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At night on December 16, in Sochi, after a long illness and after being beaten in April 2010, the 65-year-old journalist Arkady Lander died. This was reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Participants of an opposition rally held in Baku have demanded that the government should cancel the decision to raise tariffs for oil products and abandon intentions to raise the prices of other energy products and utilities. The protestors have also called for transparency in trading operations of the state oil company "SOCAR".

During the week of December 9-15, 2013, at least 15 people fell victim to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus; of them, nine people were lost and six more were wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

In Sochi, a rally was held in front of the city administration. People protested against permanent collapses of light, water, gas, and heating supply. According to various estimates, the protest action was attended by 50-100 persons.

Independent journalists of Northern Caucasus are subjected to pressure; and a number of methods to discredit them are used: in particular, they are accused of supporting extremists and Wahhabism. Russian authorities should include journalists in the number of persons to be released on amnesty. This was stated by participants of the international conference "Freedom of speech: Russian realities, problems and prospects".

French President Francois Hollande will not attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi. This was announced by Laurent Fabius, the head of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), in his interview to the Radio Station "Europe 1".

The Krasnodar Regional Court has scheduled the consideration of the appeal against the court's decision on the recognition extremist the book entitled "Semantic translation of holy Koran in Russian" by Elmir Guliev, for December 17.

On the outskirts of Tbilisi, Georgian authorities have set up tents for homeless people, where they could take refuge from the cold. Magda Popiashvili, the head of the press service of the Georgia's Ministry for Regional Development, said that in total they installed 13 tents, which house 104 people.

Today, Yerevan held a protest against the law "On Mandatory Accumulative Pension System". The action, organized by the initiative groups DEM.AM and "Against 5-percent compulsory payments", was attended by dozens of people dressed as Santa Clauses and waving flags with the inscription "Against!"

A delegation of Meskhetian Turks from the USA has visited the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) and met the Diaspora members willing to move to other countries, said Bektas Ampashulin, the leader of the "Vatan" national cultural centre of Meskhetian Turks in the KBR.

As stated by Anahit Gyulazyan, the head of the Mayoralty office of the city of Spitak, today, 25 years after the devastating earthquake in Northern Armenia, the city is still facing the unsolved problems of unemployment and temporary housing.

The "Sledge" Centre in Sochi, which will host the Olympic competitions in sledge, bobsleigh and skeleton, is completely ready for the races, said Ivo Ferriani, the president of the International Federation of Bobsleigh and Toboggan.

The December 13 detentions of activists and leaders of Circassian public organizations are associated with the forthcoming Olympic Games in Sochi, said Ibragim Yaganov, the chairman of the Public Movement "Khase".

Builders have destroyed the access ways to the Sochi Township named Esto-Sadok by their heavy trucks, having spoiled Beryozovaya Street, locals assert. According to residents, they endure hardships since Sochi was announced to be the Olympic capital.

This year has marked an increased number of HIV/AIDS cases among residents of the Chechen Republic in comparison with 2012, says the local Ministry of Public Health.

In the case of recognizing the Union "Women of the Don" as a foreign agent, Judge Natalia Kalashnikova from the Novocherkassk City Court has appointed examination of documents and announced a break until January 12, 2014, said Elena Pershakova, one of the advocates at the trial and the head of the legal division of the "Public Verdict".

On the outcome of his December 12 visit to Armenia, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, has confessed that the deportation of Armenians in 1915 was an inhuman act.

The parents of Gamzat Aliev, a resident of the Kizlyar District of Dagestan, who was detained on suspicion of aiding militants, have appealed to the head of the republic with a complaint against the actions of the local policemen, who, according to their version, had beaten the suspect after detention.

The Board of the Chechen Parliament has held an extraordinary sitting and decided to send a special appeal to the Chairman of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin demanding to dismiss Vladimir Zhirinovsky of his parliamentary activities, the press service of the Chechen Parliament has reported.

The Sabail District Court of Baku has considered a complaint of the journalist and human rights defender Parviz Gashimli about the conditions of his custody at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of the Ministry of National Security (MNS) and his request to move him into the SIZO of the country's Penitentiary Service. The court has denied Gashimli's motion.