The News in Brief
Thursday, January 30
Fog causes delays at Tbilisi airport
Fog has caused cancellations and delays at Tbilisi International Airport. 4 flights were cancelled. Tbilisi International Airport could not receive a plane from Warsaw and it landed in Kutaisi.
A “Pegasus” flight was cancelled from Istanbul, the Turkish Airlines plane had to fly back to Istanbul. A Lufthansa flight also had to return to Munich.
Some passengers have already exchanged their tickets.
Tbilisi International Airport will release detailed information about cancelled flights later. (InterPressNews)
One man dies in coal mine in Georgia
A man has died in an apparent accident in a coal mine in Tkibuli, a town in Georgia’s mid-western Imereti region.
Tariel Kasrashvili, a shift leader, died at 16:00 on Tuesday. He was transporting coal inside the Mindeli mine when he fell and died on the spot. No further details are known.
Sakhnakhshiri, the company that owns the mines in Tkibuli, issued a short statement saying that the management decided to form a commission to find out the reasons the accident happened. The local police are also conducting an investigation.
Sakhnakhshiri expresses its condolence to the family of the victim and writes that the insurance company will cover the costs of the funeral. (Democracy & Freedom Watch)
Georgian Prime Minister plants trees in Jerusalem
Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili visited the Grove of Nations in Jerusalem on Tuesday as part of his official trip to Israel, taking part in the planting of symbolic trees and thus following in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who planted a tree in the grove last year.
Garibashvili also spoke on the centuries-old friendship of the two nations and expressed his hopes for deepening the relations between Georgia and Israel. (Georgian News)
Vehicle certification to become mandatory
Technical certification of all transport vehicles in Georgia will become mandatory from March 2015. Officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced at the briefing that negotiations with the leading operator TUV Rheinland are underway and the group has already expressed their interest to enter Georgia. TUV Rheinland is a global provider of technical, safety, and certification services. The company`s representatives plan their visit to Georgia next week. The terms and details of the mandatory technical certification rules are not defined yet and the government is only starting to discuss the initiative.
MIA officials hope the technical monitoring of vehicles will provide more security on roads. There are 900,000 vehicles registered in Georgia currently. (Rustavi 2)
Three arrested for drug dealing
Three persons have been arrested for the illegal purchase and selling of drugs.
Law enforcement detained Eka P. in Tsnori, as a result of investigative activities held on the basis of operative information. She was detained on the fact of purchasing 8 ampules of morphine for 300 GEL from Ioseb S. As a result of the personal search law, police additionally seized 12 ampules of morphine.
The investigation established that Eka P. purchased the mentioned drug from Tariel K. who was detained by police as a result of operative-investigative activities on the same day in Telavi.
According to the drug test results, it was established that Ioseb S. was under the drug’s influence in the moment of his detention. All of the detainees have pleaded guilty. (Rustavi 2)
Circus worker dies after lion attack in Tbilisi
The lion tamer who was attacked by a lion last Thursday has died in the hospital.
The circus worker remained in intensive care, but doctors could not save him.
The 23-year-old lion tamer was from a Ukrainian circus troupe and entered the cage to do some cleaning when the animal attacked him. During the attack, the lion injured his spine. (Democracy & Freedom Watch)
Merabishvili demands a polygraph test
Former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili demands to take a lie detector test to prove he is telling the truth when he says he was threatened by the chief prosecutor.
Merabishvili claimed he was taken from his cell at night, brought to an office at the Prison Ministry in Tbilisi, and threatened with harsh prison conditions or that his relatives would be arrested if he did not help find the truth about the death of Prime Minster Zurab Zhvania in 2005.
Zhvania’s death was explained by officials as an accident, although not thoroughly investigated until recently. Most Georgians believe the official explanation is a cover-up, and that foul play was involved. Merabishvili was interior minister at the time Zhvania died.
Merabishvili demanded that the footage from the surveillance cameras in his prison and cell should be studied so as to prove that he was forced to leave the cell.
The Prison Ministry started to study this case after a certain public pressure and later said that the footage was already deleted. There are therefore still unanswered questions about this case. (Democracy & Freedom Watch)
Bodies of dead doctor and patient were found in Tbilisi
Bodies of two males were found at the Clinic for Mothers and Children at 29a, Mitskevich Street in Tbilisi on Monday. Initial reports said one of the bodies was of the clinic’s doctor, while another was of his patient’s. The latter’s body was found with gunshot wounds, while the cause of the doctor’s death was not immediately clear.
The bodies were discovered by firemen who arrived at the center to extinguish fire in the building. The doctor’s body was found in a clinic room, while the supposed patient’s was outside the clinic. (Georgian News)
Fog has caused cancellations and delays at Tbilisi International Airport. 4 flights were cancelled. Tbilisi International Airport could not receive a plane from Warsaw and it landed in Kutaisi.
A “Pegasus” flight was cancelled from Istanbul, the Turkish Airlines plane had to fly back to Istanbul. A Lufthansa flight also had to return to Munich.
Some passengers have already exchanged their tickets.
Tbilisi International Airport will release detailed information about cancelled flights later. (InterPressNews)
One man dies in coal mine in Georgia
A man has died in an apparent accident in a coal mine in Tkibuli, a town in Georgia’s mid-western Imereti region.
Tariel Kasrashvili, a shift leader, died at 16:00 on Tuesday. He was transporting coal inside the Mindeli mine when he fell and died on the spot. No further details are known.
Sakhnakhshiri, the company that owns the mines in Tkibuli, issued a short statement saying that the management decided to form a commission to find out the reasons the accident happened. The local police are also conducting an investigation.
Sakhnakhshiri expresses its condolence to the family of the victim and writes that the insurance company will cover the costs of the funeral. (Democracy & Freedom Watch)
Georgian Prime Minister plants trees in Jerusalem
Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili visited the Grove of Nations in Jerusalem on Tuesday as part of his official trip to Israel, taking part in the planting of symbolic trees and thus following in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who planted a tree in the grove last year.
Garibashvili also spoke on the centuries-old friendship of the two nations and expressed his hopes for deepening the relations between Georgia and Israel. (Georgian News)
Vehicle certification to become mandatory
Technical certification of all transport vehicles in Georgia will become mandatory from March 2015. Officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced at the briefing that negotiations with the leading operator TUV Rheinland are underway and the group has already expressed their interest to enter Georgia. TUV Rheinland is a global provider of technical, safety, and certification services. The company`s representatives plan their visit to Georgia next week. The terms and details of the mandatory technical certification rules are not defined yet and the government is only starting to discuss the initiative.
MIA officials hope the technical monitoring of vehicles will provide more security on roads. There are 900,000 vehicles registered in Georgia currently. (Rustavi 2)
Three arrested for drug dealing
Three persons have been arrested for the illegal purchase and selling of drugs.
Law enforcement detained Eka P. in Tsnori, as a result of investigative activities held on the basis of operative information. She was detained on the fact of purchasing 8 ampules of morphine for 300 GEL from Ioseb S. As a result of the personal search law, police additionally seized 12 ampules of morphine.
The investigation established that Eka P. purchased the mentioned drug from Tariel K. who was detained by police as a result of operative-investigative activities on the same day in Telavi.
According to the drug test results, it was established that Ioseb S. was under the drug’s influence in the moment of his detention. All of the detainees have pleaded guilty. (Rustavi 2)
Circus worker dies after lion attack in Tbilisi
The lion tamer who was attacked by a lion last Thursday has died in the hospital.
The circus worker remained in intensive care, but doctors could not save him.
The 23-year-old lion tamer was from a Ukrainian circus troupe and entered the cage to do some cleaning when the animal attacked him. During the attack, the lion injured his spine. (Democracy & Freedom Watch)
Merabishvili demands a polygraph test
Former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili demands to take a lie detector test to prove he is telling the truth when he says he was threatened by the chief prosecutor.
Merabishvili claimed he was taken from his cell at night, brought to an office at the Prison Ministry in Tbilisi, and threatened with harsh prison conditions or that his relatives would be arrested if he did not help find the truth about the death of Prime Minster Zurab Zhvania in 2005.
Zhvania’s death was explained by officials as an accident, although not thoroughly investigated until recently. Most Georgians believe the official explanation is a cover-up, and that foul play was involved. Merabishvili was interior minister at the time Zhvania died.
Merabishvili demanded that the footage from the surveillance cameras in his prison and cell should be studied so as to prove that he was forced to leave the cell.
The Prison Ministry started to study this case after a certain public pressure and later said that the footage was already deleted. There are therefore still unanswered questions about this case. (Democracy & Freedom Watch)
Bodies of dead doctor and patient were found in Tbilisi
Bodies of two males were found at the Clinic for Mothers and Children at 29a, Mitskevich Street in Tbilisi on Monday. Initial reports said one of the bodies was of the clinic’s doctor, while another was of his patient’s. The latter’s body was found with gunshot wounds, while the cause of the doctor’s death was not immediately clear.
The bodies were discovered by firemen who arrived at the center to extinguish fire in the building. The doctor’s body was found in a clinic room, while the supposed patient’s was outside the clinic. (Georgian News)