By empty (9/29/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Thursday opened the official leg of a U.S. visit in which the country\'s growing importance as an oil supplier and its shortcomings in protecting human rights are key agenda topics.

By empty (9/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russian Defense Minister Ivanov has alleged that some new members of NATO have supplied Georgia with weapons earlier provided to them by the Soviet Union without the right to reexport them. A number of former members of the communist bloc, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, joined NATO in 2004. Ivanov arrived in Portoroz, Slovenia, for an informal meeting of the Russia-NATO Council on September 29.

By empty (9/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Speaking at a press conference in Baku, members of visiting delegations from the Council of Europe and the European Commission called on September 28 for greater reform in Azerbaijan\'s penal system. Noting the current effort to modernize the penal system on the basis of European standards approved in January, Council of Europe Legal Department official Roman Huna expressed satisfaction with the course of reform but urged the government to expand legal reforms and oversight of prisons, improve living conditions for prisoners, and help with the reintegration of prisoners into society. Huna is tasked with carrying out a more thorough assessment of the situation in prisons and other places of detention, and is to submit his findings to the Council of Europe before the conclusion of the reform project in June 2007.