By empty (10/11/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

At the insistence of representatives of the Tbilisi-based Abkhaz government in exile, the Georgian parliament included in its agenda this week a constitutional amendment designating the breakaway unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia an autonomous republic within Georgia. The constitution adopted in 1995 failed to define the region's status within Georgia pending the restoration of the central government's control over the entire territory of Georgia. Deputies approved the proposed amendment unanimously on 10 October by 167 votes.

By empty (10/11/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

At least 23 people were killed by an explosion late on 10 October in a regional police headquarters in Grozny. The dead included all of Chechnya's local police chiefs. Chechnya's Emergency Situations Minister Ruslan Avtaev said on 11 October that he is 100 percent certain the blast was caused by a bomb, not a natural-gas explosion.

By empty (10/11/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakhstan's Demography and Migration Agency announced on 10 October that all 48 families of Kazakhs from abroad who will be permitted to settle in Kazakhstan this year within the framework of a long-term repatriation program will come from Uzbekistan, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Preference will be given to families from Kazakh-populated villages that were designated part of Uzbekistan's territory under the recently concluded border agreement. (RFE/RL).