By empty (2/20/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Police in Georgia have arrested the son-in-law of former President Eduard Shevardnadze on tax evasion charges. Gia Jokhtaberidze, head of Georgia\'s biggest mobile phone company, was arrested on board a flight to Paris. Prosecutor General Irakly Okruashvili, who personally oversaw the arrest, said Mr Jokhtaberidze had defied a warning not to leave the country pending the outcome of an investigation.

By empty (2/20/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The TsIK rejected on 20 February complaints by presidential candidates Irina Khakamada and Nikolai Kharitonov about television and radio coverage of President Putin\'s 12 February speech to his election agents, Russian media reported. The commission ruled that the programming reflected the public interest and that the stations were only informing the electorate, not campaigning. According to the TsIK, state-controlled ORT and RTR said they will provide equal news coverage of all presidential candidates for the remainder of the campaign for the 14 March election.

By empty (2/19/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry on 19 February warned international NGOs working in Uzbekistan that they are required to reregister with the Justice Ministry by 1 March or their bank accounts will be frozen. Earlier in the week, domestic NGOs in Bukhara reported their bank accounts were being frozen unless they agreed to move their accounts to two approved banks in the city. First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov tried to convince the foreign NGOs that the Uzbek attitude toward them and their work has not changed, but at least some of the foreigners were skeptical, according to the news agency.