'NASHA NIVA' SUES STATE PRESS COMMITTEE. The paper's effort to overturn a warning against it for "fomenting interethnic enmity," was rejected by the Supreme Economic Court on 11 May. The State Press Committee issued a warning to the newspaper in March after it published a letter from T. Sudzilouskaya, titled, "I Envy Chechnya." A State Press Committee representative argued that the letter incited interethnic hatred. "It is sufficient to look at the heading 'I Envy Chechnya' to understand what the author means," he said. "We know the Chechens are currently at war and that they are mainly fought by Russians." ("RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report," 16 May)

CRIMEAN PARLIAMENT DISMISSES GOVERNMENT. The 100-seat Crimean parliament on 24 May voted 68 to 20 to dismiss the peninsula's government, led by Premier Serhiy Kunitsyn, Interfax reported. An adopted resolution says the performance of the Crimean cabinet and its head has been unsatisfactory this year. Crimean speaker Leonid Hrach will now submit Kunitsyn's dismissal for Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's approval. The election of a new Crimean premier is also subject to Kyiv's approval. Both Hrach and Kunitsyn have repeatedly tried to oust each other, forcing Kuchma to mediate on each occasion. JM

UNHCR WARNS OF KOSOVA SEX TRADE. The UNHCR said in a report released in Prishtina on 24 May that the large foreign presence in Kosova has led to the growth of a sex industry in which primarily East European women are forced into prostitution. The women come chiefly from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria and are often lured to Kosova by promises of simple but well-paid jobs in restaurants and entertainment. Once outside the borders of their homelands, the women's new employers abuse them, take their documents, and force them into virtual slavery. This reflects similar patterns seen in human traffic in many parts of Eastern Europe since the fall of communism and the opening of frontiers. PM

BULGARIA WARNED OVER PIRATE CD IMPORTS. "Bulgaria is not producing pirate products any more, but its market is dominated by these products," Jay Berman, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, told Reuters on 24 May. Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Sofia, Berman said that while Bulgaria, a former major producer of pirate CDs, has managed to clamp down on that problem, it now has to tackle the flourishing street trade in illegal imports. Berman said most of the pirate CDs are from Ukraine, now Europe's leader in such merchandise, as well as from Russia and Montenegro. MS