LOCAL NEWS

LEBED KILLED IN SUNDAY CRASH

MOSCOW - Investigators on Monday found the flight recorders from the Mi-8 helicopter that plunged into a snowy Siberian hillside, killing Krasnoyarsk Governor Alexander Lebed and seven others, emergency officials said.

Thick fog concealing a frost-covered power line was likely at fault for Sunday's crash, Russian news reports said.

GOVERNOR, GENERAL AND PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL

MOSCOW - General Alexander Lebed, a military hero and one-time serious presidential contender, managed to trespass the nation's blurred political boundaries by bluntly providing ready answers to a country looking for its path in a post-Soviet era.

NATIONAL NEWS

POLICE OFFICER DIES AFTER RUN-IN WITH DEPUTY

MOSCOW - A State Duma official attacked a Moscow police officer who failed to give way to his car, and the officer died Sunday night in the hospital, Interfax reported Monday.

However, supporters of Yury Volkodav, 33, an adviser to the Duma electoral- law commission, said the officer, Lieutenant Alexei Levkovich, 23, slipped and fell after drunkenly harassing Volkodav.

TWO SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT FOR THE RUSSIANS OF LATVIA

RIGA, Latvia - At first glance, the 20 teenagers who fidget at their desks waiting for 10th-grade biology class to begin are typical high school students.

IN BRIEF

Pilot Killed in Crash

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A military plane crashed in Chechnya on Monday, killing the pilot, an air force spokesperson said. The Su-25 ground-attack plane, flying a combat mission, smashed to the ground in Chechnya's Vedeno region, south of Grozny.

"We have found the pilot's body," the spokesperson said.

LOCAL BUSINESS

RUSSIAN ENERGY LEADERS CALL FOR CLOSER LINKS WITH U.S.

MOSCOW - Russian energy leaders are calling for closer cooperation with the United States ahead of the first-ever meeting of energy ministers of the G8, which opens in Detroit on Wednesday.

In a meeting last week with visiting U.S. Undersecretary of Energy Robert Card, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller urged the United States to consider Russia as a ready, stable and reliable supplier of both oil and natural gas to the West.

IN BRIEF

Energy-Reform Bills

MOSCOW (AP) - The government has sent its long-awaited draft bills on reform of the electricity sector to the State Duma, the government press office said Monday.

SUKHOI WINS JET-FIGHTER TENDER

MOSCOW - After a number of delays, the government on Friday chose Sukhoi to develop the country's $1.5 billion next-generation fighter project, but it remains unclear who will finance the project.

Rivals MiG and Yakovlev also will contribute to the fifth-generation jet, while Sukhoi will lead the research and development, said Industry, Science and Technology Minister Ilya Klebanov after a government meeting to discuss the country's nine-year defense program.

AEROFLOT TO ADD MORE SEATS ON BOARD

MOSCOW - Aeroflot will add two seats to its board of directors and replace Arthur Andersen as its auditor, a company official said Monday.

Aeroflot's current board voted Saturday to recommend that shareholders agree to boost the number of directors from nine to 11 at the company's annual meeting May 25, Deputy General Director and Executive Secretary of the Board Anatoly Brylov told reporters Monday.

WORLD WATCH

Sweden Steel Doubts

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Sweden became the first EU state openly to say on Monday that it and other members of the bloc had doubts whether plans for sanctions against the United States in a row over steel were realistic, but said no final stance had been taken.

Sweden's ambassador to the European Union also said the two sides should avoid an escalation in trade tensions over the new U.

OPINION

PUTIN'S PROGRESS: TWO TAKES ON THE REFORMS

HALFWAY through his four-year term, President Vladimir Putin is unhappy with the pace of Russia's progress. Economic growth has fallen off, and the gap between Russia and developed countries is getting larger instead of smaller. In the past couple of weeks, Putin has made this point repeatedly, and he included it in his yearly state of the nation address.

PHONE BOOKS FOR THE JUNKYARD MENTALITY

SCOTLAND'S national poet, Robert Burns, wrote that "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley," and a plan I heard about the other day makes me worry that our fair city is, once again, going to prove him right.

Chris Floyd's Global Eye

Pack Men This is how thugs operate. If you don't play ball, don't toe the line, if you give them any lip, they cut you off at the knees. Bare fists, brass knuckles, cold steel, hot lead - it doesn't matter, they'll get you sooner or later. It's all about power: brute, blustering, rapacious power.

WORLD

ZENIT CONTINUES WIN STREAK, SPARTAK SHOCKED BY ALANIYA

Zenit, still without head coach Yury Morozov, in hospital after a heart scare, continued its recent run of good form on Sunday, with a 2-0 away win over struggling Dinamo Moscow.

The win means that Zenit is still undefeated under stand-in coach Michail Biryukov, after a home draw with league-leader Lokomotiv Moscow and a 1-0 away win at Saturn Ramenskoye to reach the Russian Cup final.

SPORTS WATCH

Lowe Tosses No-Hitter

BOSTON (AP) - Derek Lowe pitched the majors' first no-hitter of the season Saturday in leading the Red Sox over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 10-0.