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The US position in relation to the freedom of the media and status of journalists in Azerbaijan is very simple and transparent: journalists should not be subject to imprisonment because of their expressed thoughts.

Today, the North-Caucasian Regional Military Court (Rostov-on-Don) has continued hearing the case of Evgeniy Khudyakov and Sergey Arakcheev, officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, accused of murdering peaceful residents of Chechnya.

The Supreme Court of Russia has cancelled the non-guilty verdict in the case of murdering Arthur Sardaryan, an Armenian of 19, committed in a Moscow suburban electric train in May 2006.

The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor four courageous journalists from Russia, Pakistan, China, and Mexico with 2007 International Press Freedom Awards in November.

"Citizens of Russia were kidnapped by the Georgian police in the village of Avnev of the Znaur District of South Ossetia, occupied by power agencies of Georgia," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the United Press Centre of the Republic of South Ossetia (RSO).

President of Abkhazia has informed that negotiations on releasing Abkhazian border servicemen are conducted with Thomas Hammerberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and with those international structures who should deal with it.

Sources in Abkhazia are asserting that two Abkhazian servicemen were executed by Georgian militaries already after capture, and they had rendered no resistance.

Everywhere in Ingushetia, local militia bodies are obeying to the oral order of Musa Medov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ingushetia (RI), not to register crimes connected with bombardments, explosions and other acts of terror.

Vagap Tutakov, former special representative of Aslan Maskhadov in Strasbourg and a deputy of the Chechen Parliament of 1997 convocation, kidnapped by unknown persons on September 10 in the southwest of the Republic, has been released.

On the eve of the celebrations dedicated to Adygea's accession to Russia, along with the whole system of law and order protection activities, preventive security measures are taken in various spheres.

A roundtable was held at the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Centre dedicated to xenophobia issues. Denga Khalidov, Corresponding Fellow of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences of Russia, took part in the debates.

On September 21, under the criminal case of blowing up the "Neva-Express" train, members of law enforcement bodies conducted searches of several houses of the Chechen natives who live in the Chudov District of the Novgorod Region.

The "Riyadus Salikhijn" grouping, which has again declared itself to be responsible for blowing up the "Neva-Express" train, was liquidated and could not have committed this terror act, Ruslan Alkhanov, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Chechnya, has stated.

Cases have recently become frequent in Azerbaijan, when broadcasts on religious topics are urgently taken out of television programs. Thus, the ANS TV channel has cancelled a popular broadcast "Allah Khaggy" (Swear by Allah).

The "Day of Mistrust" - a picket against the war in Chechnya dated to the eighth anniversary of the "FSB exercise" in Ryazan on September 22-23, 1999, was held in the Novopushkinskiy Mini-Park in Moscow.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, relatives of the defendants in the case of the attack on Nalchik on October 13, 2005, have filed a petition to A. Yu. Sovrulin, head of the investigatory group of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for the South federal District (SFD), asking to increase food parcels to the inmates.

Ali Insanov, ex-Minister of Public Health of Azerbaijan, has accused President Ilham Aliev of appropriation of "oil" money and setting up the military-police regime in the country.

Satirical journalist Sakit Zakhidov, an employee of the "Azadlyg" newspaper, who is now in custody, has started a hunger strike.

In the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, a participant of the picket of former miners who demanded from local authorities to respect their social rights and guarantees deceased.

Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta," has been posthumously awarded the annual American Award "For Development of Democracy."