News

In Armenia, according to the national Central Election Commission (CEC), one of the candidates for the Mayor of Gyumri – the non-partisan Rafael Asatryan – has announced his withdrawal. The four other candidates to be voted for on September 9 continue their race.

The Volgograd regional public organization "Mothers' Law" asks law enforcement agencies to clear out the circumstances of public disclosure by the Military Commissariat of personal data of recruits and their parents, and give a legal assessment of these facts.

An oil spillage from old depreciated pipes happened in the township of Bartskhana in Batumi. Special services are now busy in the place of spillage into the Bartskhana River.

On August 20, in the Georgian city of Rustavi, region of Kvemo-Kartli, heavy rains, accompanied by gusty wind, led to flooding of streets and house basements. Fortunately, nobody was killed or wounded.

On August 21, the custody term of Ruslan Ismailov, detained on suspicion of committing a terror act and kept in SIZO-1 of Makhachkala, was extended by two months. His advocate Gadjimurad Izmailov complains that he is unable to meet his client, as SIZO workers took away the defender's ID card.

The terror act at the funeral of the policeman in the Malgobek District of Ingushetia was organized by Dokku Umarov, the head of the republic Yunus-Bek Evkurov said today.

Employees of the company "Spetsstroy", who are at forced vacations for about a year, failed to receive any debts or vacation allowances. The money was paid only to drivers of KAMAZ trucks involved in cleaning the Chernorechensky pond in the Zavodskoy District of Grozny.

Advocates of two defendants in the case of the terror act at the "Domodedovo" Airport, which was began on 20 August at the Moscow Regional Court, intend to appeal against the decision of the court to hold a closed trial. According to Vladimir Kocharyan, his client Ilez Yandiev is innocent of the incriminated crimes.

Sheikhmagomed Magomedkerimov, 21, a resident of Derbent, was detained by policemen of the GOVD (City Interior Division); his whereabouts is still unknown, said his father Zainudin Magomedkerimov.

An aircraft of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) has brought victims of the terror act in Ingushetia from Beslan to Moscow. The condition of seven of them is stably grave, and of two – as extremely grave, the Chief Department of the MfE in Ingushetia has reported.

In Stavropol, in the Russian Forest, near the monument to tortured and executed Soviet citizens, a rally was held in memory of Holocaust victims. The event took place on August 19 at the initiative of the Jewish community of the Stavropol Territory.

In fear of lynch law execution by local residents, Vladimir Ambartsumov, a resident of Pyatigorsk, who is suspected of raping and murdering a 9-year-old Anna Prokopenko, and his family are guarded by law enforcers.

On August 22, the Predgorny District Court of the Stavropol Territory will hold a preliminary hearing on the criminal case opened against former district militiamen, accused of using violence to Vyacheslav Merekha, a local resident.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of the oppositional coalition "Georgian Dream", has invited the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to televised debates and expressed his readiness to hold debates with members of the ruling party, should the President be unable to appear. Also, according to Ivanishvili, he is ready to hold debates with other parties, if they recognize their links with the "United National Movement".

Today, 11 villagers of Kudepsta – opponents to building the Kudepsta Thermal Power Plant (TPP), rallied opposite the Sochi Mayoralty. They told Sochi residents about the actions of the authorities aimed, according to their version, against citizens' constitutional rights.

The Krasnodar Territorial Court has satisfied the petition of the alleged gang members accused of killing 12 people in the house of a farmer in the village of Kuschevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, and of other violent crimes, on having their case tried by a jury, lawyer of the victims, Ekaterina Romanova, a victims' advocate, told reporters.

The starting session at the Moscow Regional Court on the merits of the criminal case against the alleged organizers of the terror act at "Domodedovo" Airport is scheduled for August 27.

The today's night heavy rain with that struck Georgia caused serious harm to some regions of Kakheti and resort suburbs of Tbilisi, said the emergency service of the Georgian capital.

According to the Expert-Forensic Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan, the cartridge cases gathered at the place of attack on the mosque worshipers in Khasavyurt coincide with those found after the shooting at the former Imam of the village of Endirey, Khasavyurt District, the MIA reports.

The funerals of the policemen killed on 19 August in Malgobek by a suicide bomber are conducted under tight supervision of law enforcers; no incidents were observed, said the spokesman of the Ingush MIA. According to latest data, August 22 was announced the day of mourning in the republic.