Latest Developments

GEORGIA CLAMPS DOWN: President Zviad Gamsakhurdia declared a state of emergency after more than three weeks of protests in the capital of Tbilisi by his opponents and supporters. Renegade members of Georgian national guard have occupied the city television center. Gamsakhurdia said he would not use force unless the opposition resorted to violence.

PRESIDENTIAL PROTEST: Thousands of protesters in Tadzhikistan’s capital of Dushanbe demanded the resignation of Rakhman Nabiyev, who was installed as interim president Monday after the Communist-controlled Parliament ousted a more reform-minded leader, Kadreddin Aslonov. Soviet media reported that the situation was tense but without violence.

ZIONISM ISSUE: The Soviet Union, reversing what had long been a key foreign policy position, said that Zionism should not be equated with racism and urged the United Nations to cast aside a 1975 resolution condemning Israel as a racist state. Foreign Minister Boris D. Pankin told the U.N. General Assembly that its resolution declaring Zionism to be a form of racism was “a legacy of the Ice Age” and an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

REST FOR YELTSIN: Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin will take a leave from work for about two weeks, his spokesman said. Soviet television said Yeltsin will “travel for a rest” starting today. It gave no further information. Last week, the 60-year-old Yeltsin suffered an unspecified heart ailment.