By empty (7/1/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A bomb exploded in a mosque in southern Afghanistan during evening prayers, wounding 10 people, three of them seriously, the main preacher and officials said on Tuesday. The preacher at the mosque, in Kandahar city, supports Afghanistan\'s U.S.

By empty (6/30/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A senior Kyrgyz official appealed for urgent help to avert the danger posed by a Soviet-era uranium mine threatening Central Asia\'s densely populated and seismically unstable Ferghana Valley. \"Ecological catastrophe could hit the whole Ferghana Valley\" as a result of the mine on the banks of the Maily-Su river, which flows into Andzhan in neighbouring Uzbekistan, Amarkul Aitaliyev, a senior official at Kyrgyzstan\'s ecology and emergency situations ministry, told journalists. Aitaliyev\'s comments followed a Franco-Belgian investigation sponsored by the European Union into the disused mine.

By empty (6/30/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Kyrgyz Ar-Namys Party formally declared itself in opposition to the government at its thirdcongress on 28 June. The congress, which was attended by 98 elected delegates from all oblasts, re-elected former Vice President Feliks Kulov as head of the party. Kulov, presently serving a jail sentence for crimes alleged to have been committed during his period as the country\'s top security official, reportedly runs the party from his jail cell.