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In the afternoon on July 29, the Independent Press Centre hosted a press conference "Searches, interrogations, provocations, charges of tax crimes and terrorism against human rights defenders in Kazan", related to persecution by law enforcers of the Kazan Human Rights Centre and the inter-regional human rights association named "Agora".

The absence of any trustworthy information about the details of the attempt on Isa Yamadaev, committed in the evening on July 28 in Moscow, gives rise to various versions of the incident. Isa's relatives are sure that the attempt was initiated by the authorities of Chechnya, while the republic's law enforcers believe that it was staged. There is also an opinion that the attempt was a part of scenario aimed to discredit the republic's leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

In reply to this night's information from South Ossetia about bombardment of Tskhinvali, the Georgian party has reported that Ossetians have shelled the Georgian MIA's post in the village of Zemo Nikozy.

Grant Melkumyan, leader of the Communist Party of Nagorno-Karabakh, finds it illogical that in debates on Karabakh settlement they talk about Azerbaijani refugees, while there are more than half-million refugees-Armenians from Azerbaijan. In his opinion, it is also necessary to raise the issue about a similar return of Armenian refugees to Azerbaijan and Shaumyan and Martuni Districts of Karabakh.

Today, while meeting members of youth organizations of Chechnya, President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov made responsible Sheikh Said Buryatskiy, one of ideologists of Caucasian rebels, for the terror act committed on July 26 in central Grozny.

Salman Archkhoev, Chief Accountant of the Department for Housing and Utilities (DHU) in Sunzha District of Ingushetia, accused of embezzlement of over 90 million roubles from the state budget was sentenced to six years of conditional imprisonment and a fine at a rate of 50,000 roubles.

Makhmud Sakalov, Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of Ingushetia, has reported at the sitting of the national parliament that President Yunus-Bek Evkurov, wounded as a result of a terror act, is now much better; Mr Evkurov is 46 today.

As a result of an attack on the militia unit in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, three militiamen were wounded.

Today the Supreme Court of Ingushetia has acquitted the figurants in the case of mass disorders last January.

Ahmed Zakaev, former emissary of Chechen separatists, has no doubts that the order to stop operations against Chechen militia by the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) that was recently adopted will be also executed by Doku Umarov's supporters. Mr Zakaev himself told this to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Minsk is still studying "the complex issue of the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia." This was stated on July 28 by Sergey Martynov, Foreign Minister of Belarus, at a press conference on results of his meeting with the EU's ministerial "troika".

Christophe Strasser, Rapporteur of the PACE on Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan, is concerned with the arrest "under contradictory circumstances" of two activists of civil society - Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade, while deputies of the European Parliament have expressed their concern in a corresponding address to Azerbaijani ambassador in Belgium, Luxembourg and European Union.

In a combat skirmish that burst out on July 28 in the Urus-Martan District of the Chechen Republic four supposed members of armed underground groupings were killed. There are no losses among power agents.

The representative of the Yamadaev family in the Chechen Republic has confirmed that in Moscow an attempt was made on Isa Yamadaev, brother of Sulim Yamadaev, former commander of the "Vostok" special-purpose GRU battalion; however, the relatives gave no details of the incident. A source in Chechen power agencies has noted that there was no attempt; but Isa wanted by making this statement to damage the reputation of Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Chechen Republic.

Khachatur Sukiasyan, a supporter of the off-the-parliament oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC) and a Deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia, who is searched by law enforcement bodies on charges of organizing the events on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan, has no plans to surrender to the authorities, as he believes that he committed no crime and is still under the parliamentary immunity.

Rustam Mukhadiev, a suicide bomber who committed a self-killing act in the evening on July 26 at the national theatre-and-concert hall in the centre of Chechen capital, was brought up by a difficult family: his parents were divorced.

Semnebi: EU plans to go on working in Abkhazia

Law enforcement bodies of Ingushetia continue investigating the circumstances of the explosion that took place near the house of Aslambek Sagov, Mayor of the city of Magas, the republic's capital, about last midnight; the house is located in Gamurzievo settlement of the city of Nazran.

Members of eight families of forced migrants from the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia and Chechnya, and one needy family, who live in a barrack in Yuzny settlement, Malgobek District of Ingushetia, complain to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent of their violent eviction.

US vice-president Joseph Biden who has recently made a visit to Georgia voiced a number of critical remarks addressed to the opposition during his meeting with its leaders in the Marriot hotel in Tbilisi. In particular, Biden criticized the actions of protest by the opposition and the fact that its representatives call Mikhail Saakashvili illegitimate president.