News

As of 9:00 p.m., the governmental troops of Georgia had complete control over the territory of South Ossetia and all the settlements, except for the high-mountainous Dzhava village, as President Mikhail Saakashvili announced tonight in his TV address to the nation.

Being an OSCE member, Georgia shall settle conflicts peacefully, and recovery of its territorial integrity cannot be a pretext for repudiating these obligations, therefore, combat operations in South Ossetia should be immediately stopped, runs a special statement of the International Society "Memorial" issued in the context of recently aggravated situation in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone.

Today in Dagestan, the city of Khasavyurt has hosted a mass rally in support of South Ossetia. Volunteers are being signed up, and residents are gathering humanitarian assistance for the Ossetian people.

A spontaneous rally organized by the Movement named "Abkhazian Mothers for Peace and Social Justice" against the new war triggered in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict zone took place in Sukhum.

The start of broad-scale warfare between Georgia and South Ossetia has reminded Chechen residents of the tragedy in the mid and late 1990s came to Chechnya. In the opinion of many people, no country leaders' intentions and plans are worth a single human life.

Today in the morning, while leaving South Ossetia, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was a witness of an attack of a SU-25 strike fighter, which shelled a Russian tank column in the area of Dzhava village. One armoured troop-carrier was damaged. The aircrafts also tried to blow up the bridge in the area of Gufta village; however they missed the target and struck apartment houses.

Today, representatives of law-enforcement agencies blocked the office of the Dagestan weekly "Chernovik" (Blueprint) and started a careful search thereof.

The South Ossetia authorities report that Georgia has started war against South Ossetia. The Georgian government claims that it was forced to cancel the previous unilateral moratorium on fire actions and to open response fire due to incessant shelling of Georgian villages by South Ossetia units.

Soldiers of Federal armed forces have exploded a landmine they found in the village of Bamut, Achkhoy-Martan district, Chechnya. The explosion has resulted in damaging the gas pipeline.

Today, the Azeri Central Election Commission (CEC) has approved six candidates to run for presidency of Azerbaijan. Ilkham Aliev, incumbent president, is among them.

Two persons killed and 13 more wounded as a result of the explosion on the Loo beach (Lazarevsk district, Sochi), reports a source in the Krasnodar krai law enforcement agencies.

Today, the Supreme Court of Kalmykia has overruled the decision of Elista city court to arrest Elista mayor Radiy Burulov and released him from custody.

The Kabardino-Balkaria Supreme Court adjourned its hearing of the case of the attack on Nalchik's power authority sights in 2005 till August 14.

An explosion occurred at the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceihan oil pipeline in the region of Arzijan in Turkey. The Kurd Workers' Party (RKK) has taken the responsibility for the incident. Turkish media report that the organization has claimed the explosion was effected by suicide terrorists.

Additional units of Georgian armed forces are concentrated near the village of Dmenis in South Ossetia which was subjected to intensive shelling from large-caliber guns, reports Ibraghim Gasseyev, first deputy minister of defense of South Ossetia.

Sulim Yamadayev, former commander of the Russian MoD "Vostok" battalion is in the Federal wanted list. This has been reported by Ruslan Alkhanov, Chechen Minister of Interior, during his meeting with Ramzan Kadyrov, president of the republic.

Nadira Isayeva, chief editor of Dagestan weekly "Chernovik", reported that the decision of initiating a criminal case against her would be appealed against, while the newspaper editing board would file a request to initiate a criminal case against the prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan.

A group of doctors and specialists from the North Caucasus military district hospital, comprising 13 persons, conducts examination of the population in Ochamchirski, Tkuarchalski and Galski districts of Abkhazia.

Sergei Alifirenko, Olympic champion in rapid pistol fire from Adygeia, is not going to take part in the Olympic Games due to problems with his eyes.

Ilkham Aliev, president of Azerbaijan, has ordered to remove his portraits from the streets of the country's towns and villages. The president is especially concerned about the necessity to remove his portraits from the streets in connection with the coming presidential election.