News

Hailstones that struck Georgia at night on June 25 caused a serious damage to agriculture of the Kakheti District. Several villages completely lost their crops; orchards and vineyards suffered; settlements of summer cottages and household yards were damaged.

The Ministry on Diaspora Matters is organizing, together with the Union of Writers of Armenia, from June 28 to July 2 in Yerevan the 5th Forum of Writers under the motto "Armenian Literature Is Armenian Fortress". The forum is held within the festival "One Nation - One Culture" and will bring together about 100 writers from 20 countries.

A criminal case was initiated against an operative militiaman of the criminal inquiry division No. 3 of the Stavropol UVD (Interior Department) under the articles of "abuse of office" and "illegal storage, transportation and bearing of explosives". This was reported by the Russian ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office).

In the Krasnodar Territorial Court, in the course of the trial on a series of explosions in Sochi, one of the suspects - a former TV cameraman Mikhail Denisenko - told about how they had prepared their crimes.

The state prosecution in the case dealing with the 2005 attack on power structures of Kabardino-Balkaria lodged a cassation presentation to the Supreme Court of Russia challenging the change of custody for defendant Kazbek Budtuev. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by lawyer Liza Shak, who is defending Budtuev.

The Kusar District Court of Azerbaijan has reappointed the court session on the case of the resident of Dagestan Usman Garisov, accused of drug contraband and use on July 13, said Umar Garisov, the detainee's brother, a resident of Karanaiaul village of the Kayakent District of Dagestan.

Mevlut Chavushoglu, Head of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said that the Assembly did not invite Ahmed Zakaev, emissary of Chechen separatists, to its events.

Today it became known that the "Rostransnadzor" (Russian Federal Agency for Supervising Transports) notified all Russian airports about possible acts of terrorism in air transport committed by female suicide bombers. According to the Agency's telegram of June 18, bombs may be implanted into women's bodies and triggered by means of injections, while women of Slavic appearance may be used for the actions.

In the Chegem District of Kabardino-Balkaria, tonight two unidentified persons used their firearms to attack employees of the Chegem ROVD. One of them was killed, and the other one - wounded and hospitalized.

Today, at about 6:00 p.m. Moscow time, in the suburb of the municipal district Alkievskiy of Nazran, in Nazran-Karabulak Highway, a DPS (Road and Post Service) car with three STSI (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, known in Russia as "GIBDD") inspectors of the Ingush MIA inside was shelled. Two inspectors died.

Ombudsperson in Dagestan Ummupazil Omarova went to hospital to visit lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova, who was beaten by employees of Khasavyurt GOVD (City Interior Department). According to Ms Omarova, President of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov has ordered to bring those guilty persons to responsibility.

The Rostov-based branch of the organization "Young Europe" and association "Rainbow Syndrome" deny their participation in appearance of the letter disseminated in Rostov-on-Don allegedly on behalf of the local LGBT-community (LGBT - lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites). Activists of these organizations assert their names and phone numbers were used by someone for forgery.

The verdict of the Moscow Regional Court to Khavazhi Yusupov, a native of Chechnya, which sentenced him to 8.5 years of imprisonment for his attempt on businessman Isa Yamadaev - a brother of earlier assassinated ex-deputy of the Russian State Duma Ruslan Yamadaev and ex-commander of the "Vostok" battalion "East" Sulim Yamadaev, has been appealed against at the Supreme Court of Russia.

On June 23, a churchman from Georgia addressed the authorities of South Ossetia with a request of political shelter.

The today's session at the trial on the attack on power agencies of Nalchik on October 13, 2005, started with an incident: lawyer Zalim Dzagashtov refused to present his bag for inspection at the entrance to the courtroom, left it at the securities, entered the room without documents and made a declaration about his impossibility to defend his clients.

Tigran Balayan, press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, has refuted the information disseminated by the Forum of the Armenian Societies of Europe (FASE), about an agreement reached between the USA and Russia about launching of a short-term war in the area of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the aim to deploy Russian peacemakers in Kelbadzhar and American ones in Fizuli.

Vadim Gvindzhiya, head of the Gali ROVD (District Interior Division), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the charges of the Georgian party concerning the attack on the Andzhaparidze family in the village of Rep, Gali District of Abkhazia, are not legitimate.

Zurab Nogaideli, ex-prime minister of Georgia, now the leader of the oppositional political party "For Fair Georgia", accused today at a press conference the country leaders of mass "politically-motivated" lay-offs of teachers.

According to Alexander Lozychenko, deputy chair of the Gukov Territorial Committee of the Russian Independent Coal Industry Workers' Trade Union ("Rosugleprof"), most likely, the prosecutor's checks conducted in the mines in the Rostov Region will not result in any improvement of the situation. According to his story, the revealed violations are usual for the regional coal industry.

Andrei Babushkin, head of the Committee for Civil Rights and a member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), said in the course of the roundtable on the medical aspect of torture applied in prisons and isolation facilities that his Committee receives many applications from North-Caucasian inmates complaining that their rights as prisoners are restrained, including on the basis of their religious affiliation.