Vorkuta Russia

The gulag is gone, but its prisoners remain. Poverty and a lifetime of missed chances have marooned Said Asan Dzhamilov in luckless Vorkuta. More than six decades ago, he was among a million inmates sent here to hack coal from the Arctic permafrost and build a city where none would naturally grow. Today, the 85-year-old still dreams of going home to his native Crimea. But he knows he never will. "I would leave today if I could. I'm sick and tired of living in Vorkuta.

The gulag is gone, but its prisoners remain. Poverty and a lifetime of missed chances have marooned Said Asan Dzhamilov in luckless Vorkuta. More than six decades ago, he was among a million inmates sent here to hack coal from the Arctic permafrost and build a city where none would naturally grow. Today, the 85-year-old still dreams of going home to his native Crimea. But he knows he never will. "I would leave today if I could. I'm sick and tired of living in Vorkuta.

Russian space scientists began an experiment to launch a giant mirror from the orbiting station Mir early today in pursuit of the futuristic idea of lighting up northern cities at night with the reflected rays of the sun. The shiny disc, 25 yards across, could also be considered a precursor to a solar sail--a means of propelling a solar-powered spacecraft that scientists have long dreamed of creating and sending to the moon, according to officials at the Flight Control Center near Moscow.

Juozas Aleksejunas unlocked the door of the cold, concrete cell and stepped carefully inside. More than 50 years ago, as a young Lithuanian independence fighter, he spent three freezing days in solitary confinement in the little room. Now he has a job showing the cell to visitors--along with rest of the brutal KGB jail where he was held for two months before spending 18 years in a Soviet labor camp.