News

The Iraqi government has brought troops into the city of Mosul for defending local Armenians after armed Sunnite extremists attacked them, killing the owner of the shop of musical instruments and injuring his nephew.

Ombudsman for South Ossetia David Sanakoev has refuted the rumours that Georgian schools are closed in the Leninogorsk District of the Republic.

The house of Maksharip Aushev, the present owner of the independent Internet portal "Ingushetia.Ru" (now, "Ingushetia.Org"), is again surrounded. Magomed Khazbiev, Maksharip Aushev's comrade-in-arms and leader of the Nationwide Rally of Ingush People, who had earlier asked not to treat him and Maksharip Aushev as oppositionists, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that this was an intimidating action held by the Ingushetian MIA.

Today, the Moscow District Military Court has begun preliminary hearing of the case on journalist Anna Politkovskaya's murder. The General Prosecutor's Office asks to keep the persons accused of her murder in custody for other six months.

Sergey Shamba, head of Abkhazia's MFA, told journalists that Abkhazia is not satisfied with the status offered to it at the international discussion in Geneva.

Laurens Kogoniya, head of the Gali District Interior Department, has refuted the information about shelling by the Abkhazian party of the Georgian village of Rukhi.

In the course of the voting at presidential election in Azerbaijan serious facts of breaking the law have been fixed. This is the topic of the statement made by the Opposition Cooperation Centre (OCC), whose representatives are observing the course of election in different regions of the country, and delivered to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The presidential election in Azerbaijan are taking place in the atmosphere, where free and fair elections are impossible, runs the statement of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (Den Norske Helsingforsko Mite), now at disposal of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In Sochi today, a sentence was passed to eight OMON (Special Militia) fighters, accused of mass beating tourists in the children's boarding house "Druzhba" (Friendship). They will have to spend from three to five years in a colony.

On October 13, in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, city residents twice blocked the traffic in the Ahmet-Khan Sultan Avenue demanding to resume electricity supply to their houses.

Today, about two o'clock in the afternoon, at an entrance of the house, where the office of the Board of Elders of the Balkar People (BEBP) is located, an attack was made on Dalkhat Baidaev, a member of the Board, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The mass media funded from the state budget do not allow Azerbaijani voters to have a complete idea about presidential candidates and make a proper choice when voting. This is the main conclusion made on October 15 after a month-long monitoring of three TV-channels and four newspapers by the international organization in defence of the press named "Reporters without Borders".

Karina Moskalenko, advocate in the case of assassinated journalist of "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya, says that somebody tried to poison her in Strasbourg. According to the lawyer, pretty much "substance looking like mercury" was found in her car.

As a result of the earthquake on October 11 in the territory of the Chechen Republic several thousands of buildings and private households suffered. The statistics of the damage caused by the calamity is updated as additional information arrives from the regions.

Residents of Sochi plan to hold a rally "In defence of Sochi dwellers who fell victims of lawlessness, arbitrariness and corruption of city bureaucrats". The action will take place on October 25, on the All-Russian Day of People's Anger - a number of Russian regions plan to hold actions of social protest on this day.

In the evening on October 13, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia has disseminated its official statement that on the previous day the country's air space was twice broken by Russian military aircrafts.

Journalists of "Elistinskaya Panorama" are still not admitted to the Parliament of Kalmykia - National Hural, referring to the absence of the necessary accreditation.

On Sunday, October 12, advocate Isakhan Ashurov visited his client, Einullah Fatullaev, former editor-in-chief of the "Real Azerbaijan" newspaper, who is serving his term in colonies No. 12 situated in Gyuzdek village. The visit was caused by the fact that on October 10 Mr Fatullaev was placed into a punishment cell (dungeon).

Bamatgirey Mankiev, former deputy of the National Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia of the previous convocation, who now heads the "alternative" Ingush parliament, has stated that the new structure will raise the problems of kidnappings committed by members of power structures.

Public organizations of Georgia and Russia and international human rights bodies urge the parties of the Geneva summit to be held on October 15, 2008, on the conflict in South Caucasus to make human rights a priority within international efforts aimed at settling the conflict.