LOCAL NEWS

Prosecutor Slams Pulkovo Airlines, Airport

Multiple flight safety violations have been identified at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport and in the operations of the city-based air carrier of the same name, the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office said Friday.The office claims to have examined two Tu-154M planes. The are of the same type as the Pulkovo airplane that crashed in eastern Ukraine on Aug.

NATIONAL NEWS

LAVROV DENIES UN, POWER PLANT CONNECTION

MOSCOW — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday rejected a claim that Moscow would halt construction of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant if it expelled UN nuclear inspectors as part of its dispute with the West, RIA-Novosti reported.

"This is not a report, but a clear provocation," Lavrov said from the Palestinian Territories.

IN BRIEF

American HeldnMOSCOW (AP, SPT) — Christopher Garner, a U.S. citizen, and his wife, Svetlana, a native of Ukraine who lives in Khabarovsk, were detained in Moscow Sunday on suspicion of killing a man believed to be related to the wife, Interfax reported.

LOCAL BUSINESS

IN BRIEF

Bridgestone Plantn ST. PETERSBURG (Bloomberg) — Bridgestone, the world's second-biggest tiremaker, will build a plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, Vedomosti said, citing city unidentified city officials.

The Tokyo-based company will build the facility near a car factory Nissan Motor Company is building, the newspaper said.

RSPP FOUNDER VOLSKY, 74, DIES

MOSCOW—Arkady Volsky, who is credited with preventing an industrial collapse after the Soviet demise and founded the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, died Saturday in Moscow.

EXXON WARNS KREMLIN OVER SAKHALIN PRESSURE

NEW YORK — ExxonMobil on Thursday warned Russia to honor a decade-old production-sharing agreement to develop the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas block or risk spooking other foreign investors in the country.

The statement comes as the government and Exxon squabble over whether the company has automatic rights to develop newly discovered reserves around existing deposits in the Sakhalin-1 project.

U.S. GIANT EYES FAST EXPANSION

By Yekaterina DranitsynaGlobal fast-food chain McDonald's has announced ambitious plans for the Russian fast food market and St. Petersburg in particular, considerably increasing the number of its restaurants over the next few years.

OPINION

EXTREME GAMES

The author Vasily Grossman once said the hardest problems always generate the simplest and most incorrect solutions. Amendments to the federal media law and administrative code introduced as measures to combat terrorism, which go before the State Duma for a first reading Wednesday, contain a definition of "extremism" that expands the term to the point of absurdity.

THE GOVERNOR TAKES A STAND ON APRAKSIN DEVELOPMENT

The shopping center Apraksin Dvor is opening up to new investors. Last month, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko criticized the center's development agency for being slow in preparing the complex for reconstruction and privatization — she also said its activities lacked transparency.

Learning Lesson Of Kondopoga

Rioting and racially motivated violence in the northwestern town of Kondopoga last week shone a spotlight on one of the most serious problems facing society today: ethnic tensions.In Kondopoga, the unrest was sparked by a bar fight involving Slavs and an Azeri bartender. Two Slavs died. Soon the town was torn apart by angry mobs of Slavic youths.

WORLD

U.S. Remembers 9/11 Attacks

NEW YORK — Americans bowed their heads in silence on Monday where hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center five years ago, killing nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest attack on U.S. soil.Ceremonies starting on Sunday night revived traumatic memories of the day when al Qaeda hijackers attacked the twin New York towers and the Pentagon in Washington and seized a fourth plane that crashed into the ground in Pennsylvania.

SPORT

SCHUMI TO RETIRE THIS YEAR

MILAN — Italian motor racing fans never truly took Michael Schumacher to their hearts but they have realised what they will be missing when the celebrated Ferrari driver bows out at the end of this season.Schumacher announced on Sunday, shortly after winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, that he would call it a day after the final race of this year's championship.

FEDERER, SHARAPOVA WIN U.S. OPEN TITLES

NEW YORK — Dominant and inspirational in equal measure, Swiss maestro Roger Federer snapped up another three Grand Slam titles in a glittering 2006.They were the seventh, eighth and ninth Grand Slam crowns for the 25-year-old, yet vanquished rival Andy Roddick fears the best is yet to come.