By empty (9/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

As of 6 September, the number of people killed during the initial stages of the Beslan hostage taking and during the shoot-out on 3 September had risen to 335 hostages and troops, plus 30 hostage takers; 411 people remain hospitalized. More than 100 people are still missing. The death toll in the 2002 Moscow theater hostage taking was 129.

By empty (9/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Senior Armenian police official Hovannes Hunanian has made public a list of \"strategically important\" locations across Armenia where rallies and demonstrations are banned in accordance with a new law on public gatherings, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported on 6 September. Those locations include the Medzamor nuclear power plant, the building that houses Armenia\'s Central Bank, and the area in front of the presidential palace. Gatherings on almost all squares in Yerevan are permitted only if the organizers inform the municipal authorities in advance.

By empty (9/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Uzbekistan, hit recently by terrorist attacks, rebuked a group of European nations on Tuesday for allegedly allowing extremists to openly operate on their soil, the Foreign Ministry said. Meanwhile, more than 40 suspects went on trial Tuesday in the capital, Tashkent, and the central city of Bukhara in connection with deadly attacks earlier this year that authorities blamed on Islamic extremists, court officials said. Uzbekistan is concerned that extremist groups are being allowed to openly operate in some Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe member countries, Foreign Minister Sadyk Safayev told visiting OSCE Secretary General Jan Kubis, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.