NEW YORK - Massachusetts Financial Services, the oldest mutual fund manager in the United States, has reached a settlement with regulators in a mutual fund fraud case. MFS, the 11th-largest fund manager in the country with $140 billion in assets, allowed investors to make short trades in 11 of its funds, which was prohibited by its investment disclosure statements. MFS will compensate investors for $175 million in losses from such trades, pay a $50 million fine, and reduce its management fees by $125 million a year. MFS's CEO and chief investment officer have been barred from holding management positions at mutual fund managers for the next three years. (WSJ)

MOSCOW - The Volga-Dnepr Group has asked the government to exempt it from customs duties on the import of Boeing-747-400 cargo planes into Russia, said the group's president, Alexey Isaikin. According to him, these planes were needed to create a regular cargo airline. According to preliminary estimates, Volga-Dnepr's savings in the event of receiving benefits could amount to about $400-500 million. Volga-Dnepr expects to purchase at least 10 Boeing-747 planes within 10 years. (INTERFAX).

MOSCOW - As of February 4, Gazprom has issued permits for gas transportation in 2004 through its gas transportation system (GTS) to 31 independent organizations with a total transportation volume of 95.2 billion cubic meters of gas, of which 44.5 billion cubic meters are from Central Asian countries and Kazakhstan. Gazprom is currently reviewing another 33 applications from 12 independent organizations for gas transportation in 2004 with a total volume of 11.5 billion cubic meters. It is predicted that a total of 110-120 billion cubic meters of gas will be issued for 2004. (INTERFAX).

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on transforming the state enterprise Russian Foreign Trade Association Zarubezhneft into an open joint-stock company and securing 100% of its shares in state ownership. In accordance with the decree, federally owned shares of OAO RMNTK Nefteotdacha in the amount of at least 75% of its authorized capital will be contributed to the authorized capital of OAO Zarubezhneft. After the corporatization, Zarubezhneft will be included in the list of joint-stock companies producing products of strategic importance. (INTERFAX).

NOVOSIBIRSK - Russian Railways plans to attract more than 20 billion rubles in foreign borrowings in 2004, said company president Gennady Fadeyev. Russian Railways plans to issue ruble bonds worth up to 10 billion rubles. The company is also negotiating with a number of Russian and foreign investment banks about attracting investments in 2004 in the amount of 10-15 billion rubles. (INTERFAX).

MOSCOW - The Central Bank of Russia will prepare a regulation within a few months on assessing the financial condition of individuals paying for bank shares or stakes, said Mikhail Sukhov, director of the Central Bank's department for licensing the activities of credit institutions and financial recovery. The regulator wants "individuals to buy bank shares using legal money."

Russia is negotiating a write-off of 65% of Iraq's debt, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told Bloomberg. But the final "volumes of write-off and restructuring will be determined based on an analysis of Iraq's situation and its future creditworthiness; the World Bank and IMF are currently completing this work," Kudrin said in an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of finance ministers from the world's leading industrial countries. (INTERFAX-AFI).

A fire has been extinguished at the Leninsky Prospekt metro station. According to the Moscow Metro's Internal Affairs Department for Security, at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, the station duty officer saw heavy smoke coming from under one of the metro cars. An immediate decision was made to evacuate people from the station. The fire was extinguished before the firefighters arrived. It was caused by a technical malfunction of the car. (INTERFAX-MOSCOW).

A train car caught fire in the Moscow metro