LOCAL NEWS

Bush Administration Releases Bin Laden Tape

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden contentedly recalled the Sept. 11 suicide attacks against America on a videotape released Thursday by the Pen tagon, saying the destruction exceeded his estimates and the event "benefitted Islam greatly."

The hijackings were "a martyrdom operation," Bin Laden said in a conversation with two aides and a Saudi sheik, but those who carried them out didn't know the precise details until just before they boarded the planes.

NATIONAL NEWS

IN BRIEF

Fresh Kompromat

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Police confiscated a large quantity of printed material apparently intended as part of a negative campaign against two candidates for the Leningrad Oblast Legislative Assembly, Interfax reported Thursday.

The leaflets were taken from a car on Thursday and did not bear the required identifying information.

FUND TO SHELTER THE HOMELESS

Nochlezhka, a local charity that operates programs to assist the homeless, has launched a new effort that, if successful, will put roofs over the heads of at least some of those currently living on city streets.

Duma Deputy Seeks Protection for Anthem

MOSCOW - Those inclined to burst into song after a few drinks should beware: dishonoring the national anthem could soon become criminal offence.

A State Duma deputy from the Unity faction, Sergei Apatenko, has proposed extending Article 329 of the Criminal Code, under which it is a criminal offence to desecrate the Russian coat of arms and flag, to cover denigrating the anthem as well.

LOCAL BUSINESS

New Euro Bills, Coins Meet Border Holdup

MOSCOW - Do not expect to find it simple to swap rubles for freshly minted euros when the new European Union currency hits the streets Jan. 1.

Russia-based banks are finding it next to impossible to get hold of the currency in preparation for the launch. Moreover, many currency exchange points don't even know what the euro looks like.

OPINION

WHO KNOWS WHAT IS LURKING IN THOSE CAVES

IN recent weeks, we have found ourselves lost in caves. While U.S. President George W. Bush accuses Osama bin Laden and his followers of being cowards for fleeing to caves and promises to "smoke them out of their holes," Vice President Cheney retreats to a secure bunker many assume is underground.

HOW ELECTIONS KILLED OFF THE MEDIA

IN the November issue of my journal, I published a "Declaration of Ethical Norms for Journalists During Elections." The Declaration, which comprises seven clauses, was signed by a number of leading media outlets in Krasnoyarsk, a region currently in the thick of an election campaign.

MAKING THE MOVES ON MOSCOW

MOSCOW'S newspapers spent at least a fortnight moaning that Muscovites wouldn't be bothered to turn out for City Duma elections last weekend. But did voters do so in the past? The last elections also took place in December during a severe frost and blizzard.

THERE IS NOT MUCH PATRIOTISM INVOLVED IN THE DRAFT

THE army came after me for first time in the mid-1980s, when I turned 14. The preliminary medical examination at the local voenkomat, or military registration and enlistment office, revealed that I met all the requirements and qualified to be conscripted into the paratroops.

Constitution Provides a Stability Framework

CONSTITUTION Day provides a good opportunity for reflection on this most fundamental of documents and cornerstone of the Russian political system. Moreover, comments regarding constitutional amendments made by Sergei Mironov just after being elected speaker of the Federation Council provide further food for thought.

CULTURE

NEW INSIGHTS INTO OLD IMAGES

"When I was young, I hated socialist realism," said emigre artist Grisha Brus kin. "I hated those giant buildings in Mos cow that were built in Stalin's time."

"But now," he added, "when this art and this architecture are no longer part of an existing totalitarian system, I consider them no more and no less than documents of a epoch, deserving of their place in history.

VERMICELLI'S 'GROSSO' EXPERIMENT

The Vermicelli Orchestra, which has been packing local clubs recently, will expand its horizons and play an ambitious experimental concert this weekend.

CHERNOV'S CHOICE

Pep-See, one of the city's liveliest and most fun club bands will play a single show on Friday to introduce its new album. Called "The Tantsy," the album has just been released on Moscow's Gala label and has yet to appear in record stores.

The album, which was produced by Pep-See guitarist Vitaly Lapin, is seen as something of a breakthrough for the band.

"We have never achieved what we ourselves wanted to hear before," said singer Anna Kipyatkova this week. "Honestly, we were not satisfied with earlier results. Unlike our listeners, by the way."

"We made a lot of progress in creating a correspondence between our live sound and our recorded sound.

NOT YOUR MOM'S BREAKFAST, BUT ...

No matter how long you live in a foreign country, sometimes you just get a craving for some of the little things that you took for granted back home. And it can often be extremely frustrating trying to reproduce those little joys, always hoping that the thing you are hankering for is lurking just around the next corner.

WORLD

WORLD WATCH

American Anthrax

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Army biological- and chemical-warfare facility in Utah has been quietly developing weapons-grade anthrax spores since at least 1992, and has shipped samples of the bacteria to Fort Detrick, Maryland, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

SPORTS WATCH

Great Expectations

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Coach Oleg Romantsev will quit if Russia fails to progress beyond the first round of next year's World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea, his assistant said on Thursday.