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President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili has signed a decree on pardoning 238 prisoners. As reported at today's press conference by Dmitri Shashkin, Minister of Punishment Enforcement, Probation and Legal Aid, 169 prisoners will be set free.

In an armed clash near Karagach village, Prokhladnoe District of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), where the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced tonight, three IAF (illegal armed formation) members are killed and one law enforcer wounded, as reported by a source in law enforcement bodies of the republic.

President of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh plans to send an official delegation to the Republic of Nicaragua, "being guided by the desire to strengthen bilateral cooperation in all areas of modern life." This is stated in the letter sent on August 26 by Sergey Bagapsh to the President of the Republic of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega Saavedra.

The Promyshlenny District Court of Stavropol has found director of the building company LLC "Spas-XXI" and his two subordinates guilty of a swindle and causing 200-million roubles damage to citizens.

On August 26 in the evening, in Sunzha District of Ingushetia, five unknown persons in masks, armed with automatic firearms, rushed into the house of a militia lieutenant, where he lived with his family, and wounded him from a pistol.

Bodyguards of oligarchs and high-ranking officials of Armenia, including Ovik Abramyan, speaker of the parliament, Mger Sedrakyan, prefect of the community Erebuni, and Suren Khachatryan, governor of Syunik, took part in dispersing the peaceful rally on March 1, 2008. This was reported on August 27 at a press conference by the members of the fact-finding group about the March 1 events, which was disbanded by President's decree.

Judge Marianna Lukyanovskaya, who was dismissed from the Volgograd Regional Court, has filed a complaint to the cassation panel of the Supreme Court of Russia. It is her last resort among Russian instances to achieve restoration in her position; further, she is going to apply to Strasbourg. The judge asserts that she was sacked for making a "wrong" decision on an "ordered" case.

In Dagestan, one of the three persons, whose bodies were found yesterday, on August 26, in a burned down car, has been identified. Father of Arthur Butaev - Yuri - could recognize his son only by his personal belongings, as the body was strongly scorched. The earlier identified young man had been kidnapped by unidentified persons.

Today, at the session of the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria on the criminal case about the events on October 13, 2005, the parties in the process discussed the petition filed by defendant Azamat Akhkubekov in favour of returning the criminal case to the public prosecutor, since, in his opinion, there are significant discrepancies between the indictment and the materials of the criminal case.

The court of general jurisdiction of the Yerevan community Tsentr-Nork-Marash has passed a decision to extend by two month the pre-trial custody of Nikol Pashinyan, editor-in-chief of the oppositional newspaper "Aikakan Zhamanak" and activist of the "Armenian National Congress" who voluntarily surrendered to law enforcers on July 1.

Today an extraordinary session of the Union of NGOs "Homeland" was convoked to discuss actions in defence of constitutional rights of Dagestan citizens.

On August 26, in Ingushetia, local representative of Russian Ombudsman Magomed Khazbiev was approached by relatives of the Ingush militiamen injured by the terror act in Nazran on August 17 and sent to take their treatment to Rostov-on-Don. According to their story, the militiamen receive insufficient health care; and the conditions, in which they are treated, are "awful".

On August 25 in the morning, Tamara Gerieva, a member of the Board of Elders of Balkar People (BEBP), was violently delivered by militiamen to the Prosecutor's Office of Nalchik, where Anatoly Tkhagapsoev, public prosecutor of the city, offered her to sign a warning on inadmissibility of extremist activity. Ms Gerieva herself told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Magomed Shakhidov who committed on August 25 a terror act in the Shali District of Chechnya, in 2004 was sentenced to imprisonment for taking part in illegal armed formations (IAFs).

The concert under the motto "To Russia with love!" will be the final event of the Tskhinvali's meaningful day of the first anniversary of South Ossetia's independence. An "Open lesson of peace, friendship and arts" is another Russian-South-Ossetian action dedicated to one year after Russia's recognition of South Ossetia's independence.

The republic's MIA has confirmed that the evacuation of the Ingushetian Republic's Clinical Hospital (IRCH) in Nazran was not an exercise, but a reaction of power agents to real information about a prepared explosion with participation of a woman-suicide bomber.

Abdulbadyr Abdulzhaparov, a resident of Rakhata village, Botlikh District Dagestan, has addressed his complaint against Labazan Derbishev, head of the criminal investigation division of the Botlikh ROVD, to Interior Ministers of Russia and Dagestan Rashid Nurgaliev and Ali Magomedov. Mr Abdulzhaparov believes that he has fallen victim of the militiaman's persecution because of aversion.

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has accused, in his video address to the Ingush people, his officials of negligence and irresponsibility, which led to the terror act at the Nazran ROVD building.

The international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has sent appeals to the General Public Prosecutor and Minister of Justice of Azerbaijan, urging them to objectively investigate the death on August 17 in the prison hospital of Novruzali Mamedov, head of the Talysh Cultural centre and editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Tolyshi Sado" (Voice of Talysh).

Relatives of Shamil Makhloev, 21, a resident of Ordzhonikidzevskaya village, state another extrajudicial punishment by power agents.