On April 16 judicial hearing of the case of Alikram Gumbatov, a leader of the Talish separatists, was resumed. A public prosecutor asked the Court to pass life sentence on the accused.

A new Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic has been appointed in Chechnya. Militia Colonel Ali Alkhanov became an appointee, was announced in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Since 17 April Kazbich Chechenskii, a Chechen refugee, has been on hunger strike in the village of Duisi, in the Pankisi region of Georgia. The 43-year-old writer and commentator has set up a tent in the very centre of the village, demanding that he and other Chechens who sought refuge from the war in Georgia, should be allowed to move on to other countries.

The constant representative of the UN Program for Development in Russian Federation Stephan Vasilyev announced it while meeting with the President of Ingushetia on April 17 in Magas.

Tarry Davis underlined the European Council did not intend to be ?a substitution? for the OSCE in the question of settlement of conflict in Nagorny Karabah.

?We call on all representatives of the Armenian mass media to take part in elaboration of the document and present their projects?, the Press Club stated.

The organization ?For Human Rights? has applied to the Supreme Court of Russia with the claim to nullify the Referendum on Constitution conducted in Chechnya at the end of March.

"Lithuania is a democratic country, we can not expel or close anyone", the Lithuanian Ambassador to Russia Rimantas Shidlauskas underlined.

On April 15 Georgian police did not let representatives of the South Osetia?s officials pass a block and get to the presentation of the Georgian-Osetin newspaper ?Iber-Iron? in Tbilisi.

The Court partially admitted the opposition?s case, but regarded however that inaccuracies and disturbances had not influenced the results of the second round.