About a thousand workers, protesting that they have not been paid their wages for five months, broke through armed guards this morning and occupied the shops of their enterprise, which produces explosives and ammunition. The enterprise is located in the town of Murom, 180 miles... MORE

Russian officials say a Deputy Justice Minister, Aleksei Stepanov, was found dead in his Moscow apartment this morning. It is unclear whether he was shot or killed by a blow to the head. The BBC says there is speculation that his death may have been... MORE

The Russian Duma failed for the second time May 22 to overrule a Federation Council veto of a bill on public control over elections and open procedures for tallying the results. Observers said it was unlikely a compromise would be worked out in time for... MORE

United Tajik Opposition (UTO) Chairman Saidabdullo Nuri yesterday circulated an appeal to the countries involved in the inter-Tajik talks and to international organizations to urgently render "any humanitarian assistance they can afford" to the population of the Tavildara district in central Tajikistan. The appeal said... MORE

The National Democratic party (NDP), Georgia's largest opposition party and the only one represented in parliament, yesterday took the final step toward a split. Steering committee members and most of the party's 36 parliamentary deputies, led by the party's political secretary and parliamentary group leader... MORE

Kyrgyzstan's Geology Ministry announced yesterday the results of four international tenders for the exploration and development of gold and other precious ore deposits. The Cameco Corporation of Canada won the rights to the Akhzol gold deposit; a partnership comprised of Cameco and the Kyrgyzaltyn (Kyrgyz... MORE

Moldova, which used to account for approximately one third of the former USSR's total output of raw tobacco, has inched close to awarding a lucrative privatization contract to the German company Reemtsma. A majority of the tender committee in Chisinau has chosen Reemtsma over world... MORE

Lithuania's Foreign Ministry yesterday rejected the "false and slanderous" allegations, disseminated via a Moscow mass-circulation newspaper, about Lithuanian state involvement in drug smuggling to Western countries. "One can see with the naked eye the efforts by some political forces in Russia to portray Lithuania and... MORE

Belarusian authorities released Popular Front leaders Vyacheslav Sivchik and Yuri Khadyka from pretrial detention on May 17 and May 21, respectively, allowing them to be hospitalized. Sivchik had been on hunger strike for 18 days and Khadyka for 23 days. Both men were protesting their... MORE

Meeting in Krasnodar last weekend, atamans of the All-Kuban Cossack Army declared their support for President Yeltsin in the upcoming presidential elections. For the first time in eighty years, one of them said, "a Russian leader has turned his face to the Cossacks." (Interfax, May... MORE