On June 10 Russia's Federation Council voted by 121 to 4 to override President Yeltsin's veto on the law banning the return of cultural artifacts seized during World War II. Yeltsin had vetoed the law for the second time on May 22, claiming the postal... MORE

Chinese defense minister Chi Haotian yesterday completed a five-day visit to Ukraine during which he conferred with the top political and military leadership and visited military factories. Chi and his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksandr Kuzmuk, discussed possible deliveries of Ukrainian military equipment to China; joint production... MORE

According to Latvian press reports yesterday, the police have found the bodies of two men suspected of involvement in the bombing of the Soviet war memorial in Riga. (See Monitor, June 9) The bodies have been tentatively identified as those of two veterans of the... MORE

Using artillery and airpower, Russian border troops yesterday killed some 30 Tajik opposition fighters from a 100-strong detachment under a noted field commander, Junaidullo, which was attempting to cross the Panj river from Afghanistan into Tajikistan. The detachment was simultaneously attacked from the rear by... MORE

First Deputy Premier Anatoly Chubais warmly welcomed yesterday's decision by the Russian Duma to delay its summer recess until June 24 in order to debate the government's draft tax code and proposals for cuts in public spending. Earlier, the Duma had refused to consider the... MORE

The vice-chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, headed a U.S. military delegation to Kazakstan and Uzbekistan from June 4-10 to prepare a joint military exercise. Scheduled to be held in September in those two countries, the exercise will... MORE

The leaders of the forcibly dissolved Belarusan parliament confirmed yesterday their tentative acceptance of negotiations with the administration of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. During a meeting in Minsk with a prominent German Bundestag deputy and OSCE representative, Gert Weisskirchen, the legitimate parliament's chairman and vice-chairman, Syamyon... MORE

According to Armenian parliament vice-chairman Ara Sahakian, Yerevan "does not rule out its eventual accession to the Russia-Belarus Union" as a means for Armenia to "draw closer to Russia and strengthen the Russian-Armenian alliance." Speaking during the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly session which ended yesterday in... MORE

By virtue of a decree issued on June 6 by President Boris Yeltsin, Russia's Defense Council has been vested with authority over top personnel appointments in the armed forces and other troops. Defense Council secretary Yuri Baturin had earlier headed an agency -- the Presidential... MORE

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov on June 8 announced measures to enhance the role of Islamic institutions in the republic. Chechnya is to set up an Islamic State Bank, replace civil courts with courts administering Islamic law, and abandon the Latin alphabet (introduced after the breakup... MORE