|
|
|
 Three people including a baby died after a crane collapsed on a 12-story building in northern St. Petersburg on Tuesday. The most probable reason for the accident on Kamyshovaya Ulitsa, is that the crane failed to stop during a manoeuvre, the head of Primorsky district Yury Osipov told the St. Petersburg Times on Thursday. The accident also injured three people, two of whom were hospitalized, including the 30-year-old crane operator whose injuries have been described as light, and 19-year-old Anton Shcherbakov, St. Petersburg daily Smena reported Thursday. Doctors had to amputate part of Shcherbakov’s foot, and he suffered multiple bone fractures and a head injury, the newspaper reported, quoting the hospital’s press-service. He was also said to be in shock. |
|
HEAD OVER HEELS
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A competitor taking part in the FIS Freestyle 2007 Europa Cup at the Krasnoe Ozero resort near the village of Korobitsyno in the Leningrad Oblast on Wednesday. |
|
At least two candidates running for seats in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly have been “killed off” by their rivals as leaflets were distributed around town during the past two weeks declaring that candidates Sergei Andreyev and Alexei Kovalev, representing the Just Russia party, had been murdered. With both men very much alive and the subject of identical murder scenarios described in the anonymously-produced leaflets, the scam was quickly detected.
|
|
MOSCOW — Aeroflot is trying to pull off a branding feat that few companies would dare copy. The airline is clinging to a Soviet-era name and logo that conjure up images of rude flight attendants, bland food and rattling, over-the-hill jets. In reality, however, its fleet is among the youngest in Europe, its business class is considered top-notch, and it has sent its flight attendants back to school to learn to smile. |
All photos from issue.
|
|
|
|
 GROZNY, Russia — President Vladimir Putin nominated a widely feared security chief as the new president of Chechnya on Thursday, while Europe’s human rights chief denounced torture and other rampant abuses in the war-battered region. Ramzan Kadyrov, who previously had served as Chechnya’s prime minister, has run a security force that is accused of abducting and abusing suspected rebels and civilians believed to be connected to them. |
|
MOSCOW — The war of words between Moscow and Washington resumed on Wednesday with a senior U.S. intelligence official accusing the Kremlin of backsliding on democracy and Russia’s chief diplomat accusing the White House of unilateralism. |
|
MOSCOW — The mayor of Vladivostok was suspended by a regional court Wednesday, removing him from office during an investigation into accusations of embezzlement, national media reported. The Mayor’s Office in Vladivostok has been beset with scandal. One incumbent was sacked in a Kremlin power struggle, while another is on trial for a financial deal sealed without due process. |
|
MOSCOW — Mayor Yury Luzhkov on Wednesday reiterated his opposition to gay-pride parades in Moscow. “The issue is not about discrimination or persecution, but it does concern propaganda,” Luzhkov said. |
|
|
|
|
TOKYO — Japan and Russia agreed to bolster economic ties in energy and other industries Wednesday as they sought to resolve a territorial dispute that has weighed on diplomatic relations for decades. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, wrapping up a two-day visit to Tokyo, called on Japanese businesses to invest more in Russia, quelling concerns over issues such as administrative red tape. |
|
St. Petersburg Cable Television Company (TKT) has announced plans to take on the leaders in the local broadband market. Focusing on a business that still has huge growth potential, TKT managers hope to triple the number of subscribers this year, they said at a press conference Tuesday. |
|
MOSCOW — TNK-BP headed closer to a standoff with Russian authorities Wednesday as a senior environmental official called for the company’s main production license to be revoked. Oleg Mitvol, the deputy head of the Natural Resources Ministry’s environmental agency, said TNK-BP’s license for the Kovykta gas field in east Siberia should be revoked since the company was failing to fulfill its terms. |
|
Tax Amnesty MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia will get between $5 billion and $8 billion in extra revenue from a personal tax amnesty, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported Thursday, citing AlexanderKogan, a member of the Duma’s budget and taxes committee. |
|
|
|
 The majority of Russians don’t think of themselves as European but as representatives of a different civilization. Many are actually afraid of Europe and don’t share what are generally considered to be European values, and this is leading to a sense of alienation from Europe. |
|
In the book “Emperors of Illusions,” author Sergei Lukyanenko tells the story of aliens who study Earth and conclude that humans are unable to reproduce without spinach. |
|
|
|
 Sean Lennon is not the type of musician that feels under pressure to release an album and tour every year — what has taken him back into the studio and on the road in the last year was a tragedy. “Friendly Fire,” Lennon’s second album — after his 1998 debut — began as a form of therapy for the trauma Lennon went through when his girlfriend, as he revealed in various interviews, left him for his best friend, who was killed in a motorcycle accident soon after, before Lennon had had a chance to be reconciled with him. |
|
Tsypa called it quits and threw a farewell party on Saturday. Translated as “Chick,” the bar was launched last year as one of the several indie disco bars set on repeating the success of Datscha. |
|
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the February Revolution in Russia — not to be confused with the Bolshevik Revolution of October that year — which put an end to the Romanov Dynasty’s controversial three-hundred-year reign and promised highly anticipated democratic modernization of the country. Lenin in turn put an end to that outcome with his Bolshevik coup. St. Petersburg’s Museum of Political History of Russia is commemorating the February Revolution by tracing step by step the events of that turbulent February with an exhibit: “February 1917: Chronology of the Fall of the Monarchy in Russia.” Authentic archival material such as telegrams, photographs, and decrees, bear witness to the judicial, social and visual transformation of Russia and illuminates the past in the light of current events. |
|
 Russians can take some pride this week that a woman with roots in the country won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the annual Oscars extravaganza in Hollywood on Sunday. |
 The kantele, an ancient Finnish folk instrument, arrived in St. Petersburg on Tuesday for the opening concert of a festival of Finnish music at the Carnival Concert Hall. Suomi Music 2007 — The Year of Finnish Music marks the 90th anniversary of Finland’s independence from Russia. |
|
At the end of 2006, the Russian publishing industry was puzzled to learn that many of the year’s bestseller lists were topped by the debut novel of a then-unknown author, 31-year-old Sergei Minayev. |
 Published: February 22, 2007 Last Saturday, Channel One unveiled its latest project, a freak show called “A Minute of Fame.” Did I say freak show? Sorry, I meant talent contest. It’s a fine line and this show sometimes set its limbo-dancing pole a fraction too low. |
|
Lisboa 45 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa. Tel: 570 1974 Open daily 11 a.m. — 2 p.m. Credit cards not accepted currently Menu in English and in Russian Dinner for two with alcohol: 2,100 rubles ($80. |
 Russian mainstream cinema is taking one giant leap after another. Just a few years ago any production that involved more than one visual effect caused a commotion — but look at the industry now: for the second time this year, two big crowed-pleasers are released simultaneously. It hasn’t even been a full month since fantasy epic “Volkodav” beat glamorous comedy “Zhara” in the holiday season box-office battle, yet now there’s another bout between a pseudo-historical epic “The Sovereign’s Servant” and sci-fi action-flick “Paragraph 78. |
|
|
|
|
COPENHAGEN — Danish police arrested at least 75 people in Copenhagen on Thursday in violent street clashes after authorities evicted squatters from a youth center, a police spokesman said. Scores of demonstrators threw cobblestones at police and set makeshift barricades on fire. |
|
ROME — Romano Prodi won a confidence vote in Italy’s upper house on Wednesday to stay on as prime minister, but an opinion poll suggested his grip on power would remain weak. |
|
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator John McCain made it official on Wednesday that he is seeking the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and said he plans a formal announcement in April. The Arizona Republican, surprising few Americans, made the announcement during an interview on CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman,” which was taped for broadcast late on Wednesday. |
|
NEW YORK — Top White House candidates unveiled their own YouTube video channels on Thursday, pushing the 18-month-old web video-sharing site even farther into the U. |
|
|
|
 LONDON — Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has accused a League Cup final linesman of lying and called on Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard to tell the truth about a clash with Emmanuel Adebayor, British media reported on Thursday. The comments, which could land Wenger in trouble with the FA, followed a brawl in his team’s defeat on Sunday which prompted three red cards and led to charges for both clubs, Adebayor and team-mate Emmanuel Eboue. “I don’t agree with the report of the linesman because, for me, he lies,” Wenger was quoted saying after Arsenal’s 1-0 FA Cup fifth round defeat at Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday. “Adebayor didn’t punch anybody. So when the linesman says he punches someone, he lies. “I would like you to ask Lampard if he was punched. |
|
BIG SPENDER
/ Reuters
St. Petersburg’s Zenit has signed Ukrainian midfielder Anatoly Timoshchyuk for four years for a record $20 million from Shakhtar Donetsk. |
|
DEN BOSCH, Netherlands — A Dutch court handed Russia coach Guus Hiddink a six-month suspended sentence and fined him 45,000 euros ($59,270) on Tuesday after finding him guilty of tax fraud. Hiddink was accused of evading almost 1.4 million euros in Dutch taxes by falsely claiming to be a resident of Belgium in 2002 and 2003. The court cleared him of tax evasion during 2002, saying the Dutchman may well have intended to go and live in Belgium, but found him guilty for the period of 2003, when he had actually lived with his partner in Amsterdam, and imposed the maximum fine.
|
|
KARACHI — Pakistan pace bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have been ruled out of the World Cup due to injury, a senior cricket board official said on Thursday. The double withdrawal comes just five months after the pair tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone and were banned by their national board before an appeal panel cleared them to play again. |
Temp: -2°C moderate or heavy snow showers
Issues Archive