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The Committee for Natural Resources and Nature Preservations of the Volgograd Regional Administration has initiated its fifth annual action in defence of rare early-flowering herbs (cowslips or primroses) growing in the region.

After Nagorno-Karabakh leaders have spoken on local TV, the situation around the fall of the exchange rate of the national currency has calmed down a little: people stopped flapping about and crowds in shops have disappeared, as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports from the region.

On March 8, Kabardino-Balkaria will mark the Memory Day of 1944 deportation victims among the Balkar nation. A mourning rally will be held in Nalchik, at the memorial to deportation victims.

In Armenia, prices on essential foodstuffs and the cost of US dollar went down. Ashot Shakhnazaryan, Chairman of the State Commission for Defence of Economic Competition, said at a briefing on March 6 that the situation in Armenian marketplaces has normalized.

The city of Stepanakert has presented a public flotation of the stock of the company named "ArtsakhGES" (Artsakh Hydraulic Power Plant). Thus, for the first time in Nagorno-Karabakh, an attempt was made to involve public in a large investment project.

In the village of Tsentaroy, known as the clannish settlement of Chechnya's President Ramzan Kadyrov, a copy of the "Heart of Chechnya" Mosque, erected last year in Grozny (capable to house 10,000 believers at a time, the largest in Europe) is now being built. The mosque in Tsentaroy will house about seven thousand believers.

Ruslan (Aslan) Khalilov, a native of Chechnya, who is named by separatists' websites as "repented Kadyrov's killer", has stated before a video camera that President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov had ordered to kill Magomed Ocherkhadzhi, a native of Chechnya, who lives in Norway, and instructed his people to come into contacts with the authorities of Norway with the aim to mislead them and discredit Norwegian Chechens.

Starting from today, March 5, issuance of Georgian visas to Russians has officially resumed through the Swiss diplomatic missions. However, the actual work with documents will begin on March 6 - today diplomats were engaged in solemn opening ceremony of the section of Georgia's interests at the embassy of Switzerland to Russia.

Today in Dagestan, in the city of Khasavyurt, an attempt was made on Ilmiamin Magomedov, head of the Khasavyurt ROVD (District Interior Department), was accomplished. The attackers managed to disappear.

Today, at 1:20 p.m. Moscow time, in Surkhakhi village, Nazran District of Ingushetia, an explosion happened, when sappers tried to neutralize a self-made bomb found in the roadside. Five employees of law enforcement bodies were killed.

The European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg has found Russia guilty of the death of a resident of Chechnya in 2000 and has obliged the government to pay out 37,000 euros to his widow. The decision was made back on February 12, but officially announced only today.

The residents of the Imereti Valley in Sochi, whose houses turned out to be within the Olympic construction zone, are ready to apply to the European Court on Human Rights in defence of their rights to favourable environment, housing and a choice of place for residence.

The Novgorod Regional Court has extended the custody term for the residents of Ingushetia suspected of taking part in blowing up the "Neva-Express" train in August 2007.

The world economic crisis will tell negatively on Armenia, first of all, in such areas like reduction of money transfers and return to Armenia of a part of seasonal construction labour force from Russia. This was stated to journalists by Gagik Eganyan, head of the Migratory Service at the Ministry for Territorial Management of Armenia.

The murder of Magomed Albogachiev, former head of Ali-Yurt village, Ingushetia, differs from other murders of officials, from time to time committed in the Republic. This was stated by Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the human rights organization named "Mashr"

For the second day in a row, Russian helicopters are intruding into the Georgian air space and making photos of police posts in the territory of the Zugdidi District (Western Georgia), runs the statement of Georgian MIA disseminated today. However, the Command of the Russian Military Air Forces refutes this statement.

The Federal Agency of Air Transport ("Rosaviatsiya") has published a list of national airlines, notable for their delayed flights in 2008. Among the leaders - the "Dagestan Airlines".

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has announced financial amnesty for those corrupted officials who will voluntarily return all the stolen assets back to the state. According to Mr Evkurov, all the remaining bureaucrats and their helpers criminated of corruption will be punished most severely.

Hydi Tagliavini, head of the International Mission of European Union (IMEU) for investigating the reasons of Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, has visited Abkhazia.

A group of advocates who participate in the process on the attack on power structures of Kabardino-Balkaria on October 13, 2005, plan to appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation against the law adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation to cancel trials by jury on cases related to terrorism and other anti-state crimes.