PLANS TO PROTEST NATO EXERCISE IN KAZAKHSTAN. The Almaty committee of the Workers Movement on 9 September announced it is organizing a demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy on 12 September to protest NATO-sponsored military exercises, according to Kazakh Commercial Television and Reuters. A statement released by the committee noted that NATO is "already on the borders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus." The exercise is scheduled to take place in southern Kazakhstan and northern Uzbekistan from 14-21 September under NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Troops from U.S., Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan will be taking part.

WORLD BANK MAY REVIEW ITS UKRAINE PROGRAMS. Edilberto Segura, the World Bank's mission chief in Kyiv, told journalists on 9 September that the bank may need to refocus its programs in Ukraine now that the country has a new leadership. Segura spoke after meeting with Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko. The bank recently suspended a $317 million electric utility loan because the parliament did not raise electricity rates, as required to receive the loan. Second tranches on two other loans--$150 million for restructuring the coal industry and $150 million for agricultural projects--have not been released because Kyiv has failed to meet the necessary criteria. RFE/RL's Washington correspondent reports that Paul Siegelbaum, the bank's Washington-based director for Ukraine and Belarus, will travel to Kyiv in mid-October.