According to official military sources in Dushanbe, 48 government soldiers were taken prisoner by the resistance in an engagement in the Pamir foothills October 14. The resistance unit of commander Mirzo Khudji was credited with the capture. The official source did not rule out "betrayal"... MORE

Data just made available by Russia's State Committee for Statistics (Goskomstat) show that CIS countries received from Russia 20 percent less oil and 12 percent less gas in the first three quarters of 1995 than in the same period last year. In contrast, Russia delivered... MORE

The US Boeing company is entering the Central Asian civil aviation market in force. In Tashkent, company managers have signed a deal to deliver three Boeing 767 passenger jets to Uzbek Airlines. The purchase will be backed by a credit expected to be issued in... MORE

Belarus Supreme Soviet chairman Mechislau Hrib has petitioned the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of president Aleksandr Lukashenko's unilateral appointments of two deputy prime ministers, the defense minister, and the country's prosecutor general, without requesting legislative approval. Under the constitution, the nominations to these... MORE

Gatherings in Vilnius and Kaunas commemorated October 16 what the participants termed the "Soviet genocide" in neighboring East Prussia, begun by the Red Army on October 16, 1944. Under secret orders from Stalin uncovered in recent years, the local German population was wiped out, and... MORE

The deputy to the Moldovan parliament Pyotr Shornikov, co-chairman of the Edinstvo movement and a leading Russian hardliner in Moldova, reverts in the current issue of the Moldovan Socialist Party's weekly Spravedlivost to the earlier demand, long since abandoned, to keep Russian troops in Moldova.... MORE

At a conference in Druskininkai, Lithuania, approximately 100 mayors and local legislators from the three Baltic states issued an appeal to the parliaments and governments of their countries to create a Baltic political union. Such a union would more effectively defend Baltic independence, the appeal... MORE

Estonia needs "German weapons, in addition to German arguments, for its protection," president Lennart Meri told the visiting inspector general of Germany's armed forces, General Klaus Naumann. The German supreme commander also conferred with Estonian defense minister Andrus Oovel and the army commander, Lt. General... MORE

The Russian MVD and military have denied any involvement in, or foreknowledge of, the October 8 bombing of the village of Roshni-Chu, and the reported October 14 air strikes against Dargo and Beklgatoi. Most recently, the deputy commander of the Joint Federal Group of Forces,... MORE

. Shamil Basayev, leader of the Budennovsk raid that left 100 people dead, has renewed his threat to unleash radioisotopes against Russia. Last Saturday, Basayev told a roundtable of Chechen political groups in Shali that four containers were already in Russia. Security authorities tend to... MORE