News

According to preliminary data, the death of Zurab Zhvania was a tragic accident.

The authorities may take such a step to avoid revolutionary scenarios.

Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov has announced he is going to sue human rights activists slandering him.

The inauguration of Sergey Bagapsh, new Abkhazian president elect, was held in Sukhum on February 12.

According to Foreign Minister of Nagorny Karabakh Armen Melikian, foreign experts registered 5 thousand Armenians settled in the regions of Azerbaijan adjacent to Nagorny Karabakh.

An attempt to set legal and democratic values above security issues was made for the first time in the modern history of Nagorny Karabakh.

On February 7, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Human Rights Center Memorial presented statistic and correspondents' information on the violations in Chechnya committed in 2004 and told about a new aspect of the crisis – Chechenization of the conflict.

People living at 6th Magistralnaya Street in Makhachkala whose houses were damaged in the 15 January assault against rebels have staged a rally in the Dagestani capital today.

The information about Shamil Basayev's alleged death is being checked now, a Chechen police source told the Caucasian Knot correspondent.

Azerbaijan law enforcement agencies search for over 2 thousand people now.

Chairwoman of the Georgian parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration Elena Tevdoradze has denied reports that houses owned by local Greeks have been burnt in Georgia's Tsalksky district for the last two weeks.

In her interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, human rights activist Leyla Yunus stated that the country's authorities must draw attention to the fact that early marriages have become more frequent in Azerbaijan recently.

At about 9 p.m. on February 2, unknown people opened fire on the Niva car that Dagestani Deputy Interior Minister Magomed Omarov was in. The incident occurred in the center of Makhachkala.

Preliminary results of Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania's blood test confirm the version that he died from carbon monoxide poisoning, expert Irina Tandilashvili told journalists.

"It wasn't seen from Saakashvili's speech in Strasbourg that Georgia has new thinking now," said the Abkhazian speaker.

The OSCE monitoring group examining Azerbaijan's territory controlled by Nagorny Karabakh for the purpose of checking the implementation of the state settlement program continues its work.

Chechen law enforcement agencies are investigating an abduction of Aslan Maskhadov's closest relatives. Abductors have not been found, the whereabouts of the abducted people and their further destiny are not known.

Experts of the Rostov regional ministry of transportation and communication hold that the critical situation on the road is caused mainly by its technical condition.

On January 31, Russian mass media spread information about the death of Shamil Basayev referring to representatives of the Chechen diaspora in Azerbaijan.

"If the problem of political prisoners hasn't been solved in Azerbaijan by the April session of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), the country can lose its mandate in this organization," stated PACE rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan Malcolm Bruce.