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The judicial process on the murder of observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya has announced a break till December 17. Today, at the Moscow Regional Military Court, the defence has started presenting evidences of the defendants' innocence.

As a result of an explosion today morning in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in a five-floor apartment house, three persons were lost. The press-service of the Azerbaijani MIA reports that several persons with wounds and burns, including a child, were hospitalized from the place of the incident.

Russia has re-opened its block-post and scales up its military contingent in the village of Perevi located in the border with South Ossetia, the MIA of Georgia reports.

Within the last 24 hours, in different areas of Ingushetia, there were three incidents with fire opened at employees of law enforcement bodies. Three militiamen were wounded.

The South-Ossetian Ministry of Defence reports that Georgia has deployed its special troops near the border with South Ossetia, which is a direct violation of the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreement reached after the Russian-Georgian August military conflict.

On December 12, the "Dalga" (Wave) Youth Movement held an action in Baku within the Week of Human Rights on the issue of restrictions imposed on the freedom of assembly in Azerbaijan.

The project "We know our rights. And you?", realized in the Rostov Region by the Union "Women of Don Region", has promoted stronger trust of the population to law enforcement bodies, as Valentina Cherevatenko, leader of the Union, believes.

Representatives of public organizations of Ingushetia have addressed the leaders of the Republic with an appeal to return the Prigorodny District, belonging nowadays to North Ossetia, back within administrative borders of Ingushetia.

In Rostov-on-Don, the regional children's library is gathering books for the children's library in South Ossetia.

The government of Adygea has passed a statement instructing state servants not to use their service cars for personal needs and not to drive them personally.

The National Association of Charitable Organizations (NAChO) of Russia has studied the peculiarities of allocation of presidential grants and concluded that budgetary funds in the country are often granted to organizations and projects whose aims are foggy, and relation to declared activities y is non-evident.

On Thursday, December 11, the Youth Organization "Dalga" (Wave), acting within the Week of Human Rights, held a protest action before the embassy of Iran to Baku.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has refused to revise the verdict to the publicist of the website "Kavkaz-Centre" Boris Stomakhin convicted to five years of colony for kindling interethnic enmity and extremism. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by his mother Regina Stomakhina.

The Azerbaijani Institute of Media Rights (IMR) has promulgated a report on situation with mass media of the country in November. The document, now at the disposal of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, runs that in the reporting period five facts of pressure on journalists were registered.

The judge refused to re-qualify the case dealing with the murder of Magomed Evloev, owner of the website "Ingushetia.Ru", into another article of the Criminal Code because of the pressure exerted by the prosecutor's office. This opinion was stated by human rights activist and advocate Musa Pliev, now appointed as adviser of President of Ingushetia to coordinate the work of power agencies.

Representatives of the Association of Linguistic Experts named "Argument", who were engaged in analyzing articles from the newspaper "Time of Actions", have stated that never treated the paper as extremist. Since judicial bodies only are entitled to qualify and, moreover, recognize this or that text or mass media as extremist.

Last night, on December 11, militiamen and a representative of the administration of the Tver District of Moscow moved claims to the slogans of the participants of the weekly picket against violations of human rights in Northern Caucasus. The picket was held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Novopushkinskiy Mini-Park in the centre of the capital, near a big New Year tree decorated with garlands.

The authorities of Azerbaijan have fulfilled the prescription of the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) to transfer former Minister of Public Health Ali Insanov, who is now serving his imprisonment, to the medical establishment of the Penitentiary Service. Insanov's advocate Togrul Babaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that his client was transferred today from Colony No. 13 to the hospital of the Penitentiary System.

Today, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has rejected the petition lodged last week by the accusation asking to transfer the trial on the events on October 13, 2005, to some other region.

In Krasnodar, district departments on education have ordered from city schools to compile lists of pupils-natives from the Caucasus with indication of their home addresses.