LOCAL NEWS

FLOODWATERS HALT BEFORE HARM DONE

Two people were hospitalized, seven embankments covered with water and six metro stations were closed in St. Petersburg as the Neva River and city canals all but burst their banks on Sunday.

Although water levels were lower on Monday, city meteorologists said the possibility of flooding would remain for the next few days.

BLOODY SUNDAY RECALLED

One hundred years ago, on Jan. 9, 1905, the streets of St. Petersburg were covered with the blood of over 1,500 people killed on their way to Palace Square where they wanted to hold a peaceful protest against the policies of Tsar Nicolas II.

NATIONAL NEWS

BUTOV TRIES TO REMAIN IN GUBERNATORIAL RACE

The embattled governor of the Nenets Autonomous District Vladimir Butov has complained about a decision by the Nenets district court to cancel his registration as a candidate in the region's gubernatorial elections on Jan. 23.

A member of the region's election commission, Marina Churikova, said Butov sent an appeal to the Supreme Court last week, Interfax reported Monday.

IN BRIEF

New Bridge Named

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The new suspension bridge over the Neva River, which was opened by President Vladimir Putin last month, has been named Bolshoi Obukhovsky Bridge by the city's naming commission.

FORMER INSIDER KORZHAKOV DRINKS TO AN ERA

MOSCOW - After becoming president, an intoxicated Boris Yeltsin struck and killed a man in a driving accident, said Alexander Korzhakov, once Yeltsin's closest adviser and a longtime drinking buddy, who said he covered it up.

"Yeltsin never asked about the killed man.

IN BRIEF

Registration Changes

MOSCOW (SPT) - A government decree allowing Russian citizens to stay in any city for up to 90 days without police registration came into force on Jan.

LOCAL BUSINESS

TOLL ROADS APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT

The government has granted the Federal Road Agency permission to proceed with the paperwork necessary for the construction of a high-speed toll road between St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The toll road was first presented as part of the countrywide road modernization program, approved by the government in October.

IN BRIEF

Oblast No Rival to City

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Leningrad Oblast is not competing with St. Petersburg for investors, said oblast Governor Valery Serdyukov at the end of last month.

Entrepreneurial Children's Doctor Is a Cut Above the Rest

Iraida Kolesnikova was a 26-year-old graduate student of medicine when she arrived in St. Petersburg in 1996 to pursue the equivalent of an M.Sc. Still, until she realised that she had a priceless gift from the Russian provinces of Belgorodskaya and Tyumenskaya Oblast that could infuse life into the city's decrepit children's healthcare system, she had no intention of staying.

OPINION

A DARK ANNIVERSARY IN AFGHANISTAN

Amid the bells and baubles of the holiday season, few in the West paused to mark one of 2004's darker anniversaries. Twenty-five years ago last month, the Red Army invaded Afghanistan, opening a Pandora's box whose effluvia include Osama bin Laden and leader of the Taliban Mullah Omar.

THE YUGANSK COVERUP OPERATION

What happened to Yuganskneftegaz? It was sold. How? "In strict accordance with Russian law," or so President Vladimir Putin said.

With these very words, the president vindicated Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Of Bob Dylan

There's a legend in my family that we're kin to Uncle Dave Macon, the country music pioneer. We're certainly distant cousins to the Macons of our native Wilson County - and Uncle Dave lived in the next county over. My parents met him once, driving to his Tennessee farm one afternoon when they were teenagers, not yet married.

WORLD

IN BRIEF

Baghdad Cop Killed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen assassinated Baghdad's deputy police chief outside his home, and a suicide bomber in a patrol car killed three Iraqis at a police station Monday, a police source said.

Brigadier Amer Nayef was shot dead along with his son as they left the family home in the southern Dora area of the capital, the source said.

CARLOS MOYA RETAINS CHENNAI OPEN TITLE

MADRAS, India - Spain's Carlos Moya rallied to defeat Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan and retain his Chennai Open title on Sunday, then donated his $52,000 prize money to tsunami relief efforts.