News

At its sitting on May 11, the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Armenia rejected all the claims lodged by the "Heritage" Party with a demand to nullify the outcomes of the elections to the Board of Elders of Yerevan.

The reason for the train crash and subsequent explosion at the station Belaya Kalitva in the Rostov Region could be in a violation by the locomotive crew of the operating rules for the rolling stock; while the explosion could be caused by some technical failure of the rolling stock, according to investigators.

At the midterm elections to the Parliament of Georgia, held under the majority system in three constituencies, the winners were the candidates nominated by the ruling coalition "Georgian Dream".

Volodya Avetisyan, a retired Colonel of the Armenian Army, has started his sitting picket in Liberty Square in Yerevan, demanding from the government to revise the procedure for the calculation of military pensions. A group of veterans of the Karabakh War has joined the protest.

Today, the Imishli District Court has sentenced Azer Ali, a regional correspondent of the Azerbaijani Service of Radio Liberty to an administrative fine in the amount of 200 manats (about 255 US dollars). He was found guilty of disobeying the police.

On May 11, activists of the informal movement in defence of the unloading dock prevented the destruction of the historic building, located in the farmyard of Bobry near the city of Krasnoslobodsk.

Givi Targamadze, a Georgian MP, who is wanted under a request of Russian law enforcement bodies, has returned today from Vilnius to Tbilisi.

Most of the property of the Gabala radiolocation station (RLS), which belongs to Russia, has already been transported out of Azerbaijan, Khalaf Khalafov, Deputy Foreign Minister told reporters on May 10.

In Armenia, Ani Ovannisyan, a journalist of the edition named "Hetq", gave to the police an audio record of a conversation with some unknown man, who threatened her and her family.

In Stepanakert, on the occasion of the May 9 holiday, during the opening ceremony of the administrative building of the Union of Liberators of Artsakh, six participants of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh were presented with Lada cars received from sponsors. One more car was handed over to Union of Liberators.

Today, residents of Chechnya mark the Day of Memory and Grief for the nations of the republic; the holiday was established in 2011. Earlier, this date was marked on February 23, the day of the deportation in 1944 of Chechens and Ingushes to Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Asadullah Tseretilov, Asadullah Karanaev and Said Umarov, who live in Buynaksk and in whose houses, according to power agents, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found and neutralized on May 6, were arrested by the court for a month. Law enforcers now decide whether a criminal case against them will be opened for storing explosives. Their relatives say that they intend to seek compensation for the property damaged by the explosions.

On May 9, Nagorno-Karabakh held final celebration events on the occasion of the triple holiday - the 68th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War (WW II), the 21st anniversary of creation of the Defence Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and of the liberation of the city of Shushi (Shusha); the latter began back on May 5.

The Feast of Flowers is celebrated today in Azerbaijan within the events dedicated to the 90th birthday of the former President of the country Geidar Aliev.

Today, in the Sochi residence "Bocharov Ruchei", the Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with the British Prime Minister David Cameron, where they agreed on cooperation of the countries' security services in the field of security during the Olympic Winter Games in 2014.

The Azerbaijan's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) believes that the opposition is politicizing the traffic accident that occurred on May 9 in the city of Khudat, located in the north of the country and incites the local population for illegal actions. The opposition, in its turn, accuses the authorities of favouring law violators.

In Georgia, the meeting of President Mikhail Saakashvili with students at the Tbilisi State University (TSU) named after Ivane Djavakhishvili was held against the background of protests. One of the protesters - Revaz Revazishvili - was detained by the police for insulting shouts addressed to the head of Georgia.

The Georgian government is considering a possible decriminalization of using marijuana, as bans are sometimes fraught with reverse consequences, said David Sergeyenko, Minister of Labour, Health and Social Protection.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan has refuted the information that in the course of the special operation conducted in the village of Gimry, Untsukul District of Dagestan power agents were looting the village. So far, there is no reliable information on whether the local residents had suffered from the marauding, said the spokesman of the MIA.

In the village of Gimry, Untsukul District of Dagestan, the local hospital does not work; only some of the pupils attend the local school; and villagers prefer not to appear in the streets, local residents report. The authorities, in their turn, assert that life is slowly returning to the normal way; and the commission to assess the damage suffered by locals, has completed its work.