Six In The Morning Sunday 29 January 2023

 

Russian teen faces years in jail over social media post criticizing war in Ukraine

By Uliana Pavlova, CNN

Updated 11:14 AM EST, Sun January 29, 2023

Olesya Krivtsova sports an anti-Putin tattoo on one ankle and a bracelet that tracks her every move on the other.

The 19-year-old from Russia’s Arkhangelsk region must wear the device while she is under house arrest after she was charged over social media posts that authorities say discredit the Russian army and justify terrorism.

Russian officials added Krivtsova to the list of terrorists and extremists, on a par with ISIS, al Qaeda and the Taliban, for posting an Instagram story about the explosion on the Crimean bridge in October that also criticized Russia for invading Ukraine.

Krivtsova, a student at Northern (Arctic) Federal University in the northwestern city of Arkhangelsk, is also facing criminal charges for discrediting the Russian army for making an allegedly critical repost of the war in a student chat on the Russian social network VK.

Drone attack targets Iranian defence factory as global tensions rise

Isfahan blast came as refinery fire broke out in country’s north-west and 5.9-magnitude quake hit

Associated Press

Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defence factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities have said, causing damage at the plant amid heightened regional and international tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian defence ministry offered no information on who it suspected carried out the attack, which came as a refinery fire separately broke out in the country’s north-west and a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck nearby, killing three people.

Tehran has been targeted by suspected Israeli drone strikes amid a shadow war with its Middle Eastern rival as its nuclear deal with world powers collapsed. Meanwhile, tensions remain high with neighbouring Azerbaijan after a gunman attacked that country’s embassy in Tehran, killing its security chief and wounding two others.

"I Want To Live"A Victim of Repression in Xinjiang Awaits New Life

In China's Xinjiang region, officials have forced hundreds of thousands of residents into internment camps. Activist Zhanargul Zhumatai describes how she got through her reeducation program – and why she lives in fear of being arrested again.

Her mother walks to the front door every morning at 8 a.m. to listen, says Zhanargul Zhumatai. Will the men come back? She herself sometimes sits at the window of the apartment, looking out from the second floor into the smog-shrouded street outside their home in Ürümqi. The last time they picked her up, Zhumatai says, the men were wearing black uniforms and leather boots.

Zhumatai says she was interned in camps in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang for more than two years, just like hundreds of thousands others, most of them from the Muslim Uyghur population, but also members of the Kazakh minority. Like Zhumatai.

Israel takes measures against 'families of terrorists' after attacks in east Jerusalem

Israel sealed the family home Sunday of a Palestinian in east Jerusalem who killed seven people near a synagogue, as part of measures to revoke certain rights of attackers' relatives. 

The security cabinet announced a slew of steps late Saturday, including revoking the rights to social security of "the families of terrorists that support terrorism". 

It also announced that the home of 21-year-old Khayri Alqam, who was shot dead by police following Friday's attack, "will be sealed immediately ahead of its demolition".

An AFP correspondent saw Israeli forces Sunday on the terrace of the building after they sealed its entrances, with Palestinians clearing out their belongings.

Activists fight Tokyo gov't over historic Jingu Stadium demolition

By Jim Allen

Activists seeking to preserve two historic sports venues and an iconic tree-lined avenue are locked in a battle with the Tokyo government over the redevelopment of one of the city's greenest neighborhoods.

Tokyo is now in the final stages of initiating a plan to demolish and replace Jingu Stadium, the world's fourth-oldest baseball ground still used by a top-flight pro team, and Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground, Tokyo's 75-year-old main rugby venue and the home of the Japan Rugby Football Union.

According to management consultant Rochelle Kopp, three different petition drives to halt the project have amassed nearly 150,000 signatures. Kopp originally got involved in the campaign because the plan would involve cutting down around 1,000 trees -- a figure Tokyo has since reduced to around 500.

‘Ideology of hate’ consuming India, Gandhi’s great-grandson says

Tushar Gandhi has blamed the rise of PM Modi and the BJP for increasing polarisation and division in the country.

India’s rising tide of Hindu nationalism is an affront to the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, his great-grandson said ahead of the 75th anniversary of the revered independence hero’s assassination.

Gandhi was shot dead at a multi-faith prayer meeting in January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a religious zealot angered by his victim’s conciliatory gestures to the country’s minority Muslim community.