LOCAL NEWS

BEAUTY QUEEN STRIPPED OF TITLE

Just four months after St. Petersburger Oksana Fyodorova was crowned Miss Universe, she has been stripped of her title for refusing to fulfill her duties and for gaining weight, pageant organizers said Monday.

Fyodorova, the first Russian to win the Miss Universe pageant in its 51-year history, said she had stepped down for personal reasons.

Pageant spokesperson Esther Swan said the dark-haired, green-eyed Fyodorova was sacked last week after being warned about her performance.

"She was told that she must fulfill all the obligations, and she said she would make sure that it didn't happen again," Swan said from New York. "However, nothing changed for the better.

ANXIOUS WAIT FOR NEWS OF BODROV JR.

MOSCOW - Producer Sergei Selyanov was one of the first of Sergei Bodrov Jr.'s friends to fly south to the North Ossetian capital, Vladikavkaz, on Sunday.

NATIONAL NEWS

YABLOKO, SPS JOIN FORCES FOR ELECTION

The Union of Right Forces (SPS) and Yabloko on Monday officially announced the formation of a joint electoral bloc to contest the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly elections scheduled for December.

The two liberal parties had already signed a partnership agreement in early August to run jointly in the elections, slated for Dec.

STEPASHIN INTERVENES IN JOB-REVIEW TIFF

Sergei Stepashin, the head of the national Audit Chamber, has once more intervened in the running battle between the St. Petersburg Audit Chamber and the city parliament that has been going on for more than a year.

FBI EVIDENCE LINKS CHECHENS, AL-QAIDA

MOSCOW - New evidence of links between Chechen rebels and the al-Qaida terrorist network emerged last week, as the FBI warned that al-Qaida had planned to use Muslims of "non-Arabic appearance," including extremists from Chechnya, to hijack a commercial airliner in the United States.

TVS APPOINTS KISELYOV HEAD

MOSCOW - The board of directors at Shestoi Telekanal has appointed Oleg Kiselyov, the former head of the Metalloinvest holding, as the new general director of TVS television.

IN BRIEF

Khakamada To Run

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Deputy State Duma Speaker and Union of Right Forces (SPS) member Irina Khakamada will run for election to the State Duma in St. Petersburg next year, Interfax quoted SPS leader Boris Nemtsov as saying Monday.

Khakamada has chosen to run in the 209th electorate that was once represented by democrat Galina Starovoitova, who was murdered in Nov.

LOCAL BUSINESS

REPEAT OF LOANS FOR SHARES IN ELECTRICITY?

MOSCOW - Is former privatization tsar Anatoly Chubais doing it again?

Is he orchestrating, like he did in the loans-for-shares scandal in 1995 and 1996, the looting of coveted assets for the benefit of a handful of powerful industrial groups at the expense of the government - and this time 500,000 Unified Energy Systems shareholders as well?

The evidence suggests that the answer is yes, and a growing number of critics are calling for the electricity monopoly chief to be reined in.

IN BRIEF

Czech Tractors

The Titran transport and machine-building plant in Tikhvin, 200 kilometers east of St. Petersburg, has signed an agreement with the Czech company Alta to overhaul its facilities, the Leningrad Oblast press service reported.

U.S. INTEREST-RATE CURE TURNS INTO A MALADY

AS midterm elections approach in the U.S., a volatile stock market and sluggish recovery have made many a politician long for the economic policies of former president Bill Clinton. In 1993, the federal government imposed stiff tax increases to reduce budget deficits so interest rates would fall.

ELECTION IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD IS A FILTHY BUSINESS

VOTERS went to the polls in Nizhny Novgorod this month to elect their next mayor. But, with front-runner Andrei Klimentyev struck from the ballot the day before for campaign-finance violations, the city's voters resembled steak lovers in a vegetarian restaurant.

OPINION

POWELL'S PEACEKEEPING ROLE

SADDAM Hussein agreed to the return of United Nations weapons inspectors "without conditions." The Iraqi dictator has U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to thank for leading him to adopt a strategic move that has baffled Powell's own president and stymied a U.

RUSSIA MUST BE MORE RESPONSIBLE

RUSSIAN military strikes on Georgia are inadmissible. The questionable gains of a military operation are completely outweighed by the political damage that Russia would incur both at home and internationally if it spreads the war in Chechnya to the neighboring independent state of Georgia.

MISSING NUKES ARE NOT REALLY A BOMBSHELL

WASHINGTON - It is easy to forget that the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal once belonged to little Ukraine.

Kiev made history when it renounced its mini-superpower status in a three-way deal brokered with Russia and the United States. In the summer of 1996, top military officials from those three countries marked the departure of the last warhead by planting sunflower seeds at a Ukrainian missile base.

GLOBAL EYE

Dark Passage

Not since Mein Kampf has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed, years ahead of the blow.

Adolf Hitler clearly spelled out his plans to destroy the Jews and launch wars of conquest to secure German domination of world affairs in his 1925 book, long before he ever assumed power.

WORLD

WORLD WATCH

Al-Qaida Arrests

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani and U.S. agents have arrested two suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist group in a raid in the northwestern city of Peshawar, official sources said Monday.

The suspects, identified as Saeed, a Pakistani national, and Mohammad Din, an Afghan, were arrested in a joint operation by Pakistan's Crime Investigation Department and U.

SECOND HALF SAVES POINT FOR ZENIT

Zenit put on a strong second-half display Monday night, overcoming a two-goal deficit to draw against Anzhi Makhachkala at the Petrovsky Stadium.

Zenit, down 2-1 at halftime, piled on the pressure, forcing Anzhi to keep players behind the ball to contain the Petersburg team's onslaught.