RUSSIA
Navalny sentence upheld
A Moscow appeal court yesterday upheld a prison sentence imposed on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he returned from Germany last month. Judge Dmitry Balashov rejected Navalny’s appeal of the Feb. 2 ruling, which turned a 2014 suspended sentence on embezzlement charges into real jail time. The judge decided to count six weeks Navalny was under house arrest as part of the time served, so the anti-corruption campaigner would be imprisoned for just more than two-and-a-half years in a penal colony.
ITALY
Migrant vessel capsizes
The coast guard yesterday began a search for survivors after a vessel carrying migrants capsized off the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa overnight. Officials said in a statement that the craft had overturned as the coast guard was bringing migrants aboard its own boats off the island located between Sicily, Tunisia and Libya. While about 40 people were saved, survivors of the accident said that five were missing. The coast guard said a helicopter had been sent to search for any more still at sea. Officials did not specify where the migrants had come from. The overnight operation had followed “an especially intense day, as a large number of vessels carrying migrants was reported” on Friday, the coast guard said.
UNITED KINGDOM
MI6 apologizes for ban
The head of the foreign intelligence service, MI6, on Friday apologized for the agency’s historic treatment of homosexuals, calling it “wrong, unjust and discriminatory.” MI6 barred homosexuals from serving in the intelligence agencies until 1991 on security grounds, claiming they were susceptible to blackmail. Agency head Richard Moore, known as “C,” apologized in a video statement on Twitter, calling the policy “misguided.” “Committed, talented, public-spirited people had their careers and lives blighted because it was argued that being LGBT+ was incompatible with being an intelligence professional,” he said. “Because of this policy, other loyal and patriotic people had their dreams of serving their country in MI6 shattered.”
UNITED STATES
Two pilots die in crash
Two air force pilots were killed on Friday when a trainer jet crashed near an Alabama airport, the military confirmed. The crash involved a T-38 trainer aircraft assigned to the 14th Flying Training Wing at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. Officials from the division confirmed in a news release that both pilots aboard the aircraft were killed. The pilots were flying a training mission. The names of the pilots are being withheld until the families are notified. The jet crashed at about 5:30pm near Dannelly Field in Montgomery. A safety investigation board will convene to investigate.
SOMALIA
Forces open fire in capital
Security forces in Mogadishu on Friday fired on hundreds of people protesting the delay of the country’s election, as at least one explosion was reported at the international airport and armored personnel carriers blocked major streets. A protest leader said “some have died.” The chaos occurred hours after the government and opposition leaders said gunfire erupted overnight near the presidential palace in a sharp escalation of political tensions. President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed is under pressure as the Feb. 8 election date came and went without resolution of issues related to how the vote is conducted.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
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