AP - January 30th, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqis embraced democracy in large numbers Sunday, standing in long lines to vote in defiance of mortar attacks, suicide bombers and boycott calls. Pushed in wheelchairs or carts if they couldn't walk, the elderly, the young and women in veils cast ballots in Iraq's first free election in a half-century.

Iraqi election officials said it might take 10 days to determine the vote's winner and said they had no firm estimate of turnout among the 14 million eligible voters. The ticket endorsed by the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was the pre-voting favorite. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's slate was also considered strong.

``We broke a barrier of fear,'' said Mijm Towirish, an election official.

Uncertain Sunni turnout, a string of insurgent attacks that killed 44 and the crash of a British military plane drove home that chaos in Iraq isn't over yet.

Yet the mere fact the vote went off seemed to ricochet instantly around a world hoping for Arab democracy and fearing Islamic extremism.

``I am doing this because I love my country, and I love the sons of my nation,'' said Shamal Hekeib, 53, who walked with his wife 20 minutes to a polling station near his Baghdad home.

``We are Arabs, we are not scared and we are not cowards,'' Hekeib said.

With helicopters flying low and gunfire close by, at least 200 voters stood calmly in line at midday outside one polling station in the heart of Baghdad. Inside, the tight security included at least four body searches, and a ban on lighters, cell phone batteries, cigarette packs and even pens.

The feeling was sometimes festive. One election volunteer escorted a blind man back to his home after he cast his vote. A woman too frail to walk by herself arrived on a cart pushed by a young relative. Entire families showed up in their finest clothes.

But for the country's minority Sunni Arabs, who held a privileged position under Saddam Hussein, the day was not as welcome.

No more than 400 people voted in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and in the heavily Sunni northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah, where Saddam made his last known public appearance in early April 2003, the four polling places never even opened.

``The world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East,'' said President Bush, who called the election a success. He promised the United States would continue training Iraqi soldiers, hoping they can soon secure a country America invaded nearly two years ago to topple Saddam.

Iraqis, the U.S. president said, had ``firmly rejected the anti-democratic ideology'' of terrorists.

The vote to elect a 275-National Assembly and 18 provincial legislatures was only the first step on Iraq's road to self-rule and stability. Once results are in, it could take weeks of backroom deals before a prime minister and government are picked by the new assembly.

If that government proves successful by drawing in the minority Sunni Arabs who partly shunned the election, the country could stabilize, hastening the day when 150,000 U.S. troops can go home.

On Sunday, coalition soldiers raced through Baghdad's streets in Humvees and tried to coax people to vote with loudspeakers in Ramadi, a Sunni city where anti-U.S. attacks are frequent. Iraqi police served as guards at most polling stations and U.S. troops had strict orders to stay away unless Iraqi security forces called for help.

At the Louisiana National Guard headquarters near Baghdad, nervous U.S. officers paced the halls, muttering, ``So far, so good,'' after the first 30 minutes of polling passed without attacks.

But the violence soon broke out.

While a driving ban seemed to discourage car bombs, the insurgents improvised, strapping on belts of explosives to launch their suicide missions.

At least 44 died in the suicide and mortar attacks on polling stations, including nine suicide bombers. The al-Qaida affiliate led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for at least four attacks. Most attacks were in Baghdad, but one of the deadliest came in Hillah to the south, when a bomber got onto a minibus carrying voters and detonated his explosives, killing himself and at least four others.

In another reminder of the dangers that persist in Iraq, a British C-130 Hercules transport plane crashed north of Baghdad. The wreckage was strewn over a large area. No cause was given, but Britain's Press Association, quoting military sources, said as many as 15 British troops were believed to have died. Elsewhere, one U.S. serviceman died in fighting in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Despite the string of attacks and mortars that boomed first in the morning and then after dark, a people steeled to violence by years of war, sanctions, the brutality of Saddam's regime and U.S. military occupation were not deterred from the polls.

In the so-called ``triangle of death'' south of Baghdad, a whiskery, stooped Abed Hunni walked an hour with his wife to reach a polling site in Musayyib. ``God is generous to give us this day,'' he said.

And in heavily Shiite areas in the far south and mostly Kurdish regions in the north, some saw the vote as settling a score with the former dictator, Saddam.

``Now I feel that Saddam is really gone,'' said Fatima Ibrahim, smiling as she headed home after voting in Irbil. She was 14 and a bride of just three months when her husband, father and brother were rounded up in a campaign of ethnic cleansing under Saddam. None have ever been found.

Many cities in the Sunni triangle north and west of the capital, particularly Fallujah, Ramadi and Beiji, were virtually empty of voters also.

A low Sunni turnout, if that turns out to be the case, could undermine the new government that will emerge from the vote and worsen tensions among the country's ethnic, religious and cultural groups.

Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni elder statesman and candidate for the National Assembly, said he believes the best hope for harmony lies in giving Sunnis a significant role in drafting the country's new constitution.

``The main thing, I think, is we should really have a constitution written by representatives of all segments of Iraq's population,'' Pachachi said. ``I think it would improve the security situation.''

Across the largely authoritarian-ruled Arab world, where dislike and distrust of U.S. power and American intentions dominates the public debate, some dismissed the poll as a U.S.-orchestrated sham. Others hoped it might prove a catalyst for a region-wide democratic push.

Iraq's elections are a ``good omen for getting rid of dictatorship,'' said Yemeni political science student Fathi al-Uraiqi.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak -- sure to win his own country's much-less-democratic vote later this year -- telephoned Allawi to congratulate him on the smooth election, saying he hoped it would ``open the way for the restoration of calm and stability'' in Iraq.

MILWAUKEE - The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day.

Sowande Omokunde, son of Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., and Michael Pratt, the son of former Milwaukee acting mayor Marvin Pratt, were among those charged with criminal damage to property, a felony that carries a maximum punishment of 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The activists are accused of flattening the tires on 25 vehicles rented by the state Republican Party to get out the vote and deliver poll watchers Nov. 2.

Also charged were Lewis Caldwell and Lavelle Mohammad, both from Milwaukee, and Justin Howell of Racine.

The GOP rented more than 100 vehicles that were parked in a lot adjacent to a Bush campaign office. The party planned to drive poll watchers to polling places by 7 a.m. and deliver any voters who didn't have a ride.

A criminal complaint said the defendants originally planned to put up Democratic yard signs, placards and bumper stickers at the Republican office in a scheme they called "Operation Elephant Takeover." But the plan was dropped when they learned a security guard was posted at the GOP office, the complaint said.

One witness told investigators the five defendants, dressed in "Mission Impossible" type gear, black outfits and knit caps, left the Democratic Party headquarters at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 2, and returned about 20 minutes later, extremely excited and talking about how they had slashed the tires.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Seth Boffeli said the five were paid employees of John Kerry presidential campaign, but were not acting on behalf of the campaign or party.

"This is not something we engage in, or encourage. We had to make it clear that this is something these individuals were doing on their own," Boffeli said.

Some Republican officials have criticized Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, a Democrat, for taking more than two months to bring charges.

McCann said FBI agents were involved in interviewing witnesses in four states: Georgia, Virginia, Maryland and New York.

"We asked the FBI knowing that this probably wouldn't be their first priority," he said.

Rick Wiley, state GOP executive director, discovered the vandalism on the morning of Election Day.

"It was unbelievable that people could stoop this low in a political campaign," he said. "I figured it had to be someone from the opposition. But I didn't think someone on the paid Kerry campaign would do this."

Wiley didn't say whether the vandalism prevented anyone from voting, but said poll watchers were about two hours late.

Moore did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Editor's commentary: In a TV commercial for his latest video game published just one month before November elections, skateboarder Tony Hawk is seen slashing tires on a van. What a perfect thugonomics role model for little Deaniacs.

Poptopic.net commentary: One Playstation game, Tony Hawks new skateboard game recently showed a controversial commercial of Tony Hawk slashing a car tire. Shown to millions nationwide, the commercial caters to the "thug" life underground scene of young skateboarders who live on the edge. Skateboarding is great but slashing tires is not. I think Tony Hawk needs a good beatdown for putting this commercial out. Using street thug mentality to sell a video game is one thing, to actually use destruction of property as a marketing gimmick is another. Tony does have some charity thing where he is trying to get more skate board parks built, which is great to keep kids busy and off the streets. This commercial reminds me of a Boost Mobile commerical where they show a guy with a spray can and a big graffiti wall behind him. Is that ok ??

MOSCOW (AP) -- Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko named his fiery, populist ally as prime minister Monday during a visit to Moscow, a move that upstaged his fence-mending meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Yushchenko and Putin emerged from nearly three hours of talks looking more stern and reserved than when they began. Although Russia wants Ukraine to move forward on an economic plan to further unite the two neighbors, Yushchenko says any such plan must meet Kiev's national interests and not close it off to other markets, such as Europe.

Yushchenko made Russia his first foreign visit as president, an acknowledgment of Moscow's close, historic ties to Ukraine as well as the Kremlin's role as top trading partner and investor. He also needed to smooth ties after Putin's overt support for Yushchenko's rival, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Following their meeting, Putin and Yushchenko tried to emphasize the positive, with Putin thanking Yushchenko for his ``constructive approach.''

At a news conference later, Yushchenko reiterated his intention to improve relations with Moscow.

``My aim was very simple. I wanted to make our relations better. I want to make them more sincere, more transparent,'' he said. ``We have not had enough sincerity or trust in our relations.''

But during their meeting, Yushchenko's office announced in Kiev that Yulia Tymoshenko, 44, would be the next prime minister -- a troubling choice for Russia.

Tymoshenko, a firebrand opposition leader, was a key driving force behind a wave of opposition protests dubbed the ``Orange Revolution'' that paved the way for Yushchenko's victory in a fiercely contested presidential race.

In Russia, prosecutors want her for questioning on accusations of bribing Russian defense officials, and have issued an international arrest warrant for her. Tymoshenko says the charges are politically motivated.

Asked to comment on the appointment, Putin replied: ``It is not for us to evaluate the new government.''

At the news conference, Yushchenko said he and Putin had discussed whether Tymoshenko's legal problems in Russia could be resolved. ``I'm satisfied with the answer,'' he said without elaborating.

Russia views Ukraine as a key part of its historic sphere of influence, a major transit route for its oil and gas exports and a buffer between the expanding European Union and NATO. Moscow is nervous about Yushchenko's plans to quickly integrate his nation into Western structures.

For her part, Tymoshenko said in a Jan. 20 interview with The Associated Press that she also wants to restart Ukraine's efforts to become an EU member, but that Kiev should not go into the process ``half-ready.''

She also pledged to review privatization deals that allowed rich coal and steel magnates from the east to accumulate considerable wealth in the years following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

``They skimmed off the best cream of Ukrainian industry. ... All factories that were more or less profitable were divided between them,'' she told AP.

Yushchenko also said the government would review all questionable privatization deals, but would protect legitimate investments. He said the Kryvoryzhstal steel mill, which was sold to allies of Ukraine's previous leadership, was ``stolen, not privatized.''

Tymoshenko gained prominence when she headed the now-defunct Unified Energy Systems, Ukraine's predominant gas dealer, in the 1990s. Western governments and industry experts later applauded her for pushing through energy sector reforms as deputy prime minister under outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.

She was jailed briefly, however, on charges of bribery, money-laundering, corruption and abuse of power while working for the company.

Yushchenko has promised to turn Ukraine around after years of corruption and he pledged to safeguard freedom of speech.

Asked about Moscow's highly visible role in the election campaign, Yushchenko said ``I consider that it has been settled.''

``What's important is not what happened 30 days ago but what will happen in the coming five years of Ukrainian-Russian relations,'' he said.

While Western countries refused to recognize the fraudulent Nov. 21 vote, Putin twice congratulated Yanukovych on his victory and bristled at opposition demands for a new election. Amid round-the-clock protests, the Supreme Court invalidated the election results and ordered a Dec. 26 rerun, which Yushchenko won.

Under Kuchma, Ukraine signed up to an economic plan that would unite it with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in an arrangement aiming to harmonize tax, customs and other trade links.

Yushchenko stressed after his meeting with Putin that Kiev would only participate in such projects if they ``do not block the movement of Ukraine toward the European Union or other markets.''

Yushchenko also said they discussed the dioxin poisoning that dramatically disfigured him and made him ill during the campaign. Yushchenko has blamed the Ukrainian security agents for the poisoning.

Responding to a reporter's question, Yushchenko said: ``It was touched upon.''

Asked for detail, he said: ``There was a question from the president (Putin) regarding the illness and poisoning. I explained what happened, taking into account the circumstances, including the dinner that day. We exchanged ideas regarding possible variants of this poisoning.

``In a word, there was a common interest in the theme of the poisoning.''

He also said he had explained to Putin a Jan. 20 report from doctors at the Austrian clinic where he was treated, which he showed to reporters at a distance. Reading from it, he said it confirmed that he was ``fit to carry out his tasks'' as president.

An aide said the report showed Yushchenko was poisoned with 6,000 times the ``allowable'' dose.

``If I withstood 6,000 doses, I'll live,'' Yushchenko said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow plans to erect a new statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, returning his once-ubiquitous image to its streets after an absence of four decades, a top city official said Wednesday.

Since President Vladimir Putin was elected in 2000, a number of Soviet symbols -- including the national anthem and an army flag -- have been restored to use, reflecting widespread nostalgia for Russia's communist years. But rehabilitation of Stalin, who was denounced after his death in 1953 by the Soviet leadership for encouraging a cult of personality and killing millions of real and imagined opponents, has previously been out of bounds. Statues of Stalin were removed from Moscow's public spaces in the 1960s. ``A monument will be erected to those who took part in (leading the war against Adolf Hitler), including Stalin,'' Oleg Tolkachev, Moscow's senator in the upper house of parliament, told Ekho Moskvy radio.

Interfax news agency reported earlier that a Stalin monument would also be built in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border to mark the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany 60 years ago -- seen as the country's greatest military triumph.

In another sign of Stalin's growing appeal, state television channels have shown a number of prime-time television shows in recent months depicting him in a positive light.

Editor's commentary: It is a known fact that Stalin murdered more people than Hitler and since no one sane is going to build a monument to Hitler there is even less sanity in a decision to build monument to Stalin, one of the greatest murderers in human history. Stalin death toll stands at 60 million people. These monuments will eventually be destroyed by people in a similar manner after fall of iron curtain. This news is even worse when we know that on the same day Russian foreign minister Lavrov dismissed concerns about democracy in Russia. If Stalin stands for democracy then we don't need it, period.

Two Russian men have made an attempt to register a gay marriage in Moscow.

They did not expect to succeed, but sought legal grounds to challenge the Russian Family Code, which forbids gay marriages.

Ed Mishin and Edvard Murzin say this provision of the Code contradicts the Russian constitution.

Their application was accepted by the state registration agency, but they were told to come back in 10 days to get an official written rejection.

Full story here.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The United States is cutting aid to Serbia and Montenegro and may take further punitive measures if Belgrade persists in defying the United Nations war crimes tribunal, the U.S. ambassador to Serbia warned on Friday.

Michael Polt said Washington's patience had run out and it was withdrawing technical advisers from Belgrade ministries.

``These cuts mean that some of our American colleagues in Belgrade and their families will be asked to leave Serbia and return to the U.S.,'' the ambassador told reporters.

The measures could ``affect U.S. support for tax reform, accession of Serbia to the World Trade Organization and economic policy reform that would help attract more foreign investors.''

Efforts to help Serbian flag-carrier JAT Airways resume direct flights to the United States, which have been suspended since 1992, would also be halted, Polt added.

Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic said he was not surprised.

``For months I have been warning that this will happen,'' he said in a statement. ``It is inadmissible that our parliaments and governments adopt full cooperation with the Hague tribunal as a national priority, and then this policy is obstructed by protecting those accused by the Hague.''

``Those who are not implementing established policies are calling themselves patriots and those who are implementing it are being branded traitors,'' Draskovic said.

The U.S. announcement, made on Serbian Orthodox New Year's Day, was a clear message the United States had no confidence in Belgrade's vague promises that ``something will happen soon after the holidays,'' but also no fear of dark warnings that the arrest of war crimes fugitives would lead to dangerous unrest.

``We were really disappointed and this disappointment led to such a decision,'' the ambassador said. ``Serbian government inaction may negatively impact international investor confidence.''

BEIJING (AP) -- China remains ``highly repressive,'' with routine violations of basic rights and widespread corruption despite promises of legal and political reform, the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch said Friday.

The one-party communist government has taken steps to improve its legal system but still prohibits independent labor unions and religious groups, censors the press and interferes in court cases, the group said in an annual report.

``While China has made progress in some areas in recent years ... it remains a highly repressive state,'' the report said.

The report highlighted widespread complaints of continued abuses despite Chinese pledges of reform. Communist leaders amended the nation's constitution last year to declare respect for human rights and hold regular dialogues with the United States and European governments, but activists say such contacts have accomplished little.

Human Rights Watch complained of a ``culture of impunity'' for abusive officials and said a justice system that relies heavily on confessions leads police to torture suspects.

The report said that in its campaign against separatists in its northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang, China also has tried to crush peaceful dissent. It said the campaign is marked by ``systematic human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, closed trials and extensive use of the death penalty.''

Human Rights Watch welcomed promises last year by communist leaders to reform the ruling party's internal workings and to promote the rule of law. But it said that such commitments have ``been compromised by continuing widespread official corruption (and) party interference in the justice system.''

And though the government allows more independent news reporting, it tightened controls last year on the Internet and other media, expanding a list of topics for censorship and banning reporting on rural land seizures, the report said.

Human Rights Watch also complained of abuses against Chinese workers and residents who are evicted for real estate development.

Workers ``have yet to reap the benefits'' of China's two decades of economic boom due to lack of enforcement of safety and wage laws, the report said. It noted that many areas of the country have seen huge labor protests.

The group urged the United States and other governments that hold human rights dialogues with China to set specific goals for improvement and a timetable for achieving them.

To Kasparov, Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "fascist", dismantling Russian democracy with the support of a supine West, which is interested only in stability in the East.

In London for work on a new book and promotional events, the world number one said allowing Moscow to host the G8 summit in 2006 would be the equivalent of Nazi Germany being allowed to host the Olympics in 1936.

"[It is vital] to make sure there is no G7 meeting in Moscow in 2006. It will be like the Berlin Olympics in 1936, it will be the equivalent of Munich 1938, integrating Putin's Russia.

"The democracies are conceding to a brutal dictator. He has abolished the nature of democratic institutions. He will go further."

"There could be popular unrest. The stability [of Russia] exists only in the mind of Bush and Blair.

"It lives through high oil prices and censorship."

Kasparov said the Yukos sale was "the greatest robbery of the 21st Century".

Full story here.

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- An anti-corruption judge has placed President Alejandro Toledo's sister under house arrest for masterminding the mass falsification of petition signatures to register his political party, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Judge Saul Pena Farfan found sufficient evidence to proceed to trial against Margarita Toledo and 25 other defendants, and ordered her house arrest late Monday, her attorney, Marcelo Allemant, told reporters. Judiciary police arrived at her home Tuesday.

President Toledo has repeatedly denied allegations that his sister oversaw the systematic forging of names in 1997 and 1998 on his behalf to make his Peru Possible party eligible for the 2000 elections.

The legal action came one month after the return to Peru of Carmen Burga, the initial witness to come forward last year. In July, Burga abruptly retracted her accusations, issued a videotaped apology to President Toledo and hastily left the country.

She now claims that she and her family were kidnapped by eight men wearing ski masks who threatened to harm her husband and children if she refused to make the videotaped disclaimer.

On Monday, Channel 2 television broadcast an interview with Burga in which she claimed she and her family were taken to Peru's immigration department, provided passports and visas, and bustled out of the country.

She said that in the ensuing months they were taken to Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, staying in hotels paid for by their captors.

Burga, who said she could not identify any of the men, denied media reports that she was paid $120,000 to retract her allegations against the Toledos.

Burga's daughter, Karin Gutierrez, told Channel 2 that one of their kidnappers was Margarita Toledo's brother-in-law, Guillermo Suarez, one of her 25 co-defendants.

Burga's allegations about forged signatures were largely corroborated in August by a second witness, Gladys Alvarez.

Alvarez said the president, who began his five-year term in July 2001, knew about the so-called signature factory and frequently visited it. But as president, Toledo is immune from prosecution.

Alvarez also told investigators that Toledo's wife, Eliane Karp, was involved in the alleged fraud, claiming the first lady visited an office to greet workers hired to crank out phony signatures.

Last month, congressman Edgar Villanueva, who heads an investigative commission, said, ``Of 1,200,000 signatures presented by Toledo's party, it has been established that 77 percent are false, according to a police analysis.''

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Vietnam of mass arrests and torture of ethnic minorities in the central part of the country and urged Cambodia to open its border and allow asylum-seeking tribal members to cross.

In a report released Monday, the New York-based organization said police had rounded up and detained dozens of Montagnards -- as the hilltribe people are collectively known -- in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

``The Vietnamese government's mistreatment of Montagnards continues unabated,'' Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, said in a statement.

More than 1,000 Montagnards fled Vietnam's Central Highlands after a 2001 crackdown on protests by the minorities, many of whom are Protestants who claim the government persecutes them. Vietnam is predominantly Buddhist.

In Gia Lai province in the Central Highlands, police arrested 129 people Dec. 12-24, the group said. The location of the detainees are unknown, it said.

The group also quoted an unidentified hilltribe member from Dak Nong province as saying he was arrested in April and beaten during police interrogations.

``We reject this totally fabricated information,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in a statement.

Many Montagnards, mainly members of Protestant Christian denominations, were U.S. allies during the Vietnam War. A number were resettled in the United States after the war ended in 1975.

Since then, the government has moved in tens of thousands of Vietnamese lowlanders to the highlands to run coffee and rubber plantations, forcing Montagnards off their ancestral land. Human Rights Watch has called on Cambodia to open up its northeastern border with Vietnam and allow Montagnards to seek asylum there.

``Instead of closing its borders to asylum seekers, the Cambodian government should be working with the United Nations refugee agency to provide sanctuary to people escaping torture and arbitrary arrest,'' Adams said.

Pen Bunna, a field official for the Cambodian human rights group Adhoc, said about 50 Vietnamese ethnic minority people had managed to cross the border since Christmas.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is sheltering about 700 Montagnards at camps in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and in northeastern Ratanakiri province.

Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak could not be immediately reached for comment.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine's fiery opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said Tuesday she expects to become the country's next prime minister, given her stalwart support for Viktor Yushchenko, whose presidency is increasingly likely.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Tymoshenko said she and Yushchenko signed a written agreement when she joined his coalition that leaves no alternative than for her to head a new government when Yushchenko is inaugurated.

``I believe that Viktor Yushchenko will follow our formal agreement,'' said Tymoshenko, whose elaborately braided hair, hip orange outfits and sharp tongue have earned her thousands of worshippers among the opposition.

Asked if anyone else could become prime minister, she replied: ``There are no other alternatives.''

Yushchenko, who won a court-ordered revote on Dec. 26 but has not been declared the victor as his opponent appeals the results, has so far refused to say who he will tap to be prime minister.

``It's too early to begin with names,'' he told Ukraine's TV5 last week.

The Central Election Commission said Tuesday that it expected to announce final results Wednesday, at which point Yushchenko's opponent Viktor Yanukovych is expected to file an appeal with Ukraine's Supreme Court.

Side-by-side with Yushchenko, Tymoshenko became the face of the mass movement dubbed the ``Orange Revolution'' -- when thousands of opposition supporters flooded the streets of Kiev following the Nov. 21 fraud-marred second-round vote.

She jumped on the backs of trucks to rally the crowds, clambered over a riot police line and repeatedly called for a forcible seizure of power from the opposition's stage on Independence Square. At her behest, protesters stayed on the streets.

When Yushchenko took the stage to declare victory after the revote, the crowd alternated chants of ``Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!'' with ``Yulia! Yulia!''

``I don't have any doubt that parliament will support my candidacy if Yushchenko will propose it to the parliament,'' Tymoshenko said. She would need a simple majority in the 450-member parliament to win the post.

Some critics have suggested that naming Tymoshenko, a Western-leaning former deputy prime minister, to the premier's job could deepen the division between western and eastern Ukraine, a rift vividly exposed during the election.

In a move aimed at winning over the wary, Russian-speaking east, Tymoshenko made a live televised appearance last week in Donetsk, Yanukovych's hometown and base of his support.

She adeptly answered one hostile question after another, speaking in Russian, then ended the interview by handing over a giant, stuffed red toy heart, saying she hoped the region would accept it.

``In very short time, they will understand that they won the election too,'' she told AP.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday stripped many of the duties of his top economic adviser -- an outspoken critic who has accused the Kremlin of trying to muzzle voices of dissent and civil society in Russia.

Andrei Illarionov, who last week said the Kremlin efforts to censure the public would eventually spark mass protests, was stripped of his responsibilities as Russia's envoy to the Group of 8 industrial nations, the Kremlin said.

Another top adviser, Igor Shuvalov, was given Illarionov's duties, which typically involve heavy preparations for G-8 summit and meetings, earning the envoys the affectionate nickname ``sherpas.''

The Kremlin gave no reason for the shift in responsibilities.

But after the Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko soundly won Ukraine's court-ordered presidential revote last month, Illarionov said Yushchenko's victory should help Russia lose its ``imperial complex'' toward former Soviet republics like Ukraine.

Illarionov has become a lone dissenter in the Kremlin, which is increasingly dominated by Putin's fellow KGB veterans. They are widely seen as a driving force behind the probe against the embattled Yukos oil giant, which has been all but crushed by a legal onslaught of back taxes and criminal charges against its owners.

Illarionov called last month's Kremlin-orchestrated auction of Yukos' main production unit the ``fraud of the year'' and said the government's actions ``have inflicted a colossal damage to the country.''

He also is a longtime critic of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which Russia ratified this fall.

Shuvalov is widely considered a more loyal adviser to Putin, and he has stoutly defended the crackdown on Yukos, warning other Russian oil companies to pay off any back taxes.