By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In his regular Monday radio interview, President Shevardnadze on 12 May deplored as \"a disgrace\" the fistfight in parliament on 5 May between deputy speaker Vaktang Rcheulishvili and a group of opposition deputies whom he had implied are homosexuals. Shevardnadze noted with regret that such incidents have become commonplace. The Georgian Prosecutor-General\'s Office has launched an investigation into the fracas.

By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

At least 30, and possibly as many as 40, people died on 12 May when a KamAZ truck loaded with explosives drove into the local administration building in the Nadterechnyi Raion in northern Chechnya. Chechen administration head Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov immediately blamed the blast on fighters loyal to Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. Some 80 people died in a similar car-bomb attack on the government building in Grozny in December.

By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A new round of talks began between the five Caspian Sea countries seeking to divide up the resource-rich sea but a north-south split remained as Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were close to signing a trilateral agreement, Kazakhstan\'s deputy foreign minister said. The three northern countries \"have agreed the text of an agreement and there should be no obstacles to signing it,\" Kairat Abuseitov told journalists after the talks opened in Kazakhstan\'s second city Almaty. The five-way negotiations, which are set to continue until Wednesday, are aimed at solving an impasse which, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, has hampered efforts to exploit the major oil and gas reserves beneath the Caspian.