Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma has canceled celebrations marking the adoption of Ukraine's new constitution and declared today a day of national mourning following an accident in the Ukrainian city of Dneprodzerzhinsk. A tram hurtled off the rails, killing at least 32 people and injuring 75.... MORE

Chinese president Jiang Zemin today conferred with Uzbek president Islam Karimov in Tashkent, the first leg of Jiang's official tour of Central Asia. Chinese officials said that the Uzbek side expressed support for Beijing on the issues of Taiwan, Tibet, and the Uighur-inhabited Xinjiang region.... MORE

Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry officials announced yesterday that President Askar Akaev has ratified Kyrgyzstan's accession to the 1967 UN convention on the status of refugees. The move has been prompted mainly by the growing number of Tajik war refugees, 14,000 of whom are officially registered in... MORE

International Red Cross chief representative in Tajikistan, Thomas Merkelbach said yesterday that an estimated 11,000 refugees are currently on the move from the war-torn Tavildara district. Some 5,000 are headed for Badakhshan region or have already arrived there, and some 6,000 are headed for Dushanbe.... MORE

Russia is voting today on whether to reelect Boris Yeltsin president or to return to Communist rule. Yeltsin has not appeared in public for a week, but Western speculation over the state of his health has not been reflected in the Russian press, which has... MORE

The chairman of NATO's military committee told a German radio station yesterday that he expects the broad contours of Russia's security policy to remain unchanged regardless of who wins tomorrow's presidential election. General Klaus Naumann also expressed the hope that NATO and Moscow could reach... MORE

Russia's Foreign Ministry reiterated yesterday that it would not participate in any operations aimed at isolating or arresting Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, or any other figure suspected of committing crimes in Bosnia. According to Vadim Lukov, Moscow believes IFOR forces lack a mandate for... MORE

According to Russia's State Statistics Committee, the volume of production from some 700 Russian firms involved in defense conversion fell by 20 percent in the first quarter of 1996 as compared to the same period last year. Approximately one in two such enterprises saw a... MORE

Russia's Far East customs administration reported with some consternation yesterday that trade turnover on Russia's Pacific coast in May and June of this year slumped to one-half the total of the same period in 1995. Imports of foreign products are down especially sharply, customs officials... MORE

Russia's foreign trade minister said yesterday that American investment in Russia could increase by two to three times as a result of work done by the Gore-Chernomyrdin commission. According to Oleg Davydov, American businesses have been among the most enthusiastic investors in Russia's economy, with... MORE