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A group of rights defenders in Azerbaijan have expressed their readiness to take Khadija Ismayilova, the arrested employee of the local service of Radio Liberty on bail.

A subbotnik was held in the Chechen capital, when local residents helped to clear up the House of Press and School No. 20, damaged during the recent counterterrorist operation (CTO) conducted in Grozny. Employees of state institutions were involved in the works, said a source from the city administration.

The statements of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov about relatives' responsibility for militants' actions are contrary to the law, said Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee Against Torture, in his appeals to the bosses of the Russia's General Prosecutor's Office and the Investigating Committee.

Kamil Guliev, a resident of Makhachkala, whose kidnapping was reported by his wife, is in the temporary detention facility (known as IVS) of the Karabudakhkent ROVD (District Interior Division). Guliev's relatives believe that the case against him was fabricated.

Jundallah Shishani, a field commander of Syrian militants and a close ally of Omar Shishani, the commander of the northern sector of the "Islamic State" (IS), was killed in Syria during clashes in the town of Kobane. Earlier, different sources at least five times reported about the murder of Omar Shishani himself.

On December 8, in the city of Akhalkalaki, located in Southern Georgia, a protest action against illegal actions of the police was held in front of the municipality council. The protesters said that law enforcers had violated the law by beating up several young men.

Investigators have sent a petition to the Moscow Basmanny Court asking to extend the home arrest of Levon Airapetyan, a businessmen and a member of the Armenian Diaspora in the Russian Federation, the court press secretary said on December 8.

The Rostov journalist and publisher Alexander Tolmachov, convicted by the Kuschevskaya District Court of the Krasnodar Territory to 9 years in high-security colony on charges of extortion, said that he was beaten up by the staff of SIZO (pre-trial prison) No. 2 of the city of Armavir. Today, his public defender has filed a complaint to the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (FSIN).

The advocate of Magomed Aliev, a native of Dagestan, suspected of promoting terrorism, has informed the court today about the grave condition of his client and asked the court to consider the appeal lodged against Aliev's arrest in his absence.

The restoration works on the buildings of the House of Press and School No. 20, which were destroyed during the special operation in Grozny on December 4, are continued day and night. The authorities plan to reopen the House of Press before the end of this year, and School No. 20 – after the New Year holidays.

Today, the Yasamal District Court of Baku has dismissed the complaint lodged by journalist Tapdyg Farkhadoglu about the refusal of Mubariz Asadov, an investigator of the district prosecutor's office to open a criminal investigation into the beating of the journalist.

The December 7 extended meeting of activists of the Dagestani villages of Tarki, Kyakhulay and Alburikent decided to stop the hunger strike in Karaman. The participants of the meeting are going to move on to other forms of peaceful protests, one of the locals told the correspondent today.

During the week from December 1 to December 7, 2014, at least 66 people suffered from the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus; of them, 28 people were killed and 38 others wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

Tourists have expressed their protest against rising prices at the "Roza Khutor" Ski Resort by running an online petition addressed to the resort administration.

Azerbaijan has prepared amendments to the law on mass media. They will allow, in particular, liquidating a mass media company, if it was attracted, twice within a year, to responsibility under a court decision. Experts are critical to this initiative; some of them treat it as unconstitutional.

The participants of the Civil Forum "European Union-Russian Federation" have spoken against liquidation of the NGO "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch).

Today, on the 26th anniversary of the Spitak earthquake, the capital and regional centres of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) held funeral processions and putting down flowers in memory of the victims of the tragedy.

In the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan two men were killed after they opened fire on the policemen who pursued them. One of them was identified as a brother of Makhmudov, an earlier slain Qadi (Sharia judge) of the "Dido" grouping, said a local law enforcement source.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has opened a criminal case against the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov in the context of his recently voiced threats to Ukrainian MPs, said Markiyan Lubkivskiy, an adviser to the head of the SSU. This information was confirmed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Ukraine, which has launched its own check.

Law enforcers have searched the apartment of the arrested journalist Khadija Ismayilova and confiscated the films, computer equipment and business cards belonging to her.