RUSSIAN HELICOPTER ATTACKED NEAR AFGHAN BORDER.

Units ofthe Tajik opposition attacked but failed to bring down a

Russian military helicopter near the Afghan border, Russian televisionreported August 23. The station said that Tajik opposition unitswere massing on the Afghan side and that Russian and Tajik governmentunits were increasing their patrols of the border region. Meanwhile,Obshchaya gazeta (no. 32) suggested that Russian effortsto find moderates among the Tajik opposition were doomed to failureand that Russia faced an irreconcilable enemy there.

It Pays to Listen to Airport Announcements.