LATVIA RELEASES RUBIKS.

The former first secretary of Latvia’s Communist Party, Alfreds Rubiks, was released yesterday from prison, two years before the expiration of his eight-year term. Rubiks had been sentenced for leading an attempt to overthrow Latvia’s lawful government during the August 1991 Soviet putsch. Communists and other leftists in Russia and the Baltic states campaigned for Rubiks’ release. The Riga court that had sentenced him ordered his release for good behavior. A Communist demonstration greeted him at the prison gate. (BNS, November 5)

Russia-Belarus Union Marks Time.