Russian spy: Daughter Yulia Skripal didn't deserve poisoning, friend says
The daughter of an ex-Russian agent poisoned alongside her father in the UK "hasn't done anything to deserve" being targeted, a friend says.
Police are investigating the attempted murder of Yulia and Sergei Skripal after both were found unconscious in Salisbury, Wiltshire on Sunday.
Her childhood friend Irina Petrova told the BBC she remembered the Skripals as the "perfect family".
But she thought people might be afraid to speak publicly about the pair.
"I'm starting to get scared," she said. "No one wants to speak - even her relatives".
Ms Skripal, 33, and her 66-year-old father are being treated in hospital after being exposed to a nerve agent, nearly a week after being found slumped on a shopping centre bench in the city.
Bannon to address Front National as French far-right leaders seek unity
Marine Le Pen aiming to use conference to resolve rifts as some question her leadership
Kim Willsher in Paris
The Front National leader, Marine Le Pen, will attempt to pull her divided far-right party together when it meets this weekend for its first conference since she lost to Emmanuel Macron in the final round of the French presidential election.
Hours before the conference opened it was revealed Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon would be speaking on the first day of the event.
Beset by political and personal rifts, and with her popularity in the post-election doldrums, Le Pen is facing opposition to her plan to rename the party in an attempt to improve its electoral chances.
Poland attempting damage control on anti-Semitism issues
Polish President Duda has apologized for the anti-Semitic campaign in March 1968, an important and long-overdue gesture. On the foreign policy front, he wants to repair what others have shattered, says Rosalia Romaniec.
Admittedly, I was surprised by the apology that Polish President Andrzej Duda offered the Jews who left Poland in 1968. The gesture does not match the current rhetoric from Warsaw, and certainly not the unfortunate "Holocaust law" that was signed by Duda himself. Nor does it fit to the words of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who spoke of "Jewish perpetrators." Only a few days ago, he denied responsibility for the anti-Semitic smear campaign in 1968, stating that there was no Poland at the time, only a communist regime. I see! I don't want to know where it would lead if other countries were to follow this kind of logic.
Late apology
In light of the Polish government's recent history, Duda's apology seems like an attempt at damage control. "Please forgive" — he turned to the victims of March 1968 — "Forgive the Republic and the Poles, the Polish people of that time." Finally!
Hours after Florida governor signs gun bill, NRA sues to block it
Weeks after their children were gunned down in the worst high school shooting since Columbine, parents of the victims stood in the Florida Capitol and watched Gov. Rick Scott sign a far-reaching bill that places new restrictions on guns.
Hours later, the National Rifle Association filed a federal lawsuit to block it.
The new law capped an extraordinary three weeks of lobbying after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, with student survivors and grieving families working to persuade a Republican-run state government that had shunned gun control measures.
Surrounded by family members of the 17 people killed in the Valentine's Day shooting, the GOP governor said the bill balances "our individual rights with need for public safety."
In November last year, Islamabad in particular and the rest of Pakistan in general were in thrall of a sit-in at Faizabad, just where the federal capital meets Rawalpindi. The protest was occasioned by a modification in an oath election candidates must take while filing their nomination papers. The change was made through the hastily passed Election Reforms Amendment Bill 2017. The act, pushed through the federal legislature in late September, was initially controversial for clauses seen as a means for allowing Nawaz Sharif to regain his position as the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) after he had become ineligible to hold the post due to his disqualification by the Supreme Court.
Turkey: Opposition Cumhuriyet journalists released pending trial
Turkish court frees Cumhuriyet journalists after spending more than 430 days in prison, following a marathon hearing.
Two Turkish journalists from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper have been released after spending over a year behind bars during a trial involving "terror"-related charges.
Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and investigative reporter Ahmet Sik were ordered to be freed pending trial by the presiding judge on Friday, after a marathon day-long hearing.
They later walked free from jail in the evening.
Another detained suspect, the newspaper's chairman Akin Atalay, was ordered to stay in jail.
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