Azerbaijan's presidential elections cannot be considered free and fair because of widespread abuse and bias favoring government candidates, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released yesterday.

Overall losses of the federal forces and Chechen rebels came to 12 people killed as a result of Saturday clashes in Chechnya.

Shovket's election program holds the ultimatum to Armenia: either it withdraws troops from the "occupied territories" within 12 months, or the threat of starting military operations exists.

The "Kmara" activists were beaten up by police; reportedly some of them got severe injuries.

"Gogi Mikanadze suffered an attack by political opposition members, as he possesses specific evidence confirming the fact that the opposition parties were involved in the falsification the voting lists," Irakly Gogava, a leader of the pro-government election bloc "For New Georgia", told the press.

According to witnesses, the young people were abducted by Russian military men on Engels Street.

The action "Journey of Peace" started in Yekaterinburg on October 6. Different things and gifts, letters and children's drawings for Chechen children were gathered there with the assistance of the local patriarchate and businessmen.

Issues of the effective realization of the federal targeted program "Russia's South" were considered at the meeting.

These grants were assigned mainly for the development of private enterprise, civil society and local government in Armenia.

The website contains articles of Azerbaijan and foreign authors in the field of political science and philosophy, as well as ones of experts in the field of democracy development.

Some other deputies believe the federal center is also to blame for the beating of Chechen young people in Kabardino-Balkaria as it disregards problems of Chechen refugees in the other regions of the Northern Caucasus.

The aim of this election "farce" was to give Kadyrov legitimacy. For in 2000, Moscow appointed him as its administrator of the republic even though at that time the republic had its own legally elected and internationally recognized president and parliament.

The articles on the inadmissibility of abuse of freedom of speech and transparency of financial resources are among the main disputable provisions of the bill.

The collection of articles compiled by Florian Hassel, the Moscow correspondent of the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, was published with the assistance of the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross mission is holding four-day training for the Commission for Abkhazian Refugees and Missing People and the Movement "Mothers of Abkhazia for Peace and Social Justice".

The meeting was arranged by the Yeni Nesil journalist union, the Media Rights Institute of Internews Azerbaijan, the Confederation of Azerbaijan Journalists, and the Research Center "Serene World".

"We call upon all political parties, the government and public to cooperate during the process of rechecking the voter lists so that to avoid falsification of the elections," reads the statement of the organization.

Russian military men backed by armored equipment entered the village of Stariye Atagi, the Grozny (rural) district, on October 8.

Karen Andreasian, an advisor of the international non-government organization "Article 19", presented results of the independent examination of the legislation prepared at the instance of the Media Club.

"Political stabilization has effect on the economic development of Russia's South," claimed Russian President's Plenipotentiary in the South Federal District Viktor Kazantsev.