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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will continue its activities in Nagorno-Karabakh. This was announced by Nicolas Fleury, the head of the ICRC mission, in Stepanakert at the opening of the photo exhibition dedicated to the ICRC's 150th anniversary of the organization. The exhibition presented 45 photographs of the ICRC's work around the world.

In Azerbaijan, the investigation into the case against Anar Mamedli is held in violation of his rights, the charges filed are unfounded, and the very case demonstrates the authorities' willingness to eliminate independent NGOs. This was stated by participants of the committee created in Baku to protect the rights of the arrested leader of the Centre for Monitoring Elections.

The draft of the new Armenian Code of Criminal Procedure has been approved by the government and submitted to the Parliament for consideration. This was reported by Grair Tovmasyan, Minister of Justice, at a special briefing. Lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent expect that the new Code will significantly reduce the proportion of arrests in all possible pre-trial restriction measures.

The public committee in defence of the rights of Anar Mamedli, the Chairman of the Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Training (CEM&DT), who was arrested on December 16, has been set up in Azerbaijan. The "Caucasian Knot" reports that this decision was made at an emergency meeting of civil society activists and country's oppositional politicians.

In Makhachkala, a road-and-patrol service (known as DPS) squad was shelled. As a result, one policeman was killed, and another policeman was wounded. Besides, two passers-by suffered.

The Investigating Department of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) for the Krasnodar Territory has questioned six Circassian activists, who were detained in the territory of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria. Besides, they also questioned Arambiy Khapai, ex-Chairman of the movement "Adyge Khase-Circassian Parliament" of Adygea.

On Tuesday, in the centre of Yerevan, one more protest action against the new funded pension system was held. The event was organized by opposition parties, such as the "Heritage", the "Prosperous Armenia", the Armenian National Congress (ANC), and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) "Dashnaktsutyun". The protest action was attended by more than 1500 persons.

The Krasnodar Regional Court has cancelled the decision of the Oktiabrsky District Court of Novorossiysk to recognize the book "Semantic Translation of Holy Koran into Russian" written by Elmir Guliev, a well-known Azerbaijani religious philosopher, as an extremist one. This was reported by advocate Ravil Tugushev.

On December 16, in the Tsumada District of Dagestan, an avalanche occurred. It covered a border guard squad. One soldier was killed, and two others were wounded. This was reported by a source from the law enforcement bodies of the republic.

Local residents believe that the village of Djivani of the Martuni District of Nagorno-Karabakh is isolated because of absence of transport communications, the Internet, and TV channels. The village administration promises to solve infrastructure problems in the nearest future.

The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) and the external department of the North Ossetian "Regional Development Bank" should have conducted an examination for each individual deposit, on which no insurance compensation has still been paid. This was stated by Azamat Khadikov, First Deputy Chairman of the Government of North Ossetia.

A multi-storey 54-apartment house located in the outskirt of Tskhinvali, which was partially destroyed during the warfare in August 2008, is in a poor condition and may collapse in the near future. This was stated by its residents. Eduard Dzagoev, the head of the Ministry of Construction of South Ossetia, states that in the next six months, no works for demolition of the house and resettlement of its residents will be held.

The Limited Liability Company (LLC) "Okhotsk Construction Company" has finally paid the workers from Tajikistan the remainder of the wage arrears for the construction of Olympic housing in Sochi.

On Monday, Magas hosted the meeting of the Antiterrorist Commission of Ingushetia. The main topics of the meeting were devoted to ensuring security during the Olympic Games in Sochi and the Olympic Torch Relay in Ingushetia.

Anar Mamedli, the leader of the Centre for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Training (CMEDT), was taken in custody on charges of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of power. This was stated by Bashir Suleimanly, Executive Director of CMEDT, one more figurant in the case.

On December 15, in Istanbul and New York, near the buildings of Russian consulates in Turkey and the USA, rallies were held against detentions of Circassian and Abazin activists in Russia. This was reported by organizers of the protest actions and activists.

Today, the Investigating Department (ID) for the Krasnodar Territory of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) questioned three Circassian activists from Adygea, said one of them – Adnan Khuade, an activist of the movement "Patriots of Circassia", and Abubekir Murzakan, the chairman of the public movement "Adyge Khekuzh – Circassia".

The four persons killed during a special operation in the village of Bylym, Elbrus District of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), had been involved in a number of high-profile crimes, the operational headquarters for the KBR reports. They planned in the near future to commit several terror acts and attacks on law enforcers, the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) of the Russian Federation reports.

The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI) has demanded from the Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Azerbaijan to investigate the allegations that the journalist and human rights activist Parviz Gashimli was exposed to torture and inhuman treatment while at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of the MNS.

Doku Umarov, the leader of the Russia's banned organization "Imarat Kavkaz", is planning to commit terror acts during the Winter Olympics in Sochi Russian, the National Post newspaper wrote with reference to its sources in the Canadian intelligence service.