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To guarantee the observance of their economic interests, Turkey and Azerbaijan want to demand to return real autonomy to Adzharia, grant special status to Azeri minority of Kvemo-Kartli region and repatriate Meskhetian Turks to Georgia.

Today, at a session of Sabail District Court of the capital of Azerbaijan, Emil Mamedov, son of Novruzali Mamedov, head of the Talysh Culture Centre, convicted for espionage in favour of Iran, was released.

On October 8, Russia will start withdrawing its peacekeeping posts from the southern border of South-Ossetian safety zone. The process will take about 24 hours, as General-Major Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of peacekeeping forces, said today.

On the night of October 6, five explosions took place in Pakhulani village, Tsalendzhikh District of Georgia. The authorities of Abkhazia have rejected the messages of Georgian media about their involvement in these incidents.

A picket in memory of Anna Politkovskaya will take place today in St-Petersburg, despite the prohibition of city authorities, assert the organizers of the action - members of the Petersburg branch of the "Yabloko" Party.

The European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) is literally swamped with complaints from residents of South Ossetia, which deal with the lawlessness of Georgian authorities towards them, said Jean-Paul Costa, Chairman of the ECtHR.

A group of opposition parties of Georgia has passed a joint memorandum on work of mass media. Among other things, the opposition demands holding debates live on air.

The Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus believes that Gazprom, while trying to whitewash "the honest name of the company", is confusing the public. In the opinion of ecologists, "Gazprom is illegally building Olympic object 'Refuge No. 1' in the Psekhako Site" in the territory of the Sochi National Park.

Today, the Sabail District Court of the capital of Azerbaijan has considered the claim of the "Abu-Bekr" religious community lodged against the State Committee for Work with Religious Formations with a demand to cancel the decision to close the Mosque. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by community's advocate Dzhavanshir Suleimanov.

The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has rejected the petition of the prosecution asking to change the territorial jurisdiction of the criminal case on the events on October 13, 2005. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by advocate Elizabeth Shak.

In the city of Nazran, Ingushetia, unidentified persons have shelled the car with Anzor Zyazikov, legal adviser of the factory of antenna-mast structures, and his passenger. Mr Zyazikov did not suffer, but the passenger was shot dead.

Petros Garibyan, leading inspector in the case, senior inspector for especially important cases of the Investigatory Committee at the Russian Prosecutor's Office, has stated that from two to four persons are suspected as customers of the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

The Moscow Human Rights Bureau has disseminated a report according to which this year xenophobia has killed 108 persons, natives from the Caucasus among them.

The Chief Administration of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Public Prosecutor's Office for the Southern Federal District has come to conclusion that the reason of the death of Magomed Evloev, owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru" (now "Ingushetia.Org") was an unintentional shot from a pistol made by one of the militiamen who escorted Evloev.

One of the main candidates for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize is Russian human rights activist Lydia Yusupova who worked in Chechnya and till 2006 headed the branch of the Human Rights Society "Memorial" in Grozny.

From the beginning of 2008, in South Ossetia, seven terror acts were committed, for which automobiles brought in from territory of Georgia were used. Irina Gagloeva, head of the Committee for Information and Press of South Ossetia, told about it.

The rally will be directed mainly against construction of a cargo port in the Imereti Valley. In the opinion of the organizers, the construction is illegal.

The Karabakh politicians are afraid that Armenia, in exchange for unblocking the border by Turkey, will be ready to concede the territories around the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District, nowadays under the jurisdiction of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR); but they are not going to give up the idea of independence of NKR.

On October 3, the Nariman Court of Baku accepted to proceedings the claim of Gammet Suleimanov, Imam of "Abu-Bekr" Mosque, lodged against the Police Department of the Nariman District of the capital of Azerbaijan.

The events dedicated to the 420th anniversary of neighbourhood relations between the peoples of Russia and Chechnya will continue in the Chechen Republic till the end of the year.