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 A new center set up by the United Nations and the Red Cross may help relieve the suffering of hundreds of refugees who have fled their homes - but found little solace in St. Petersburg. Take the case of Mugalina Muradova. More than 10 years ago, Muradova, 59, left her home in Tajikistan for St. Petersburg seeking medical aid for her daughter, Gulfia, who was suffering from a mysterious brain disease. |
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 JERUSALEM - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan landed in Israel on Monday to try to avert the danger of all-out war as an Israeli deadline for Palestinians to halt a wave of protests approached without the bloodshed ending. |
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MOSCOW - Remember to grab your passport when you don a robe and slippers to take out the garbage in the morning. If you forget, the police may soon be able to fine you 80 rubles. Driving over the middle divider of the road could lead to a fine from the traffic police of 240 to 400 rubles. |
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin sent a message of congratulation to new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Monday and said he would push for a full lifting of sanctions against Belgrade. |
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Bolshoi Director Fired MOSCOW (AP) - The artistic director for the Bolshoi Theater's legendary ballet company has been fired, continuing a shakeup of the company's leadership. Alexei Fadeyechev said he had been handed an order canceling his contract, Interfax reported Thursday. |
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Whatever happens when you die? According to Shakespeare, you "lie in cold obstruction and ... rot." According to priests, it all depends on how you live. |
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MOSCOW - A day before Russia's victorious Olympic athletes attend a reception at the Kremlin, the president of the country's Olympics committee called Thursday for a national lottery to support the sports programs. "In that way, we can somehow solve the financial problems of national sports," said Vitaly Smirnov at a news conference. |
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MOSCOW - A Dagestani court Friday convicted Radio Liberty journalist Andrei Babitsky of having a false passport, in what both he and his lawyers described as a politically motivated case. |
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Two adults and a child were killed Thursday in a central city apartment, when, according to police reports, a woman and her daughter were shot by their neighbor, who then took his life. Yelena Sentimova, 33, and her 13-year-old daughter, Ksenia, were found dead in their room when her husband Vya cheslav Sentimov came home from work at about 5 p. |
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Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev last week rejected a law put forward by the Legislative Assembly that would have created justices of the peace for small court claims, in a the latest conflict between City Hall and the local parliament. |
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Maritime pilots who threatened to begin striking on Monday canceled their action after meeting Transport Ministry officials, but said that the situation was far from resolved. "Even though Transport Ministry officials have agreed to postpone [efforts to create state-run navigators organization], and to halt the one that already exists in Novorossiisk, we are waiting to see if they keep their word," said Vladimir Yegorkin, president of the Russian Maritime Pilots Association (RMPA), by telephone on Monday. |
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MOSCOW - The government will keep a presence in the banking industry as a temporary measure to share exorbitant risks with the private sector, but it will reduce its participation to four or fewer banks, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Monday. "In my view, the government's participation in most banks is economically inefficient," Kasyanov said after the 13th meeting of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council, which is composed of government officials and executives from large foreign corporations doing business in Russia. |
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The stock market made a zig-zag on the week and the RTS index dropped 0.94 percent to 197.20 driven by external factors. "Hedge funds were shifting to oil stocks while local brokers kept buying power and telecoms that were underperforming the market at the start of the week," said Vladimir Detinich, head of research with Olma brokerage. |
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MOSCOW - The 2001 budget squeaked through the State Duma on first reading Friday amid outcries from some lawmakers that they were being pressured by the Kremlin for their votes. The 1.19 trillion ruble ($39.7 billion) budget was approved 232 to 186 with two abstentions, just six votes more than necessary to gain approval. The vote marks the first time the government has won a green light from parliament on a first attempt. The balanced budget forecasts the economy will grow 4 percent and inflation will be reined in at 12 percent. It sets the average currency rate at 30 rubles to the U.S. dollar. If the anger of lawmakers over Kremlin lobbying was any indication Friday, the government may face a struggle getting the budget passed at the next three Duma hearings. |
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 MOSCOW - A newly created lobbying group of business heavyweights held its second general meeting Friday to hammer out a plan of action for promoting commerce with the United States. |
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In an attempt to attain a degree of control over the piracy-ridden Russian software market, software giant Microsoft is planning to open a representative office in St. Petersburg. Microsoft employees who are staffing the office in St. Petersburg said that they would comment officially on the situation only at the official opening of the office, which is planned for some time later this year. Microsoft representatives at company headquarters in Redmond, Washington, could not be contacted on Monday. However, Tatyana Valuiskaya, general director of local chain Computer World, which is licensed to sell Microsoft software, said in an interview on Monday that the representative office would probably aim to keep an eye on regional computer hardware dealers. |
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 The Communications Ministry is embroiled in a conflict over radio frequencies. It is widely believed that the ministry wants to take the frequencies from two cellular-communications providers and transfer them to the Sonic Duo company, which plans to launch its very own GSM network next year. |
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DETROIT - General Motors Corp. is expected to be the only traditional Big 3 Detroit automaker to report improved third-quarter earnings, even though the American auto industry is surging ahead to a second year of record car and truck sales. Ford Motor Co. |
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BEIJING - A Chinese trade official said on Monday that Beijing would press ahead with the process of joining the World Trade Organization, despite concerns that problems will delay membership until next year. |
 TOKYO - In the biggest failure of a Japanese life insurer to date, Japan's Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance Co. said on Monday it had filed for court protection from creditors under new fast-track laws for financial firms. The failure - making Chiyoda Mutual the nation's biggest corporate bankruptcy with 2. |
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WASHINGTON - Scientists have always favored diversity and tolerance when it comes to defining a planet. Gassy monsters like Jupiter qualify, and so do icy little spit-wads like Pluto. |
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CERTAINLY it is true, as an editorialist for The Washington Post quite nicely put it, that last week's debate between the vice presidential candidates was, by contrast with the one between the presidential candidates, "serious, well-informed, substantive, grown-up," and that it left one "with the sense that perhaps the tickets are upside down, that the country might face a less-troubling choice if Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman were the rivals for the presidency instead of the men who picked them. |
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IN a recent interview with a top American manager, I heard mentioned the name of the hero of the workers of the world, Vladimir Lenin. "This is Lenin's city," said the manager, who went on to say that, when he himself was faced with certain situations requiring agreement with his work force, he had wondered what the Bolshevik leader would have done. |
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Altered States Same-sex couples hankering for the sanctity of legal matrimony have found a most unlikely sanctuary these days: George W. Bush's born-again, Bible-believing, for-the-family state of Texas. State officials were forced to uphold the legality of a lesbian marriage last month, The Associated Press reports, after an appeals court decision gave Jessica Wicks and Robin Manhart the bona fides to their San Antonio marriage license. |
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WASHINGTON - In less than a week, Republican George W. Bush has virtually eliminated Democrat Al Gore's lead and now the U.S. presidential race is deadlocked, according to the Reuters/ MSNBC poll released on Monday. The sampling of 1,208 likely voters by pollster John Zogby showed that with 29 days to go before the Nov. |
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U.S. Hosts Korean Visit SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - North Korea's second-most powerful official, Vice Marshal Jo Myong-rok, arrived in San Francisco on Sunday for a one-day stopover before heading to Washington where he will become the highest-ranking North Korean ever to visit the U. |
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Issues Archive