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During the meeting, participants discussed what measures could be taken under the Russian legislation to protest against criminal actions of federal and Chechen security agencies, which practice abductions, torture and extrajudicial executions under the pretext of fighting against criminality.

Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov is expected to submit his application for registration as a candidate for the post of Chechen president to the republican election commission today.

Thus 16 mandates will be given to representatives of Mikhail Saakashvili's party elected by party lists, and 2 mandates will be given to Republicans. Almost all majority deputies will represent the ruling party.

Ruslan Gelayev's relatives have made several requests to give them the body, but they were denied. Investigators explained the denial by saying that Gelayev was not an ordinary bandit but a terrorist, and "under the federal law on combating terrorism, the terrorists' bodies are not given to their relatives."

Having been given evidence that 25 out of 28 detained people were really free, the women decided to wait until the release of the other three people.

In the course of a special operation, gunmen in masks detained a 30-year-old resident of the village of Tangi-Chu and took him away in an unknown direction.

A network of radio diaries, which Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorny Karabakh can exchange with, is planed to be created within the framework of the project.

The women demanded that the Chechen authorities should return abducted relatives to them or inform them of their whereabouts.

Director of the Center for Legal Assistance to Migrants Alovsat Aliyev subjected the work of the UNHCR office in Azerbaijan to criticism.

Such an agreement was reached during a meeting between representatives of the Georgian military department and Lieutenant General Yevteev.

"The villagers' wish to visit Sukhum is quite understandable, especially in the situation when residents of mountain villages are deprived of proper medical care and consumer goods," Chairman of the Abkhazian State Security Service Givi Agrba said.

The Public Examination institute launched the Power-Society-Media project in April 2004.

Residents of Osetian villages blocked roads leading to the Georgian villages and the population turned out to be in an economic blockade.

The South Osetian information agency Res claims that Georgian TV channels incorrectly cover the course of parliamentary elections and other developments in the breakaway republic.

"My dismissal is connected with a certain scenario of preparation for the presidential election to be held in autumn and with my attitude to it. I don't blend with this scenario," Gennady Gaguliya said.

US Ambassador John Ordway denied circulating rumors that great pressure was put on Armenia in the issue of handing over three districts of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenia.

Estimating the 10 years' activity of the CIS Peacekeeping Forces on the maintenance of peace in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, Commander Lieutenant-General Aleksandr Yevteev told the Caucasian Knot correspondent that conditions were being created so that refugees could safely return to the Gali district.

The Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center gained a court victory, but the Department of the Russian Ministry of Justice in Kabardino-Balkaria appealed against the court decision in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The Supreme Court annulled the decision and sent the case for retrial.

"Though the return of South Osetia will require certain resources, much more resources will be spent to regain control over Abkhazia," said the Georgian Economy Minister.

The fight with the use of firearms and grenade launchers lasted for about forty minutes.