News

A termless hunger strike was announced by Raffi Ovannisyan, leader of the oppositional "Heritage" Party, Deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia and former head of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in protest against the situation in the country.

The defence advocates in the murder case of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova have addressed the Judicial Qualification Board (JQB) of Moscow with a complaint against Judge Alexander Zamashnyuk, who is chairing the trial. According to the defence, the judge had broken ethical norms.

On March 14, the Georgian Ministry of Defence issued a release about the death in a German hospital of Corporal Valery Verskiani, who on March 5 hit a mine in Afghanistan.

According to the latest data, seven militiamen got injured as a result of an assault at "Kizilyurt" Department of Interior Affairs in the Republic of Dagestan and an explosion near it. Bomb technicians are currently trying to neutralize a bomb found in Kizilyurt, a representative of law enforcement bodies of Kizilyurt district said.

Fifteen participants of an antigovernment action held on March, 12, in the center of Baku by "Musavat" party underwent administrative sanctions. Nine of them were arrested for a term of 7 to 10 days on accusation of insubordination to the police. Five more persons were fined to a sum of 20 to 30 manats (24 - 36 dollars) and one was released from the courtroom after getting a notice.

The Election Commission of the Republic of Adygea has fixed no violations during the elections to the State Council-Khasse of the Republic held on March 13. At the same time, activists of the Association "Golos" state numerous violations.

Sergey Kulagin, a member with decisive vote of the precinct election commission No. 10 of the city of Stavropol, said that at 60-70 percent of polling stations during elections of deputies of the City Duma, the required voter turnout was achieved by bringing voters from aside.

Elena Kolosova, a resident of Rostov-on-Don, who had accused Moscow doctors of disrespectful attitude in treatment of her one-year-old son Yaroslav at the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital, is going to take her child away to Germany. Financial support to the family was promised by sponsors, who were found through the Ministry of Social Development.

Last night, on March 13, in central Moscow, in the "Mir" Concert Hall, where a concert with participation of Chechen performers took place, an unidentified person wounded a militiaman from a traumatic pistol. This was reported by a source from law enforcement bodies of the capital.

The five-time champion of the Soviet Union and two-time European champion in boxing, a member of the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) Samson Khachatryan was arrested on charges of violent actions against the authorities of Armenia.

As reported by Gennady Vasyunin, head of the Investigatory Division for the city of Tuapse of the Regional Department of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), they refused to open a criminal case against a group of ecologists, detained at their action-picnic held in the forest in the Krasnodar Territory near the object, which ecologists regard to be the summer cottage of Alexander Tkachov, territorial governor.

Residents of the Chechen Republic are resettled because of the planned large-scale construction. Following the press conference "Chechnya: Construction of Argun-City - Dozens of Families Thrown Out into Street" held by rights defenders on February 3, residents of two blocks received flats; part of the tenants of other hostels were promised housing facilities.

Administrative infraction proceedings were started against Head of Adler district of the health resort of Sochi.

All the four members of an international TV-journalists' team from Finland, Estonia and Lithuania detained in Yerevan airport on March, 10, returned from Armenia without getting visas.

The Embassy of Georgia has contacted 27 out of its 35 citizens, who are now in Japan and live in the south, where the earthquake did not cause much damage.

The opposition and the authorities present contradictory figures on the number of detained activists of the anti-government action. According to the MIA, 50 persons were detained; the organizers claim that there were more than 100 detainees.

The Georgian Labour Party calls on the United Nations to develop a special convention imposing a ban on presidents of all countries to be elected more than twice.

Olesya Zabara from Maikop has won a silver medal in triple jump at the Indoor European Athletics Championships held on March 4-6 in Paris.

According to Shakhban Shakhbanov, until now, no help was rendered by the authorities to his family, which suffered from the explosion on February 1 in Kizlyar.

They occurred today in the capital of Azerbaijan in Fountains Square, when the police began dispersing the protesters from the "Musavat" party who gathered in the square.