|
|
|
|
Despite press freedom coming under fire in Russia, 1,700 editors, directors and other media professionals from 110 countries will gather in Moscow on Sunday for the World Newspaper Congress (WNC).
But in choosing Russia as host, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) will have to do without some of their colleagues.
For a foreigner to participate in WNC, a Russian visa is required. Yet Russian authorities, by denying visas, have prevented certain journalists from entering the country.
One such journalist, Vibeke Sperling, is a veteran Danish correspondent who worked in Russia and the Soviet Union for 25 years.
She is dismayed by WAN’s decision to hold the congress in a country where freedom of the press is largely restricted, according to watchdog Journalists Without Borders and think tank Freedom House. |
|
OPEN SEASON
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Thursday marked the first day of summer and offical opening of the White Nights season. Sergei Smirnov, press secretary of the Pulkovo State Astronomic Observatory, said that the White Nights, when artificial lighting is not needed, last until July 12-15, Interfax reported. |
|
The young prisoners of the juvenile penal colony in Kolpino, 30 kilometers south of St. Petersburg, have received a helping hand from Smolny after the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly redirected funding from the colony’s workshop to the Assembly’s canteen and other premises.
Work therapy is widely used in the country’s prison system. Official statistics provided by the Kolpino colony claim than only 1 percent of the inmates who have been through the work therapy programs return to crime, while 86 percent are believed to present no danger to society by the time they are released.
|
|
The Rolling Stones will not perform in St. Petersburg this year, the concert’s promoters said Wednesday.
Previously scheduled for the Kirov Stadium on June 13, Russia’s one-off concert, which was to be part of the European leg of the band’s A Bigger Bang World Tour, will be postponed until next year, the promoter PMI Corporation said in a statement. |
|
Regatta On Neva
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) – The city is holding the International “Sails of the White Nights Regatta” between June 1 and 12, Interfax news agency reported Thursday. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
|
MOSCOW — Volgograd’s prosecutor opened a criminal case Wednesday against Mayor Yevgeny Ishchenko, possibly laying the groundwork for the end of direct mayoral elections, political analysts said.
Ishchenko was the first mayor of a big city to be arrested and charged with abuse of office and conducting illegal business. |
|
MOSCOW — If, heaven forbid, you are charged with a serious crime in Russia, demand a jury trial and your chances of being acquitted will jump at least fivefold. |
|
MOSCOW — The fight for a smoke-free Russia should be the country’s fifth national project, chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko said Wednesday, No Tobacco Day.
Onishchenko said smoking, along with alcoholism and AIDS, posed a serious threat to the nation’s well-being.
Every year, 375,000 Russians die of illnesses related to smoking, Interfax cited Onishchenko as saying. |
|
|
|
|
American carmaker General Motors signed an investment agreement with City Hall and the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade on Monday, confirming the construction of a plant in St. Petersburg.
The new plant will be located in the Shushary area, near Toyota’s own projected plant. |
|
Alcohol Ban
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The city parliament has banned the sale of strong alcohol from 11 p.m. till 7 a.m. The law, approved Wednesday, comes into force on Nov. |
|
ST. PETERSBURG — A closed workshop to inform Russian companies about raising capital on EU markets was held in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
The event was organized by Deutsche BÚrse AG (the managing company of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange), Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (one of the leading German banking institutions), the international law firm Beiten Burkhardt, the international auditing company BDO, and the St. |
|
MOSCOW — State-owned vodka brands manager Soyuzplodoimport is shopping around for a liquor factory, the company said Wednesday.
The plans, aimed at giving government brands a boost, left the market guessing whether Soyuzplodoimport had its eye on the country’s third-largest liquor factory, the troubled Liviz factory in St. |
|
MOSCOW — U.S. planemaker Boeing is planning on sharply raising its investments in Russia, to $27 billion over the next 30 years, the company announced in a statement Wednesday, as it continues to spar with arch-rival Airbus over a $3 billion contract from state-owned airline Aeroflot. |
|
MOSCOW — The larger, stronger Russian banks will weather future economic storms that could be fatal to many smaller banks, Standard and Poor’s said in a report released Thursday. |
|
|
|
|
Ultranationalism among Russian youth, along with nascent official activity against xenophobia, is receiving increasing attention from Russian and Western observers. Alarmed by the growing number of victims among foreign students, visitors from abroad and immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Americas, the administration of President Vladimir Putin has started to take action against escalating skinhead violence. |
|
Is something bothering you? Are you worried or upset? Write your president. Maybe he’ll intervene. At least you’ll feel better.
Thirty Russian entertainers have signed a letter asking the president and parliament to increase penalties levied against media outlets that publish lies. |
|
|
|
 Famed for a punk rock version of the novelty song ‘Nellie the Elephant,’ the U.K.’s Toy Dolls have been performing for 30 years. The band’s cryptically-named frontman Olga speaks out about the enduring appeal of punk.
The Toy Dolls, a trio of grown men sporting cartoonish spectacles and fooling around on stage, return to Russia to perform a pair of concerts in St. |
|
The New British Drama Festival presents two plays about terrorism performed in English.
Two new innovative plays by the modern British playwrights Mark Ravenhill and Dennis Kelly staged by the British Paines Plough Theater will be presented during the four-day New British Drama Festival held in St. |
|
Despite the promoter’s recent claims, The Rolling Stones is not coming to St. Petersburg after all, at least not this year.
The Stones’ concert, orginally scheduled for June 13, was officially postponed due to 63-year old guitarist Keith Richards’ head injury last week, along with 14 other shows on the European leg of the band’s current A Bigger Bang World Tour, but the promoter, PMI Corporation, had expressed hope that the concert would be rescheduled to early July and become the first European date on the tour. |
|
Aimed at restoring the pre-Revolutionary tradition of musical soirees, the “Sergei Oskolkov and His Friends” festival, running through June 18 this year, is keeping a low profile. |
|
Last Thursday the State Hermitage Museum opened perhaps the most “dynamic” exhibition ever held at the museum.
“Experiments in Visual Kineticism” features around 50 works of “kinetic” art in which motion or the appearance of motion is incorporated into the work. |
|
A string of arts events with a Mediterranean flavor sweeps the city Friday when the local Italian community celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern Italian Republic. |
|
In DBC Pierre’s latest novel, newly unconjoined twins in London and a young woman fleeing the war-torn Caucasus find themselves similarly unversed in the ways of the world.
A pair of newly unconjoined twins, set loose in London, must decide whether to embrace freedom or remain within their safe, familiar cocoon. |
|
|
|
|
KHARTOUM, Sudan — Two Darfur rebel groups refused on Thursday to sign a peace deal ahead of a deadline set by the African Union to end the three-year-old conflict that has killed tens of thousands in Sudan’s remote west.
The African Union, set up to promote social, political and economic integration in Africa, has raised the specter of UN sanctions against Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) if they did not sign before the May 31 deadline. |
|
WASHINGTON — Despite complaints about long waits for services, Canadians are healthier than their U.S. neighbors and receive more consistent medical care, according to a report released on Tuesday. |
|
LONDON — Lifetime lovers Frank and Anita Milford have become Britain’s longest-married living couple after celebrating their 78th wedding anniversary, newspapers reported.
The pair met as teenagers at a dance in Plymouth, southern England, in 1926 and married two years later. |
|
Quake Toll
BANTUL, Indonesia (AFP) — The number of casualties from the Indonesian quake has soared as the United Nations said hospitals were overcrowded and still lacked basic supplies to treat the masses of injured. |
|
|
|
|
PHOENIX, Arizona — Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky showed his commitment to coaching by signing a long-term deal with the Phoenix Coyotes.
Despite a trying first season behind the bench, Gretzky said he had no hesitation in accepting a five-year contract to stay in the desert city. |
|
Soccer Friendlies
LONDON — (AP) Three of the seven World Cup teams playing warmup matches Wednesday came away with wins — France, Iran and Paraguay.
Italy and Switzerland had to settle for a 1-1 tie, while Trinidad and Tobago lost to Slovenia 3-1 and Saudi Arabia was shut out by Turkey 1-0. |
|
PARIS — Tim Henman described the handling of his match as a shambles after a second round defeat by Russian Dmitriy Tursunov at the French Open on Thursday.
Trailing by two sets to love overnight, Henman snatched the third but squandered nine break points in the sixth game of the fourth to go down 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4. |
|
LONDON — Chelsea have signed Ukraine's World Cup striker Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan for a club record fee, the English champions said on Wednesday. |
|
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan – Shaquille O’Neal was about to throw down another backboard-shaking dunk. Ben Wallace wasn’t having it. The 6-foot-7 Wallace leaped and stuffed Shaq’s slam – forcing a jump ball, putting the 7-1 O’Neal on his back and sparking Detroit’s defense that refused to let the Pistons’ season end. |
|
The International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) European Champions Cup (ECC) General Assembly Meeting took place in St. Petersburg on Thursday with promising results for local hockey fans. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive