News Church Claims Moscow Institute Building By Kirill Bessonov Students and faculty of the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow suspended classes on Wednesday after court bailiffs, accompanied by about two dozen Cossacks, forced their way into a university building in the city center and said they were going to replace the educational establishment with Church facilities.

News Russian Deputy PM Opposes Boycott BEIJING (RIA Novosti) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov urged countries on Wed­nesday not to boycott the Beijing Olympic games, and insisted that sport should not be mixed with politics.

News St. Petersburg Car Wash Finds $200,000 Diamond Pendant ST. PETERSBURG (RIA Novosti) - The managing director of a car wash in the city of St. Petersburg told reporters on Thursday that the personnel of his company had found a diamond pendant worth at least $200,000 and said they were keeping it and waiting for the owner to claim the jewelry.

News In Brief - Penza Sect Member Says Two Companions Died in Hillside Dugout Penza Sect Member Says Two Companions Died in Hillside Dugout, Russian Church Alarmed by Military Draft of Clergy, Man Gets Life in Prison for Nizny Tagil Murders, Legislators Consider Laws to Jail Illegal Aliens

News Millions Fall Victim to Mobile Phone Scams By Kirill Bessonov Russian mobile services provider Vimpelcom released a report this week that said over 10 million Russians have fallen victim to various scam-artists using mobile phone calls to trick people into transferring money to them. Loopholes in the current law, however, prevent law enforcement from offering solid protection against these crimes.

News Moscow Watching Thai Arms Case MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - Russia has said it will attempt to protect the rights of a suspected arms dealer being held in custody in Thailand at the request of the United States, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

News Top Military Officers Are Out of Shape MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian generals will soon have a stylish new uniform desig­ned by a top fashion designer but the question is - will they fit?

News Russian Space Shuttle Travels Up the Rhine BERLIN (AFP) - It whizzed around the Earth twice, but on Tuesday the Buran 002 Russian space shuttle's journey was more prosaic, as it was shipped up the Rhine River in Germany to its new museum home.

Local Moscow Authorities Veto Yeltsin Statue Combined Reports, RIA Novosti and The Moscow News - The Moscow State Duma has rejected a proposal made by the museum ART4.RU to erect a surrealist monument to the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Lubyanka Square, claiming the project to be "slapdash and ambiguous."

Local Fatal Apartment Blast Under Investigation Combined reports - RIA Novosti, The Moscow News - An explosion in an apartment high-rise killed three people at around 7 p.m. last Friday, destroying large parts of 8/1 Ulitsa Akademika Korolyova in Northeast Moscow, destroying several apartments. Two possible causes have emerged and are currently under investigation by officials and forensic experts.

Local In Brief - City Parking Fines Net 700,000 Rubles in March City Parking Fines Net 700,000 Rubles in March, Moscow Weather Breaks Temperature Record, Walk Of Animal Fame to Appear In Kuzminki, A Few Unusual Names For Moscow's Newborns

Local A Prelude to Greatness? By Nathalie Cooper You may have heard the stories about the hordes of young Russians flocking to the world's most famous universities, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Yale, the Sorbonne, now in the race for the best education the world has to offer. But what has Russia to offer to the world in return? For those with the right amount of talent, money and the guts, a period of study at one of Moscow's elite Music Conservatories is still recognized as the summit of a musical education.

Local Still on the Shelves By Tom Washington New Russia is a land of new opportunities and new products. It has largely turned its back on its Soviet past, and yet, those who want to recapture the spirit of a bygone age can find various leftovers from the USSR. Some are more common than others, and the quality is not always of the highest, but these secular ikonae still offer a taste of the past.

Local Straight from the Med By Tom Washington The Marriott Tverskaya hotel welcomed a fresh taste of the Mediterranean last month, with the appointment of Frederic Noyer as Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Manager. Noyer will oversee the hotel's Mediterranean Gratzi restaurant, lobby bar, room service and banquets.

Local Behind the Catwalk By Daria Chernyshova It is established fact that fashion is regarded as art today, and isn't followed by a wide audience. Thus, the first people that were granted entrance at the fashion shows were VIP's, followed by the press and only then the teeming masses. All classes crowded in front of the doors, anxious to enter, especially since the shows were fashionably late in starting. Once they made it into the hall, it became obvious there was a shortage of seats - be it in the first row or the last. Thus half of the audience could admire nothing more than the backs of the heads in front of them.