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On April 9, Estonian MP Andres Herkel, co-rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and Veronica Kotek, special representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Azerbaijan, had a meeting with Novruzali Mamedov, head of the Talysh Cultural Centre, who is serving his term in high security Colony No. 15.

In the Rostov Region, miners-pensioners from the city of Zverevo, who are striving for their privileges on heating, are filing new claims to the European Court on Human Rights. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Valery Dyakonov, deputy of the municipal duma of Zverevo. The pensioners continue their pickets and hunger strike.

Residents of Ingushetia Madina Ozdoeva and Patimat Mutalieva, detained in the course of the special operation conducted by power agents on March 26 in Ordzhonikidzevskaya village, Sunzha District of the republic, are at large. The investigation regards them as witnesses.

The opposition, which is holding a rally in Tbilisi, has split into parts and blocked strategic streets of the capital of Georgia. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Paata Zakareishvili, a political scientist and human rights activist, who is present at the rally.

The night in front of the Parliament of Georgia, where a small group of opposition supporters and activists were on duty, passed in peace. However, elsewhere in Tbilisi incidents were registered connected with participants of the protest action - a young oppositionist was beaten.

Today, in the southwest part of Yerevan, a strike of minibus drivers was held. Several dozens of drivers protested against increase of liquefied gas prices, used by their minibuses. According to their story, this price rise was not accompanied by transportation tariff growth.

Among all the districts of Russia the South Federal District (SFD) is in the last place by development of the use of Internet. However, bloggers and Internet edition are more active in the SFD than on the average in Russia. These are the data from the information bulletin published by the "Yandex" Company on the Internet development in regions of Russia in 2008.

On April 8, in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, unidentified persons wounded two employees of the road police service, and then, trying to escape the chase, killed a local resident.

The tax service demands that parents of the children-victims of the Beslan terror act in 2004 should pay taxes on their free-of-charge training at the "Podmoskovny" College in Koralovo founded by Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and financed by YUKOS, as Ella Kesaeva, chair of the "Voice of Beslan", reports.

Georgian journalist Irakliy Berulava, who is present in the venue, has treated the data about the number of participants in the protest rally in Tbilisi, reported by some mass media, to be frankly false.

Early in the morning on April 9, in Azerbaijan, poet-satirist Mirza Sakit (Sakit Zakhidov), a journalist of the "Azadlyg" (Freedom) newspaper, who was sentenced in October 2006 to three years in prison for drug dealing, got at large.

The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) has again condemned Russia on four claims filed by Chechens and has obliged Russia to pay 282,000 euros out to residents of Chechnya for disappearance of their relatives in 2001-2003.

The Party of Zurab Nogaideli, former prime minister of Georgia, named as "Movement for United Georgia", is holding protest actions in Adzharia.

On April 5, unidentified power agents kidnapped Yusup Zagirov, born in 1977. His brother Omar Zagirov made a statement yesterday, on April 8.

According to Georgian sources, on April 7, a Georgian named Gvandzhi Kuprava, 65, was kidnapped from Sida village, Gali District. The kidnappers asked for a ransom, and then took Kuprava in an unknown direction.

Yuri Airapetyan, Ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh, will become a member of the European Institute of Ombudspersons. Having announced this news to journalists, Mr Airapetyan added that in 2008 there were no mass violations of human rights in Nagorno-Karabakh, as the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

A Chechen militiaman was wounded by explosion of a fougasse (land mine) planted under the bottom of his car. It happened in the evening on April 7 in the foothill Urus-Martan District of the republic. The victim was hospitalized.

The attempt on Sulim Yamadaev, former commander of a special GRU battalion, and the murder of his senior brother, former State Duma deputy Ruslan Yamadaev, were backed by people from the retinue of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, the members of the Yamadaev family assert.

The Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation has reported about detention of suspects of committing a number of resonant crimes, including assassination of Ruslan Yamadaev, former deputy of the State Duma of Russia, and an attempt on the former military commandant of Chechnya General-Colonel Sergey Kizyun.

Today, at about 6 p.m. local time, in Yerevan, a clash burst out between policemen of the patrol-sentry unit and participants of the so-called "political walks" in the Northern Avenue of the Armenian capital.