LOCAL NEWS

CLINTON: PUTIN HAS NO SOUL

HAMPTON, New Hampshire — Senator Hillary Clinton, campaigning on Sunday ahead of New Hampshire’s critical presidential primary, declared in response to a voter’s question that Russian President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t have a soul.”

“Bush really premised so much of our foreign policy on his personal relationships with leaders, and I just don’t think that’s the way a great country engages in diplomacy,” Clinton said to voters in Hampton, New Hampshire. The state held the nation’s first presidential nominating primary on Tuesday.

“This is the president that looked in the soul of Putin, and I could have told him, he was a KGB agent,” Clinton said.

POLAND CALLS FOR TALKS ON CONTESTED BALTIC SEA PIPE

WARSAW — Poland wants talks with Germany and Russia about a controversial Baltic Sea gas pipeline project steered by Russian giant Gazprom, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in an interview published Monday.

“I want to launch an in-depth discussion,” Tusk said in the Polish edition of the magazine Newsweek.

“We need to demystify the problem. We need to understand why the Russians are holding out for this project under the Baltic, which is three times more expensive than a gas pipeline crossing Poland, and what the conditions would be for changing it,” he said.

Scientist: Russia Leads Race to Mars

MOSCOW — Russia is leading the race to complete a manned mission to Mars and could land a Russian on the Red Planet by 2025, a leading scientist was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

“We have something of a head start in this race as we have the most experience in piloted space flight,” the director of the prestigious Space Research Institute, Lev Zelyony, told Interfax news agency on Tuesday.

NATIONAL NEWS

Beer Not Yet Piped In, But Zenit Triumphant

Last year began with plans by Zenit, the St. Petersburg football club funded by gas giant Gazprom, to build a beer pipeline at its stadium to fuel fans and ended with cult followers holed up in a cave awaiting the end of the world.

What came in between in 2007 made about as much sense.

It was the last year of Vladimir Putin’s presidency, and celebrities of all stripe lined up to ask — no, beg — the man to stay on.

LOCAL BUSINESS

PRIVATE PROPERTY LAW PASSED

The Russian government has allowed the privatization of “architectural monuments of federal importance” after new legislation came into force on Jan 1, Interfax reported last week.

The sale of buildings representing cultural and architectural heritage was banned in Russia in 2002.

MORE INCUBATORS TO HELP SMALL FIRMS

The St. Petersburg budget will spend approximately 350 million rubles ($14.3 million) on the development of business incubators by 2011 to foster small enterprises in the city, according to a statement released by the committee for economic development, industrial policy and trade.

GOLDEN GLOBES CALLED OFF DUE TO STRIKE

LOS ANGELES — Striking Hollywood writers won two battles on Monday by making a deal to work for Tom Cruise’s film company and wreaking havoc on the Golden Globe Awards, but their labor war against film and TV studios is far from over.

Some experts believe the writers’ strategy of making deals with independent producers like Cruise’s United Artists will not only fail to divide and conquer Hollywood’s big media companies, but serve to strengthen the industry’s resolve.

FILM AUDIENCES DOWN IN 2007

Moviegoers were paying more in 2007, but that doesn’t mean they were going more often.

Box-office revenue in the U.S. and Canada climbed 4 percent to $9.

GOLD REACHES RECORD HIGH, DOLLAR DROPS

LONDON — Investors pushed stocks higher on Tuesday, seeking to reverse their poor start for the year, but economic worries remained deeply embedded and safe-haven gold jumped to another record high.

Oil rose around $1.50 a barrel after a three-day fall, renewing inflation concerns, while the dollar slipped.

IN BRIEF

New Pulkovo Runway

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The St. Petersburg government announced a tender for the reconstruction of a runway at Pulkovo airport, Interfax reported.

OPINION

THE ART OF READING RUSSIA’S FUTURE

With Vladimir Putin’s presidency winding down, this is a good time to think about his legacy and the future of Russia. The Putin presidency will be remembered for the country’s economic resurgence, political stabilization and increasingly assertive foreign policy.

CUTTING THE JIBBERISH IN THE CABINET

Áîäÿãà: sponge; (sl.) empty chatter, jibberish, BS

A couple of years ago during a Cabinet meeting, President Vladimir Putin asked several ministers to explain why health care reforms were going so slowly.

WORLD

SLOVENIA BACKS FAST TRACK EU ROLE FOR SERBIA

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — New European Union President Slovenia said on Tuesday it aimed to sign an accord with Serbia that is a first step towards EU membership soon, possibly by the end of this month.

But EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn insisted that Belgrade must first meet a condition of full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia.

BEIJING ’08 VOLUNTEERS STEP FORWARD

BEIJING — Beijing organizers have chosen more than 80 percent of the 100,000 volunteers required for this year’s Olympics and Paralympics from the biggest candidate pool in Games history, officials said on Tuesday.

SPORT

ICC DROPS UMPIRE, INDIA SET TO PLAY ON

SYDNEY — India’s troubled tour of Australia is expected to proceed as planned after the International Cricket Council (ICC) bowed to pressure on Tuesday and sacked umpire Steve Bucknor.

The ICC caved in to India’s demands to axe Bucknor from next week’s third test in Perth as well as appointing match referee Ranjan Madugalle as a mediator to resolve the bitter dispute between the teams following last week’s ill-tempered match in Sydney.

LIVERPOOL BUY UP SKRTEL FOR $13M

Zenit St Petersburg’s Slovakian defender Martin Skrtel is set to be sold to Liverpool for $13 million, the BBC reported Tuesday, as Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez takes advantage of the January transfer window.