Russia approves controversial law restricting internet
AFP, Moscow:
Russian lawmakers on Thursday approved in a key second reading a controversial bill that would allow Moscow to cut off the country’s internet traffic from foreign servers. Lawmakers in the State Duma, parliament’s lower house, voted 320 to 15 to pass the proposed bill. It is set to take effect on November 1 once it formally becomes law.
S Korean court orders easing of decades-old abortion ban
AP, Seoul
In a major reversal, South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered the easing of the country’s decades-old ban on most abortions, one of the strictest in the developed world. Abortions have been largely illegal in South Korea since 1953, though convictions for violating the restrictions are rare. Still, the illegality of abortions forces women to seek out unauthorized and often expensive procedures to end.
Myanmar rebels kidnap civilians from police base
AP, Yangon
Three people were killed and seven civilians abducted in an attack on a police installation in western Myanmar that authorities blame on the Arakan Army rebel group, media reported Thursday.
A report in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said about 200 insurgents, who claim to represent the Rakhine ethnic minority in the western state of Rakhine, attacked a security police headquarters in Mrauk-U town on Tuesday night.
IS recruit says many foreign fighters jailed or killed
Reuters, Rmeilan
A Tajik man who joined Islamic State said many foreigners who enlisted in its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria were jailed or killed for trying to leave.
The 28-year-old, who once drove a taxi in Moscow, said he handed himself over to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed group, from Islamic State’s last holdout of Baghouz in eastern Syria last month after years of trying to escape.
