"We agreed that he who lost would die," Smirnitsky told an investigator in a recorded interview posted on the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper's website, adding: "He lost."
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OFFICIALS CONFIRM JAILED EX-YUKOS EXEC MOVED TO MATERNITY CLINIC
MOSCOW _ Russian penitentiary officials said on Wednesday that former Yukos executive Svetlana Bakhmina has been moved from a prison to a maternity clinic outside Moscow, confirming her lawyer's report earlier this week.
Bakhmina, 39, former deputy head of the legal department of the now defunct oil company's Moscow unit, has been serving a six and a half year term on embezzlement and tax evasion charges since October 2006. Bakhmina, who has two children, is pregnant and is due to give birth in December.
Bakhmina, who had maintained her innocence since being arrested in 2004, pleaded guilty on October 22 and requested to be pardoned. Some media said she withdrew her pardon request on October 24.
Legal proceedings launched against Yukos in 2003, seen by many as politically motivated, resulted in the conviction of Bakhmina and other executives and shareholders of what was Russia's largest oil producer, including founder and CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
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JAILED RUSSIAN EX-DIPLOMAT LEAVES U.S. FOR MOSCOW
NEW YORK _ A former Russian UN official, sentenced by a U.S. court to four years and three months in prison on money laundering charges, has left for Moscow after being handed over to Russian officials.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, 50, who worked for the United Nations Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, was arrested in September 2005 after borrowing $300,000 from a Russian colleague. U.S. investigators said that he was aware the funds had been acquired by criminal means.
The Russian held diplomatic immunity as a UN employee, but the status was revoked by Kofi Annan, the then-secretary general, paving the way for the FBI to arrest him.
The ex-diplomat was sentenced in October of 2007 by a U.S. district court, and was also ordered to pay a total of $73,000 in fines.
A district court in New York confirmed that on October 31 a payment of $73,000 was received, a requirement for the court to begin considering his return to Russia to serve his remaining time.
Kuznetsov, who has always denied the charges.
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KYRGYZ PRESIDENT TO RETURN HOME FROM GERMAN CLINIC
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan _ Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is to return home after spending a month at a German clinic, the head of the presidential administration told the country's government on Wednesday.
Bakiyev, 59, has been on vacation since October 20 to undergo treatment on his leg joints. In March, he also spent around a month in a German clinic, during which he had a hip operation.
"The president said that the final course of treatment was successful," Medet Sadyrkulov said. "The president feels well and is ready to resume work."
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WORLD TOILET DAY EVENTS SEEK BETTER SANITATION FOR POOR COUNTRIES
MOSCOW _ Cities, companies and schools worldwide have been encouraged to take part on Wednesday in fundraising events to mark World Toilet Day, seeking better facilities for poor nations, The World Toilet Organization said.
The international NGO said on its website that World Toilet Day provides an opportunity to "remind others of the importance of better sanitation for everyone."
World Toilet Day was first declared in 2001, when world sanitation experts from 200 countries set up the Singapore-based World Toilet Organization.
The event "is now being celebrated by members all over the world," the website said.
According the World Health Organization, 2.5 billion people have no access to a hygienic toilet, over half of which live in China and India. The United Nations has set a goal to halve this figure by 2015.
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(c) 2008, RIA Novosti
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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