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Today, at the trial on the events on October 13, 2005, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria has announced its decision on the challenges of the candidates for the jury. Out of 46 candidates for the jurymen, who came to the third selection round, only one was chosen.

The special investigatory group, engaged in investigating the events of March 1 in Yerevan, referred in its work to Criminal Case No. 62202708, the excitation and closing of which cannot be found in any documented evidence. This was stated today at a press conference by Avetis Avagyan, spokesman of the Central Office of the Armenian National Congress.

The Department of Internal Affairs of Volgograd is purposefully liquidating the independent civil society, believes Irina Malovichko, president of the Volgograd Regional Charitable Public Organization (VRCPO) "Child's Dignity UNESCO Club" (CDUC), against whom a criminal case was initiated.

Today, the Assembly of Tbilisi Armenians has held an action "Justice on the Way" near the Ministry of Culture, Monument Protection and Sports of Georgia with a demand to get back the Armenian churches, which had been taken away by communists at the Eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia.

Advocate and human rights activist Musa Pliev, newly-appointed adviser to the new President of Ingushetia Yunusbek Evkurov, plans to start a hotline telephone for people to complain against power agents' actions.

Amnesty International is calling for a full investigation of the raid by Russian law enforcement officers on the office of an independent Research and Information centre Memorial in St Petersburg, amid concerns that serious violations of Russian law were committed during the process.

Statement by Sean Mccormack, Spokesman, U.S. Department of State.

Elias II, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Catholicos of all Georgia, has headed today the requiem service at the coffin of deceased Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. The service was conducted in the Georgian language.

Advocate Musa Pliev, who is representing the interests of Magomed Evloev's family in the court, became an adviser to Yunus-Bek Evkurov, new President of Ingushetia. The appointment was made yesterday, on December 7, by a President's Decree.

The Swiss Confederation will represent the interests of Russia in Georgia. On Friday, December 5, The Swiss Federal Council approved draft agreements with Moscow and Tbilisi and entrusted the head of the Foreign Matters Department Micheline Calmi-Ray of foreign cases to sign the corresponding documents.

The militia of the capital of Komi has partially recognized bad custody conditions of Ashot Kirakosyan, a citizen of Armenia, in special detention facility of Syktyvkar UVD, where he had spent 4.5 pending extradition out of Russia for breaking migratory rules.

Father of the Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva, for whose murder former Colonel Yuri Budanov was convicted, promises to apply to the Strasbourg Court should a decision is made on the Colonel's conditional early relief (CER).

The so-called "Manor House" situated at No. 2/1 in Putin Avenue in the capital of Chechnya has been recognized fit for habitation, Gennady Nigmetov, the supreme category responsible specialist of the Russian State Research Institute for Emergencies, has stated.

The Patriarchy of Georgia refutes the information about religion-based discrimination of local Armenian population and believes that brotherly relations between the Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia and the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians will contribute to removal of the tension that has arisen because of several churches.

According to the "Sova" Information and Analytical Centre, in January-November 2008, 21 natives from the Caucasus were murdered and 63 more wounded on the motive of racial hatred. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Galina Kozhevnikova, Deputy Director of the Centre.

Active rehabilitation is under way in Tskhinval, however, it is impossible to resolve the problems in the private housing sector before winter. About 500 houses have been completely ruined or burnt. According to the owners, the South Ossetia authorities promise to start their restoration only in spring.

The Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria are getting prepared for their feast - Kurban-Bairam, which starts on December 8 and will last for three days. The KBR president has decreed to make this day a holiday.

The law enforcement agencies report that, today, two militants have been killed in the course of a special operation conducted in the Barsukin district of Nazran, Ingushetia. According to Yuri Turyghin, Ingushetia prosecutor, the persons were connected with a number of terrorist acts and attacks on militia officers.

Today, two suspect militants have been killed and one FSS officer perished in the course of a special operation conducted in the settlement of Novy Khushet in the outskirts of the Dagestan capital.

The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch expressed its concern about the fate of Rasul Kudaev, former prisoner of Guantanamo, who is now held in the Russian pre-trial prison.