31.   The oil painting depicts a beggar with a sack on his back floating above Vitebsk, a former Russian empire town now in Belarus.

32.   On Friday the NATO ministers will meet their counterparts from the countries of the former Soviet empire in the North Atlantic Cooperation Council.

33.   The disputes have their roots in tension between the two churches which erupted in the post-communist era in the former Soviet empire.

34.   The political bosses of the former communist empire may be jittery in face of recent Taliban advances north of Kabul.