News

The World Bank (WB) expects stabilization in Armenian economy by the end of 2009. This was stated by Aristomene Varudakis, head of the Yerevan-based WB's office.

The "Olympstroy" has decided to give up its plans to build the second seaport in Sochi, as reported today by Vice-Premier Dmitri Kozak, supervisor of preparation for 2014 Winter Olympic Games, to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The general court of Yerevan communities Centre-Nork-Marash has passed a decision to partially satisfy the claim lodged by the family of ex-President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan against the oppositional newspaper "Armenian Time"; that is the paper shall pay 3.62 million drams (about 10,000 US dollars) to Kocharyan family, instead of claimed 16 million drams (42,000 US dollars).

The assassinated Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan Adilgerei Magomedtagirov had plenty of enemies: members of illegal armed formations (IAFs) and thousands of criminals. It was reported by President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev at an emergency sitting of the antiterrorist commission.

The Armenian opposition has demanded that the Republic's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) recognize null and void the outcomes of voting on May 31 for the Board of Elders of Yerevan, according to which the ruling Republican Party of Armenia proved to be the winner.

Seda Safaryan and Andrannik Kocharyan, members of the fact-finding group set up to investigate the opposition's clashes with the police on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan, who had been nominated to the group by the opposition, told journalists that purposeful actions to disrupt their work began after their decision to publish the final report on May 19.

Relatives of Idris Tsizdoev, 28, who was kidnapped by unidentified persons on May 26 in Malgobek, still know nothing about his whereabouts. On that very day they informed law enforcement bodies about the incident; however, so far, they failed to learn anything about Tsizdoev's further fate.

This week in Abkhazia the issue of the independent newspaper "Chegemskaya Pravda" failed to appear, and another paper - the "Wanted Paper" - was forced to be printed by means of a risograph. According to editors of the editions, which position themselves as independent, the printing house named "Alasharbaga", where the papers used to be printed for a couple of years already, suddenly rejected them, saying that small circulations are unprofitable for them.

Gagik Dzhangiryan, an activist of Armenian opposition and former Deputy General Public Prosecutor, convicted for rendering resistance to power officials, is against amnestying political prisoner, saying that they had committed no crimes; therefore, the concept of amnesty is inapplicable to them.

Amendments to the law aimed to restrict the stay of minors in public places late in the evening and at night, adopted at the federal level were supported by deputies of the Volgograd Regional Duma. The bill is ready and planned for adoption on June 11.

Albert Dzhussoev, director general of the "Stroyprogress" Company, has stated that ecologists' accusations of his company, engaged in laying the Tskhinvali-Dzuarikau gas pipeline, are groundless, as before the construction the object of international value had undergone all the required numerous checks.

In the Grozny District of Chechnya, power agents have detained a woman, a suspected member of an illegal armed formation (IAF). Local law enforcers think that last autumn for a short period of time she was with one of militants' groupings.

Today, the Tsentralny District Court of Sochi has postponed for the third time the preliminary hearing of the claim lodged by oppositional politician Boris Nemtsov with a demand to cancel the outcomes of the election of the city Mayor. The hearing failed for absence of respondents from the electoral commission and Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov.

Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, assassinated today in Makhachkala, was buried according to Islamic rites into the cemetery of Gonoda village in the Gunib District.

The defendants in the criminal case on the events in Nalchik on October 13, 2005, decided not to start their hunger strike since, as reported by their advocates, doctors from the SPID Centre visited the SIZO, examined defendant Sergey Kaziev suspected to be sick with hepatitis B and appointed respective treatment to him.

Ombudsman Armen Arutyunyan has stated that he has facts that press professionals were prevented from normal work in Armenia and that force was used against journalists on the voting day to the Board of Elders of Yerevan.

On June 3, the capital of Norway hosted the awarding ceremony of Herd Bucerius Award "Free Press of Eastern Europe" to journalists from the CIS countries. Journalists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Russia were among the laureates.

The work of the fact-finding group about clashes of the opposition with the police forces on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan has in fact failed. This was told to journalists by Samvel Farmanyan, press secretary of the President of Armenia, in his comments on the complicated situation in the group. He has expressed his regret that the group members nominated by various political forces failed to depart from their political benchmarks and work independently.

The section named "Russia" in this year's report on human rights worldwide of the Amnesty International (AI), the largest international independent human rights organization, dealt mainly with the situation in Northern Caucasus. This was reported by Frederica Behr, an AI's researcher.

The city of Sochi stands on deposits of mercury ore; and its chaotic build-up without due geological surveys can lead to emission of mercury vapours to the surface and result in tragedy. Nadezhda Didenko, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences and scientific secretary of the Sochi branch of the Russian Geographical Society told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it. So far, the authorities of Sochi know nothing about it, but promise to address the issue.