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The Turkish Public Prosecutor has launched an investigation against a group of Turkish citizens who published in one of Turkish websites a public apology to the Armenian nation for the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

By the outcomes of the study carried out by the analytical group named "The Economist Intelligence Unit" (EIU), by the level of democracy development, Georgia takes the 104th place in the world, and Russia - the 107th. The document notes that among the post-Soviet countries these two powers lost most rating points compared with the previous research made in 2006.

On Friday, January 9, the Georgian newspaper "Resonansi" reported, with reference to its own sources, that Prime Minister of Georgia Grigol Mgaloblishvili is going to declare his resignation.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, a woman-alpinist-skier from St-Petersburg was killed by a snow slide, when she tried to ski down the Elborus.

Valery Bembinov, Director General of the "Elista" Football Club (FC), was fined by the city court of the capital of Kalmykia by 80,000 roubles for illegal employment of football players into the Municipal Unitary Enterprise (MUE) "Energoservice", where he was also director.

Representatives of the national minorities living in Armenia are most of all worried about the problems of education and culture. This was stated by Vardan Asatryan, head of the Department on National Minorities and Religions of the governmental office of Armenia.

Today, ecologists have stopped an attempt to start construction of a highway in the wildlife reserve "Bolshoi Utrish" in the Krasnodar Territory, having blocked the construction machinery.

On December 31, 2008, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili signed a decree on releasing 246 prisoners.

Today, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has signed the Federal Law "On Making Changes in Some Legal Acts of the Russian Federation", which defines the order of alienation of land for construction of Olympic objects in Sochi. In particular, the Law stipulates a possibility not to alienate land plots from the owners for constructing Olympic objects, but to lease them for restricted usage.

Last year Armenia received about 600,000 tourists. It is by 20 percent more than in 2006, as reported by Mekhak Apresyan, head of the Department for Tourism of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia.

In Georgia, Ombudsman Sozar Subari, while speaking on December 30 at the extraordinary sitting of the parliament, made a statement that before the dispersal of the rally in November 2007 the heads of the power ministries of Georgia had a secret meeting in the study of Vano Merabishvili, Minister of Internal Affairs, where they had planned their actions on dispersal of the protesters.

Today in the morning, a dry-cargo ship "Kardelia" flying the flag of Cambodia and sailing to Georgia with three thousand tons of wheat was damaged near the Black Sea port Kavkaz in the Krasnodar Territory. 12 citizens of Azerbaijan and Georgia are onboard the ship.

In 2008 in Russia, at least 87 murders were committed on motives of interethnic enmity and at least 378 persons were wounded as a result of racist attacks. These are preliminary figures of the "Sova" Information and Analytical Centre, which, in the opinion of the authors, will surely increase.

On January 2, about 40 persons rallied near the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan to voice their protest against Israel's actions of in Gaza Strip.

On January 2 at about 8:00 p.m. Moscow time a military was wounded in shelling of a security post at the building of the FSB Department for Ingushetia in Magas; and about 6:00 p.m. Moscow time in the city of Karabulak near a multi-flat house, an small-power explosive blew up, as a result of which an occasional passer-by was wounded.

Ecologists claim that many highly placed functionaries in Krasnodar krai are sure that "president himself" keeps the track of construction of the Sukko-Utrish highway on the territory of the resort town Anapa. The functionaries make a conclusion that the "project is going to be implemented in any case, whatever the protests of the community".

Today the first instance court of the communities Kentron-Nork-Marash in Armenia, chaired by judge Gayane Karakhanian, has granted the application of the investigation agency to extend the custody of Sarkis Atspanian, citizen of France who took part in the Karabakh war, by two more months.

Mamuka Areshidze, director of the "Caucasian Strategic Studies Center", has handed to the "Memorial" organization the request of Georgian authorities to locate captured soldier Sergo Melia.

The Georgian Labor Party has started to collect signatures for impeaching Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Shalva Natelashvili, leader of Laborites, stated at the December 29 press-conference that the parliamentary group of the party had started the procedures necessary for impeaching Saakashvili.

Sviatoslav Markelov, lawyer of Elza Kungaeva's family, has protested against the court ruling to release Yuri Budanov from prison before term. He has sent a complaint to Viacheskav Lebedev, chair of the Russia's Supreme Court, reports the administration of the Chechen Ombudsman to "Interfax".