The NATO enlargement issue continued to grab headlines yesterday, as U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright held talks in Brussels while German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel consulted with Russian leaders in Moscow. In an address to NATO foreign ministers, Albright unveiled a new proposal for... MORE

NATO's Supreme Commander, Gen. John Sheehan of the U.S., participated in a conference of the Defense Ministers of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, held in Bishkek over the weekend. The meeting focused on the development of the three countries' joint battalion and its planned exercise, CentrasBat-97,... MORE

Renegade chieftains Bakhrom and Rizvon Sodirov yesterday released their last six hostages: two UN military observers (a Ukrainian major and a Swiss captain), three UNHCR staffers (a Russian representing Tajikistan, a Tajik, and a Nigerian), and Tajik state security minister Saidamir Zuhurov. The Dushanbe government... MORE

Authorities in Belarus seem to have been thrown off balance by rising protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko's policies. OMON and regular police hesitated for hours on February 14 before using batons and tear gas to disperse a 4,000-strong unauthorized procession, mainly of students and other... MORE

The Russian Duma's Defense Committee Chairman, Gen. Lev Rokhlin, on February 13 accused former Defense Minister Pavel Grachev of bearing personal responsibility for the unlawful delivery of 84 T-72 tanks and 50 BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles to Armenia in 1995-1996, without the required authorizations from... MORE

Starting an official visit to Germany, Estonian foreign minister Toomas Ilves urged that NATO's planned enlargement not lead to a situation in which "some countries are safe while others are up for grabs." NATO's upcoming Madrid summit must not damage the security of countries that... MORE

Moscow is in the grip of one of its famous literary scandals. The winner of this year's "Anti-Booker Prize," Sergei Gadlevsky, has ostentatiously rejected the prize. Gadlevsky is a well-known modernist poet who never published a line in the USSR under the Communist regime (though... MORE

Azerbaijan's autonomous Nakhichevan Republic has signed an agreement of intent with Iran to open Iranian banking services in Nakhichevan, introduce visa-free travel, establish commuter bus lines between Nakhichevan and cities in northern Iran, lay a two-way railroad track between Nakhichevan and Mashhad (Iran), and regularize... MORE

Russia's first deputy foreign minister Igor Ivanov yesterday came out against a role for NATO in the negotiations to settle the Abkhazia and Karabakh conflicts. The region is "out of area" in relation to NATO, Ivanov stressed, commenting on NATO secretary-general Javier Solana's visit there... MORE

According to the country's state-run news agency, Bulgaria's caretaker government announced yesterday that Sofia desires "full membership" in NATO and has tasked the foreign and defense ministers with drafting preparations for joining the Western alliance. The announcement represents a potential policy shift for Bulgaria that... MORE