According to the driver of the car, FSB officers talked to him, in particular the FSB investigator who said the books were withdrawn as an "antistate propaganda".

Six rescuers, headed by Colonel Gadzhimurad Abdulatipov, were looking for three soldiers, lost during an army operation to destroy the armed gang which had broken into the Tsuntinsky district of the Dagestani Republic.

Originally, 15 candidates intended to run for the presidency but eight of them failed to gather the necessary number of signatures.

Approximately 3 million voting ballots were to be sent on Friday to all election polls, including the Adjarian Autonomy, the press-service of the Central Election Commission disclosed.

According to the authors of the statement, recently the Karabakh problem has appeared to be in the center of the country's political life again.

Ali Kerimli, APFP chairman and a Milli Majlis deputy, summed up the exchange of opinions. He spoke for the organization of mass actions in defense of the people arrested in connection with the events of October 15 and 16.

Governor of Krasnodar Territory Aleksandr Tkachyov took a firm stand towards the migratory law breakers.

On the instructions of the Ingush President, New Year presents were given on behalf of him on December 26 to all the children who were in the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) from North Osetia and Chechnya.

Semen Filatov, a student of the 11th form, became a winner in the "Learn Your Rights" Internet contest.

The academic council of the student club "Justice" (Chechen State University) made a decision to bring an action against journalist Sergey Dorenko, who stated in the Zavtra newspaper that to annihilate all the Chechen people would be enough for the elimination of terrorism.

According to preliminary information, the military killed three residents of the village. But it remains unknown so far if they were members of the armed resistance or civilians.

"On Monday, army commandos eliminated the last rebels trying to break out of the encircled area destroying 15 of them," said Colonel Igor Konashenkov, an aide to the commander of the North Caucasian military district.

On December 29, the Abkhazian side released ten Georgians abducted from the Gali district of breakaway Abkhazia a few days ago, in exchange for release of three Abkhazians.

We call your attention to the extracts from the statement Ruslan Mutsolgov handed in to Imran Ezhiev, head of the Ingush office of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship and Moscow Helsinki Group coordinator.

The ministry of defense regards the incident as the one throwing discredit upon the peacekeeping forces as it occurred in the area they are responsible for.

Activists of the Humanitarian Programs Center took the lead in conducting such an action in 1995. Both the number of its participants and the number of children getting New Year presents and congratulations has been increasing year after year.

Participants considered the Regulations on the Coordinating Center and a plan of work for the first six months of 2004. The Chairman of the Dagestani National Assembly, Mukhu Aliyev, presided at the sitting.

The surrendering militant said that Arab mercenaries had killed two other gunmen who wanted to surrender together with him, sources from the public relations centre of the Federal Security Service reported.

Yastrjembsky's statement that Russian special operations forces destroyed 17 Mojaheds (22 by another version) near Serzhen-Yurt and that one German and three Turkish citizens were among the people killed may turn to serious international embarrassing position for the Kremlin.

"After I was arrested by the Judge of the Moscow Circuit Court Martial I was subjected to torture and degrading treatment," reads the statement.