News

As soon as the end of March, the United States will help Azerbaijan, within the framework of fighting the avian flu virus, in building special laboratories in 12 regions of the country and equipping them with the required equipment.

Raul Khadzhimba, vice-president of Abkhazia, does not exclude that after Georgia's accession to NATO the situation may considerably aggravate not only in the Caucasian countries but also in the whole North Caucasian Region, which is administratively represented by the South Federal District (SFD) of Russia.

Today, Ismail Baikhanov, chairman of the Chechen Republic's Central Electoral Commission (CEC), has informed that the referendum on making changes in the constitution of Chechnya is planned to be held before next October.

Ali Insanov, ex-minister of public health of Azerbaijan has told his lawyers that as of today he goes on hunger strike. The reason, he has stated, is the biased character of his trial.

The sitting of the Sabail Court of the city of Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, on the case of publicist Rafik Tagi and the editor of newspaper "Sanat" Samir Sadatoglu, accused of kindling religious enmity, will take place on March 19 under the chair of Judge Yusif Kerimov.

Today, at the North Caucasian Regional Military Court, at the process on Ulman's case, they have finished to interrogate the last defendant - major Alexei Perelevskiy.

According to the enacted court ruling, the remaining families who are fundamentally refusing to quit their housing facilities will be forced out of the spontaneous settlement of Maiskiy in North Ossetia, where the victims of the Ossetian-Ingush conflict have been living for 13 years.

The "Caucasian Knot" has already informed that the world's largest human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) made a statement accusing Russian authorities of using tortures in Chechnya.

Orkhan Jemal, deputy editor-in-chief of the "Smysl" (Sense) magazine and an expert in North Caucasian problems thinks that the only improvement of the situation with terrorism in Kabardino-Balkaria is the replacement of the top management of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov announced at his meeting with journalists on Friday that the Public Prosecutor's Office was launching a criminal case on the facts of mockery and tortures at the Operations and Search Bureau (the so-called "ORB-2") of the city of Urus-Martan.

This spring the farmland of Chechnya will be completely cleared of mines and unexploded shells.

One third of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) subject to check in 2007 by the Federal Registration Service of Russia ("Rosregistratsia") are religious ones. There are three human rights organizations, and no ecological NGOs at all in the auditing plan of "Rosregistratsia" for this year, the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" has analysed.

The Council of Europe rejects the legality of parliamentary elections in Abkhazia. It was declared by Fiorenzo Stolfi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of San Marino and Chairman-in-Office of the CE's Committee of Ministers.

Today, early in the morning, at 6:45 a.m., four UAZ model jeeps with allegedly Georgian special unit ("spetsnaz") fighters in them entered the Ossetian village of Kvatetri (in the pre-frontier zone with Georgia) and opened fire on the village, the Ministry of Defence and Emergencies of South Ossetia has reported.

The Government House of Kabardino-Balkaria has held a briefing on the outcomes of the activities of the Anti-Terrorist Commission.

Today, president of Georgia visited Upper Abkhazia. Mr. Saakashvili inspected the damaged buildings and promised support and protection to local residents.

A skirmish, as a result of which one militiaman was killed and another one wounded, burst out in the city of Neftekumsk, Stavropol Territory.

The close people of journalist Elina Ersenoyeva who was kidnapped in Chechnya last August doubt that she could have an opportunity to apply for political shelter in the USA.

The Moscow City Court has suspended the trial on the murder case of Paul Khlebnikov, editor-in-chief of the Russian version of the Forbes magazine because of disappearance of defendant Kazbek Dukuzov.

The European Court for Human Rights, acting on the basis of a complaint against Russia filed by 50 citizens of Kabardino-Balkaria, sent a so-called "communication" to the government of the Russian Federation (RF).