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Problems of ethnic Azerbaijanis of Georgia were in the focus of the roundtable, held at the Baku Media Centre to the topic "Place and historical role of Borchaly", the region in the south of Georgia, where Azerbaijanis compactly live.

On June 23, the door of the corrective establishment for criminals "Kentron" (former SIZO (pre-trial facility) of the KGB) opened, and under the amnesty act adopted on June 19 by the National Assembly of Armenia, Gagik Dzhangiryan, activist of the opposition and former deputy general public prosecutor, found himself at large.

At the moment, very few of the PACE's requirements have been fulfilled, and regular monitoring of the progress made by Armenia to this end will be continued. This is stated in the report "Functioning of Democratic Institutes in Armenia" by the commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which was prepared by co-rapporteurs John Prescott and George Colombier. At the same time, the document gives high estimate of the amnesty announced by the Armenian authorities.

On June 22, five residents of the Chechen Republic accused of kidnapping people for ransom and of other grave crimes were sentenced by the Republic's Supreme Court to long terms of imprisonment.

The militants' grouping operating in the territory of Ingushetia and presented as "Mujahads of Vilayat Galgaiche" has stated they had committed murders of Gazgireeva, deputy chair of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, and former vice-premier Bashir Aushev, as well as the shelling of Osman Vyshegurov, an employee of the tax service. The statement appeared in one of separatists' websites.

Today, the website of the RIA "Dagestan", founded by the Ministry of National Policy, Information and External Relations of Dagestan, suffered from a hacker's attack again: supporters of separatists have placed their appeal to law enforcers on behalf of one of extremist groupings in the main page of the website.

The health condition of Ramzan Evkurov, 35, a President's bodyguard who was wounded in the attempt on June 22 remains extremely grave. Today, he will be prepared for repeated surgery.

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has unexpectedly arrived to Ingushetia, where he met Rashid Gaisanov, temporary head of the republic, as reported by a source in the government of Ingushetia. Mr Kadyrov has offered remuneration to residents of Ingushetia for information about any prepared terror acts and militants' whereabouts.

Nadira Isaeva, editor-in-chief of the weekly "Chernovik" (Blueprint), and journalist Arthur Mamaev will face a new charge.

Today, the court of the city of Novorossisk has rejected the suit lodged by Tamara Karastelyova, director of the Novorossisk Committee on Human Rights (NCHR), challenging the non-normative acts of the city's prosecutor's office, which had found attributes of extremism in criticism of key provisions of the so-called "curfew law". According to Ms Karastelyova, the today's trial "looked like a play": the decision was prepared in advance.

Tamara Karastelyova, director of the Novorossisk Human Rights Committee (NHRC), has complained of a discrediting campaign launched against those who stand for cancelling the law on "curfew" for children in Novorossisk; the campaign is conducted with use of mass media and Internet portals.

Several members of the NGO named "Equal Rights Institute" have started hunger strike at the representative office of the European Union in the capital of Georgia. The hunger strike is related to the events on June 15 in Tbilisi.

The Memorandum on Human Rights, addressed by the Amnesty International (AI) to President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev, expresses concern because of closing and forced eviction of people from Temporary Accommodation Centres (TACs) in Chechnya.

The attempt on President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov, where one person was lost and three others, including the President, were wounded, has provoked a broad resonance in the Ingush society. Local residents are extremely indignant with the incident.

In Azerbaijan, activists of the pro-governmental party named "Modern Musavat" made an attempt on June 22 to hold a picket in front of the Iranian embassy in Baku with a demand to put an end to violence against participants of protest actions against falsification of presidential election.

Patimat Mutalieva, named by the investigation to be a probable terrorist involved in the attempt on President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov, at the moment of the terror act was on her way to exam in psychology at the polytechnic college in Nazran, where she is a student. The girl told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it by telephone.

The newly-published report of the fact-finding group on March 1 events states that it is necessary to examine the actions of the persons who gave and executed the order to use special gas "Cheryomukha-7" against peaceful demonstrators on March 1, 2008, in Yerevan, for crime attributes, in particular, under Article 34-104 of the Criminal Code "Attempt of deliberate murder".

Nikolai Uschipovskiy, senior inspector for especially important cases of the Chief Investigatory Department of Russia's Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO), who headed in 2007-2008 the investigatory group dealing with the case of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train, has stated today that no pressure had been exerted on Salambek Dzakhkiev, a resident of Ingushetia, accused of involvement in this crime.

The wounded President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov can stay for years under artificial lung ventilation; everything will depend on the human and how he is looked after. This was stated by Alexander Sokolov, candidate of medical sciences, leading scientific worker of the Russian State Medical University and a member of the Human Rights Society "Memorial".

Judge of the Leninskiy Court of Makhachkala Zainutdin Madanov has decided to appoint hearing of the criminal case against journalists of the Dagestan newspaper "Chernovik" (Blueprint) accused under Article 282 of Russian Criminal Code ("Kindling of hatred or enmity, or humiliation of human dignity") for tomorrow, June 24, at 10 a.m.