PATRIARCH CALLS FOR UNITY WITHIN CHURCH. In his Christmas message, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksii II said unity within the Orthodox Church is "the most important concern" and called for increasing the Church's social, educational, and missionary activities, ITAR-TASS reported. The Russian Orthodox Church has come into conflict with other Orthodox Churches in Russia, Ukraine, and Estonia. Aleksii strongly supported a religion law adopted in September 1997, which puts restrictions on religious groups that cannot prove they have existed in Russia for at least 15 years. Critics of that law say it discriminates against denominations and faiths that were banned or repressed during the Soviet period. In a Christmas message to Aleksii, Yeltsin praised the historical role of the Russian Orthodox Church and expressed hope that the Church will help promote morality, civic peace, and accord in Russian society. LB

CIS JANUARY SUMMIT CANCELED. The CIS summit scheduled for 23 January has been canceled, Interfax reported on 6 January, citing a source within the CIS Executive Secretariat. However, the next summit, planned to take place on 16 March, will go ahead as scheduled, according to the same source. Interfax reports that Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma proposed postponing the January summit in a letter to his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin. LF

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT APPEALS FOR CHURCH UNITY. In his Orthodox Christmas message read on Ukrainian state television on 6 January, President Leonid Kuchma urged the country's Orthodox Churches to try to cooperate with one another. Kuchma suggested that "unity in Orthodoxy is a reliable guarantee of the spiritual unity of the nation." Ukraine currently has three Orthodox hierarchies --the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate, and the smaller Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which itself is divided into two subgroups. The three frequently fight among themselves over property, doctrine, and ecclesiastical subordination. PG

CHORNOBYL OFFICIAL SAYS CONTAINMENT BLOCK MAY CRUMBLE. Valentin Koupnyi, the deputy director of the Chornobyl nuclear power station, says the sarcophagus around the part of the station damaged by the 1986 accident is "in danger of crumbling," Interfax-Ukraine reported on 6 January. Koupnyi complained that there have been no repairs to the containment wall because the international community has not yet provided sufficient funds. PG