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The Spiritual Department of Moslems (SDM) of Chechnya has joined the struggle against spread of AIDS in the territory of the republic. Henceforth, the young people, intending to marry, should present the mullah, who registers new families according to Moslem traditions, with their medical certificates that they have no HIV-infection and AIDS-virus. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it at the republic's Muftiyat.

In the area of the Big Sochi clearing of the railway track from the mud is over. Train traffic was completely resumed at 9:14 a.m. Moscow time, reports Nikolai Shustov, head of the Department for Sochi of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE).

February 23 will be 66 years after deportation of Chechens under Stalin's order, when about half of the population of former Chechen-Ingushetia was lost from famine, frosts and illnesses. Chechnya will mark this tragic anniversary with mourning actions, immolations and various religious ceremonies.

Power agencies and units of Chechnya have been switched over to reinforced service regime for the period of celebrations of the Homeland Defender Day, 66th anniversary of Stalinist deportation and Birthday of Prophet Muhammad to be held on February 23-26.

On February 20-21, the capital of Armenia hosted a meeting of NGO leaders from Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia within the limits of the Strasbourg dialogue. They discussed ways of further interaction of civil societies in conflict zones.

In Beslan today, an unidentified explosive blew up. By preliminary data, the explosion killed a girl of eight, and her two brothers were wounded and hospitalized.

The public charitable organization in Sochi, engaged in taking care of outcast animals, may be deprived of its premises, since the bosses of the Federal State Educational Establishment of Secondary Vocational Training "Sochi Economic-Technological College" is going to hand over these premises occupied by animals defenders and belonging to the college to some security entity.

Today, Georgia held the funeral of its sledge (toboggan) racer Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died in an accident in Canada several hours prior to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympiad in Vancouver.

Today Makhachkala hosted inauguration of Magomedsalam Magomedov to the post of President of Dagestan. The new leader promised to bring the republic out of crisis, eradicate corruption and attract investors to Dagestan.

Today, the magistrate court of Novorossisk has ruled to arrest the human rights activist Vadim Karastelyov, who represents the interests of Major Alexei Dymovskiy, for seven days. Yesterday, the court found Karastelyov guilty of holding a non-authorized rally and fined by two thousand roubles.

The situation in the consumer market of North Ossetia remains stable and is characterized by a high level of saturation with goods, Zaur Kuchiev, Minister of Economy, has noted.

Robert Mahony, deputy director of the international Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has named the decision of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov to recall his claims to the "Novaya Gazeta" and Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" the first small step towards liquidation of the frightening effect against journalists in Russia.

At night on February 15, in the city cemetery of Azov, Rostov Region, unidentified persons made a rout. In more than 30 tombs of one of the sections, where only veterans of World War II are buried, monuments and tombstones were ruined or damaged.

Russia tries to change the format of the Minsk OSCE Group and is interested to set up a parallel intermediary format in the Karabakh process. This is the opinion of David Shakhnazaryan, a member of the oppositional Armenian National Congress and former chairman of the local KGB.

In Tskhinvali, on February 18, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of South Ossetia arrested Fatima Margieva, editor of the newspaper "Position". She went on hunger strike and plans to continue it until all the circumstances of her detention and the criminal case opened against her last year on the fact of illegal keeping arms are clarified.

Dagestan plans to set up a school of bloggers. The initiative belongs to the information-analytical centre of the local Ministry on Youth's Matters. The main mission of the school is proclaimed as "creation of positive information" about the republic.

In the capital of Georgia, teachers of history considered the ways of bringing up tolerance in pupils in the multinational and multi-confessional society. The seminar was held within the project "Building up tolerance through historical education". Over 50 persons from different regions, representing various ethnic and religious communities of Georgia, were present.

An action in defence of voters' rights was held in Sochi. Its participants - candidates for the City Assembly, businessmen and members of public organizations - voiced for free elections, against arbitrariness of local bureaucrats and pressure of the executive authorities on undesirable candidates.

Last night, in the Gregebil District of Dagestan, unidentified persons shelled, from the side of a large forest, the control-defence post on the "Red Bridge", as a result of which two law enforcers who were on duty at the post were killed, and a local resident also suffered.

The nationalist Nikita Tikhonov, accused of murdering lawyer Stanislav Markelov, was transferred from SIZO (pre-trial prison) "Lefortovo", where he was kept since April 2009, to SIZO "Matrosskaya Tishina".