LOCAL NEWS

KREMLIN MAINTAINING HARD LINE

MOSCOW - Moscow police arrested an alleged member of a Chechen terrorist gang who was suspected of planning a new attack, while top officials on Thursday presented a barrage of intelligence information to support their allegation that Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was behind the theater attack.

FOREIGNERS FACING YET MORE VISA HEADACHES

MOSCOW - A new law regulating the activities of foreigners living and working in Russia is meant to make life easier for everyone - expats, their employers, tourist agencies and ministries alike.

Siege Blows Maskhadov's Cover

MOSCOW - Before the theater siege, Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was regarded as Russia's most viable negotiating partner for a settlement in Chechnya. Now, his legitimacy, in both Russia and the West, has suffered a devastating blow, as he has become inextricably linked to the radical wing of the Chechen separatist movement.

NATIONAL NEWS

DOCTORS SAY SITUATION HINDERED TREATMENT

MOSCOW - More lives might have been saved if rescuers had tried to resuscitate hostages outside the theater, rather than pile them into buses and ambulances and rush them to the hospital, doctors said.

However, the rescuers did everything possible given the circumstances, they said.

RELATIVES LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

MOSCOW - Maria Panova would have turned 27 on Thursday. But her family and friends bought flowers Wednesday and placed them on her grave, as they buried her in a cemetery near Izmailovsky park, not far from her home.

IN BRIEF

Third Hurdle

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly passed the 2003 city budget on its third and final reading on Friday by a vote of 31 to one, with one abstention, Interfax reported.

The budget calls for a deficit of 470.

CITY CHARTER COURT GETS DOWN TO THE FINE DETAILS

A law requiring at least 20 percent of voters to cast ballots before the results of elections for the Legislative Assembly are considered official has led the City Charter Court to hand down a ruling on what would appear an unlikely situation.

LOCAL BUSINESS

BARTER DEALS FRUSTRATE GROWTH

MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Thursday called on the cabinet to take "urgent measures" to counter the re-emergence of barter and the increasing role of the state in the economy.

"Urgent measures are needed in order to address these negative trends and to prevent economic growth from further slowing," Kasyanov told cabinet members during their weekly meeting.

BILL DODGER GIVEN SUSPENDED JAIL SENTENCE

MOSCOW - In a landmark legal case, a former collective farm chief in Ulyanovsk has been given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and fined 55,000 rubles ($1,735) for dodging his electricity bills - for 11 years.

LOCAL AD MARKET BOOMS TO $2.64 BILLION FOR 2002

MOSCOW - Russia's advertising market is expected to balloon by 50 percent this year, taking total turnover to $2.64 billion, the Russian Association of Advertising Agencies, or RARA, said Thursday.

It will be the first time the market will exceed pre-crisis levels, which peaked at $1.

OLD MACHINERY HOLDING BACK PAPER AND PULP

In spite of its vast forest resources, Russia has an undeveloped pulp-and-paper industry, according to participants in a conference focussing on the sector organized by the Adam Smith Institute.

WORLD BANK GIVES BAD FORECAST

MOSCOW - The World Bank painted a bleak picture of the country's economic health Tuesday, saying that job creation has been confined to the most unproductive and low-paying sectors and that little has been done to address overdependence on oil and gas.

EXPERTS GIVE WARNING ON MINORS CONSUMING BEER

MOSCOW - Watch out boys. That beer you're drinking can make you a girl.

The alleged gender-bending properties of the amber nectar was just one of the scores of facts cited by a panel of doctors who assembled Wednesday to highlight the threat to the nation's youth.

AvtoVAZ Mulls Cutting Up to 12,000 Jobs

MOSCOW - No. 1 carmaker AvtoVAZ is planning to fire up to 12,000 workers, sources say, in what would be one of the largest layoffs in Russia's corporate history.

AvtoVAZ president Vitaly Vilchik said that the company is laying off "excess workers" amid an overproduction crisis, the Ladaonline Internet newspaper reported Monday.

OPINION

EXPOSING THE FLAWS OF U.S.'S CHECHNYA POLICY

IT was a sad irony last week that the news of the hostage crisis in Moscow reached me while I was in the United States speaking about Chechnya. My meetings in Washington, alas, convinced me that the U.S. has yet to grasp the essence of the Chechnya conflict.

MOSCOW CRISIS MAY BE OVER, BUT HOSTAGES STILL REMAIN

ON SATURDAY morning, the media delivered some relieving news: the hostage-taking drama in Moscow had ended and the hostages had been released. Despite the seemingly good news, uneasiness remained.

CULTURE

MAKING 'SUFFERINGS' SUCCESSFUL

They adapt inviolable classical jewels like Chopin's nocturnes and Schubert's "Ave Maria" for a quartet of Russian folk instruments. They mix J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor with Russian folk tunes. They make their audiences' jaws drop - and the applause from the stunned audience is deafening.

"They," of course, are the Terem Quartet, and now they have another ace up their collective sleeve.

KIRPICHI: ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

Kirpichi, a leading local club band that combines hip-hop and hard-edged guitar rock, showcases its new album on Sunday at the biggest venue it has played to date - the 3,000-capacity Malaya Arena at the Yubileiny Sports Palace.

CHERNOV'S CHOICE

Hot on the heels of its concert at the upscale Astoria nightclub, popular ska-punk band Leningrad is set to appear in an even more bizarre affair - "Fight Club."

The new nightclub show takes its cues from "Music Ring," the now-defunct Soviet-era television show, in which two bands "competed" and the audience chose a "winner.

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE (MAYBE)

"Here? Are you sure?"

My companion was staring at the yellow-greenish, acidic-looking windows of Imbir, a new cafe on Zagorodny Prospect. She was obviously taken aback by the color and froze near the entrance, perplexed.

WORLD

SPORTS WATCH

Tribe's New Big Chief

CLEVELAND (AP) - Eric Wedge was officially introduced as Cleveland's manager on Tuesday, making the former minor-league manager the youngest in the majors.

Also Tuesday, the Oakland Athletics promoted bench coach Ken Macha as their next manager and the Milwaukee Brewers hired Ned Yost, a bit player in the Milwaukee Brewers' glory days two decades ago.

DEFEAT TASTES SWEET FOR MADRID, ARSENAL

LONDON - Title holder Real Madrid and English defending champion Arsenal both lost on Wednesday but still qualified for the second phase of the Champions League.