News

The delegation of South Ossetia has arrived to Geneva to take part in consultations on Transcaucasia to be held on December 17-18. South Ossetia plans to demand from the western powers not to equip Georgia with offensive arms and observe their obligations not to use of force in the conflict zone.

For a long time the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria fail to pay "combat" bonuses and overtime money to servicemen and equated persons, which are due to them under the federal legislation for performing their duties in reinforcement periods and extra work. In many cases the indebtedness term reaches up to 10 years. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Timur Bogatyryov, Director General of the "Hermes" legal firm.

The verdict of guilty in the "Case of Seven" lacks evidences, which could justify sending the case to the court, runs the letter of a group of advocates to Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, about the violations and drawbacks found in the verdict of guilty.

At the closed hearing of the ad hoc commission of the National Assembly of Armenia for studying events on March 1, General-Lieutenant Grigor Grigoryan, ex-commander of internal troops, has confessed that on March 1 in the evening he gave an order to the sniper "to neutralize" the armed participants of the rally.

The hospitalized pupils of the Slaschev boarding school located in Kumylzhen District of Volgograd Region are receiving in full all the necessary medical aid. Now, the doctors assess their health condition as satisfactory. A special operative staff is engaged in investigating the incident.

The life of Sarkis Atspanyan who started as of December 1 his termless hunger strike is in danger. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by human rights activist Vardan Arutyunyan, a member of the Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners.

The judicial process on the murder of observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya has announced a break till December 17. Today, at the Moscow Regional Military Court, the defence has started presenting evidences of the defendants' innocence.

As a result of an explosion today morning in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in a five-floor apartment house, three persons were lost. The press-service of the Azerbaijani MIA reports that several persons with wounds and burns, including a child, were hospitalized from the place of the incident.

Russia has re-opened its block-post and scales up its military contingent in the village of Perevi located in the border with South Ossetia, the MIA of Georgia reports.

Within the last 24 hours, in different areas of Ingushetia, there were three incidents with fire opened at employees of law enforcement bodies. Three militiamen were wounded.

The South-Ossetian Ministry of Defence reports that Georgia has deployed its special troops near the border with South Ossetia, which is a direct violation of the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreement reached after the Russian-Georgian August military conflict.

On December 12, the "Dalga" (Wave) Youth Movement held an action in Baku within the Week of Human Rights on the issue of restrictions imposed on the freedom of assembly in Azerbaijan.

The project "We know our rights. And you?", realized in the Rostov Region by the Union "Women of Don Region", has promoted stronger trust of the population to law enforcement bodies, as Valentina Cherevatenko, leader of the Union, believes.

Representatives of public organizations of Ingushetia have addressed the leaders of the Republic with an appeal to return the Prigorodny District, belonging nowadays to North Ossetia, back within administrative borders of Ingushetia.

In Rostov-on-Don, the regional children's library is gathering books for the children's library in South Ossetia.

The government of Adygea has passed a statement instructing state servants not to use their service cars for personal needs and not to drive them personally.

The National Association of Charitable Organizations (NAChO) of Russia has studied the peculiarities of allocation of presidential grants and concluded that budgetary funds in the country are often granted to organizations and projects whose aims are foggy, and relation to declared activities y is non-evident.

On Thursday, December 11, the Youth Organization "Dalga" (Wave), acting within the Week of Human Rights, held a protest action before the embassy of Iran to Baku.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has refused to revise the verdict to the publicist of the website "Kavkaz-Centre" Boris Stomakhin convicted to five years of colony for kindling interethnic enmity and extremism. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by his mother Regina Stomakhina.

The Azerbaijani Institute of Media Rights (IMR) has promulgated a report on situation with mass media of the country in November. The document, now at the disposal of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, runs that in the reporting period five facts of pressure on journalists were registered.