US and allies discussing deploying more troops to Eastern Europe prior to any Russian invasion of Ukraine
Updated 1600 GMT (0000 HKT) January 26, 2022
The US and a handful of allies are in discussions to deploy thousands more troops to Eastern European NATO countries before any potential Russian invasion of Ukraine as a show of support in the face of Moscow's ongoing aggression, three US officials familiar with the discussions tell CNN.
‘I got 12 years and 74 lashes’: Confess, the band jailed for playing metal in Iran
After their songs were deemed blasphemous propaganda, the duo were forced to flee to Norway and claim asylum. Now a band, they are writing angrily about what they faced
For almost as long as it’s existed, heavy metal has been used as protest music. On Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, the first thing you’re barraged with is War Pigs: a seven-minute savaging of the politicians who instigated the Vietnam war. Iron Maiden once had their mascot, Eddie, murder Margaret Thatcher on a single’s artwork; Metallica and Megadeth spent the 1980s lambasting cold war superpowers that didn’t know whether to shake hands or nuke each other.
Nikan Khosravi, singer and guitarist of Iranian/Norwegian thrashers Confess, views his band as another protest act in the metal lineage. “I’m the kid who told the emperor: ‘You’re naked!’” he exclaims with pride and excitement on a call from Norway. However, the five-piece don’t write their brutish tracks about some faraway conflict, or satirise a government certain to ignore them.
Russia puts brother of jailed Putin critic Navalny on wanted list
Authorities want Oleg Navalny’s suspended sentence to be converted into jail time
The brother of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been placed on a wanted list in Russia, interior ministry documents show.
Oleg Navalny, whose whereabouts are unknown, was given a 12-month suspended sentence last year after being charged with breaching coronavirus restrictions.
The 38-year-old was prosecuted for attending a demonstration against the imprisonment of his sibling, which is alleged to have been politically motivated.
The last throes of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army
After being driven out of Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army ran riot in the Central African Republic, where it behaved more like a criminal gang than a terrorist militia. Now the LRA's days seem to be numbered.
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was founded in northern Uganda in 1987 to chase President Yoweri Museveni out of office and establish a Christian theocracy.
After being driven out of the country by the Ugandan military, LRA fighters instilled terror among the region's politically unstable neighbors — particularly in southern Sudan and present-day South Sudan, the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the southeastern Central African Republic (CAR).
"They came to the Central African Republic in 2008 and went on a rampage, especially in my home region of Haut Mbomou," recalled Ernest Mizedjo, who represents the country's far eastern communities in the parliament in the capital Bangui.
Syrian Kurds say prison recaptured after IS group attack
US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria on Wednesday said they fully recaptured a prison in the northeastern city of Hasaka that had been attacked by the Islamic State (IS) group, ending the biggest jihadist assault in the country in three years.
In a statement, Farhad Shami of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said days of operations had "culminated with our entire control" over the prison in Hasaka after all holdout IS group fighters surrendered.
There was no mention in the statement of the 850 children and minors caught in the crossfire when the SDF aided by US troops began to storm the prison on Monday.
In Afghanistan, Taliban diktat sparks debate about women’s attire
Some Afghan women have protested the imposition of a dress code while others say the Taliban should focus on more pressing issues.
Many Afghan women in the capital Kabul have protested against a poster campaign launched by the Taliban, encouraging women to wear a burqa or hijab.
The Afghan Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice plastered posters across Kabul’s cafés and shops earlier this month to encourage the wearing of the burqa, a full-body veil that also covers the face. It did not issue an official directive.
“According to Sharia law, a Muslim woman must observe the hijab,” wrote the posters, along with pictures of blue burqa-clad women and others in full black. The word “hijab” accompanied each picture as if to clarify what that should look like.
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