European Union leaders should use their summit with Russia next week to voice concerns about recent developments in Chechnya and neighboring Ingushetia, Human Rights Watch said October 31.

On the night of November 3, Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Nana Devdariani told a press conference the first results of the election in several dozens of 2,811 election stations of the republic.

He addressed an appropriate letter to chairman of the committee for culture, sport, information policy and relations with public associations of Krasnodar Territory's Legislative Assembly Kharchenko I. N., who took the initiative in the adoption of the aforementioned law.

A two-day seminar devoted to tolerance and rights of the child finished in Vladikavkaz on October 30.

The elements of 12 people on the Abkhazian side and 8 - on the Georgian one will be mandated to carry out the observation, to advise local law-enforcement agencies and to assist with their consolidation.

Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy (Azerbaijan) Leyla Yunus expressed her admiration and gratitude to the Polish OSCE observers of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe mission.

The OKL held the picket in front of the "Evropa" hotel building, protesting against the arrival of the Armenian Foreign Ministry's delegation in Baku to the 9th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Organization for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Member States.

On the night of October 30, two unknown men fired at Zviad Chokheli, a candidate MP for "New Rules", when he was going out of a porch of his house. A flak jacket saved him.

The mountains of Chechnya are still the most difficult terrain for the Russian military in carrying out so called "counter-terrorist operation".

Residents of some mountain villages of Georgia are to vote in the parliamentary election not in one day, 2 November, but from 1 to 3 November.

The workshop was arranged and held by the public organization "Echo of War" and the World Organization Against Torture.

On October 28, 2003, a member of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship, along with a delegation of displaced persons who had been excluded from the Migration Service's computer data base, visited the Ingush Interior Ministry's Migration Service Department.

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), along with 400 observers accredited to monitor the parliamentary elections, held an hour manifestation in the center of Tbilisi yesterday in support of free and fair elections.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) set November 16 as a date of holding hearing on the merits regarding the case of Tengiz Asanidze, who is currently in custody in Batumi, the Ajarian Autonomous Republic.

On October 28, on the threshold of parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation and Krasnodar Territory, a survey of citizens with the purpose of working out mandates to the future deputies was conducted in front of the Central Kolkhoz Market of Krasnodar.

"The public authority heads are unlikely to have a perfect command of the Abkhazian language by January 1, 2007," said participants in a round table discussion at the Open Club of NGOs.

At the meeting which took place in Sukhum on October 29, Foreign Minister of Abkhazia Sergey Shamba noted that the republic still needed humanitarian projects, however, the priority and necessity of some of them should be discussed with the public.

At present, there are some 4,000 Chechen refugees in the Pankisi Gorge. Russia's Minister for Chechnya Stanislav Ilyasov conducted negotiations in Tbilisi over their return.

The statement reads, "We call on Ali Astamirov's abductors to make themselves known and to release him as soon as possible. We also call on President Putin to do everything possible to find Ali and obtain his release without putting his life in danger."

According to witnesses, the explosive hurled the truck with the servicemen and totally destroyed it, killing several soldiers.