Organizers of Sunday's one-candidate "election" in Iraq announced on Monday that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein won 99.95 percent of the first million votes counted. Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin Differ on Budget.

On Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin urged the government to revise forecasts contained in a 1996 draft budget. The same day, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin called on deputies in the lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma, to pass the 1996 budget this year in... MORE

Yeltsin said on Friday he was alarmed that criminals were trying to win seats in parliament and an aide said Russia faced a bigger security threat from inside its borders than from abroad. Reports on Mafia Theft of Nuclear Materials.

On Sunday, Russia and separatist forces accused each other of stepping up military activity in Chechnya. Interfax reported today that two Russian soldiers were killed and six others injured in rebel Chechnya over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, peace talks remain suspended. Tour Bus Hijacked... MORE

On Saturday, on a river bridge in the center of Moscow near the Kremlin, a lone terrorist captured a Mercedes bus with 27 South Korean tourists and two Russians aboard, and held the passengers hostage for ransom in the bus. After several hours of negotiations,... MORE

Russian Foreign Ministry chief spokesman Grigorii Karasin made public a ministry statement in connection with the October 10 attack by the Tajik resistance which killed seven Russian soldiers. Blaming the attack on the Islamic Revival Movement (the main political party in the resistance coalition), the... MORE

According to an unnamed "senior official" of Russia's Foreign Ministry, Western governments acting "in the interest of Western monopolies" are behind the wish of former Soviet republics around the Caspian Sea to establish their own national sectors in that sea. "Any attempt to divide the... MORE

Returning from a U.S. visit, Latvian foreign minister Valdis Birkavs told a Riga briefing that he has notified deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott in a memorandum that Latvia will apply for security consultations with the NATO alliance as per the Partnership for Peace program,... MORE

In a statement carried by Tiraspol media, Transdniester Supreme Soviet chairman Grigorii Marakutsa said that Tiraspol's and Chisinau's foreign policy orientations are mutually opposed: Transdniester wants to be closely allied with Russia and opposes NATO's enlargement, whereas Moldova cooperates with NATO and seeks integration in... MORE

Receiving a delegation of State Secretaries from German ministries, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma spoke of a "special relationship between Kiev and Bonn" and also said that "Germany could play a special role in Ukraine's life." The German delegation arrived in Kiev October 12 to review... MORE