News

The picket to take place today at 4:00 p.m. in front of the Ministry of Justice and organized by human rights activists and journalists in defence of the rights of the imprisoned satirist Mirza Sakit, journalist of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) newspaper, is postponed.

On Sunday, October 19, militiamen prevented a mass fight in the northeast of Moscow; there are no victims, a source in the Moscow City Department of Internal Affairs (GUVD) has reported today.

In Azerbaijan, satirist Mirza Sakit, journalist of the oppositional newspaper "Azadlyg" (Freedom), who is serving his term at Penitentiary Establishment No. 14, was beaten.

Inspectors have suspended the investigation of the case about accidents in the Kerch Strait, where on November 11 last year several ships sunk in the strongest storm.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, an interdepartmental commission has been set up to investigate the reasons of the accident of the Moscow-Nalchik passenger bus that took place on the Kavkaz Federal Highway last Sunday, on October 19.

In the context of the appeal of the OSCE Chairman to the Office for Democratic Institutes and Human Rights (ODIHR), a group of experts was sent to Abkhazia with a mission to assess the situation with human rights in the conflict zones; the group will work from October 11 to October 25.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of South Ossetia has ordered its watching stations (posts) to respond with return aimed fire, in case they are attacked by aimed fire from Georgian positions.

The FSB Department for the Republic Ingushetia has announced that today the area of dwelling settlements Muzhichi and Galashki in the Sunzha District of Ingushetia has become a counterterrorist operation zone.

On Saturday, October 18, the Ministry of Defence of South Ossetia stated that on October 17 Georgians kidnapped three persons from the South-Ossetian village of Artsev.

The Ingush opposition will hold their protest rally against the biased, in their opinion, investigation into the death of Magomed Evloev, owner of the website "Ingushetia.Ru", in Moscow.

The prosecutor's inspection held in a clothing marketplace in the Volgograd Region has detected products intended for children, bearing an image of a hemp (cannabis) leaf. Those guilty will pay a fine.

On October 18, Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, and on October 19, Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, will host charitable concerts of participants and laureates of traditional and widely known Valery Grushin All-Russian Festivals of Bards' Songs.

The participants of the hunger strike initiated by the so-called "Afghan veterans" on October 6 in Makhachkala made a decision, after meeting Shamil Zainalov, Chairman of the Government of Dagestan, to suspend their protest action.

While politicians quarrel, the problems of Georgian refugees should be promptly addressed, and cooperation of Russian and Georgian civil societies should be promoted - this is the conclusion reached, according to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, by the participants of the television conference between Moscow and Tbilisi on the topic "Are peoples of Georgia and Russia able to strike hands?" held at the press centre of the RIA "Novosti" on October 16.

The book-album named "South Ossetia - Chronicle of Customized Murder", which was in early October presented to PACE delegates and at the OSCE conference on human dimension in Warsaw, has caused public resonance. On October 16, representatives of public organizations held a press conference on the topic.

A group of regular voters has promulgated preliminary monitoring results of the October 15 presidential election in Azerbaijan. The press release that was disseminated today runs that the report, which was drafted on the basis of inputs from 1500 registered observers, has registered gross violations.

The "Reporters without Borders", an international organization in defence of the freedom of press, has rendered financial aid to the families of three imprisoned journalists: Sakit Zakhidov, Ganimat Zakhidov and Mushfig Guseinov.

The Cheryomushki District Court of Moscow has satisfied the claim of Natalia Prisetskaya against the S7 Airline; on June 30, the claimant was not admitted on board of the Moscow-Vladikavkaz aircraft, since she could move only in a wheelchair and got registered for the flight without an accompanying person.

Two persons have been kidnapped by unidentified armed people in different dwelling settlements of Ingushetia.

Said Amirov, head of the administration of Makhachkala, has addressed the Afghan war veterans, who are on hunger strike now, called them to stop their protest action and said that the city administration is ready to grant land plots for summer cottages to soldiers-internationalists and families of perished servicemen, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.