News

The European Union has positively perceived the pardon act of 119 Azerbaijani inmates, five journalists among them.

For the first time, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia has recognized facts of rough violations, which had taken place during the early presidential election.

German diplomat Dieter Boden, head of the OSCE observation mission, has confirmed the facts of roughest violations and falsifications at the election in Georgia, having declared that the Electoral Commission of Georgia is dominated by "chaos".

As of 9:00 p.m. on January 9, 2008, a total of 87,340 applications were gathered under the action "I did not vote!" filed by the residents of Ingushetia aged 18 and up who stated that they had not gone to vote on December 2, 2007, at the elections of deputies to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has threatened to close the local TV Companies, which will not cover Islamic issues.

The "Voice of Beslan" will send a petition to the district court of the city of Nazran with a demand to return the statement of claim of the Public Prosecutor of Ingushetia, which had arrived to the address of this public organization on January 9, because of the violation of the territorial jurisdiction legislation, and later will ask to hold examination of the material, in which an appeal to extremism had been discovered.

Baptist Gagik Davidovich Mirzoyan, who refused to take the oath, has been demobilized from the Karabakh army after serving his term.

In reply to their appeal to the General Prosecutor's Office with a demand to bring Alexei Savrulin, head of the investigatory group of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office for the South Federal District, to criminal liability, relatives of the perished militants received a response from the Chief Investigatory Department for the SFD.

Today, Levan Gachechiladze, candidate for President of Georgia from opposition, and his supporters start a hunger strike in front of the Public TV building in Tbilisi with a demand to hold the second round of the election.

Levan Tarkhnishvili, Chair of the Georgian CEC, has stated today that Mikhail Saakashvili has won the presidential election in Georgia.

Ruslan Kutaev, head of the International Committee for Northern Caucasus problems, has stated that the prisoners of Chernokozovo Colony No. 2 in Chechnya complain of beatings and tortures.

According to the data of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Georgia, received from 285 out of 3512 polling stations, as of 2:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. Moscow time), the rating of Mikhail Saakashvili went down a little as a whole for the country and made 55.23% of the votes of all the electors.

According to the data of the exit poll conducted by four Georgian TV Companies, at the snap presidential election in Georgia held today, Mikhail Saakashvili is in the lead with an essential breakaway.

The law enforcement bodies of the Russian capital have informed today that a native from Dagestan was killed in Moscow.

The "Voice of Beslan" committee of the Beslan terror victims' relatives is going to demand removal of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, head of the investigatory group in charge of the inquiry of the terror act.

As of 6:00 p.m. today (5:00 p.m. Moscow time), the NGO named "The Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia" had recorded 190 violations in the course of the presidential election in Georgia.

As of 3:00 p.m., the office of the observers of the Coalition of NGOs, which unites up to 200 NGOs, have fixed over 40 violations made during the presidential election in Georgia.

The state of health of satirist Sakit Zakhidov who is kept behind bars in Azerbaijan is worse again. He suffers from strong pains in his heart and legs.

At a press conference held at the "ZP" Hotel in Tbilisi, international observers have told about their preliminary impressions from the course of the electoral campaign in Georgia and presented information about their activities.

Iya Antadze, a journalist for the Radio Liberty who was recognized to be the best journalist of Georgia in 2007, thinks that the last year was hard for Georgian journalism.