Thursday, March 2, 2023

Six In The Morning Thursday 2 March 2023

 

After 4 months stuck in a South Korean airport this Russian is still not free. But his alternative is far worse

Updated 3:23 AM EST, Thu March 2, 2023

After spending close to five months stuck inside an airport in South Korea, Dmitry is finally able to breathe fresh air. But he is yet to taste freedom – and his real wait may have only just begun.

He is one of five Russian men who became stranded at Incheon International Airport last year while trying to flee Moscow’s military mobilization order for its war in Ukraine. The South Korean Justice Ministry refused their applications for refugee status, effectively leaving them in limbo at the airport.

Too scared to return to Russia, they resorted to sleeping rough at the airport, living on handout meals from the South Korean immigration department.



Pakistan crackdown on Afghan refugees leaves ‘four dead’ and thousands in cells

Asylum seekers in Karachi tell of terror of being sent back to the Taliban and despair at being shackled and held in Pakistani jails

Refugees are reportedly dying in Pakistani prisons, and children are being arrested and tied together with ropes, as a wave of detentions and deportations spreads fear among the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have crossed the border since the Taliban took power.

According to lawyers representing Afghans in detention, at least four people have died in custody, and thousands more, including children, are being held in prisons as Pakistan hardens its stance against Afghan citizens.

The most recent death in custody was a 50-year-old Afghan man who was refused hospital treatment while he waited for a judge to hear his case, according to Moniza Kakar, a Karachi-based human rights lawyer who has been fighting to stop Afghan asylum seekers and refugees being deported to Afghanistan.


Greece train crash: Government admits 'decades of failure'

The station manager has been arrested and admitted responsibility, according to the Greek government. The death toll is continuing to rise after the the country's worst ever train tragedy.

The Greek government on Thursday admitted failures in its state railway system as the death toll rose to 46 after two trains collided in Greece's worst ever rail tragedy.

Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said the grim recovery procedure was ongoing "centimeter by centimeter" while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that "everything shows that the drama was, sadly, mainly due to a tragic human error."

Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned over the accident and angry protests have broken out.


French national Benjamin Brière still in Iranian prison despite acquittal, lawyer says

French citizen Benjamin Briere is still in an Iranian jail despite his recent acquittal by an appeals court, his lawyer said Thursday.

Incarcerated in May 2020, Briere was sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage.

He is one of several foreigners who campaigners say Iran has jailed in a strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West.

His France-based lawyer, Philippe Valent, said in a statement sent to AFP that an Iranian appeals court had cleared his client of all charges and ordered his release on February 15.


Rights sought for foreign nationals on provisional release

By MAIKO ITO/ Staff Writer

March 2, 2023 at 07:10 JST


A Nigerian man was granted a provisional release from a detention center more than a decade ago, but life remains a struggle for him and his Japanese wife.

While awaiting a decision on his application for special permission to stay in Japan, Sunday Ifeanyi Innocent, 51, has no residency status and is banned from working and joining the national health insurance program.

His wife, Hiromi Goto, 58, is the lone breadwinner, but the income from her part-time job runs out quickly, and the couple live in constant fear of falling into poverty or being split up because of a deportation order.


Toxic debate over lab leak theory hampers search for Covid origins


By John Sudworth
North America correspondent, New York


There have long been two competing theories for how the pandemic started. Now, with the FBI adding its voice, the politics and division behind the hunt for the truth are being laid bare.

There are few scientific debates as divisive and toxic as the question of Covid's origin.

While researching for the upcoming podcast I'm making for the BBC about it, I've heard virologists question the motives and professionalism of colleagues with whom they disagree over two alternative possibilities.

They are whether the virus infected its first human in a Wuhan market, or in a Chinese government-controlled lab.




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