News

The Chechnya's Department of the Federal Service for Punishment Enforcement has refuted the information that inmates of the Corrective Colony in Chernokozovo are on hunger strike.

The march of the opposition supporters that started about 3 p.m. local time (2 p.m. in Moscow) and made its way to the monument of genocide victims situated Tsitsernakaberd is currently headed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, leader of the opposition and the first president of Armenia.

According to Arpi Vartanyan, regional director of the Armenian Assembly of America in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, she hopes that George Bush, who is nearing the end of his US presidency, will fulfil his pre-election promise and use the word "genocide" in his annual speech addressed to the Armenian community of the USA instead of previous "more flexible" formulations.

The investigation of the case about bus explosion in Tolyatti is over. Evgeniy Vakhrushev, who is considered to be the organizer of the explosion, was found mentally sick, and the explosion was accidental.

The prisoners kept in the Corrective Colony No. 2, situated in the Chechen village of Chernokozovo, have announced a hunger strike, a relative of one of the Colony inmates told today to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The Human Rights Watch has recognized the merits of three Azerbaijan journalists (Einullah Fatullaev, Sakit Zakhidov and Ganimat Zakhidov), subjected to political prosecution and arrest.

Jane Armstrong, a Canadian journalist and correspondent of the "Globe and Mail" newspaper, has been deported from Chechnya.

In Sochi, the fight of Old Ritualists with militiamen on April 23 was provoked by an official of local administration who applied physical force to a young pregnant woman.

Today, the Zaterechny Court of North Ossetia has dismissed the complaint lodged by the All-Russian NGO "Voice of Beslan" against the actions of the investigatory group in charge of studying the Beslan terror act.

The Council of Europe is grateful to Ingushetia for rendering assistance to refugees from the Chechen Republic. This was declared yesterday, on April 22, in the city of Magas by Thomas Hammerberg, CE's Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Federation Council (Supreme Chamber of Russian Parliament) has postponed consideration of recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, claimed by these republics in their appeals to Russian leadership.

The advocate of Salambek Dzakhkiev, a resident of Ingushetia and figurant in the case of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train, did not confirm to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent the news that his client was released from custody.

France has granted political asylum to Irakliy Okruashvili, ex-Minister of Defence of Georgia, thus automatically cancelling his extradition to Georgia.

Today, during the visit of the coordination commission of the International Olympic Committee to the Imereti Valley, Krasnodar Territory, a clash burst out between local residents and militiamen.

On April 21, the Moskovskiy District Federal Court of St-Petersburg considered two claims for compensation of moral damage lodged by relatives of the victims at Tu-154 aircraft crash, flight "Anapa - St-Petersburg", near Donetsk in August 2006. Both claims were partially satisfied.

The parliamentary faction named "Heritage" has launched collecting signatures in the National Assembly of Armenia under petition to the General Public Prosecutor with a demand to change the freedom restriction measure of the Deputies arrested during the events on March 1.

On April 22, 2008, a complaint was lodged to the Public Prosecutor of the city of Kaspisk filed by Rajab Rajabov, Deputy of the National Assembly of Dagestan and Director General of the Closed Joint-Stock Company "Arsi-2", with a demand to cancel the decision made by Arsen Magaramov, inspector of the Caspian investigatory department at the Russian Prosecutor's Office for Dagestan, who refused to initiate a criminal case.

Notary Fail Sadretdinov, who had been accused of complicity in murder of Paul Khlebnikov, editor-in-chief of Russian Forbes, has been acquitted today by the Moscow City Court.

For two days already the GALA TV Company is back on air, and its transmitter is back on the old television tower that belongs to the mayoralty of the city of Gyumri, despite the decisions of the courts of the first instance of Gyumri and of the Appeal Court.

Residents of the Nasyr-Kort municipal district of the city of Nazran, Ingushetia, refuse to confirm the information about bombardment of the block-post by unknown persons. They assert that on April 21 the fire was from one side and was opened by power agents.