News

According to the preliminary data, Natalya Lutsenko, Acting City Mayor, nominated by the United Russia Party has won in the elections of the Mayor of the resort city of Kislovodsk.

The numerous inspections carried out to check the reports of violations at the elections to the Council of Elders of Erevan have shown that most of the information being spread by the mass media has been invented and aimed at imitating mass violations, said Sona Truzyan, Press Secretary of the General Prosecutor's Office in her interview with journalists. She pointed out that as of the end of day on May 31, the General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia has received no complaints in writing.

The case involving the murder of Gadji Abashilov, Chairman of GTRC (State TV and Radio Company) Dagestan is considered unsolved by the President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliyev and Suleiman Uladiyev, the Abashilov's successor as the TV and Radio Company Chairman. They believe that the person who ordered the murder has not been found and those who will appear in court are just scapegoats.

Today the Georgian opposition has started to piquet the Tbilisi Mayor's House demanding that the city authorities should rather fulfil its direct functions, e.g. deal with the sanitary cleaning of the city rather than interfere with the political process.

The elections held in South Ossetia were fair and transparent. South Ossetia has passed a test for mature democracy, declared the President of South Ossetia Edward Kokoity following the announcement of the parliamentary election results by Bella Pliyeva, Head of the Central Electoral Committee.

The Russian students, mostly from the Caucuses, detained in Egypt were questioned on the subject of their participation in extremist groups, said Asvad Harikhanov, one of the arrested students and the resident of Chechnya speaking today to the Caucasion Knot correspondent.

Today neither the eyewitnesses nor the victims in the criminal case involving the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, have attended the Kabardino-Balkarian Supreme Court's session. The only eyewitness brought to the court refused to enter the court session room.

This year's nominees for the Gerd Bucerius Prize for "Free Press of Eastern Europe" awarded annually for outstanding achievements in the development of independent press include two Azerbaijani representatives, the journalists of the Azadlyg (Freedom) and Bizim Yol (Our Path) newspapers.

The Dagestani Supreme Court Criminal Board has reversed the Mahachkala Leninski Regional Court ruling on the lack of jurisdiction of the Leniniski Court over the criminal case involving five journalists of the Chernovik's weekly and its referral for consideration on the merits to the Kirovski City Regional Court.

Evgeniy Lukinov, correspondent of Channel One, who suddenly died today morning in the capital of South Ossetia, got poisoned by carbonic oxide. The autopsy revealed the reason.

Today, one day prior to parliamentary elections in South Ossetia, nephews of businessman Albert Dzhussoev, one of the leaders of South-Ossetian opposition, were detained.

The investigation of criminal case concerning inhabitants of Ingushetia Maksharip Khidriev and Salambek Dzakhkiev, accused of blowing up the "Neva-Express" passenger train, is over. The indictment has been approved, and in the near future the criminal case will be sent to the Novgorod Regional Court for consideration on the merits.

A Chechen woman, mother of four children, committed a self-immolation act in Spain in protest against eviction from a free-of-charge apartment of the Red Cross.

On May 29 in Tbilisi, the shops of the Benetton trading network reopened after they were closed on May 25 in protest against the plans of the Turkish representative office of the company to open a shop in Sukhumi.

Elena Maglevannaya, a journalist and human rights defender from Volgograd has applied for political asylum in Finland.

The criminal case dealing with explosion in "Abu-Bekr" Mosque on August 17, 2008, has arrived for consideration to the Court on Grave Crimes of Azerbaijan. Then, a grenade thrown into the Mosque during the evening prayer killed 2 and wounded 13 believers.

Leaders of the Georgian opposition, which keeps holding actions in Tbilisi demanding resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili, have announced their plans to "reconstruct" the "city of cells".

On May 29 in Nazran, near the building of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development of Ingushetia, an unidentified person burnt down a "Lada-Kalina" model car belonging to Olga Kasevich, assistant of the Minister.

On May 29, special agencies of Egypt conducted a special operation, during which 198 Russian citizens were arrested; most of them are students from Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. Russia's Embassy in Cairo has confirmed arrest of 35 students. The detainees complain of poor custody conditions in local pre-trial prison (SIZO).

On May 29 in Yerevan, supporters of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) held their rally as a summing-up event of the election campaign of this oppositional movement headed by the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan.