By empty (9/15/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev has once again defended Iran from charges that it is violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), telling ITAR-TASS on 15 September that \"there is no convincing evidence to justify complaints against Iran\" by the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Speaking at the IAEA\'s general conference in Vienna, Rumyantsev denied that nuclear cooperation between Iran and Russia, which is helping build the Bushehr nuclear-power plant, violates international law. He even insisted that \"under the IAEA charter, nuclear powers are obliged to help other states develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

By empty (9/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Officials and migration experts in southern Kyrgyzstan are concerned over the growing numbers of illegal immigrants into that part of the country, according to the UN news agency IRIN. The officials warned that the immigrants, who come primarily from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in search of work, are causing reductions in local wage rates and worsening the socioeconomic situation, which could result in destabilization. According to these officials, 4,000-5,000 Uzbek citizens are working in the areas near the border of the two countries, earning less than $1 a day, if they are paid at all.

By empty (9/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Government Affairs Committee of the lower house of Kyrgyzstan\'s parliament confirmed on 11 September that President Askar Akaev is not eligible to run for president again in 2005, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported. According to committee Chairman Absamat Masaliev, Akaev\'s present term is illegal. The Kyrgyz Constitution allows a president only two terms in office, but the Kyrgyz Supreme Court ruled prior to the last presidential election that Akaev\'s first two terms should not be counted, because those elections took place before the adoption of the present constitution.