Sub Crew Was Running Out of Water and Air
By Vladimir Isachenkov
From left, Alexander Ivanov, Sergei Belozerov, commander Vyacheslav Milashevsky, Valery Lepetukha, Anatoly Popov, Alexander Uibin and Alexander Boloshin posing in a Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky hospital on Monday, a day after they were rescued from the mini-submarine where they were trapped for three days.
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY -- Crew members rescued with British help after three days trapped in a mini-submarine deep in the Pacific told on Monday how they struggled with rapidly decreasing water and oxygen supplies while waiting anxiously in the darkness and cold.
The seven men had only six hours of oxygen left when they finally reached the surface, said Commander Ian Riches, the British naval officer who directed the effort to use a remote-controlled Scorpio underwater vehicle to free the submarine from fishing nets.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/09/002.html
Russia, Kyrgyz presidents discuss cooperation
RIA NOVOSTI. August 8, 2005, 8:47 PM
MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyz President-elect Kurmanbek Bakiyev spoke on the phone Monday to discuss bilateral relations and impending cooperation, the Russian presidential press service said
S&P raises LUKoil outlook from stable to positive, and confirms credit rating
RIA NOVOSTI. August 8, 2005, 8:46 PM
MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - International rating agency Standard & Poor's has changed the rating outlook of Russian oil company LUKoil from stable to positive, and confirmed its long-term credit rating at BB.
A statement released Monday by the agency said that the outlook has been changed following analysis of 2004 operational and financial results.
LUKoil's financial flows have risen substantially, due partly to the oil price rise, but also to a 7% production increase, a higher proportion of exported crude, higher oil product prices on the domestic market, and stable expenditure on extraction, despite the ruble strengthening 18.5% in real terms during 2004.
Standard & Poor's also considers LUKoil's strategy for sustaining investment levels to be positive, in that it provides strong long-term growth in oil extraction levels while keeping dividend payouts at moderate levels compared to similar companies.
However, the agency still considers LUKoil's profit level and financial flows to be weak compared to competitors
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/doc/HotNews.html
Luzhkov Takes on Catherine's Folly
By Kevin O'Flynn
Staff Writer
Yuriy Samoligo / For MT
A view of the ruins of the main palace at Catherine the Great's planned summer residence in southern Moscow.
Mayor Yury Luzhkov has been compared to a tsar many times. Now he has his eye on one tsar's folly.
After agreeing with federal authorities to swap a museum for Catherine the Great's Tsaritsyno summer estate, Luzhkov is pouring 410 million rubles ($14.38 million) into the ruins and surrounding park to turn them into a major tourist attraction.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/09/001.html
Russian Accused in UN Probe
The Moscow Times
A United Nations commission on Monday accused the former head of the UN Oil-for-Food Program, Benon Sevan, of personally profiting from oil sales, and said a Russian UN employee, Alexander Yakovlev, solicited a bribe from a company that did business with the UN in the mid-1990s.
In a report Monday, the commission said Yakovlev "actively solicited a bribe in connection with the oil-for-food program ... and presumptively accepted bribes from other United Nations contractors."
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/09/010.html
New Call to Suspend Adoptions
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer
A Federation Council committee urged the Prosecutor General's Office on Monday to set a moratorium on foreign adoptions, echoing a recent call by a senior State Duma deputy.
Valentina Petrenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council's Social Committee, said her committee was seeking the moratorium because "a huge number" of Russian children have been killed by their adoptive foreign parents.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/09/013.html
Clowning Around to Cheer Up Orphaned Kids
By Antonio Lupher
Special to The Moscow Times
Yevgeny Filonov / MT
Volunteers preparing artwork prints for sale at the Maria's Children auction, which took place last Thursday at the Starlite Diner on Bolshaya Sadovaya.
The front lawn of the Starlite Diner on Bolshaya Sadovaya saw a curious sight last Thursday: a gathering of child artists, goofy clowns clad in rainbow colors, local and foreign philanthropists, and canvas upon canvas decorated with vibrantly upbeat acrylics and pastels.
The occasion was the third annual fundraising auction for Maria's Children, an organization that uses art as therapy to cheer up and improve the lives of often-neglected orphans.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/09/016.html
Iran Restarts Work Under IAEA Watch
By Ali Akbar Darenini
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran resumed uranium conversion activities Monday at a nuclear facility in central Iran, a step that Europeans and the United States warned would prompt them to seek UN sanctions against Tehran.
Work resumed at the Isfahan conversion facility quickly after inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog finished installing surveillance equipment there, and seals on equipment were removed.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/09/252.html
Global Eye
Blood and Gravy
By Chris Floyd
Published: August 5, 2005
It's easy to forget sometimes -- amid all the lofty talk of geopolitics, of apocalyptic clashes between good and evil, of terror, liberty, security and God -- that the war on Iraq is "largely a matter of loot," as Kasper Gutman so aptly described the Crusades in that seminal treatise on human nature, "The Maltese Falcon." And nowhere is this more evident than in the festering, oozing imposthume of corruption centered around the Gutman-like figure of Vice President Dick Cheney.
Yes, it's once more unto the breach with Halliburton, the gargantuan government contractor that still pays Cheney, its former CEO, enormous annual sums in "deferred compensation" and stock options -- even while he presides over a White House war council that has steered more than $10 billion in no-bid Iraqi war contracts back to his corporate paymaster. This is rainmaking of monsoon proportions. Indeed, the company's military servicing wing announced a second-quarter profit spike of 284 percent last week -- a feast of blood and gravy that will send Cheney's stock options soaring into the stratosphere.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/05/120.html
Moscow on the Hudson
The Bolshoi Ballet's performances in New York win a vigorous round of applause from U.S. dance critics.
By Antonio Lupher
Published: August 5, 2005
The Bolshoi Ballet wrapped up its tour of New York last weekend, completing its first visit to the U.S. capital of dance since 2000 and its first appearance on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House since 1987. Its two-week series of performances at the Met won praise from the New York dance community -- including strong endorsements of artistic director Alexei Ratmansky's handling of the venerable troupe -- along with some inevitable sighs of nostalgia for the Bolshoi's Soviet days.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/155123/
Women's Hour
As Russia's female authors continue to reap awards and top the bestseller lists, several of them share their thoughts about why the second sex has taken first place.
By Victor Sonkin
Published: August 5, 2005
In a classic essay from 1929, Virginia Woolf stated that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Under Soviet rule, money was mostly irrelevant, and very few people had rooms of their own. Gender issues in the communist era were confused: On the one hand, patriarchal tradition called for women to be submissive, while on the other hand, the new world order demanded that the so-called "weaker sex" participate actively in the construction of a better future.
We are still dealing with the aftermath of this confusion. Patriarchy seems to be alive and well in post-Soviet Russia, with men dominating most of the influential spheres of life, such as politics and business. But there is at least one sphere of life where Russian women have surpassed their male counterparts: literature.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/155121/
The Boston Globe
Human error, weather eyed in Toronto crash
By Beth Duff-Brown, Associated Press Writer August 8, 2005
TORONTO --Investigators have ruled out engine or mechanical failure in last week's jet crash at the Toronto airport, and appeared Monday to be focused on runway conditions, stormy weather and pilot error as possible causes.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/canada/articles/2005/08/08/human_error_weather_eyed_in_toronto_crash/
Close calls at Logan stir runway plan
Latest event involves cargo jet, mechanic
By Mac Daniel, Globe Staff August 9, 2005
Federal, state, and airline officials said yesterday they are putting together a runway safety plan to prevent a possibly catastrophic collision at Logan International Airport.
The latest close call occurred yesterday, when a FedEx cargo jet with a mechanic at the controls taxied across a runway and forced a passenger jet to delay its takeoff, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/08/09/close_calls_at_logan_stir_runway_plan/
Florida out, California in for shuttle landing
August 9, 2005
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA rejected its second chance to land space shuttle Discovery in Florida on Tuesday, making California the likely landing spot for the first shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia accident.
Rain showers near the Kennedy Space Center prompted NASA to opt out of its two Florida landing opportunities on Tuesday. Its next chance to land the shuttle will be at 8:12 EDT (1212 GMT) at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert, the primary backup landing strip.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/08/09/weather_in_florida_delays_shuttle_return_again/
Russia to buy submarine rescue vehicles from UK
August 9, 2005
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will buy from Britain two Scorpio underwater rescue vehicles of the type used to rescue a stranded Russian mini-submarine from the Pacific last Sunday, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Tuesday.
It took less than four hours for the unmanned British Scorpio-45, airlifted to the Kamchatka peninsula off Russia's Pacific coast, to free the AS-28 mini-sub, stranded for three days with its seven-man crew 190 meters (625 feet) down.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/08/09/russia_to_buy_submarine_rescue_vehicles_from_uk/
Bill would force church to disclose its finances
Attitude shifts on Beacon Hill
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff August 8, 2005
The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, still dealing with the fallout from the clergy abuse crisis and upheaval over church closings, faces a major battle on Beacon Hill this week as lawmakers push for an unprecedented measure to force the church to open its books to the public.
The legislation, authored by state Senator Marian Walsh and backed by 32 other lawmakers, is being considered at a time when the church faces deep skepticism and in some cases open hostility from politicians on Beacon Hill and at City Hall. Some lawmakers who champion the bill, which will be brought up at a hearing Wednesday, previously stood side by side with church leaders on policy issues like abortion.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/08/08/bill_would_force_church_to_disclose_its_finances/
Guarding Georges Bank
August 8, 2005
GEORGES BANK -- the fecund, oval-shaped area off the coast of Nantucket -- is central to the survival of local fisheries. Oil and gas interests are not welcome. That message needs to be sounded loudly now that Congress has approved an energy bill that could threaten this sensitive and accessible fishing bank.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/08/08/guarding_georges_bank/
Wal-Mart asks appeals court to block suit
By Michael Kahn August 8, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Lawyers for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The retailer is seeking to overturn a June 2004 U.S. District Court decision certifying as class-action a lawsuit that now covers more than 1.6 million women and charges Wal-Mart with discriminating against female workers in pay, promotions and training.
Box: Bill drops gas additive requirements
August 9, 2005
ADDITIVES GONE: The new energy bill President Bush signed ends a federal rule that had required service stations in many urban areas to sell specially formulated, "oxygenated" gasoline designed to reduce smog.
WASN'T NEEDED: Most experts say the requirement that gasoline contain at least 2 percent oxygen by weight isn't needed anymore. Some say it never was.
MTBE-ETHANOL: The most commonly used substances for adding oxygen to gasoline are methyl tertiary butyl ether, known as MTBE, and ethanol derived from corn. Several states, including California and New York, have banned MTBE after it seeped into local water supplies, and other states are phasing it out.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/09/box_bill_drops_gas_additive_requirements/
India, Pakistan vow to keep Kashmir truce
Pakistani Foreign Ministry senior official Tariq Osman Hyder, third left, looks on during a meeting with Indian Joint Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs Dilip Sinha, third right, and other Indian and Pakistani delegates in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 8, 2005. India and Pakistan on Monday agreed to continue a nearly two-year-old cease-fire in disputed Kashmir, but didn't discuss the question of reducing the massive military presence in the Himalayan region. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)
By Ashok Sharma, Associated Press Writer August 8, 2005
NEW DELHI --India and Pakistan agreed Monday to extend a two-year-old cease-fire in disputed Kashmir, but did not discuss the question of reducing their military presence there, an Indian official said.
Delegates at the talks also agreed not to develop new guard posts or defense installments along the cease-fire line dividing the Himalayan territory claimed by both nations, said Navtej Sarna, a spokesman for India's External Affairs Ministry.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/08/08/india_pakistan_vow_to_keep_kashmir_truce/
Flood traps 102 Chinese coal miners
August 8, 2005
SHANGHAI, China --A coal mine flooded in southern China, trapping 102 miners more than 1,000 feet underground as rescuers on Monday used water pumps in an effort to reach them. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
The accident occurred Sunday afternoon in a tunnel 1,378 feet underground at the privately owned Daxing Colliery in Meizhou City in Guangdong province, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing a local official.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/08/08/flood_traps_102_chinese_coal_miners/
N.Korea food shortage growing serious - WFP chief
By Jon Herskovitz August 9, 2005
SEOUL (Reuters) - People in North Korea are foraging for nuts and leaves to counter a serious food shortage but there is no danger of widespread famine or starvation, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday.
James Morris, the WFP's executive director said commodity prices have gone up in the impoverished state, food stocks have dwindled, and nascent economic reforms have only made it more difficult for North Korea's poor and urban dwellers to buy food.
"Our sense is that the food situation in North Korea is particularly serious right now," Morris told reporters in Seoul.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/08/09/nkorea_food_shortage_growing_serious___wfp_chief/
Saudi King pardons activists, professor
By Donna Abu-Nasr, Associated Press Writer August 8, 2005
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia --King Abdullah on Monday pardoned four prominent activists who were jailed after criticizing the strict religious environment in Saudi Arabia and the slow pace of democratic reform.
A Saudi Television anchor read a statement from Interior Minister Prince Nayef saying the king, who has pushed an unprecedented campaign for greater democracy in the kingdom, had ordered the release of the four.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/08/08/saudi_king_pardons_activists_professor/
U.S. foresees autumn rise in troop levels in Iraq
By Will Dunham August 8, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States expects to raise its troop levels in Iraq this fall to bolster security for the planned October constitutional referendum and December elections for a new government, the Pentagon said on Monday.
Planning for a short-term bulge in troop levels comes as U.S. commanders, according to defense officials, also are working toward cutting the current force by 20,000 to 30,000 troops next spring and summer, contingent on progress in Iraq's political process and in developing Iraqi security forces.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/08/08/us_foresees_autumn_rise_in_troop_levels_in_iraq/
U.S. mulls sanctions on Venezuela over drug move
By Saul Hudson August 8, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is considering punishing Venezuela with sanctions for breaking off work with U.S. anti-drug agents in the world's top cocaine-exporting region, the State Department said on Monday.
In a new blow to fraying ties between the United States and a key oil supplier, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday he had suspended cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration because it was unnecessary and accused the U.S. agency of spying on his government.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/08/09/us_mulls_sanctions_on_venezuela_over_drug_move/
Dissident: Tehran has 4,000 centrifuges
By William J. Kole, Associated Press Writer August 9, 2005
VIENNA, Austria --Iran has manufactured about 4,000 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade, an exiled Iranian dissident who helped uncover nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity in 2002 said Tuesday.
Alireza Jafarzadeh told The Associated Press the centrifuges -- which he said are unknown to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency -- are ready to be installed at Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/08/09/dissident_tehran_has_4000_centrifuges/
China Daily
Suicide bomber strikes on bus, injuring 31
By Hu Meidong and Li Dapeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-09 05:50
FUZHOU: A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in central Fuzhou yesterday, killing himself and injuring 31 others, local police said.
The blast in the capital of East China's Fujian Province went off at 2:32 pm as the No 5 bus pulled in at the Dongjiekou Stop in Dongda Road, one of the city's busiest streets.
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467358.htm
102 miners trapped as flood waters rise
By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-09 05:50
XINGNING, Guangdong Province: More than 600 rescuers were battling against time yesterday to save 102 miners trapped in a coal mine in Xingning County, South China's Guangdong Province.
But after more than 24 hours trapped underground, hopes were fading last night of finding any of the men alive.
The Daxing Coal Mine, about 70 kilometres from Xingning, was flooded with an estimated 15-20 million cubic metre of water at 1:30 pm on Sunday.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467447.htm
Economist sees no more yuan moves soon
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-09 15:07
China will not adjust the yuan's exchange rate any further in the next three to six months while it assesses the impact of last month's 2.1 percent revaluation, a senior Chinese economist said, the Reuters reported.
"Policy makers will observe the effects of the revaluation on the economy and the degree to which it is digested. This is an adjustment period," said Ba Shusong, a vice director with the State Council's Development Research Center.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467560.htm
Australia announces China Uranium talks
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-09 14:33
Australia and China are negotiating an agreement to allow Australia to export uranium to China for peaceful purposes, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
Preliminary talks are already under way to secure a Chinese commitment that the uranium would be used only for electricity generation, said Downer.
Australia prohibits the sale of uranium for nuclear weapons, nuclear-powered warships or other military uses.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467542.htm
Typhoon-hit areas picking up pieces
By Shao Xiaoyi in Hangzhou and Cao Li in Shanghai (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-09 05:52
Zhejiang Province and Shanghai Municipality in East China are recovering from the carnage wrought by Typhoon Masta, which swept across the area over the weekend.
Shanghai has almost finished cleaning up operations following the natural disaster.
At 8:50am yesterday, Shanghai Hongqiao Airport welcomed the landing of the last Shanghai-bound flight to have been delayed by the storm. The hurricane stranded nearly 100,000 people at airports in Shanghai, other provinces and even abroad.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467392.htm
Sandstorm halts work on Iraqi constitution
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-09 08:47
Enveloping the capital in an eerie orange glow, a blinding sandstorm Monday reduced visibility in Baghdad to a few feet — slowing traffic to a crawl, canceling a key meeting on the Iraqi constitution and sending hundreds of people to the hospital with breathing problems, reported Associated Press.
Howling winds whipped up desert sands overnight, coating the streets of the city in a gritty opaque haze. Though sandstorms are common in Iraq's desert terrain, especially during the summer, the one that arrived overnight was the worst in two years, long-suffering residents said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467449.htm
Car export soars in 1st half
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-09 10:54
In the first half of this year, China exported a total of 9,600 cars, jumping 183 percent year-on-year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce.
In the first six months, the Chinese automaker Chery Automotive Co. (CAC), based in east China's Anhui Province, exported 3,357 cars with volume of 16.45 million US dollars, up 117.8 percent and104.4 percent respectively, according to the Chinese customs.
Currently China mainly exports cars with low prices. In the first half year, the per-unit export value was only 7,238.5 US dollars, down 14.4 percent year on year.
The main destinations of China-made cars are developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, an official with the Ministry of Commerce said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467510.htm
Chinese carriers to buy 42 Boeing 787s
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-09 07:08
Four Chinese airline companies have agreed to buy 42 Boeing 787 jets for a total of US $5.04 billion (euro4 billion), the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
This file photo released 28 January 2005 by US aircraft constructor Boeing shows the new Boeing 787 jet pictured airborne. [AFP]
China's flag carrier Air China Ltd. and China Eastern Airlines Corp. will each buy 15 planes, Shanghai Airlines Co. will buy nine and Xiamen Airline Co. will buy three, the report said.
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/09/content_467413.htm
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