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The Oktiabrskiy District Court of Stavropol has started the preliminary hearing of the criminal case initiated against Magomed-Bashir Archakov, born in 1993, a 4-year student of the Institute for Construction, Transports and Engineering, accused of incitement of interethnic hatred and enmity.

As reported by a source from law enforcement bodies, the person killed on January 2 in the city of Khasavyurt was identified as Marat Shikhshaidov; Aisha Idigova, who was also killed in the same operation, was his civil law wife.

As reported by the regional government, the number of hospitalized victims of the terror act has increased to 46, while the count of grave patients has dropped to three.

More than 700 people were detained for various offenses during the operation "Vikhr Anti-Terror", conducted in Volgograd after the terror acts, said the MIA of the Volgograd Region.

Two persons blocked in a flat of apartment block in Khasavyurt were killed, said the law enforcement spokesman of Dagestan.

The five young activists arrested for taking part in the December 29 unsanctioned protest in Baku have stopped their hunger strike at the insistence of their parents, said Tural Abbasly, a board member of the "Musavat" Party. According to his story, the health condition of the arrested Orkhan Eyubzade became worse.

The celebrations of the New Year in Chechnya pass without any major incidents, said the local MIA. However, in the context of recent explosions in the Southern Federal District (SFD), policemen and rescuers are in the high alert regime.

Sochi streets were practically empty on December 31, 2013, and January 1, 2014, seeing only police patrol units cruising through the city, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports. Sochi residents explain their reluctance to leave home by fear of terror acts.

As reported by Alla Akhpolova, the press secretary of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), after the explosions Volgograd and Pyatigorsk, law enforcement bodies of North Ossetia were put into the strengthened regime of service.

About 30 people have attended the foundation conference of the public movement "For Our Vladikavkaz", held in the capital of North Ossetia. The initiators report that they intend to implement projects related to the development of the urban ambient, environment protection and improvement of the tourist potential.

During their New Year visits to military units, officials of Nagorno-Karabakh recorded violations of the ceasefire. Compared with 2012, 2013 saw a decreased number of shots at the frontline, but an increased number of attacks from heavy sniper weapons, said Lieutenant General Movses Akopyan, the head of the Ministry of Defence of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The city of Malgobek has commissioned opening 32 houses with the total floor area of 90,400 square meters, built for residents of the landslide area, which contain the new apartments for 800 families. Besides, in the city of Magas, they have commissioned a new residential complex of 17 houses.

In 2013, not a single crime in Ingushetia was qualified as an act of terror, said Magomed Mutsolgov, the head of the Ingush human rights organization "Mashr", adding, by summing up the year, that the republic saw no kidnappings and no disappearances.

On Wednesday, activists of the "Ecological Watch for North Caucasus" Alexei Mandrigelya, Anna Mikhailova and sisters Tatiana and Valentina Borisova, sentenced to three days of administrative arrest, left the detention centre in Tuapse, Krasnodar Territory.

Today, five youth activists kept in Baku under administrative arrest have announced a hunger strike in protest against torture and inhuman treatment. The start of the action was reported by their parents.

On December 31, the funeral of Alexei Valenta, 12, and Alexander Dolgikh, 11, who died in the terror act in Volgograd, took place in the farm of Vertyachy, Gorodische District of Volgograd Region.

A spontaneous dump that appeared in Parallelnaya Street in Sochi and caused protests of local residents is liquidated. However, district officials and special truck fleet, as well as local residents, believe that the problem is solved only temporarily.

On January 5, 2014, Sochi will host a rally demanding to put the systems of housing utilities and urban management into proper order. The action was sanctioned, said the Mayoralty.

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" has published the book "Three Years of 'Stability'", which combines quarterly newsletters with analysis of the situation in the conflict zone in Northern Caucasus from the human rights defenders' point of view. The book is interesting in the context of the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi. Thus was emphasized by Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of the Board of the HRC "Memorial".

The change of power in Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria; refusal from direct elections of heads of most of the regions; termination of the militants' adaptation commission and suspension of dialogue among different currents of Islam in Dagestan – these events, as the most significant for Northern Caucasus in 2013, as of December 24, were assessed by the experts dealing with the region.