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investments," he said.
Lavrov said he also discussed interaction at international organizations, including the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the CIS.
"We favor more active use of these organizations for the promotion of our common interests," he said.
This winter Russia provided humanitarian aid to frost-stricken Tajikistan, Lavrov said.
"We will continue such assistance and make it systemic," he said.
First and foremost, Russia will assist in the development of water and energy systems in Central Asia, Lavrov said.
MINSK. March 27 (Interfax) - Belarus and Russia will be ready to parry threats related to the proposed deployment of a U.S. missile shield in Europe, Oleg Tolkachev, the head of the Economic Policies Commission of the Belarusian-Russian Union's Parliamentary Assembly, said.
"Only those with real strength are respected in our world. The capabilities of the Union State are sufficiently serious and the possibility of providing an appropriate response are still there," Tolkachev said at a video news conference on Thursday.
"Work to parry threats to security is proceeding without any hysteria. A situation such as the one in 1963, when the location of missiles began in Cuba, will not repeat itself," he said.
"Missile defense has evolved into an offensive system," said Nikolai Cherginets, the chairman of the International Affairs and National Security Committee in the Belarusian parliament.
"The moment elements of a missile defense system are located in Poland, the Czech Republic and Turkey, the U.S. will be tempted to deploy offensive weapons there," the Belarusian politician said.
KYIV. March 27 (Interfax) - A Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian border guard service crashed into the Black Sea on Thursday.
The Mi-8 was carrying 13 people, one of whom survived the crash. The others remain unaccounted for, spokesman for the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry Ihor Krol told Interfax.
TIRASPOL. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Only 9.8% of junior officers in the Transdniestrian armed forces want to continue military service, Col. Vladimir Nagorny, Transdniestria's deputy defense minister responsible for military training, told the 1st commanders' conference, citing the results of an anonymous poll in the army.
He said 28.2% of junior officers wanted to quit at the first opportunity before their contracts expire, 45.6% said they would not extend their contracts and another 16.4% were undecided. Most of the junior officers who are planning to quit (82.9%) cited low pay as the reason, 39% said the armed forces were poorly equipped, and 36% said military service has lost its gleam.
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - The 1,020th anniversary of the Baptism of Ancient Rus is the day of unity of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Public and Religious Organizations Sergei Markov told Interfax on Thursday.
"The celebration of the 1,020th anniversary of the Baptism of Ancient Rus is the celebration of a great event that shaped the destiny of the Russian civilization to a large extent. By taking the idea of Orthodoxy from Byzantium, Russia shaped its statehood and culture," he said.
Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples "preserve their cultural, civilization and humanitarian unity," Markov said. "It is no accident that nearly 80% of Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians call tripartite relations a priority."
"In fact, it was one and the same people divided by state borders, and that division largely came from the outside. If not for external pressure, it is highly probable that the people would have reunited in one nation," he said.
An international roundtable dubbed "The Day of the Baptism of Ancient Rus: The First Holiday of Fatherland" will take place at the Kyiv Pechora Lavra on Friday, March 28. Artists, clerics, scientists, businessmen, politicians and the public of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries will attend the roundtable.
KYIV. March 27 (Interfax) - Seven of the 13 people who were aboard a Ukrainian border guard helicopter that fell into the Black Sea on Thursday have been found dead, five others remain missing, and one person that has been rescued "is in a critical condition," border guard spokesman Serhiy Astakhov told Interfax.
Two border guard boats, a helicopter and local residents are involved in the search for the missing people.
Two ad hoc commissions - one representing the border guard and the prosecution service and the other being an internal border guard commission - are investigating the accident.
KYIV. March 27 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is hoping that U.S. President George W. Bush's upcoming visit to Ukraine will give bilateral relations a serious boost.
"Ukraine is preparing for U.S. President Bush's visit. We expect his arrival to give a serious impetus to our economic relations," Tymoshenko said, meeting with foreign diplomats accredited in Ukraine on Thursday.
"I think the visit will produce very serious agreements and we are looking forward to and preparing for it," the prime minister said.
Bush is due to visit Ukraine on April 1 ahead of NATO's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest with Ukraine's bid to join the alliance's Membership Action Plan included into the Bucharest summit's agenda.
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - A large amount of obsolete and excessive weapons will be destroyed in Ukraine with NATO's assistance in the coming 12 years, NATO's Information Office in Moscow has reported.
"A project intended for the coming 12 years, with an estimated cost of 25 million euro - the largest separate initiative of its kind - will help Ukraine to safely destroy 133,000 tonnes of obsolete and excessive weapons, 1.5 million firearms and 1,000 shoulder-held missile launchers," the NATO Information Office said in a press release ahead of the Alliance's Bucharest summit.
Four hundred thousand landmines were eliminated in Ukraine under a previous project, the Information Office said.
NATO and Ukraine have formed a pattern of dialogue and cooperation that embraces a wide range of areas, the statement says. The parties signed a charter of special partnership in 1997 and adopted a NATO- Ukraine action plan in 2002. In 2005 they launched an in-depth dialogue on Ukraine's accession and on related reforms.
The dialogue, started in April 2005, is a structured path for Ukraine, NATO and NATO members to exchange views on all membership- related issues, the statement says. The dialogue, however, does not guarantee an invitation to join NATO. Nor does it predetermine NATO's decision, it says.
An invitation will depend on Ukraine's accomplishments in attaining the targets of key reforms. But, ultimately, the Ukrainian people and their elected leaders will decide the country's future path with NATO, it says.
NATO's cooperation with Ukraine in reorganizing the defense and security sectors is broader than cooperation with all other NATO partner-states, the Information Office said.
KYIV. March 27 (Interfax) - Volodymyr Shulga, one of the star witnesses in President Yushchenko's poisoning case, died Wednesday evening, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry told Interfax.
Shulga arrived in the Shevchenkovo District Department of the Interior Ministry accompanied by his lawyer at the invitation of the investigator at 4:45 p.m. He testified as a witness in a case of forged documents, it said.
Following interrogation, police suggested that he provide clarification concerning a writ from a certain citizen whom Shulga allegedly threatened to kill. Allegedly, Shulga repeatedly made threatening phone calls and sent threatening SMS messages to this individual.
Shulga wrote a clarification on this point and pledged "not to implement any illegal action in relation to this citizen." After this, Shulga and his defense lawyer left, the department said. Some ten minutes later, department officials called him on the phone and asked him to come back to provide some further details.
On coming back, Shulga said he would speak to police officers only in the presence of his defense lawyer who had left by that time. Shulga called his defense lawyer asking him to return and waited for him in the department corridor.
Suddenly Shulga said he felt ill and police called an ambulance. Doctors later registered Shulga's death, which they said was due to coronary deficiency.
According to earlier reports, Shulga organized a supper with participation of the candidate for president Viktor Yushchenko in September 2004. After this, Viktor Yushchenko developed serious health problems. Later it became known that he had been poisoned with dioxin. The criminal case has not been concluded.
Shulga was an owner of 25% property of the Foxtrot Group of Companies.
ASHGABAT. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow has confirmed his country's readiness to cooperate in peacekeeping activities.
"Faithful to its neutral status delegated to it by the international community, Turkmenistan will reassert its readiness to contribute its peacekeeping potential to the cause of peace, stability and global security," Berdimuhammedow said during a cabinet meeting on Thursday, ahead of NATO's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest in which the Turkmen leader will also take part.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The Ukrainian State Border Service helicopter that crashed in the Black Sea had 14 people on board. Rescuers have now discovered the 13th body belonging to a professional serviceman.
"Earlier this serviceman was not included in the lists of helicopter passengers. All victims of the crash have now been found," Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Ihor Krol told Interfax.
The Ukrainian Mill Mi-8 helicopter crashed into the Black Sea on Thursday. It had 14 people on board, one of whom was found alive.
MINSK. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has refuted allegations of involvement with Viktor But, an informed source told Interfax.
Commenting on material in local media on the alleged involvement of Belarus in the business of Bout, the source in the Foreign Ministry said that "it is very difficult comment such articles, since they are based in fantasies of Hollywood movies. It is obvious that the authors of these articles do not understand very well the issues of deliveries of conventional weapons and current restrictions in this area."
"In Belarus, a multi-stage system of export control strictly regulating all stages of work with weapons, starting from pre-contract development and concluding with possible inspection of the use of delivered materiel on the territory of the buyer has been created," the source said.
"Belarus also strictly observes all international obligations in international security including UN Security Council resolutions on these problems," the source said.
"The republic regularly sends information on armaments and materiel deliveries to the UN register on conventional weapons. This information is accessible on the UN website," he said.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has developed yearly reports from 2003 from 2003, has prepared national reports on the export control policy in this country, the source said. "These reports are accessible on the official Foreign Ministry website," he said.
TASHKENT. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The upper house in Uzbekistan's parliament approved at a plenary session on Friday the law on Uzbekistan's accession to the Collective Security Treaty and a set of legal documents restoring the country's CSTO membership.
"By signing these documents the country is based on its commitment to strengthening peace and stability, international and regional security, no threat or use of force in inter-governmental relations, joint protection of independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the members states - the principles that arise from Uzbekistan's sovereign right," senators said.
The approved documents are consistent with the Constitution and the laws concerning the country's foreign policy principles, defense, international treaties and other regulations and statutory provisions, parliamentarians said.
These documents passed by the Legislative Chamber and approved by the Senate are considered to be passed by the parliament and are being sent to the president for signing.
It was reported earlier that in December 2006 Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed the law ratifying the Protocol restoring Uzbekistan's membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The Protocol was signed in Sochi on August 16, 2006. The bill ratifying this document was passed by the parliament's lower house on November 21 and approved by the Senate on December 1, 2006.
Uzbekistan joined CSTO in 1992 and suspended its membership in 1998.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Kazakh president's former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev sentenced to 20 years in prison for a plotting a coup d'etat, treason and espionage, has dismissed his charges and hopes to reunite with his family.
"These are absurd, Soviet-style accusations of the 1930s-1940s. I read them on the internet. I do not acknowledge this court because it is a closed, military court. In our country the whole legislative, executive and judicial power is held by one person. The authoritative leader is giving orders and judges simply stamps these decisions. In effect, it's a revenge against me," Aliyev said in an interview with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper published on Friday.
Commenting on the accusations that he plotted a coup d'etat with the help of people who were trained in Egypt and Israel, Aliyev said: "As for Israel, I sent there my personal security guard for special training, which was official, under a contract. They were trained by the Israeli security services. To Egypt they also went legally. The level of deviation depends on the angle from which you look at the things."
"Of the 16 people who ended up on the dock only one is Kazakh and all others are Russians," he said. "They are former and current officers from the National Security Committee, I think they are completely innocent. This is all going on according to a certain scenario," he said.
None of my attorneys was present at the courtroom, Aliyev said. "I live in Austria. Nobody has notified me. In principle, I do not want and am not going to allow the president to get involved in the process. This is a breach of the European Charter on Human Rights," he said.
The court's ruling was not handed over to me, Aliyev said. "No. As my former father-in-law, the Kazakh president said, Aliyev is out of law in Kazakhstan," he said.
Now Aliyev is going to "defend people who became victims of the arbitrariness of the authorities." "I will go to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. It was with my direct participation that Kazakhstan signed the UN Convention on human rights 1957. And the president and the parliament ratified it only last year. This gives a chance to influence Astana," he said.
Aliyev said that he was not going to abandon his political ambitions. "To say that there are no political ambitions would be untrue. We will see. I will not be surprised if before 2013 the president will think up and make some more changes to the Constitution because the Constitution in Kazakhstan is a prostitute. It can be changed every year," he said.
Aliyev said it has been almost a year since he last talked to his family. "I have not had a chance to talk neither to her, nor to the kids since June, when the Kazakh court ruled on my divorce in my absence. I am not allowed event to talk to them by phone. I am ringing, but either phone numbers were changed or nobody is taking the call," he said.
Asked whether he thought his marriage with the Kazakh president's daughter could be restored, Aliyev said: "To say that is impossible would probably be wrong."
TBILISI. March 28 (Interfax) - Georgia hopes to accede the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the alliance's summit in Bucharest.
"Our goal is to secure the MAP, rather than an artificial mechanism, which would be invented specially for Georgia and Ukraine, and which would be an additional stage between an Intensified Dialogue and the MAP, in Bucharest," Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze, who returned from Brussels on Friday, said.
"Georgia deserves a MAP and the final decision should be very simple: either there is a MAP, or there is not," the minister said.
Bakradze spent the last two days in Brussels, where he held talks at the NATO headquarters regarding the support of Georgia's MAP bid at the Bucharest summit from the alliance's members.
TBILISI. March 28 (Interfax) - Former Georgian defense minister Irakly Okruashvili has been sentenced in absentia to eleven years in prison by Georgy Shavliashvili, a judge at the Tbilisi city court.
Former press secretary of the Georgian president Dmitry Kitoshvili, who was also charged in the case, made a compromise with the inquiry and received five-years probation and was fined 10,000 lari.
Both Okruashvili and Kitoshvili were found guilty of extorting part of the shares in the Geocell mobile operator. According to the inquiry, they forced businessman Jemal Svanidze to refuse his stake in the company.
The former minister's defense is going to challenge the city court's decision at the Court of Appeals within one month.
The court's decision "is political," Okruashvili's lawyer, Eka Beseliya, told journalists.
The Georgian Prosecutor General's Office charged Okruashvili with extorting a bribe, corruption, professional negligence and abuse of office.
The criminal case against Okruashvili was opened in September 2007, after he formed the political party "The Movement for Georgia's Future" and made public accusations against president Mikhail Saakashvili.
Currently, Okruashvili is in Paris waiting for the court to rule on his extradition to Georgia on April 16. He also awaits the reply to his application for political asylum in France.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia cooperates with NATO much more closely than Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Yury Yekhanurov said.
"I would be very glad if during my time as defense minister we were able to get at least two thirds nearer to the level of NATO cooperation that exists with Russia," Yekhanurov said on the First national television channel on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said.
Russia's cooperation with NATO is extremely active and fruitful, the minister said. "Russians are very well represented in Brussels, they broadly cooperate with NATO in the Mediterranean Sea. There are many things we can learn from them," Yekhanurov said.
At the same time, Yekhanurov said he was surprised by how Russia sees Ukraine's rapprochement with NATO. "Judging by the way this issue is covered on Russian television, it turns out that we are not allowed to do what they can. They can hold joint exercise with NATO and we not. That is just not done!" the Ukrainian defense minister said.
YEREVAN. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Washington is prepared to cooperate with Armenian president-elect Serzh Sargsyan and assist to the democratic development of the country, U.S. charge d'affaires to Armenia Josef Pennington told a press conference in Yerevan.
The U.S. is puzzled by the political processes occurring in Armenia in recent months and has notified the Armenian leaders of its concerns, he said
There are obvious negative trends that must be opposed, he said.
However, all the reassurances and statements that we hear from the president-elect are giving us hope, Pennington said.
Washington is not going to impact the internal political processes in Armenia, he said.
They are the country's domestic problems and should be dealt within the country through democratic transformation, the U.S. diplomat said.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has called on all political forces that are going to stage protest actions during U.S. President George Bush's visit to Kyiv to be tolerant and to respect their political opponents.
"The Interior Ministry calls on [these groups] to show their political views with respect to the rights of others," Lutsenko told journalists during a working visit to Georgia.
Particularly, the Communist party, the Vitrenko Bloc and the Ukrainian People's Rukh have applied to stage protest actions, the minister said.
"The Interior Ministry is ready to secure order on the capital's streets," the minister added.
Bush is expected to arrive in Kyiv on Monday night and will hold talks on Tuesday
VASILKOV, Kyiv region. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has taken a flight in a Su-27 fighter during his visit of the 40th tactical aviation brigade at the Center Air Command of the Ukrainian Air Force on Friday.
The president underwent a medical examination and received flight instructions before he put on a flight suit, flight boots, a flight helmet and black leather gloves.
The aircraft was piloted by the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Maj. Gen. Vasily Nikiforov.
The Ukrainian president spent 35 minutes in the air.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - A new radioactive waste storage facility near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant will be opened in April, Ukrainian Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra said on Friday.
"In April we will open the first section of the Vektor facility capable of storing up to 500,000 tons of radioactive waste," the minister told a press conference in Kyiv.
Only Ukrainian radioactive waste will be stored at the facility, he said.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax) - Donor countries are expected to increase their funding for the Shelter Implementation Plan at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant by $300 million, Ukrainian Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra said.
"An early agreement has been reached, and I think it will be confirmed at the upcoming meeting of the donor countries on a $300-million funding for the Shelter facility," Shandra told a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.
The extraction of fuel assemblies from the power plant units will be completed in April 2008, he also said.
In fact, fuel will remain only in the power unit N4 that exploded in 1986, he said.
Earlier, the emergencies minister said he hoped the new confinement at the Shelter facility will be built by 2012.
In spring 2008 Ukraine is planning to start building the Shelter facility at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Deputy Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Sergei Parashin said earlier that donors and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had decided to gradually increase the contract price to 490 million euro.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Poland will support Ukraine at the NATO summit in Bucharest on the issue regarding the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday.
"Poland has absolutely supported and will support Ukraine's participation in MAP," Tusk told a press conference jointly held with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Kyiv.
"Despite the complexity of this issue" the Alliance will decide in favor of Ukraine's MAP participation, he said.
DUSHANBE. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - A court in the Sughd region of Tajikistan has sentenced an activist of the banned extremist Hizb ut- Tahrir party to ten years in a penal colony.
"Jakhongir Murodov, a resident of the town of Khujand born in 1981, was sentenced to ten years in a maximum security penal colony," the court said in a statement on Friday.
Murodov was found guilty of making appeals to overthrow the constitutional regime in Tajikistan, as well as fomenting ethnic, racial or religious hatred, the statement says.
Murodov was the first extremist sentenced in Tajikistan in 2008. Twelve activists of various extremist organizations were sentenced in Tajikistan last year.
The Hizb ut-Tahrir organization was set up in Palestine in 1952. The party's headquarters are located in London. Hizb ut-Tahrir's goal is to overthrow constitutional regimes in Muslim states and create a caliphate, a single Islamic state. The organization is on the list of extremist and terrorist organizations in Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan and the United States. The party's leaders, however, claim it does not spread ideas promoting the overthrow of constitutional regimes.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry is planning to complete the disposal of Category 1 and 2 ammunition at an old military base in Novobogdanovka in Zaporizhia region by April.
"We are planning to complete the work by summer. In particular, ammunition of the 1st and 2nd categories will be disposed of by April," Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra told a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.
In 2008 1,552 tons of ammunition have already been disposed of, a search is underway for ammunition buried up five meters deep, he said.
The ministry is planning to transfer the military base's land, fully cleared, to the local community before the end of 2008, he said.
DUSHANBE. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - An Afghan national apprehended last year at the Tajik-Afghan state border with ten kilograms of heroin has been sentenced to 19 years in a Tajik penal colony, the Tajik National Security Committee said on Friday.
"A court of the Panj district, Khatlon region found guilty and sentenced Abdulkakhor Valadi Abdulgafor, an Afghan national, to 19 years in a maximum security penal colony," the committee said.
Tajikistan is one of the main transit countries of Afghan opiates to Russia and Western Europe.
MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - A villager had his legs blown off and a peacekeeper had his eyes badly injured as a landmine blew up a vehicle carrying Ossetian peacekeepers in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia on Sunday, a senior South Ossetian official said, citing an update report.
Irina Gagloyeva, head of the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee, told Interfax, citing unconfirmed information, that the vehicle had hit a remote-controlled tripwire mine.
She said both victims were currently being taken to the hospital.
The incident occurred near the village of Okona, Znaur district, she said. Earlier, Gagloyeva said the blast had wounded two peacekeepers.
SUKHUMI. March 24 (Interfax) - A command and post exercise of the Abkhaz Armed Forces began on Monday, Abkhaz First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Zaitsev told Interfax.
Up to 4,00 people will take part in the exercise, which will end on March 28, Zaitsev said.
"Military units of the eastern group of forces and reserve brigades will take part" in the exercise, he said.
"The exercise started with mobilization, alert, the calling-up of reservists, and the deployment of alert stations and points of preliminary gathering of personnel and equipment. Coordination of reservists' actions and combat training for officers will take place on other days. Combat firing will be drilled near the village of Tsagera on March 27," Zaitsev said.
The command of the CIS peacekeeping forces and the UN mission in the Georgian-Abkhazia conflict zone was notified of the exercise.
MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - Abkhaz parliamentary speaker Nugzar Ashuba does not rule out that Georgia will join NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) even while still having its unresolved territorial conflicts.
"I would not say that this is not possible. But even if Georgia joins NATO three times, we will have nothing to do with it," the speaker told a press conference in Moscow on Monday.
Georgia "has the United States acting as its patron," he said.
Meanwhile, in its statement adopted last Friday the Russian State Duma said that if Georgia receives a mandate for joining NATO the process of recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be speeded up.
The speaker praised the State Duma's document on Abkhazia and South Ossetia and commended the Russian peacekeeping mission in the Georgian- Abkhaz conflict zone.
"Whether Georgia is right in raising this issue [changing the peacekeeping format], the Russian peacekeepers are there not only at the request of Georgia but of Abkhazia as well," the speaker said.
If "Georgia recognizes Abkhazia's independence, this could foster better relations between our people," he also said.
"We already tried to live in one country, but it did not work. We are not going to try again," the Abkhaz parliamentary speaker said
"If we need to protect our land from anyone, we will do so professionally," Ashuba said.
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The March 23 explosion in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone in which a peacekeeper and a local resident were wounded was an attempt to destabilize the situation in the region, Lieutenant Colonel Yury Vereshchak, a spokesman for the command of the Joint Peace Keeping Forces in the conflict zone, said in a statement.
"This is the second terror attack with the use of explosive devices over the past month. Such actions artificially destabilize the situation and prompt the sides to retaliate," he said.
On March 23, 2008, a group of military observers from three sides and a representative of the OSCE mission conducted monitoring in the village of Kvemo-Okona (Znauri district, South Ossetia) following reports about an explosion that left two South Ossetians wounded.
The blast occurred near a Niva car on the northern outskirt of Kvemo-Okoma at about noon on March 23. It was generated by an explosive device disguised as a wine vessel, which was handed to South Ossetians V. Doguzov and I. Koliyev by people who came from Georgia. Doguzov and Koliyev were both wounded in the blast.
Doguzov, a serviceman with the RSO Alania battalion, received multiple wounds and Koliyev had his feet and right hand torn off, the statement says.
BAKU. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Baku is reportedly examining ways to have the OSCE's Minsk Group nations (Russia, the United States, and France) replaced or the mediators in the Karabakh settlement process recalled.
A statement to that effect was made by Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov in an interview with the Azeri television channel ATV. "The letter sent by Baku to the OSCE Secretariat is meant to request information on these mechanisms," he said.
This move should not be perceived as an effort by Azerbaijan to disband the Minsk Group, Azimov said.
"The Azeri government wants the Minsk Group to conduct a steady and efficient negotiating process within the boundaries of international law," Azimov said.
NALCHIK. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh held a meeting in Nalchik with volunteers from Kabardino-Balkaria, who participated in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in 1992-1993, and relatives of those who died in combat operations.
Opening this meeting, Bagapsh said that Abkhazia will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the end of military operations in Abkhazia.
"We shall hold many events dedicated not only to the victory but to those people who died for our independence including to our brethren from Kabardino-Balkaria. We have earned this independence by right. We have won the war and have no right to lose peace," he said.
South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity also took part in the meeting.
He thanked the peoples of Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and North Ossetia for backing during military operations and in peace time and confirmed the South Ossetian aspiration for independence.
TSKHINVALI. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - A UAZ car exploded in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on Thursday evening.
The blast occurred at about 8:15 p.m. local time. South Ossetian police are working at the scene. Preliminary reports say there are casualties.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Mikhail Kamynin announced that the trail of terrorist attacks in South Ossetia in the past month led to Georgia.
Two people were killed and 17 sustained injuries on February 28 when a bomb hidden inside a TV-set detonated at a police station in the South Ossetian village of Dmenisi.
On March 23, a mine went off in the Znauri district, seriously wounding South Ossetian security serviceman Il Koliyev and peacekeeper V. Doguzov.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The sortie of the Georgian unmanned reconnaissance aircraft over Abkhazia could be interpreted as a move preceding the use of force, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"We believe that this episode is more proof of Tbilisi's anti-Abkhaz policy that contradicts the United Nations course toward building confidence between the conflicting parties," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in the comments posted on its website on Thursday.
"Such reconnaissance could be interpreted as the activity preceding the use of force, given that the technical characteristics of the unmanned aircraft shot down by Abkhaz air defense forces allow its use for fire adjustment as well," the comments said.
"There is every reason for the sortie of the Georgian 'drone' over Abkhazia to be qualified as a dangerous provocation," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Sukhumi said that on March 18 local air defense forces shot down a Georgia unmanned aircraft, which was performing a reconnaissance flight over Abkhazia. The debris of the aircraft were shown to journalists and UN officials monitoring the situation in Georgia. Tbilisi dismissed Sukhumi's allegation about the aircraft and called it "targeted disinformation."
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - An explosion which took place in Tskhinvali on Thursday was the fourth terrorist attack in the region since the beginning of the year, Capt. Vladimir Ivanov, an aide to the commander of the Combined Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgia-South Ossetian conflict zone, told Interfax on Friday.
"It is worth noting that this was the fourth terrorist attack with the use of explosive devices that brought about unjustified causalities, including among civilians," Ivanov said.
"The Combined Peacekeeping Forces Command thinks these facts are a blatant violation of existing agreements, which artificially destabilizes the situation in the Georgia-South Ossetian conflict zone," the captain said.
A South Ossetian resident was killed due to an explosion of a bomb planted under a UAZ vehicle, which belonged to the South Ossetian prosecutor general, at 8.20 p.m. local time on Thursday. The driver of the car was also seriously wounded.
TBILISI. March 28 (Interfax) - By claiming Georgia's involvement in the recent terror attack in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia is trying to draw Georgia into a provocation ahead of the NATO summit, Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said.
"A sharp increase in a number of terror attacks in South Ossetia is suspiciously timed with the NATO summit in Bucharest, where Georgia hopes to receive NATO's MAP [Membership Action Plan]," Yakobashvili told journalists on Friday.
"We see clear attempts to push us toward inappropriate actions in Tskhinvali. Attempts are being made to provoke a war in the region and to draw Georgia into a military operation to stop Georgia's integration with NATO," the State Minister said.
Earlier, the breakaway republic's authorities said that the terror attack in Tskhinvali targeted its prosecutor general and was presumably orchestrated by Tbilisi.
MURMANSK. March 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Command representatives of Russian and Norwegian border guards have discussed participation in the Barents-2008 exercise, which is slated for August-September 2008, a source with the headquarters of the Northwestern border guard department of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
"Russian and Norwegian border guard delegations headed by Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Biryukov and Rear Admiral Trond Grytting, respectively, have exchanged opinion on the participation in the upcoming exercise at a recent meeting in Norway's town of Kirkenes," the source said.
The head of the Norwegian delegation invited a Russian border guard vessel to the ports of Tromso and Sortland in northern Norway from September 1 throughout September 7, he said.
It was noted at the meeting that results of cooperation between the Russian and Norwegian border guard agencies on the protection of the Barents Sea biological resources, as well as the exchange of inspectors, are positive, the source said.
MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax-AVN) - A number of European countries whose troops are taking part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)'s operations in Afghanistan are making efforts to ensure the transit of cargos for the ISAF by land through the so-called northern route, which passes through Russia, a Moscow-based military- diplomatic source told Interfax.
"For the European members of the ISAF, the southern route is not very short at all. They are more interested in the northern route, which goes through Russia and other Central Asian countries that were formerly Soviet republics," the source said.
The international coalition's forces in Afghanistan are being supplied through the so-called southern route, which passes through Pakistan, the source said. "Considering the situation taking shape in that country, this route is becoming risky, and our Western partners are objectively interested in a new route," he said.
However, it would be wrong to say that all coalition members have similar views on this matter, the source said. "For the U.S., the Pakistani route is quite convenient for purely geographical reasons," he said.
"It is clear today that the air corridor alone is obviously not enough for supplying the anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan," the source said. Supplies airlifted to Afghanistan from Europe "under [Russia's] bilateral agreements with France and Germany are literally worth their weight in gold," he said.
"Specialists in Washington and Brussels also understand this, as they can count money perfectly well. They are currently holding active negotiations on land transit by rail through Russia and other former Soviet republics, such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan," he said.
NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for Central Asia and the South Caucasus Robert Simmons told Interfax earlier that NATO was interested in concluding an agreement with Russia to transit troops and materiel to Afghanistan through its territory.
Since a large number of countries are taking part in conducting this operation in Afghanistan, it would be useful to reach and conclude a multilateral agreement between NATO and Russia to this end, he said.
Russia earlier signed bilateral agreements with France and Germany on facilitating supplies for the coalition forces in Afghanistan. However, Simmons said, among the major providers of military personnel and materiel are also Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and a number of other countries, and virtually each NATO member is making its own contribution to the operation in Afghanistan.
BELGRADE. March 24 (Interfax) - Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has accused the NATO KFOR and the UNMIK police force of using snipers and prohibited ammunition in clashes with Serbian protesters in Kosovo's Mitrovica.
In an interview with Vecherne Novosti newspaper he said that when the powers supporting Kosovo's independence realized that Serbia would never recognize it "they demonstrated force, brutal force using snipers and prohibited ammunition."
"Clearly the situation in Kosovo is very complex and there are people who are sober-minded and those who are not. A battle for Kosovo as a whole is under way," Kostunica said.
KAZAN. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The United States and Russia must cooperate more intensively in combating trafficking in humans, which is largely an international crime, Terry Kinney, a representative of the Department of Justice at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow told the press.
Many young people and women are moved to Western Europe and the United States to be exploited, Kinney said ahead of an international conference on combating trafficking in humans in Kazan.
There is a demand for this "commodity" in those countries, and the offer comes from other states, including Russia, he said. Therefore, Russia and the United States, in the opinion of the U.S., should necessarily discuss joint work to suppress such crimes, he said.
Kinney said that Russia ranked as a consumer and supplier in this trafficking chain.
The United States, said Kinney, has been cooperating with Russia in combating trafficking in humans for the past five years. Under this program, U.S. Justice Department officials have been visiting large Russian cities, he said.
The conference in Kazan will address ways to broaden cooperation and perfect the legislation dealing with the protection of victims and assisting them.
Tatarstan's ombudsman Rashyt Vagizov said in turn that trafficking in humans was not typical of Tatarstan.
CAIRO. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The cornerstone of the first-ever Moroccan naval base on the Mediterranean Sea has been laid during the ceremony attended by Moroccan King Mohammad VI at Ksar Seghir 40 km to the east of Tangiers.
The MAP news agency said the facility would be the cornerstone for Moroccan naval operations in the area that includes the Straits of Gibraltar and the new Tangiers-Med container terminal.
The base is expected to be commissioned in 2010.
BEIJING. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - A police officer was killed and several other people injured when police was attacked in the central Chinese province of Sichuan early on March 24, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang confirmed at a briefing on Tuesday.
"Criminals attacked armed police officers and were given an appropriate response," he said.
The diplomat did not link the incident to the situation in Tibet.
"The Dalai Lama clique continues subversive acts aimed at splitting the country and provoking unrest," Qin said. "The world community now has a clear idea of who the Dalai Lama is," he added.
"More than 100 countries have supported China" in its position on Tibet, have reaffirmed Tibet as an integral part of China and "condemned the activities of the Dalai Lama grouping," the Chinese diplomat said.
China is prepared for dialogue with the Dalai Lama on condition that he "gives up separatist and subversive activities with regards to China," Qin said.
MINSK. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The U.S. Embassy to Belarus has refuted spying charges made on Channel One, a Belarusian television channel, on March 23.
"We have no spies working in Belarus," Acting U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Belarus Jonathan Moore said in a statement.
Speaking about two embassy employees mentioned in the TV program, Moore said: "These employees are part of our embassy security. They contacted local police and the Interior Ministry."
"It is common practice to have such employees in a U.S. embassy," Moore said.
B. Nixon left Belarus in summer 2007, and Kurt Finley will leave Belarus jointly with other 16 embassy employees before 27 March due to personnel reduction.
Neither Nixon nor Finley are FBI officers, he said. "They are officials of the diplomatic security service which is part of the U.S. State Department. The FBI has officials working outside of the U.S., and their position is usually called a judicial attache. But there is no such employee in Minsk. An FBI judicial attache for this region works in Kyiv. He visited Minsk, he had meetings there including with Interior Ministry representatives. So Belarusian authorities are perfectly informed on the real state of affairs," he said.
Earlier the U.S. Embassy handed over to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry the list of all Belarusian citizens working at the embassy, he said.
BEIJING. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The actions taken by the Chinese government to stabilize the situation in Tibet are within the law, and allegations that the authorities' actions are were out of proportion have no merit, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang said in a statement commenting on a statement by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
"What happened in Tibet was a separatist act of violence carefully planned and deliberately abetted by the Dalai Lama's clique," Qin's statement published on the official web site of the Chinese Foreign Ministry says.
"The Lhasa incident proves again that the Dalai Lama is not simply a religious figure, but a political exile bent on splitting China and undermining stability in the country under the disguise of religion and the banner of peace," the statement says.
"The Chinese government resolutely condemns his separatist activities in other countries in whatever name and his official contacts of whatever form with any other country," the spokesman said.
Commenting on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's statement that he still hasn't ruled out a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the spokesman said that the focus "must be on the purpose of the Olympics and not politicizing the Games." "We hope to boost mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation with other peoples through the Games," Qin said.
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The command of the Russian Air Force is calm about the fact that NATO fighter jets intercept Russian strategic bombers during patrolling missions over neutral waters.
"The fact of interception of our planes by foreign fighter jets does not cause any concerns in the Air Force command. This is normal practice," Air Force spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax on Thursday.
"Our fighter jets also intercept U.S. strategic bombers and reconnaissance planes when they appear close to Russian borders," Drobyshevsky said in comments on Western media reports that two F-15 fighter jets were recently scrambled from an airbase in Alaska to intercept Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bombers flying close to U.S. airspace.
"Russian Air Force planes have carried out all their flights in strict compliance with international rules of the use of airspace over neural waters, without violating the borders of other states," he said.
"The Russian Air Forces are open on issues of air patrolling, and they notify the neighboring countries about pending flights beforehand," Drobyshevsky said.
Over 100 foreign journalists have visited Russian strategic air bases over the past four months, he said.
Russia resumed regular flights of its strategic aircraft following a 15-year pause in August 2007. The U.S. has never suspended such flights.
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - A civilian gadget receiving positioning signals from Russia's Glonass and the U.S. GPS has been designed in the Chinese city of Harbin, the Federal Space Service said.
The new gadget is similar to the one designed at Russia's Space Instrument Making Research Institute, the service said.
"The instrument provides positioning, Internet and filming services, transport support, weather and environmental services, natural calamity forecasts, geological survey and other possibilities," the service said.
KHANTY-MANSIISK. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Chinese Public Security Ministry has prepared about 500 security measures against terrorism for the Beijing Olympic Games, Chen Shuping, an official with the ministry, said during an international conference of security service and law enforcement chiefs of the in Khanty-Mansiisk.
"We have drafted about 500 measures to prevent terrorist acts," she said, citing tighter security at sports facilities and the search of everyone wishing to see the games.
Chen said her agency will use gadgetry to prevent terrorist attacks and take precautions on the Internet.
The official voiced the hope that all countries with experience in hosting Olympic Games, among them Russia, will cooperate to make sure adequate security in provided.
KYIV. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Officers of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe command give lectures to Ukrainian naval personnel during their visit to Simferopol.
U.S. naval officers have arrived in Simferopol to prepare Ukrainians for a NATO anti-terror drill, Active Endeavor, in the Mediterranean, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.
U.S. naval officers share their experience with Ukrainian colleagues. Their visit will last until March 29.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - NATO will set up a theater missile defense, a multi-layered system targeting short-and medium-range ballistic missiles, by 2010, the North Atlantic alliance's Moscow Information Office said on Thursday.
The system, to include early warning devices and radar, will achieve an initial degree of combat readiness by 2010 and will be completely battle-ready by 2015, the office said in a report.
Individual NATO member states will supply detection equipment and weapons for the system.
A facility would be set up to test the system before putting it in use, the office said.
KHANTY-MANSIISK. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Representatives of the British special services have not arrived at an international conference in Khanty-Mansiisk, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) director Nikolai Patrushev said.
"Of those who participated in the first conferences, Georgian representatives from CIS and British representatives are not participating," Patrushev told journalists at the end of the seventh day of the international conference of the heads of special services and law enforcement agencies held in Khanty-Mansiisk.
Special services from 38 nations participated in the first session in St. Petersburg seven years ago, Patrushev said. Representatives from all CIS special services, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), NATO and EU were invited, he said.
This year, 54 nations have sent their representatives to Khanty- Mansiisk, he said.
BEIJING. March 28 (Interfax-China) - A 19-year-old ethnic Uygur woman has confessed to a failed attempt to blow up an airliner during a March 7 flight, Chinese official news agency Xinhua said, citing an announcement by China's Public Security Ministry on Thursday.
Citing sources in China Southern Airlines, which owns the airliner, Xinhua said Guzalinur Turdi had planted an improvised bomb in the toilet of the plane, which had left Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region, and was heading for Beijing.
"Crew members smelled gasoline on the woman as she left a toilet during the flight. They found a beverage can containing flammable liquid in a dustbin in the toilet. The drink had been replaced with the flammable liquid, using a syringe," the agency said, citing the airline sources.
The plane made an emergency landing in Lanzhou, capital of China's Gansu Province, where Turdi was arrested.
Police also arrested other suspects in the case, Xinhua said.
The aborted attack had been masterminded "by Eastern Turkestan separatists from abroad," the agency said, citing Xinjiang Communist Party chief Wang Lequan.
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