Watchdog

A Kyrgyz teenager has reportedly committed suicide after being snatched as a bride in northern Kochkor district.

Munara Beknazarova of Bishkek-based nongovernmental organization Aikyn Bagyt (Clear Direction) told RFE/RL on October 14 that an 18-year-old woman hanged herself after she was abducted by a family in the Issyk-Kul district this month.

Meanwhile, Kochkor district officials and local police denied the report by Beknazarova, saying that the incident had never taken place.

Beknazarova said the young woman, whose name was not disclosed, told a friend by phone before her suicide that she had been kidnapped and forced to be the wife of a man she did not know.

Beknazarova said the woman's parents had not informed police about their daughter but that Aikyn Bagyt did.

Kyrgyz rights activists say about 12,000 Kyrgyz women are abducted and forced into marriage every year.

A planned concert by Russian rock musician Andrei Makarevich has been canceled in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Makarevich, front man of the legendary band Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine), has had concerts in several Russian cities canceled in recent weeks.

Pro-Kremlin lawmakers and commentators in Russia branded him a traitor after he gave concerts in Ukraine for refugees from the eastern part of the country, where government forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatists.

Makarevich wrote on Facebook on October 13 that Baku city authorities cancelled the concert by him and "The Creole Tango Orchestra" in order "to avoid pro-Ukrainian actions."

The concert was scheduled for October 31 at Baku's Heydar Aliyev Palace, a venue named after the late former president whose son, Ilham Aliyev, succeeded him shortly before his death in 2003.