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CHERNOBYL, Ukraine - This week, at midday on Friday, a duty engineer at Chernobyl nuclear power station will press an inconspicuous button and begin the shutdown of the plant that caused the world's worst civil nuclear disaster. That is if the station is operating - it has been forced to shut down twice in the last three weeks due to collapsed power lines and leaking steam, highlighting the jitters Chernobyl causes around the world. After years of talks between Ukraine and Western countries, President Leonid Kuchma promised in June to close Chernobyl on Dec. 15, pledging never to turn it back on. The No. 4 reactor at Chernobyl exploded on April 26, 1986, following a controversial experiment when staff temporarily cut off safety systems during a test of the unit's capacity. |
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 Those who thought that Luke Skywalker's lightsaber was a thing of the distant future, think again: St. Petersburg scientists have created a gadget that a Jedi knight would not be ashamed to wield. |
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WASHINGTON - The historic case of George W. Bush versus Al Gore came before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday as the justices struggled over how to count Florida ballots that could decide who will be the next president. In a showdown before the highest court in the land, the justices repeatedly questioned lawyers for both sides on exactly what should count as a legitimate vote for president in the disputed Florida election, where 25 pivotal Electoral College votes are at stake. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin gave the green light Friday to a sweeping restructuring of the nation's vast state-owned television and radio network that could result in its partial privatization. Putin gave his stamp of approval to the proposal by the press and communications ministries to revamp the All-Russian State Television and Radio Co. |
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MOSCOW - U.S. citizen Al Decie finally boarded a train to Riga on Friday night after being stuck in Russia for five months without a visa amid a tax dispute. |
 MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin gave his assurance to President Bill Clinton that he will pardon convicted American spy Edmond Pope during a telephone conversation the two leaders had Friday, The Associated Press reported. The announcment was made on Satuday by Clinton at a White House ceremony, where the designs of his Arkansas Presidental Libary were released, the report said. |
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MOSCOW - A former top official of state-controlled Aeroflot was arrested Thursday on new charges of large-scale fraud, the Prosecutor General's Office said. |
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MOSCOW - With jitters over mad cow disease sweeping Europe, Russians were jarred this week when the fatal disease appeared to have struck close to home. Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry announced Thursday that two cows infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, had died in the village of Simonov in the Rovno region. |
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WASHINGTON -The next U.S. president should take bold steps to mend Washington's frayed ties with Moscow, including unilateral cuts in nuclear arms and a halt to NATO expansion until 2005, a prominent think tank said. |
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City prosecutors last week turned an alleged bribery investigation involving Promyshlenno-Stroitelny Bank and the City Hall Maintenance Committee over to the Federal Security Service for completion. The case as prepared by the City Prosecutors' offices alleged that a personal $100,000 bribe was paid by Promstroibank to the committee's deputy head, Vyacheslav Strugov in exchange for opening several maintenance committee accounts with the bank. The bank, City Hall, and the maintenance committee have all denied the allegations. Promstroibank spokesman Alexei Khitrov said the bank management does not attach any importance to which agency is running the investigation. |
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 MOSCOW - The State Duma on Friday overwhelmingly approved President Vladimir Putin's request to reinstate the tune of the Stalin-era anthem and a tsarist flag and eagle as the country's state symbols. |
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House Fire Kills 4 ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Four people, including one child, died in an apartment fire that broke out in a residential building located on Tavrichesky Ul. in central St. Petersburg, Interfax news agency reported on Monday. The fire started in the three-room flat at 4:05 a.m. and was put out at 5:42 a. |
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Digital War Threat REDMOND, Washington (AP) - The nation's top cyberspace official Friday called on the next president to shore up the government's computer security to prevent a "digital Pearl Harbor." "What this presidential election year showed is that statistically improbable events can occur," Richard Clarke of the National Security Council said at a Microsoft-organized conference. |
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MOSCOW - Russia has acquired an unexpected ally in its negotiations with the Paris Club from several large Western investment funds that have established the Emerging Markets Creditors' Association. |
 The Turkish firm Yimpas Holding has announced a partnership with a Russian construction company to build three shopping malls and a business center in St. Petersburg. Yimpas, which owns and operates over 50 malls in Turkey, Germany, Austria and Belgium, announced its partnership with private Russian construction firm Rosstroi at the end of November. |
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Vladimir Potanin, head of the Interros holding, said this week that his company's plans to complete a nickel plant in Cuba could help Russia recover Soviet-era debt from Cuba. |
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ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan - Turkmenistan plans to sign a contract in the next few days to sell Russia 30 billion cubic meters of gas next year, President Saparmurat Niyazov said Friday. A government official also said Turkmenistan had started shipping small amounts of gas to Iran through a new pipeline. |
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The head of the nation's No. 1 car maker AvtoVAZ said in an interview published Friday that his firm had offered the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development a big stake in a proposed joint venture with U. |
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MOSCOW - Following the completion of the restructuring of MinFin tranche three bonds, international rating agency Standard & Poor's upgraded Russia's foreign currency issuer rating to B-minus from SD, or selective default. "This completes a series of restructuring of Russia's local and foreign currency obligations, following the government's default on ruble-denominated debt in August 1998," says the text of the press release circulated Friday by Standard & Poor's. |
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Issue of Profit Tax Is Set To Turn Into a Real Saga RUSSIAN legislation requires that, in order for taxes to become effective, they must be passed during the year before they go into effect and be published at least one month before the beginning of the new tax year. |
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A company in transition will turn to consultants in order to help it get through the process in one piece. So when the whole market is in transition, consultants have a field day. Anna Raff reports on how Western auditing firms profited from Russia's economic problems of the 1990s. |
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WASHINGTON - Bone marrow might provide an easy source of new brain cells, offering treatments for a range of diseases from stroke to Alzheimer's, researchers said on Thursday. |
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TOKYO - Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa sought to defuse a growing debate over whether the Bank of Japan should revive its zero-interest-rate policy as data on Friday showed capital spending looking healthy. Miyazawa added that the world's second-largest economy was still recovering, but that the benefits had not yet filtered through to consumers, and that this in turn was a factor holding back inflation and reining in consumer prices. |
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LONDON - Oil prices, reeling after a two-week slide that lopped 20 percent from a barrel of crude, got a small lift on Monday after leading producer Saudi Arabia said it was too early to start talking about OPEC output curbs. |
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Wall Street Banking on A Victory For Bush REUTERS Wall Street rallied in midday trading on Monday as investors bet the nation's top court would hand Republican George W. Bush a victory in the five-week-old battle for the White House. Fear that a slowing U. |
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LONDON - The euro came under pressure against the dollar on Monday as dealers awaited a conclusion to the five-week U.S. presidential election drama after a weekend court decision that was seen to favor Republican George W Bush. |
 The phrases "free spirit" and "tax adviser" aren't often found in the same sentence, let alone the same person. But Steve Henderson - former employee of Revenue Canada and a man who thinks in flow charts and graphs - somehow reconciles the two concepts. On this day, his office window looks out onto snow-powdered Tverskaya Ulitsa, and his desk is covered with stacks of papers - boxes and arrows betray their analytical contents - fastened neatly by paper clips. |
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WITH a $2.7 billion international debt repayment looming for Russia, the International Monetary Fund mission left Moscow in November without reaching an agreement. The IMF has decided that Russia has enough cash to pay off its debt. Revenues from high global energy prices as well as reports of higher-than-expected Russian GDP growth are causing some analysts to conclude that the Russian economy has turned the corner. |
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Don't Let Chauvinism Kill Charity SINCE 1992, the Salvation Army has worked to ease the suffering of Russia's poor and forgotten. It provides food to the homeless, offers drug counseling, runs community centers, conducts outreach programs in prisons and more. |
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Down in the Viper Pit With The PR Guys IT was a miraculous sight - public relations representatives from different companies greeting, toasting and giving flowers to each other. It was kind of difficult to keep hold of one's sense of reality. But, at least for a short while last Friday, natural enemies buried the hatchet at St. |
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Gold Diggers This is how it works. This is the way they did things eight years ago and this is how they're going to do it again. Get used to it. Because this is how it works. |
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The first Nobel prizes of the new millennium were awarded at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Sunday, with Peace Prize laureate Kim Dae-jung of South Korea vowing to devote the rest of his life to peace and human rights. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden awarded the prizes for sciences, economics and literature to 12 laureates in Stockholm, while South Korean President Kim received the Peace Prize in Oslo. |
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Netanyahu Returns JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu announced a bid to challenge Prime Minister Ehud Barak in coming elections, adding to political turmoil that has made peace with the Palestinians seem even more remote. |
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TOKYO - Beleaguered Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori faced fresh trouble on Monday that could threaten his tenuous hold on power with the publication of long-rumored photos of him with a man alleged to be a right-wing gangster. Analysts said the photos would damage Mori, already one of the nation's most unpopular prime ministers ever, but might not topple him - partly because with parliament in recess, the opposition lacks a forum for a high-profile attack. The pictures, carried in mass circulation Shukan Gendai magazine, were said to have been taken after a function by a Mori support group in western Japan in October 1998, and show Mori sitting next to a man alleged to be a right-wing extremist with suspected ties to organized crime. |
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 TORONTO - Jason Kidd was not going to let the Phoenix Suns give away this one. Kidd scored nine of his 24 points in the fourth quarter as the Suns regrouped after blowing a 21-point lead for a 95-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. |
 KARACHI, Pakistan - England won its first series in Pakistan in 38 years on Monday when it crowned an outstanding display on the final day of the third and final test with a six-wicket victory. In rapidly fading light, Graham Thorpe and Graeme Hick put on 91 for the fourth wicket before Hick was bowled by Waqar Younis for 40 with just 20 runs needed for victory. |
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LONDON - It was all change again at the top in Germany, Spain and France as Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia and Girondins Bordeaux headed the pile after this weekend's fixtures. |
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BALTIMORE, Maryland - The Baltimore Ravens clinched a post-season berth with a 24-3 victory over the awful San Diego Chargers Sunday, giving Baltimore football fans their first playoff team in 23 years. Baltimore quarterback Trent Dilfer, who was 5 the last time a team from Baltimore made the playoffs, completed 16 of 24 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns as he improved to 5-1 as a starter. |
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Aikman Injured Again IRVING, Texas (AP) - Another concussion has made Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman's future even more uncertain. While the Cowboys aren't ready to say the end of Aikman's 12-year career is near, he almost certainly won't be back this year. |
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DETROIT, Michigan - There are nine Czechs on the Pittsburgh Penguins' roster. Garth Snow isn't one of them. But he did a pretty good impression of one Sunday. Snow came up with back-to-back spectacular saves in the waning moments after rookie Toby Petersen scored the go-ahead goal with 15:27 remaining as the Penguins held on for a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. |
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