News

Today, the correspondent's office of the "Caucasian Knot" located in the city of Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, has been approached by the relatives of the victims of the October 2005 events who have stated that the bodies of the casualties were not cremated.

A special operation is underway in Chechnya to search the militants who yesterday, on July 9, blew up armoured personnel carrier (APC) of Federal Troops.

Khilal Mamedov, head of the Committee for Defence of the Rights of Novruzali Mamedov, arrested editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado," has accused the Azerbaijani authorities of discriminating the national minorities living in the country, in particular, the Talyshes.

Hundreds thousands of victims of political repressions in the USSR have been illegally rejected rehabilitation, and in some cases "they rehabilitate those whom they should not," Nikita Petrov, a Board member of the Scientific-Information and Education Centre "Memorial" and author of many books on Stalinist history, told.

V. D. Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court (CC) of the Russian Federation (RF) made a statement on the necessity to adopt new legal norms of the Russian law for those who apply against Russia to the European Court for Human Rights.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Friday's decision by an Azerbaijani appellate court in Baku to uphold the convictions of two independent journalists on charges of insulting Islam in a November commentary.

The atmosphere of fear has already been stated by two candidates for President of Nagorno-Karabakh - Masis Mailyan and Armen Abgaryan.

The spokesman of the Russian Federal Service of Punishment Enforcement (FSPE) has stated that the FSPE found no violations of the rights of Mikhail Trepashkin, ex-FSB officer, sentenced for disclosure of state secret and serving his term at the Nizhni Tagil colony-settlement.

The "Educated Media" Foundation, which is the assignee of the Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization (ANCO) "Internews," has declared its self-liquidation.

Last Sunday, on July 8, satirical poet Mirza Sakit who had been sentenced in Azerbaijan, began his hunger strike action in colony No. 14 in protest against violation of his rights.

Today at 8:15 a.m. in the city of Gudauta, an attempt was made on Prime Minister Alexandr Ankvab. The head of Abkhazian Government was hospitalized with slight wounds in his back.

The District Assembly of Akhalkalaki (Georgia) has made a decision to set up a special board consisting of members of the Assembly and Armenian and Georgian specialists to tackle the issue of awarding the Armenian language in Samtskhe-Javakhetiya the status of the regional language along with the state Georgian language.

The court session of the Elborus District Court of Kabardino-Balkaria on the case of beating by employees of the local ROVD of two teenagers due to take place today has failed because of non-appearance of one of the main witnesses.

Russians have not defined their attitude to migrants. This is the conclusion of the "Novye Izvestia" newspaper based on the poll conducted by the "Public Opinion" Foundation (POF).

On July 7, two residents of Chermen village, Prigorodny District, Mukhazhir Gaisanov, 61, and Magomed Torshkhoev, 67, disappeared. On July 8 and 9, relatives and fellow-villagers of the missing persons took part in spontaneous meetings.

On July 2 the first hearing took place at the Court of Istanbul of Hrant Dink's murder case. The trial of 18 defendants lasted for about 12 hours. For 12 of them, the custody was chosen to be the freedom restriction measure.

Representatives of the Georgian nongovernmental organization (NGO) "Equality Institute" Jaba Dzhishkariani, Leval Gogichaishvili and David Dalakishvili were released from arrest today at 2:00 p.m.

The conflict of the Azerbaijani officer with the top managers of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) started two years ago after inspection at the Peace-Making Battalion of Azerbaijan in Iraq, where numerous violations had been revealed.

The residents of the Imereti Lowland are preparing their new meetings of protest against their eviction.

The relatives of the militants who fell victim during the 2005 autumn attack on the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria are convinced that cremation of the militants' bodies was nothing else but an attempt of the authorities to destroy the traces of tortures applied to them and lawless executions.