Pakistan has urged the world community to halt a far-reaching Russian-Indian arms accord, one that Islamabad says could further exacerbate tensions in the already volatile South Asia region. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tariq Altaf voiced the plea on December 24, only two days after Russian... MORE

On December 26, in an effort to end a disastrous year for Russia's armed forces on a positive note, President Boris Yeltsin praised the performance of his beleaguered defense chief and proclaimed that the country's military reform effort had made important progress in 1998. Yeltsin's... MORE

Sergei Stankevich, a former Moscow deputy mayor and Duma deputy who was once a leading light of Russia's democratic movement, announced yesterday that the Polish government had granted him political refugee status. In 1995, Stankevich was charged with having accepted, during his tenure as Moscow... MORE

Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov met yesterday with his deputies, including Yuri Maslyukov, the first deputy premier in charge of economic policy. They discussed, among other things, the second vote for the government's draft federal budget for 1999, which is expected to take place soon. In... MORE

The Belarusan Popular Front (BPF) appeals to the governments and parliaments of democratic countries in Europe and North America "to really support the Belarusan opposition's effort in the struggle for freedom and independence of Belarus." The appeal points out that the documents on further integration... MORE

On December 25 the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and a Japanese consortium signed a production-sharing agreement to rehabilitate and work over three oilfields in the south of Azerbaijan. The Atashgiakh, Yanan-Tava and Mugan-Deniz fields hold recoverable reserves estimated at 75 to 90 million... MORE

On January 1 Estonian President Lennart Meri signed into law a bill requiring parliamentary deputies and members of elective municipal and district councils to be able to read and speak Estonian. The parliament had passed the bill on December 15 in the form of amendments... MORE

A Russian television channel reported on January 3 that a bomb containing radioactive materials had been discovered and defused in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. The bomb was reportedly discovered on the highway linking the town of Argun with Chechnya's capital Djohar (formerly Grozny).... MORE

On January 2, the Chechen authorities announced that they had arrested a gang responsible for nine murders and twelve armed attacks on Chechen territory and that of neighboring Dagestan. They reported that while four members of the group had been arrested in the Shelkovsky district,... MORE

President Boris Yeltsin and Nikolai Bordyuzha, the new head of his administration and secretary of his advisory Security Council, have said that the fight against organized crime, corruption and political extremism will be priorities in 1999. Moscow is reportedly leading this fight. The official crime... MORE