News

Today, the United Transport Administration (UTA) of Georgia has disseminated a statement intended for all airlines and airports of the world that the Tbilisi Airport has problems because of the approaching ash cloud from the Iceland volcano.

Today the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has announced its decision on the case, which entailed check of the constitutionality of part 2, Article 30, and part 2, Article 325, of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) the Russian Federation, according to which crimes of terrorist character cannot be tried by juries. The Court has found no contradiction of the above provisions with the Russian Constitution.

The death of the Georgian athlete - sledge racer Nodar Kumaritashvili - in the Olympic track in Whistler was an "unforeseeable fatal accident," which was a result of a chain of events, runs the conclusion of the International Luge Federation (FIL), placed today in the website of the organization.

The investigation of preparation of a possible terror act in Lithuania has nothing to do with the explosions in Moscow metro, said Algimantas Klyunki, chief prosecutor of the department for fighting corruption and organized crime, who explained that the investigation of the case about the terrorist activity in the republic was conducted since August 2009.

Former journalists of the TV Company "Imedi" have sent a claim against Georgia to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the context of events on November 7, 2007, when special troops of the Georgia's MIA attacked the premises of the Company. Then, according to journalists, a pogrom was made in the building; and the employees were down on the floor for several minutes with firearms pointed at them.

Today in the morning in Nazran, a self-made explosive device was triggered under the bottom of the Niva car belonging to Beslan Shagiev, acting deputy minister of the MIA of Ingushetia for logistics.

April 18 in Nagorno-Karabakh was the deadline for registering candidates for members of the local Parliament of the 5th convocation; the elections will take place on May 23.

Today, Khanmagomed Magomedov, a resident of Kara-Tyube village, Babayurt District of Dagestan, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the Babayurt ROVD (District Interior Division) illegally holds 17 persons for several days, including two women detained during searches.

On April 17, some 200 residents of the city-resort Sochi went out to hold their three-hour picket in the Plane-Tree Alley, where over 3000 persons signed-in "in defence of general use green zones against corruption actions of the authorities and businesses."

In Lithuania, a girl of 20 is arrested as a suspect of complicity in terror acts in Moscow metro on March 29. The version of her involvement in these crimes is now checked by the Lithuanian Department of State Security and State Office of Public Prosecutor.

Azerbaijan and Russia have agreed on state border demarcation and water division on the border Samur River; thus, the work on demarcation of the Russian-Azerbaijani frontier at the level of the intergovernmental commission is actually over. This was stated by Khalaf Khalafov, deputy minister of foreign affairs and Azerbaijani co-chairman of the above commission.

In the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, the house of relatives of Malik and Khadizhat Gataev was searched; human rights activists find it to be illegal.

On April 19, Kabardino-Balkaria starts an all-republic youth project "Kunachestvo" (from the Turkic word meaning "guest", - note of translator). Its participants - schoolchildren of different nationalities from 11 villages and cities - will exchange families for a while and become "kunaks".

Nagorno-Karabakh has started a series of actions devoted to the 95th anniversary of the genocide of Armenian people which falls on April 24, 2010.

The Sochi International Airport will be commissioned in the testing mode on April 19, 2010, said Anatoly Pakhomov, Sochi Mayor.

The Labour Party of Georgia does not take part in municipal elections, but plans to redistribute its quotas in electoral commissions among other opposition parties. In particular, the "Alliance for Georgia", the National Council and the "Party of Industrialists" will benefit.

The Audit Chamber of Russia has made a check in Ingushetia and revealed violations in use of budget funds. In particular, contracts worth 208.8 million roubles were concluded without tendering.

On April 16, the Investigatory Department (ID) for the Stavropol Territory of the ICPO and the regional representative on children's rights (Children's Ombudsperson) signed a cooperation agreement in the sphere of prevention of crimes against children, and defence of their rights and interests.

The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) Liudmila Alekseeva will not insist on conviction of the hooligan who attacked her to imprisonment.

The clergy of Dagestan calls "to adhere to true religion, and finds strange the demands of certain officials and human rights activists to cancel the law on Wahhabism," said Ahmad-Hadji Abdullayev, Mufti of the Republic of Dugestan, in his address to the people of Dagestan and Russia.