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As reported by Georgian MP Giya Tortladze, who visited today the conflict zone, the authorities of South Ossetia refused to release the two Georgian teenagers detained in this zone and postponed the issue till December 14.

The visit to Azerbaijan on December 11 of Yuri Merzliakov (Russia), Robert Bradtke (USA) and Bernard Fassier (France) - co-chairs of the Minsk OSCE Group - was held confidential.

Today, at the presidential election in Abkhazia, by 7:30 p.m. Moscow time the voter turnout was 64.29 percent; at many polling stations people had to wait for their turn to cast ballots. As stated by Batal Tabagua, chair of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Abkhazia, the figure allows recognizing the election valid. The CEC promises to announce preliminary outcomes by midday on December 13.

The parliament of the Republic of Nauru will consider the issue of recognition of independence of South Ossetia. This was stated Kiren Keke, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Finance of Nauru, at his meeting in Tskhinvali with Stanislav Kochiev, chairman of the parliament of South Ossetia.

A young man - Ramaz Bezhanidze, 27, whose life was supported by a respiratory apparatus, - died today in the afternoon from swine flu in a Batumi hospital. This was reported at an emergency press conference by Alexander Kvitashvili, Minister of Public Health of Georgia.

Ruslan Kishmariya, Abkhazian President's plenipotentiary for the Gali District, has categorically refuted statements of some Georgian media that the Abkhazian militia and Russian militaries violently brought residents of the Gali District to polling stations to force them to take part in today's presidential election in Abkhazia.

In the opinion of Ibragim Yaganov, leader of the public organization "Khasse", who was not long ago beaten in Nalchik, in the land disputes between Kabardians and Balkars, dialogue is a possible way to a compromise.

Even though the investigation is under personal supervision of President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov and Russian Public Prosecutor Yuri Chaika, nothing is known so far about any progress in investigating the kidnapping attempt and subsequent murder of Ingush human rights activist Maksharip Aushev. Musa Aushev, the casualty's brother, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it.

The case of Sarkis Atspanyan, an activist of the opposition of Armenia, who is serving his term in the Yerevan prison of "Vardashen", was sent to the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR). This was reported by Asmik Pogosyan, Sarkis' wife.

The foothill Achkhoy-Martan and Urus-Martan Districts of Chechnya are under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime after December 11, and militants are searched there.

The initiative group of the project named "Volgograd Breakthrough" has filed a claim to the prosecutor's office of Volgograd against the well-known Runet designer and thousand-reader-blogger Artemiy Lebedev in the context of his permanent use of obscene language in his blog. The applicants see it as offence of all Russians.

Senor Asratyan, press secretary of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Nagorno-Karabakh, has refuted the accusations announced on December 10 by his Azerbaijani counterpart Eldar Sabiroglu that the Karabakh party breaks the ceasefire regime at the contact line on the everyday basis.

On December 11, two frontier sentry boats of the Russian FSB Border Department in Abkhazia - named "Mangust" and "Sobol" - arrived for permanent deployment to the Abkhazian port of Ochamchira.

The delegates of the Fifth Reporting-Election Congress of the Public Movement "For Human Rights", which took place in Moscow on December 10-12, called authorities to dialogue with those oppositional radical forces in Northern Caucasus, which essentially reject violence in politics. Human rights activists also called to lift the ban on professing certain religious trends, including the so-called "Wahhabism".

On the International Day of Human Rights, which was marked on December 10, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the office of the Ombudsman of Dagestan that as of December 1, 2009, they received 940 applications.

On the eve of the International Day of Human Rights, Moscow hosted a ceremony of awarding the medals of the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation "Hurry Doing Good". Two of the laureates were rewarded posthumously - human rights defenders Natalia Estemirova from Chechnya and Maksharip Aushev from Ingushetia.

The Ombudsman of Georgia and a number of local NGOs mark that in 2009 citizens of the country submitted their complaints most often with regard to legal proceedings, investigation of criminal cases and violations of prisoners' rights.

Today, over a hundred activists of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan held an action in front of Mosque "Fatmei-Zakhra" in Eni Guneshli settlement in a Baku suburb in protest against court decision to demolish this temple. According to the protesters, policemen did not let them to the mosque and detained about 50 activists.

Today, in the course of an emergency sitting of the parliament of Georgia, MPs have accused Russian and Abkhazian power agents of terror against the Georgian population.

Today, at the trial on the murder case of Ingush oppositionist Magomed Evloev, his relatives left the courtroom after they learnt that the main witnesses would not be interrogated. This was reported by the Evloevs' advocate Magomed Gandarov.