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15-day state of emergency declared in Georgia

08 November 2007 08:57 (UTC +04:00)

APAâ€™s Georgia bureau reports that Economic Development Minister Georgy Arveladze said collecting and distributing information, holding demonstrations and rallies are restricted.
â€œCollecting and distributing information is banned for all electronic and printing media outlets, except Public Television,â€ he said.
Rustavi-2 channel has already said goodbye to the audience and promised to meet them in two weeks.
Broadcasting of Imedi and Kavkasiya TV channels was suspended yesterday. They are said to call to violence and coup.
Tbilisi mayor Gigi Ugulava said that the TV channels will restart broadcasting after the state of emergency is annulled.
Public Television is broadcasting only political programmes now and other TV channels demonstrate feature films. Education Minister Alexander Lomaia said a part of the opposition negotiates with the speaker of the parliament Nino Burjanadze. He said â€œhealthy part of the oppositionâ€ participates in the dialogue.
â€œSpeaker will give information about the agreements,â€ he said.
Lomaia said schools will be closed on November 8-9. Public transport has been limited in Tbilisi.
Health Minister David Tkeshelashvili said Georgian hospitals took in 508 patients in the aftermath of the November 7 events. 414 of them were discharged after the first medical aid. 24 of the injured are policemen. The minister noted that the government defrayed the expenses of treatment of the injured people. /APA/