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PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Count another politician who may be interested in the seat being vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez. According to Bay News 9's partner newspaper the St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker has not ruled out running for the seat. Baker said that while he is focused on his job as St. Petersburg mayor, he said he is "not taking anything off the table,' regarding a Senate run. Baker becomes the second Bay area mayor to express interest in possibly pursuing the position. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio said last week she was analyzing a...

ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - A Russian woman in St Petersburg killed her drunk husband with a folding couch, Russian media reported on Wednesday. St Petersburg's Channel Five said the man's wife, upset with her husband for being drunk and refusing to get up, kicked a handle after an argument, activating a mechanism that folds the couch up against a wall.

Republican Presidential Candidate Debate #10 – St. Petersburg, Florida 11/28/07 - Official Discussion Thread CNN will hold this debate, hosted by Anderson Cooper, with submitted questions in video form via YouTube. 8pm ET/5pm PT Hosted by Anderson Cooper Candidates participating: Rudy Giuliani Mike Huckabee Duncan Hunter John McCain Ron Paul Mitt Romney Tom Tancredo Fred Thompson

Orginial Thread pulled because it's too early.. http://www.youtube.com/debates http://www.youdecide2008.com/2007/11/27/video-cnn-youtube-debate-preview/ **** LET'S GET READYYYYYY TO RUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMBBBBLLEEE ***

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, March 3 — An unusually large and unruly protest against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin ended here Saturday in clashes with the police and the arrest of opposition leaders. Rally organizers and the police said more than 100 people were arrested after a midafternoon scuffle between marchers and riot police on the main street, Nevsky Prospekt, in the heart of the city’s tourist district. St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, is Mr. Putin’s hometown. The rally was held in advance of local elections scheduled for March 11. Opposition events typically draw no more than several hundred...

An explosion hit a McDonald's restaurant in the city center on Sunday, injuring at least six people, officials said. The explosion blew out windows at the restaurant and partially destroyed the ceiling, said Irina Andriyanova, spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. She said six people were wounded, including four who were hospitalized with various injuries, including concussions and cuts from flying glass. Ekho Moskvy radio, citing eyewitnesses, said the blast went off in the handbag a restaurant patron. Officials did not say whether they believed the explosion was related to terrorism or a criminal act. McDonald's restaurants have been targets...

Fire in Troitsky cathedral in St. Petersburg is localized at about 08:00 p.m. Moscow time, a REGNUM correspondent is told by a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Ministry in St. Petersburg. Fire brigades have continued working on the site. The big and small cathedral domes have fallen down, the second small dome is partially destroyed by the fire, the REGNUM correspondent is informed at St. Petersburg emergency ministry press office.

The number of ethnic hatred crimes has been increasing in Russia, human rights activists said. "A total of 21 people have died and 208 have been injured in ethnic hate attacks since the beginning of the year in Russia," Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy director of the Sova information center, told Interfax on Saturday. Ethnic hate attacks were reported in 30 Russian regions, but most were registered in Moscow and St. Petersburg, she said. Thirteen people were killed in ethnically motivated attacks in Moscow and in the Moscow region this year, with 89 suffering injuries. Three people were killed and 21...

The revelation that St. Petersburg's renowned Hermitage Museum had been systematically robbed of 221 precious art objects has underscored yet again the vulnerability of Russia's cultural treasures. PRAGUE, August 7, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- It has all the elements of a classic mystery novel. Hundreds of icons and precious objects worth an estimated $5 million are systematically stolen from Russia's most storied art museum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The majority of the items, it becomes clear, were taken from a single storeroom -- whose guardian, a curator identified as Larisa Zavadskaya, died suddenly late last year. Museum officials bring in...

Two men attacked and stabbed a nine-year-old girl of mixed Russian and African heritage in St. Petersburg, seriously injuring her in an apparent xenophobic attack, officials said Sunday. The Saturday evening attack took place in an apartment building hallway and was the latest incident targeting foreigners or minorities in Russia's second-largest city. Aliu Tunkara, who heads a civic group for Africans in St. Petersburg, said the girl was returning home after a walk and had just entered the building when two men stabbed her. Alexander Klaus, an investigator with the city prosecutor's office, said in televised comments that during the...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia  — A gas attack in a home-supply store on one of the busiest shopping days of the year sickened scores of people in an incident that police called likely motivated by a commercial dispute or blackmail attempt. Boxes containing timers wired to glass vials were discovered at the scene of the attack and three other stores in the same chain in Russia's second-largest city.

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFP) - Gas capsules with timers attached were found in stores in Saint Petersburg, the Russian city where dozens of people fell ill after inhaling an unknown gas that spread through a store, officials said. "The devices that were discovered consisted of capsules of gas with a strong garlicky smell. Clocks set to the current time were attached," a spokesman for the Federal Security Service in Saint Petersburg told AFP on Monday. Only in one of the three stores, all belonging to the Maksidom chain, did a capsule release gas, officials said. Dozens of people felt sick after...

At least 78 people have become ill in a gas attack on a store in St Petersburg, Russia. Dozens of people, suffering breathing difficulties and sickness, have been taken to hospital. The Emergency Situations Ministry said the shop, belonging to the Maksidom chain, was among four stores targeted. The mystery gas was released in one of the four stores, the Federal Security Service said. Employees in the three other stores found boxes with wires and timers, but had managed to dispose of them. The stores specialise in home goods. More to follow...

Debate over escaped elephant An escaped elephant is roaming the streets of St Petersburg - while authorities try to decide whose job it is to catch it. The animal, which was being transported through Russia by an unnamed Finnish company, escaped from its container by smashing through its walls. There have been a number of sightings around the city but no one has tried to catch the elephant yet. Local media say it's unclear which arm of the St Petersburg emergency services is responsible for escaped elephants.

This month, Russia lost two jet fighters during military exercises that simulated a major war with NATO. A naval task force was deployed in the North Atlantic on a mission to intercept and destroy U.S. reinforcements heading to the European theater of war. During exercises on Sept. 5, a Su-33 jet fighter fell off the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov during landing and sank. The pilot ejected and was rescued. Then on Thursday, seven Air Force jet fighters were sent from the St. Petersburg area to fly over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea to Kaliningrad....

For privacy purposes and since its Russia, I'll be Natasha and we'll have Boris and Boris Junior OK? We went to Russia. I can't believe we went to Russia. Did I say we went to Russia? Never in a million years would I have believed I'd be able to say, "I went to Russia". Now that I've gotten that off my chest... Getting a visa to go to Russia was very interesting. Someone told me it was their revenge for the American visa process. Needless to say, it cost about $130 each and wanted to know everything from education, military,...

Nicked ... emotionless Lakhani arrives at court THE British arms dealer seized over a US terror plot hero-worshipped Osama Bin Laden.Hemant Lakhani, 68, tried to supply missiles for a blitz on the scale of the September 11 attacks.He spoke of a bid to shoot down a plane on the anniversary of 9/11.Lakhani hated the US and was hell-bent on killing Americans, prosecutors said last night.The arms dealer believed terror leader Osama Bin Laden “did something right and set the Americans straight” when he orchestrated the September 11 attacks.And he was ready to help extremists unleash a new wave of terror....

(AP) — Some highlights from an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in New Jersey, outlining the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States: _Investigation began in December 2001, when a "cooperating witness" or informant under federal law enforcement control began talking with the alleged arms dealer, Hemant Lakhani, about obtaining anti-aircraft guns and missiles. The witness told Lakhani he was representing a Somali group that wanted to buy one missile initially "with a purchase of a greater number of missiles to follow." _Between Dec. 2001 and Aug. 13, 2003, more than 150 conversations between Lakhani...

Quoting a report from the Second International Naval Show (IMDS-2005) in St. Petersburg. Moreover, Kommersant found out that Rosoboronexport is negotiating with Iran about repair and modernization of Iranian submarines. Iran has three submarines of Project 877EKM that were supplied by Russia in 1992 (Russian name of the sub B-219, Iranian—901 Tareq), in June 1993 (B-224, 902 Noor) and in November 1996 (B-175, 903 Yunes). It was expected that all the major components that already exceeded their life expectancy will be replaced. Also, the new anti-ship missile complex Club-S with the target distance of 200 km will be installed on...

This is a vanity post, but trust me, a well sourced one. (I'm an old network newsie and have about 8 more good sources on this than Rather had for his typeface fiasco.) Here are the details: A SF SGT E-5, James Stewart, will be buried in St. Petersburg, Florida on July 4, 2005. It's wholly appropriate that he be buried on our nation's birthday, because Sergeant Stewart gave his life for our country.... and all of us. He was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, call an IED in MilSpeak. IED is short for "Improvised Explosive Device." It...

Bishop Lynch to FDLC: "Enough already" "I wonder when and where the current movement backward in liturgy will end and lead", said Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg in his speech to the national meeting of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC) held in Orlando, Florida, in October. Bishop Lynch, who worked at the US bishops' conference from the early 1970s, and was associate and general secretary of conference from 1984 until 1995 when he became bishop of St. Petersburg, recalled the "courage and resolve" of liturgical reformers working in the conference, who "courageously fought for proper liturgical implementation...

Vandals defiled a Jewish cemetery in St. Petersburg for the second time this year, scrawling swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti on 30 graves and a synagogue, Jewish leaders said Friday. Mark Grubarg, head of St. Petersburg Jewish Community, called on police to do more to protect the cemetery, where people found "Jews Get Out of the Country!", "Long Live Holocaust!" and "Heil Hitler!" scrawled on the synagogue. Graves were covered with swastikas and Nazi SS signs. "This is the worst thing to defile something sacred, the history. And it's so low to fight the dead," Grubarg said. The cemetery was...

Welcome to Terri's December Dailies thread. This is where we place links to other Terri threads at Free Republic and other breaking news about Terri Schindler-Schiavo. In addition, this is a place to meet and plan ways to use grassroots activism to help Terri's Fight. If you are a newbie to Terri's Fight, I urge you to visit http://www.terrisfight.org where you can subscribe to their newsletter, can get up to speed on the court cases and the very long struggle. Please consider joining us. The pay isn't very good lol but it is rewarding to help Terri nonetheless. Terri's life...

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A gunman fatally shot two people and wounded a third inside a Radio Shack store at a strip mall Thursday night, then shot himself to death, police said. Another customer and an employee managed to escape uninjured from the store at the Gateway Shopping Center, police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.Police did not identify the gunman, but police spokesman George Kajtsa said the man "had some mental issues, according to his family.""He was involved in some kind of a road rage incident today that the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department is investigating," Kajtsa said. He had no...

NEW PORT RICHEY - President George W. Bush greeted thousands of cheering supporters Tuesday morning at a campaign rally at Sims Park, preaching to the choir of GOP faithful that he deserves another four years in the Oval Office. Waving tiny American flags and Bush/Cheney signs provided by the organizers, the crowd chanted along as Bush repeated his trademark taunt toward his challenger, Sen. John Kerry: "You can run, but you cannot hide." With the race hinging on Florida, Bush urged people to vote early and encourage their friends to do the same. "If you're looking for sunshine, Florida is...

Police Called When Crowd Of 600 Gets Unruly Waiting For Flu Shots POSTED: 8:38 am EDT October 17, 2004 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Police were called when a crowd of 600 people got unruly after gathering at a St. Petersburg supermarket for hoped-for flu shots. Less than 300 doses were on hand. Store managers called police after people started screaming and hollering for tickets for the shots. Two officers and a sergeant helped restore calm. Some people spent the night in sleeping bags to be near the front of the line. Elderly men and women waited in wheelchairs and leaned...

President Bush has so polarized this country, and so antagonized most of the rest of the world, that it's easy to forget the breadth of the domestic and international support he enjoyed just three years ago. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the president showed solid leadership when a wounded nation needed it most. And when he quickly ordered our forces to retaliate in Afghanistan against al-Qaida and its Taliban protectors, his decision won virtually unanimous backing at home and abroad. Blah Blah Let's suck on Kerry's Vietnam jungle rot-infested toes Blah Blah Blah

21 May, 2004 RUSSIA: Spread of neo-paganism brings racism and violence Livna (AsiaNews/ agencies)- “Neo-paganism” has gathered such a following in the former Soviet Union that organizations, seminars and books are sprouting up throughout the country, claiming adherents. According to Viktor Shnirelman, compiler of the book “Neo-paganism on the Expanses of Euroasia”, St. Petersburg has become the main center of Russian neo-paganism, though cults and organized ‘churches’ have spread throughout every part of the country. On May 13th there was the arrests of three suspects in two incidents of arson against the church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother...

December 3, 2002 C.I.A. Hunts Iraq Tie to Soviet SmallpoxBy JUDITH MILLER he C.I.A. is investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox lab in Moscow during Soviet times, senior American officials and foreign scientists say. The officials said several American scientists were told in August that Iraq might have obtained the mysterious strain from Nelja N. Maltseva, a virologist who worked for more than 30 years at the Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow before her death two years ago. The information came to...

ONE of the few remaining statues of Vladimir Illich Lenin in St Petersburg, the city that formerly bore his name, was pulled down and smashed by persons unknown, police said on Tuesday. The statue of the founder of the Soviet Union was toppled and broken into several pieces in the St Petersburg suburb of Pushkin, they said. After the Russian revolution of 1917, the former imperial capital was renamed Leningrad, but reverted to St Petersburg after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Although many of the thousands of statues of Lenin erected throughout the country still remain, there...

Vandals defiled a Jewish cemetery in St. Petersburg, painting swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti on about 50 graves, Jewish leaders said Monday. Mark Grubarg, head of the St. Petersburg Jewish Religious Community, said the vandalism occurred Saturday night at the cemetery, one of the largest Jewish burial places in Russia's former imperial capital. "We are in shock," he said. The cemetery had suffered some isolated cases of vandalism before, Grubarg said, but nothing approaching the scale of the latest incident. "Any nation is sensitive to acts of vandalism at cemeteries but Jews are particularly sensitive, especially when it concerns fascist signs,"...

** ACTION ALERT ** "WEDDING" Annoucement in St. Pete TimesFREEP St. Petersburg Times - 1-800-333-7505 x8735 ---- PRESS zero to speak with live person and tell them you disapprove of this....

Mavro-Schuler Frank Christopher Mavro and John "Michael" Schuler were married Oct. 29, 2003, at Two Hearts Wedding Chapel in Niagara Falls, Canada. Mavro, above left, is the son of Rosemary and Paul Rogers of Seminole. Schuler is the son of Steve and Linda Schuler of Clearwater. Mavro is a graduate of Union Hill High School (N.J.). He attends St. Petersburg College. Schuler is a graduate of Osceola High School. He attends SPC and served in the Army. They live in Largo.

The St. Petersburg city council passed a law Monday designed to scuttle a rock group's plans to feature an onstage suicide. The hard-rock band Hell on Earth had said that a suicide by a terminally ill person would take place during a concert Saturday to raise awareness of right-to-die issues. In response, the city council met Monday morning to unanimously approve an emergency ordinance making it illegal to conduct a suicide for commercial or entertainment purposes, and to host, promote and sell tickets for such an event. "While I still think it's a publicity stunt, we still couldn't sit idly...

How about a horse for governor? Walking down Nevsky Prospekt on Wednesday, you were likely to be stopped by several clowns introducing a horse to you and asking you to support it. This was, of course, no ordinary horse: According to a large poster next to it, the horse is running for St. Petersburg governor and is supported by the president. Pedestrians crossing Anichkov Bridge, which has statues of men straining to hold prancing horses on its four corners, were asked whether they would elect a horse if the president so requested and were invited to vote by putting an...

Combined Reports / The warship INS Talwar sitting at port in St. Petersburg during a ceremony to mark its official delivery to Indian naval officials. ST. PETERSBURG -- The Indian navy took possession on Wednesday of the first of three Russian-built warships that boast "stealth-type" technology and should significantly increase the navy's reach. The INS Talwar, a 4,000-metric ton Krivak Class warship, was delivered to Indian naval officials during a ceremony at the northern port of St. Petersburg. The ship has been designed to make it less visible to enemy radar than conventional destroyers, and the Indian navy uses the...

It is not easy to manage the legacy of a great man, especially when the evil that he had fought, and often defeated, returns with a vengeance after his death. Which is why it was both in sorrow and in anger that I refused recently to endorse the plan to erect a monument to my late husband, Andrei D. Sakharov, in his hometown, Moscow. For I know that Andrei would have turned in his grave if I'd allowed his name and his likeness to become a part of the Potemkin village that the Russian government is trying to erect before...

A major terror attack on the city of St Petersburg during its tricentennial celebrations was thwarted last weekend, according to Russian security sources. A plot to drive trucks laden with explosives into the city where dozens of world leaders and thousands of civilians were attending the festivities, was planned by 'Islamic fundamentalists' said one senior official who confirmed the threat was 'serious'. He added the perpetrators had been identified, but were still at large. He declined to provide further detail for risk of disclosing 'operational data'. Security was so tight at the summit - one of the largest gatherings ever...

Bush rescues Putin's St Petersburg bashBy Pavel Ivanov Once the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in his poem Peter the Great referred to St Petersburg, now the unofficial second Russian capital, as the "window to Europe". He emphasized that by founding Russia's "northern capital", the great emperor opened the country to the outside world and thus started a new epoch leading to Russia's joining the exclusive club of world powers. By staging the grandiose celebration of St Petersburg's 300th anniversary at the end of the last week, the current Russian authorities tried to remind the world that this window is...

<p>SUMMIT SHOW: Ballet dancers perform in front of fireworks Saturday at Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.</p> <p>STRELNYA, Russia - Having wined, dined and entertained about 45 global leaders long into Friday night, President Vladimir Putin shuttled Europe's heads of state to an opulent czarist palace outside St. Petersburg on Saturday morning to request politely they open their borders wider to visiting Russians.</p>

Offer cements renewed Bush-Putin strategic partnership forged in St. Petersburg yesterday.(referring to strained relationship over the Gulf War-ed)

Russia's second city, St. Petersburg, is hosting 10 days of events to mark its 300th anniversary. The celebration peaks this weekend, with the arrival of 45 foreign leaders and an estimated 15,000 official guests. Commemorative flags billow from nearly every major building. Tall ships ply the ink-colored river Neva, and music sounds from flower-laden parks and squares. Residents and tourists alike are celebrating the official date of the city's founding in 1703 by Czar Peter the Great, who hailed St. Petersburg as a Window on Europe. An estimated two million foreigners are expected to visit the city and its cultural...

Putin Emerges from Bush's Doghouse Sun June 1, 2003 10:02 AM ET By Steve Holland EVIAN, France (Reuters) - President Bush has let Russian President Vladimir Putin out of the doghouse, where French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder appear set for an extended stay. The pecking order of the three main opponents to the U.S.-led Iraq war became apparent Sunday when Bush had a warm meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg. By contrast, Bush's handshake with Chirac on arrival at the world leaders' summit in France was pleasant but formal, and he planned to leave the G8...

St Petersburg, 1 June: The Russian Foreign Ministry has begun preparations for President Vladimir Putin's visit to the USA. "We have begun preparations for this important visit," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said at a press conference in St Petersburg on Sunday [1 June]. Meeting Putin in St Petersburg's suburb of Strelna earlier on Sunday, President George W. Bush invited him to visit the USA in September this year. "The invitation was accepted with gratitude," Ivanov said.

Press conference on FoxNews now -- not on website yet.

President Bush and First Lady Laura spend Saturday morning in Poland, where they toured Wawel castle in Krakow, where the President also gave a speech. A visibly moved First Couple also toured the Birkenau/Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Both the President and First Lady were overcome with emotions several times as they toured the camp. Later in the day, they headed to St. Petersburg, Russia, to meet with Russian President Vladiir Putin and celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Russian city. Enjoy your daily dose of Dubya!

U.S. President George W. Bush, left, kisses the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Cherie, prior the Water and Music Show at the Peterhof Palace late Saturday May 31, 2003 near Saint Petersburg, during celebrations marking the 300-year anniversary of Russia's former imperial city. AP Photo/Mladen Antonov/Pool)

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia. May 31 (Interfax-Northwest) - U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in St. Petersburg on Saturday afternoon, an Interfax reporter said.    Bush, whose plane landed at Pulkovo airport, will take part in the celebration of the city's 300th anniversary and have talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin

By Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Trees, monuments and a mountain peak -- those are the most prominent gifts received by St. Petersburg for its 300th birthday from other cities, regions and countries. The festivities marking the northern capital's tricentennial centered on the city itself Tuesday, officially commemorating the day in 1703 when Peter the Great laid the cornerstone of the Peter and Paul Fortress, whose golden domes and spire still gleam on the banks of the Neva. The day began somberly with church services at two of the city's main cathedrals and a wreath-laying ceremony at the main monument...