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Ahmed Ismailov, a resident of Petrakovskiy settlement, Khasavyurt District of Dagestan, states that militiamen are persecuting him because he is a relative of Magomed Ismailov, 18, who was found murdered on November 26.

The programme of urban redevelopment and construction of the city water supply system is launched in Shusha, Nagorno-Karabakh. The project and cost-estimate works are underway, and in 2-2.5 months a construction tender will be held. This was announced on December 16 by Ara Vardanyan, executive director of the All-Armenian Foundation "Ayastan".

Salamat Gandaev, a pilgrim from Karachai-Circassia, who was detained by law enforcement bodies in the city of Sochi, is suspected of murdering Ismail-Hadji Bostanov, Rector of the Islamic Institute.

According to Mussa Aushev, brother of the Ingush human rights activist Maksharip Aushev, assassinated in October, the version that the car with the Dzhaniev family - Maksharip's relatives, which blew up on December 16, suffered from a gas bottle explosion, is inconsistent. He refers to eyewitnesses who assert that the gas bottle blew up after the first explosion.

In 2009, about one hundred new complaints were lodged from Chechnya to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). They have to do mainly with detentions and disappearances of applicants' relatives. This was explained by Anatoly Kovler, Judge of the European Court from the Russian Federation.

The pilgrims, who made their hadj to the sacred places in Saudi Arabia, have returned to Kabardino-Balkaria. Amerbi Gegraev, head of the group, which went to Mecca by bus, said that the hadj was held at a high level, practically without any problems.

Along with the economic recession, Armenia sees a significant growth of poverty. The count of poor population in the country has increased by 90,000 persons, or by 3 percent as compared with last year. This was reported to journalists by Aristomene Varudakis, representative of the World Bank in Armenia.

As reported by President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev on December 17 in Makhachkala at the sitting dated to the Day of Security Services, marked on December 20, from the start of 2009 in Dagestan 150 militants were liquidated, including 5 foreign mercenaries. 108 members of the armed underground and their helpers were detained.

The interregional public ecological organization "Live Utrish" sees no sense in the All-Russian protest action, planned on December 26-27, in defence of the "Bolshoi Utrish" nature reserve, announced by the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus. This was stated by Marina Korovina, coordinator of the "Live Utrish". According to her version, now the organization is worried with the state of affairs in another nature reserve - "Abraus".

The pressure on the regional branch of the all-Russian organization "Young Europe" in Rostov-on-Don gets stronger; now they try to add the "national issue" to persecution; and threats arrive on behalf of the Caucasian Diaspora. This was stated by the head of branch Konstantin Baranov.

The aim of blowing up the car committed yesterday in Ingushetia was supposedly Fatima Dzhanieva, widow of the assassinated earlier Maksharip Aushev. This version was announced by the investigation.

The Polish police have addressed the court of the city of Zgorzelec for a sanction to arrest several natives of the Caucasus, who have captured the train Wroclaw-Dresden. Should a criminal case be initiated, three refugees will get under threat of up to three years of imprisonment.

Under the preliminary version of the investigation, Batyr Dzhaniev, 23, who blew up his car on December 17 at the road police sentry post in Nazran, took revenge on power agents for the death of his mother.

The relatives of Maksharip Aushev believe that the charges of the Prosecutor's Office of Ingushetia of terrorism in relation to his family were caused by the desire to hide the circumstance of the deaths of the oppositionist and his wife.

On December 16, the European Parliament passed the resolution entitled "On Freedom of Expression in Azerbaijan" and giving a critical estimate to the situation in the country with the freedom of speech and self-expression.

On December 16, political prisoner Sasun Mikaelyan, who was transferred on the eve because of his poor health condition from the prison to the medical centre "Armenia", underwent a successful surgery. The danger that threatened his life is now some 80 percent less. Journalists were told about it by Avetik Minasyan, Mikaelyan's attending physician.

Samvel Martirosyan, an expert in information safety and a well-known blogger from Armenia, held a seminar in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh on the topic "Artsakh and Armenia in Information War: Blogs and Social Networks".

Introduction of elections under party lists leads in Russian regions to a serious impingement of citizens' election rights. Ingushetia is in the lead in this aspect. This is the conclusion made by Alexander Kynev, a political scientist and expert of the association in defence of voters' rights named "Golos" (Vote), in his 500-page book "Elections of Parliaments of Russian Regions in 2003-2009".

By his decree of December 15, Arsen Kanokov, head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) founded the post of Children's Ombudsman in his republic.

In the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR) of Azerbaijan, three activists of the civil society state encroachment on their right to fair trial, since local law enforcers refused to accept their complaint of beating.