LOCAL NEWS

NORDIC BODY BOOSTS TIES WITH RUSSIA

STOCKHOLM - Russia stands to get more money from the Nordic countries because more funds have become available for Russia since Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia joined the European Union this year, a Nordic official said.

Soren Christensen, a senior adviser and former secretary general with the Nordic Council of Ministers, said in an interview that the Baltic states had got 60 percent of funding and Russia only 40 percent of funding for the four nations that border Nordic states.

FLAP OVER SEX AND DIPLOMATS IN HELSINKI

A sex scandal is rocking the Russian diplomatic corps in Finland after Finnish police arrested several Russian prostitutes and a Russian woman suspected of running brothels out of Helsinki apartments owned by the Russian government's local trade representation.

IN BRIEF

Greenpeace Spurned

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A city court has rejected a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace asking it to make water utility Vodokanal supply Greenpeace with information about its waste disposal plants, Interfax reported Wednesday.

The court made a decision to satisfy the demands of the ecologists only on one issue - according to which Vodokanal must provide Greenpeace with an opportunity to acquaint itself with the materials on the basis of influence on the environment in regards to the construction of incinerators for sewage sediment, the report said.

NATIONAL NEWS

CITY SUBWAY 'MEETS ONLY HALF DEMAND'

Even as the St. Petersburg subway system was declared to be meeting only half of the demand on it and plans for two more stations in the southwest were announced, moves to open metro station Admiralteiskaya faced protests this week.

"The current capacity of St.

PUTIN HAILS BUSH VICTORY AS SIGN U.S. VOTERS HATE TERROR

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that a victory by U.S. President George W. Bush would show that American voters had stood up to terrorists.

IN BRIEF

Businessmen Protest

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - St. Petersburg entrepreneurs protested against plans to eliminate trading kiosks at public transport bus stops on Monday.

About 200 kiosk employees gathered in front of the city government's offices in Smolny to demand that Governor Valentina Matviyenko abandon plans to shut the kiosks.

LOCAL BUSINESS

BUDGET DEAL OFFERS LONDON FOR 50 EUROS

EasyJet, one of Europe's few budget airlines, launched daily flights to Talinn from Berlin and London at the beginning of the week. The new routes are expected to raise the number of travelers to Russia as well as Estonia, with an eight-hour bus trip linking Talinn to St.

TELECOM UNITED IN NET DEAL

North-West Telecom announced this week a major deal with national Internet provider RTKomm.RU. The agreement, which was signed back in October, covers Internet traffic between all the affiliate branches of North-West Telecom.

IN BRIEF

New Oil Firm Listed

ST. PETERSBURG - Gazpromneft, the joint venture between Gazprom and Rosneft, has been registered by Russian tax authorities, reported RosBusinessConsulting.

The subsidiary Gazpromneft, wholly owned by Gazprom, has become a St.

YUKOS TO PONDER BANKRUPTCY

Yukos is calling for an extraordinary shareholders meeting Dec. 20 to consider whether to file for bankruptcy under the crippling weight of $14 billion in outstanding tax claims, or to pave the way for an ownership change in case of a last-ditch settlement, the company's CEO, Steven Theede, said Wednesday.

OPINION

THE IMPERIAL ECONOMY

For decades to come, George W. Bush's 2004 re-election run will be held up as an extraordinary example of political dexterity. As devised by Karl Rove, senior adviser to the president and mastermind of his public career, it was a veritable tour de force.

PRIVILEGED CITIZENS OF THE MONTH

As far as I understand, Ukrainian citizens have become the most privileged people in Russia, at least until Nov. 21, when the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine is scheduled to take place.

CULTURE

TUNED INTO THE WORLD

Coming out of the metro station you might hear Tarkan, Usher, or Linkin Park blaring out of the CD stalls. Around the corner, McDonald's golden arches stare out from the facade of a neoclassical building, competing with the orange Chainaya Lozhka spoon across the way.

TIMELESS APPEAL

John Peel, the broadcasting legend who died while on holiday in Peru last week, came to St. Petersburg in June 1992. Brought to the city by a BBC publicity bus on an Eastern European tour, Peel, then 53, unexpectedly seemed to be not very busy.

BEST IN SHOW

St. Petersburg's Molodyozhny Theater is in line for a top arts prize for its production of "Lyubovniye Kruzheva" ("Love Lace"), to be announced Nov. 15.

The Molodyozhny Theater has been nominated in the literature and arts category for one of five prizes awarded by the government under new nominating rules for achievements in science and culture.

The nomination is a proud achievement for the theater's director Semyon Spivak, who celebrated 15 years at the Molodyozhny last weekend.

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

Mutsuko Dohi, the first Japanese pianist to earn a doctorate in music at St. Petersburg's Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, a woman who won second prize at two international piano competitions in Russia and Ukraine, is to perform with the Hermitage Theater's orchestra during a month-long tour of Japan this fall.

Valuably patriotic

William and Catherine MacDougall are just two of the latest entrepreneurial dealers to throw in their lot with one of the hottest sectors of the international art market. Everyone, it seems, is buying Russian.

Last week, the husband-and-wife duo could be found at the Central House of Artists, plying for trade among local enthusiasts and gallerists and dishing out catalogues for the Nov.

WORLD

IN BRIEF

Arafat in Intensive Care

PARIS (AP) - Yasser Arafat, hospitalized in France with a mystery ailment, was rushed to intensive care after suffering a setback and was undergoing a new round of tests, Palestinian officials said early Thursday.

The two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 75-year-old Arafat's condition had seriously deteriorated over the past day, adding that doctors who have been examining him for a week still don't know the cause of his illness.