LOCAL NEWS

CANDIDATES COMPLAIN OF DIRTY TRICKS

Amid allegations of dirty tricks, five candidates for the post of St. Petersburg governor on Monday challenged Valentina Matviyenko, the frontrunner in the race, to add more obligations on candidates to those in the charter she circulated last week calling for fair elections.

U.S. VISA MESS HITS STUDENTS' SUMMERS

MOSCOW - For Alina Ibraimova, 21, this summer was supposed to be the fulfillment of a childhood dream to visit the United States.

The Ulyanovsk State University ecological-science student had wanted to work at a summer camp in Maine, meet new people and perfect her English.

NATIONAL NEWS

ANARCHISTS GO TO TVER FOR HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN

PRYAMUKHINO, Tver Region - Pavel Glazkov is fed up with people who hear the word anarchy and instantly conjure up thoughts of debauched sailors wreaking havoc and chaos.

Anarchism is, above all, a moral matter, Glazkov says, and it hinges on order, self-discipline and mutual assistance.

ROBBERS HIT LOCAL MEMORIAL OFFICE

An office of the St. Petersburg branch of human-rights organization Memorial was broken into and robbed Thursday.

Two men, one of whom was masked, entered the office on Razyezzhaya Ulitsa at 2:45 p.

FIRST JURY TRIAL BRINGS ACQUITTAL

MOSCOW - The first jury trial at the Moscow City Court landed a not-guilty verdict for a 25-year-old murder suspect last week, as the constitutionally guaranteed right of citizens to be tried by a jury was introduced in the capital.

After five hours of heated deliberation, the jury of 12 Muscovites, most of whom were homemakers and pensioners, ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict Igor Bortnikov of the death of Andrei Shepenkov, 26, who was found strangled near his garage in October 2001.

JOURNALIST IN CHELYABINSK GETS YEAR IN JAIL FOR LIBEL

MOSCOW - In an unprecedented case that media-rights advocates say may open the way for a barrage of criminal cases against independent journalists, a Chelyabinsk journalist has been sentenced to one year in jail on libel charges filed by the regional administration.

LOCAL BUSINESS

ICE-CREAM BOOM HAS REGIONAL CHARACTER

MOSCOW - Along with waistlines everywhere, the domestic ice-cream market has been growing steadily. But the country's 360 ice-cream makers are not satisfied.

Having sunk millions of dollars into production and a flurry of advertising, large ice creameries were hoping for a boom.

REGULATIONS SPARK NEW GROWTH IN FUND SECTOR

Russia's stock market had been outperforming most of its Western counterparts until the storm broke over Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Yukos, and investment-management firms are waiting for the government to release a list of companies that will be allowed to run pension funds, but mutual funds are also gaining a place in the investment market here.

BROKERS: LESSONS FROM 1998 CRASH MAKE REPEAT UNLIKELY

MOSCOW - Any investor who dared to put his money into UES shares amid the 1998 financial crisis would have seen his portfolio skyrocket 15-fold by now.

But few did.

In October 1998, 102 companies that had failed to pay quarterly fees lost their membership on the benchmark RTS stock index.

KASYANOV ADVISER LEAVES POST

MOSCOW - Mikhail Delyagin, economic aid to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and an outspoken critic of the government's bid for accession to the World Trade Organization, quit the government Monday in favor of a career in academia.

OPINION

EASTERN BLOC SHOWS PENCHANT FOR OLD EUROPE

The United States is having a terrible time trying to find large numbers of international peacekeepers to replace its war-weary soldiers in Iraq. But at least it has got Poland and Ukraine.

The first significant airlifts of troops from those two countries started arriving in the Persian Gulf last week - more than 2,000 from Poland and 1,800 from Ukraine.

RUSSIA UNLIKELY TO WIN AGAIN BY PLAYING ANTI-U.S. HAND

The United States is facing increasing difficulties in Iraq. It is probably too early to use the word "failure," yet it is clear that the original expectations have turned out to be wrong.

Disinflation Policy a Tough War With Numbers

Earlier in August, the State Statistics Committee announced that July inflation amounted to 0.7 percent, which means that consumer prices in the first seven months of this year increased by 8.7 percent. Inflation has been falling on a trailing basis, however it is too early to celebrate. The 12-month trailing rate of 13.

WORLD

SPORTS WATCH

Moscow Breakthrough

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania (AP) - Anton Chekalin scored the go-ahead run in Russia's first-ever Little League World Series win as Khovrino Little League of Moscow beat Central Little League of Agana, Guam, 2-0 in pool play Sunday night.

With two out in the sixth, Chekalin hit a single to left, ruining what would have been the first perfect game in the Little League World Series since 1976.