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Today, the Tbilisi City Court has satisfied the demand of the Prosecutor's Office to transfer the building in Tbilisi housing the head office of the oppositional political movement "For United Georgia" into the state management.

Suspension in the new year of broadcasting of western radio stations has actually deprived citizens of Azerbaijan of the last source of objective information. This statement was made by independent political scientist Ilgar Mamedov, co-founder of the public association named "Republican Alternative - REAL".

The number of complaints sent from the town of Zverevo, Rostov Region, to the European Court on Human Rights, has already reached 124. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Valery Dyakonov, deputy of the municipal duma of Zverevo.

The All-Russia Public Organization "Voice of Beslan" plans to continue investigating the terror act committed in September 2004. In February, the organization will send another initiative group of 60 persons to Strasbourg to register a new complaint against the state.

This year, the Ministry of Defence of Armenia plans to reform the national army by changing its structure.

Most of Georgian political parties has welcomed signing the Georgia-USA Strategic Partnership Charter, however, they have warned the society against increased expectations from the document, and also expressed discontent with the non-transparent procedure of its drafting and adoption.

Arman Musinyan, press secretary of the oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC), has declared today that on December 23 ten persons in masks and camouflage came into the cell of inmate Vardges Gaspari, attacked him and started beating him.

The USA will always recognize the territorial integrity of Georgia, and there are no chances that the States will ever recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, so far recognized only by Russia, Nicaragua and HAMAS, as Matthew Brayza, the US under secretary of state, has declared today.

The Turkish Public Prosecutor has launched an investigation against a group of Turkish citizens who published in one of Turkish websites a public apology to the Armenian nation for the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

By the outcomes of the study carried out by the analytical group named "The Economist Intelligence Unit" (EIU), by the level of democracy development, Georgia takes the 104th place in the world, and Russia - the 107th. The document notes that among the post-Soviet countries these two powers lost most rating points compared with the previous research made in 2006.

On Friday, January 9, the Georgian newspaper "Resonansi" reported, with reference to its own sources, that Prime Minister of Georgia Grigol Mgaloblishvili is going to declare his resignation.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, a woman-alpinist-skier from St-Petersburg was killed by a snow slide, when she tried to ski down the Elborus.

Valery Bembinov, Director General of the "Elista" Football Club (FC), was fined by the city court of the capital of Kalmykia by 80,000 roubles for illegal employment of football players into the Municipal Unitary Enterprise (MUE) "Energoservice", where he was also director.

Representatives of the national minorities living in Armenia are most of all worried about the problems of education and culture. This was stated by Vardan Asatryan, head of the Department on National Minorities and Religions of the governmental office of Armenia.

Today, ecologists have stopped an attempt to start construction of a highway in the wildlife reserve "Bolshoi Utrish" in the Krasnodar Territory, having blocked the construction machinery.

On December 31, 2008, President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili signed a decree on releasing 246 prisoners.

Today, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has signed the Federal Law "On Making Changes in Some Legal Acts of the Russian Federation", which defines the order of alienation of land for construction of Olympic objects in Sochi. In particular, the Law stipulates a possibility not to alienate land plots from the owners for constructing Olympic objects, but to lease them for restricted usage.

Last year Armenia received about 600,000 tourists. It is by 20 percent more than in 2006, as reported by Mekhak Apresyan, head of the Department for Tourism of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia.

In Georgia, Ombudsman Sozar Subari, while speaking on December 30 at the extraordinary sitting of the parliament, made a statement that before the dispersal of the rally in November 2007 the heads of the power ministries of Georgia had a secret meeting in the study of Vano Merabishvili, Minister of Internal Affairs, where they had planned their actions on dispersal of the protesters.

Today in the morning, a dry-cargo ship "Kardelia" flying the flag of Cambodia and sailing to Georgia with three thousand tons of wheat was damaged near the Black Sea port Kavkaz in the Krasnodar Territory. 12 citizens of Azerbaijan and Georgia are onboard the ship.