LOCAL NEWS

SURGEON UGLOV STILL ACTIVE AT AGE 99

The handshake of the world's oldest surgeon St. Petersburg's Fyodor Uglov, 99, who was still doing operations last spring, is as firm as that of a 30-year-old athlete.

Uglov's hands don't shake, he wears no glasses and can cite Pushkin's poems by heart.

"I would still be operating too, if I hadn't broken my leg last year," he said.

Academician Uglov is a phenomenon, not only for his professional, but also for his physical longevity.

NATIONALISTS DISRUPT MEETING ON DEPORTATIONS

Young nationalists disrupted a solemn St. Petersburg commemoration on Monday of the 60th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people.

NATIONAL NEWS

KHAKAMADA TO APPEAL

Presidential candidate Irina Khakamada said she will take the Central Election Commission to court after it rejected her complaint and one by communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov about unequal access to state television, web site Gazeta reported Friday.

IN BRIEF

Nationalists Probed

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The city prosecutor's office has opened a criminal case of inciting racial hatred against the nationalist organization Shultz-88, Interfax reported Friday.

LOCAL BUSINESS

ILLARIONOV LASHES OUT AT EU FOR 'KYOTOISM'

MOSCOW - Presidential economic adviser Andrei Illarionov lashed out Thursday at the Kyoto Protocol, likening the plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions to Soviet-era state planning and accusing the European Union of trying to impose "Kyotism" on Russia.

"I have called my speech 'The Return of Gosplan,'" Illarionov said, in a reference to the Soviet agency that set production quotas.

"But the proposed mechanism would decrease quotas year by year. ... So it may be more correct to call it the return of the gulag," he said, speaking at the opening of a two-day international forum dedicated to the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol calls on signatory countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.

REGIONS GET COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

MOSCOW - A book that is being billed as the most comprehensive resource on investment in Russia's regions was presented in Washington on Thursday.

Published by the Council for Trade and Economic Cooperation (CTEC), "Russia: All 89 Regions Trade and Investment Guide" gives provincial leaders a chance to pitch the economic attractiveness of their regions.

KIROVSKY PLANT TO SELL TRACTORS TO CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS

ST. PETERSBURG - The governments of Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan are eyeing St. Petersburg's Kirovsky Zavod as a source of tractors, the factory's general director Pyotr Semenenko told Interfax Friday in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.

The Kirovsky plant already supplies Kazakhstan with tractors.

IN BRIEF

$12M Investment

NOVGOROD (SPT) - The Novgorod Metallurgy Plant will invest $12 million in construction of a copper rolling facility, Interfax reported Friday.

CLUB OWNER'S MAXIM IS HAVEN FOR HUMANITY

From a sub-Saharan plain in the landlocked state of Mali to the subzero temperatures of Russia, Aliou Tunkara, 44, has learned how to conquer the harsh extremes of life.

Not only that, he has weathered life from Leonid Brezhnev's business-hostile Soviet Union to Vladimir Putin's business-welcome Russia.

MARKET SLOW AFTER GROWTH

In the week leading up to Monday's public holiday, the stock market did not demonstrate any outstanding activity. On the contrary, the market paused after steady growth since the beginning of the year.

OPINION

A DEVELOPMENT BANK?

Having recently spent a week in Moscow I found a somewhat negative, self-critical air. The focus seemed to be more on what has not been accomplished during President Vladimir Putin's first term than on recognition of the considerable progress that has been made in a relatively short period of time (a glass seen to be more half-empty than half-full).

TRANSFER PRICING AND CALCULATING GDP

In the debate about Russia's economic recovery from its post-Soviet depression and the 1998 financial crisis, there has never been much doubt that hydrocarbon exports played a crucial role.

WORLD

SPURS SPURN LEAD TO DRAW WITH LEICESTER

LONDON - Wasteful Tottenham Hotspur threw away a 3-1 lead in an extraordinary 4-4 draw with 10-man Leicester City on Sunday.

Jermain Defoe scored his second goal of the game two minutes from time at home to avert another disastrous defeat for Spurs by a battling Leicester side that recovered from 3-1 down to lead 4-3 at one stage.

FEOFANOVA RECLAIMS RECORD

ATHENS - Svetlana Feofanova dramatically reclaimed her women's indoor pole vault world record on Sunday just a week after she had lost it, clearing 4.85 meters at the Athens 2004 International Association of Athletics Federations' permit meeting.