News

In Astrakhan, employees of a bank branch were stealing money for several months in a row from accounts of orphans and minors left without parental care.

President of Chechnya is officially accused of involvement in murder of his former security; attempt committed in Kabardino-Balkaria on former and present state officials; journalists are again in authorities' disgrace, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of April 26-May 2, 2010, in the Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".

Prime Minister of Abkhazia Sergey Shamba and George Drndorski, representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and deputy coordinator of programmes for Eastern Europe, discussed at their meeting on May 3 the opportunity to continue the programme of the ICRC Mission in Abkhazia on searching those who disappeared in the 1992-1993 Georgian-Abkhazian war and identification of its casualties.

On May 3, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, son of the ex-President of Georgia, who is in custody in Tbilisi, announced his termless hunger strike in prison hospital as a protest against the actions of the prison administration.

The Garadag District Court of Baku has hosted another court session on the criminal case of already convicted editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Real Azerbaijan" Einullah Fatullaev.

Currently, a former militiaman Ilya Galkin and a local resident Mikhail Denisenko, accused of triggering a series of explosions in the territory of Sochi in 2008-2009, get acquainted with the materials of the criminal case, which will then be sent to the public prosecutor for approval of the charge. Inspectors assert that the defendants' actions resulted in 7 casualties and about 20 victims.

The real aim of the terror act committed at the Nalchik hippodrome was President of Kabardino-Balkaria Arsen Kanokov. This is the opinion of Adalbi Shkhagoshev, a Deputy of the State Duma and Honourable Citizen of the city of Nalchik.

One of the main reasons of the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan is the absence of independent judicial power. This was stated at a press conference on Monday, May 3, by Leila Yunus, Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy (IPD).

In the Astrakhan Region, Elena Levkina, Director of the Tuzuklei secondary school, where a mass poisoning of children took place, was dismissed from her post under suspicion of negligence.

Today at night, in the municipal district of Barsuki in Nazran, Ingushetia, unidentified persons shelled a private house from a grenade launcher. On preliminary data, the attack was caused by the fact that the house owner was engaged in selling alcohol.

An STSI (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, known in Russia as "GIBDD") inspector, who was installing a video camera at the entrance to the city of Baksan (Kabardino-Balkaria), was wounded by unidentified persons from a passing car.

Nino Kalandadze, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, views the visit of Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner of the Council of Europe, to Georgia as a victory of Georgian diplomacy. There is information that three more citizens of Georgia can be set free in the near future.

In Armenia, it's not yet the time for the freedom of speech, Boris Navasardyan, President of the Yerevan Press Club, said today at the press conference dated to the World Press Freedom Day.

Today in the morning, residents of several villages of the Ochamchira District, located in Eastern Abkhazia, blocked the railway and stopped 13 cars that moved to take up to 700 tons of coal from Ochamchira.

The World Press Freedom Day - May 3 - was traditionally marked by representatives of Azerbaijani democratic public by paying visits to tombs of perished journalists Elmar Guseinov and Nadzhaf Nadzafov.

On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day marked today, the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) have published a new list of those whom human rights defenders regard to be "press persecutors". Along the Chairman of the Peoples Republic of China Hu Jintao and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the list now contains Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov.

Today, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has signed an instruction on payment of lump sum compensations to the citizens injured at the terror act in Nalchik on May 1. For this purpose the government of Kabardino-Balkaria will get up to 10 million roubles.

Today, Murad Magomedaliev, a resident of Novy Kostek village, Khasavyurt District, kidnapped together with his brothers Mukhtar and Magomedrasul back on April 29 in Kizlyar by unidentified armed persons, has come back home.

The leader of the "Alliance for Georgia" Irakli Alasaniya has submitted an application to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) about his intention to run for the post of Tbilisi Mayor.

The today's explosion in the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, where, under the latest data, one person was killed and 22 others were hospitalized, has caused active debates in the Internet. Many users express fears that the Nalchik tragedy may be followed by terror acts in other regions of Northern Caucasus on the day of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory.