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On October 20, the international organization in defence of journalists "Reporters without Borders" (RwB) has published its annual rating list on the freedom of press in the world. The report entitled "Global Freedom of Press Index--2009" rank Azerbaijan in the 146th place among 169 countries.

On October 16, broad-scale operative-preventive actions started in the territory of Chechnya aimed at revealing hijacked cars and those with excessively tinted glasses within the campaign named "Automobile".

The organization "Reporters without Borders" has presented its next regular report with assessment of the freedom of speech in 175 countries of the world. By the "freedom of speech index" Armenia was put in the 111th place.

The Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has conducted a check on the fact of detection of a body of a convict with traces of murder in the territory of the colony-settlement (UKP) of the Corrective Establishment No. 2 of the Russian Correction Service (known as "UFSIN") for Chechnya, located in the city of Argun.

Three residents of Kabardino-Balkaria - Timur Begidov, born in 1975 in Kenzhe village, and Ibragim Shogenov and Anzor Nagoev from the village of Dugulubgei, who left on October 2 to the city of Ufa in a refrigerator truck with a cargo of fruits for sale, have disappeared. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it at the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Centre, where Timur Begidov's parents addressed for help.

In the evening on October 19, in Plievo village, a local resident Azhigov by name was shot dead in his car.

While the leader of the Ingush opposition Magomed Khazbiev tried to find out at his 72nd polling station in Nazran why some other people had voted for his family, the employees of the precinct amended the voters' list, having made a forgery in the eyes of journalists. Lydia Mikhalchenko, editor of the website "ingushetiyaru.org", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it.

The Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and the Institute of Media's Rights (IMR) have made a joint statement today, where they resolutely condemned the utterances of Azerbaijani officials that broadcasting of foreign companies in FM-frequencies will not be restored.

In the southwest of Chechnya, in its Urus-Martan District, unidentified persons shelled the house of an employee of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). Besides, a fougasse was planted opposite the house.

Evgeniy Titov, a journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta", complains that the militia makes no checks on his application about the insults sent to him as SMS messages from the telephone number of the director of a Novorossisk school; Mr Titov had a talk with him, when he prepared the material about the opponents of the "children's curfew".

The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) has accepted to consideration the complaint lodged on behalf of the "Bzhni" Mineral Water Factory, belonging to the oppositional activist Khachatur Sukiasyan, against the Republic of Armenia. The claimant demands compensation of 220 million euros for damage caused to the company.

Today, a process on the case of military expert Vakhtang Maisaya, accused of espionage, started in the capital of Georgia.

Bosses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Dagestan want to dismiss Sirazutdin Ragimov, commander of the battalion of the patrol-sentry service (PSS) of Derbent and his deputy for work with personnel Andrei Basinskikh, as reported by the militiamen of the battalion.

The Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation reports that on the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta", brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov, who had been acquitted by the jury, signed recognizance not to leave.

As a result of complaints and requests to the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) about application of urgent measures under Rules 39-41 of the ECtHR, Russian human rights activists managed to prevent a number of complete disappearances or murders of the persons kidnapped in Chechnya and Dagestan; three of them are already at large.

The investigation into the murder case of the Chechen human rights defender Natalia Estemirova has seen an essential progress and is "on the brink of solving." This was stated today by Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation, at the celebratory conference, dedicated to the 55th anniversary of criminalistic service in the prosecution bodies.

The Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) calls the authorities of Georgia to stop the unfair trial and restore all the rights of the Armenian activist Dzhavakhk Vaagn Chakhalyan. The Tbilisi Court will consider the appeal against the verdict to the activist prescribing ten years of imprisonment.

Last night, the DDoS-attacks (Distributed Denial of Service attack), which continued during the last two months on the website of the Ingush opposition "Ingushetia.Org", reached its maximum; therefore the whole day today, as reported by the leader of the Ingush opposition Magomed Khazbiev, the work of the resource was paralysed, despite strong protection and permanent work of the website programmers.

In the voting day in Nazran, on October 11, Magomed Khazbiev, leader of Ingush opposition, detected and registered the facts evidencing that some other person cast votes instead of his family members. According to his story, similar situations could be observed in many settlements of Ingushetia.

Activists of the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus are writing a letter to Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB, with complaints against the actions of the FSB frontier guards, who had detained ecologists for breaking the frontier regime. This was reported by Suren Gazaryan, member of the Board of the Ecological Watch.