LOCAL NEWS

STUNT EXPOSES NUCLEAR-SAFETY RISKS

MOSCOW - In broad daylight, a State Duma deputy, two Greenpeace activists and three NTV camera operators sneaked into a supposedly high-security industrial complex in western Siberia and spent several hours near storage facilities containing 3,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel.

GOVERNMENT REWRITING THE STATS

MOSCOW - The government has quietly rewritten history, burying a statement several pages deep into one of its official Web sites that says the economy recovered from the 1998 financial crisis even faster than previously reported.

NATIONAL NEWS

MOSCOW DIES BY THE KNIFE AND ROPE

MOSCOW - Muscovites are nine times more likely to be murdered than Londoners, but two times less likely to be killed than are residents of Washington, the murder capital of the world. The weapon of choice is a kitchen knife, followed by a length of rope or some other method of strangulation.

EXTRADITEES COULD BE STAROVOITOVA SUSPECTS

Two suspects allegedly linked to the assassination of State Duma Deputy Ga li na Starovoitova were extradited from the Czech Republic and delivered to St.

A NEW VISA OFFICE IN ST. PETERSBURG

The Canadian Consulate General in
St. Petersburg is pleased to announce the opening of a Visa Section on February 25, 2002. This office will process applications for visitor visas, student authorizations and temporary work permits. People living in the Northwest Region of Russia
(St.

REPORT: U.S. HOLDING RUSSIANS

PARIS - Russia has "preliminary information" that some of its citizens are being held at a U.S. prison camp in Cuba in connection with the U.

IN BRIEF

Juvenile Courts

MOSCOW (SPT) - The State Duma gave preliminary approval Friday to draft legislation introducing a system of juvenile courts, Interfax reported.

The bill, passed with a vote of 366 to 6, stipulates that cases involving even one minor must fall under the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts, the report said.

LOCAL BUSINESS

TEAM CANADA BRINGS $212M IN CONTRACTS

MOSCOW - The leaders of Russia and Canada swapped personalized jerseys Friday on the rink where the two countries played a historic Cold War hockey game, and then a new Team Canada - more than 300 visiting representatives of business, politics, culture and education - faced off with Russian partners to seal a flurry of deals.

BRITISH BREWERY TAKES PART OF BALTIKA

MOSCOW- No. 1 British brewer Scottish & Newcastle PLC clinched a $1.9-billion deal to acquire Finland's Hartwall on Thursday in a bold move to tap the fast-growing Russian beer market.

FOREIGN INVESTORS' APPETITE FOR FOOD GROWS

MOSCOW - Full-year investment figures for 2001 won't be ready until next month, but one trend is already clear: Foreigners are flocking to the food and retail sectors like never before.

Nearly half of the $9.7 billion that foreigners invested in the country in the first nine months of 2000 was for products that are either eaten or worn by Russians, according to a report by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry obtained by The St.

GREENS FIGHTING SAKHALIN OVER DANGER TO WHALES

MOSCOW - Environmental groups are turning to the courts to stop two major oil and gas projects in the Far East, claiming that they endanger the population of Western Pacific gray whales in the Sea of Okhotsk, a Russian Greenpeace official said Friday.

IN BRIEF

Delta Stake Sold

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - NorthWest Telecom said Friday it was selling its 43.1 percent stake in Russia's oldest mobile provider, St. Petersburg-based Delta Telecom.

NorthWest's board of directors on Friday decided to sell the stake in Delta Telecom - 24.

HOUSE OF CARDS: THE ANATOMY OF ENRON'S FALL

One year ago, Enron was riding high as one of America's most successful corporations - on the outside. Beneath the surface lay a series of byzantine partnerships and financial strategies that would eventually collapse and bring the once-proud energy-trading giant to its knees.

OPINION

WHO ARE THE REAL FIGURE-SKATING CHAMPIONS?

In response to "Scandal Casts Cloud Over Olympics," Feb. 15.

Editor,

This evening, I watched television from a lounge in an airport in Edmonton, Canada, the hometown of [figure skater] Jamie Sale.

I watched her and David Pelletier receive their gold medals, alongside Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

ARE ETHICS OPTIONAL IN THE BUSINESS WORLD?

EVERY spring, Stephen Loeb takes a group of business students on a field trip. It's not to the New York Stock Exchange or some other lofty aerie of American capitalism.

FEWER BRIBES, BUT THEY'RE MORE EXPENSIVE

THERE has been a lot of talk lately about how Russia is finally coming to grips with its notorious corruption problem. People are saying that officials are now taking fewer bribes and that they are even afraid of prosecution.

Last December, the head of a local company that received a grant from City Hall told me in a private conversation that he hadn't paid a single kopeck for his victory.

CHRIS FLOYD'S GLOBAL EYE

U.S. President George W. Bush's teleprompter reading of his word-massagers' "Axis of Evil" speech last week certainly was a ring-tailed wonder.

WORLD

WORLD WATCH

Police Find Rockets

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Police found four rockets Monday aimed at part of Karachi International Airport used by the U.S.-led coalition in Afgha ni stan, officials said.

Waqar Mulan, an airport security official, said the Chinese-made rockets were equipped with homemade launchers and a timing device for automatic firing.

AMERICANS HOLD RUSSIA TO TIE

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - Unlike 1980, this wasn't a must-win Olympic hockey game for either the United States or Russia, so maybe it was fitting that neither team could.

ENQVIST TAKES MARSEILLE, SELES GETS 1ST THIS YEAR

MARSEILLE, France -Thomas Enqvist came from behind to beat Nicolas Escude 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 Sunday to win his third Open 13 title.

"I love this court," said Enqvist, who also won the tournament in 1997 and 1998. "I think I played a great match.

IOC GIVES CANADIAN PAIR GOLD

SALT LAKE CITY - Just as they had hoped, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier got to hear "O Canada" on Sunday and see their country's flag rise above the rink where they skated an Olympic gold-medal performance six days ago.