Russia objects impairing UN SC permanent member rights.

UNITED NATIONS, November 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia believes the UN
reform shall preserve a "compact composition" of the UN Security Council
and objects calls to impair the rights of permanent Security Council
members.

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told a session
of the General Assembly on Friday that "ideas leading to impairment of the
powers of current permanent members, including the right to veto, are
counterproductive."
"Any changes in the status-quo in the given issue can erect an
unsurpassable obstacle for the passage of corresponding amendments to the
UN Charter through national ratification procedures in, first and
foremost, the five UN Security Council permanent member-states," Churkin
said.
The Security Council reform formula shall target the provision of
maximum broad support to UN members, according to the ambassador.
"If consensus cannot be reached, it is anyway necessary to provide
support for a bigger number of member-states than the legally-stipulated
two-third majority of votes of General Assembly members," he stressed.
Churkin said the proposed reform options do not enjoy overwhelming
support in the United Nations. Attempts to push them though by holding a
vote "will definitely polarize the General Assembly," according to the
ambassador.
Russia is ready to consider "any reasonable option of expanding the
Security Council composition, including the so-called intermediary
solution if it is based on broad UN accord," Churkin said, adding three
rounds of intergovernmental negotiations failed to eliminate disagreements
among member-states on the final reform formula.
"In such conditions we see no other alternative than to continue at
the current session of the General Assembly the painstaking work of
intergovernmental negotiations that we began in February. The work is to
proceed in a quiet, transparent and inclusive manner without any
artificially imposed schedules," he said.
Churkin said it would be "counterproductive" to limit the negotiations
by one or two reform options. "The discussion shall go on all existing
variants," he said.


.Ex-Moldova president opposes amending constitution.


CHISINAU, November 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Former Moldova's President
Vladimir Voronin opposed the idea of parliamentary majority that failed to
elect the president to amend the Constitution.
"That is crooked gambling with law," he told Tass on Thursday.
"Have you ever seen a country where laws on the election of the
president are amended during the election itself? Shall we have every new
president invent a special law for himself?" the Communist leader asked.
Voronin said in future the Constitution can be amended to remedy the
current deadend situation when parliament failed to elect the president
three times this year.
"But today it cannot be done, as our democracy is too young," he said.
The ruling coalition has 53 out of 101 seats in parliament, but needs
61 votes to elect president, which it cannot do without support of
opposition Communists.
Coalition leaders Mihai Gimpu, Vlad Filat and Marian Lupu proposed to
amend the Constitution and elect the president either at a general
election or by a simple majority of votes in parliament.
Voronin said he wants to clarify some details of April riots when
opposition activists stormed and burned parliamentary and presidential
headquarters accusing the Communists of rigging election results. Romanian
and EU flags were hoisted over the buildings. An early election followed
and the opposition won a majority in parliament.
"I have a great wish to clarify some issues. Why 80 percent of safes
in the ruined parliament building were not split open, but unlocked with
keys? Why did the rioters go directly to the accounting office in
parliament? Why was the Independence Declaration burned down? Too many
'why'," he said.
Voronin compared the riots with "Reichstag arson in 1933 after which
Hitler came to power in Germany".

.Bolshoi Theater to lift Wozzeck opera secrecy.

MOSCOW, November 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's famous Bolshoi Theater
will lift the secrecy over the staging of Wozzeck opera by Austrian
composer Alban Berg, as conductor Theodore Kurentzis and stage director
Dmitry Chernyakov will hold a press conference in the theater on Friday.
So far Wozzeck rehearsals were held in top secrecy and even theater
staff were barred from them.
Wozzeck was the first Berg's opera that was first performed in 1925.
In Russia it was staged only once by the Leningrad Opera and Ballet
Theater in 1927. It has never been done at the Bolshoi Theatre, though in
1982, music lovers had the opportunity of seeing performances of a Hamburg
Opera production of Wozzeck at the Theatre.
Three-act Wozzeck will be Chernyakov's third Bolshoi Theatre
production and a debut for Greek-born Kurentzis in the Theater.
First night performance is scheduled for November 24.

.Court extends Khodorkovsky's detention to February 17.

MOSCOW, November 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The Khamovniki district court of
Moscow on Thursday extended the investigation prison custody for former
YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev up to
February 17 in the framework of their second criminal case.
Khodorkovsky's lawyer Natalya Terekhova said the court provided no
reasons for the extension and the defense will appeal against the decision
to the Moscow City Court.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are serving 8-year prison terms for tax
dodging and fraud, but were moved to the investigation prison in
connection with new accusations.
-0-nec