UK judge to publish report on killing of spy Litvinenko
British-Moscow relations soured after Russian secret agent turned Kremlin critic poisoned in London in 2006.
| United Kingdom, Russia, Politics, Europe
A British judge is due to release the findings of a public inquiry into the killing of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in a notorious murder case that sorely tested UK-Russia relations.
Litvinenko, a Russian spy turned dissident who lived in exile in the UK, died in November 2006 three weeks after drinking green tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 at London's plush Millennium Hotel.
From his deathbed, the 43-year-old told detectives that Russian President Vladimir Putin had directly ordered his killing.
The Kremlin dismissed that claim as ridiculous at the time and has always denied involvement.
British police accused Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, the two Russians Litvinenko met for tea, of carrying out the killing. Both deny involvement, and Moscow refuses to extradite them.France to overhaul secularism teaching to help stop radicalisation
Education minister says pupils should be taught that separation of church and state is there to protect them, accusing rightwing politicians of twisting principle
The French principle of secularism has been twisted by politicians and so often wrongly used to attack Islam that schoolchildren have been left baffled, the French education minister has warned.
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told the Guardian that after last year’s devastating jihadi attacks in Paris, France was overhauling the teaching of secularism and civic values as part of the country’s drive against terrorism and radicalisation.
“We have to reappropriate the concept of laïcité [secularism] so we can explain to our young pupils that whatever their faith, they belong to this idea and they’re not excluded. Secularism is not something against them; it protects them,” she said.
Pakistan university assault: A warning for Turkey as Islamists turn on their old allies in Peshawar
Both country's are waging a war on terrorism, but their enemies appear to have several facesLike Pakistan, like Turkey. If the university massacre outside the old North West Frontier city of Peshawar was a further sign that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is still far from “conquering terrorism”, it is a portent of things to come for Turkey’s far more arrogant President, Recep Tayip Erdogan. For after allowing its borders to be used as a conduit for foreign fighters and smugglers into Syria – just as Pakistan did into Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion of 1979 – Turkey is now experiencing almost as many violent attacks on its people as Pakistan.
Erdogan’s government has increasingly emphasised its Islamic credentials, just as President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq did in Pakistan in the 1970s. And Turkey now finds that the Isis “caliphate” with which it was prepared to treat – allowing it to control part of Syria’s border with Turkey, facilitating Western Muslims wishing to cross in the opposite direction, permitting oil smugglers to bring their produce from Isis-held territory – is assaulting Ankara and Istanbul.
Despite lifted sanctions, some global tech firms still ban Iranian clients
Economic sanctions against Iran were officially lifted on Saturday, as part of the historic nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group – the US, China, Russia, the UK, France, and Germany. And yet, just hours later, Iranian clients of a UK-based web hosting company, WHMCS, were surprised to receive emails saying that their subscriptions would be terminated. The email cited US export restrictions, providing a link to an explainer published by Harvard University back in 2012.
We checked in with London-based economist Mehrdad Emadi, an expert on sanctions against Iran:
There is no law prohibiting anyone in the United States or Europe from doing business with citizens in Iran, unless of course the goods are “dual use”, meaning they could be used in the nuclear industry – that is still banned. But that’s clearly not the case for managing web domains – this would not have been considered prohibited before the lifting of sanctions, nor would it be today. My hunch is that companies who don’t want to trade with Iran for their own reasons are hiding behind laws that don’t exist.
FRANCE 24 reached out to WHMCS, but has not yet received a reply.
Many other products by global cyber companies, such as Google Store apps and Java and Adobe’s software, remain unavailable in Iran today.
Ebola in Sierra Leone: New case spreads community fear
Woman caring for earlier victim identified as second patient in less than a week raising worries of further cases.
| Ebola, Sierra Leone, Africa, Health
A carer for a woman who died of Ebola in Sierra Leone has now been infected with the virus, heightening fears of a fresh flare-up just days after West Africa was declared officially free of the disease.
The second case to be identified in less than a week is a 38-year-old woman who had helped to care for last week's victim, Mariatu Jalloh, health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahyah Tunis said according to a report by Reuters news agency.
Jalloh, a 22-year-old student who died from the disease on January 12, tested positive for Ebola after her death, which marked a further setback in efforts to end a two-year epidemic that has killed more than 11,300 people across West Africa.
State lawmakers make coordinated push for robust privacy safeguards
The American Civil Liberties Union worked with Republican and Democratic state lawmakers nationwide to advocate for legislation to strengthen privacy protections for students, consumers, and employees.
Republican and Democratic legislators from 16 states and the District of Columbia advocated on Wednesday for legislation to strengthen privacy safeguards for employees and students as well as to curtail the growing use of surveillance technology.
The American Civil Liberties Union coordinated the bipartisan effort in a bid to kickstart a grassroots campaign around privacy issues that the group hopes will resonates at the national level.
While privacy issues such as National Security Agency surveillance and consumers' growing use of encryption technology have become hot topics in Washington, many privacy advocates are frustrated with Congress's unwillingness to pass legislation to increase protections on consumers' personal data.
The nationwide campaign "underscores the fact that this is one issue where Democrats and Republicans and Independents can come together to push forward a reform agenda," said Anthony Romero, the ACLU director. The ACLU did not sponsor any of the proposed bills, but supported them.
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