News

Twelve persons were injured in a collision of a passenger bus and a Gazel, which occurred around 10:00 a.m. Moscow time in the Federal Highway "Kavkaz" near the city of Izberbash in Dagestan. They all were taken to the Izberbash city hospital.

The Nazran District Court of Ingushetia has sentenced Rustam Dzeitov, a supposed member of an illegal armed formation (IAF) to 2.5 years of imprisonment in a minimum security penal colony. This was reported by the press service of the local FSB office.

A decade aimed to draw more attention to people with disabilities was launched in Kabardino-Balkaria. On December 3, activists of youth organizations were giving white ribbons to passers-by in the streets as a sign of willingness to help people with disabilities.

Most probably, the car of Hussein Shadiev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Serdalo", was shelled by militants, as Andrei Zhulyabin, head of the division for supervising investigation, inquiry and operative search of the prosecutor's office of Ingushetia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

As reported on December 3 by the press service of the Supreme Court (SC) of Karachay-Cherkessia, the murder case of Ismail Bostanov, deputy chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Karachay-Cherkessia and Stavropol Territory, underwent its first public hearing.

The deadlock is still present in negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; the statement adopted in Astana will hardly change it: the conflicting parties stick to opposing viewpoints, Armenian experts say.

Yesterday, on December 2, in the outskirt of the capital of Dagestan, unidentified persons shelled three militiamen of the "Almaz-240" unit. In the skirmish that followed one of the attackers was supposedly wounded. In their escape from the chase, the criminals consistently hijacked four cars.

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov addressed the Moscow GUVD (Chief Interior Department) asking not to give any favours to perpetrators in the traffic accident with participation of a car registered at the Ingush Parliament. It has been already established that the car was used not for its destination.

The investigation into the murder of Umar Israilov, ex-guard of Chechen President, was held masterly; and the trial is held in accordance with international standards, said Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, a member of the international coalition of human rights organizations, which monitors this trial.

The Russia's Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika has ordered, after detection of violations admitted at the inquiry of the massacre in Kuschevskaya, to check the legality of accounting and registration of crimes everywhere across the country, giving special attention to facts of concealing serious crimes, Marina Gridneva, spokesperson of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), said today.

Yesterday, on December 2, Moscow announced the results of the major literary award of the country - the "Russian Booker Prize". The list of six top nominees included the writer from Chechnya German Sadulaev.

The interregional public movement under the motto "All the persons are equal before the law and court" is formed in the Krasnodar Territory; this was reported by its organizers.

Today, on December 3, an explosion was triggered in Kabardino-Balkaria: a self-made explosive device disguised as a log blew up in the Federal Highway Prokhladny-Azau in the Elbrus District, when a truck with militaries of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) was passing by.

The Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory has found no attributes of extremism in the brochure "Situation with Former USSR Citizens in Krasnodar Territory", published by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and the Youth Group for Tolerance "ETnIKA", the "Caucasian Knot" was told at the press service of the ICPO.

One should not oppose the secular life style to the religious one, Magomedsalam Magomedov, President of Dagestan, declared during an informal meeting with the journalists on December, 2.

European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has fined Russia to an unprecedented sum of 1,72 million euros for a loss of 24 residents of Chechnya during bombings in Achkhoy-Martan district in February, 2000. The plaintiffs were 29 residents of Chechnya who had failed to obtain the desired results in the Russian juridical instances.

Sergey Tsapok, accused of committing the massacre in the village of Kuschevskaya, started telling investigators about the crimes of his gang. While actively cooperating with the investigation, Tsapok stressed that he personally was not involved in the killings that he is talking about.

Dagestan, which is among sad leaders in Southern Russia by the number of HIV-infected patients, has increased the score still more, the local "Rospotrebnadzor" (Russian Federal Agency on Consumer Supervision) branch reports.

The programme of the Seventh International Film Festival "Woman", held in Yerevan on December 1-5, includes 55 films from 18 countries.

Members of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia and other Armenian scholars have signed a statement calling the authorities to consider a possibility to release Nikol Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Aikakan Zhamanak".