All Over the Globe

QUOTATION OF THE YEAR:

We will dictate how to live to the world, but not Clinton.

Boris Yeltsin (during his visit to Peking)

Obviously, there are two approaches to the world system. First, it is the multi-pole system based on a firm foundation of the international laws and strengthening diplomatic institutions. Second, it is a model with unlimited domination of one great power or a group of highly developed economic and military states.

Nursultan Nazarbaev

Nazarbaev�s meetings in New York

Dec 20 (ITAR-TASS - KazAAG)

Nursultan Nazarbaev arrived to the USA to participate in the annual meeting of the American-Kazakhstani commission to be held on December 20 in Washington. Kazakhstani President and the US Vice-President Albert Gour will be chairmen of the meeting. Participants will discuss a wide range of issues on bilateral cooperation in such fields as international security and national defense, economic and political reforms in Kazakhstan, trade and investments to the country. The White House stated Nazarbaev and Gour will hold a personal meeting where they will consider problems that arouse mutual anxiousness. It is expected that Bill Clinton will receive Kazakhstani President in the White House.

During his stay in New York on his way to Washington Nursultan Nazarbaev held a number of brief meetings, including with the UNO General Secretary Kaffi Annan, the chairman if the Foreign Committee of the US Congress Benjamin Gilman, and the President of the world Jewish Congress Edgar Bronfman. Talking to Annan Nazarbaev mentioned the threat to the entire international community by separatism and religious extremism. At the meeting with Gilman he confirmed Kazakhstan�s interest in widening economic cooperation with the USA.

Russians seize Grozny district, pound capital and mountainous south

MOZDOK, Russia

Dec 20 (AFP)

Russian aviation and artillery kept up a merciless barrage on Grozny and mountainous rebel bases in the south on Monday after troops seized another district of the breakaway Chechen capital.

Fierce street battles continued on the outskirts of the besieged city, which Moscow has been pounding into submission for weeks while driving forward cautiously on the ground over the past 10 days, Interfax reported, citing military officials.

Officials at the main Russian military headquarters base in Mozdok, North Ossetia, told AFP they had taken control of Grozny�s southern Chernorechiye district, which adjoins woodland that fighters had used as an escape route.

Up to 40,000 civilians are believed to be trapped by the fighting in the Chechen capital, whose defenders are coming under increasing pressure from advancing Russian forces who invaded the rebel republic on October 1.

The three-month Chechen offensive has sparked a wave of patriotic fervour that propelled the pro-Kremlin Unity party into a close second behind the Communists in Sunday�s elections to the State Duma lower house of parliament, according to results after 80 percent of votes had been counted.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whose tough war stance has turned him into a top contender to replace President Boris Yeltsin in June elections, has so far refrained from ordering a potentially bloody assault on Grozny.