hree Tajik civilians were seriously injured in land mine explosions on the northern section of the Uzbek-Tajik border. The day before, three young women received splinter wounds when an anti-personnel mine exploded. All the six are residents of the Tajik village of Oftobruy that borders on Uzbekistan. The ITAR-TASS correspondents were told this at the Tajik State Committee for Border Protection today.

The committee explicitly stated that both incidents occurred on the Uzbek border stretch where mines were planted by Uzbek border guards.

According to information from a representative of the command of the Tajik border troops, in the past three months more than 10 civilians of the republic were killed and more than 20 were injured in mine explosions, which is a cause of concern to the Tajik side.

Work on the delimitation and demarcation of the border between the two republics has still not been completed, and residents of border settlements can hardly tell between their territory and foreign territory. ITAR-TASS learned from informed sources that the Tajik authorities had notified official Tashkent of their concern about this via diplomatic channels.

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epresentatives from 42 countries have contested for the highest awards at the Asian Championship on Taekwon-do that has ended in Tokio. The Uzbek Team consisting of 8 sportsmen won 8 medals, as well as second place.

Leonid Li and Dmintriy Kim have become Champions of Asia-2000 and returned home with gold medals. Michael Chistyakov has won a silver medal. Dilshod Mirbabaev, Ilkhom Bababekov, Moisey Nogay and Vladislav Nam have been awarded bronze medals. (UzReport)

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Khovar news agency correspondent has been told at the press centre of the State Border Protection Committee under the government of Tajikistan that, following the explosion of mines planted on the Tajik-Uzbek border by the Uzbek side, six citizens of the [northern] Tajik Soghd Region were hurt in early November. They were seriously injured, and are being treated at the central hospital in the town of Isfara [in the east of Soghd Region]. An investigation is under way. (Tajik Khovar news agency, Novemver 3)

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n 3rd November, the Uzbek Supreme Court continued its hearing of the trial of 12 persons accused of carrying out a number of serious crimes, Uzbek TV reported. Only three of the accused are attending the trial, the other nine are being tried in absentia.

"Victims who suffered from assaults in Namangan, Andizhan and Tashkent Regions gave evidence. The Supreme Court announced a break until Monday", 6th November, the report said.

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ecently, the Japanese ambassador to Uzbekistan, Kyoko Nakayama, signed a grant-contract on behalf of her government. The grant will be allocated within the framework of gratuitous financial cooperation for the implementation of a small-scale project, "Providing assistance to the population of the Republic of Karakalpakstan who have suffered from water shortages". The grant, totalling 39,900 dollars, will be presented to the Karakalpakselkhozvodoprovod [Karakalpak agricultural water pipe] group, the Japanese embassy reported.

The Japanese government grant will be used to buy 90 pumps in order to replace the old equipment at the existing water intakes in Karakalpakstan, and this is the first response from foreign countries which are ready to help Uzbekistan to overcome this year's water shortage, a UNDP adviser in our country, Amonulla Khakimov, said.

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ntegration in all spheres of the economy, including air transport, is making significant headway in bilateral Uzbek-Russian relations. Negotiations with the management of the Russian State Civil Aviation Service, which took place at the Ozbekiston Havo Yollari [Uzbekistan Airways] national airline offices, discussed improving further cooperation in order to widen the route map, manage the airlines jointly and open new routes on an equal footing.

The main obstacle to developing mutually advantageous business between Uzbekistan and Russian airlines used to be the convertibility of the proceeds from selling services in our republic. As a result, a number of flights were cancelled. Similarly Uzbek Airways was barred from entering some Russian airports, including Pulkovo [in St Petersburg] and the towns of Nizhniy Novgorod, Krasnodar and Mineralnyye Vody. The [Uzbek] national airline makes 44 flights to Russia, while Russian airlines make only 26 [to Uzbekistan].

The first deputy transport minister [and head] of the State Civil Aviation Service of the Russian Federation, Aleksandr Neradko, tackled this problem, during his visit, with Otkir Sultonov, prime minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan . The issue of convertibility was resolved in the interests of the two countries.

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