President Vladimir Putin froze Russia’s commitment to a NATO arms-control treaty April 26 in retaliation for U.S. plans to station missile defense bases in Central Europe, the Associated Press reported. The treaty limits the number of munitions stationed around Europe. Russia will discuss the treaty with NATO next month, the Defense Ministry said.  

A Russian military helicopter carrying out operations against separatist rebels in the southern region of Chechnya crashed April 27, the Associated Press reported. All 18 people on board were killed, reports said. Conflicting military reports said the helicopter was shot down or crashed accidentally.

Political tensions in Kyiv worsened after President Viktor Yushchenko announced April 25 that he was canceling his previous decree to hold early elections May 27, postponing the vote until June instead. Political opponent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said the decree, which dissolves Parliament, is unconstitutional and accused the president of attempting to manipulate the courts.

Nearly 750,000 people rallied in Istanbul April 29 against Islamist presidential candidate Abdullah Gul. The parliamentary vote has pitted the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AK) against the secular opposition, which says Gul would threaten Turkey’s secular state. Voting is expected to go to a third round May 9.

United Nations Security Council delegates were in Serbia April 27 to speak with ethnic Albanians lobbying for Kosovo’s independence. The delegates also spoke to Serbs fiercely opposed to independence plans. Russia has backed the Serbs, while the United States and its European allies have tentatively endorsed moves toward independence to begin this June.

The European Parliament passed a resolution April 26 calling on Poland to stop fanning the flames of homophobia. Poland’s deputy education minister announced last month that a drafted law would ban the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools. The resolution condemned “the emerging climate of racist, xenophobic and homophobic intolerance in Poland.”

Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first democratically elected president, was laid to rest April 25 in a Moscow cemetery after a funeral attended by world dignitaries including former U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Yeltsin, 76, died in a hospital April 23 of heart failure.

A Moroccan man detained since 2004 as a suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was released by a court April 25. Farid Hilali was arrested on suspicion of ties to Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain’s al-Qaida cell. Yarkas’ charges were voided last year, rendering Hilali’s detention arbitrary, the judge ruled.

Renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich died in Moscow April 27 after a long illness. Rostropovich, 80, was known as an outspoken champion of artistic freedom in Russia during the Cold War, according to The New York Times. He lived in Moscow, St. Petersburg, London and Lausanne, Switzerland.