1. Flight to New York via Kiev

2. Russia suspicious of new post-Soviet block-agency

3. Tashkent to hold international tennis tournament

4. U.S. businesswoman killed

5. President Karimov visits Washington for NATO summit

6. Tashkent hosts a large Olympic meeting

7. Pierre Cardin and Maya Plisetskaya may visit Tashkent

The killing of an American businesswoman is highly unusual in the former Soviet Union. Although business disputes have led to a sharp increase in slayings throughout the region, very few of the victims have been Westerners or women. Quigley's body was discovered Saturday by her brother Thomas, who had started a U.S.-Uzbek import-export company about two years ago. Police said her throat had been slashed. The firm, Ameroz Industries, is believed to be one of the few foreign companies turning a profit in Uzbekistan. It imports textbooks and other supplies on contract for Uzbek schools, institutes and universities and has a network of affiliate offices around the country. "It is too early to draw any conclusions, but we suspect the crime is most likely connected with the company's financial activity," the lead investigator, Mels I. Naimov, said in a telephone interview from Tashkent.

Other Americans who knew the pair in Tashkent said the Quigleys had received threats from a former business associate a few months ago but did not believe that they faced a serious threat. The Americans, who said they feared for their own safety, asked not to be named. Uzbek officials vowed to solve the case, saying the crime has brought dishonor to their country. It is also likely to scare off the foreign investors Uzbek President Islam Karimov has been fervently courting. "We consider solving this murder a matter of professional honor," investigator Naimov said. "We are confident we will find the people responsible for inflicting this moral damage to our country." Kerry Quigley grew up in a family of 12 children in the Bay Area city of San Leandro but had called Los Angeles home since graduating from USC in 1984. After working in a series of banking jobs, she moved to Tashkent in January to join her brother. "She said she'd never been happier," William Quigley said. "She really enjoyed this kind of entrepreneurial business."

More than 70 American companies have offices in Uzbekistan, and several hundred U.S. executives are believed to live in the country, mostly in Tashkent. Friends said Kerry Quigley was among the most prominent. She was active in community events and volunteered for charities. Uzbekistan had generally been considered one of the most reliable Central Asian business partners. Social and institutional disorder after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union led to a climate in which business disputes were increasingly settled by violence. However, the surge of contract killings in the region has ebbed in the past two years. Foreigners were rarely the target of such business-related slayings. An exception was Paul Tatum, an American hotel executive who was gunned down near his Moscow hotel in 1996. (Los Angeles Time)

And that was the case with the conflict in Yugoslavia. He called Slobodan Milosevic for constructive dialogue. President Karimov also criticized the mass media of cetain ocuntries for being biased. He says there is no reason to report that the conflict began with NATO airstrikes.

President Karimov said: "The Government of Yugoslavia put pressure on Kosovar Muslims and led the policy to oust Kosovar Albanians from their land. Instead of living with them peacefully, the Yugoslav government abolished their autonomy in 1989. So the genocide against Kosovar Albanians has a decade-long history; it did not begin yesterday. Such long conlflicts have never stayed within the boundaries of one state. It was expected that they would burst out beyond its boundaries."

Uzbekistan is reconsidering its military policy. In a speech to the Parliament President Karimov earlier announced about reforming the army. The army will be reduced but will become more professional.

In Washington President Karimov had a number of important meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Madlein Albright, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth, World Bank President James Wolfenson, U.S. Eximbank President James Harmon and IMF Deputy Managing Director Shigemitsu Sugisaki. Earlier President Karimov also met with a group of Uzbek students at the Uzbek Embassy. Later that day at the Embassy presidents of four countries-members of GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) met with President Karimov to welcome Uzbekistan into GUAM. GUAM is an organization for economic cooperation of the CIS countries located at the Black Sea. The membership in GUAM gives Uzbekistan wider possibilities of having an exit to the ports of the Black Sea.

These five countries are also members of the TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe Caucasus Asia) program. The TRACECA Program was launched at a conference in Brussels in May 1993 which brought together trade and transport ministers from eight of the TRACECA countries (five Central Asian republics and three Caucasian republics), where it was agreed to implement a program of European Union (EU) funded technical assistance (TA) to develop a transport corridor on a West-East axis from Europe, across the Black Sea, through the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to Central Asia. TRACECA and GUAM are Uzbekistan's springboard for the restoration of the Great Silk Road connecting all these countries thus giving Uzbekistan an excellent opportunity for the transportation of its exports to Europe using the seaways.

If the U.S. Congress passes a Silk Road Strategy bill, then Uzbekistan's such attempts will be also backed and financed by the U.S. Government. During his stay in Washington, D.C. President Karimov met with a group of U.S. senators and Republican Senator from Kansas Sam Brownback, the author of the Silk Road Strategy bill. First time the two met in Tashkent in April 1998. In his speech President Karimov asked the Congress to pass the bill and said that it would contribute to the development of relations between the Central Asian states and the United States greatly. President Karimov also had a meeting with Bill Archer, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. Congress. Their first meeting took place in Tashkent on May 26 in 1997.

According to the Secretary General of the Asian Olympic Council, Raja Ramdhir Singh, the agenda of the meeting of NOC heads included the discussion of refereeing problems, marketing issues and training of referees. Uzbekistan joined AOC in 1993.