"While meeting with official persons, I was not given the impression that they were ready to take concrete steps to solve the problems connected with the press," announced Mr. Menard.

The Alina temporary settlement center in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia's Sunzha district was closed on December 1.

The order that the units and sub-units should go on higher state of alert was issued by high ataman of the Friendly Association of Abkhazian Cossacks Major-General Oleg Petrov in connection with the change of power in Georgia and possible large-scale armed actions against the Republic of Abkhazia.

This was a subject matter of the two-day seminar arranged by the Ministry of Justice with the assistance of the Council of Europe Office in Baku at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on December 1-2.

While meeting with deputies of the Abkhazian parliament the other day, representatives of "Amtsakhara" put a question of Vladislav Ardzinba's capability and demanded that ways should be found till mid-December to dismiss him by constitutional means and to call on a new election of the head of the self-proclaimed republic.

A conference of women was held at the assembly hall of the Cherkessk City Administration, with 333 women being participants in it.

Lyana Amanatashvili, a 39-year-old economist, and Yuri Mikirtumian, a 42-year-old engineer, submitted their applications to the Central Election Commission on Tuesday.

We call you attention to the statement made by the Centre for Protection of Conscience and Religious Freedom (DEVAMM) and the Azerbaijan Chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) on the detention of DEVAMM leading coordinator and Secretary General of the IRLA's Azerbaijan Chapter Ilgar Ibragimoglu.

More than a month has passed since the falsified presidential election of October 15 in Azerbaijan were held, but the republic still lives in the atmosphere of repressions, arrests goes on.

Some dozens of Azerbaijan opposition activists who are serving terms for participation in the mass riots after the October 15 presidential election demand that they should be discharged.

The folklore skiffle group "Arzu" and the dance group "Djamilya" appeared at the holiday meeting.

The work of the conference was organized in two subject sections: "Ethnopolitical and Ethnoconfessional Studies in North Caucasus: Methodology, Problems, and Main Results" and "Factors in Social and Political Stabilization in North Caucasus".

Council Chairman of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" Oleg Orlov, who has been on assignment in Chechnya recently, will be a participant in the press conference.

According to the spokesman for the regional headquarters, one of the militants killed during a special task operation by Russian troops in the Shali district was a citizen of Germany and other three were citizens of Turkey.

Representatives of the Russian military commandant's office who arrived to the site of occurrence on the same day admitted that the child had died through the federals' fault.

The Kavkaz checkpoint, which is situated on the Rostov-Baku federal rout at the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia, is talked about among the republican population as the most unexpected and dangerous one.

Chairman of the Regional Public Organization "Union of Forced Migrants" Baudi Dudayev, who is well-known in the Republic of Ingushetia and in the Chechen Republic, is forced to hide from the possible pursuit by Russian special services.

The human rights activists handed over to the observers documents on the discrimination of ethnic groups during the elections, which would be material for the Mission's final report after the elections are over.

About 300 strikers demand that their six-month wages are paid off.

We call your attention to some extracts from the leaflet "Is Power Superior to Law? Or Distressing Results of the Human Rights Action (from September 30 to November 30)" by participants of the protest action on Svoboda Square in Vladikavkaz.