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Today, in the Astrakhan Region, on the bridge over the Kizan River, connecting the villages of Karagan and Tataro-Bashmakovka, people held a rally and a solo picket in memory of Maxim Medvedev, a Karagan villager, who perished on the bridge.

By the situation with the freedom of speech, Azerbaijan and Russia are in the 172nd position in the world; Armenia is No. 149 and Georgia - No. 127. These are the results of the report for 2011 released today by the NGO Freedom House.

President Serzh Sargsyan has visited - together with the Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan - the Mashtots Park, where for more than two months ecologists-activists have been fighting against the build-up of the park. After reviewing the situation, the head of the country instructed the Mayor of Yerevan to immediately dismantle the kiosks.

On April, 30, the activists in the town of Frolovo were planning an action of collecting signatures under an appeal to President of the Russian Federation devoted to the state of roadways in Volgograd region. Representatives of regional authorities and the police suppressed the action.

Valentina Gorbunova, resident of the health resort of Sochi, Krasnodar region, accuses officials of the Administration of Khosta district and medics of the ambulance service of an attempt of her coercive hospitalization to psychoneurologic dispensary (PND).

The border village of Ergneti has hosted a regular meeting within the Mechanism to Prevent and Respond to Incidents (MPRI), where officials of Georgia and South Ossetia, in particular, discussed detentions of civilians on the border, de-mining pre-border areas and ensuring safety of local residents.

The freighter "Volga-Balt-203" and its captain a Russian Viktor Korneev have been detained in the Georgian port of Poti for polluting the environment.

The election offices of candidates for Deputies from the oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC) from two majority constituencies have addressed the police asking to update the voters' list, in particular, to delete from them the names of 288 people no longer alive.

A cooperation agreement has been signed between the Ombudsman in Ingushetia and the regional charitable foundation "Myal" (Charity), which deals with problems of invalids. The issues of cooperation were discussed at the reception of citizens, held jointly by Djambulat Ozdoev, the Ombudsman, and Magomed Khamkhoev, Deputy Head of the Department for Ingushetia of the ICRF.

Ruslan Gereev, Deputy Director General and the editor of the politics section of the newspaper "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present Time), who was attacked by unidentified persons on April 24, says that the investigatory committee has not yet initiated a case on his beating. The journalist is sure that the attack on him was directly related to his professional work.

Today in Baku, the police did not allow activists of youth branches of political parties and youth organizations of Azerbaijan to hold a commemoration of the victims of the massacre committed in the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy (ASOA) three years ago.

The investigators who run the inquiry into the murder of Gulnara Gamzatova, a Dagestani teacher, have indicted a wrong person, her relatives assert. The Department for Dagestan of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) says that relatives' claims are groundless; the alleged killer was put on the search list; and Gamzatova's ex-husband was detained and accused of incitement to murder.

On April, 29, representatives of the so-called "traditional" and "nontraditional" Islam gathered in the central mosque of Makhachkala for common dinner prayer. After the end of the prayer with the participation of over 500 people a meeting was held during which an agreement of enlightenment of residents of the republic on different branches of Islam was achieved.

At least 16 persons became victims of armed confrontation in Northern Caucasus during the period from April, 23, to April, 29. 14 out them perished and two got wounded. These are the totals of calculation by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The exhibition "People and Fate" by photographer Marco Kokic, organized by the Tskhinvali-based office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), presents images of individuals – refugees and orphans – victims of the military conflicts.

On April 26, Moscow hosted a presentation of the multilingual social network Dudu.com, where the author of the idea was Alibek Ilyasov, a native of Dagestan.

At the recent meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the members of the Human Rights Board handed him a letter asking to use all his influence to promote liberation in Belarus of Ales Bialiatski, Vice-President of the FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) and the head of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" (Spring).

Three persons, detained in Dagestan – Ibragim Saipulaev and his guests Gasanov and Murzabekov – were sent for no reason to SIZO (pre-trial prison) No. 1 of the city of Stavropol, where they receive threats, asserts Ibragim's brother Shamil Saipulaev.

In Yerevan, the Cafesjian Centre for the Arts has hosted a screening of the documentary "Wounds of Karabakh" by the Bulgarian TV journalist Tsvetana Paskaleva; the film tells about disasters of the Karabakh War.

Sergey Tsepovyaz, accused of concealing the killing of 12 people in the village of Kuschevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, has fully admitted his guilt. His case will be considered under a special procedure, said Vladimir Markin, the spokesman of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF).