News

According to Valery Zhukov, head of Department of Highways of the Krasnodar Territory, Sochi still lacks 3 billion roubles to start building the traffic intersections, which are parts of the construction programme of Olympic objects and development of the city as a mountain-climate resort.

Today in Georgia, leaders of the opposition held a meeting and decided to suspend their protest actions for tomorrow, April 12, the Palm Sunday. However, protest rallies will resume on Monday, April 13.

Today, a destroyer named "Kemalreis" of the Naval Forces of Turkey has dropped anchor in the port of Poti in Georgia for a three-day friendly visit. On April 12-13, it will take part in joint exercises of Georgian frontier guards and Turkish destroyer's crew members.

On April 25, the "Society of Young Turks" will hold a rally in New York under the motto "End of Armenian lie". The organizers have formulated its aim as informing the American public about disagreement with the fact of genocide against Armenians.

At the check point "Nizhni Zaramag", located on the border of Russia with South Ossetia, frontier guards of the Frontier Administration (FA) of Russian FSB for the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania were addressed by a woman-citizen of Georgia, 72, a native of the Gori District, who applied for political asylum.

The embassy of Canada in Russia has allocated, with assistance of Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", 400,000 roubles to help two comprehensive schools located in the villages of Kurtat and Dongaron, Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. The money was spent to buy some school stock.

The day 3 matches of the Russian football premier league with participation of the clubs representing Northern Caucasus - matches of Grozny "Terek" versus Moscow "Dynamo" and Nalchik "Spartak" versus Moscow "Spartak" - could not do without scandalous incidents with nationalistic context.

The Georgian Patriarchy has apologized, on behalf of Elias II, head of Georgian Orthodox Church, to Moslems for the anti-Islamic statements, which appeared yesterday in the official website.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan expects that the Armenian-Turkish border will be unblocked by the football match between the teams of the two countries to take place in Turkey on October 7.

Some residents of the Sunzha District of Ingushetia, where on March 30 six villages were announced under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime, did not know about it. According to local residents, the CTO regime passed without any restrictions on civilians' rights.

Today in the morning, two explosive devices were detected in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, on the main gas line "Mozdok-Kazimagomed". During demining one of them, a sapper was lost.

On April 9, Estonian MP Andres Herkel, co-rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and Veronica Kotek, special representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Azerbaijan, had a meeting with Novruzali Mamedov, head of the Talysh Cultural Centre, who is serving his term in high security Colony No. 15.

In the Rostov Region, miners-pensioners from the city of Zverevo, who are striving for their privileges on heating, are filing new claims to the European Court on Human Rights. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Valery Dyakonov, deputy of the municipal duma of Zverevo. The pensioners continue their pickets and hunger strike.

Residents of Ingushetia Madina Ozdoeva and Patimat Mutalieva, detained in the course of the special operation conducted by power agents on March 26 in Ordzhonikidzevskaya village, Sunzha District of the republic, are at large. The investigation regards them as witnesses.

The opposition, which is holding a rally in Tbilisi, has split into parts and blocked strategic streets of the capital of Georgia. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Paata Zakareishvili, a political scientist and human rights activist, who is present at the rally.

The night in front of the Parliament of Georgia, where a small group of opposition supporters and activists were on duty, passed in peace. However, elsewhere in Tbilisi incidents were registered connected with participants of the protest action - a young oppositionist was beaten.

Today, in the southwest part of Yerevan, a strike of minibus drivers was held. Several dozens of drivers protested against increase of liquefied gas prices, used by their minibuses. According to their story, this price rise was not accompanied by transportation tariff growth.

Among all the districts of Russia the South Federal District (SFD) is in the last place by development of the use of Internet. However, bloggers and Internet edition are more active in the SFD than on the average in Russia. These are the data from the information bulletin published by the "Yandex" Company on the Internet development in regions of Russia in 2008.

On April 8, in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, unidentified persons wounded two employees of the road police service, and then, trying to escape the chase, killed a local resident.

The tax service demands that parents of the children-victims of the Beslan terror act in 2004 should pay taxes on their free-of-charge training at the "Podmoskovny" College in Koralovo founded by Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and financed by YUKOS, as Ella Kesaeva, chair of the "Voice of Beslan", reports.