News

Seven persons have fallen victim to a shooting in Nalchik. Two policemen and Alim Chechenov, who attacked them, were killed; three other employees of the road-and-post service (known as DPS) were wounded, as well as one civilian, the MIA of Kabardino-Balkaria reports.

According to preliminary data, violations of fire safety in using furnace heating have caused a large fire and subsequent deaths of four children in a private house near Krasnodar.

The Women's I Muslim Club "Iman" was opened in the Chechen capital for "spiritual and moral education of Chechen women."

At night on January 7, Orthodox believers have celebrated one of the major religious holidays – the Christmas. Many regions of the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts (SFD and NCFD) and in the regions of Transcaucasia held Christmas services.

Yesterday, on January 5, the world champion in freestyle wrestling Alan Lokhov, who had been sentenced to five days in jail for organizing a march against arrests of the staff of the North-Ossetian office of Alla Djioeva, a former candidate for presidency of South Ossetia, was released from the Vladikavkaz temporary detention facility (known as IVS) of the North-Ossetia Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

In Afghanistan, Shalva Pailodze, a Georgian soldier, was lost at the attack of the Taliban.

Today in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, an explosion happened in Gagarin Street, which wounded a 12-year-old boy.

The brothers Yunus and Yusuf Yandiev and Azamat Khamchiev, detained on September 28, 2011, in the course of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) in the Malgobek District of Ingushetia, have been released from custody under recognizance not to leave.

Today, the Orthodox believers mark the Christmas Eve, the eve of one of the main church holidays – the Christmas. The Christmas Eve is celebrated by believers of four Local Churches of the world – Russian, Georgian, Jerusalem and Serbian ones.

On January 5, in the Sunzha District of Chechnya, the police detained a young man, who had abducted a girl with the aim to marry her, the local MIA reports.

Today, the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates Christmas together with Baptism under the united name of Epiphany.

A residential neighbourhood “Artstakh” where families of the victims of Karabakh military conflict, servicemen of the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh and full orphans received flats was put into operation in Stepanakert.

Head of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Georgia Vano Merabishvili signed an enactment which improves the conditions of serving administrative penalty and extends the convicts’ rights. The enactment came into effect since the beginning of the year.

A severe landslip happened at about 22:00, January, 5, near the Winter Theatre of Sochi. Buildings and landscaped areas were damaged.

The French government has decided to submit the bill, which assumes criminal punishment for denial of Armenian genocide, to the Senate in the end of January, said Patrick Olier, the French Minister for Relations with the Parliament.

It is planned to finish construction of the ski resort "Veduchi", which was launched in 2011 in the mountainous Itum-Kalin District of Chechnya, in 2014. As reported by the office of the leader and the government of Chechnya, the ski resort will be an all-season one, and the ski routes will suit all categories of sports fans. Not all local residents support the idea of building a ski resort in Chechnya, claiming that the republic needs to recover its industrial potentials more.

The works on gasification of the village of Nogkau, Tskhinvali District of South Ossetia, are over. Houses of the village are already receiving natural gas.

As announced by Grair Tovmasyan, the Minister of Justice of Armenia, in 2012 the country will start a programme of judicial and legal reforms aimed at transforming the judicial system.

The opposition party "Free Georgia" has decided to appeal to the European Court and the Council of Europe in order to appeal against the outcomes of presidential election held on January 5, 2008.

The participants of the picket organized in Vladikavkaz by public organizations against pollution of the environment by the metallurgical factory "Electrozink" said that they would go on with their protests.