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Today, Armen Arutyunyan, Ombudsman of Armenia, made a statement, in which he has expressed expediency of early release of Armand Babadzhanyan, editor-in-chief of the "Zhamanak-Yerevan" newspaper.

Speaking to journalists about subscription bagging, initiated by the Centre of Nationwide Movement in support of bringing Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, to the International Tribunal in The Hague, Stepan Demirchyan, leader of Popular Party of Armenia, has explained that this is a public initiative, and political parties should not consider their accession to it.

Recently, oppositional figures have been more frequent on TV in Armenia; they can speak freely, without censorship, and, in general, the trend is positive, asserts Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Institute of the Caucasus.

The prosecutor's office of the Novosibirsk Region has sent a presentation to local Internet providers asking them to restrict access of their clients to a number of websites, which are, in the opinion of law enforcers, extremist in nature. Among these websites, there are some resources of Chechen separatists.

The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (also called Medecins Sans Frontieres - MSF) is shocked by the decision of the Federal Court of Switzerland to share the funds of the ransom paid for release Aryan Erkel, a citizen of the Netherlands and head of the MSF mission who had been kidnapped in Northern Caucasus.

The law enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic continue to study the circumstances of the incident in Grozny, when as a result of an explosion at the building of the parliament two persons suffered.

At the process in the Nasiminskiy District Court of Baku on the case of Sergey Strekalin, accused of attacking journalist of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) newspaper Agil Halil, on July 14 Public Prosecutor Eldar Gamzaev asked the court to sentence the defendant to two years of imprisonment with serving the punishment in a general custody colony.

Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman in Chechnya, believes that the investigatory actions on the fact of bombardment on October 29, 1999, of a column of refugees on the highway Petropavlovskaya - Goryacheistochnenskaya village, and detection of a mass burial are being held improperly.

Representatives of nongovernmental and human rights organizations of Armenia are happy with their meeting with Thomas Hammarberg, High Commissioner of the Council of Europe for Human Rights.

Starting today, the oppositional Nationwide Movement will bag subscriptions for sending the case of Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Umakhan Udamanov, father of the Dagestanian, whose execution was filmed and placed in the Internet, has informed today that the Moscow inspector advised Umakhan Udamanov to undertake a search of the criminals and the body of his son.

Mikail Ezhiev, a well-known public figure of Chechnya and the Chairman of the Republic's Human Rights Centre, has refuted the information about his appointment to the position of the head of the Public Council under the administration of the city of Grozny.

On July 13, Thomas Hammarberg, High Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, will come for his three-day working visit to Yerevan. He wants to assess the progress made in investigating the March 1-2 events in Yerevan.

Speaking at the international summit named "Yalta European Strategy" and held in the Crimea, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili called to development of the Black Sea cooperation.

Javier Solana, EU Foreign and Defence Policy High Commissioner, has shared the opinion of the authorities of Georgia concerning the flights of Russian war crafts over South Ossetia.

Kabardino-Balkaria is holding celebrations dedicated to defeat of Crimeans in the valley of River Malka on Mount Kanzhal plateau.

The international organization in defence of the press named "Reporters without Borders" has again criticized the trial on the case concerning the attack on Agil Halil, a journalist of the "Azadlyg" newspaper, having called the trial to be a farce.

The Caucasus Institute in Yerevan has hosted a roundtable on the topic "Armenia in Middle-East Space: Globalization of Infrastructures". Arabist David Ovannisyan, Professor of the Yerevan State University and former Armenian ambassador to Syria, shared his opinion on the topic of debate.

Having opposed his small Georgia to great Russia, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili won expected sympathies in the West. This conclusion was made by the participants of the roundtable organized by the Abkhazian TV, namely, political scientists Liana Kvarcheliya and Arda Inal-Ipa, and Abkhazian MP Garik Samanba.

The managers of the company named AGC Flat Glass Europe, which will build a sheet glass factory in the Rostov Region near the city of Azov, has assured the city administration that it is interested to hire local people to the enterprise.