LOCAL NEWS

KREMLIN SUGGESTS YUKOS WILL LOSE OIL FIELD LICENSES

MOSCOW - The government turned the screws on Yukos yet again Wednesday, saying it was "practically inevitable" that production licenses to an unspecified number of oil fields will be taken away from the company.

"The ministry's actions [against Yukos] will be swift and precise," Natural Resources Minister Vitaly Artyukhov told the official government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

INSTITUTE SALE IRKS SCIENTISTS

About 200 scientists from the All-Russia Science and Research Technology Institute (VNITI) protested the sale of the institute building in St. Petersburg Tuesday.

VICTIMS OF SOVIETS EVALUATE PROS, CONS OF PROBE

With the Yukos affair in full swing, St. Petersburg human rights group Memorial organized and hosted a discussion Tuesday between former political prisoners, historians and human rights advocates aiming to distinguish between potential dangers and side-effects of the case and speculation about it.

BERLUSCONI DEFENDS PUTIN

ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi came to the aid of President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday over criticism the Russian leader has faced over the attack on imprisoned billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky's empire.

NATIONAL NEWS

YABLOKO COY ON CALL TO MERGE WITH SPS

MOSCOW - In the wake of the attacks on Yukos, Union of Right Forces co-leader Anatoly Chubais urged liberal rival, Yabloko party leader Grigory Yavlinsky, to merge the forces they represent ahead of next month's State Duma elections.

In a letter published on the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, web site on Wednesday, Chubais urged Yavlinsky to put personal ambitions aside and start to work for a merger in the face of a threat to the country's democracy.

"The events which took place in Russia in recent weeks have revealed dangerous symptoms of a possible revision of the country's political course," Chubais wrote.

Yabloko Duma Deputy Sergei Mitrokhin turned the merger call down flat, accusing Chubais, who heads the electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems, of leading a smear campaign against the party using UES financial resources.

CENTER OFFERS WAYWARD YOUTHS HOPE

A new workshop designed to put 280 troublesome St. Petersburg teenagers on the right path opened on Tuesday.

The city's fourth Novoye Pokoleniye, or New Generation, workshop is at Ulitsa Aviakonstruktorov 31/2, located in the city's Primorsky district.

IN BRIEF

Rybakov Registered

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Central Election Commission on Wednesday overturned a decision by St. Petersburg electoral commission for district No. 206 not to register liberal State Duma Deputy Yuly Rybakov for Duma elections on Dec. 7, Interfax reported.

Rybakov complained to the CEC after the local commission refused to register him on the alleged grounds that a report written by him had not been paid for from his electoral funds.

LOCAL BUSINESS

U.S., RUSSIA FOCUS ON HOUSING

Russia's booming housing sector and its long-term prospects have caught the eye of Washington, which is urging U.S. companies to get a slice of the growing pie.

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez, arrived in Russia this weekend, told reporters Monday that U.

IN BRIEF

Stock Exchange Volume

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Trade in shares on the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange doubled in October as compared to the previous month, reaching a total volume of 37.

CULTURE

SLIDING INTO HIS FIFTY-FIRST YEAR

Affectionately called "Grandpa" by musicians and fans alike, jazz trombonist and bandleader Alexei Kanunnikov marks fifty years on stage on Saturday with a gala concert at the Concert Hall at Finlandsky Voksal. Musicians and friends will come together to pay tribute to Kanunnikov's long and successful career in a musical program hosted by Russian jazz historian, Vladimir Feiertag, featuring performances by vocalists Nonna Sukhanova and Svetlana Plotnikova, pianist Yuri Sobolev, composer and arranger Anatoly Kalvarsky, the famous folk singer Mikhail Boyarsky and, of course, the Alexei Kanunnikov Jazz Band.

LA MINOR'S LIVE GANGSTER CHANSON

La Minor, one of the city's leading live bands that adds its blend of cool, jazzy urban folk to the local club scene since it first appeared in November 2000, will mark its third anniversary with a special concert at Red Club which will also launch its third, live album.

CHERNOV'S CHOICE

The long-awaited documentary "Paul McCartney: The Journey to Red Square," covering three days that the former Beatle spent in St. Petersburg and Moscow this May, will be screened on ORT Television this weekend.

The A&E Network film chronicles McCartney on his hectic three-day Russian odyssey, crowned by the three-hour open-air concert in Moscow's Red Square.

COOK DELIVERS A VERY GOOD DINNER

When James Cook Pub and Cafe was reviewed by this newspaper when it opened a year and a half ago, it was described as the middle road between "Leninist legacy" and "Eurostandard comfort.

CONFESSIONS OF A MODERN ICON

The Hermitage, with a hint of irony, paid tribute to The Russian Museum's courage in dealing with living contemporary artists, namely Damien Hirst, during the press conference at the opening of the artist's exhibition - "From the Cradle to the Grave" - on October 30 at the Marble Palace. Hirst, one of the outstanding contemporary living British artists, whose prominence and influence has spread far beyond the borders of the UK, was not, unfortunately, on hand to appreciate it.

NEW COMPETITION WELCOMES VIOLINISTS

Internationally renowned violinist Liana Issakadze, a frequent visitor to St. Petersburg, had long been wondering why it is that a city boasting one of the world's strongest school of violinists doesn't host a violin competition.

stormy throwback to late soviet film

Vadim Abdrashitov's new film "Magnetic Storms" opens with a characteristic, highly memorable scene: around the nighttime perimeter of a factory, gangs of workers clash in an apparently ritual fight. Their working day over, they divide into two factions and engage in a senseless, stylized and seemingly endless conflict.