By empty (8/30/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov welcomed the decision by the Russian Supreme Court\'s Military board reversing the not-guilty verdict handed to Captain Eduard Ulman and his group. \"We hoped that there are people in the judicial system who will objectively evaluate the actions of Ulman and his accomplices and arrive at a just ruling on his case,\" Alkhanov told Interfax on Tuesday. Now everything depends on how the Military Tribunal of the North Caucasian military district will approach the new investigation and make a new decision on this case, he said.

By empty (8/30/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Georgian Refugee Ministry will carry out a two-week census of Chechen refugees living in the country\'s Pankisi Gorge. Last year\'s registration showed that the area was home to 3,843 refugees from Chechnya. Nearly 1,300 of them have left Georgia mainly for third countries over the past year.

By empty (8/29/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Afghanistan has registered a drop in the cultivation of opium for the first time since the fall of the Taleban, the United Nations says. The area under cultivation for opium has dropped by 21%, says the head of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime. But the actual output has not changed much and Afghanistan is still the largest producer of opium in the world, accounting for almost 90% of supplies.