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The Polish police have addressed the court of the city of Zgorzelec for a sanction to arrest several natives of the Caucasus, who have captured the train Wroclaw-Dresden. Should a criminal case be initiated, three refugees will get under threat of up to three years of imprisonment.

Under the preliminary version of the investigation, Batyr Dzhaniev, 23, who blew up his car on December 17 at the road police sentry post in Nazran, took revenge on power agents for the death of his mother.

The relatives of Maksharip Aushev believe that the charges of the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia of terrorism in relation to his family were caused by the desire to hide the circumstance of the deaths of the oppositionist and his wife.

On December 16, the European Parliament passed the resolution entitled "On Freedom of Expression in Azerbaijan" and giving a critical estimate to the situation in the country with the freedom of speech and self-expression.

On December 16, political prisoner Sasun Mikaelyan, who was transferred on the eve because of his poor health condition from the prison to the medical centre "Armenia", underwent a successful surgery. The danger that threatened his life is now some 80 percent less. Journalists were told about it by Avetik Minasyan, Mikaelyan's attending physician.

Samvel Martirosyan, an expert in information safety and a well-known blogger from Armenia, held a seminar in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh on the topic "Artsakh and Armenia in Information War: Blogs and Social Networks".

Introduction of elections under party lists leads in Russian regions to a serious impingement of citizens' election rights. Ingushetia is in the lead in this aspect. This is the conclusion made by Alexander Kynev, a political scientist and expert of the association in defence of voters' rights named "Golos" (Vote), in his 500-page book "Elections of Parliaments of Russian Regions in 2003-2009".

By his decree of December 15, Arsen Kanokov, head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) founded the post of Children's Ombudsman in his republic.

In the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan, three activists of the civil society state encroachment on their right to fair trial, since local law enforcers refused to accept their complaint of beating.

The appeal of parliamentarians to President of Armenia asking him to pardon oppositionist Sasun Mikaelyan, sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment, is not a legal document. This was stated by Samvel Farmanyan, press secretary of the head of Armenia, in his comments on the MPs' open letter.

Felix Tsokov, a former inspector of the Investigatory Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation for North Ossetia, has accuses the managers of the "Electrozink" of corruption. He did it in his video appeal, placed in the web site of Major Alexei Dymovskiy.

Islam Nazaraliev, deputy head of the Russian hadj-mission and attache of the General Consulate of Russia in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2004-2008, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the prices on making for Russian Moslems are growing disproportionate to the objective economic conditions.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, a group of Georgian human rights defenders - Paata Zakareishvili, Manana Mebuke and Vakhtang Komakhidze - arrived in the Republic of South Ossetia (RSO), where they met David Sanakoev, Ombudsman under the President of the RSO. Later, they were received by President Eduard Kokoity.

On December 16, after the public hearings held in four Sochi districts on the draft "Rules of Land Use and Development of Sochi" (RLUD), a meeting was organized of the members of the public entity named "Town-Planning Board of Sochi", headed by architect Olga Kozinskaya, with the counterpart - City Council at Sochi Mayor, headed by architect Ovanes Zadikyan.

On December 16, Makhachkala hosted a sitting of the Expert's Board under the Ombudsperson of Dagestan with participation of the Ombudsperson's office, prosecutors, power bodies and public organizations. The agenda included the problems faced by children-orphans, who breaks their rights and how to help this category of population.

In Chechnya, activists of some local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local residents believe that the restart of the activities of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" will promote improvement of the situation with human rights in the republic. So far, there is no official reaction of the authorities to this end.

Today, the Supreme Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has announced its ruling to extend till March 26, 2010, the custody term of all the defendants accused of attacking power agencies structures of the KBR in Nalchik in October 2005.

Yesterday, on December 15, the annual Remembrance Day of the journalists who perished at performance of their professional duties was marked in Moscow. The Union of Journalists of Russia (UJR) instituted this date in memory of the media workers who have taken their violent death during the last 20 years. Today, he list has more than 300 surnames.

Russian authorities must do everything possible to ensure safety of human rights activists in Chechnya. This was stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Rachel Denber, deputy director of the branch of the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) for Europe and Central Asia.

The Association has sent a letter to the editorial board of the "Rustavi-2" in protest against the report that appeared in the "Courier" TV Programme.