European human rights envoy urges Russia to prosecute killers of NGO in Chechnya

September 24th, 2009 Obama nominates envoy on North Korean human rightsWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is nominating a new special envoy on North Korean human rights issues. The White House announced on Thursday the nomination of Robert King, a one-time congressional aid on the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee.

September 21st, 2009 Rights groups: UN must name special envoy for IranNEW YORK — Human rights groups urged the United Nations on Monday to appoint a special envoy to investigate continuing abuses in Iran following the disputed presidential elections there. "The United Nations should use President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.N.

September 21st, 2009 Rights groups want UN Iran envoyNEW YORK — Human rights groups are urging the United Nations to appoint a special envoy to investigate continuing abuses in Iran following the disputed presidential elections there. Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran say that at least 72 people have died in the crackdown that followed opposition protests against the ballot, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election.

September 11th, 2009 Suicide blast hits police in ChechnyaGROZNY, Russia — An emergency official says a suicide bomber has wounded three police officers in the capital of Russia's war-scarred Chechnya province. Southern Russia Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Marat Prokopenkov said Saturday that the bomber set off his explosives close to a police patrol near a school in Grozny.

August 30th, 2009 Slain Russian activist's colleague despairsKOSHKELDY, Russia — A leading Russian human rights activist paid an emotional visit Sunday to the cemetery where her slain colleague Natalya Estemirova is buried, weeping at her grave and predicting her killers will never be never be brought to justice. Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the widely respected 82-year-old head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, had a message as she left the plot in Estemirova's ancestral village: "Curse those who are guilty in Natalya's death." Estemirova worked for the rights group Memorial, and her reports on alleged rights abuses in Chechnya made her unpopular with the region's strongman leader and his government.

August 14th, 2009 4 police, 2 militants die in Chechnya gun battleROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — At least four policemen and two militants died in a gun battle Friday during a security sweep near the Chechen capital, Grozny, amid surging violence in Russia's North Caucasus that has claimed more than 20 lives in two days. Police conducted house-to-house searches in Dagestan, Chechnya's eastern neighbor, for a gang that shot to death seven prostitutes in a bathhouse and four police officers at a road checkpoint Thursday.

July 24th, 2009 Chechen gov't, separatist leaders meet for talksOSLO — A Chechen separatist leader and a senior representative of the regional government said Friday they have met for talks to bring stability to the war-scarred Russian region. It was the first such contacts between the two sides in eight years.

July 16th, 2009 Comments on slaying of Russian activist Estemirova International reaction to the kidnapping and murder of Russian human rights activist Natalya Estemirova in the Caucasus. Estemirova, 50, was a leading member of the Chechen branch of the Russian human rights group Memorial.

July 15th, 2009 MOSCOW - The head of a prominent Russian human rights organisation was kidnapped and killed in Russia's troubled Caucasus region Wednesday, the Moscow state prosecutor's office confirmed. The body of Natalya Estemirova, head of the group Memorial, was discovered in the Russian republic of Ingushetia with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest, reported the Interfax news agency, citing government reports.

July 15th, 2009 Russian activist abducted in Chechnya found deadMOSCOW — A prominent Russian activist who investigated abductions, killings and other rights abuses in Chechnya was found killed Wednesday, hours after being kidnapped in the Chechen capital, police officials and her organization said. Natalya Estemirova's body was found in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya to the west, Oleg Orlov, the chairman of Memorial, her rights group, told The Associated Press.

July 15th, 2009 Reports: Russian activist found dead in ChechnyaMOSCOW — Russian news agencies are reporting that a prominent rights activist has been found dead, hours after being kidnapped in Chechnya. ITAR-Tass and Interfax quote unidentified police officials as saying that Natalya Estemirova's body was found in Ingushetia, a region that borders Chechnya to the west.

July 15th, 2009 Russian group says activist abducted in ChechnyaMOSCOW — A prominent Russian human rights group says its leading activist in Chechnya has been kidnapped. Memorial chairman Oleg Orlov says that four men forced Natalya Estemirova into a car in the Chechen capital, Grozny, early Wednesday.

July 7th, 2009 US wants justice in journalist's killingMOSCOW — The United States is urging Russia to redouble its efforts to bring an American journalist's killers to justice. Amid a Russian-American summit, a top U.S.

April 28th, 2009 EU optimistic on renewing ties with RussiaLUXEMBOURG — The European Union's foreign policy chief says he is optimistic the European Union can follow the lead of the U.S. in rebuilding ties with Russia.

April 16th, 2009 MOSCOW - Russia has ended its decade-long counter-terrorism operations against separatist rebels in Chechnya, officials said Thursday. Some 20,000 Russian troops deployed in Chechnya will be withdrawn.