A Ukrainian lawmaker has urged Kiev to deny entry to U.S. “white supremacist” and founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke from entering the country.Duke visited Kiev earlier this month to attend a conference on the history of Anti-Semitism. He also signed copies of the Russian edition of his book “The Jewish Question Through the Eyes of an American”.

Deputy of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, Alexander Feldman on Tuesday criticized the government for letting such people as David Duke enter the country, whereas, for example, a Russian political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky was recently declared a “persona non grata”.

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Police in the South Ossetia region killed four Georgian “saboteurs” on Tuesday, a South Ossetian minister said, raising tension days before Ossetians vote in an independence referendum, the Reuters news agency reported.

South Ossetia threw off Georgian rule in fighting during the early 1990s. A ceasefire was signed but violence has simmered between the two sides, especially since the fiery pro-Western Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was elected in 2004.

“A group of Georgian saboteurs has been eliminated this morning,” South Ossetia’s emergency minister, Boris Chochiev, told Reuters. He did not give any details about who the men were working for or what they were doing.

“According to preliminary reports there were four of them. All of them have been killed.”

Georgian authorities said they had no information about any of their police or military being killed.

Last month a helicopter carrying Georgia’s defence minister was hit by gunfire as it flew over South Ossetia and a shoot out between police killed three South Ossetians and one Georgian.

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A Russian court ordered a regional blood bank Monday to pay thousands of dollars to a young woman who contracted AIDS through a transfusion.

The woman, who received a transfusion at a maternity hospital, could get 10 million rubles ($373,000).

The blood bank served a network of hospitals in the Voronezh region southwest of Moscow. A regular donor who was HIV-positive allegedly gave blood eight times before the virus was detected.

While blood products with HIV may have gone to 200 recipients, only one case of AIDS has been detected so far.

Popularity: 7% [?]

For the period from January to September 2006 about 17.000 people died from bootleg alcohol poisoning, according to the official statement of State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov.

Alcohol poisoning cases are regularly reported in regions throughout Russia. Bootleg alcohol poisoning claims thousands of lives in Russia every year and the year of 2006 is no exception.

After a number of cases in which vodka bottles contained detergents and other hazardousl chemicals Russia’s consumer rights watchdog launched investigations into cases of mass alcohol poisoning.

Boris Gryzlov spoke for a state monopoly on alcohol sale. “It’s time to raise the issue of a state monopoly on alcohol sales,” he said.

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Russia’s state-controlled nuclear power plant construction company Atomstroyexport has won a $5.1 billion deal to build two power reactors at Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant, Russian officials said on Tuesday, October 31.

The other bidder was Czech consortium Skoda Alliance, but Bulgaria’s electricity company said the main reasons for choosing the Russian bid were “the higher safety and the longer term of operation of the reactors.”

The nuclear plant is to be completed in seven and a half years, the national electricity company said.

According to an Atomstroyexport spokesperson, French nuclear company Areva and Germany’s Siemens will participate in the construction. No details were given.

Bulgaria’s government invested more than $1 billion in the project to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear units at the Danube port of Belene, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Sofia, but froze it in 1990 after environmentalists said it could pose a safety risk.

The project was revived last year to compensate for the closure of two aging units at the country’s only nuclear plant in Kozlodui, which the Balkan country agreed to shut this year under its entry treaty with the European Union. Bulgaria will join the EU in January.

Environmental group Greenpeace criticized the choice of the Russian company as “fast and cheap, and concludes that that is a bad basis for nuclear safety, as well as economic security for Bulgaria.”

Jan Haverkamp, Greenpeace nuclear expert for Central Europe, said in a statement that was quoted by Associated Press: “There are only two reactors of this type (VVER 1000/B466) under construction, one in China and one in India, which both are already facing heavy delays. There is no experience with operation, nor has this type been licensed in Europe before.”

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Russia has urged Macedonian authorities to investigate swiftly and objectively an attack on Russian diplomats, Foreign Ministry spokesman is quoted by Interfax as saying.

According to the media reports the employees of the Russian embassy in Macedonia were attacked Saturday evening.

“We have asked the Macedonian authorities to investigate the incident as promptly and objectively as possible, and to inform Russia about its results,” Mikhail Kamynin said.

The four diplomats were about to leave a cafe on a central square of Skopje when a young man approached them and suddenly hit one of the diplomats. The cafe security joined the brawl when the diplomats went out. All in all, ten to twelve people took part in the attack, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

The diplomats were injured. They received medical treatment at the Skopje hospital and were discharged for further treatment at home.

The police are looking for the attackers.

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A Russian woman was found dead on Saturday night on a wayside of highway near the town of Ravenna, Italy.

At first, the Italian police suggested that the woman was a victim of a car accident, but further investigation showed that she was murdered. A 40-year-old citizen of Italy was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of killing the Russian woman, the RIA-Novosti news agency reports.

According to investigators, they suggest that the suspect, who was a fiance of the killed woman, killed his bride after a heated argument. Detectives say that the woman died of a cerebral wound after a blow to the head. The reasons behind the dispute between the Italian and his bride are uncertain.

Similar incidents were reported earlier. One of the grizzliest examples is the 2004 murder case in Australia where a man from Sydney killed his Russian wife by beating her to death with a shoe. The man has got a 16-year prison sentence for his crime.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos arrives in Moscow for a three-day visit Monday with an agenda dominated by bilateral economic and international issues, Kremlin press office reported in Monday.

Russia has been seeking to re-establish contacts with African states, including oil-rich Angola, under President Vladimir Putin. The president and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made separate tours of the continent this fall, signaling a fresh interest in business cooperation since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which supplied arms and other goods to Africa in the ideological standoff with the West.

Russia is currently Angola’s 10th largest partner, according to Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a government daily. But meeting with Lavrov in September, Soviet-educated Dos Santos urged more intensive cooperation with Russia, above all in the development of new iron ore, oil and gas deposits, and space.

The Kremlin press office said: “A set of bilateral documents is expected to be signed at the meeting.” Other areas of cooperation between Russia and Angola include diamond production, power engineering, and fisheries. Russia’s largest diamond producer, Alrosa, has about a 40% stake in the Catoca diamond joint venture in Angola, which produces around 6 million carats of crude diamonds a year.

Russian companies are helping the country build the largest hydropower plant in the region, with a capacity of 520 mWt, and are in talks on the construction of power lines. Russian fishing companies also catch up to 25,000 metric tons of sea products a year in Angolan waters.

Angola has shown brisk economic development exploiting its vast mineral resources since the government signed a ceasefire agreement with American-backed UNITA rebels in 2002, following 27 years of bloody civil war. The country, which was in ruins several years ago, plans to export up to 2 million barrels of oil annually, largely to the United States and China, by 2008, RIA Novosti reports.

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Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is building an 80 million pounds ($151 million)hospital in Moscow that is likely to become the first port of call for Russia’s rich and famous, The Sunday Times weekly reports.

The Moscow Medical Centre — which is financed by Millhouse LLC, Abramovich’s holding company — will be the country’s most luxurious and technologically advanced hospital.

Located in an 8.7-acre park on the southern edge of the capital a couple of miles from Rublyovka, Moscow’s version of Beverly Hills, the clinic will employ a medical staff of 700 to care for 400 people, including 80 in-house patients.

VIP patients will stay in 750 sq ft suites — the size of an ordinary two-bedroom Russian flat — with their own lavish bathroom and living room equipped with flat-screen television, internet access and fax machine to allow them to keep an eye on their businesses from their sickbeds.

The hospital, which is due to be completed next year, will be “as good as a five-star hotel”, said one of the managers overseeing the project.

“It’s aimed at Russia’s growing middle classes as well as the elite, including businessmen and members of the government.”

“Abramovich is very keen to do his part to improve medical care in Russia,” said John Mann, the billionaire’s spokesman.

Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club with an estimated fortune of more than ?10 billion, is Russia’s richest man. He also backs a fund to help to train young health professionals.

Abramovich’s clinic will be in stark contrast to the majority of Russian hospitals, where the equipment sometimes dates back to the 1970s. Ordinary Russians — who under communism had free access to medical care — are at the mercy of a ruthless system dominated by bribes. Without greasing the palms of doctors and nurses, patients are condemned to long queues and negligent care.

When Abramovich, 40, bought Chelsea more than three years ago, he was criticized at home for not investing enough to improve life in Russia. His new hospital is unlikely to quell Russians’ deep resentment towards their fabulously rich oligarchs.

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Maria Sharapova won her fifth title of the season Sunday, beating defending champion Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-2 in the Generali Ladies final and advancing to No. 2 in the rankings, AP reports.

Sharapova has won 16 straight matches and has not lost since before the start of her successful run to the U.S. Open title.

The top-seeded Russian overtook Justine Henin-Hardenne in the rankings and now trails only Amelie Mauresmo. Sharapova needs to win the season-ending WTA Championship in Madrid, Spain, to finish on top.

“It is my dream to end the year on the No. 1 spot again,” Sharapova said.

Petrova, seeded second, won her first career title in Linz last year.

“I am so disappointed,” the Russian said. “I really got my chances in the first set. But after missing them, I just did not play up to my usual standards anymore.”

Sharapova dominated from the start, breaking serve in the first game. But at 4-3 she double-faulted and lost her serve. Sharapova then saved two set points and later held serve and broke before serving out the set.

In the first game of the second set, Petrova lost serve again. She then had few chances against Sharapova’s strong serve.

“I started very well, but got a bit tired towards the end of the first set,” Sharapova said. “Saving the two set points gave me a huge boost. I always play my best tennis when under pressure.”

Popularity: 21% [?]