60202 The Straits Times, an English-language newspaper in Singapore, released on the 31st the "Persons of 1994," chosen by a poll of readers.
60203 The top person of the year was an American boy named Michael Fay, who suffered a flogging punishment for vandalizing a car, ahead all other "persons of the year," including British Premier John Major.
60204 Ten candidates had been announced in advance, from among which a total of 19,770 readers cast their votes by phone, selecting the U.S. boy by as far the top with more than 80 percent votes.
60205 Russian Vice Premier and Chairman of the State Property Committee Vladimir Polevanov, in charge of democratization policies of Russia, has clarified its basic principle of "Non-privatization and re-nationalization."
60206 This principle substantially modifies the radical privatization by his predecessor, Anatoliy B. Chubais, and attracts a lot of attention as an indicator of the economic steering in 1995 by the Yeltsin administration.
60207 According to the Segodnya newspaper dated the 30th, Vice Prime Minister Vladimir Polevanov emphasized, "We need the shift of governmental economic strategy, as well as stronger national leadership over businesses," and announced, "We aim to adopt a bill to re-nationalize the firms that have been inappropriately privatized."
60208 The Vice Premier cited as domains to be re-nationalized, aluminum, energy and munitions, stating, "The acquisition by foreign enterprises of 15 percent of the shares in our country and authorizing their representatives to serve on boards of directors, will pose a direct threat to the national security of Russia."
60209 The Izvestia also reported, "The Basic Principle of Vice Prime Minister Polevanov is non-privatization," with the headline of "A Bomb at the Foot of Privatization."
60210 In the Izvestia article Polevanov announced, "Privatization so far has been only one-sided.However, as day comes with night and life with death, privatization should be accompanied by nationalization," thus demonstrating his opinion that privatization has gone too far.
60211 The Russian privatization policy was launched in October 1992, under the leadership of Anatoliy B. Chubais.
60212 Its initial phase, which was designed to realize the acquisition of stocks by privatized securities, was completed in June 1994, and the second phase has been launched, in which cash purchase of stocks is being aimed for.
60213 As of November 1994, 75 percent of small to medium businesses were privatized, and a considerable number of large companies have also been privatized.
60214 In addition, 71 percent of property owned by local governments has already been sold off to private entities.
60215 Although Chubais tries to confront Polevanov's policy of reviewing privatization, the latter is reported to hold more support in the Cabinet.
60216 Fierce street fighting broke out in Mogadishu, the Capital of Somalia on December 31st.