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LISTVYANKA, Siberia - Shimmering between the Siberian taiga and the mountainous Mongolian border, Lake Baikal is a crescent-shaped jewel in Russia's rusting ecological crown. The world's deepest, oldest major lake is home to hundreds of animal and plant species found nowhere else on earth, but campaigners say a hunt for the more marketable assets of natural gas and fur is threatening to cloud its turquoise waters. |
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MOSCOW - U.S. claims that Russia has moved short-range nuclear weapons to its naval base on the Baltic Sea have caused a stir, but the Russian military last week insisted the reports are wrong, and Russian analysts said such a deployment would be senseless. |
All photos from issue.
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 When the news broke in 2000, there was one man almost invariably on the scene. Often just a step behind the cops and always in front of the cameras, smooth-talking lawyer Pavel Astakhov became a household name through his work on the year's most politically charged cases. |
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New Year's Eve revelers inflicted heavy fire damage on the already ailing Chariots of Glory monument on Palace Square when a flare damaged the protective scaffolding that has surrounded the statue since restoration works began on it last spring. |
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TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia's Foreign Ministry dismissed on Monday a Russian government warning that its citizens avoid traveling to its former Soviet neighbor because of rising crime. "They are manipulating the facts of certain criminal actions artificially to heighten tensions and worsen Georgia's international image," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. |
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MOSCOW - As the hands on the Kremlin clock neared midnight on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin congratulated the country on what he called a year of progress and stability. |
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MOSCOW - Separatist rebels killed up to four people in an ambush in the Chechen capital Grozny and gunmen shot dead a Muslim religious leader outside his home on Saturday, military officials said. Three interior ministry troops and a local prosecutor died on Saturday when rebels fired a grenade at their car, detonating ammunition stocked inside, Itar-Tass news agency on Sunday quoted the military as saying. |
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MOSCOW - Russia is preparing to release approximately a third of its prisoners in 2001 under an amnesty bill aimed at improving conditions in jails, the Interfax news agency quoted the country's justice minister as saying last week. |
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Lethal Glue Cocktail KALININGRAD REGION (SPT) - Five inmates in penitentiary No. 8 died on New Year's Day after drinking a primitive cocktail they made with synthetic glue and water, Interfax reported. "On the night of Jan. 1, 2001, ten prisoners broke into a subsidiary where synthetic glue was kept for linoleum carpets," the agency quoted Anatoly Pa na sen ko, the chief jailer of the Kaliningrad Region - a Russian enclave located southwest of Lithuania - as saying. |
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BRUSSELS - Beef is being kept off the European Union market as authorities struggle with new rules to ban older meat from the food chain unless found free of mad cow disease, officials said on Monday. In response to rising numbers of mad cow cases across Europe, all meat from cattle aged over 30 months now has to be tested for the brain-wasting disorder, but a lack of facilities is holding up the delivery of meat to the shops. |
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NEW YORK - The combination of two pesticides leads to brain damage very similar to Parkinson's disease, researchers at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York have found. |
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MOSCOW - It has even more reserves than is presently known. U.S. foreign policy has a significant effect on companies operating there. But to justify further development, the price of a barrel of oil has to average over $19 over the next year-and-a-half. |
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LONDON - Oil prices firmed Monday after weekend reports that the OPEC producer's cartel was agreed on the need to slash output later this month to avoid oversupply when winter demand tails off. |
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BASEL, Switzerland - Central bankers from major countries offered an upbeat picture of the world economy on Monday, and said they expected a soft landing rather than a sharp slowdown in the United States. "Nobody around the table was projecting a recession either in the U. |
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WASHINGTON - A top economic adviser to U.S. President-elect George W. Bush said on Sunday that details of the tax package Bush will send to Congress were still not final but that Bush was depending on "speedy approval" on Capitol Hill, "as quickly as they can move. |
 LONDON - Vodafone Group led European shares lower in afternoon trade Monday, with sentiment in new economy shares soured further by a sharp opening drop in the NASDAQ Composite. Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone operator, slid 5.9 percent after Hong Kong's Hutchison looked to sell a stake in the British company. Other telecom companies were also weak, with France Telecom down 3.9 percent after announcing it would list its mobile unit Orange at the end of the month. |
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 Bored with neoclassical economics but still in the market for a business read? From Sweden comes the answer. In September of 1999, "Funky Business: Talent Makes the Capital Dance," an offbeat exploration of the business world appeared in English and, since then, it has been translated into 13 other languages, including Russian. |
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MOSCOW - Global tobacco giants Philip Morris and British American Tobacco will be put on trial, have their cigarettes pulled off local shelves and fined $18 million if a writer, an economist and a politician get their way. In a lawsuit filed last week in a Moscow court, State Duma Deputy Alexei Mitrofanov - a member of Vla di mir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party of Russia - Mytishchi writer Alexander Sorokin and Rostov economist Sergei Cherednichenko accused the companies of violating the country's consumer-protection laws. |
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MOSCOW - Incomes are on the rise across the nation thanks to the booming economy and the government's better management of subsidies to the regions, a government watchdog reported. |
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MOSCOW - U.S. poultry giant Tyson Foods has reached a $4.7 billion deal to acquire No. 1 meat producer IBP Inc. in a merger that would create a bird- and-beef powerhouse on the Russian market. Tyson is estimated to hold up to 40 percent of the import market for chicken legs. |
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Alcoa in the Money PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) - Fourth-quarter earnings at aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. jumped 17 percent, helped by cost-cutting measures and recent acquisitions. |
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Rebel Yell Who's been a busy little bee, then, buzzing in his hive over the holidays? Why, little Georgie Bush Bee, that's who. While an overfed America sprawled in blissful post-prandial haze, Georgie was working his little tail off, secreting waxy Cabinet choices to make sweet honey for his hard-Right pals. |
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Nuke Imports Will Pay for New Weapons LAST month, the Duma voted overwhelmingly to approve a government-backed law that will amend current legislation and allow Russia to import highly radioactive waste from foreign countries. |
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Are These Words Meant To Move Us? IT seems odd that after spending so much time and energy debating which music to choose as the national anthem, Russia proceeded to adopt lyrics with hardly any public discussion at all. Rather than agonizing over what sort of message the country wanted to send with the words to its official hymn, the government just covered over the obvious ideological anachronisms in the Soviet anthem with some frankly banal patches. |
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Dear Mr. Bush, I am writing to you as a citizen of our planet and someone who beholds the last remaining superpower. Can there be any doubt that the United States plays a major role in guiding our world? Only a fool could disregard that fact. |
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JERUSALEM - Senior Palestinian negotiators said on Monday that the Palestinian Authority rejected President Clinton's proposals as a basis for ending conflict with Israel. "We can't accept Clinton's ideas as a basis for future negotiations or a future settlement. |
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Turks Attack PKK ANKARA, Turkey (LAT) - Iraqi Kurdish officials confirmed Sunday that at least 500 Turkish troops have pushed 160 kilometers into northern Iraq in their deepest incursion into the Kurdish-controlled enclave in 15 years of war against Kurdish separatists. |
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PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The embattled new head of public Czech Television has no plans to step down despite mounting pressure from parliament, his staff and the public to quit over alleged political bias, his aide said on Sunday. Jiri Hodac remained defiant after the powerful lower house of parliament called on Saturday for the Czech Television Council, which appointed him, to sack him if he refuses to go voluntarily. |
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BANGKOK, Thailand - Thaksin Shinawatra pledged on Monday to build a coalition this week with the clout to dominate Thai politics following his landslide general election victory. |
 LOS ANGELES - Pigs didn't fly nor hell freeze over, but the lowly Los Angeles Clippers did beat the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers Sunday, and it wasn't even close. Lamar Odom scored a season-high 29 points on 13-of-18 shooting to lead the Clippers to a convincing 118-95 victory over the mighty Lakers. |
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ARLINGTON, Virginia - Stanford has become the fourth team this season to be ranked No. 1 in the ESPN/USA Today college basketball poll. The Cardinal (13-0) received 27 first-place votes and 769 points from a nationwide panel of coaches on Sunday night to jump over Michigan State (12-1), which fell to third after a last-second loss to Indiana. |
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Belfour Suspended DALLAS (Reuters) - The Dallas Stars suspended veteran goaltender Ed Belfour indefinitely on Sunday, one day after he left the team following a "disagreement" with coach Ken Hitchcock. The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday that Belfour wanted to start against the Bruins, an assignment given to rookie Marty Turco. As the backup goalie, Belfour was supposed to take the ice for the morning skate but refused, the newspaper said. Gainey immediately began collecting information and imposed a gag order that prohibited Hitchcock from discussing the matter after Turco backstopped the Stars to a 4-0 victory. Striker Faces Surgery ROME (Reuters) - AS Roma's Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta might need surgery on his right knee which would sideline him for up to four months, a surgeon used by the club said on Sunday. |
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 EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey - Ron Dixon returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown and a swarming Giants defense contained Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb as New York beat the Eagles 20-10 on Sunday to reach the NFC championship game for the first time in 10 years. |
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MIAMI, Florida - Oklahoma completed its stunning revival as a college football power by beating Florida State 13-2 in the Orange Bowl Wednesday to claim its first national title since 1985. The top-ranked Sooners bottled up Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke, and Quentin Griffin scored on a 10-yard run to become the only undefeated team in the country. Florida State (11-2) failed in its quest to win back-to-back national titles and its third crown since 1993. It also eliminated any chances of Miami, which defeated Florida in the Sugar Bowl last Tuesday, of earning a share of the national title. Tim Duncan kicked a pair of field goals to give the Sooners a tenuous 6-0 lead after three quarters, and it was a key play by the defense that increased the lead. |
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 LONDON - A rasping drive from Teddy Sheringham a minute from time gave Manchester United a 2-1 win at division-one leaders Fulham on the English champions' return to the FA Cup on Sunday. |
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BOSTON - Rick Pitino, frustrated over his inability to turn around the struggling Boston Cel tics, is expected to announce his resignation as the team's coach on Mon day, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Citing sources close to Pitino, the Providence Journal-Bulletin reported that Pitino had reached an agreement with Celtics owner Paul Gaston on a buyout of his 10-year contract. |
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MELBOURNE, Australia - American 55th seed Steve Stricker ended four lean years to win the world matchplay championship at the penultimate hole against Sweden's Pierre Fulke on Sunday. |
 DETROIT - Steve Yzerman watched his team blow a lead in the closing seconds of regulation, then went out and won it in overtime. The Detroit captain stole the puck from Ray Bourque and scored his second goal of the game just 68 seconds into the extra session to lift the Red Wings to a 4-3 victory over the arch-rival Colorado Avalanche Sunday. |
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