The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan yesterday began a closed-door trial of Islamic party chairman Alikram Aliev and three vice-chairmen on charges of high treason. The State Security Ministry's investigation concluded that the defendants and some accomplices had spied for Iranian intelligence in return for money,... MORE

The detachment commanded by the brothers Rizvon and Bahrom Sodirov has in recent days clashed with Opposition forces some 50 kilometers east of Dushanbe in Kofarnihon district. According to Opposition sources, 25 men were killed on both sides in the clashes, which peaked yesterday. An... MORE

Azerbaijan's parliament, the Milli Majlis, yesterday ratified the country's contract with an international consortium to develop the Dan Ulduzu and Ashrafi offshore oil fields. The consortium is comprised of the U.S. companies AMOCO and UNOCAL, with a 30 percent and a 25.5 percent stake, respectively;... MORE

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma yesterday dismissed Economics Minister Vasyl Hureyev, Machine-Building, Military Industry and Conversion Minister Valery Malev, Finance Minister Valentin Korenevsky, and Statistics Minister Oleksandr Osaulenko for unsatisfactory performance. Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko had criticized those ministries' work at a cabinet meeting last week... MORE

More than a thousand retail traders staged a rally in central Minsk yesterday to protest against the sudden doubling of rental fees for market booths. Protest leaders made public an appeal to Minsk's thousands of private retailers to form a trade union in defense of... MORE

Estonian prime minister Tiit Vahi resigned yesterday, two weeks after having announced his intention to quit in order to focus on defending himself against accusations of corruption. Vahi's resignation automatically entails that of the entire cabinet, but current cabinet members will continue serving in a... MORE

The Russian writer Andrei Sinyavsky has died in France at the age of 71. He had been ill for some time. (Itar-Tass, February 25) Born in Moscow in 1925, Sinyavsky worked as a literary critic on the journal Novy Mir. He came into conflict with... MORE

Among the developments that led finally to Rodionov's February 17 meeting with Yeltsin was a much publicized press conference on February 6 in which Rodionov claimed that Moscow was losing control over its nuclear forces. With that warning in mind, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin... MORE

Adm. Igor Khmelnov, chief of the navyÕs Main Staff, has been charged with abuse of power by the Main Military ProsecutorÕs office. Khmelnov commanded the Pacific Fleet from August 1994 until February 1996. He has been accused of illegally obtaining apartments in Vladivostok for himself... MORE

A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said yesterday that Russia welcomed the proposals NATO put forward in Vienna last week in the talks on updating the 1992 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, but indicated they did not meet all of Moscow's concerns. Vladimir... MORE