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In Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, employees of the local prosecutor's office and militia made a raid over saunas, where, according to their operative data, sexual services were rendered. 65 slot machines were confiscated, and 23 women engaged in prostitution were brought to administrative responsibility.

Protest actions of air traffic controllers against signing new collective labour agreement started on March 26 in Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd and Krasnodar. Today in the morning, after the night shift, all dispatchers of these regions - about 120 persons in total - remained in the buildings where they work.

The Human Rights Society (HRS) "Memorial" calls to amnesty, by the Victory Day, those militaries, who were convicted for voluntary leaving their military units.

The international seminar on non-violent conflict settlement "Overcoming European Crisis by Non-Violent Methods; Philosophy and Practice" held in Georgia became a forum, where experts from different countries could exchange opinions on conflicts in the Caucasus.

In the Volgograd Region, as a result of high water, over three thousand citizens are under the threat of flooding. This was reported by the press services of the Regional Ministry for Emergencies (MfE). Residents of seven districts - Frolovskiy, Mikhailovskiy, Ilovlinskiy, Olkhovskiy, Pallasovskiy, Bykovskiy and Kumylzhanskiy - have already suffered from high water.

Five persons were heavily wounded, when unidentified persons opened fire on a group of residents of Aksai village, Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic reports.

On March 25, Chechen MPs made a decision to establish an annual prize and a medal named after Ahmat Kadyrov, former President of Chechnya, assassinated in a terror act at the Grozny "Dynamo" Stadium on May 9, 2004. This award, as conceived by Chechen parliamentarians, should become a sort of an analogue of the Nobel Peace Prize.

On March 25, in Tbilisi, at the building of the Ministry for Punishment Enforcement, an action was held by the opposition with a demand to release political prisoners and illegal detainees.

The embassies of the EU countries in Azerbaijan have revealed no due interest in the action of the South-Caucasian human rights network aimed to draw attention to human rights activists' problems. This was stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Tatiana Kryuchkina, a representative of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS). According to her story, only the embassy of Italy and representative office of the European Commission have officially answered to the questionnaires about the work conducted in this direction.

In the run-up to the Congress of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), to take place in Yerevan on April 6-8, the Federation has appealed to the authorities of Armenia to release all the country's political prisoners.

On March 25, the capital of North Ossetia was the venue of a rally held by the public organization of power agents-veterans "Law Is Above Power" with a demand to return the privileges and compensatory payments.

Most of the Circassians of the world support the idea of recognition of Adygs' genocide, Zaur Zaukozhev, deputy chairman of the Circassian Congress of Adygea believes. He is supported by other Adyg public activists of the republic.

On March 25, the parliamentary committee for legislation of Georgia held discussion of the bill "Freedom Charter", presented by Giya Tortladze, leader of the oppositional faction "Strong Georgia". As a matter of fact, the Charter unites two legal documents: "Law on Lustration" and the so-called "Patriotic Act". In Mr Tortladze's opinion, currently both documents are equally important for Georgia's safety.

In Baku today the issue of garbage disposal is quite pressing; however, the construction of a waste incinerate factory launched last year will not only fail to solve the ecology problems of the Azerbaijani capital but will only aggravate them, local ecologists assert.

Rashid Gadzhily, Director of the Azerbaijani Institute of Media Rights (IMR), became a laureate of the prestigious prize "Freedom of Expression" of the British human rights organization "Index on Censorship" in nomination "For Fight Against Repressions and Actions Towards Changing Political Climate". The awarding ceremony took place on March 25 in London.

Two Russian soldiers, who were considered as disappearances since the warfare in South Ossetia in August 2008, are found. This was stated today by General-Major Alexander Kirillin, head of the Department of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation for Commemoration of Perished Homeland Defenders.

The Russian authorities gave a permit to the Georgian Airline "Airzena-Georgian Airways" to make in early April a series of Tbilisi-Moscow charter flights dated to the approaching Easter.

Criminal inspectors of the MIA have released 30 Vietnamese from an illegal factory situated in Egorievsk near Moscow; they came to Russia for earnings and found themselves in slavery of their factory boss - a native of Armenia.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev called inefficient use of budgetary funds as one of the reasons of unsuccessful performance of the Russian national team at the Olympiad in Vancouver and did not exclude that the results of the check conducted to this end by the Audit Chamber would be sent to the Prosecutor's Office.

According to General Nikolai Rogozhkin, Commander-in-Chief of Internal Troops of the Russian MIA, up to 500 militants, mainly young men aged 25-28, can currently operate in the territory of Northern Caucasus.