News

In one of the villages of the Tver Region, located near the place of the accident of the "Neva-Express" train, employees of operative agencies found the house, where, according preliminary data, three or four terrorists who prepared the blow-up of the fast train could hide. This was stated on Monday by a source in the regional law enforcement bodies.

Today, advocate Magomed Gasanov, a proxy of the LLC "Novoe Delo", owner of the weekly of the same name, has filed a claim to the Federal Court of the Sovietskiy District of Makhachkala on defence of the honour, dignity and business reputation. The respondent under the claim is Garun Kurbanov, Minister for National Policy, Information and Foreign Relations of Dagestan.

Today, at about 6:00 a.m. in Makhachkala, in the Shamil Avenue, unidentified persons shelled the car with Abrek Gadzhiev, head of the Magaramkent District of Dagestan. Mr Gadzhiev later died from his wounds in hospital.

The Armenian-Turkish protocols should be ratified within reasonable terms, while protraction of the process by Turkey will result in Armenia's adequate answer under the norms of the international law. This was stated on November 28 by President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also the leader of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, at its congress.

Novorossisk and a number of other cities of Russia have hosted rallies in support of Militia Major Alexei Dymovskiy who has revealed, in his Internet video appeal to Premier Putin, facts of abuse and corruption in law enforcement bodies of the city.

The character of explosion at the derailing accident of the "Neva-Express" train, which happened last night, on November 27, in the border of the Tver and Novgorod Regions, reminds the blowing up of the same train in August, 2007.

Armenia stands for peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict by negotiations, but at the same time it will not admit any encroachment on Nagorno-Karabakh and is ready to react to it in the toughest way possible. This was stated by President Serzh Sargsyan at the 12th congress of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, where he is the chairman.

A spokesman of the Movement Against Illegal Migration (MAIM) has published in his blog a statement on behalf of the nationalist grouping named "Combat 18", in which the latter takes responsibility for blowing up the "Neva-Express" train.

Journalism requires freedom even in aspects of counteracting and preventing terrorism; it should not be an instrument of authorities' propaganda. This was stated by Yuri Kazakov, former head of the state inspectorate for defence of the freedom of the press, and now an expert of the Fund in Defence of Glasnost and member of the Public Board on Complaints on Press, at the recent roundtable held in Moscow.

The National Assembly of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) has made a statement that "the latest developments in settlement of the Karabakh conflict evidence an obvious non-constructive Azerbaijani position."

Participation of Azerbaijan in the contest "Eurovision-2010" is officially confirmed, as reported by Adil Kerimli, chairman of the Azerbaijani delegation to the "Eurovision" contest.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and the leader of militants of Northern Caucasus Doku Umarov are in the 2009 list of 500 most influential Moslems of the world compiled by the Prince Al-Valid ben Talyalya American Centre of Moslem-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at the Georgetown University.

On Friday, November 27, at 9:34 p.m. Moscow time, at the railway section Alyoshinka-Uglovka in the Novgorod Region, an accident with the passenger train No. 166 Moscow-St Petersburg ("Neva-Express") took place, as a result of which four train cars got derailed and at least 25 persons were lost.

The Centre of Monitoring of Elections and Training in Democracy (CEM&TD) has promulgated its progress report on monitoring outcomes of the stage of candidates' nomination and registration during the campaign of municipal elections in Azerbaijan appointed on December 23. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that the monitoring outcomes were presented at the press conference on November 26 at the Baku Media Centre.

The Rostov Region is in the lead by the unemployment level among all Russian mining territories. This was stated on November 26 by Lydia Tkachenko, head of the department of the state service for population employment of the Rostov Region, speaking to the Supervisory Board for Development of Mining Territories.

On Thursday, November 26, the Yasamal District Court of Baku, chaired by Khagani Tagiev, started litigation under the claim lodged by Ramil Usubov, Azerbaijani Interior Minister, against Eyub Kerimov, editor of the newspaper "Femida-007".

The body of Eduard Gurtskaya, a citizen of Georgia and a refugee from Abkhazia, who was killed in Moscow by a militiaman, will be brought to Tbilisi, as reported by the press service of the Ministry for Refugees' Matters and Accommodation.

At least two relic tree varieties of the Sochi National Park are under threat of extinction as a result of construction of the combined road Adler-Krasnaya Polyana in the Krasnodar Territory within the preparation for Olympiad-2014. This was stated by Andrei Rudomakha, coordinator of the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus.

The Office has revealed that almost 6 million roubles, raised for the victims of the war in South Ossetia, were spent not to the purpose.

On Thursday, November 26, the Committee of the Council of Europe Against Torture and Inhuman Treatment, promulgated a report on the outcomes of the visit of its special mission to Azerbaijan in December 2008. The document deals with the cases of violence applied by the prison personnel against life-long prisoners.