Watchdog

MINSK -- A court in the Belarusian capital has ordered that an opposition activist spend six months in jail for parole violation.

Vasil Parfyankou was sentenced to four years in jail in February 2011 for participation in a mass gathering in Minsk on election night in December 2010. The gathering was questioning official results that made incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner.

He was released on parole in August 2011.

Hundreds of opposition activists and their supporters, including former presidential candidates were arrested for taking part in the mass protest action on December 19, 2010.

The majority of them have been sentenced to different jail terms and later released on parole.

Parfyankou is the first of them who was sent back to jail for parole violation.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office has decided to take over the reportedly stalled investigation into the death of a journalist in the Daghestan region of the troubled North Caucasus.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told journalists that the decision was made in reaction to a request by about 100 deputies of the Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, that federal investigators take charge of the probe.

Prominent Daghestani independent journalist Khadzhimurad Kamalov was shot dead in the Daghestani capital, Makhachkala, in December 2011.

Kamalov's independent Russia-language weekly, "Chernovik," was known for covering North Caucasus politics and local government corruption issues.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Interfax