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On June 1, Norair Eghiazarian, member of a polling district at constituency No 8, and Armen Oganian, elector of the same district, were arrested in Armenia under the criminal proceedings initiated upon facts of violations in the course of May 31 election to the Elders' Quorum.

The South Ossetia CEC has falsified the number of 56,000 electors who took part in the parliamentary election on May 31, there are less than 20,000 people in the entire republic, states Albert Dzhussoyev, one of the opposition leaders, to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On June 3, the independent newspaper "Batumelebi" issued in Adzharia (Georgia) is to receive the Gerd Bucerius Prize "Free Press of Eastern Europe" founded by the Norwegian foundation "Freedom of Speech" and the German foundation "ZEIT-Stiftung". The chief editor of the newspaper is already in Oslo where the award ceremony is to be held.

During the June 2 meeting, Armenian president Serge Sargsian issued an instruction to the law enforcement officers to submit their proposals on the conditions of and legal grounds for the amnesty of political prisoners before June 15.

Towards the end of the court hearing today, 40 defendants on the criminal case of an attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005 in Kabardino-Balkaria announced that they were going on hunger strike to protest against denial of medical treatment to defendant Sergei Kaziyev whose state of health needed it.

A sitting of the North Caucasus Moslems Coordination Council is due to be held one these days to take a decision on the possible exclusion of the Egyptian capital from the coming Middle East tour of the North Caucasus spiritual leaders. This has been announced by Ismail-Khadji Berdiyev, chair of the Clerical Department of Moslems in Karachai-Cherkess and Stavropol krai.

One of the two young men killed on May 28 in the city of Shali by Chechen law-enforcement officers in the course of a special operation did not belong to any armed underground group, said his acquaintances in an interview with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the preliminary data, Natalya Lutsenko, Acting City Mayor, nominated by the United Russia Party has won in the elections of the Mayor of the resort city of Kislovodsk.

The numerous inspections carried out to check the reports of violations at the elections to the Council of Elders of Erevan have shown that most of the information being spread by the mass media has been invented and aimed at imitating mass violations, said Sona Truzyan, Press Secretary of the General Prosecutor's Office in her interview with journalists. She pointed out that as of the end of day on May 31, the General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia has received no complaints in writing.

The case involving the murder of Gadji Abashilov, Chairman of GTRC (State TV and Radio Company) Dagestan is considered unsolved by the President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliyev and Suleiman Uladiyev, the Abashilov's successor as the TV and Radio Company Chairman. They believe that the person who ordered the murder has not been found and those who will appear in court are just scapegoats.

Today the Georgian opposition has started to piquet the Tbilisi Mayor's House demanding that the city authorities should rather fulfil its direct functions, e.g. deal with the sanitary cleaning of the city rather than interfere with the political process.

The elections held in South Ossetia were fair and transparent. South Ossetia has passed a test for mature democracy, declared the President of South Ossetia Edward Kokoity following the announcement of the parliamentary election results by Bella Pliyeva, Head of the Central Electoral Committee.

The Russian students, mostly from the Caucuses, detained in Egypt were questioned on the subject of their participation in extremist groups, said Asvad Harikhanov, one of the arrested students and the resident of Chechnya speaking today to the Caucasion Knot correspondent.

Today neither the eyewitnesses nor the victims in the criminal case involving the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, have attended the Kabardino-Balkarian Supreme Court's session. The only eyewitness brought to the court refused to enter the court session room.

This year's nominees for the Gerd Bucerius Prize for "Free Press of Eastern Europe" awarded annually for outstanding achievements in the development of independent press include two Azerbaijani representatives, the journalists of the Azadlyg (Freedom) and Bizim Yol (Our Path) newspapers.

The Dagestani Supreme Court Criminal Board has reversed the Mahachkala Leninski Regional Court ruling on the lack of jurisdiction of the Leniniski Court over the criminal case involving five journalists of the Chernovik's weekly and its referral for consideration on the merits to the Kirovski City Regional Court.

Evgeniy Lukinov, correspondent of Channel One, who suddenly died today morning in the capital of South Ossetia, got poisoned by carbonic oxide. The autopsy revealed the reason.

Today, one day prior to parliamentary elections in South Ossetia, nephews of businessman Albert Dzhussoev, one of the leaders of South-Ossetian opposition, were detained.

The investigation of criminal case concerning inhabitants of Ingushetia Maksharip Khidriev and Salambek Dzakhkiev, accused of blowing up the "Neva-Express" passenger train, is over. The indictment has been approved, and in the near future the criminal case will be sent to the Novgorod Regional Court for consideration on the merits.

A Chechen woman, mother of four children, committed a self-immolation act in Spain in protest against eviction from a free-of-charge apartment of the Red Cross.