India's foreign minister: Drop charges against diplomat
The United States should drop charges against an Indian diplomat accused of fraud and making false statements on a visa application for her housekeeper, the country's foreign minister told CNN on Friday.
"I imagine yes, if we think the charges are unwarranted, unjustified, then how would we say, 'But you can carry on,'" Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said. "I mean charges have to be withdrawn."
Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was arrested and stripped-searched last week on charges of visa fraud related to her treatment of a woman she brought from India to work as her housekeeper.
She's accused of telling the U.S. government she would pay the woman, who has been publicly identified as Sangeeta Richard, $9.75 an hour. Authorities say in reality, the woman received only $3.31 an hour and was told to keep quiet about the arrangement.
Khodorkovsky arrives in Berlin following pardon from Putin
Former oil magnate freed from prison on humanitarian grounds after 10 years in Russian jails
Isabel Gorst
Former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky was in Germany last night having been freed from prison after Russia’s president Vladimir Putin granted his appeal for pardon.
Mr Khodorkovsky, the billionaire former head of the Yukos oil corporation, was jailed in 2003 on charges of tax evasion and fraud that his supporters say were a punishment for his political activities.
Mr Putin pardoned Mr Khodorkovsky on humanitarian grounds, ending his 10-year incarceration in Russian jails.
Mr Khodorkovsky has lately been serving his sentence in a penal colony in northwest Russia. After being released he travelled to Germany where his mother is being treated for cancer.
He was met at Schönefeld airport in Berlin by former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who had lobbied for his release.
Prosecutors continue to lay charges in Turkey graft probe
Turkish prosecutors have continued charging those in connection to a broad graft probe, including the sons of two ministers. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan maintains, however, that the investigation is a smear campaign.
According to CNN Turk and other media agencies, 16 people had been charged by early Saturday morning, including the sons of the Turkish interior, economy and environmental ministers and Suleyman Aslan, the general manager of state-owned Halkbank. The son of Environment Minister Zafer Caglayan, who had also been detained in dawn raids on Tuesday, was among those released after questioning.
Others were the subject of corruption indictments prosecutors began to hand out on Friday. Among the offenses the accused face are accepting and facilitating bribes for development projects and securing construction permits for protected areas. In total, almost 90 people have been detained in the swoop.
Erdogan - Turkish Prime Minister since 2002 - believes the probe and arrests are part of a campaign to unsettle his government, saying he is struggling against “a state within a state.” He has reportedly responded by sacking dozens of police officials, including the Istanbul police chief, for cooperating with the investigation without permission.
Uganda passes law meaning life in prison for some homosexual acts
Uganda's parliament passed a law on Friday that makes some homosexual acts punishable by life in prison, a spokeswoman for the legislature said, a move that raised alarm among gays who are already afraid to express their sexuality openly.
First introduced in parliament in 2009 as a private member's bill, the law initially proposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts in the conservative east African country.
It was later amended to remove the death penalty, but includes jail terms for anyone convicted, including life imprisonment for what it calls aggravated homosexuality.
Countries including the United States previously criticised the bill when it came before parliament. Germany cut off aid to Uganda late last year citing the bill as one of its concerns.
Central Asia
Kyrgyz president fears war in the south
By Ryskeldi Satke
By Ryskeldi Satke
President Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan announced this month that a US$1 billion Kyrgyz-Russian arms deal is ready to be implemented, with delivery "soon" of "artillery pieces, tanks, shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles and other military equipment". [1] The Russian Federal Security Service controlled Regnum news agency [2] has coincidentally quoted a statement by Atambayev on December 16 referring to a possible "foreign army attack" on Kyrgyzstan. [3]
Domestic politics insiders in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, believe Atambayev was referring to complications with Uzbekistan in the Ferghana Valley. It is no secret that the present state of Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations is considered outside government as counterproductive given the numerous deadly cross border skirmishes between the states. Official Tashkent, the Uzbekistan capital, does not miss a chance to remind its neighbors in
Kyrgyzstan of the possible consequences of any unilateral decisions Bishek makes to build hydro stations in the upstream rivers in the Ferghana Valley.
Domestic politics insiders in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, believe Atambayev was referring to complications with Uzbekistan in the Ferghana Valley. It is no secret that the present state of Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations is considered outside government as counterproductive given the numerous deadly cross border skirmishes between the states. Official Tashkent, the Uzbekistan capital, does not miss a chance to remind its neighbors in
Kyrgyzstan of the possible consequences of any unilateral decisions Bishek makes to build hydro stations in the upstream rivers in the Ferghana Valley.
Real-life 'Gravity'? Drama builds over spacewalks to fix space statio
Imagine a movie where astronauts are one failure away from abandoning the International Space Station, and have to deal with toxic chemicals during a spacewalk while facing the risk of drowning in their spacesuits. Oh, and it's just before Christmas.
A Hollywood producer could spin the three spacewalks that NASA is planning over the coming week as a holiday-season sequel to"Gravity," if Sandra Bullock were available. It's more likely that the replacement of one of the space station's external coolant pumps will be completely routine. But NASA is taking extraordinary measures, such as providing the two spacewalkers with jury-rigged spacesuit snorkels, just in case the fix-up job really does turn into a thriller.
Several factors, including a scary spacewalk in July involving water in a spacesuit helmet, have combined to add some extra drama to the repair operation that begins Saturday.
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