DUMA DELEGATION DISCUSSES TAJIK WAR WITH KABUL.

Petr Shirishov, chairman of the Russian Duma’s defense and security committee, met with Afghan leaders in Kabul June 12, Russian radio reported. Shirishov said that Moscow wanted a peaceful settlement to the Tajik conflict and hoped to reopen its embassy in Kabul. Shirishov dismissed as “fiction” reports that Russian planes had attacked Tajiks who have fled into Afghanistan. Meanwhile, in New York, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called for a six-month extension of the 72-man UN peacekeeping team in Tajikistan and, in an apparent bow to Russian concerns about crossborder activities, suggested that a special monitoring office be opened in northern Afghanistan.

Diogenes Can Put Away His Lamp.