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The nine-storey building, where four humans perished in gas explosion, was gasified and inhabited, but has not yet been commissioned, the Tbilisi Mayoralty has confessed. The relevant gaps in the legislation must be eliminated, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) has stated.

The ratification of the Armenia-European Union (EU) agreement is delayed by European countries because of the change of power in Yerevan, said Ararat Mirzoyan, the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament.

The court has refused to release Robert Kocharyan, the second Armenian President, and extended his arrest by two months. His defence has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), stating that the prosecution of the second President of Armenia will affect the image of the country.

For the week that has passed since the start of the collection of information about those wishing to move to the Galanchozh District that is bordering on Ingushetia, about 200 families have declared their intention to return to the lands of their ancestral, said a source from the Ministry of Economic Development.

Activists have apologized to Arsen Mkrtchyan, an advocate of General Manvel Grigoryan, a former MP, for pouring paint on the advocate's car and preventing him from driving. However, they stated that the actions demanding to arrest of his client would be continued.

The collection of signatures to the demand of the resignation of the head of Ingushetia, cancellation of the border agreement with Chechnya and return of the Prigorodny District began during the two-week-long rally in Magas, the capital, where provocateurs tried to destroy lists with signatures, the initiators of the appeal to President Putin told the "Caucasian Knot".

The mentioning of protest sentiments in the demand to write off Chechen debts for supplied natural gas will allow other regions of Northern Caucasus to put forward similar claims, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

A search has been launched for a woman from the city of Dagestanskie Ogni, who has left for Syria, and who, in the opinion of investigators, had organized a transfer of raised money to militants, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has announced.

The Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has detained two persons, who had conducted an inspection in the Tbilisi high-rise residential building on the eve of the explosion, the MIA has stated.

Today, the supplier of natural gas to Chechnya has announced its intent to appeal against the court judgement that obliges the company to write off the consumers' debts, which are "hopeless to collect".

The US Department of State expressed concern about human rights violations in Chechnya and called on Russia to respond to reports of renewed attacks on members of the LGBT community in the republic and to release Oyub Titiev, the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" office in Grozny.

Today, Ingush activists have handed over to the Kremlin the letter signed by residents of the republic with the demand to cancel the agreement on the border with Chechnya and return the Prigorodny District to Ingushetia.

On January 17, the leader of Chechnya announced his intention to dismiss the heads of departments and municipalities if their activities in the first quarter of 2019 would be ineffective. Instead of loud resignations, personnel changes of officials close to Ramzan Kadyrov are likely to be expected, local residents say.

Today, one resident of Nagorno-Karabakh and two residents of Armenia are still being kept in Azerbaijani prisons. Armenia has no arguments to force Azerbaijan to return prisoners, notes MP Naira Zograbyan.

The positions of the Azerbaijani army in the Karabakh conflict zone were fired from machine guns, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for Azerbaijan reports today.

On the day of the explosion on the outskirts of Tbilisi, tenants of a nine-storey building several times called the emergency service because of the smell of gas at the block. However, officers of the emergency service did not detect any gas leak.

On January 17, the Russian Supreme Court (SC) refused to toughen the sentence to Victoria Budaikhanova, a native of Dagestan, sentenced to a conditional imprisonment after her return from Syria.

The European Parliament has called on the Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release the blogger Mekhman Guseinov, as well as other detained activists and journalists, the resolution said on January 17.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has quickly responded to the complaint of the defence of Samvel Mairapetyan, the owner of the N2 TV Channel against the ban on his travel abroad. The ECtHR believes that the authorities should allow the businessman to go to Germany for medical treatment, said his advocate.

A court in Baku has imposed administrative penalties on five members of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) – on December 16, two activists were sentenced to 20 days' arrest and three others were fined.