By Kakha Jibladze (12/14/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Zourabichvili has been a polarizing figure in Georgian politics since she was appointed foreign minister in March 2004. Tensions between her and the parliament exploded in October after the parliament accused Zourabichvili of ‘negligence’ when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was reportedly a day late delivering the Framework Convention for National Minorities. She was called in front of the parliament on October 18.

By Bakhtiyor Naimov (12/14/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The issue of passport change is not something new to Tajikistan. Since independence, the Tajik government required changes to internal passports three times already: first to change the Soviet passports to new internal passports that were only in Tajik language; the second time, to change the passports in Tajik into documents with details also in the Russian language and with black and white photographs; and just before the law about the mandatory foreign passports for travel abroad, the new Somoni internal passports were introduced, which were exactly the same as the previous passports, except for having a serial number written on all pages. In addition to that, Tajiks must now change their internal passports at the ages of 25 and 40.

By Muhammad Tahir (11/30/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

But unusually, Niyazov this time faced an unprecedented situation on the highway named after him. Usually there is no traffic on the highway – not only because of strict security measures, but also because of the early hour. But this day was different: not only did he see traffic on the road, there were also two trucks heading towards his car and a short time later he saw people firing at him.