News

As reported today at the events dated to the International Day of Missing Persons by Leonid Lakerbaya, first vice-premier of the republic, the government of Abkhazia will resume the work of the commission on missing persons.

Representatives of the Azerbaijani blogosphere find unsound the authorities' statements that bloggers are not journalists and arrest of them cannot be regarded as a violation of the freedom of speech.

Several families, evicted on August 13 from the hospital in Isani district, continue their hunger strike in front of the Ministry for the Matters of Refugees and Temporarily-Displaced Persons and Accommodation in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. On August 24, four of them sewed their mouths to show their commitment not to take food. In the opinion of Victor Dolidze, a deputy of the City Assembly of Tbilisi, the authorities are unable to solve refugees' problems.

On August 28 in Moscow four militiamen were detained on suspicion of kidnapping. These employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) have recently returned from Chechnya, and took their psychological rehabilitation. This was reported by Oleg Mitvol, now one of Moscow prefects.

Traces of torture are quite visible on the body of Timur (Suleiman) Kurbanmagomedov, who was detained by law enforcers on August 20, said his brother Zurab Kurbanmagomedov, a resident of Makhachkala.

In Armenia, Ashot Arutyunyan, former head of the criminal police of Charentsavan, accused of incitement of Vaan Khalafyan, 24, to suicide, said in his evidences that there was no suicide; and Khalafyan's death was a result of irresponsible actions of one of policemen.

Today, the special operation in Nalchik, which started on August 27 at 6:00 p.m. in the house located in the crossing of Shogentsukova and Zakharova Streets, was completed. Five persons were killed.

On August 27, in central Volgograd, a team of workers laying underground utilities came across a mass grave. Supposedly, it contains remains of victims of political repressions.

Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Russian FSB (Federal Security Bureau), told today at a working meeting with President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev that the special operations conducted in Northern Caucasus this August resulted in liquidation of more than 30 militants; a number of terror acts were prevented.

As stated to journalists by Bekor Papazyan, executive director of the Fund of National Competitiveness, in spite of the growth of the number of tourists visiting Armenia, no progress is observed in the sphere of quality of services and variety of tours. High hotel prices were mentioned by him as one of the problems.

Today, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili signed a decree to pardon 211 prisoners. 29 other inmates will have their terms shortened.

The figurants in the murder case of Magomedgadji Abashilov, director of the GTRK (State Television and Radio Company) "Dagestan", have their freedom restriction regime changed: they were released from the SIZO (investigatory detention facility) under recognizance not to leave.

Dadzhimurad Suleimanov, chairman of the territorial electoral commission (TEC) of the Novolak District of Dagestan, who was wounded in the evening on August 27, has died in hospital, a source from the local Ministry of Internal Affairs has reported today.

An explosion happened in Mindeli coalmine, located in the Georgian city of Tkibuli, and killed three and wounded seven miners, the city authorities have reported.

Today at night bodies of a man and a woman with traces of violent death were found in the Chegem District of Kabardino-Balkaria.

As reported by a source in the local MIA, in the evening on August 26, in one of the streets of the city of Kizilyurt, unidentified persons opened a heavy and chaotic fire. As a result, two persons were lost, and one more was wounded.

The Investigatory Department of the ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office of Russia) for the Chechen Republic has initiated a criminal case against former major of the MIA of the Komi Republic Mikhail Evseyev, suspected of beating peaceful residents of Chechnya during his official voyage to the republic in 2004, a source from the Department has reported.

At today's session, the deputies of the Tbilisi City Council - Sakrebulo - refused to put the issue to stop eviction of refugees from office buildings in the capital of Georgia and the problem of street traders on their official agenda.

Isa, one of the brothers of Sulim Yamadaev, ex-commander of the "Vostok" battalion, who was killed in Dubai, has declared today that his reconciliation with President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov was a good-will gesture by Kadyrov, not based on any preconditions.

Reforms in the spheres of human rights and democracy are crucial for Armenia; and the country has its active civil society, ready to address these fundamental issues, says Hilary Clinton, US Secretary of State, in her letter to Armenian human rights defenders.