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Torture is a widely spread means of obtaining evidence in the system of the Azerbaijan Interior Ministry, and no police officer has been punished for it, human rights activist Leyla Yunus said.

"The rumors that the attack on the Anti-Drug Department is an anti-Kabardian action organized by Balkarians are very alarming," head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center Valery Khatazhukov said.

For the period of its activity, the "fast response group" in the staff of the Azerbaijan ombudsperson has inspected over 150 temporary detention isolators and revealed no fact of torture.

On December 23, at a closed session of the standing parliamentary commission on foreign relations, Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian submitted to the deputies the memorandum on mutual understanding "On the Commanders of the Multinational Division Forming a Part of the Stabilization Forces in Iraq and Resolution of Other Problems."

Today, officers of local and federal security agencies detained approximately 20 people during a joint "special operation" on the territory of the Rassvet refugee camp in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia.

The Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (APFP) offers the opposition to participate in the 2005 parliamentary elections as a united bloc.

The Abkhazian Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered the initiative group to nominate Yakub Lakoba as a presidential candidate, Abkhazian CEC Chairman Batal Tabagua told the Caucasian Knot correspondent.

A presentation of the Group of Friendship Between Caucasian People, formed of six deputies of the parliament, has taken place in the building of the Georgian parliament today.

The municipal elections held in Azerbaijan did not meet international standards stated in the 1990 Copenhagen Document, the OSCE Office in Baku has announced in a press release.

The aim of the visit of Ms. Erturk to Ingushetia is to collect reliable information about the state of women in the republic and study the human rights situation in the region.

Though the Constitution and Azerbaijan legislation provide for freedom of speech and media, the government restricts these rights in practice, Freedom House stated in its annual survey.

Today, the Georgian Constitutional Court has satisfied a claim of the Georgian NGO Article 42 of the Constitution according to which a judge's decision to conduct search and seizure will be subject to appeal.

The refugees demand that the Azerbaijan authorities should stop persecuting them, abducting men, and illegally delivering them to the Russian side.

Relations between Armenia and NATO do not pursue certain political goals, they start from the necessity to neutralize dangers and threats, said Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sargsian.

NGO representatives gathered in the Nazran office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on December 16-17 to discuss the work of the ICRC in the Northern Caucasus, Russia, and other countries of the world.

Heads and representatives of local executive authorities intervened in the work of election commissions and prevented them from doing their duties, the US Embassy to Azerbaijan has announced in a press release.

An official delegation from Chechnya is expected to visit the Pankissi Gorge, Georgia on December 19.

The round table discussion titled "Terrorism in Films and TV Reports" was held at the Moscow House of Nationalities on December 16, political scientists, human rights activists, journalists, and cinematographers being participants in it.

In his exclusive interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, Andreas Gross, the member of the PACE Monitoring Committee and co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan, said that the aim of his present visit was to monitor municipal elections in Azerbaijan.

In the evening of December 3, a Russian combat helicopter launched several missiles at the village of Tevzen-Kale, Chechnya's Vedeno district. One of the missiles hit the house of the Suleymanov family.