in the one nine hundred seventy s. a resident of abkhazia. kill became the main character in a documentary about centenarians home mark t. told the filmmakers pulled icy water from mountain streams over himself several times a day throughout his life he was certain the water cleansed people of everything with it the. fire really over a hundred years old a hundred and nine now would you like to share this secret over your longevity people must know how to take care of themselves healthy habits help them. to demonstrate that a one hundred nine year old abkhazian is just as capable as the youngsters. kill mounted a. horse unassisted as the camera crew looked on his destination was the neighboring village of dilip where one of his great grandsons was celebrating his wedding interestingly almost forty years on people in that village still remember. i remember talking very well. i even recall the good time we had during his great grandsons wedding my grandsons with their to. live in is ninety three years old now he has spent most of his life here i

abkhazia is a republican the southeastern coast of the black sea in soviet times many people head live to a hundred or more more than two hundred seventy centenarians lived here in the mid twentieth century there was even a quiet composed soley out of the very elderly in the republic only those between seventy to one hundred years of age were allowed to join the choir mostly sang old up cars in songs to the accompaniment of traditional instruments now the choir members a younger than the previous generation. on. here was interviewed with i'm eighty one years old and he says that my singing career spanned sixty five years sometimes i even sing when i'm at home if you are my wife schools me she says why on earth are you singing stop that mumbling good night for i see a tune is racing through my head since i need to sing all the time i say that. in the one nine hundred seventy s. a resident of abkhazia kill became the main character in a documentary about centenarians home marty told the filmmakers pulled icy water from the mountain streams over himself several times a day throughout his

that gorbachev promised that if the north caucasians helped russia in the war against georgia in abkhazia, when many chechens fought and died, that they would create a north caucasian republic in the same way that they had been promised with lenin. this never came about. narrator: tired of broken promises, the chechens began a guerrilla war against the new russian state in 1994. another centrifugal force throughout the caucasus is religion. unlike most russians, a majority of the people here are muslims. and here, location is key. the caucusus rise on russia's southern borderlands, the northern edge of the islamic world. today, muslims here construct many new mosques. despite the violence in chechnya, islam, like dagestan, is multifaceted. when they go to a mosque, we think of them as being fundamentalist moslems, which is not the case. it's funny that we see russians going to churches and rebuilding churches, and this is called russian culture. but when a dagestani reincorporates part of islamic culture, now they're called "fundamentalist moslems." narrator: in dagestan, there are also c

look at other stories making news from around the world the press and the caucus the republic of abkhaziaalexandre uncle vava has escaped and the nation attempt on injured one of the leaders as bodyguards was killed and three others injured when gunmen opened fire on the president's car near the capital so home it's the sixth attempt on our life in the past seven years and the first since he was elected president last summer on a valve to strengthen the republican after its long struggle for independence from neighboring georgia russia and a number of other countries recognize the sovereignty more than three years ago but bailey and most of the international community and don't see it as a separate state. australia's foreign minister kevin rudd has resigned saying he could no longer function without the support of prime minister julia gill are the resignation comes after days of speculation that he would seek to reclaim power from vilar who outs from the top job in a party coup nearly two years ago rudd says his future is uncertain and how it's going to confirm but he'll run in next year'