Vnukovo Airlines, Russia's third largest carrier, will refurbish some of its aircraft in an effort to target VIP passengers under its Five Star program.

Ten Tu-154s and six Il-86s will acquire new seats and cabin equipment to bring them in line with international first- and business-class standards, Alexander Klimov, Vnukovo's first deputy director, said last week at a news conference. He said existing business-class cabins on most Russian aircraft can only meet the "enhanced economy-class" standards of international carriers.

"Each time when I travel to gemstone necklace Russia, I feel deprived of VIP services, which are available only on charter flights," said Henrik Konarkowski, manager of the Five Star program. "It is very difficult to satisfy the Russian passenger, who will always compare domestic services with services available on Western airlines."

The company said it will invest about $6 million over the next three years in the refurbishing of aircraft and representative offices, buying limousines for VIP airport transportation and training its service personnel. Economy-class cabins will be renovated, too, but the emphasis will be on the business and first classes, which will also acquire audio and visual equipment.

The first four refurbished Tu-154s are expected to take off in December. The main destinations will be Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Makhachkala, Sochi and Mineralniye Vody.

Vnukovo Airlines expects to get about 700 VIP customers a week as soon as the program is completed while still retaining its existing economy-class customer base, Klimov said. He did not reveal what the fares of the planned VIP services would be, but he did say that they will be "expensive."

The Five Star program will also include mobile phone rental, unlimited access to food and drinks on board and ordering tickets via the Internet.

Nine foreign companies, including U.S.-based Airshow and United Interiors International, as well as German Metzeler Schaum GmbH, will take part in the project as suppliers, consultants or design developers, Konarkowski said. "We have carefully examined domestic manufacturers, but 90 percent of what we need is simply not available in the Russian market, since it has not yet turned to wholesale pearl the needs of VIP passengers," Klimov said.

He added that the equipment and seats will be installed by a Russian company, Aircraft Repair Plant 411, in the Caucasus region city of Mineralnye Vody.

He said the introduction of the Five Star program was made possible due to the company's improving financial performance in recent months following a period of instability. Vnukovo Airlines is a private company in which the state has the controlling share. The company has 53 domestically made aircraft, of which 23 are in use.

Klimov said that there are no immediate plans to purchase new airplanes. "Our aircraft will still fly for 17-20 years," he said.

Under pressure from Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev's threats of a "new railway war" - coal miners blockading the Trans-Siberian Railroad - the Russian government has begun to make promises to the country's miners once again.

Tuleyev, informal leader of the miners' movement, told Interfax on June 29, "Unless the mining industry's situation is improved within a month, new social outbursts and rail wars will become inevitable in the mining regions."

Government officials said the World Bank would disburse a new coal loan to pearl necklace Russia in the next two weeks, and First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Aksyonenko promised the government would funnel at least 14 billion rubles into the coal industry by the end of the year.

That would be even more than the 12 billion rubles former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov promised in February at the All-Russian Congress of Coal Miners.

While the World Bank has yet to provide the $400 million it promised, 5.8 billion rubles allocated for miners in the federal budget have already been doled out.

Speaking at a meeting of the Russian Coal Industry Trade Union on July 6, Aksyonenko promised that wage arrears in the coal industry, currently totaling 3 billion rubles, would be paid off during the next two years. By the end of this year, he said, the government would make monthly allocations of 1.2 billion rubles to support the coal industry. A total of 7.2 billion rubles would be disbursed by year's end.

Aksyonenko also made waves by saying the government plans to submit a draft amendment to this year's budget law to the State Duma (lower house of Parliament) that would increase the spending plan for the coal industry by 7 billion rubles. That cash would be "taken from additional sources," Aksyonenko said, describing them as related to taxation, increased coal production, deliveries and exports.

But analysts say Aksyonenko's promises are hardly realistic since unlike other raw materials industries, coal mining is experiencing increasing losses.

Only a sweeping restructuring would make the industry profitable. Hopelessly inefficient mines must be closed, and single pearl necklace support provided for promising ones. Such reform requires financing, and the only realistic source of money is the World Bank's program of "coal loans."

But the industry remains locked in a vicious circle. The World Bank will not give its loans unless Russia takes tangible measures to restructure its coal enterprises. Such measures, however, need money.

According to Fuel and Energy Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny, the government submitted all the necessary documents for a coal loan to the World Bank on June 5. Marina Vasilyeva, spokeswoman for the World Bank's Moscow office, says the documents are now being thoroughly considered. If all questions are resolved by the end of this week, the issue will be raised at the bank's board meeting on July 20. But that is an optimistic scenario.

Tuleyev, meanwhile, continues to abide by his rigid strategy of confrontation. On July 7, he rejected an award - the Honor Order - that President Boris Yeltsin awarded him.

"I cannot agree to the policies that have led to the deterioration of the quality of life for the absolute majority of Russians," Tuleyev said.

With a view to forthcoming parliamentary elections this year, it is much more beneficial to be a miners' opposition leader than the president's loyal regional manager. The Cabinet's days are already numbered and it will hardly manage to bread pearl provide anything more than comforting promises.

Tuleyev's popularity, meanwhile, keeps growing. Some say his stand might even force the government to give miners the money it promised them.

BRUSSELS -- The United States and Russia on Saturday signed a new agreement aimed at reducing the risks of either country firing a nuclear warhead because of a false missile attack alert.
"The result will be deeper confidence and greater strategic stability between our two nations which translates into a safer and more secure world," US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said after signing a memorandum of understanding with Russian Foreign Minister Ivan Ivanov.
In comments after the signing ceremony, Albright also said the US was satisfied with Russian cooperation on the Middle East and in Afghanistan, but that differences remain over arms sales to Iran and Russian relations with Chechnya and Georgia.
The accord, which expands an earlier agreement, aims to reduce nuclear danger by establishing a pre-and post-launch notification system for launches of ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles.
The two countries also agreed to cultured pearl jewelry tell each other if satellites are forced out of orbit, or if they are going to conduct space experiments that could affect early warning radars.
Ivanov, who earlier met NATO foreign ministers here, said the memorandum was aimed at strengthening strategic stability, and that he hoped it would eventually lead to a global system for controlling ballistic missiles.
Albright said the US and Russia would invite other nations to join the new missile and space launch notification system.
"This reflects the fact that proliferation is a threat to every nation and that contributing to stability is every nation's responsibility," she added.
Speaking after their meeting, a US source said there were real patterns of cooperation between the two countries on the Middle East conflict and the UN resolution to pressure the Taliban into expelling Osama bin Laden.
However there are still some issues the US wants addressed, and Albright urged Moscow to think about how it will present its policies to the new US administration that starts work in January, the source said.
Albright re-itereated concern over Russia's decision to pull out of an accord banning arms sales to Iran, a country that "speaks openly of the destruction of Israel."
Ivanov replied that there were no plans for contracts with Teheran in the immediate future, the spokesman said.
Albright also complained that Moscow was not cooperating with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on the conflict in Chechnya, where the US has accused the Kremlin of using excessive force.
She also said she was unhappy with the new visa policy for Georgia, which requires Georgian citizens to have visas to visit Russia, yet gives exemptions to people from its separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The missile memorandum complemented an agreement on sharing early warning information signed last June by President Bill Clinton and Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
The new system will be located at pearl wholesale a Joint Data Exchange Center in Moscow agreed under the Clinton-Putin accord.
It will greatly expand the number and types of launches for which notice will have to be given to include shorter-range ballistic missiles, sounding and research rockets and most space launch vehicles.
Early information exchanges began after Clinton and former President Boris Yeltsin signed a joint statement on them in 1998.

Apparently, it was a mistake of Aleksandr Lebed to take the post ofKrasnoyarsk regional governor. Not so much because every mistake or failureof his is now used by critics and gives them a pretext to indulge in mudslinging,but because Lobe's most devoted adherents, those who tended to portrayhim as a Russian Pinochet, are becoming increasingly disappointed withtheir idol.

To pearl earring begin with, Lebed has had a stormy conflict with the KrasnoyarskCoal Company. He publicly screamed about "frauds", "dogs","scoundrels",and 'their mothers' besieging the regional administration and businesses.

In a grand crescendo, Lebed prohibited local television from coveringmayoral elections in the city of Achinsk. The order was followed by theappearance of a police force in the television center courtyard.

All of these antics are beginning to look like the behavior of a hystericalhousewife rather than an experienced politician.
Lebed had hardly assumed the post when it became clear to all observersthat his army-style approach and chain-of-command principle are ill suitedto handling the region and its political life.

While the newly elected governor was getting acquainted with the situation,the region was ruled by other people, specifically by Lobe's aides, consultantsfrom Moscow whom he invited to work with him, and representatives of theKrasnoyarsk Aluminium Plant CEO Anatolii Bykov.

It was precisely thanks to Bykov's prestige and influence in the territorythat Alexander Lebed had no opponents during his first months. Formerlya boxer and currently a dictatorial 'aluminum king,' Bykov is regardedhighly by the local elite.

In the fall of 1998, Lebed's predecessor, Valerii Zubov, told a Vremyanews correspondent that there was no consolidated opposition to Lebed inthe territory precisely because nobody dared quarrel with Bykov.

Recent events have confirmed Zubov's statement. Lobe's problems beganimmediately after Bykov made an official announcement that he had severedall relations with Governor Lebed. The local establishment's reaction wasprompt and abrupt. Everybody suddenly started taking notice of events and,with unanimity reminiscent of the good old bad Soviet days condemned theincumbent governor.

Local media, which until recently had only allowed themselves a fewbites at Lebed, declared full war on him. The territorial legislative assembly,which only one week ago expressed its wholehearted support for the Lebed-Bykovtandem, hurried to pass a resolution ordering the formation of a territorialgovernment and imposing limits on Lobe's powers. Heads of local industrieslined up to pearl jewelry sign an appeal to the governor for him to resign.

It has suddenly turned out that there is no political or economic forcein the territory that would unconditionally support Governor Lebed. Evenhis own party, For Honor and Motherland, has suddenly asserted its independenceand split into two factions: the local wing has gone into overt oppositionto Lebed and the guest-wing, which consists of those who arrived with Lebedin Krasnoyarsk, is trying hard to preserve loyalty to its boss.

Lebed has picked up the gauntlet thrown by Bykov. The problem is thathe has no power to win the battle. At the same time, the war cannot bestopped with a stroke of a pen. Therefore, it will be waged until the bitterend and the end will show what is stronger: a legitimate, though not quitecompetent, power or an organized clique of businessmen who unofficiallycontrol the territory's economy.

STOCKHOLM -— The first Nobel prizes of the new millennium were awarded at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Sunday, with Peace Prize laureate Kim Dae-jung of South Korea vowing to devote the rest of his life to peace and human rights.
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden awarded the prizes for sciences, economics and literature to 12 laureates in Stockholm, while South Korean President Kim received the Peace Prize in Oslo.
Kim, 75, received the peace prize for his work for democracy and human rights across Asia, especially for his efforts to wheat pearl  promote closer ties with North Korea.
In his acceptance speech, Kim praised Stalinist North Korea for easing Cold War tensions.
''I humbly pledge before you that...I shall give the rest of my life to human rights and peace in my country and in the world, and to the reconciliation and cooperation of my people,'' Kim told an audience including Norway's King Harald.
The prizes, founded in the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, are each worth nine million Swedish crowns this year ($929,300).
The other laureates received their prizes at a traditional ceremony in Stockholm's Concert Hall, attended by 1,800 people.
They later took part in the Nobel banquet, a glittering climax to the year's Nobel festivities, attended by 1,373 guests in Stockholm's City Hall.
This year's choice of literature laureate -- Chinese-born writer Gao Xingjian -- angered the authorities in Beijing who said the award had political motives, and the Chinese embassy in Stockholm declined an invitation to attend the ceremonies.
Gao, the first Chinese-born writer to win the prize, left China after its army massacred pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and his works have been banned in China since 1986.
In a speech to the banquet, Gao recalled the hardships he had had as a writer in China and in exile, and the miracle of winning the prestigious prize.
''Suddenly, here he is in this brilliant hall, receiving this precious award from the hands of His Majesty the King. Is it a fairytale or freshwater pearl jewelry is it reality?'' Gao said.
Scientists who laid the foundations of the computer revolution and pioneered plastics that can conduct electricity won the physics and chemistry prizes.
Their work paved the way for computers, compact discs and mobile phones without which modern life is unimaginable. And true to form, a mobile phone rang out loudly during the speech praising the three physics laureates, Jack Kilby and Herbert Kroemer of the United States and Russia's Zhores Alferov.
Alan MacDiarmid of New Zealand, Japan's Hideki Shirakawa and Alan Heeger of the United States shared the Nobel honours for chemistry, while the medicine prize was awarded to Swede Arvid Carlsson, Austrian-born Eric Kandel, today a U.S. citizen, and Paul Greengard of the United States. James Heckman and Daniel McFadden, both of the United States, are this year's economics laureates.
Two guests absent from the banquet were Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson and Foreign Minister Anna Lindh who had to stay in the French city of Nice where a marathon European Union summit ran into an unscheduled fourth day.
In Stockholm, physics co-winner Alferov noted in his acceptance speech that physics had brought both benefits and disasters to mankind in the 20th century and warned that the mass media could be abused in the wrong hands.
''Knowledge is power, but power must be based on knowledge,'' he said.
Alferov recalled his years of research into lasers in St Petersburg on a light-hearted note in verse:
``Our purpose was both great and bright no more the dark! Let there be light! So to wholesale pearl release eternal light we did the work all day and night. And when we could neither work nor think we had the Russian vodka drink...''