RESTORATION OF CHECHEN PIPELINE TO BEGIN THIS WEEK.

Work will start this week on rebuilding the Chechen section of the Baku-Grozny-Novorossiisk oil pipeline, Russian first deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov told a TV interviewer last week. (NTV, September i9) He said the work will cost between $2 and $2.5 billion. Plans are also in hand to build a new pipeline circumventing Chechnya, and Nemtsov said Russia plans to raise the $300 million necessary by issuing a bond backed by the Transneft oil transport company. (Financial Times, September 19)

Missionaries Disappear in North Caucasus.