in darkness. 
 Last week, nearly 4 million people in eastern Denmark and southern Sweden were without electricity for more than three hours after a rare power outage plagued parts of Scandinavia.
 On Aug. 28, power briefly went out in parts of London and southeast England.

TITLE: Egypt Frees Plotter of Sadat's Murder
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CAIRO, Egypt - An Islamic militant group leader who helped plot the assassination of President Anwar Sadat but later expressed regret for the Egyptian leader's killing has been released from prison after nearly 22 years, officials said Sunday.
 
Karam Zohdy, 51, one of the leaders of Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Group, was serving a life sentence for being among those who ordered Sadat's assassination in October, 1981. Zohdy was released Thursday and returned to his hometown of Minya, 140 miles south of Cairo, police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
 In a July interview with the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Zohdy called Sadat a martyr and said he believed the assassination was wrong. He said if he could turn back time, &quot;I would interfere to prevent it.&quot; Zohdy and the group have also renounced violence entirely.
 Interior Minister Habib el-Adly decided to release Zohdy in part because he is suffering from heart problems and diabetes, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported.
 Also, under Egyptian law, a life sentence normally means 25 years behind bars. The prison year is calculated as nine months, meaning Zohdy was more than four years overdue for a release.
 Radicals had condemned Sadat for standing in the way an Islamic state and for being the first Arab leader to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979.
 Zohdy's release comes days before the 22nd anniversary of Sadat's assassination.

TITLE: Pope Appoints New Cardinals in Succession Move
AUTHOR: By Nicole Winfield
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VATICAN CITY - Ailing Pope John Paul II strengthened his influence over the choice of his successor by naming 31 cardinals in an appointment that came months earlier than expected.
 
The additions will cement the conservative bent of the College of Cardinals. John Paul has appointed all but five of the cardinals who are eligible to vote for the next pope.
 The men will receive their red hats at a ceremony known as a consistory on Oct. 21 - a date chosen to coincide with the weeklong celebrations marking John Paul's 25th anniversary as pope.
 Several names mentioned in the Italian media as possible new cardinals weren't on the pope's list - including Archbishop Sean O'Malley, who took over the Boston archdiocese to clean it up from the sex abuse scandal that rocked the American church.
 O'Malley didn't refer to the omission in a statement Sunday, instead congratulating the only American on the list, Justin Rigali, the archbishop-elect of Philadelphia.
 Prior to Sunday's announcement, the College of Cardinals had 164 members - 109 of them under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Of the eligible voters, all but five were named by John Paul.
 Birthdays and overall old age mean the number of College of Cardinal members is constantly in flux, but the traditional maximum is 120 voters. John Paul has had no qualms about surpassing that number - doing so at the last two consistories in 2001 and 1998.
 The latest appointments bring to at least 135 the number of cardinals under 80.
 Vatican officials had said no consistory was expected before the end of the year; February 2004 had been mentioned as a possible date, because the previous two consistories were held in that month.
 No explanation was given for why the pope acted sooner. But Vatican officials said privately that with the College of Cardinals and heads of national bishops conferences already coming to Rome for the anniversary celebrations - as well as the pope's declining health - an October consistory seemed opportune.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: <b>European Moon Shot
 </b>

EVRY, France (AP) - Europe's first mission to the moon got off to a smooth start with the successful launch of an unmanned Ariane rocket from a base in South America on Saturday.
 The Ariane-5 rocket lifted off from a launch pad in Kourou, French Guinea at 8:14 p.m. carrying a 367-kilogram craft that will explore the moon, look for water and help scientists study the idea of building a permanent human base on the lunar surface.
 The European Space Agency's SMART-1, short for "Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology," is expected to reach the moon in December 2004.
 European Space Agency officials say the SMART-1 mission is cost-effective at $126 million - about a fifth of a typical major space mission.
 
 
<b>Iran Ready for Checks 
 </b>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran is willing to accept the international nuclear watchdog's Additional Protocol as long as Tehran could continue to produce enriched uranium, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in remarks broadcast Sunday.
 "If we sign [the] Additional Protocol, we want to make sure that we can continue with enrichment facilities to produce fuel needed for our power plants," Kharrazi said in an interview with ABC television recorded Saturday.
 Asked if he was willing to say that Iran would accept all the restrictions and guidelines of the protocol, the foreign minister replied: "Provided that it would solve the problem, it would be enough."
 
 
<b>Al-Qaida 'Wiped Out'
 </b>

NEW YORK (AP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who believes Osama bin Laden is hiding in the rugged mountain peaks that border Pakistan, said Friday that the al-Qaida terrorist network in his country has been wiped out.
 But Karzai warned that unless the world steps up its aid and sends more troops, Islamic radicals could regain control in Afghanistan and stage more terror attacks in the West. He called on the United States to press Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on religious leaders helping Taliban fighters stage attacks across the border.
 
<b>Quake Damage Is Light
 </b>

KUSHIRO, Japan - Japan escaped the world's most powerful earthquake in 2 1/2 years on Friday with 400 injuries, most of which were minor, and only moderate damage.
 Damage from the magnitude-8, pre-dawn quake was relatively light, not only because it struck deep under the ocean but also because people in this quake-prone region were prepared. Power and water resumed after several hours.
 
 
<b>Japanese Dies at 114
 </b>

TOKYO (Reuters)-The world's oldest man, retired Japanese silkworm breeder Yukichi Chuganji, died in his home at the age of 114, local government officials said Monday. Family members found him dead on his futon sleeping mattress on Sunday evening, the officials on the southern island of Kyushu said.
 Born on March 23, 1889, Chuganji worked as a silkworm breeder and bank employee after leaving school. He also served as a community welfare officer. He had been in good health, talking daily with his daughter's family, with whom he lived, but had not left his bed often in recent years and had poor eyesight. 



TITLE: Russia Loses, but Still Makes Quarterfinals
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PORTLAND, Oregon - Ghana gave China an assist Sunday night. Ghana beat Australia 2-1, clinching China a spot in the Women's World Cup quarterfinals even before China took the field for its match against Russia. China then defeated Russia 1-0 to claim a first-place finish in Group D play. 
 
China, which advanced despite scoring just three goals so far, now plays Canada on Thursday at PGE Park, while Russia, the runner-up in group D, will play Germany. 
 &quot;I imagine the fans and the media back home might not be satisfied with three goals in three games, but we'll keep working on it,&quot; China coach Ma Liangxing said. 
 China jumped out early when Bai Jie got past Russia goalkeeper Alla Volkova, who ran helplessly behind. 
 Volkova made a critical save in the 77th minute when Bai charged at her alone and she unflinchingly blocked the shot. 
 Sun Wen missed an earlier opportunity for China when her first-half header caromed off the goalpost. 
 Sun led the tournament with seven goals in 1999, when the Americans beat the Chinese 5-4 on penalty kicks for the title at the Rose Bowl. 
 She has one goal in the competition, 106 in her career and 11 in World Cup play, one shy of Michelle Akers' Cup record. The 30-year-old has said she will retire after the World Cup. 
 Russia (2-1) had clinched a spot in the quarterfinals with 3-0 win over Ghana on Thursday. 
 China, which was supposed to host the World Cup before it was moved because of the SARS outbreak, beat Ghana 1-0 but played to a 1-1 tie against Australia before downing Russia to claim the top ranking in Group D. 
 The game was played before an announced crowd of 19,132 at PGE Park, home of the Triple-A Portland Beavers baseball team. 
 Ghana was the sentimental favorite of the night with its first-ever victory in World Cup competition. Even after China and Russia took the field, Ghana fans still waved flags and cheered. 
 Alberta Sackey scored a pair of goals to lead Ghana (1-2), which was already eliminated. 
 &quot;We had nothing to lose,&quot; Sackey said. &quot;We wanted to win at least one game. In the World Cup, you need to do something.&quot; 
 Ghana went on the attack early. Australia goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri jumped but was unable to reach Sackey's first goal, which bounced off Australia captain Cheryl Salisbury in the 33rd minute. 
 Sackey then took advantage when Barbieri fell trying to defend her shot in the 39th minute. 
 Australia narrowed it in the 66th minute when Heather Garriock took a pass from Kelly Golebiowski and beat Ghana goalkeeper Memunatu Sulemana. 
 
 <strong>
U.S. 3, N. Korea 0.</strong> The United States let its backups lead the way to a 3-0 victory over North Korea and a spot in the quarterfinals. 
 
&quot;We can score three goals without the most prolific goal-scorer in the world,&quot; said Abby Wambach, who scored the first goal on a penalty kick. &quot;When you do that, you know you have a great team, and you know you have a lot of depth.&quot; 
 The unbeaten Americans also have a team leader willing to go along with an extremely unorthodox strategy. 
 Playing for a spot in the quarterfinals on national television, the United States (3-0) started the game with its best player and its team captain on the bench. 
 Needing only a tie to advance, coach April Heinrichs gambled that the United States could pull it out without Mia Hamm, 31, and captain Julie Foudy, 32, on the field for the first half. 
 The United States plays Norway - the team it lost to during the gold medal game of the 2000 Olympics - on Wednesday. The Norwegians will have an extra day of rest, having finished first-round play on Saturday. 
 Heinrichs wanted the two leaders to be rested for the next round. 
 &quot;That was fine with me,&quot; Hamm said. &quot;This is about a team. It's not about any one individual player.&quot; 
 Hamm and Foudy warmed up at halftime, sharing a laugh as they dashed across the field. Foudy started the second half, and Hamm expected to get into the game at some point as well. 
 Cat Reddick, the only collegian on the squad, scored twice in the second half, prompting Heinrichs to reconsider. She saw no reason to risk her best player getting hurt on a cool, windy afternoon. 
 &quot;She was planning on going in, and we had the third goal of the game and April came over and said, 'You know, it's not worth it. I'm just going to rest you,&quot;' said Wambach, who was Hamm's teammate on the WUSA-champion Washington Freedom. &quot;Mia was great. 
 &quot;She wants other people to shine just as much as she has in the past. That's why Mia Hamm is the best player in the world, in my opinion, and that's why she's the most humble player as well.&quot;

TITLE: Road Win Puts Zenit Closer to Euro Berth
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Zenit took a huge step toward a place in next year's Champions League qualifiers with a 2-1 road win at Rubin Kazan on Saturday.
 
A header from Alexander Nikolayev just after halftime and an acrobatic finish from Dmitry Makarov with 20 minutes to go secured the win for Zenit, which became the first visiting team to win at Tsentralny Stadium this season.
 Rubin's Uraguayan Andres Scotti pulled a goal back at 85 minutes, but the home team could not find the equalizer and Zenit held on.
 The game was marred by some ferocious tackling by the home team that met with little in the way of sanctions from the referee, Valentin Ivanov.
 Zenit had submitted a protest to the Premier League before kickoff asking that Ivanov be replaced as the official in charge of the game. Ivanov, a Muscovite, was widely criticized for his decisions in Zenit's surprise 2-1 home defeat to Shinnik Yaroslavl in August.
 Tempers finally boiled over in injury time, when Zenit midfielder Andrei Arshavin was pulled down by three Rubin players, one of whom then kicked him in the head. In the ensuing melee, Ivanov handed out yellow cards liberally and dismissed Rubin's Jiri Nowotny and, bizarrely, Arshavin.
 In weekend action in Europe's top leagues, Valencia jumped above Deportivo la Coruna and Real Madrid in Spain's Primera Liga to join Arsenal, Roma, Stuttgart and Monaco on top of their respective divisions. 
 Valencia handed an off-color Real Madrid its first defeat of the season as it won 2-0 in the Mestalla on Saturday to take over at the top, after Depor had earlier suffered a surprise 3-2 defeat at Osasuna, which moved up to fourth. 
 Rafa Benitez's Valencia team went in front after four minutes through Mista, and a Ricardo Oliveira strike in the second half clinched a surprisingly comfortable win. 
 Valencia's victory sent it to the top with 13 points from five games, after Depor lost its 100-percent record by conceding three goals in a nightmare four-minute spell in the first half. ,
 It dropped to second on 12 points with Real Madrid and Osasuna both on 10 in third and fourth, respectively. 
 Nine-player Barcelona held Atletico Madrid to a goalless draw draw in a frantic encounter at the Vicente Calderon, after midfielders Philip Cocu and Thiago Motta were dismissed in the second half for picking up their second bookings. 
 The Primera Liga was the only one of Europe's top leagues to see much change among the leading three teams, as the main title contenders in Italy, England, Germany and France all won. 
 Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko struck twice for AC Milan as the defending European champion beat Lecce 3-0, while AS Roma overcame struggling Ancona by the same margin to join Juventus at the top of the Serie A standings. 
 All three teams have 10 points from four games. 
 With Filippo Inzaghi sidelined through injury, the pressure was on Shevchenko to deliver the firepower for Carlo Ancelotti's Milan, and he responded in style. 
 He struck at 21 and 69 minutes before strike partner Jon Dahl Tomasson's late third. 
 Vincenzo Montella, Francesco Totti and Marco Delvecchio scored second-half goals for Roma, while defending champion Juventus, which played on Saturday, eased to a comfortable 2-0 win at Reggina. 
 Inter Milan held on for a 0-0 draw at Udinese after being forced to play for more than hour with 10 players after Brazilian winger Luciano was sent-off. 
 Almost a week after being labelled a cheat and a diver, Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy made headlines for more notable reasons with a hat-trick in the 4-1 demolition of Leicester City. 
 The Dutchman, accused of cheating by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger during last weekend's tempestuous 0-0 draw at Old Trafford, was praised for his stirring performance by United boss Alex Ferguson. 
 &quot;Ruud showed today he is a great player, a fantastic player. There can't have been many strikers as good as him over the years,&quot; he said. 
 United's victory kept it one point behind leader Arsenal, which overcame Newcastle United 3-2 on Friday with Thierry Henry netting the winner from the penalty spot 10 minutes from time. 
 Arsenal has 17 points from seven matches, while Chelsea, which overcame Aston Villa 1-0 with a Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink goal, is second on 16, ahead of Manchester United on goal difference. 
 Bundesliga leaders VfB Stuttgart warmed up for its Champions League clash at home to Manchester United on Wednesday with a stylish 3-0 win at TSV 1860 Munich on Saturday. 
 Last season's runner-up, which has yet to concede a goal this season, stayed a point clear at the top and remains the only club yet to lose after seven games. 
 Werder Bremen moved up a place to second with a 4-1 victory at bottom club Cologne that put it ahead of third-placed Bayer Leverkusen, which won 1-0 at Vfl Wolfsburg, on goal difference. 
 Defending champion Bayern Munich, which had picked just one point from its last two games, needed a late goal from Dutch striker Roy Makaay for a 2-1 win at Hansa Rostock that lifted it one place up to fourth, three points off the pace.

TITLE: Myskina Gets Shock Win in Leipzig Over Favored Belgian
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LEIPZIG, Germany - Anastasia Myskina defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final of the Sparkassen Cup on Sunday, ending the Belgian's 22-match winning streak. 
 
Henin-Hardenne, the U.S. Open and French Open champion, was beaten for the first time since the Wimbledon semifinals. Her winning streak was the longest on the tour since Venus Williams had 24 in 2001-2002. 
 &quot;I was always on defense, and that's not my style,&quot; Henin-Hardenne said. &quot;I had problems with her serves. She deserved to win this time.&quot; 
 Myskina picked up victories against the Nos. 1 and 2 players on consecutive days. In her semifinal, top-ranked countrywoman Kim Clijsters quit against the Russian because of a sprained ankle. 
 Henin-Hardenne can still take the No. 1 ranking from Clijsters at the Filderstadt tournament, starting Oct. 6. 
 &quot;If it's this year it's great, but if it's next year it's great, too,&quot; Henin-Hardenne said. 
 She was playing in her first tournament since adding the U.S. Open to her French Open title. She lost for just the second time in a final this year. 
 &quot;In the second set I started to get tired,&quot; Henin-Hardenne said. &quot;For sure, I didn't play my best tennis today.&quot; 
 Myskina, seeded third and ranked 10th, won her fifth career title. Henin-Hardenne was chasing her eighth title of the year but Myskina ran her all over the court and won when the Belgian hit a backhand into the net. 
 &quot;If you're really confident in yourself you can win anything,&quot; Myskina said. &quot;I've been stuck at the No. 10 ranking for a while now and I want to move up.&quot; 
 Myskina gained a break to lead 4-2 in the third set, but Henin-Hardenne broke back. The Russian then reeled off the last two games to win the title and $93,000. 
 Myskina raised her record to 3-2 against Henin-Hardenne, dropping their previous match in the U.S. Open quarterfinals. She was last year's losing finalist in Leipzig, falling to Serena Williams.
 In Nonthaburi, Thailand, Taylor Dent upset top-ranked Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 7-6 (5) to win the inaugural Thailand Open for the American's second title of the year. 
 Dent beat Andy Roddick in February to capture the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee. This was his third career title. 
 Ferrero lost the U.S. Open final to Roddick this month and was bidding for his fourth title of the year. Dent, seeded eighth in Thailand, was beaten by Ferrero in Cincinnati last year. 
 Both players held serve until Dent applied pressure at the net to take the first set. Dent jumped to a 5-3 lead in the second-set tiebreaker. Ferrero evened it at 5-5 but Dent took the match when Ferrero made an error on a backhand slice. 
 Dent received His Majesty the Kings trophy for winning the $550,000 tournament.
 In Shanghai, Wimbledon runner-up Mark Philippoussis capitalized on his big serve Sunday to beat top-seeded Jiri Novak 6-2, 6-1 for the Heineken Open title. The match took just 45 minutes. 
 The pair traded games early on before third-seeded Philippoussis took control in the first set. Novak won the second game of the second set but was blanked the rest of the way. 
 Philippoussis had three aces in the last game.

TITLE: Cubs Lose, But Ready For Atlanta In Playoffs
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CHICAGO - For the NL Central champion Chicago Cubs, it was a day to rest, avoid injuries and get in a light tuneup for what's ahead. They reached all their objectives Sunday, except for winning their regular-season finale. 
 
One day after the Cubs clinched their first division title since 1989 with a doubleheader sweep, they were beaten 3-2 by the Pittsburgh Pirates. 
 &quot;It's not a letdown, you got to go out and finish out the season,&quot; said Chicago shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who hit his 20th homer. 
 Manager Dusty Baker rested Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou and used many of his other regulars just briefly before Tuesday's playoff opener in the Atlanta. 
 &quot;Almost everybody got some work in,&quot; Baker said. 
 &quot;It was a little more relaxing,&quot; Gonzalez said. &quot;A good feeling that we were able to play and not have to worry about having to wrap it up. ... Everybody was just going to try and use today to get in a little groove and get ready for Atlanta.&quot; 
 Pittsburgh, wrapping up its 11th straight losing season, broke a 2-2 tie on Jack Wilson's solo homer in the seventh. 
 Rookie Sergio Mitre got the start for the Cubs, who would have used Kerry Wood had they not clinched Saturday. 
 &quot;It's the Atlanta Braves, man. They've been there 12 years in a row. That's a lot,&quot; Baker said. &quot;Right now, the big boys are the Braves and the Giants. The up-and-coming dudes are us and Florida.&quot; 
 Second baseman Mark Grudzielanek said the experience of winning the division on the final weekend will help beginning Tuesday. 
 &quot;Every pitch, every at-bat, everything is going to be a pressure situation,&quot; he said. &quot;So this was a good stepping stone for us, to win games when we had to.&quot; 
 The Cubs finished 88-74 in their first season under Baker after going 67-95 last year. 
 &quot;I imagine Cubs memorabilia sales are probably skyrocketing,&quot; Baker said of the euphoria surrounding the division title. 
 
 <strong>
Detroit 9, Minnesota 4.</strong> The Detroit Tigers avoided the 1962 New York Mets' modern-day record for losses, finishing their best six-game stretch of the season with a 9-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday. 
 
&quot;Believe it or not, I can look back on this year with a smile on my face because of how this season ended,&quot; said Mike Maroth, the first pitcher since 1980 to lose at least 20 games. 
 Detroit (43-119) used a seven-run sixth inning to win for the fifth time in six games, allowing the expansion Mets (40-120) to keep the unwanted distinction of having the most losses since 1900. 
 &quot;We're not going to worry about what people say about our record,&quot; Dmitri Young said. &quot;We got it together down the stretch and played some top-notch baseball. I'm leaving here happy. The only sad thing is we finally got rolling as a team and now we are breaking up for the winter.&quot; 
 With the 18,959 fans at Comerica Park standing and cheering, and Kool &amp; the Gang's &quot;Celebration&quot; playing after the final out, the Tigers players hugged each other on the field as the scoreboard flashed &quot;Victory!&quot; 
 Maroth (9-21) gave up two runs on eight hits and a walk to win for the third time in four starts. 
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard.) </i>

TITLE: Hall Runs to NFL Record Against Ravens
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BALTIMORE - Given a second chance by the blundering Baltimore Ravens, Dante Hall sprinted 97 yards into the NFL record book. 
 
Hall's kickoff return with 5:08 left broke a tie and kept the Kansas City Chiefs unbeaten with a 17-10 victory Sunday. 
 Hall became the first player in NFL history to return a kick for a touchdown in three straight games. He took a kickoff 100 yards against Pittsburgh two weeks ago and returned a punt 73 yards against Houston last week before completing the trifecta against Baltimore. 
 The 5-foot-8 (172-centimeter) speedster did very little against the Ravens until his final foray upfield - after Baltimore's Adalius Thomas was called offside on the preceding kickoff. 
 &quot;We made an adjustment on the direction we were going to run,&quot; Hall said. 
 Hall took the second kickoff from Wade Richey all the way, encountering few would-be tacklers during his record-setting jaunt. 
 &quot;He finally gave us a ball to work with and we made him pay,&quot; Hall said. &quot;The blocking was unbelievable. I started right, cut left, and my eyes got so big when I saw that hole. I'm getting bubbleguts again just thinking about it.&quot; 
 Ravens coach Brian Billick said, &quot;We contained him very, very well, right up until the end. That's the dangerous thing about a great player like that.&quot; 
 Led by running back Priest Holmes, Kansas City (4-0) came in averaging an NFL-best 37 points per game. Holmes was held to 90 yards rushing on 22 attempts and the Chiefs' offense produced only 10 points, but on this day Holmes &amp; Co. received plenty of help. 
 Kansas City intercepted three Kyle Boller passes, and Hall won the game with his electrifying return after Jamal Lewis, who finished with 115 yards rushing, tied it on a 1-yard run. 
 &quot;This is a very disappointing loss,&quot; Billick said. &quot;Clearly we cannot make the mistakes that we made at critical times.&quot; 
 
 <strong>
Denver 20, Detroit 16.</strong> Coming off a win over Oakland and with a trip to Kansas City next on the schedule, Denver was due for a letdown against Detroit. It happened - of course - but the Broncos still found a way to win thanks to Jake Plummer. 
 
Plummer completed 16 straight passes in the first half and threw for two touchdowns as the Broncos held on to beat the Lions 20-16 Sunday for coach Mike Shanahan's 100th career win. 
 &quot;I think he responded well to the pressure,&quot; Broncos running back Mike Anderson said.
 &quot;You can tell he's a guy who is getting more and more comfortable with this system,&quot; he said. &quot;He's starting to really get it.&quot; 
 With running back Clinton Portis out with a bruised chest, the Broncos played like they were looking ahead. Denver had just 79 yards rushing, 136 total yards in the second half and let the Lions hang around until the end. 
 It wasn't until Joey Harrington's fourth-and-10 pass from Detroit's 32-yard line fell incomplete that the Broncos secured their fifth 4-0 start in team history. 
 The good news for Denver is that it went to the Super Bowl the other four times, including 1998 after a 13-0 start. 
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard.) </i>

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: <b>Althea Gibson, 76, Dies
 </b>

EAST ORANGE, New Jersey (AP) - Althea Gibson, a sports pioneer who broke tennis' color barrier in the 1950s as the first black entrant and champion at Wimbledon and the U.S. national tournament, died on Sunday. She was 76. 
 Gibson, also the first black player on the LPGA Tour, helped pave the way for later stars such as Arthur Ashe, Venus and Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods. 
 "I am grateful to Althea Gibson for having the strength and courage to break through the racial barriers in tennis," Venus Williams said Sunday. "Her accomplishments set the stage for my success, and through players like myself, Serena, and many others to come, her legacy will live on." 
 Gibson, seriously ill for several years, died of complications from a severe infection and respiratory illness, according to a spokesman at East Orange General Hospital. 
 The 5-foot-11 Gibson used an attacking serve-and-volley style to dominate women's tennis from 1956 to 1958, winning 11 Grand Slam titles: five in singles, five in doubles, one in mixed doubles. 
 
 
<b>NBA in China?
 </b>

BEIJING (AP) - The NBA is considering playing regular-season games in China, where such stars as Yao Ming have boosted the popularity of the game. 
 The league will use preseason games planned for Beijing and Shanghai in October 2004 to test facilities and travel arrangements, Marc Fischer, the league's Hong Kong-based managing director for Asia, said Friday. 
 Fischer, who was in Beijing for promotional events, said a definite plan is not yet in place. 
 "A major factor is how teams feel about coming all this way," he said. 
 Yao, the center for the Houston Rockets, and other Chinese stars like Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer have brought a surge of interest in basketball. 
 This year the NBA launched a Chinese-language Web site. The league also publishes a Chinese version of its official magazine and has a Beijing office.
 
 
<b>Premiership Rape Probe
 </b>

LONDON (Reuters) - Eight unnamed English Premiership players were at the center of a probe into the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl, The Sun newspaper said Monday. 
 The newspaper said the girl had consented to sex with one of the players at a London hotel over the weekend, but seven other players from the same team joined in against her wishes. 
 When asked about the Sun report, a Scotland Yard spokesman said detectives from the sex crimes unit Operation Sapphire were investigating the claim. 
 The players were not named, but were said to include "at least one international and several other household names." 
 
 
<b>Rivaldo Back?
 </b>

MILAN (Reuters) - AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani says the club has had a change of heart and wants to keep Brazilian World Cup winner Rivaldo. 
 Milan announced on Friday that it had agreed to the player's request to be released from his contract and Rivaldo said he was considering offers from English clubs. 
 "The documents relating to the cancellation of Rivaldo's contract are still in the office drawer. I will do everything in the coming hours to keep Riva," Galliani told the club's television station Milan Channel. 
 Coach Carlo Ancelotti added: "Rivaldo knows that if he stays the club will be happy, the players will be happy and he will have a happy coach. We are waiting for him."