LATVIAN BORDER TROOPS COMMANDER DISMISSED.

The commander of Latvia’s border troops, Leonids Lasmanis, was dismissed yesterday by the country’s defense minister and the commander in chief of the armed forces. President Guntis Ulmanis had publicly urged the measure following a theft of automatic rifles from a border guard unit last week. Despite the small scale of the theft — no more than 15 rifles — the government wanted to demonstrate that it took the episode seriously. (BNS, June 11)

Kyrgyzstan Protests China’s Nuclear Test.