Photo taken on September 20, 2007 shows an unidentified man walking past a group of glaciers in Bomi County, Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. [Xinhua]
By Sun Xiaohua (China Daily)Updated: 2007-12-01 08:48
Chinese meteorologists said the country's average temperature in the first 11 months was 11.3 C, 1.2 C higher than the same period in an average year.
It was also the highest temperature since 1951.
"It is the 11th year for the country to experience an abnormally high temperature against the global backdrop of climate change," said China Meteorological Administration (CMA) spokeswoman Jiao Meiyan.
In November, the national average temperature was 3.5 C, 1 C higher than previous years....
Chinese meteorologists said the country's average temperature in the first 11 months was 11.3 C, 1.2 C higher than the same period in an average year.
It was also the highest temperature since 1951.
"It is the 11th year for the country to experience an abnormally high temperature against the global backdrop of climate change," said China Meteorological Administration (CMA) spokeswoman Jiao Meiyan.
In November, the national average temperature was 3.5 C, 1 C higher than previous years....
China Daily
Premier Wen revisits AIDS-suffering villages
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-01 21:31
ZHENGZHOU -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao paid his second visit to China's worst AIDS-hit villages in Henan Province, a day before the 20th World AIDS Day.
It was Wen's fifth face-to-face talks with AIDS patients or their family members since 2003.
"What's your name?"
"Zhang Shuwan."
"Do you remember how your parents were dying?"
"No, I don't."
This was a dialog between the visiting Premier and Zhang Shuwan, a 10-year-old girl, whose parents died of AIDS seven years ago, at the Chinese Red Ribbon Home, an orphanage at the Wangying Village of Lugang Township in Shangcai County on Friday morning.
Wen was accompanied by Henan's Communist Party chief Xu Guangchun and Governor Li Chengyu.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12/01/content_6292466.htm
BOCOG replaces ticketing chief
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-01 08:47
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) has appointed a new head of ticketing after chaotic scenes during last month's ticket sales
BOCOG's new head of ticketing Zhu Yan.
BOCOG was forced to suspend the second round of ticket sales following a booking system breakdown because of high demand.
Zhu Yan was introduced, at a press conference on Friday, to replace Rong Jun as director of the Olympic ticketing center.
Zhu, who previously worked for the Beijing municipal government, said each person could book a maximum of eight tickets for the Games during the second stage.
"In order to let more people enjoy the Olympic Games, we will limit the number of tickets that each person can buy from 50 to eight," Zhu said.
"Each person can submit just one booking form for no more than two competition sessions, and for each session people can apply for no more than four tickets."
The second phase of ticket sales will begin on December 10 and conclude on December 30, using a lottery system similar to that used in the first phase.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2007-12/01/content_6292004.htm
Hostage-taker at Hillary office gives up
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-01 08:09
A distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign office Friday and demanded to speak to the candidate about access to mental health care. The hostage drama dragged on for nearly six hours until he peacefully surrendered.
Shortly after releasing the last of at least five hostages unharmed, 47-year-old Leeland Eisenberg walked out of the storefront office, put down a homemade bomb-like package and was immediately surrounded by SWAT team with guns drawn. Clad in gray slacks, white dress shirt and a red tie, he was put on the ground and handcuffed.
Clinton was in the Washington area the whole time, but the confrontation brought her campaign to a standstill just five weeks before the New Hampshire primary, one of the first tests of the presidential campaign season. She canceled all appearances, as did her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, and the security around her was increased as a precaution.
"Everything stopped, and it had to because we had nothing on our minds except the safety of these young people who work for me," Clinton told reporters shortly after the standoff ended.
She traveled Friday night to Rochester, where she thanked law enforcement officials for their help. She said she knew of no previous contact between Eisenberg and her campaign.
"It appears he was someone who needed help and sought attention in absolutely the wrong way," she said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-12/01/content_6291979.htm
UBS: China's economy is not overheated
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-01 16:26
Investors' concerns over a growth "hangover" from domestic over-investment are unwarranted, said a UBS report released earlier this week about China's macroeconomic trends in 2008.
Jonathan Anderson, UBS' senior analyst on global emerging markets, made this comment in "The 2008 China Macro Almanac" amid worries that the country's economy is set to overheat, with its double-digit gross domestic product (GDP) and a monthly consumer price index (CPI) of more than six percent.
"The current high headline CPI inflation rate is mostly due to temporary supply-related spikes in a few goods categories," said the report, adding that the CPI would fall throughout the first half of 2008.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12/01/content_6292339.htm
Venezuela warns to cut oil exports to US
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-01 11:08
Caracas - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he will cut oil sales to the United States if the American government interferes in Sunday's referendum on the proposed constitutional reform.
Chavez told supports at a rally that the state oil company will halt sales to the United States on Monday if Washington interferes with the vote.
"There will not be a single drop of oil for the United States," Chavez told hundreds of thousands of cheering supporters in downtown Caracas. "And if they want to come and take our oil they will face 100 years of war in Venezuela."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-12/01/content_6292193.htm
Condoms no longer proof of prostitution
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-01 09:13
Public security departments have stopped using condoms as evidence in prostitution cases, according to an official with the AIDS prevention committee under the State Council.
"Now police departments at all levels no longer use condoms as proof of illegal sex activities in entertainment venues," Han Mengjie, also secretary of the National Center for AIDS Control and Prevention, said on Friday in an online interview with Xinhuanet.com.
Police departments have gradually adapted to the change after health authorities called for condoms to be provided in public places to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, said Han.
According to national surveillance figures, the rate of regular condom use among prostitutes rose from 14.7 percent in 2001 to 41.4 percent in 2006.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12/01/content_6292045.htm
The US congressional commission is a Big Fake !
China role in peaceful world questioned
By Carol Giacomo,
the Associated Press
Despite its rising power and wealth, China may not be willing or ready to play a responsible role in an international system aimed at encouraging peace and stability, a commission set up by the U.S. Congress said in a report released on Monday.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission accused China of failing "to meet the threshold test of international responsibility in the area of non-proliferation" by aiding Iran's nuclear, missile and chemical programs and refusing to effectively use its leverage to bring North Korea back into nuclear weapons negotiations.
It said China in recent years has allowed the transfer of weapons and technology across its territory from North Korea to Iran and even if Beijing wanted to control such transfers, this would be very difficult.
Beijing's adherence to World Trade Organization obligations remains "spotty and halting" five years after attaining membership while its hunt for oil and gas holdings overseas could "substantially effect U.S. energy security," the report added.
This is the fourth annual report of the commission, created by Congress to examine the national security implications of the U.S.-China bilateral trade and economic relationship.
The commission has been controversial because of concerns its members tend to be overly critical of China.
Most American experts believe the rising Asian superpower could go either way, becoming a U.S. adversary or a responsible "stakeholder" strengthening a stable international system.
http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.php?gid=2&tid=540593&extra=page%3D1
China's stock market value shrinks 3.11% in a week
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-01 13:57
The combined market value of stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses fell 3.11 percent this past week to 29 trillion yuan, according to statistics from stock exchanges.
Market value of the bigger Shanghai stock market reached 24.3 trillion yuan while that of the Shenzhen market came to 4.7 trillion yuan.
Market capitalization, or the market value of all companies' outstanding shares, declined 1.68 percent on Friday compared with last Friday to 7.9 trillion yuan, statistics show.
By November 30, a total of 1,512 companies with 1,598 stocks were traded on the two bourses.
Many Chinese investors experienced a hard time in the past six weeks, during which the Shanghai Composite Index tumbled from 6,092 points to 4,803 points on Wednesday.
Chinese share prices were sharply lower on Friday as the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 2.63 percent following Thursday's strong gains of more than four percent. (One US dollar equals 7.4 yuan.)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12/01/content_6292236.htm
Vice premier ecnourages nuclear power tech growth
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-01 10:24
Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said Friday that China should reach world-class level in the construction of nuclear power plants as soon as possible.
Zeng made the remark when addressing a ceremony at which the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp signed ordering contracts and cooperative agreements with nine manufacturers including China First Heavy Industries Co.
China should waste no time improving its mastery of the third generation nuclear power technology by combining foreign expertise with self-innovation, he said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-12/01/content_6292155.htm
US plans new spy satellite program
(AP)
Updated: 2007-12-01 14:48
Washington - The US is pursuing a multibillion-dollar program to develop the next generation of spy satellites, the first major effort of its kind since the Pentagon canceled the ambitious and costly Future Imagery Architecture system two years ago, The Associated Press has learned.
The new system, known as BASIC, would be launched by 2011 and is expected to cost US$2 billion to US$4 billion, according to US officials familiar with the program. They discussed details on condition of anonymity because the information is classified.
Photo reconnaissance satellites are used to gather visual information from space about adversarial governments and terror groups, such as construction at suspected nuclear sites or militant training camps. Satellites also can be used to survey damage from hurricanes, fires and other natural disasters.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-12/01/content_6292268.htm
US withdraws Mideast resolution at UN
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-01 11:04
United Nations - In an about face, the United States on Friday withdrew a UN resolution endorsing this week's agreement by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008, apparently after Israel objected.
US Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff informed the Security Council that the United States was pulling the resolution from consideration less than 24 hours after US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad introduced it.
Khalilzad had said he needed to consult with the Israelis and Palestinians on the text of the resolution to ensure that it was what they wanted following the decisions by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md.
Wolff said the US had held intensive consultations in the past few days "and the upshot was that there were some unease with the idea" of a resolution.
Diplomats said Israel, a close US ally, did not want a resolution, which would bring the Security Council into the fledgling negotiations with the Palestinians. The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Khalilzad introduced the draft resolution without getting broad support from the Israelis, Palestinians and the Bush administration.
"It's not the proper venue," Israel's deputy ambassador Daniel Carmon said after Friday's council meeting. "We feel that the appreciation of Annapolis has other means of being expressed than in a resolution.
"We were not the only ones to object," Carmon said.
He added that the Americans had told the Israelis that the Palestinians also objected.
Abbas, speaking to reporters in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, said Friday that while he didn't know the details of the draft resolution it was a sign of the seriousness of the United States, which he also perceived at the Annapolis conference.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-12/01/content_6292179.htm
Jodie Foster to get leadership award
Updated: 2007-11-30 07:23
LOS ANGELES - Jodie Foster needs to make more room on her trophy shelf.
The 45-year-old star will add the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award to her collection of Oscars, Golden Globes and other awards.
Lansing, former chief of Paramount Pictures, will present Foster with the award Tuesday at The Hollywood Reporter's 16th annual Women in Entertainment breakfast.
The actress-director-producer "has consistently maintained a sensibility and quality that is not easily sustained in this industry," publisher John Kilcullen said Thursday. "She clearly embodies the qualities of excellence and achievement that this award was created to honor."
Previous recipients include Barbara Walters and Meryl Streep.
Foster's film credits include "Taxi Driver," "The Accused," "The Silence of the Lambs" and this year's "The Brave One."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/entertainment/2007-11/30/content_6289198.htm
Stay away from the flu this winter
(zjol.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-11-28 10:17
With winter fast approaching, flu season is here. People can easily catch the flu bug and they try to fight it with western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine or some homemade secret recipes. Yet some of these strategies are ineffective or even harmful. The best way to counter the flu is to protect us from contracting it. So here are eight good habits to protect people from contracting flu from the very beginning.
Four ineffective ways to fight the flu
*Sweating leads to good health
Some think sweating is a way to get rid of the flu. People who have contracted flu cover up in quilts or drink hot fresh ginger water to sweat the virus out of their bodies. Yet sweating doesn’t necessarily lead to better health. Sweating too much can lead to a risk of dehydration, which can result in an imbalance in electrolytes thus intensifying the flu.
*Eating more or eating less leads to recovery
Some people believe that people with the flu should eat more fat to get extra nutrition. This thinking is wrong. When people catch a cold, their stomach activity slows down and high-fat and high-protein food increases pressure on the digestion system. Others believe that people who have the flu should eat less as they don’t have as big an appetite. Yet eating less can lead to less energy, which can lead to a longer recovery time.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife/2007-11/28/content_6284527.htm
The Chicago Tribune
Traffic snarled, flights canceled as storm hits (Video)
Damaged cars litter the icy shoulders of eastbound I-80 east of Parker Road near Joliet, IL on Saturday, December 1, 2007. The season's first major snow storm pelted much of the Midwest with ice, snow and sleet. (Tribune photo by Scott Strazzante / December 1, 2007)
By Gerry Smith Tribune staff reporter
5:13 PM CST, December 1, 2007
The area's first winter storm hit today, causing fender-benders and spin-outs on the area's highways and roads and the cancellation of about 400 flights at O'Hare International Airport.
Snow, sleet and freezing rain continued to fall across much of the Midwest by 4:30 p.m. as the National Weather Service issued a "winter storm warning" for northern Illinois that was in effect from 2 p.m. to midnight.
Other flights at O'Hare airport were delayed between 40 to 60 minutes as of 4 p.m., according to Karen Pride, a spokeswoman for the Aviation Department. At Midway Airport, 28 flights were canceled and passengers should expect some delays, Pride said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/weather/chi-071201weather,0,5928108.story?coll=chi_breaking_500
Amtrak crash a mystery as NTSB investigation begins
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons Tribune staff reporter
1:49 PM CST, December 1, 2007
National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived in Chicago Saturday morning to begin piecing together the details of how an Amtrak train collided with a freight train on Friday, injuring 62 people with three remaining in area hospitals.
"Our teams are out in the field looking for information," Robert Sumwalt, vice chairman of the NTSB, a federal agency that's leading the investigation into the crash.
Sumwalt said investigators plan to interview the two train engineers on Saturday, and begin gathering data from the so called "black box" event recorder aboard each Amtrak train so the data can be analyzed.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-071201ntsb-crash-story,0,7007971.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Mega Millions jackpot increases to $73 million
Associated Press
7:02 AM CST, December 1, 2007
ATLANTA - The jackpot in the multi-state Mega Millions lottery drawing has grown to $82 million.
The rollover occurred because none of the tickets sold for Friday's $70 million drawing matched all five lotto numbers and the Mega Ball number. The next drawing will be Tuesday night.
There were four second-prize winners from Friday night's drawing, matching five numbers to win $250,000 apiece. One of those tickets was sold in Illinois -- at a service station in Naperville. Another 24 players, including five from Illinois, matched four of the five lotto numbers, plus the Mega Ball number. Those tickets are each worth $10,000.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-ap-il-lot-megamillionsr,0,7861275.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
At purity dances, virgin belles ring
These formal soirees for dads and daughters include dining, gowns and pledges to protect and abstain
By Dahleen Glanton
Tribune national correspondent
December 2, 2007
PEORIA — It was an evening for couples—girls in formal gowns, tiaras and curly updos, escorted by their dads, in tuxedos or dressy suits and ties.
They dined on roast beef and waltzed to classical music in a ballroom decorated with draped crosses and a mannequin in a white wedding gown. They listened as a guest speaker warned of the dangers of premarital sex. Then they stood at their tables, looked each other in the eye and vowed that they would remain pure.
He signed a pledge to be the protector of her purity and to live his own life with integrity. She gave her father a gold key to her heart, and asked him to hold on to it until her wedding day, when he would hand it over to her husband. They walked down the aisle with locked arms and she laid a white rose beside a cross, sealing her commitment.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-purity_bddec02,0,7143764.story
GOP insider granted immunity
Prosecutors want lawyer to take stand in Rezko trial
By Jeff Coen and John Chase Tribune staff reporters
December 1, 2007
With the criminal trial of political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko less than three months away, prosecutors are seeking the testimony of a GOP insider to help their case.
The U.S. attorney's office is attempting to compel the testimony of Jeffrey Ladd, a heavyweight lawyer for health-care companies who has dealt with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, one of two boards Rezko has been accused of illegally influencing.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on Friday approved a request by prosecutors to extend immunity from prosecution to Ladd. If Ladd chooses to not testify, he could be held in contempt of court.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rezko1dec01,1,1043929.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Kosovo to sever ties with Serbia 'very soon,' president declares
The Associated Press
12:59 PM CST, December 1, 2007
SKOPJE, Macedonia - Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said Saturday that the province will declare independence from Serbia shortly.
"At this moment, I cannot define the precise date when Kosovo will proclaim independence, but I can say it will happen very soon," Sejdiu said after talks with Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski.
"For us, there is no alternative to independence," said Sejdiu during his one-day visit to the neighboring country.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-ap120107-kosovo,1,4661315.story?ctrack=2&cset=true
Tribune deal gets go-ahead from FCC
Cross-ownership exemptions granted
By Phil Rosenthal Tribune media columnist
December 1, 2007
Tribune Co. gets to keep the Chicago Tribune, WGN-Ch. 9 and WGN-AM 720 permanently as part of a Federal Communications Commission action Friday that removes a major regulatory hurdle to billionaire Sam Zell's $8.2 billion effort to take the media concern private.
Over the objection of the two Democrats on the five-member panel, the FCC signed off on the Tribune transaction, keeping Zell and Tribune on track to finalize their deal by year's end.
"We appreciate today's action by the FCC, which allows our transaction to move forward," Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement. "We look forward to implementing the new ownership structure that will enable us to focus all of our energy and resources on Tribune's future."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat_fcc1201dec01,0,6966257.story
Legacy of tax-fed patronage must end
County deserves quality services, not bloated bureaucracy
By Jesse Jackson Jr. Tribune staff reporter
December 1, 2007
The truth shall make you free, the Bible tells us.
Well, here it is: John Stroger, who is beloved and remains in our prayers, managed one of the largest fraud-ridden bureaucracies known to man, Cook County government.
That massive bureaucracy was handed down by vested interest to his son, Todd, whose sole focus is to protect a huge patronage army—an army fed by increasingly overtaxed citizens, who, ironically, are rewarded with a steady erosion of the health care and county services they deserve.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-071201jackson-oped,0,1409738.story
The St. Petersburg Times
Berezovsky Convicted In Absentia
By Steve Gutterman
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky was convicted in absentia Thursday of embezzling millions of dollars from the national airline, Aeroflot, and reportedly sentenced to six years in prison.
Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who fled to Britain and has become one of President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal foes, said the charges were part of a politically motivated campaign against him.
“This was not a trial but pure farce,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.
Reading the verdict in footage on NTV television, a Moscow district court judge said Berezovsky was found guilty of embezzling money from Aeroflot through fraud. He was charged with embezzling 214 million rubles — nearly $9 million at the current exchange rate — in the 1990s.
The court later sentenced Berezovsky to six years in prison, Russian news agencies reported, but Britain has rejected Russian requests for his extradition.
Russia will again appeal to Britain to hand Berezovsky over, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported, citing Russian prosecutors.
Berezovsky said he would consider the six years or so that he has spent in Britain, unable to return to his homeland because he faces prosecution in 11 criminal cases, as punishment.
A court-appointed attorney defended Berezovsky, who told his lawyers to steer clear of the trial.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24001
Dissidents Fear Soviet Comeback
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
Grigory Dukor / Reuters
Opposition leader Garry Kasparov (r) is applauded by fellow activists following his release from jail in Moscow on Thursday.
There was talk of gulags, hunting down dissidents and the Stalinist junta at an opposition meeting on Pionerskaya Square on Wednesday as liberal politicians, veteran dissidents and human rights advocates spoke out against what they see as a tragic return to authoritarian rule and even a Soviet-style police state.
The event, organized by the Union of Right Forces, a liberal party, drew more than 1,000 participants.
One speaker at the meeting, a Soviet-era dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who plans to run against pro-Kremlin candidates in the presidential election in March next year, drew a parallel with resistance in the days of the U.S.S.R.
He addressed the apathy of some of his potential supporters who he said might stay at home on polling day on the grounds that they felt that “the authorities are too strong and the opposition too weak and fragmented, and hence there is no sense fighting for a cause that has already been lost.”
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23995
Putin: Vote For United Russia
By Michael Stott
Reuters
Kremlin/ria-Novostireuters
President Vladimir Putin speaks during a nationwide TV broadcast on Thursday, ahead of State Duma elections on Sunday.
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin told voters on Thursday to support his party in Sunday’s parliamentary election, hours before one of his most vocal critics warned Russia was heading for dictatorship.
Putin’s United Russia party is set to win a large majority of the votes in the poll, which opponents say is unfair.
“I ask you to turn out for the elections on Dec. 2 and vote for United Russia,” Putin said in a brief, pre-recorded television address broadcast to the nation.
Putin, running as No. 1 on United Russia’s election list, said by voting for the party citizens would opt for “stability and continuity” rather than the chaos of the 1990s.
“We cannot allow the return to power of those who once tried but failed to rule the country,” he said in a clear reference to his political opponents from liberal parties.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23996
Twenty Years After a Cultural Revolution
By Leon Aron
For The St. Petersburg Times
Twenty years after Mikhail Gorbachev initiated glasnost, it is clear that, like every fateful “tipping point” in human history, the change has furnished enough material for scholars to plumb for many years. It may be too early to appreciate what glasnost has contributed, its depth, its passions and, yes, even its significance. But we can try.
Glasnost, or openness, goes at least as far back as 1841, when Russia’s first great liberal reformer, Count Mikhail Speransky, invoked this word among his recommendations for the “governing of Siberia” in an article published two years after his death.
What was this phenomenon — entirely nonviolent but so deadly for the Soviet regime — all about in 1987? Lines around the block for newspapers and magazines? People signing up on waiting lists in libraries for books and article reprints? The printouts and subscriptions to the most daring publications — Moskovskiye Novosti, Ogonyok, Literaturnaya Gazeta, Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty — doubling, quadrupling and doubling again? The country literally coming to a standstill as an estimated 70 percent of the adult population watched the Congress of People’s Deputies sessions in June 1989, the first uncensored and public political debate in 72 years?
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24002
Strikes Going Up Alongside Rises in Cost of Living
By Tai Adelaja
Staff Writer
MOSCOW — Sergei Guzev, a train driver from the Vladimir region, said he had always been against the idea of going on strike — until rising inflation made it difficult for him to meet basic family expenses.
“As a father of two, I can hardly keep up with day-care costs and school bills,” Guzev said. “What’s the whole point of working if my family cannot subsist on my so-called above-average salary?” In his hometown of Petushki, prices for basic foodstuffs have now risen to the level of those in Moscow, 120 kilometers away, he said.
Earning a monthly salary of 27,000 rubles ($1,100) — twice the national average — for a 60-hour week, Guzev, 35, should by rights be seeing some of the benefits of the country’s oil-fueled boom trickling down his way. Instead, he is one of a growing number of workers turning to grassroots labor unions as a wave of strikes — some unofficial — spreads across the country.
On Wednesday, members of Guzev’s union used unorthodox methods to hold a work-to-rule, a few days after a court declared their strike action illegal.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23997
Parties Strike Deal In Ukraine
By Anya Tsukanova
Agence France Presse
KIEV — The two parties that led Ukraine’s Orange Revolution on Thursday reached a coaliton deal, setting the stage for pro-Western Yulia Tymoshenko to return as prime minister.
The party of President Viktor Yushchenko and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc signed an agreement on forming the new government, interim speaker Roman Zvarych told parliament.
Applause broke out in the parliament chamber and some deputies presented Tymoshenko with a large bouquet of blue and yellow flowers representing Ukraine’s national colours.
“I believe that we will succeed in forming an effective government and provide hope for systematic and deep reforms in the country,” said Tymoshenko, wearing her characteristic blonde braids.
Tymoshenko was Yushchenko’s ally in the Orange Revolution, when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in November 2004 for 17 days to protest rigged elections that handed victory to a pro-Moscow candidate.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23999
Russian Art Auction Raises $81 Million
Combined Reports
Sotheby’s / Reuters
Goncharova’s painting “Bluebells” which sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s.
Christie’s International in London held the highest-grossing Russian art auction Wednesday, raising $81 million, exceeding the $80 million raised by Russian art sales at Sotheby’s on Monday and Tuesday this week. Christie’s top presale estimate for the day was $64 million, commission not included. There were 413 lots and seven lots went for more than $2 million each.
“There were many fine works on sale, the results were strong, but there’s still potential for prices to go higher,” said Sergei Tabalov, a collector and dealer from Kiev, Ukraine, who at past auctions has gone home with top lots. “Prices for Russian art have risen at least 750 percent over the past decade.”
The day’s most expensive lot was a gold and enamel Faberge Egg owned by the Rothschild family of bankers. It fetched $18.5 million including commission, the most ever paid for a Russian art object. The buyer was Alexander Ivanov, director of the Russian National Museum, a private gallery in Moscow.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24000
Kudrin Says Arrest Hurts Talks
By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer
MOSCOW — Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin warned on Wednesday that the arrest of his deputy Sergei Storchak on embezzlement charges was starting to harm the ministry’s activities.
Kudrin also said he had requested a meeting with Storchak, who was arrested two weeks ago while Kudrin was attending an international conference. Storchak was charged on Friday with attempting to embezzle $43 million from the state budget.
“I need this meeting, and I need it urgently,” Kudrin said in remarks broadcast by all the state television channels on their evening news programs.
After his detention on Nov. 15, FSB officers raided Storchak’s home and offices, seizing key documents, Kudrin said. “The delay of the meeting is beginning to negatively affect the negotiating process ... as Storchak had up-to-date information on several issues,” he said. As deputy finance minister, Storchak is chief debt negotiator and overseer of the $148 billion oil stabilization fund.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24004
Volkswagen Opens Kaluga Plant
By Chad Thomas and Denis Maternovsky
Bloomberg
Grigory Sysoyev / Itar-Tass
Kaluga Governor Anatoly Artamanov, left, with VW’s Russia chief, Friedrich-Wilhelm Lenz, at the new plant on Wednesday.
KALUGA — Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, opened a factory in Russia on Wednesday as it seeks to triple its share of the country’s market over the next three years and joins rivals Ford and Renault in beginning production in one of the fastest growing car markets.
“By 2010, 45 million Russian households will be able to afford an automobile,” chief executive Martin Winterkorn said at the factory’s inauguration in Kaluga, 160 kilometers southwest of Moscow. This country “has huge potential, and we are going to use it.”
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24007
Gazprom Plans To Construct Largest Storage Unit in Europe
Bloomberg
FRANKFURT — Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural gas exporter, plans to build Europe’s largest storage facility for the fuel to supply a new pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
The facility in Hinrichshagen, northeastern Germany, will hold as much as 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Burkhard Woelki, spokesman for Gazprom’s German unit, said by telephone Wednesday from Berlin. Construction will start in 2009 and cost 420 million euros ($620 million), he said.
Gazprom’s Nord Stream pipeline is scheduled to start carrying natural gas 1,200 kilometers under the Baltic to Germany in 2010 as the Russian exporter seeks to avoid transit countries like Belarus and Ukraine. Gazprom, which feeds one-quarter of Europe’s gas demand, wants to plug directly into markets in northwestern Europe and raise export capacity by one-third.
The Wingas storage facility in Rehden, northern Germany, can hold 4.2 billion cubic meters of gas.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24009
Musharaff Sworn in as Pakistani President
By Sadaqat Jan
The Associated Press
Adrees Latif / Reuters
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf (r) salutes before being sworn in as President in Islamabad on Thursday.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pervez Musharraf embarked on a new five-year term as Pakistan’s civilian president Thursday, but he gave no indication of when emergency rule will be lifted — a key demand of both his domestic rivals and the United States.
The inauguration ceremony came a day after he ended a four-decade military career as part of his long-delayed pledge not to serve as both president and army chief.
Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar administered the oath to a solemn-looking Musharraf, dressed in long black tunic adorned only with a pin of Pakistan’s green and white flag.
“This is a milestone in the transition of Pakistan to the complete essence of democracy,” Musharraf told an audience of government officials, foreign diplomats and military generals at the state palace in Islamabad.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24012
UN Fears For Health in Iraq
Agence France Presse
BAGHDAD — The United Nations on Thursday said it feared an outbreak of cholera in Baghdad where at least 101 cases have been reported in the past three weeks.
“While national caseloads are declining, we are increasingly concerned about a possible outbreak in Baghdad,” said the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) quoting data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The capital accounts for 79 percent of all new cases and is now up to 101 cases, the vast majority reported in the past three weeks,” UNICEF said.
Sadr City, Madaien and Baladiyat are among the Baghdad neighbourhoods most affected by the bacterial disease, it said.
“UNICEF is working with WHO to try to limit the spread in the capital and treat the sick as Iraq’s rainy season sets in,” the agency added.
The Iraqi health ministry recently reported the deaths of two children in a Baghdad orphanage due to cholera, while six others were also reported sick.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24013
December 2, 2007
PEORIA — It was an evening for couples—girls in formal gowns, tiaras and curly updos, escorted by their dads, in tuxedos or dressy suits and ties.
They dined on roast beef and waltzed to classical music in a ballroom decorated with draped crosses and a mannequin in a white wedding gown. They listened as a guest speaker warned of the dangers of premarital sex. Then they stood at their tables, looked each other in the eye and vowed that they would remain pure.
He signed a pledge to be the protector of her purity and to live his own life with integrity. She gave her father a gold key to her heart, and asked him to hold on to it until her wedding day, when he would hand it over to her husband. They walked down the aisle with locked arms and she laid a white rose beside a cross, sealing her commitment.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-purity_bddec02,0,7143764.story
GOP insider granted immunity
Prosecutors want lawyer to take stand in Rezko trial
By Jeff Coen and John Chase Tribune staff reporters
December 1, 2007
With the criminal trial of political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko less than three months away, prosecutors are seeking the testimony of a GOP insider to help their case.
The U.S. attorney's office is attempting to compel the testimony of Jeffrey Ladd, a heavyweight lawyer for health-care companies who has dealt with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, one of two boards Rezko has been accused of illegally influencing.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on Friday approved a request by prosecutors to extend immunity from prosecution to Ladd. If Ladd chooses to not testify, he could be held in contempt of court.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rezko1dec01,1,1043929.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Kosovo to sever ties with Serbia 'very soon,' president declares
The Associated Press
12:59 PM CST, December 1, 2007
SKOPJE, Macedonia - Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said Saturday that the province will declare independence from Serbia shortly.
"At this moment, I cannot define the precise date when Kosovo will proclaim independence, but I can say it will happen very soon," Sejdiu said after talks with Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski.
"For us, there is no alternative to independence," said Sejdiu during his one-day visit to the neighboring country.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-ap120107-kosovo,1,4661315.story?ctrack=2&cset=true
Tribune deal gets go-ahead from FCC
Cross-ownership exemptions granted
By Phil Rosenthal Tribune media columnist
December 1, 2007
Tribune Co. gets to keep the Chicago Tribune, WGN-Ch. 9 and WGN-AM 720 permanently as part of a Federal Communications Commission action Friday that removes a major regulatory hurdle to billionaire Sam Zell's $8.2 billion effort to take the media concern private.
Over the objection of the two Democrats on the five-member panel, the FCC signed off on the Tribune transaction, keeping Zell and Tribune on track to finalize their deal by year's end.
"We appreciate today's action by the FCC, which allows our transaction to move forward," Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement. "We look forward to implementing the new ownership structure that will enable us to focus all of our energy and resources on Tribune's future."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat_fcc1201dec01,0,6966257.story
Legacy of tax-fed patronage must end
County deserves quality services, not bloated bureaucracy
By Jesse Jackson Jr. Tribune staff reporter
December 1, 2007
The truth shall make you free, the Bible tells us.
Well, here it is: John Stroger, who is beloved and remains in our prayers, managed one of the largest fraud-ridden bureaucracies known to man, Cook County government.
That massive bureaucracy was handed down by vested interest to his son, Todd, whose sole focus is to protect a huge patronage army—an army fed by increasingly overtaxed citizens, who, ironically, are rewarded with a steady erosion of the health care and county services they deserve.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-071201jackson-oped,0,1409738.story
The St. Petersburg Times
Berezovsky Convicted In Absentia
By Steve Gutterman
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Tycoon and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky was convicted in absentia Thursday of embezzling millions of dollars from the national airline, Aeroflot, and reportedly sentenced to six years in prison.
Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who fled to Britain and has become one of President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal foes, said the charges were part of a politically motivated campaign against him.
“This was not a trial but pure farce,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.
Reading the verdict in footage on NTV television, a Moscow district court judge said Berezovsky was found guilty of embezzling money from Aeroflot through fraud. He was charged with embezzling 214 million rubles — nearly $9 million at the current exchange rate — in the 1990s.
The court later sentenced Berezovsky to six years in prison, Russian news agencies reported, but Britain has rejected Russian requests for his extradition.
Russia will again appeal to Britain to hand Berezovsky over, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported, citing Russian prosecutors.
Berezovsky said he would consider the six years or so that he has spent in Britain, unable to return to his homeland because he faces prosecution in 11 criminal cases, as punishment.
A court-appointed attorney defended Berezovsky, who told his lawyers to steer clear of the trial.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24001
Dissidents Fear Soviet Comeback
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
Grigory Dukor / Reuters
Opposition leader Garry Kasparov (r) is applauded by fellow activists following his release from jail in Moscow on Thursday.
There was talk of gulags, hunting down dissidents and the Stalinist junta at an opposition meeting on Pionerskaya Square on Wednesday as liberal politicians, veteran dissidents and human rights advocates spoke out against what they see as a tragic return to authoritarian rule and even a Soviet-style police state.
The event, organized by the Union of Right Forces, a liberal party, drew more than 1,000 participants.
One speaker at the meeting, a Soviet-era dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who plans to run against pro-Kremlin candidates in the presidential election in March next year, drew a parallel with resistance in the days of the U.S.S.R.
He addressed the apathy of some of his potential supporters who he said might stay at home on polling day on the grounds that they felt that “the authorities are too strong and the opposition too weak and fragmented, and hence there is no sense fighting for a cause that has already been lost.”
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23995
Putin: Vote For United Russia
By Michael Stott
Reuters
Kremlin/ria-Novostireuters
President Vladimir Putin speaks during a nationwide TV broadcast on Thursday, ahead of State Duma elections on Sunday.
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin told voters on Thursday to support his party in Sunday’s parliamentary election, hours before one of his most vocal critics warned Russia was heading for dictatorship.
Putin’s United Russia party is set to win a large majority of the votes in the poll, which opponents say is unfair.
“I ask you to turn out for the elections on Dec. 2 and vote for United Russia,” Putin said in a brief, pre-recorded television address broadcast to the nation.
Putin, running as No. 1 on United Russia’s election list, said by voting for the party citizens would opt for “stability and continuity” rather than the chaos of the 1990s.
“We cannot allow the return to power of those who once tried but failed to rule the country,” he said in a clear reference to his political opponents from liberal parties.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23996
Twenty Years After a Cultural Revolution
By Leon Aron
For The St. Petersburg Times
Twenty years after Mikhail Gorbachev initiated glasnost, it is clear that, like every fateful “tipping point” in human history, the change has furnished enough material for scholars to plumb for many years. It may be too early to appreciate what glasnost has contributed, its depth, its passions and, yes, even its significance. But we can try.
Glasnost, or openness, goes at least as far back as 1841, when Russia’s first great liberal reformer, Count Mikhail Speransky, invoked this word among his recommendations for the “governing of Siberia” in an article published two years after his death.
What was this phenomenon — entirely nonviolent but so deadly for the Soviet regime — all about in 1987? Lines around the block for newspapers and magazines? People signing up on waiting lists in libraries for books and article reprints? The printouts and subscriptions to the most daring publications — Moskovskiye Novosti, Ogonyok, Literaturnaya Gazeta, Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty — doubling, quadrupling and doubling again? The country literally coming to a standstill as an estimated 70 percent of the adult population watched the Congress of People’s Deputies sessions in June 1989, the first uncensored and public political debate in 72 years?
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24002
Strikes Going Up Alongside Rises in Cost of Living
By Tai Adelaja
Staff Writer
MOSCOW — Sergei Guzev, a train driver from the Vladimir region, said he had always been against the idea of going on strike — until rising inflation made it difficult for him to meet basic family expenses.
“As a father of two, I can hardly keep up with day-care costs and school bills,” Guzev said. “What’s the whole point of working if my family cannot subsist on my so-called above-average salary?” In his hometown of Petushki, prices for basic foodstuffs have now risen to the level of those in Moscow, 120 kilometers away, he said.
Earning a monthly salary of 27,000 rubles ($1,100) — twice the national average — for a 60-hour week, Guzev, 35, should by rights be seeing some of the benefits of the country’s oil-fueled boom trickling down his way. Instead, he is one of a growing number of workers turning to grassroots labor unions as a wave of strikes — some unofficial — spreads across the country.
On Wednesday, members of Guzev’s union used unorthodox methods to hold a work-to-rule, a few days after a court declared their strike action illegal.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23997
Parties Strike Deal In Ukraine
By Anya Tsukanova
Agence France Presse
KIEV — The two parties that led Ukraine’s Orange Revolution on Thursday reached a coaliton deal, setting the stage for pro-Western Yulia Tymoshenko to return as prime minister.
The party of President Viktor Yushchenko and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc signed an agreement on forming the new government, interim speaker Roman Zvarych told parliament.
Applause broke out in the parliament chamber and some deputies presented Tymoshenko with a large bouquet of blue and yellow flowers representing Ukraine’s national colours.
“I believe that we will succeed in forming an effective government and provide hope for systematic and deep reforms in the country,” said Tymoshenko, wearing her characteristic blonde braids.
Tymoshenko was Yushchenko’s ally in the Orange Revolution, when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in November 2004 for 17 days to protest rigged elections that handed victory to a pro-Moscow candidate.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=23999
Russian Art Auction Raises $81 Million
Combined Reports
Sotheby’s / Reuters
Goncharova’s painting “Bluebells” which sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s.
Christie’s International in London held the highest-grossing Russian art auction Wednesday, raising $81 million, exceeding the $80 million raised by Russian art sales at Sotheby’s on Monday and Tuesday this week. Christie’s top presale estimate for the day was $64 million, commission not included. There were 413 lots and seven lots went for more than $2 million each.
“There were many fine works on sale, the results were strong, but there’s still potential for prices to go higher,” said Sergei Tabalov, a collector and dealer from Kiev, Ukraine, who at past auctions has gone home with top lots. “Prices for Russian art have risen at least 750 percent over the past decade.”
The day’s most expensive lot was a gold and enamel Faberge Egg owned by the Rothschild family of bankers. It fetched $18.5 million including commission, the most ever paid for a Russian art object. The buyer was Alexander Ivanov, director of the Russian National Museum, a private gallery in Moscow.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24000
Kudrin Says Arrest Hurts Talks
By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer
MOSCOW — Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin warned on Wednesday that the arrest of his deputy Sergei Storchak on embezzlement charges was starting to harm the ministry’s activities.
Kudrin also said he had requested a meeting with Storchak, who was arrested two weeks ago while Kudrin was attending an international conference. Storchak was charged on Friday with attempting to embezzle $43 million from the state budget.
“I need this meeting, and I need it urgently,” Kudrin said in remarks broadcast by all the state television channels on their evening news programs.
After his detention on Nov. 15, FSB officers raided Storchak’s home and offices, seizing key documents, Kudrin said. “The delay of the meeting is beginning to negatively affect the negotiating process ... as Storchak had up-to-date information on several issues,” he said. As deputy finance minister, Storchak is chief debt negotiator and overseer of the $148 billion oil stabilization fund.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24004
Volkswagen Opens Kaluga Plant
By Chad Thomas and Denis Maternovsky
Bloomberg
Grigory Sysoyev / Itar-Tass
Kaluga Governor Anatoly Artamanov, left, with VW’s Russia chief, Friedrich-Wilhelm Lenz, at the new plant on Wednesday.
KALUGA — Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, opened a factory in Russia on Wednesday as it seeks to triple its share of the country’s market over the next three years and joins rivals Ford and Renault in beginning production in one of the fastest growing car markets.
“By 2010, 45 million Russian households will be able to afford an automobile,” chief executive Martin Winterkorn said at the factory’s inauguration in Kaluga, 160 kilometers southwest of Moscow. This country “has huge potential, and we are going to use it.”
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24007
Gazprom Plans To Construct Largest Storage Unit in Europe
Bloomberg
FRANKFURT — Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural gas exporter, plans to build Europe’s largest storage facility for the fuel to supply a new pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
The facility in Hinrichshagen, northeastern Germany, will hold as much as 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Burkhard Woelki, spokesman for Gazprom’s German unit, said by telephone Wednesday from Berlin. Construction will start in 2009 and cost 420 million euros ($620 million), he said.
Gazprom’s Nord Stream pipeline is scheduled to start carrying natural gas 1,200 kilometers under the Baltic to Germany in 2010 as the Russian exporter seeks to avoid transit countries like Belarus and Ukraine. Gazprom, which feeds one-quarter of Europe’s gas demand, wants to plug directly into markets in northwestern Europe and raise export capacity by one-third.
The Wingas storage facility in Rehden, northern Germany, can hold 4.2 billion cubic meters of gas.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24009
Musharaff Sworn in as Pakistani President
By Sadaqat Jan
The Associated Press
Adrees Latif / Reuters
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf (r) salutes before being sworn in as President in Islamabad on Thursday.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pervez Musharraf embarked on a new five-year term as Pakistan’s civilian president Thursday, but he gave no indication of when emergency rule will be lifted — a key demand of both his domestic rivals and the United States.
The inauguration ceremony came a day after he ended a four-decade military career as part of his long-delayed pledge not to serve as both president and army chief.
Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar administered the oath to a solemn-looking Musharraf, dressed in long black tunic adorned only with a pin of Pakistan’s green and white flag.
“This is a milestone in the transition of Pakistan to the complete essence of democracy,” Musharraf told an audience of government officials, foreign diplomats and military generals at the state palace in Islamabad.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24012
UN Fears For Health in Iraq
Agence France Presse
BAGHDAD — The United Nations on Thursday said it feared an outbreak of cholera in Baghdad where at least 101 cases have been reported in the past three weeks.
“While national caseloads are declining, we are increasingly concerned about a possible outbreak in Baghdad,” said the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) quoting data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The capital accounts for 79 percent of all new cases and is now up to 101 cases, the vast majority reported in the past three weeks,” UNICEF said.
Sadr City, Madaien and Baladiyat are among the Baghdad neighbourhoods most affected by the bacterial disease, it said.
“UNICEF is working with WHO to try to limit the spread in the capital and treat the sick as Iraq’s rainy season sets in,” the agency added.
The Iraqi health ministry recently reported the deaths of two children in a Baghdad orphanage due to cholera, while six others were also reported sick.
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24013
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