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On March 20, the Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia held an open auction for the general licence on extraction and bottling of the famous mineral water "Borzhomi". The license for the term of 25 years was awarded to the Georgian Glass and Mineral Water (GG&MW) Company.

On March 20, the City Electoral Commission received notifications about intention to stand for the post of the Mayor of the city of Sochi from self-nominated candidates - entrepreneur Anatoly Parshin and unemployed resident of Sochi Yuri Danilevskiy. Thus, there are already 11 candidates to the post.

A number of youth nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Nagorno-Karabakh made a joint statement on the report of the US Department of State (DoS) on respect of human rights in Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2008. The NGOs voice their protest against those points in the report, which, in their opinion, distort the essence of Karabakh conflict.

Three law enforcers and a local resident were wounded in Grozny in an attempt of power agents to detain a suspected member of illegal armed formations (IAFs) yesterday, on March 19.

The advocate of the family of Magomed Evloev, deceased owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru", will appeal against the decision of the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia, which had forbidden inquiring into the criminal case about his illegal arrest during which he was shot dead.

On March 18, Lechi Mitkuev, a resident of mountain Dargo village, Vedeno District of Chechnya, was kidnapped by unidentified power agents. Local residents believe that the victim is kept in the base of one of subdivisions of local power agencies deployed in the neighbouring Nozhay-Yurt District.

According to the latest data, in the armed clash with militants in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, four militaries were lost, three more wounded; at least six militants were liquidated. This was reported to journalists by Magomed Ismailov, Deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan.

Today, at the session of the Supreme Court (SC) of Kabardino-Balkaria on the criminal case on the events on October 13, 2005, the court has rejected the defendants' petition challenging Olga Chibinyova, head of the prosecution group, and a number of other public prosecutors. The court has extended the custody of all 58 defendants by three months more.

A number of top officials responsible for the events on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan were dismissed from the law-enforcement system of Armenia. This was reported to the session of the National Assembly by Ovannes Unanyan, deputy commander of the Police of the Republic of Armenia. Among those who lost their post are also the commander of internal troops and his deputy.

Today in Makhachkala special agents have shelled a car with, presumably, members of a subversive and terrorist group inside, who refused to surrender and opened fire on militiamen.

The official Tbilisi is ready to hold dialogue with the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This was stated by David Bakradze, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, at today's meeting with students and academia of the Iliya Chavchavadze State University.

Acting Mayor of Sochi Anatoly Pakhomov, who is in this post from January 20, has announced a temporary moratorium on allocation of land plots for real estate construction, including dwelling houses, having accused bureaucrats of corruption.

The personalities of today's casualties of the combat collision in the city of Baksan, Kabardino-Balkaria, have been established. A criminal case was initiated on the fact of rendering armed resistance to militiamen under the articles of "Illegal storage of arms" and "Attempt on life of a law enforcer".

The Zamoskvoretskiy Court of Moscow has ruled to pay out some 130,000 roubles under two claims lodged by the victims of the terror act in Dubrovka against plundering hostages' belongings. However, the defence was dissatisfied with the ruling and plans to appeal against it.

Today, at the hearings about the attack on power structures in Kabardino-Balkaria, the defendants have petitioned challenge to Olga Chibinyova, head of the prosecution group, under the motive that this employee of the prosecutor's office "did everything to protract the trial not to admit formation of the board of jurymen."

Today, people in North Ossetia paid tribute to the victims of the explosion in the Central Marketplace of Vladikavkaz in 1999. Then, as a result of a terror act, 54 persons were lost, more than 80 were wounded.

Anar Mamedli, head of the Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Training (CEM&DT), told journalists today that violations and deficiencies in the course of the referendum held on March 18 in Azerbaijan evidence it failed to meet European practice and cannot be regarded free and democratic.

Ingush human rights activists find the intention of Ingushetia's authorities to hold peaceful dialogue with militants' helpers to be a stabilizing factor and think that the amnesty is necessary. At the same time, they assess the system of "pardoning", offered by the authorities, as difficult to implement and inefficient.

The meeting of the head of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev with Russian human rights defenders and members of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for Interethnic Relations and Freedom of Conscience on March 10, as well as subsequent public hearings, was not senseless; the time will define the effect thereof. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Liudmila Alekseeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group.

The Georgian Times newspaper suspended by journalists because of pressure exerted by Georgian authorities will soon be restarted. Its owner Malkhaz Gulashvili has promised to go on criticizing the incumbent authorities in the pages of his media.