Two wounded after attack on police checkpoint in Chechnya.

GROZNY, December 16 (Itar-Tass) - Two policemen were wounded in a fire
attack on a police post in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district, a source at
the Chechen Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass.
"Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a travelling police post from fire
arms in Achkhoi-Martan village at around 21:10 Moscow time on Wednesday.
Two policemen were wounded. They were taken to hospital in
Achkhoi-Martan," the source said.
The police are combing the area from were the fire attack had come.

.President of Kabardino-Balkaria visits slain mufti's murder site.

NALCHIK, the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, December 16 (Itar-Tass) -
The president of the North Caucasian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Arsen
Kanokov, has visited the murder site of slain Mufti Anas Pshikhachev and
presented condolences to his family and relatives.
On Wednesday night, unknown gunmen shot and killed the mufti of the
North Caucasian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Anas Pshikhachev.
He was killed at 19:30 near his private house in the district of
Alexandrovka in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria.
"Two unknown gunmen asked him to go out of the house and made no less
than four shots at him from a 9 mm gun," a source at the regional
Investigations Committee told Itar-Tass.
The mufti died on the spot.
"Anas Pshikhachev was a consistent fighter against extremism for which
he paid with his life. His assassins who are the enemies of Russia and of
peace in the Caucasus will never be forgiven," President Kanokov said.
"This assassination is a challenge to the whole society, a challenge
to the people of the republic. We should unite so as not allow the
murderers to go away with impunity. They will be found and punished to the
fullest extent of the law," Kanokov emphasized.
He said that peaceful traditional Islam has strengthened its authority
in the republic in recent years, including among young people. That has
inevitably weakened the positions of various sorts of extremists who
distort the ideas of Islam, sow death and destruction and undermine the
cornerstones of society.
"No one will be able to stop peaceful and civilized development of our
republic and the rest of the North Caucasus," the president
Kabardino-Balkaria said.
Kanokov noted that Pshikhachev had been an educated and cultured
person, and one of the most influential religious leaders in the North
Caucasus.
A criminal case citing articles of the Criminal Code on purported
murder and illegal circulation of weaponry has been instituted.
Anas Pshikhachev was born into a working class family in Nalchik on
October 11, 1967.
He began his career of an Islamic cleric in 1989 when he graduated
from a local junior construction college.
In the 1990's, Pshikhachev studied for four years at the International
Islamic University in Tripoli, Libya, and later on at the Islamic
Institute of Kabardino-Balkaria.
He authored more than fifty works on theology and religion and drafted
a curriculum for Islamic schools of higher learning in Russia, which got
official authorization of the federal Ministry of Education and Science.
"This was an outstanding and doubtlessly authoritative religious
personality who put up an overt opposition to extremism," Russian
President's press secretary Marina Timakova said quoting the words of
President Dmitry Medvedev.
"There's scarcely any doubt this mean assassination was committed
because of his active position," she said, adding that Medvedev had
ordered to provide all the necessary assistance and aid to the mufti's
family.
On behalf of the President, Timakova said the federal authorities
would continue supporting the Muslim community of Kabardino-Balkaria.

.Russia wants to make 2018 World Football Cup the best in history.

MOSCOW, December 16 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told
foreign diplomats at a reception on Wednesday that the Moscow authorities
and the leadership of Russia would do their best to make the 2018 World
Football Cup the best in history.
The mayor and the government of Moscow gave a reception for foreign
ambassadors accredited in Russia.
"It's a great success for all Russian citizens and for all Muscovites
but it's also an enormous responsibility. We want to hold the best World
Cup in history: to organize a bright holiday that will be remembered by
everybody who will visit this country in the summer of 2018," Sobyanin
said. He noted that preparations for the forthcoming championship had
already started and had called on partners to put forward their proposals.
Sobyanin also said that Russia had applied for the right to host the
2016 Hockey World Championship.
The mayor told the foreign ambassadors that Moscow would support
various cultural, educational and sport projects and would be glad to
provide facilities for international scientific congresses.

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