News

Rights defenders are not satisfied with the investigation into the murder of their colleague Natalia Estemirova. Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the "Civil Assistance" Committee, said that the initially taken direction in the inquiry – against top Chechen officials – later was frozen.

In the near future a strong earthquake is probable in Northern Caucasus, said Evgeny Rogozhin, Deputy Director for Scientific Work of the Institute for Earth's Physics.

According to the information from the republican Election committee, representatives of five parties: “United Russia”, “Fair Russia”, “Patriots of Russia”, KPRF and “Pravoye Delo” (“Rightful Cause”) will be members of the People's Assembly of Dagestan.

Today the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria at a trial on the case of an attack at Nalchik on October, 13, 2005, prolonged the custody term for the defendants for three more months. For two of the defendants who had been released on their own recognizance this preventive punishment remained the same.

Pupils of comprehensive schools are not allowed to take mobiles to classes. The teachers consider this decision right while many schoolchildren and their parents stick to the opposite opinion.

Law enforcement officers established identity of the two men killed during a special operation in Makhachkala on March, 19, Informational center of National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) reports. They had been preliminarily recognized as members of Khasavyurt group of gunmen.

On March 19, activists held a picket in Astrakhan in defence of Vladimir Kvachkov, a former GRU (Russian Military Intelligence) colonel, accused of preparing an armed rebellion and terrorism. The protesters treated the actions of the authorities as repressions.

Today, at about 12:00 a.m. on Cape Vidny in the resort city of Sochi, Krasnodar Region, Gayane Antonova, an activist of the "Ecological Watch for North Caucasus", was detained.

The Party "Right Cause" will get, after vote re-tabulation, one mandate in the National Assembly of Dagestan, said the press service of the party. The Deputy from the party in the parliament will be Magomed Shabanov, head of the Regional Branch of the "Right Cause".

Today, Marat Zokaev, born in 1980, an earlier convicted resident of the village of Kashkatau, Cherek District of Kabardino-Balkaria, was killed in this village.

In the course of a special operation in Repin Street in the centre of the capital of Dagestan, two persons blocked in a house were shot dead. According to power agents, they refused to negotiate and opened fire.

Today, the World Cup in Freestyle Wrestling has started in the capital of Dagestan. The strongest teams of the world have come to take part in the tournament for the prize money amounting to 240,000 US dollars.

Today, employees of the office of the Ombudsperson of Azerbaijan have visited journalist Einullah Fatullaev in prison; the latter told them about his health problems.

On March 19, Azerbaijan started celebrating the Novruz-Bairam - the festival of spring and New Year.

The American non-governmental agency to combat poverty named "Millennium Challenge Corporation" (MCC) is considering allocation to Georgia of the second grant package in the amount of 100-150 million US dollars, said Daniel Johannes, executive director of the MCC.

Raffi Ovannisyan, leader of the "Heritage" Party, continues his hunger strike started on March 15 in Freedom Square of Yerevan. According to his story he is going to hold in the square as long as his health permits.

Makhachkala hosted a roundtable "Role of NCOs (non-commercial organizations) in overcoming legal nihilism in Dagestan", during which its participants shared their views on the reasons and implications of this phenomenon.

On March 18, the NGO named the "Nationwide Resistance Movement" held a rally in downtown Tbilisi. The action demanded to adopt a law on amnesty for those prisoners, whose term does not exceed three years, and to release 60 persons considered by the Movement as political prisoners.

As reported by the press service of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the unrecognized republic, a soldier of the Defence Army of Nagorno-Karabakh was fatally wounded by the fire "opened by the enemy."

On March 18, two more persons died of influenza in Georgia; one of them was killed by the H1N1 virus. The total number of flu cases in Georgia has exceeded one thousand.