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Alexander Bastrykin, head of the ICPO, asserts that in the August conflict with South Ossetia, Georgia made use of mercenaries recruited in several countries.

President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev has signed the ratification laws of the treaties on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Kremlin press service said today.

Further investigation of the criminal cases initiated against former commander of the "Vostok" battalion of the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division of the Ministry of Defence of Russia Lieutenant Colonel Sulim Yamadaev will be held by military investigatory bodies.

The death roll of the explosion of a fixed-route taxi in the centre of Vladikavkaz has reached 12 persons, the spokesman of the Ministry of Public Health of North Ossetia has reported today.

European MP from Italy Julietto Chieza has managed to establish the whereabouts of the missing young men from South Ossetia, who had been taken in captivity by Georgian militaries and whose fate remained unknown.

Today, the Yasamal District Court of Baku, presided by Judge Fardy Mekhraliev, has rejected the claim filed by Einullah Fatullaev, imprisoned founder and editor-in-chief of the newspapers "Real Azerbaijan" and "Gyundelik Azerbaijan", against Elmar Mamedyarov, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Azerbaijan.

Residents of Ingushetia have informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that power agencies of the Republic are fabricating a criminal case against their relative Ruslan Terkakiev, 23, and subject him to torture.

Saturday, November 21, 2008, is exactly one year after the murder of Farid Babaev, leader of the Dagestan Regional Branch of the "Yabloko" Party, a prominent public figure and human rights activist.

Today, an opening ceremony took place in the capital of Armenia - of the monument to the national currency - dram, which was officially accepted as the national payment unit on November 22, 1993. In the opinion of Armenian authorities, the monument is "a serious work of art", which will be interesting for foreign tourists.

Former inhabitants of the Temporary Accommodation Centres in Chechnya, whom the Republic's authorities promised to provide housing in the first order, now have to pay for leased apartments or live with their relatives, reports the Human Rights Centre "Memorial".

The Labour Party of Georgia has offered all the political parties and organizations of the country to draft and sign a joint general declaration with a demand of immediate resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili.

On November 21, the first group of Russian pilgrims departed from the seaport of Sochi to Mecca. 200 believers, most of them are residents of Ingushetia, will initially cross the Black Sea by a ferry, and then continue their Hajj by land transport.

North Ossetia is affected by the global financial crisis. Today, it is manifested, first of all, through cutting of jobs by the major local enterprises.

According to the examination, none of the bullets extracted from the bodies of casualties and wounded persons of the events on March 1 in Yerevan was shot from a sniper's rifle, Agvan Ovsepyan, General Public Prosecutor of Armenia, told Thomas Hammarberg, Supreme Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, who came to Yerevan.

Somali pirates received ransom and released tanker "Jenius", captured on September 27. Among the crew members there are six citizens of Georgia.

The press service of the President of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has reported that residents helped law enforcement bodies to stop illegal gambling establishments.

Ella Kesaeva, co-chair of the All-Russian Public Organization "Voice of Beslan", asserts that the so-called "Beslan terrorists", who seized the school in this North-Ossetian city four years ago, could be the agents of Russian special agencies - UBOP (Unit for Fighting Organized Crime) and FSB (Federal Security Bureau. This can be concluded, according to Kesaeva, from biography details of the attackers.

Samvel Nikoyan, Chairman of the ad hoc commission of the National Assembly of Armenia, which was set up to study the events on March 1 in Yerevan, has confirmed in his conversation with journalists the words that he addressed to a foreign correspondent that firearms were used and a sniper worked in the course of the said events.

Yesterday, on November 20, the court prolonged the term of custody for three residents of Kabardino-Balkaria, who are kept in Pyatigorsk SIZO, till January 11, 2009. According to advocate Magomed Abubakarov, in the course of investigation the suspects were exposed to violence.

Four residents of Ingushetia have stated their illegal arrest and torture at militia units. According to their statement, they were forced into confession of the crime they never committed.