21:00
ANDREY LUBENKSY: LAND CODE VOTING RESULTS IN UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT WERE FALSIFIED?
The commotion pertaining to the Land code, passed by the Ukrainian parliament is still going on. Some people say the bolsheviks’ motto “Land – to the peasants!” has been implemented, others call this news “the land counter-revolution” and warn that the best land in the world will soon find themselves in oligarchs and bandits’ hands More details...

20:38
RUSSIA'S SECURITY COUNCIL SECRETARY VLADIMIR RUSHAILO ARRIVES IN KIEV
Russia's Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo has arrived in Kiev. More details...

20:12
MOSCOW WANTS CRISIS IN GEORGIA TO BE RESOLVED
Moscow wants Georgia's political forces to find a way out of the crisis by political means within the constitutional framework, Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Friday at the conclusion of Russian-Belgian talks. More details...

20:01
RUSSIA, BELARUS: BORDERGUARDS JOIN HANDS
Konstantin Totsky, Director of Russia's Federal Frontier Service, and Alexander Pavlovsky, chief of the Belarussian State Committee for Frontier Troops, signed a joint directive for next year's borderguard arrangements in the Russo-Belarussian union. More details...

19:49
GEORGIAN PRESIDENT'S BRUSSELS VISIT PUT OFF
A visit to Brussels by the Georgian president will certainly take place, because it is very important as far as future relations between Georgia and the European Union, press secretary Kakha Imnadze of the Georgian president said in an interview with the national television. More details...

19:32
TRANSDNIESTRIAN OPPOSITION FOR RESUMING MOLDOVA-TRANSDNIESTRIA TALKS
The Transdniestrian opposition comes up in favour of resuming negotiations between Chisinau and Tiraspol, Tom Zenovich told a press conference in Moscow on Friday. Zenovich is the former mayor of the city of Bendery and a presidential nominee of the self-proclaimed Transdniestrian republic. More details...

18:01
MOSCOW INTERESTED IN EARLY SETTLEMENT OF POLITICAL CRISIS IN GEORGIA - RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT DEPUTY
Russia is interested in an early settlement of the political crisis in Georgia, the deputy head of the pro-government Unity faction in the lower house of the Russian parliament has said in a RIA Novosti interview. More details...

17:58
PENTAGON'S BOSS DONALD RUMSFELD TO ARRIVE AT TASHKENT ON SATURDAY
On Saturday the chief of the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld, will arrive in Tashkent on a fleeting visit. As is known from knowledgeable diplomatic sources, the American defense secretary plans to meet with his Uzbek analogue Kadyr Gulyamov and President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. More details...

17:48
ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH THE COLLECTIVE SECURITY COUNCIL'S SECRETARY GENERAL VALERY NIKOLAYENKO
Struggle against international terrorism is a priority for signatories to the Collective Security Treaty, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said at a meeting with the Secretary General of the Collective Security Council, Valery Nikolayenko, and the Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mikhail Krotov. More details...

17:45
NO DANGER OF ANTHRAX EPIDEMIC SPREAD IN LITHUANIA
As of today, there is no danger of anthrax epidemic spreading in Lithuania, said chief epidemiologist of the Vilnius district Stanislovas Tarbunas. More details...

17:36
RUSSIAN DEPUTY SAYS GEORGIA CANNOT RESOLVE DOMESTIC CRISIS WITHOUT SETTLING RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA
The political crisis in Georgia can hardly be resolved, if this country does not settle its relations with Russia, said Friday Vasily Iver, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma (Russian parliament's lower house) International Committee. More details...

17:34
RUSSIAN SENATOR BLAMES TBILISI FOR GEORGIAN CRISIS
The crisis facing Georgia is a consequence of inability of Georgian leaders to deal with vital problems in the country, Deputy Head of International Committee of the upper chamber of Russian Parliament Mikhail Margelov says. More details...

17:27
THE CAUSES OF THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN GEORGIA LIE IN SHEVARDNADZE'S POLICY OF DOUBLE STANDARDS
Vadim Gustov, chairman of the committee on CIS affairs of the upper house of the parliament - the Federation Council, called the policy of double standards, pursued by president Shevardnadze in the past few years, the cause of a profound political crisis in Georgia. More details...

17:15
CANDIDATES FOR THE POST OF GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN TO BE INTRODUCED NEXT TUESDAY
Candidates for the post of chairman of the Georgian parliament are likely to be introduced on Tuesday, November 6, at the regular session of the supreme legislative body of the republic, the press centre of the Georgian parliament reported. More details...

17:10
CALLS ECHO AROUND GEORGIA FOR NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM
Chairman of the Georgian parliament's defence and security committee Georgy Baramidze believes that the country should become a parliamentary republic. This opinion echoes calls for a change to be made to the country's political system. More details...

16:48
GERMANY BELIEVES ESTONIA, LATVIA AND LITHUANIA CAN JOIN NATO SIMULTANEOUSLY
Germany believes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania can join NATO simultaneously and is in favour of NATO's large-scale expansion, German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping told Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar on Friday. More details...

16:36
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE DUMA COMMITTEE FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS BELIEVES THAT SHEVARDNADZE'S POLICY "HAS BECOME BANKRUPT"
The latest events in Georgia have shown that the policy of President Eduard Shevardnadze, who made Russia responsible for the failures of the Georgian leadership, has become bankrupt - chairman of the international committee of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday in an interview given to the RIA Novosti correspondent. More details...

16:07
STATE DUMA SPEAKER VIEWS RECENT EVENTS IN GEORGIA AS A DEEP POLITICAL CRISIS
Georgia is in a deep political crisis, State Duma (lower house of parliament) Speaker Gennady Seleznyov, currently on an official visit in Slovakia, told a news conference. More details...

15:29
RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION INTO CAUSES OF TU-154 AIRLINER CRASH OVER BLACK SEA TO BE ANNOUNCED ON SATURDAY IN KIEV
The heads of the Security Councils of Russia and Ukraine will announce in Kiev on Saturday the results of the joint work of the two state commissions which investigated the causes of the TU-154 airliner's crash over the Black Sea on October 4. More details...

15:22
DMIRY LITVINOVICH: BUSINESS IN UKRAINE. OR VARYAG’S LAST TRIP
How pitiful it is to take leave of the USSR’s former grandeur. The country where we were born has disappeared from geographical maps, and all we have now is to complain about unwise politicians. More details...

15:12
GEORGIAN PRESIDENT POSTPONES VISIT TO BELGIUM
In the context of the recent developments in his country, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has postponed his visit to Belgium scheduled for November 5-8, Georgian State Chancellery told RIA Novosti on Friday. More details...

15:05
HURRICANE HITS TALLINN, CAUSES EXTENSIVE DAMAGE
According to preliminary data, damage by a hurricane which hit Tallinn last night may total several millions kroons. Bus traffic was disrupted and several buildings were damaged in downtown Tallin and in its Lasnamae district, as was reported in the Tallinn City Hall. More details...

14:44
FOREIGN MINISTERS OF AUSTRIA AND UZBEKISTAN HAVE SIGNED THE AGREEMENT ON SECURITY AND THE FIGHT AGAINST ORGANISED CRIME
Austrian Foreign Minister Benita-Marie Ferrero-Waldner and Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov have signed in Tashkent the inter-governmental agreement on security and the fight against organised crime. The Austrian Foreign Minister spoke about it at a news conference on Friday. She said that her visit to Uzbekistan was "very fruitful and interesting." More details...

14:38
DELEGATION OF GEORGIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY POSTPONED ITS VISIT TO TURKEY
The working visit of the Georgian Defence Ministry's delegation has been postponed on the grounds of the recent resignation of the government. The new date of the visit, which had previously been planned for November 3-10, remains as yet unclear. This information was disclosed to RIA Novosti by the press centre of the Georgian Defence Ministry. More details...

14:17
A CACHE WITH HEROIN DISCOVERED AT TAJIK-AFGHAN BORDER
A cache containing 34 kilos of heroin has been discovered by the Russian border-guards of the Pyandj detachment in one of the sections of the Tajik-Afghan border, the press centre of the Russian Federal Frontier Service informed RIA Novosti Friday. More details...

13:33
GEORGIAN PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER INTENDS TO FIGHT FOR DEMOCRATIC STATE
Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Zurab Zhvania, who resigned yesterday, has not decided whether he will run for the presidency at the next election in 2005. More details...

12:07
SECURITY BEEFED UP IN US EMBASSY IN LITHUANIA
Security has been tightened in the US Embassy in Lithuania after anthrax agents were found in a sack with correspondence. More details...

11:26
USA TO USA THE AIR BASE IN AZERBAIJAN AGAINST AFGHANISTAN
Within its anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan, the United States intends to use the air base in Azerbaijan as a supply or emergency base in addition to the bases in Uzbekistan and Pakistan which are already being used. The Washington Post newspaper said this on Friday, referring to officials from the US administration. More details...

11:19
INVESTIGATION INTO TU-154 CRASH COMPLETED: UKRAINIAN MISSILE DESTROYED THE AIRCRAFT
The investigatory experimentation of the crash of the Russian Tu-154 passenger aircraft operated by the Russian Sibir airlines, into the Black Sea, has proved that the aircraft was shot down by the S-200 anti-aircraft missile launched during the Ukrainian Air Defence exercise, which took place on the cape Opuk in the Crimea on October 4. More details...

09:37
USA HOPES SHEVARDNADZE WILL RETAIN POWER IN GEORGIA
The George Bush administration is keeping a watchful eye on the situation in Georgia, Richard Boucher, official spokesman for the US Department of State, said. After several days of political upheavals, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze decided to dismiss his cabinet but the USA is sure that the political authorities in Tbilisi will successfully overcome the current crisis, Boucher told journalists in Washington Thursday. More details...