Putin critic Kara-Murza suffered ‘acute poisoning’
A Russian opposition politician in a coma with organ failure suffered “acute poisoning” by an unknown substance, his wife said Tuesday, two years after a suspected poisoning nearly killed him.
Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza has been on a ventilator and undergoing renal dialysis since he was hospitalised after collapsing in Moscow on Thursday.
Germany, Poland to boost ties
AP, Warsaw
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo stressed Tuesday the importance of deepening their neighboring nations’ ties at a trying time for Europe, but also touched on points of contention during the German leader’s first visit to Poland under its populist government.
Szydlo and Merkel stressed their views are close on many issues, such as continuing sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine and the need to improve the European Union.
Violence spreads in Paris suburbs
AP, Paris
Police say rioters have again set fire to cars and garbage bins overnight in spreading violence in the suburbs of Paris over the alleged rape of a young black man with a police baton. Police said Wednesday morning they made 17 arrests.
Sri Lanka for more time to probe war crimes
AP, Colombo
Sri Lanka’s foreign minister says his country needs more time to fulfil promises given to the U.N. human rights body to investigate war crimes allegations from a long civil war that ended seven years ago.
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told foreign correspondents on Tuesday that the government will seek more time at the next U.N human rights session starting Feb. 27.
Colombia opens talks with ELN rebels
AFP, Sangolqui
Colombia opened peace talks with its last active rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), seeking to end a 53-year conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people.
The negotiations mark a new milestone in the Colombian peace process, after President Juan Manuel Santos’s government sealed a historic accord with the country’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in November.
Polisario on alert along W.Sahara sand barrier
AFP, Tindouf
Behind a long sand wall winding through the disputed Western Sahara, leaders battling for the independence of the former Spanish colony say they are on alert.
Morocco insists the territory is an integral part of its kingdom, but the Algeria-backed Polisario Front demands a referendum on self-determination.
Spectre of censorship haunts S. Korea artists
AFP, Seoul
When a documentary opened on the deep sea divers who retrieved around 300 bodies, mostly schoolchildren, from a South Korean ferry disaster, tickets sold out-but it played to half-empty cinemas.
