News

Tamara Charaeva and Givi Chigoev, residents of Akhalgori village, South Ossetia, accused of treason by Ossetian authorities, have been released. This was reported by Avtandil Kochishvili, head of the administration of the Akhalgori District.

In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, two activists of the oppositional party "People's Movement to Save Georgia" were arrested. Last night the police also detained activists of the Party headed by Nino Burdzhanadze, ex-speaker of the parliament, named "Democratic Movement - United Georgia".

In Armenia, the court has satisfied the petition lodged by Koryun Piloyan, a representative of the prosecution, who referred to not yet enacted amendments to Articles 225 and 300 of the Criminal Code, under which the figurants in the "Case of Seven" were charged, and postponed the court session till April 1.

Today, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has provided the defendant in the case on the events on October 13, 2005, with the right to make statement and move petitions. Almost half of the defendants have enjoyed the right.

Umakhan Udamanov, a resident of Sultanyangiyurt village, Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, whose son Shamil Udamanov is regarded missing since 2007, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about his plan to ask President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev again in the near future to help him.

As a result of a special operation conducted near Kakashura village, Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, the group of militants under command of Abdulgapur Zakaryaev was liquidated. 12 militants were killed, Zakaryaev among them, as the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan reports.

In the Armenian border with Iran, a joint project of building the Megrin Hydraulic Power Plant (HPP) on the Araks border river has started. According to Armen Movsisyan, Minister of Energy of Armenia, the HPP will be finished in five years.

Today, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Nagorno-Karabakh has stated a violation by the Azerbaijani party of the ceasefire regime in the contact line of armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in several directions.

Names of political prisoners have been put on the proportional list of the oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC) drafted for participation in elections of the Board of Elders at the Yerevan City Mayoralty.

The greatest fear for the population of Georgia is the war. This is the result of the sociological study entitled "What is the topmost topic for Georgia?" conducted in the country by the "Gallup" American Company.

Over 30 miners from the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, received notifications from the European Court on Human Rights that their complaints related to privileges will be considered by the Court.

On March 20, the Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia held an open auction for the general licence on extraction and bottling of the famous mineral water "Borzhomi". The license for the term of 25 years was awarded to the Georgian Glass and Mineral Water (GG&MW) Company.

On March 20, the City Electoral Commission received notifications about intention to stand for the post of the Mayor of the city of Sochi from self-nominated candidates - entrepreneur Anatoly Parshin and unemployed resident of Sochi Yuri Danilevskiy. Thus, there are already 11 candidates to the post.

A number of youth nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Nagorno-Karabakh made a joint statement on the report of the US Department of State (DoS) on respect of human rights in Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2008. The NGOs voice their protest against those points in the report, which, in their opinion, distort the essence of Karabakh conflict.

Three law enforcers and a local resident were wounded in Grozny in an attempt of power agents to detain a suspected member of illegal armed formations (IAFs) yesterday, on March 19.

The advocate of the family of Magomed Evloev, deceased owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru", will appeal against the decision of the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia, which had forbidden inquiring into the criminal case about his illegal arrest during which he was shot dead.

On March 18, Lechi Mitkuev, a resident of mountain Dargo village, Vedeno District of Chechnya, was kidnapped by unidentified power agents. Local residents believe that the victim is kept in the base of one of subdivisions of local power agencies deployed in the neighbouring Nozhay-Yurt District.

According to the latest data, in the armed clash with militants in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, four militaries were lost, three more wounded; at least six militants were liquidated. This was reported to journalists by Magomed Ismailov, Deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan.

Today, at the session of the Supreme Court (SC) of Kabardino-Balkaria on the criminal case on the events on October 13, 2005, the court has rejected the defendants' petition challenging Olga Chibinyova, head of the prosecution group, and a number of other public prosecutors. The court has extended the custody of all 58 defendants by three months more.

A number of top officials responsible for the events on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan were dismissed from the law-enforcement system of Armenia. This was reported to the session of the National Assembly by Ovannes Unanyan, deputy commander of the Police of the Republic of Armenia. Among those who lost their post are also the commander of internal troops and his deputy.