News

Today, Buddhists celebrate the most important anniversary of their religious calendar - the birthday, enlightenments and departure to Parinibbana of Buddha Shakyamuni. This year this day falls on May 27.

Among victims of Stavropol terror act of 26 May, 19 persons are in a grave and extremely grave condition, the Russian Federation Prosecutor's Office liaison department officer reported. Death toll hits 7, wounded - 45.

Azerbaijan faces serious problems with gender mainstreaming and women's rights protection. That was the key note of the press conference on 26 May given by PACE delegation participated in Council of Europe Conference of Minister members "Gender equality: bridging the gap between de jure and de facto equality" that was held on 24-25 May in Baku.

Today the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on the case "Hutsaev and others against the Russian Federation", found Russia guilty of illegal detention and subsequent disappearance of three inhabitants of Chechnya.

During the period after May 15, 2009, when a suicide-bomber for the first time blew him up in Chechnya after cancellation of the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, and until today 20 terror acts have been committed by 22 suicide-bombers in "hot" regions of Northern Caucasus - Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.

The Leningori District of South Ossetia runs no construction of houses for the refugees who arrived in the 1990s to live in North Ossetia, since there is no need of it, as Alan Dzhussoev, head of the district, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Employees of the Centre of Islamic Medicine (CIM) are raiding, together with local law enforcers, districts of Chechnya aiming to reveal people who present themselves as healers and fortune-tellers. About 40 persons of this sort have been detained within a fortnight.

On Monday, May 24, the A. Sakharov Museum and Public Centre in Moscow hosted a presentation of the memorial collection of lawyer Stanislav Markelov assassinated in January 2009; the collection includes his main articles, interviews and presentations.

The number of victims of the explosion in Stavropol is on the rise. According to the latest data, six persons were killed and 46 more were injured.

On May 26, the Garadag District Court of Baku continued considering the case of earlier convicted journalist Einullah Fatullaev, this time accused of illegal drug storage. The session heard the results of three different examinations.

The General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) and the Ombudsman's Office of the Russian Federation demand that the Khasavyurt District Prosecutor's Office and that of Dagestan check the actions of the employees of the local Department of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau), who detained on March 3 in Khasavyurt two members of the religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses who administered their sermon.

Explosion took place in Stavropol today, having killed three persons and injured twenty, the law enforcement bodies of the Stavropol region report.

On the evening of May 19, a member of the Ingush human rights organization "Mashr" Hamzat Tsechoev, whom law enforcement officers had sized in his house, was released on recognizance in Magas militia department, where he was kept for more than twenty-four hours, his sister Zarema said.

In the evening of May 25, in Krasnodar, Kuban New Television (NTK) Company reporter Alexander Leonenko got beaten by the unidentified persons. TV journalist's colleagues do not take off this attack relates to his professional activities.

In 2009, sixty persons became victims of trafficking in persons in Armenia against 34 persons in 2008. The data was presented today by the "Resource Centre for Helping to Combat Trafficking" in Yerevan at presentation of the book dealing with the fight against this phenomenon.

Today, in Georgia' capital city, there were staged the military parade timed to the main national holiday - Georgia's Independence Day. The parade was taken by Commander in Chief, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili.

Vladimir Tender, accused of beating the leader of Novorossiysk human rights committee, Major Alexei Dymovsky's lawyer Vadim Karastelev, did not admit his guilt during the preliminary inquiry.

A book by Anzor Maskhadov "My Father - Chechen President" was published in Norway in 3000 copies. The author - the son of Aslan Maskhadov, President of the non-recognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI), - told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about his work.

From now on, the five Deputies of the Russian State Duma and the citizens of France, Germany, Slovakia and Argentina, who took part in observing the May 23 parliamentary elections in Nagorno-Karabakh, are under the entrance ban to Azerbaijan.

The widow of the first Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, in connection with a hunger strike of her son Tsotne Gamsakhurdia in prison, demands a meeting with Georgia's minister of corrections and legal assistance but authorities still refrain from contacts.