By empty (9/23/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Duma\'s Information Policy Committee on 23 September rejected a bill that would have barred broadcast media from reporting any information during hostage crises. The bill was proposed by Deputy Aleksandr Krutov (Motherland), and would have allowed broadcast media to report on such matters only after the crisis had passed. Committee Chairman Valerii Komissarov (Unified Russia) told the news agency that the bill \"contradicts the letter and spirit of the Russian Constitution and restricts the work of the mass media in many ways.

By empty (9/23/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Meeting last week on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Astana, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan discussed, but failed to reach agreement on, proposals prepared by the two countries\' foreign ministers during four rounds of talks in recent months, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told a press conference in Yerevan on 22 September, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Oskanian said he will not meet again with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov until the two presidents either approve or suggest amendments to those proposals and issue clear instructions to embark on a second, \"more serious\" phase of talks. Oskanian declined to confirm or deny a report that one of the proposals in question is for the withdrawal of Armenian forces from some of the seven Azerbaijani districts they currently occupy in return for an internationally supervised referendum on independence for the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

By empty (9/23/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Eighteen alleged religious extremists went on trial in Uzbekistan\'s Kashkadarya Oblast on 20 September, bringing to 47 the number of people on trial in the area, RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported. The 18, who are all reportedly residents of Qarshi, were arrested after violence broke out in Tashkent and Bukhara in late March and early April. They are charged with membership in the banned extremist organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir, carrying out propaganda activities, and attempting to overthrow the country\'s constitutional system.