[Airbornelawyer]

From the RFE/RL Newsline:

Russia

• TOP RUSSIAN GENERAL CALLS FOR GREATER COOPERATION WITH NATO
  Yurii Baluevskii, the chief of the Russian Army's General Staff, said on 1 November that conflict between Russia and NATO is now impossible and the two sides should cooperate to solve common problems, "Rossiiskaya gazeta" and other Russian news agencies reported the same day. "Nowadays, NATO and Russia have enough problems that should be solved jointly," Baluevskii said in an interview with "Rossiiskaya gazeta." He added that even the United States is "powerless to counter terrorists alone." Moreover, Baluevskii said conflict between NATO and Russia would be catastrophic for both sides. "The NATO army has over 4.5 million people, and our army is slightly over 1 million. If these two giants get together, it will be more than enough for anyone," he said.

Transcaucasia And Central Asia

• RUSSIA, SOUTH OSSETIA DISMISSIVE OF NEW GEORGIAN PEACE INITIATIVE
  Dmitrii Medoev, the unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia's representative in Moscow, said on 31 October that the revised proposal for resolving the South Ossetian conflict that Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli unveiled in Vienna last week contains "nothing new" and reflects the Georgian authorities' hope that the West will intervene to impose a solution to the conflict on Georgia's terms, Caucasus Press reported. "There is no acceptable form of integrating South Ossetia into Georgia," the agency quoted him as saying. Russian Ambassador to Georgia Vladimir Chkhikvishvili similarly told journalists on 31 October that Moscow considers the new Georgian initiative, which envisages resolving the conflict by 2007, less realistic than the original proposal President Saakashvili outlined to the UN General Assembly last year. Meanwhile in Tskhinvali, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity told the Georgian television station Rustavi-2 that he is not prepared to meet with Noghaideli until the Georgian government apologizes for the 20 September mortar attack on Tskhinvali, Caucasus Press reported on 1 November. Georgian Minister for Conflict Resolution Giorgi Khaindrava announced last week that the long-planned meeting between Kokoity and Noghaideli has been scheduled for 15 November.

• KYRGYZSTAN WANTS U.S. BASE TO PAY FOR FUTURE FUEL DUMPS
  The Emergency Situations Agency announced on 31 October that a new draft agreement on the presence of foreign military forces in Kyrgyzstan will contain provisions for the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan to provide compensation in the event of fuel dumps, akipress.org reported. "The draft agreement includes a number of aspects, and especially the issues of defining the damage from dumping fuel [over Kyrgyz territory by U.S. plans] under emergency circumstances and rectifying the damage," Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Bakur Jolchuev told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. Akipress.org reported that the draft envisages payment of 6,600-7,700 soms ($162-$188) for each ton of jet fuel dumped. The news agency noted that in two separate incidents in late September, U.S. planes dumped 80 tons of jet fuel in the course of in-flight emergencies. At the time, spokespeople for the U.S. base stated that the fuel was dumped at an altitude and speed that ensured its evaporation with no damage to the environment.

Eastern Europe

• EU OFFICIAL SAYS BORDER PLAN COULD HELP END TRANSDNIESTER CONFLICT
  EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner has said an initiative to help secure the breakaway Transdneister region's border with Ukraine could lead to an end to the conflict there, euro-reporters.com reported on 31 October. "It is an important step towards facilitating the end of the frozen conflict in [Transdniester]," Ferrero-Waldner said. The Border Assistance Mission is scheduled to begin on 1 December and last two years. Teams of EU border and customs officials will work along the entire Moldova-Ukraine border, including the Transdniester section, with authorization to visit police and customs posts in both countries. The European Commission has allocated 7 million euros ($8.4 million) for the project. "The mission will help prevent trafficking in people, smuggling of goods, the proliferation of weapons, and customs fraud," Ferrero-Waldner said, "[as well as] ensuring that money previously diverted from Moldova's customs revenues ends up in the right place."

Southwestern Asia And The Middle East

• BOMB KILLS ONE IN EASTERN AFGHANISTAN, WHILE ANOTHER ATTACK IS THWARTED
  A bomb attached to a bicycle exploded seconds after a U.S. military convoy had passed outside Jalalabad in Nangarhar Province on 31 October, killing one passerby and wounding five others, local police spokesman Ghafor Khan told AFP. Ghafor Khan blamed the attack on "enemies of peace and stability," a term that is generally understood to mean neo-Taliban militants and their allies. In nearby Khost Province, authorities said they thwarted a suicide attack on coalition forces by arresting two men in a car filled with explosives on 31 October, according to AFP. "They were planning a suicide attack on coalition forces," local intelligence chief Sadeq Tarakhil was quoted as saying. "The type of the explosives and the way it was fixed into the vehicle clearly showed that they were planning a suicide attack."

• IRAQI PRESIDENT, DEFENSE MINISTER DISCUSS SECURITY FOR ELECTIONS
  President Talabani and Defense Minister Sa'dun al-Dulaymi met in Baghdad on 31 October to discuss preparations for security during the mid-December parliamentary elections, Al-Sharqiyah television reported the same day. Al-Dulaymi told reporters following the meeting that maintaining security during elections is a priority of the Defense And Interior ministries. "We, as the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry, are responsible for the security process in providing protection to the candidates and voters at the same time," al-Dulaymi said. "Therefore, let me say that there are two parties responsible for the election process. The first is the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq [IECI] supervising the elections; the role of the IECI is to offer procedural and legal support. The second party [entails] the Defense and Interior ministries, which are directly responsible for providing the needed protection to the polling stations and to the voters. The impact of security on the elections might be more significant than the other procedures."

• CAR BOMB KILLS DOZENS OF IRAQIS IN AL-BASRAH
  Some 24 Iraqis, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 50 others wounded in a car-bomb explosion in the southern Iraqi city of Al-Basrah on 31 October, international media reported the next day. The explosion took place in a neighborhood crowded with shoppers after "iftar" -- the evening meal that marks the breaking of the daily fast during Ramadan. The blast destroyed or damaged at least eight shops and cut off electricity in the neighborhood, latimes.com reported. That website quoted police officials as saying that the explosives were packed in a parked vehicle. Al-Sharqiyah television reported that police found and defused two other booby-trapped cars in Al-Basrah on 31 October.