News

About 15 persons came to the square in front of the cinema hall "Avrora" in Krasnodar to hold a picket. Half of them are journalists. The picketers protested against the interference of functionaries into the mass media activity, and also called on their colleagues to work on the principles of objectivity and truth.

The court of Azerbaijan passed a decision to arrest Yusup Nagayev, a refugee from Chechnya, for two months, report Nagayev's relatives to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The implementation of the plan to hold an Olympics in Sochi is under question, and the IOC should think over an alternative, Austrian daily Standard writes in its May 1 issue.

On May 1, during a festive concert in the south-west of Moscow, on the territory of the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples (RUDN), a mass fight was prevented between students from Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Trials over opposition activists in Erevan, Gyumri and other cities are held with overcrowded court rooms, amidst pickets and other actions of protest. Several judges decided to adjourn the court sessions.

Georgi Topadze, leader of the opposition party "Industry will Save Georgia" stated that the tragedy in Abkhazia will be repeated if Georgia acts aggressively.

On May 1, an event to commemorate victims of Holocaust was held in Tbilisi in the Georgian Ombudsman's office.

The block "Right-wing Alliance - Topadze, Manufacturers" may refuse to take part in the parliamentary elections to be held on May 21 in Georgia, Georgi Topadze, leader of the "manufacturers", announced today at the press-conference.

From April 26 to 28, a charity action of assistance to victims of Beslan tragedy was held in North Ossetia. It was organized by representatives of the "Novye Nivy" foundation created in the USA by emigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The owner of the bookstore "Sunna" in the capital of Dagestan, which sells Islamic literature and souvenirs, complains against illegal searches and arrests of goods by law enforcement officers.

Today, the jury of the Moscow city court has passed a guilty verdict on the case of an explosion at Moscow's Cherkizovo market in August 2006.

The parliamentary faction "Heritage" which about a week ago started to collect signatures in the Armenia's National Assembly under the address to the Prosecutor General with a request to change the measure of restraint with regard to the deputies arrested in connection with the March 1 events, has already handed the petition to the prosecutor's office.

The play "In Your Hands" about "Nord-Ost" which failed to be staged in Dagestan after the first show may be staged at the local theatre in Beslan, North Ossetia.

The Investigatory Department of the Investigatory Committee at the Russian Prosecutor's Office for the Republic of Dagestan has cancelled its previous statement not to initiate a criminal case against Rizvan Rizvanov, Director General of the Limited Liability Company "Editorial Board of the Weekly 'Nastoyascheye Vremya' (Present Time)".

Irina Sarishvili plans to bring the suit of Giorgadze supporters to the Supreme Court of Georgia and, in parallel, to the European Court for Human Rights. This has become known after the Tbilisi Court of Appeal failed to satisfy the claim lodged by supporters of Igor Giorgadze, ex-Minister for Security of Georgia and leader of the "Justice" opposition party.

Today, Magomed Isaev, Judge of the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Dagestan, made a decision to satisfy the suit of the Dagestan Ministry for Property and Land Relations to the Regional Public Foundation "Charitable Women's Hospital" and ruled that the Hospital shall vacate the currently occupied premises.

The RIA "Novosti" has reported today, with reference to the Investigatory Committee at the Russian Prosecutor's Office, that four residents of the city of Akhtubinsk (Astrakhan Regions), accused of setting up an extremist community, were arrested for propaganda of anti-Semitism.

Today, the European Court for Human Rights has passed a decision on the case of Khadizhat Kaplanova, a resident of Chechnya, obliging the Russian Federation to pay 72,000 euros to her as material compensation for loss of her relatives in Grozny.

Georgia is transporting weapons, POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants), foodstuffs and other material and technical means to the upper section of the Kodor Gorge, and deploys national armed forces there. This is reported in today's comment of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs asserts that Yamadaev brothers' participation in kidnapping and subsequent murdering Yusup and Yunus Arsamakovs has been evidenced by a former fighter of the "Vostok" (East) special battalion.