rferl--2020-02-16--UN Chief Praises Pakistan's 'Generosity' In Hosting Afghan Refugees

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has kicked off a four-day visit to Islamabad , praising Pakistan as a “ reliable and generous partner ” for hosting millions of Afghan refugees .
“ Despite its own challenges , Pakistan has sheltered and protected Afghan refugees with limited support from the international community , '' Guterres said on February 16 in the Pakistani capital , where he was set to address an international conference on refugees fleeing conflict in neighboring Afghanistan .
He called on other countries to support Pakistan and show similar leadership in handling refugee flows across the world .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ million registered and undocumented people who have fled neighboring Afghanistan after their country was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979 or during later conflicts .
Many live in camps , while others have built lives for themselves in Pakistan 's cities .
Islamabad will host a two-day international conference , starting from February 17 , to mark 40 years since hundreds of thousands of Afghans found refuge in the country .
The event , co-organized by Pakistan and the UN refugee agency UNHCR , will be inaugurated by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Guterres tweeted that Pakistan was “ one of the most consistent and reliable contributors to peacekeeping efforts around the world.
” “ I am travelling to Pakistan , where I plan to express my gratitude to the people # ServingForPeace , ” he wrote .
Based on reporting by dpa , AFP , and AP

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has kicked off a four-day visit to Islamabad, praising Pakistan as a “reliable and generous partner” for hosting millions of Afghan refugees.
“Despite its own challenges, Pakistan has sheltered and protected Afghan refugees with limited support from the international community," Guterres said on February 16 in the Pakistani capital, where he was set to address an international conference on refugees fleeing conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.
He called on other countries to support Pakistan and show similar leadership in handling refugee flows across the world.
Pakistan is home to an estimated 2.4 million registered and undocumented people who have fled neighboring Afghanistan after their country was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979 or during later conflicts.
Many live in camps, while others have built lives for themselves in Pakistan's cities.
Islamabad will host a two-day international conference, starting from February 17, to mark 40 years since hundreds of thousands of Afghans found refuge in the country.
The event, co-organized by Pakistan and the UN refugee agency UNHCR, will be inaugurated by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Ahead of his visit, Guterres tweeted that Pakistan was “one of the most consistent and reliable contributors to peacekeeping efforts around the world.”
“I am travelling to Pakistan, where I plan to express my gratitude to the people #ServingForPeace,” he wrote.
Based on reporting by dpa, AFP, and AP


rferl--2020-02-16--Serbia Honors Author Handke Amid Anger Over Milosevic Ties

Serbia has decorated Austrian Nobel literature laureate Peter Handke for his `` exceptional contributions in representing Serbia in the sphere of culture , '' a move that may anger many elsewhere in the Western Balkans .
`` For Serbia , he is a true friend , proven and principled even during the most difficult moments , '' the head of the awards commission , Sima Avramovic , said on February 15 .
`` He wholeheartedly defended the Serbian truth even when that caused him much discomfort and dispute , even after he won the Nobel prize , '' Avramovic said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ choice for the 2019 Nobel Prize for literature .
The Swedish Academy awarded Handke the prize for what it called `` an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience . ''
The Nobel was handed to him at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10 , 2019 that was boycotted by representatives of a number of countries , including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo .
Many in the Balkans see Handke as an apologist for Serbian war crimes and a staunch supporter of late Serbian strongman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s .
Handke did not travel to Belgrade for the ceremony to award him with the Karadjordje Star `` for services to the country in peace and war . ''
He maintains a residence in France .
Based on reporting by dpa , AP , Reuters , AFP , and RFE/RL ’ s Balkan Service

Serbia has decorated Austrian Nobel literature laureate Peter Handke for his "exceptional contributions in representing Serbia in the sphere of culture," a move that may anger many elsewhere in the Western Balkans.
"For Serbia, he is a true friend, proven and principled even during the most difficult moments," the head of the awards commission, Sima Avramovic, said on February 15.
"He wholeheartedly defended the Serbian truth even when that caused him much discomfort and dispute, even after he won the Nobel prize," Avramovic said.
The 77-year-old Handke was a controversial choice for the 2019 Nobel Prize for literature.
The Swedish Academy awarded Handke the prize for what it called "an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."
The Nobel was handed to him at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, 2019 that was boycotted by representatives of a number of countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Many in the Balkans see Handke as an apologist for Serbian war crimes and a staunch supporter of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic during the conflicts that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Handke did not travel to Belgrade for the ceremony to award him with the Karadjordje Star "for services to the country in peace and war." He maintains a residence in France.
Based on reporting by dpa, AP, Reuters, AFP, and RFE/RL’s Balkan Service


rferl--2020-02-16--NATO Chief Rejects Macron Call To Put French Nukes At Center Of European Strategy

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg dismissed calls by French President Emmanuel Macron to put France ’ s nuclear deterrence at the center of European defense strategy , saying the United States and Britain already provide an effective security umbrella .
`` We have to remember that we have a European nuclear deterrent today -- 28 allies deliver that every day and it 's not only a promise , but it 's something that has been there for decades , '' Stoltenberg told reporters at the Munich Security Conference on February 15 .
`` It 's tried and tested , we exercise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it is the ultimate security guarantee for Europe , '' said Stoltenberg , who also called France a `` highly valued ally '' whose nuclear capabilities contributed to NATO 's overall security .
Macron has been pushing for an overhaul of European Union security and defense matters in response to Brexit -- Britain 's departure from the bloc .
Following Brexit , France is the only EU nation with a nuclear arsenal , and Macron has pressed for European `` strategic autonomy '' -- the ability to defend the continent without relying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his commitment to NATO .
In a key speech last week , Macron called for dialogue among EU countries about what role the French nuclear deterrent could play as he called for a `` surge '' in European defense spending .
France is a NATO member but does not make its atomic weapons available to the alliance .
It has long prided itself on its independent nuclear deterrent .
Germany has particularly opposed an increased reliance on France ’ s stockpile as a deterrence , seeing the U.S. nuclear umbrella as a key @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not for Europeans to know whether they must defend themselves with or without Washington , '' Macron said during his February 7 speech .
`` But our security derives also , inevitably , from a greater capacity by Europeans to act autonomously . ''
`` To build the Europe of tomorrow , our norms ca n't be under American control .
Our infrastructure , our ports and airports ca n't be controlled by Chinese capital , neither can our digital networks be under Russian pressure , '' he said .
At the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , saying , `` We need a European strategy that renews us and turns us into a strategic political power . ''
With reporting by AFP and Reuters

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg dismissed calls by French President Emmanuel Macron to put France’s nuclear deterrence at the center of European defense strategy, saying the United States and Britain already provide an effective security umbrella.
"We have to remember that we have a European nuclear deterrent today -- 28 allies deliver that every day and it's not only a promise, but it's something that has been there for decades," Stoltenberg told reporters at the Munich Security Conference on February 15.
"It's tried and tested, we exercise it, and it's institutionalized, and it is the ultimate security guarantee for Europe," said Stoltenberg, who also called France a "highly valued ally" whose nuclear capabilities contributed to NATO's overall security.
Macron has been pushing for an overhaul of European Union security and defense matters in response to Brexit -- Britain's departure from the bloc.
Following Brexit, France is the only EU nation with a nuclear arsenal, and Macron has pressed for European "strategic autonomy" -- the ability to defend the continent without relying on Washington, although he has stated his commitment to NATO.
In a key speech last week, Macron called for dialogue among EU countries about what role the French nuclear deterrent could play as he called for a "surge" in European defense spending.
France is a NATO member but does not make its atomic weapons available to the alliance. It has long prided itself on its independent nuclear deterrent.
Germany has particularly opposed an increased reliance on France’s stockpile as a deterrence, seeing the U.S. nuclear umbrella as a key to its security.
"The issue is not for Europeans to know whether they must defend themselves with or without Washington," Macron said during his February 7 speech. "But our security derives also, inevitably, from a greater capacity by Europeans to act autonomously."
"To build the Europe of tomorrow, our norms can't be under American control. Our infrastructure, our ports and airports can't be controlled by Chinese capital, neither can our digital networks be under Russian pressure," he said.
At the Munich event, Macron reiterated those sentiments, saying, "We need a European strategy that renews us and turns us into a strategic political power."
With reporting by AFP and Reuters


rferl--2020-02-16--Migrants Clash With Bosnian Police Over Conditions At Camp Near Croatian Border

Hundreds of migrants clashed with police in Bosnia-Herzegovina as they attempted to break out of a camp in protest at the conditions under which they are being held and of alleged abuse by border officials in nearby Croatia .
The scuffles occurred on February 15 at the Miral migrant camp in western Bosnia , about 10 kilometers from the Croatian border .
The camp houses about 1,000 migrants , some 300 more than its intended capacity .
There were no reports of injuries , but witnesses told Reuters they saw police clashing with and detaining some mostly male migrants who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Give us our money back , '' and `` Stop beating us . ''
Many of the migrants also complained about Croatian border guards , whom they accused of violent push-backs and mistreatment when they earlier tried to cross the frontier .
Camp resident Salam Batu told Reuters that “ the Croatian police are very , very bad .
We want the border to be opened .
Please do n't hit us anymore .
Do n't remove our jackets , shoes , and socks .
They take it all . ''
A man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go to the border , the Croatian police are burning our jackets and shoes , they take mobile phones . ''
Croatian authorities have denied the accusations of abuse at the hands of police .
Bosnia authorities say about 50,000 migrants , mainly from Pakistan , Afghanistan , Iraq , Morocco , and Syria , passed through the country in 2019 in a bid to reach Western Europe through EU member Croatia .
An estimated 6,000 migrants remain stranded inside Bosnia , with most of them housed in makeshift shelters in Velika Kladusa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and in and around Bihac .
The Doctors Without Borders ( MSF ) group has said the improvised camps in northwestern Bosnia do not meet basic living standards , calling one at Vucjak a “ dangerous and inhumane place ” before it was shut down by Bosnian authorities .
Bosnia has experienced an increase in migrant traffic since the so-called Balkan Route from Greece to Western Europe was shut down in 2015 after more than 1 million undocumented migrants reached Europe .
Most crossed the sea between Turkey and Greece before traveling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Europe .
Turkey , Greece , and Hungary put measures in place to make the journey extremely difficult , reducing the migrant flow substantially but putting more pressure on Bosnia , which has put tougher border controls in place .
With reporting by Reuters and The New York Times

Hundreds of migrants clashed with police in Bosnia-Herzegovina as they attempted to break out of a camp in protest at the conditions under which they are being held and of alleged abuse by border officials in nearby Croatia.
The scuffles occurred on February 15 at the Miral migrant camp in western Bosnia, about 10 kilometers from the Croatian border.
The camp houses about 1,000 migrants, some 300 more than its intended capacity.
There were no reports of injuries, but witnesses told Reuters they saw police clashing with and detaining some mostly male migrants who were shouting "Freedom," "Give us our money back," and "Stop beating us."
Many of the migrants also complained about Croatian border guards, whom they accused of violent push-backs and mistreatment when they earlier tried to cross the frontier.
Camp resident Salam Batu told Reuters that “the Croatian police are very, very bad. We want the border to be opened. Please don't hit us anymore. Don't remove our jackets, shoes, and socks. They take it all."
A man from Pakistan said that "if we go to the border, the Croatian police are burning our jackets and shoes, they take mobile phones."
Croatian authorities have denied the accusations of abuse at the hands of police.
Bosnia authorities say about 50,000 migrants, mainly from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, and Syria, passed through the country in 2019 in a bid to reach Western Europe through EU member Croatia.
An estimated 6,000 migrants remain stranded inside Bosnia, with most of them housed in makeshift shelters in Velika Kladusa, where the Miral camp is located, and in and around Bihac.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) group has said the improvised camps in northwestern Bosnia do not meet basic living standards, calling one at Vucjak a “dangerous and inhumane place” before it was shut down by Bosnian authorities.
Bosnia has experienced an increase in migrant traffic since the so-called Balkan Route from Greece to Western Europe was shut down in 2015 after more than 1 million undocumented migrants reached Europe.
Most crossed the sea between Turkey and Greece before traveling through Hungary to wealthier destinations in Western Europe.
Turkey, Greece, and Hungary put measures in place to make the journey extremely difficult, reducing the migrant flow substantially but putting more pressure on Bosnia, which has put tougher border controls in place.
With reporting by Reuters and The New York Times


rferl--2020-02-15--Eight Afghan Civilians Killed In Air Strike

Afghan officials say at least eight people were killed in an air strike in the country 's east .
Attaullah @ @ @ @ @ the governor of Nangarhar Province , said on February 15 that a vehicle carrying civilians @ @ @ @ @ air strike .
Khogyani said the target of the air strike in Sorkh Rod district @ @ @ @ @ fighters who had wanted to establish checkpoints on the road .
It was not immediately @ @ @ @ @ .
A U.S. military spokesman said they were `` looking into the incident . ''
@ @ @ @ @ they had launched an investigation .
The incident came as the United States and the @ @ @ @ @ reduction in violence in Afghanistan .
It was unclear when the temporary truce would take @ @ @ @ @ jumped to record levels in the last quarter of 2019 compared with previous years .
@ @ @ @ @ and Reuters

The education of girls and women is universally accepted in more than 200 countries and territories, including nearly 50 Muslim-majority nations.
But Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers have banned teenage girls from attending school after the sixth grade since they returned to power two years ago. The ban was extended in December to women in universities.
Countless protests by Afghans inside the country, pressure from the international community, and lobbying by Muslim scholars and clerics have failed to convince the fundamentalist Taliban leaders to reopen schools.
Experts are divided over whether the ban is rooted in how the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam is shaped by conservative Pashtun tribal customs and cultural practices or if it is prompted by how senior Taliban ideologues interpret Islamic teachings.
Most Taliban leaders are ethnic Pashtun, Sunni Muslim clerics. Many were educated in Deobandi madrasahs in neighboring Pakistan. Deobandism emerged as a puritanical Islamic revivalist movement in 19-century British Colonial India. Based on the Sunni Hanafi school of jurisprudence, it is a prominent strain among Islamists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tribal Influences
Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator, argues that the Taliban restrictions against women are linked to social customs and cultural practices in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
Most Taliban leaders come from various Pashtun rural tribal communities in these regions bordering Pakistan.
"They believe that a woman's place is either inside a house or in a grave," Yousafzai said of the basic Taliban belief influenced by the status of women in the families of clerics and religious leaders in these Pashtun regions.
“Women living in the households of the current Taliban policymakers were never educated and never left their homes,” said Yousafzai, who has tracked the Islamist group since it emerged as a ragtag militia in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in late 1994. “These women never performed any government or nongovernmental jobs.”
Yousafzai says the Taliban backs policies shaped by this worldview by leaning on Islamic teachings supporting such ideas. He says Taliban leaders rely on sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad that discourage women from leaving their homes.
“Their primary belief is that pubescent girls should not leave home under any circumstance,” he said. “This is why they view women leaving home for education or work as engaging in moral corruption.”
In Afghanistan, a Muslim nation of some 40 million people, activists and rights advocates accuse the Taliban of implementing "gender apartheid" by denying women education, work, freedom of movement, and deciding how they can appear in public.
Most Muslims agree that Islam allows women to get an education. Yet the Taliban publicly says that it will allow girls access to education only after ensuring complete gender segregation and other unspecified conditions.
Almost all Afghan secondary schools were gender segregated and universities imposed a strict separation between men and women after the Taliban takeover.
Yousafzai says in conservative and traditional Muslim societies around the world, some clerics also favor restrictions on women's education, work, and their role in public life. But the governments in those countries usually oppose or limit such ideas.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia -- one of the most conservative Sunni Muslim nations -- has allowed women to drive and granted them freedom of movement without a male guardian. These steps are part of a reform and modernity drive by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
The Taliban ban on education has invited universal condemnation from Muslims globally.
“The Taliban's ban on women's education is not rooted in [the Islamic] Shari’a law but rather reflects cultural biases that contradict the teachings of Islam,” said Salam al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in the United States.
He said that contrary to Taliban practices, “Islam emphasizes the importance of seeking knowledge and encourages all individuals, regardless of gender, to acquire an education.”
Historical Conflict
But Islamic scholars and those who have attempted to convince the Taliban about reopening girls schools offer a different explanation.
John Mohammad Butt, an Islamic scholar and former BBC broadcaster who is the only Westerner to graduate from India’s Darul Uloom Deoband, argues that the Taliban's policy on girls' education is not tribal but shaped by the century-old conflict over modern education.
“The problem is that girls' education in Afghanistan -- indeed, contemporary education in general -- has generally been introduced in Afghanistan in line with a secular agenda,” he said.
In the 1920s, a coalition of conservative clerics and tribal and community leaders deposed reformist King Amanullah Khan. He wanted to modernize Afghanistan along Turkish leader Kamal Ataturk's secular lines and championed modern education and rights for women.
This opposition to modernity and secularism continued, and conservative clerics opposed women's education and work. It became a key part of the Islamist opposition to the pro-Soviet Afghan communist governments after the April 1978 military coup that ended the Afghan monarchy. The mujahedin accused the communists of spreading immorality by promoting women’s education and empowerment.
“This has led to particular wariness on the part of conservative circles in Afghanistan with regard to girls' education,” Butt said.
'Deep Ideological Conviction'
Obaidullah Baheer, a political science lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan, became part of an effort to rescind the ban by talking to the Taliban last year.
But he says the effort failed because “the ban is a matter of deep ideological conviction” for the current supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.
Baheer says that the most prominent Taliban leaders have studied in Pakistani madrasahs and were thus disconnected from village and tribal life.
“They have been indoctrinated by the Deobandi school of thought so that they now enforce the strictest version of Islam on the Afghan population,” he said.
He argues that the ban on girls’ schools is a deliberate policy championed by Akhundzada, who he says has endorsed Taliban Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani's Arabic language book The Islamic Emirate And Its System. In this book, Haqqani supports a fringe Islamic opinion of preferring the choice of one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives, Sawdah Bint Zam'ah, who chose to stay at home until her death.
Baheer says Haqqani ignores his other wives and other female companions that played an active role in many sectors of society and how they served as students and teachers for men.
“This fringe opinion is not held by all Taliban leaders but is one that the current absolute sovereign, the Taliban emir, seems to be convinced of,” he said.
Butt says that even Haqqani has acknowledged the principle that if there is something that women need to act upon, then that is also something that women need to learn about.
“I hope the Taliban authorities will come to realize in the not-too-distant future that education for women will make Afghan women into better Muslims,” he says. “It will enable them to make a stronger contribution to the well-being of their country.”
Two years after grappling with the issue, Western diplomats appear to be encouraging Afghan conservative and clerical circles to find ways to end the ban.
Tom West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, recently tweeted that Afghan women must be educated and contribute to the economy to help their country stand on its own two feet.
“If change to policies is made, it will be because Afghans have asked for it, not a result of foreign requests,” he wrote.


rferl--2020-02-15--Zarif Tries To Downplay U.S. 'Maximum Pressure'

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that U.S. President Donald Trump was receiving bad advice if he believed America 's `` maximum pressure '' campaign against his country would cause the government in Tehran to collapse .
Zarif , speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 15 , said Trump had been `` convinced that we are about to collapse so he does n't want to talk to a collapsing regime . ''
Trump has reimposed tough sanctions on Iran since Washington exited a major nuclear deal in 2018 that exchanged curbs on Iran 's nuclear program for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terms were not strict enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and said Tehran violated the spirit of the accord by continuing to finance extremist activity in the region .
Iran has denied the allegations .
The sanctions have taken a severe toll on the Iranian economy and sent the national currency plunging .
`` I believe President Trump , unfortunately , does not have good advisers , '' Zarif said .
`` He 's been wanting for Iran to collapse since he withdrew from the nuclear deal . ''
Zarif rejected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deal , saying the agreement signed in 2015 between Iran and world powers was the only vehicle for talks on Iran 's nuclear program .
`` There is no point in talking over something you already talked about .
You do n't buy a horse twice , '' he said .
Other signatories to the nuclear agreement -- Germany , France , Britain , Russia and China -- have struggled to save the deal .
Tehran has gradually stepped back from its own commitments under the accord and said earlier this month that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
Zarif said Tehran would be willing to move back to full compliance if Europe provided `` meaningful '' economic relief from American sanctions .
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the Munich Security Conference earlier on February 15 that while there may be disagreements on what to do with the nuclear deal , `` when I talk to my counterparts here in Europe , everybody gets it . ''
“ Everyone understands that these are folks who continue to build out their nuclear program , ” Pompeo said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ understanding about the threat ; we have tactical differences on how to proceed . ''

A polytechnic school in Russia’s Tatarstan, a region some 900 kilometers east of Moscow, is using manufacturing facilities that are part of a nearby special economic zone to assemble Iranian attack drones and are increasingly turning to underage students as laborers, many of whom often work in exploitative conditions.
The revelations at Alabuga Polytechnic University raise troubling implications about the lengths that Russian authorities are going to in order to boost the war effort and how the advanced Iranian weaponry -- which is increasingly used to bombard Ukrainian cities and has only recently begun to be manufactured inside Russia -- could contribute to escalating tensions and rising civilian casualties.
The use of underage students as drone factory workers and the details of the manufacturing facilities were first reported by Russian independent media outlets Protokol and Razvorot, which published a series of investigations in July.
Since then, RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities has spoken with students who describe grueling working conditions and interviewed dozens of parents whose children have been enrolled at Alabuga Polytechnic University -- some as young at 15 -- who say that their children were forced to work exceedingly long hours, often without proper breaks or meals, and under hostile conditions that have deeply affected their mental health.
“My son enrolled and 2 1/2 months later he called for me to take him away,” Zhanna, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect against reprisals for speaking about the operation, told RFE/RL. “He said to me on the phone, ‘Come and get me or I’ll die,’ so I picked him up immediately.”
Zhanna, who asked that her underage son’s name also not be used, says that she sent him from Nizhny Novgorod to study at Alabuga Polytechnic University in 2022 because of its reputation as a leading technical institution inside Russia.
The school offered students -- often between the ages of 15-18 -- an opportunity to get vocational training as part of a dual program that combines a classroom education with practical work experience. Students were also promised an opportunity to work and earn a locally competitive salary of up to 70,000 rubles ($700) a month as part of the work experience program that could further their career growth.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
But, instead, those enrolled were encouraged and in some cases pressured into working at the drone facility, where the salaries of the mostly underage laborers are contingent on meeting tough production quotas.
“This is a textbook definition of what constitutes exploitation,” Sergei Podsytnik, an investigative journalist at Protokol who worked on the series of reports, told RFE/RL. “[Students] assemble drones, with the work taking priority over their studies.”
The pressure to fulfill these quotas has allegedly led to strenuous back-to-back days -- with some shifts lasting up to 15 hours -- with little time for sleep or adequate sustenance. Overtime work is often unpaid, further highlighting potential labor violations. Exhausted students also reported not always meeting their quotas, which led to them not earning the salary initially promised by the school. Many students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and relied on their earnings to cover costs for tuition, room, and board and would send the remainder home.
Other parents, such as Marina, said she decided to take her daughter out of the program when she discovered that she was working in apparent unsafe conditions and that staff from the school had instructed students not to tell their parents about the drone assembly work.
“This was the last straw for me,” Marina, who also asked for her identity to be concealed, told RFE/RL. “This is a dangerous production process that involves dangerous chemicals. They also forbid the kids from telling everything to their parents.”
RFE/RL sent multiple requests for comment to various staff and administrators at Alabuga Polytechnic University but received no replies.
Making Iranian Drones In Russia
The complicated and concerning dynamic at Alabuga Polytechnic University stems from growing military cooperation between Iran and Russia that has accelerated since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the start of the war, but not since. However, U.S. intelligence officials have warned for months of continued deliveries and deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, saying the two sides were exploring how to set up a manufacturing plant for Iranian drones inside Russia.
According to The Wall Street Journal, an Iranian delegation visited Yelabuga in Tatarstan on January 5, touring a potential site for such a factory at the Alabuga special economic zone close to Alabuga Polytechnic University. U.S. officials released satellite images in April of the plant being built.
Russia already possesses an array of unarmed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, which are used mainly for surveillance and artillery spotting, but has turned increasingly to Tehran for attack drones.
After being forced to abandon Ukrainian territory that its troops captured in the early stretches of the war, Moscow shifted to a strategy of relentless air assaults on Ukrainian cities. These attacks often rely on a combination of cruise missiles and self-detonating drones packed with explosives to knock out electricity and running water for the civilian population in Ukraine.
So far, Iran has provided Russia mostly with so-called "suicide" drones, known as the Shahed-136, that contain a modest amount of explosives that can detonate when the drones crash into targets, military experts say.
In acquiring its own domestic assembly line, Russia could dramatically increase its stockpile of the relatively inexpensive but highly destructive weapons systems.
WATCH: Russia has resorted to using Shahed-136 drones from Iran in its war on Ukraine. Ukraine says it's already downed many of the drones, which work by slamming into their intended target, laden with explosives. Ordinary Ukrainians say they can already recognize the sound of the drones, which use two-stroke engines like lawnmowers or motorbikes. Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia.
The arrangement also offers substantial economic and political benefits for Iran, which has sought to portray itself as neutral in the Ukraine war. The appearance of Iranian-made drones over Ukrainian cities, however, has triggered threats of new economic sanctions from the West. The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have also all issued rules in recent months designed to cut off the flow of drone components to Russia and Iran.
The Washington Post reported in November 2022, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, that the agreement to deliver Iranian drone schematics and materials for manufacture in Russia resulted from Iranian leaders believing that the arrangement would allow Tehran to avert new sanctions.
Foreign Recruitment And Patriotic Education
Alabuga Polytechnic University is formally not a college. All of its students are officially enrolled at nearby Yelabuga Polytechnic College, with the Alabuga institution existing on paper as a specialized program for students looking to break into high-tech industries.
Currently, about 1,000 students are studying at Alabuga Polytechnic University, with several hundred of them -- most of whom are between the ages of 15 and 17 -- involved in assembling the Iranian drones.
In addition to the work on the drones, there are other signs that point to blurred lines in Russia between the education system and the country’s military amid the war in Ukraine.
According to current and former Alabuga Polytechnic University students, team-building and organized extracurricular activities through the school often take on a “patriotic” character that may be designed to expose students to official government narratives of international events or echo talking points from state television.
Organized paintball games have become a mainstay for students, especially first-year arrivals, in which they are encouraged to compete against one another and then play together against more experienced outside players. Teachers and administration officials regularly refer to paintball as being part of a “patriotic” education needed to complement the technical aspect of their studies.
In one instance, a group of new students competed in paintball as Soviet soldiers against outside players who were dressed as troops from Nazi Germany in a capture-the-flag competition meant to simulate the World War II battle of Stalingrad. According to one student, the Nazi flag contained the compass symbol used by the NATO military alliance instead of the swastika used by Nazi Germany.
Other instances of political teachings from staff are more direct. In a recording obtained by RFE/RL from June 16, a senior administrator can be heard telling the teenagers that NATO launched a hybrid war against Russia back in 2011 and that it has slowly become more overt. The man then goes on to tell students that their hard work and exceeding long days at the drone factory are part of a nationwide struggle against the West and that their patriotism will be rewarded.
Several students and parents identified the man in the recording as Timur Shagivaleev, the director-general of the special economic zone where Alabuga Polytechnic University and the drone factory operate.
Shagivaleev did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.
The man in the recording then goes on to tell students not to take holidays and to continue working “even if it's mom's birthday,” before ending his speech with, “Long live our great country.”
WATCH: Amid a new wave of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, analysts in Kyiv are gaining useful intelligence from a collection of downed Russian aerial weapons. They have been studying the remains of Iranian Shahed drones and Russian Kinzhal missiles, among others.
Multiple current and former students told RFE/RL that students who work in the drone factory are often praised by staff, while those who have refused or asked to be reassigned due to the high workload are often publicly shamed. In some instances -- according to recordings heard by RFE/RL -- staff even encourage students to bully others who are not deemed “patriotic” enough.
According to Protokol and Razvorot’s investigations, Alabuga Polytechnic University has also turned toward recruiting foreign students to enroll. The majority of them come from African countries, but also from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, where they are promised “world class” salaries as part of the dual-track world experience program.
However, these foreign students are then given low-skill and menial tasks around the campus and the special economic zone, such as janitorial work, and are also paid lower salaries than initially promised.
Written by Reid Standish based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities


rferl--2020-02-15--Armenian, Azerbaijani Leaders Debate Nagorno-Karabakh, Make Little Visible Progress

Armenia and Azerbaijan ’ s leaders butted heads over the frozen conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh , but made little visible progress toward resolving the more-than-30-year-old dispute .
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met for a public discussion on February 15 at the Munich Security Conference .
Nagorno-Karabakh is a region within Azerbaijan that was seized by Armenia-backed separatists who declared independence amid a 1988-1994 conflict that ultimately killed at least 30,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands .
Russia brokered a fragile truce in 1994 and the region has been under the control of ethnic-Armenian forces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Armenia .
The region 's claim to independence has not been recognized by any country .
International negotiators have struggled for years to resolve the dispute .
`` Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan , this is the historical truth and ... the territorial integrity is recognized by the whole world , and Nagorno-Karabakh is an integrated part of our country , '' Aliyev said .
`` Over the past 25 years , 30 years , we are repeating every time the same thing .
And I 'm afraid that the international community is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I think we need to bring some new ideas , '' Pashinian said .
There have been no large-scale clashes in years , though forces are dug into trenches and bunkers , and sniper shootings routinely lead to casualties .
The unresolved conflict has hobbled development in the South Caucasus .

Armenia and Azerbaijan’s leaders butted heads over the frozen conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, but made little visible progress toward resolving the more-than-30-year-old dispute.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met for a public discussion on February 15 at the Munich Security Conference.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a region within Azerbaijan that was seized by Armenia-backed separatists who declared independence amid a 1988-1994 conflict that ultimately killed at least 30,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
Russia brokered a fragile truce in 1994 and the region has been under the control of ethnic-Armenian forces that Azerbaijan says include troops supplied by Armenia. The region's claim to independence has not been recognized by any country.
International negotiators have struggled for years to resolve the dispute.
"Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan, this is the historical truth and...the territorial integrity is recognized by the whole world, and Nagorno-Karabakh is an integrated part of our country," Aliyev said.
"Over the past 25 years, 30 years, we are repeating every time the same thing. And I'm afraid that the international community is tired of hearing the same thing, and I think we need to bring some new ideas," Pashinian said.
There have been no large-scale clashes in years, though forces are dug into trenches and bunkers, and sniper shootings routinely lead to casualties.
The unresolved conflict has hobbled development in the South Caucasus.


rferl--2020-02-15--Esper: U.S., Taliban Deal On Reducing Violence In Afghanistan 'Promising,' But With Risks

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said a deal between the United States and the Taliban on a weeklong reduction of violence in Afghanistan `` looks very promising , '' but warned it was not without risk .
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 15 , Esper said it was time `` to give peace a chance '' through a political solution to the nearly 19-year conflict .
`` That means taking some risk , '' he said .
`` That means enabling our diplomats and that means working together with our partners and allies on the ground to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Afghan presidential palace said in a statement on February 15 that the deal was conditions-based and would be finalized possibly in the next few weeks .
The palace statement said that U.S. officials told President Ashraf Ghani that the Taliban was ready to `` quit violence '' and accept a `` pluralistic society . ''
Ghani , speaking later at the Munich conference , refused to comment on specifics of the plan but voiced cautious optimism .
He said that the Taliban 's sincerity in entering the agreement was unproven , but added @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find an answer to this question unless you engage in the peace process . ''
The Afghan president , whose administration has been frustrated at being shut out of talks between the United States and the Taliban insisted he was `` on the same page '' as Washington .
The remarks came a day after a senior U.S. official , who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity , told reporters at the sidelines of the Munich conference that the United States and the Taliban @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reduction of violence that would take effect `` very soon . ''
If successful , the weeklong truce could lead to the signing of a broader agreement between the United States and the Taliban on the withdrawal of around 20,000 foreign troops from the country .
That deal would trigger the start of intra-Afghan peace negotiations over the political future of the country .
The truce deal was announced after a meeting between Esper , U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of the conference @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Khalilzad and General Scott Miller , the commander of the U.S.-led international force in Afghanistan , also attended the meeting .
The unnamed U.S. official who addressed reporters said the Taliban had committed to stopping roadside and suicide bombings as well as rocket attacks .
The official said the deal was `` very specific '' and covered the entire country , including Afghan forces .
The United States would monitor the truce and determine if there were any violations , the official said .


rferl--2020-02-15--Lavrov Accuses NATO, Europe Of Stoking Tensions

Russia 's foreign minister has accused NATO , and Europe more broadly , of stoking tensions on the continent , as he called on leaders to `` abandon the phantom of the Russian threat . ''
Speaking on February 15 at the Munich Security Conference , Sergei Lavrov made no mention of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine , where a nearly six-year conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed fighters has killed more than 13,000 people .
The war in eastern Ukraine and Russia 's annexation of Ukraine 's Crimea Peninsula led to Western sanctions , Russia being kicked out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ punitive measures .
Lavrov suggested NATO was to blame for tensions with Russia , including the increased deployment in recent years of more Western military hardware and forces in the Baltic states and Poland .
`` The crisis of confidence is felt particularly acutely in European affairs , '' said Lavrov .
`` The stoking of tension , the advance of NATO 's military infrastructure to the East , military exercises of unprecedented scale near Russia 's borders , increase of defense budgets beyond every measure ; this all generates uncertainty . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , you should abandon the phantom of the Russian threat…remember what unites us , '' he added .
Last year , the Council of Europe voted to restore Russia 's participation in the organization .
Earlier on February 15 , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made a plea for continuing help from European nations in the ongoing conflict with Russia .
`` This is not a war in our country , but a war in Europe , ” Zelenskiy said .
“ So , we are grateful to all of you , but all @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Russia's foreign minister has accused NATO, and Europe more broadly, of stoking tensions on the continent, as he called on leaders to "abandon the phantom of the Russian threat."
Speaking on February 15 at the Munich Security Conference, Sergei Lavrov made no mention of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, where a nearly six-year conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed fighters has killed more than 13,000 people.
The war in eastern Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula led to Western sanctions, Russia being kicked out of the Council of Europe, and other punitive measures.
Lavrov suggested NATO was to blame for tensions with Russia, including the increased deployment in recent years of more Western military hardware and forces in the Baltic states and Poland.
"The crisis of confidence is felt particularly acutely in European affairs," said Lavrov. "The stoking of tension, the advance of NATO's military infrastructure to the East, military exercises of unprecedented scale near Russia's borders, increase of defense budgets beyond every measure; this all generates uncertainty."
"Before it's too late, you should abandon the phantom of the Russian threat…remember what unites us," he added.
Last year, the Council of Europe voted to restore Russia's participation in the organization.
Earlier on February 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made a plea for continuing help from European nations in the ongoing conflict with Russia.
"This is not a war in our country, but a war in Europe,” Zelenskiy said. “So, we are grateful to all of you, but all of you are defending yourselves."


rferl--2020-02-15--Zelenskiy Calls For Elections in Donetsk, Lukhansk In October

Ukraine ’ s president has called for holding local elections in the war-torn east , along with the rest of the country , in October , despite the ongoing conflict in the region .
Speaking on February 15 at the Munich Security Conference , Volodymyr Zelenskiy again made a plea for support from Western nations for help in Kyiv 's fight against Russia-backed separatists .
`` The war in Ukraine -- I know -- is a war in Europe .
Together with the annexation of Crimea , it has already been going on for as long as World War II @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` Our wish today is to hold local elections throughout all the territories of Ukraine , including particular parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in October 2020 , '' he said .
`` There is the same wish concerning the territory of Crimea as well . ''
`` The people in Donbas need elections that will be recognized by Ukraine and the entire world as legitimate , '' he said .
`` And they can not be such if they are not held in line with Ukrainian legislation , at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ukraine 's ] control of our border . ''
In December , Zelenskiy met with his Russian counterpart , Vladimir Putin , in Paris as part of the so-called Normandy Format talks .
Germany and France also participated .
But the talks failed to produce a concrete resolution to the conflict , which has killed more than 13,000 people and displaced more than 1 million .

Ukraine’s president has called for holding local elections in the war-torn east, along with the rest of the country, in October, despite the ongoing conflict in the region.
Speaking on February 15 at the Munich Security Conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy again made a plea for support from Western nations for help in Kyiv's fight against Russia-backed separatists.
"The war in Ukraine -- I know -- is a war in Europe. Together with the annexation of Crimea, it has already been going on for as long as World War II -- just imagine!” Zelenskiy said.
"Our wish today is to hold local elections throughout all the territories of Ukraine, including particular parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in October 2020," he said. "There is the same wish concerning the territory of Crimea as well."
"The people in Donbas need elections that will be recognized by Ukraine and the entire world as legitimate," he said. "And they cannot be such if they are not held in line with Ukrainian legislation, at the sound of gunfire, and without [Ukraine's] control of our border."
In December, Zelenskiy met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Paris as part of the so-called Normandy Format talks. Germany and France also participated.
But the talks failed to produce a concrete resolution to the conflict, which has killed more than 13,000 people and displaced more than 1 million.


rferl--2020-02-15--Pashtun Rights Leader In Pakistan Released On Bail

A court in Pakistan on February 15 ordered the release of a Pashtun leader , weeks after he was arrested charges including sedition .
A lawyer for Manzoor Pashteen told RFE/RL 's Radio Mashaal that his client had been granted bail and ordered released .
Pashteen was arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar early on January 27 on five charges , including sedition , hate speech , incitement against the state , and criminal conspiracy .
Pashteen 's lawyer Saeed Akhtar said his client had already received bail over three of five charges against him .
He said Pashteen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ charges on February 15 .
Akhtar added that he hoped Pashteen would be released from jail later in the day .
The 28-year-old Pashteen is the leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement ( PTM ) , which defends the rights of Pashtuns in Pakistan , the country ’ s largest ethnic minority .
The PTM has campaigned for civil rights for ethnic Pashtuns since 2018 .
The group has attracted tens of thousands of people out to public rallies to denounce the powerful Pakistani army 's heavy-handed operations in the militancy-hit tribal regions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Islamist militants .
The PTM has been calling for the removal of military checkpoints in tribal areas and an end to `` enforced disappearances '' in which suspects are detained by security forces without due process .
Pakistan 's government rejects allegations that security forces or its intelligence service are responsible for enforced disappearances .
His detention was condemned both in Pakistan and abroad , including in Afghanistan , where Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group .
Human Rights Watch ( HRW ) had urged Pakistani authorities to release Pashteen and drop the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` using criminal laws to chill free expression and political opposition has no place in a democracy . ''
The activist had been `` arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly , '' according to Amnesty International .
In a post on Twitter , Mohsin Dawar , a Pakistani parliamentarian and a PTM leader , expressed his thanks to all who had called for Pashteen ’ s release .

A court in Pakistan on February 15 ordered the release of a Pashtun leader, weeks after he was arrested charges including sedition.
A lawyer for Manzoor Pashteen told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that his client had been granted bail and ordered released.
Pashteen was arrested in the northwestern city of Peshawar early on January 27 on five charges, including sedition, hate speech, incitement against the state, and criminal conspiracy.
Pashteen's lawyer Saeed Akhtar said his client had already received bail over three of five charges against him. He said Pashteen was granted bail over the remaining two charges on February 15.
Akhtar added that he hoped Pashteen would be released from jail later in the day.
The 28-year-old Pashteen is the leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), which defends the rights of Pashtuns in Pakistan, the country’s largest ethnic minority.
The PTM has campaigned for civil rights for ethnic Pashtuns since 2018.
The group has attracted tens of thousands of people out to public rallies to denounce the powerful Pakistani army's heavy-handed operations in the militancy-hit tribal regions and the military's alleged connection with Islamist militants.
The PTM has been calling for the removal of military checkpoints in tribal areas and an end to "enforced disappearances" in which suspects are detained by security forces without due process.
Pakistan's government rejects allegations that security forces or its intelligence service are responsible for enforced disappearances.
His detention was condemned both in Pakistan and abroad, including in Afghanistan, where Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) had urged Pakistani authorities to release Pashteen and drop the charges against the activist, saying that "using criminal laws to chill free expression and political opposition has no place in a democracy."
The activist had been "arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," according to Amnesty International.
In a post on Twitter, Mohsin Dawar, a Pakistani parliamentarian and a PTM leader, expressed his thanks to all who had called for Pashteen’s release.


rferl--2020-02-15--Macron Says Open To Starting EU Membership Talks With North Macedonia, Albania

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he would support the EU starting formal membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania if the bloc 's executive gives them a positive review next month .
Macron 's comments at the Munich Security Conference on February 15 look set to end his freeze on the two Balkan countries ' progress toward EU membership .
`` We are waiting for the ( European Commission ) report in March ... depending on that , if the results are positive and confidence is established , then we should be in a position to open the negotiations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Macron had refused to approve the start of so-called accession negotiations at a summit in October , saying the process of admitting new members needed to change .
Worried by Chinese and Russian influence in the six states that aspire to join the bloc -- Serbia , Kosovo , Montenegro , Albania , Bosnia and North Macedonia -- Germany and the European Commission said Macron was wrong to block them .
This month , the commission suggested reforms to the accession process along the lines of a French proposal made in November , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it easier to stop or reset negotiations and freeze funds .
Macron 's shift sets the stage for the 27 EU governments ' assent before an EU-Balkan summit in Zagreb in May .
Denmark and the Netherlands , who supported Macron 's position last year , are expected to drop their resistance , EU diplomats told Reuters .
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he would support the EU starting formal membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania if the bloc's executive gives them a positive review next month.
Macron's comments at the Munich Security Conference on February 15 look set to end his freeze on the two Balkan countries' progress toward EU membership.
"We are waiting for the (European Commission) report in March ... depending on that, if the results are positive and confidence is established, then we should be in a position to open the negotiations," Macron told the conference.
Macron had refused to approve the start of so-called accession negotiations at a summit in October, saying the process of admitting new members needed to change.
Worried by Chinese and Russian influence in the six states that aspire to join the bloc -- Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and North Macedonia -- Germany and the European Commission said Macron was wrong to block them.
This month, the commission suggested reforms to the accession process along the lines of a French proposal made in November, giving EU governments more say and making it easier to stop or reset negotiations and freeze funds.
Macron's shift sets the stage for the 27 EU governments' assent before an EU-Balkan summit in Zagreb in May.
Denmark and the Netherlands, who supported Macron's position last year, are expected to drop their resistance, EU diplomats told Reuters.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP


rferl--2020-02-17--Woman On Cruise Ship Becomes First Russian Infected With Coronavirus

A Russian woman on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined off the coast of Japan has tested positive for the coronavirus , Russia 's Embassy in Tokyo said on February 17 .
The woman is the first confirmed case among the 24 Russians on board the Diamond Princess .
She is also thought to be the first Russian national to contract the coronavirus .
`` A female citizen of Russia has tested positive for the coronavirus in the course of Covid-19 screening of all passengers by Japanese authorities .
The Russian woman will soon be hospitalized in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` The Embassy will continue to provide comprehensive assistance to our citizens , '' it added .
Two previous cases found in Russia -- one in the Siberian city of Chita and one in the Tyumen region -- were both Chinese nationals .
They have both recovered and have been discharged from hospital .
The Diamond Princess departed from Yokohama on January 20 with 2,666 tourists and 1,045 crew members on board for a two-week cruise to Kagoshima , Hong Kong , and Okinawa .
The cruise was supposed to end on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ passengers who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus and the cruise ship was quarantined in Yokohama for 14 days .
Based on reporting by RFE/RL 's Current Time , TASS , and Interfax

A Russian woman on board a cruise ship quarantined off the coast of Japan has tested positive for the coronavirus, Russia's Embassy in Tokyo said on February 17.
The woman is the first confirmed case among the 24 Russians on board the Diamond Princess. She is also thought to be the first Russian national to contract the coronavirus.
"A female citizen of Russia has tested positive for the coronavirus in the course of Covid-19 screening of all passengers by Japanese authorities. The Russian woman will soon be hospitalized in order to receive treatment," the embassy tweeted.
"The Embassy will continue to provide comprehensive assistance to our citizens," it added.
Two previous cases found in Russia -- one in the Siberian city of Chita and one in the Tyumen region -- were both Chinese nationals. They have both recovered and have been discharged from hospital.
The Diamond Princess departed from Yokohama on January 20 with 2,666 tourists and 1,045 crew members on board for a two-week cruise to Kagoshima, Hong Kong, and Okinawa.
The cruise was supposed to end on February 4. But one of the passengers who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus and the cruise ship was quarantined in Yokohama for 14 days.
In St. Petersburg, a court on February 17 ordered a Russian woman who escaped from a virus quarantine to be forcibly returned back to the hospital she fled.
Alla Ilyina, 32, escaped from the facility last week, saying she had tested negative for the virus but was told to remain quarantined for two weeks.
Ilyina returned from China last month. Doctors diagnosed her with "acute virus illness" that they suspected could be the new coronavirus.
More than 70,500 people have been infected by the COVID-19 across China, with the death toll in the country reaching 1,770.
There have been more than 500 cases in nearly 30 other countries and territories. Four people died in France, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Japan.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Current Time, TASS, Interfax, AFP, and AP.


rferl--2020-02-17--Despite Reported Deal At Peace Talks, Taliban Kills Five Afghan Troops In North

Afghan officials say at least five Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed a base in northern Afghanistan , despite expectations for a `` reduction in violence '' before a U.S.-Taliban deal .
The attack occurred in the Shora Khak district of Kunduz Province on February 16 , days after U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said an agreement with the Taliban was in place for a `` conditions-based '' weeklong reduction in violence .
`` Unfortunately , five army soldiers were martyred and three wounded , '' the Afghan Defense Ministry said on February 17 .
There were also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
Enhamuddin Rahmani , a spokesman for Kunduz police , said the fighting lasted several hours and both sides suffered casualties .
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed on Twitter that the militants killed 19 security forces in the attack and destroyed four armored personnel carriers , seizing a large amount of weapons and other military equipment .
Separately , Afghanistan 's Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah told a meeting of ministers on February 17 that the Taliban has agreed to a seven-day reduction of violence ahead of a peace deal with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and may be signed as soon as February 29 .
It was not immediately clear when the reduction in violence was scheduled to begin .
In Doha , the capital of Qatar , a member of a Taliban delegation told a local news agency that the U.S.-Taliban talks had ended `` successfully '' with an agreement that will be released before the end of the month .
With reporting by AFP and Tolonews.ro


rferl--2020-02-17--Kazakh Mortgage Protesters Demand Justice, Want Meeting With Ex-President

NUR-SULTAN -- Dozens of protesters from across Kazakhstan have gathered in the capital Nur-Sultan to demand a meeting with former President Nursultan Nazarbaev about what they say are `` faulty mortgages '' and `` wrongful '' court decisions by Kazakh judges .
In addition to Nazarbaev , who now heads Kazakhstan 's powerful Security Council and has the title `` leader of the nation , '' the demonstrators on February 17 were also demanding to meet with Nazarbaev 's eldest daughter , Senate Chairwoman Darigha Nazarbaeva , as well as with the head of President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev 's office , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ near the presidential headquarters in Nur-Sultan , preventing them from reaching the building where President Toqaev 's office is located .
Many of the visibly frustrated demonstrators said they 've been paying mortgages on apartments in buildings that have not yet been completed .
Some protesters also complained that their attempts to attain justice in Kazakhstan 's civil and criminal courts have failed .
They say they want senior officials to intervene on their behalf .
The demonstration was taking place while President Toqaev was in Germany following the February 14-16 Munich Security @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nur-Sultan for more than a year following a February 2019 house fire in the capital that killed five children from one family while both parents were working overnight shifts to make ends meet..
The 79-year-old Nazarbaev had been president of the former Soviet republic in Central Asia since before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 .
Nazarbaev , who has tolerated little dissent during almost three decades in power , continues to head Kazakhstan 's ruling Nur-Otan party .
Nazarbaev named Toqaev as his choice to replace him when he announced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ March 2019 .
Toqaev was inaugurated in June after a weakly contested election marred by what international observers called `` widespread voting irregularities . ''
Opponents , critics , and rights groups say Nazarbaev has denied many citizens their basic rights and has prolonged his power in the country of 18.7 million people by manipulating the democratic process .
No vote held in Kazakhstan since 1991 has been deemed free and democratic by international observers .
Kazakhstan 's capital , formerly called Astana , was renamed in Nazarbaev 's honor in 2019 .

NUR-SULTAN -- Dozens of protesters from across Kazakhstan have gathered in the capital Nur-Sultan to demand a meeting with former President Nursultan Nazarbaev about what they say are "faulty mortgages" and "wrongful" court decisions by Kazakh judges.
In addition to Nazarbaev, who now heads Kazakhstan's powerful Security Council and has the title "leader of the nation," the demonstrators on February 17 were also demanding to meet with Nazarbaev's eldest daughter, Senate Chairwoman Darigha Nazarbaeva, as well as with the head of President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev's office, Erlan Qoshanov.
Police blocked the demonstrators near the presidential headquarters in Nur-Sultan, preventing them from reaching the building where President Toqaev's office is located.
Many of the visibly frustrated demonstrators said they've been paying mortgages on apartments in buildings that have not yet been completed.
Some protesters also complained that their attempts to attain justice in Kazakhstan's civil and criminal courts have failed. They say they want senior officials to intervene on their behalf.
The demonstration was taking place while President Toqaev was in Germany following the February 14-16 Munich Security Conference.
Protests have taken place in Nur-Sultan for more than a year following a February 2019 house fire in the capital that killed five children from one family while both parents were working overnight shifts to make ends meet..
The 79-year-old Nazarbaev had been president of the former Soviet republic in Central Asia since before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Nazarbaev, who has tolerated little dissent during almost three decades in power, continues to head Kazakhstan's ruling Nur-Otan party.
Nazarbaev named Toqaev as his choice to replace him when he announced his sudden resignation from the presidency in March 2019.
Toqaev was inaugurated in June after a weakly contested election marred by what international observers called "widespread voting irregularities."
Opponents, critics, and rights groups say Nazarbaev has denied many citizens their basic rights and has prolonged his power in the country of 18.7 million people by manipulating the democratic process.
No vote held in Kazakhstan since 1991 has been deemed free and democratic by international observers.
Kazakhstan's capital, formerly called Astana, was renamed in Nazarbaev's honor in 2019.


rferl--2020-02-17--U.S.-Ukraine Produced Rocket Lifts Off, Takes Supplies To International Space Station

A medium-class rocket jointly developed by U.S. and Ukrainian specialists successfully launched from a NASA flight facility in Virginia on February 15 , carrying nearly four tons of supplies , hardware , and science payloads to the International Space Station ( ISS ) .
The Antares rocket , partly designed by the Pivdenne Design Bureau and made by the Pivdenmash in Ukraine ’ s Dnipro region , lifted off at 3:21 p.m. local time carrying U.S. defense corporation Northrop Grumman ’ s robotic Cygnus cargo spacecraft .
Its cylindrical 3,750-kilogram payload included fresh fruit , cheddar and manchego cheese , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aboard the International Space Station ( ISS ) .
Its arrival is scheduled for February 18 and the crew will grab onto the spacecraft with the station ’ s Canadian-built robotic arm for its berthing .
The first electron microscope to fly in space , built by a Seattle company called Voxa , will conduct scientific experiments aboard the Cygnus .
The 13th Cygnus cargo spacecraft is named after Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. , the first African-American ever selected as an astronaut .
He was killed in a 1967 jet crash during his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a tissue and cell-culturing facility will be delivered to the ISS as well .
`` The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until May 11 , when it will depart the orbiting laboratory , ” NASA said in a news release .
It will support dozens of new and existing investigations , according to a blog by NASA and Northrop Grumman .

A medium-class rocket jointly developed by U.S. and Ukrainian specialists successfully launched from a NASA flight facility in Virginia on February 15, carrying nearly four tons of supplies, hardware, and science payloads to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Antares rocket, partly designed by the Pivdenne Design Bureau and made by the Pivdenmash in Ukraine’s Dnipro region, lifted off at 3:21 p.m. local time carrying U.S. defense corporation Northrop Grumman’s robotic Cygnus cargo spacecraft.
Its cylindrical 3,750-kilogram payload included fresh fruit, cheddar and manchego cheese, as well as candy for the crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Its arrival is scheduled for February 18 and the crew will grab onto the spacecraft with the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm for its berthing.
The first electron microscope to fly in space, built by a Seattle company called Voxa, will conduct scientific experiments aboard the Cygnus.
The 13th Cygnus cargo spacecraft is named after Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African-American ever selected as an astronaut. He was killed in a 1967 jet crash during his training mission for space.
NASA said a tissue and cell-culturing facility will be delivered to the ISS as well.
"The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the space station until May 11, when it will depart the orbiting laboratory,” NASA said in a news release.
It will support dozens of new and existing investigations, according to a blog by NASA and Northrop Grumman.


rferl--2020-02-17--Ukrainian Fishermen Detained by Russia In Sea Of Azov Get 10 Days In Crimean Jail

A Russian-administered court in Ukraine 's Crimean Peninsula ruled on February 16 to detain four Ukrainian fisherman for 10 days as civil punishment for `` illegally fishing '' in the Sea of Azov where they were detained and had their boat impounded the previous day .
Russia 's Federal Security Service ( FSB ) border guard force said it apprehended the four Ukrainians off the coast of Crimea and accused them of `` violating the rules for catching aquatic biological resources . ''
The fishermen did n't have documents on their person and the catch on board the vessel was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human rights ombudswoman on the Russian-occupied peninsula .
A 2003 Russia-Ukraine treaty stipulates unimpeded access to the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov .
Ukraine 's presidential representative in annexed Crimea based in the southern Kherson region said it was the monitoring the situation with the four fishermen .
On November 25 , 2018 , Russian border guards attacked , intercepted , and seized three Ukrainian Navy boats off Crimea , taking 24 crew members prisoner .
The following November , Russia returned the severely damaged Ukrainian vessels and a UN tribunal had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members and ships in May .
The sailors were freed after 10 months in a landmark prisoner exchange in September .
Russia invaded Crimea in early 2014 and has controlled the peninsula ever since , triggering Western sanctions that are still in place .

A Russian-administered court in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula ruled on February 16 to detain four Ukrainian fisherman for 10 days as civil punishment for "illegally fishing" in the Sea of Azov where they were detained and had their boat impounded the previous day.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) border guard force said it apprehended the four Ukrainians off the coast of Crimea and accused them of "violating the rules for catching aquatic biological resources."
The fishermen didn't have documents on their person and the catch on board the vessel was illegal, said Larisa Opanasyuk, the human rights ombudswoman on the Russian-occupied peninsula.
A 2003 Russia-Ukraine treaty stipulates unimpeded access to the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov.
Ukraine's presidential representative in annexed Crimea based in the southern Kherson region said it was the monitoring the situation with the four fishermen.
On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards attacked, intercepted, and seized three Ukrainian Navy boats off Crimea, taking 24 crew members prisoner.
The following November, Russia returned the severely damaged Ukrainian vessels and a UN tribunal had ordered Russia to immediately release the crew members and ships in May.
The sailors were freed after 10 months in a landmark prisoner exchange in September.
Russia invaded Crimea in early 2014 and has controlled the peninsula ever since, triggering Western sanctions that are still in place.


rferl--2020-02-17--Trump Calls For Russia To Stop Backing Syrian 'Atrocities' On Eve Of Ankara-Moscow Talks

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on February 16 , `` expressing concern over the violence in Idlib , Syria , '' according to White House press secretary Judd Deere .
Trump called for Russia to end its support for the Syrian regime 's `` atrocities '' and conveyed the United States ' `` desire to see an end to Russia 's support '' for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad .
He urged `` a political resolution to the Syrian conflict , '' which has lasted for nearly nine years .
Their conversation came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talks are scheduled between Ankara and Moscow who back opposing sides in the conflict .
Backed by Russian air strikes , Syrian government forces made significant advances on February 16 in the country 's Aleppo province , seizing most of the last rebel-held region .
Turkey , which supports rebels who want to remove Assad from power , has urged Russia to stop the attacks in the Idlib region , warning it would use military might to drive away Syrian forces unless they withdraw by the end of the month .
By the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` were in control of all the villages and small towns around Aleppo for the first time since 2012 , '' the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said .
The UN says that , since December , 800,000 people have been displaced due to fighting in the area .
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

A former top FBI counterintelligence agent pleaded guilty to charges related to his work for notorious Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, changing his plea after federal prosecutors filed new, reduced charges of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Russia by working for the billionaire industrialist.
The move by Charles McGonigal, made on August 15 before a federal judge in New York City, ends a prosecution that had stunned the FBI, where McGonigal had investigated Russian influence operations for years while climbing the bureau’s ranks.
The 55-year-old also still faces a separate set of foreign agent charges in Washington, D.C., related to work he did for Albanian officials.
McGonigal, who retired as head counterintelligence in the FBI's New York bureau in 2018, was originally indicted in January by a grand jury on more serious charges of money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions.
Prosecutors alleged that McGonigal and a former Russian diplomat with whom he was associated, were paid more than $200,000 to do work for Deripaska, a wealthy Russian metals tycoon who has long been seen as a Kremlin insider. Deripaska was hit with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018.
U.S. authorities said McGonigal was hired to dig up negative information on Vladimir Potanin, a rival oligarch to Deripaska. McGonigal and the former diplomat, Sergei Shestakov, also worked to try and get Deripaska removed from U.S. sanctions lists.
Shestakov has pleaded not guilty to the more serious charges than had been originally filed against McGonigal.
They "attempted to conceal Deripaska's involvement by, among other means, not directly naming Deripaska in electronic communications, using shell companies as counterparties in the contract that outlined the services to be performed, using a forged signature on that contract, and using the same shell companies to send and receive payment from Deripaska," the Justice Department said in a press release after McGonigal entered his plea.
McGonigal could receive up to five years in prison when he is sentenced in December.
The separate case filed in Washington, D.C., by federal prosecutors centers on work McGonigal allegedly did on behalf of a former Albanian intelligence officer, for which he was paid $225,000.
McGonigal also allegedly lied to the FBI about his contacts with foreign nationals and foreign travel while he was still employed by the bureau.
Deripaska also faces charges of violating U.S. sanctions through real estate deals and a complicated scheme under which he allegedly arranged for his girlfriend to travel to the United States to give birth to two of their children.


rferl--2020-02-17--Ukraine Arrests Alleged Crime Boss After Six-Year Manhunt

Ukraine ’ s National Police have arrested alleged mafia boss Yevhen Anisimov , who has been wanted for six years on numerous charges mainly related to extorting money from businesses in the Zaporizhzhya region located in the southeastern part of the country .
Anisimov , 44 , was apprehended in the capital Kyiv on February 16 by an elite police unit and taken to Zaporizhzhya where he was allegedly engaged in shaking down businesses during the truncated presidential term of Viktor Yanukovych between 2010 and early 2014 .
He is facing charges of creating an organized crime group , extortion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the illegal use of firearms .
One of his alleged victims , Yevhen Chernyak , owner of a leading Ukrainian vodka producer based in Zaporizhzhya , rejoiced at the news of the alleged criminal 's arrest on Facebook .
The owner of Global Spirits has accused Anisimov of trying to take over his business 10 years ago and called him the `` mafia enforcer '' for Yanukovych in the Zaporizhzhya region .
Chernyak said a close associate of the alleged criminal gave him up to authorities .
Anisimov was on an international @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Koncha-Zaspa , a wooded district in northwestern Kyiv that is home to many summer cottages , health resorts , and children 's camps , said Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko .
Another alleged victim of extortion in Zaporizhzhya , money-transfer company owner Yuriy Komisarov , told RFE/RL in 2013 that the suspected underworld boss offered to split cash proceeds with the entrepreneur as well shares in his company .
During much of Yanukovych ’ s presidency , local city and regional officials in Zaporizhzhya denied Anisimov was a “ criminal kingpin ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a socially responsible businessman and a prominent philanthropist .
”

Ukraine’s National Police have arrested alleged mafia boss Yevhen Anisimov, who has been wanted for six years on numerous charges mainly related to extorting money from businesses in the Zaporizhzhya region located in the southeastern part of the country.
Anisimov, 44, was apprehended in the capital Kyiv on February 16 by an elite police unit and taken to Zaporizhzhya where he was allegedly engaged in shaking down businesses during the truncated presidential term of Viktor Yanukovych between 2010 and early 2014.
He is facing charges of creating an organized crime group, extortion, property theft, money laundering, and the illegal use of firearms.
One of his alleged victims, Yevhen Chernyak, owner of a leading Ukrainian vodka producer based in Zaporizhzhya, rejoiced at the news of the alleged criminal's arrest on Facebook.
The owner of Global Spirits has accused Anisimov of trying to take over his business 10 years ago and called him the "mafia enforcer" for Yanukovych in the Zaporizhzhya region.
Chernyak said a close associate of the alleged criminal gave him up to authorities.
Anisimov was on an international wanted list and his last hideout was in Koncha-Zaspa, a wooded district in northwestern Kyiv that is home to many summer cottages, health resorts, and children's camps, said Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko.
Another alleged victim of extortion in Zaporizhzhya, money-transfer company owner Yuriy Komisarov, told RFE/RL in 2013 that the suspected underworld boss offered to split cash proceeds with the entrepreneur as well shares in his company.
During much of Yanukovych’s presidency, local city and regional officials in Zaporizhzhya denied Anisimov was a “criminal kingpin” and instead was “an example of a socially responsible businessman and a prominent philanthropist.”


rferl--2020-02-17--EU Says Accession For Balkan Countries Still Possible

The respective presidents of the European Council and European Union Commission voiced the desire on February 16 to maintain close relations with countries in the Balkans as the EU seeks to preserve credibility with them after membership hopes for Albania and North Macedonia were recently dashed .
`` I think it is in our common geostrategic interest to have the Western Balkans as close as possible to the European Union , '' EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels as an informal EU-Western Balkans meeting takes place on February 16-17 .
European Council President Charles Michel said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , intense , and open discussion '' with the leaders of the six Western Balkan nations ahead of a key summit in Zagreb in May .
The EU commonly uses the Western Balkans to refer to Albania and the successor states of Yugoslavia that haven ’ t joined the 27-nation bloc .
In October , Albania and North Macedonia were told EU membership talks would be postponed despite major reforms on their part .
However , the EU has since recalibrated how it conducts accession negotiations in order to reverse frustrations that were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ membership hopes .
Von der Leyen said in Brussels that the new methodology emphasizes structural reforms -- or how a government functions -- and creates a credible prospect for the Balkan countries to join the EU after a certain time , according to reporting by the dpa news agency .
After French President Emmanuel Macron led a small group that vetoed accession talks last year with North Macedonia and Albania , the social democrat government in Skopje resigned in January and new elections are set to take place in April .
`` We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the next European Council [ summit ] to open the door to the European perspective of the Balkan countries , '' EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on February 16 .
In addition , the European Commission is scheduled to publish an individual report for candidate countries Albania , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Kosovo , Montenegro , Northern Macedonia , and Serbia .
With reporting by dpa and AFP

The respective presidents of the European Council and European Union Commission voiced the desire on February 16 to maintain close relations with countries in the Balkans as the EU seeks to preserve credibility with them after membership hopes for Albania and North Macedonia were recently dashed.
"I think it is in our common geostrategic interest to have the Western Balkans as close as possible to the European Union," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels as an informal EU-Western Balkans meeting takes place on February 16-17.
European Council President Charles Michel said he looks "forward to a frank, intense, and open discussion" with the leaders of the six Western Balkan nations ahead of a key summit in Zagreb in May.
The EU commonly uses the Western Balkans to refer to Albania and the successor states of Yugoslavia that haven’t joined the 27-nation bloc.
In October, Albania and North Macedonia were told EU membership talks would be postponed despite major reforms on their part.
However, the EU has since recalibrated how it conducts accession negotiations in order to reverse frustrations that were triggered by the French president's scotching membership hopes.
Von der Leyen said in Brussels that the new methodology emphasizes structural reforms -- or how a government functions -- and creates a credible prospect for the Balkan countries to join the EU after a certain time, according to reporting by the dpa news agency.
After French President Emmanuel Macron led a small group that vetoed accession talks last year with North Macedonia and Albania, the social democrat government in Skopje resigned in January and new elections are set to take place in April.
"We are going to work today and tomorrow for the next European Council [summit] to open the door to the European perspective of the Balkan countries," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on February 16.
In addition, the European Commission is scheduled to publish an individual report for candidate countries Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, and Serbia.
With reporting by dpa and AFP


rferl--2020-02-17--Two Uzbek Policemen Injured In Clashes With Residents Over Pending Demolition Of Their Homes

Clashes between Uzbek police and residents of a village some 650 kilometers southwest of the capital , Tashkent , erupted and left three people injured on February 14 , including two police officers , after local inhabitants were told their homes would be demolished .
Eyewitnesses told RFE/RL that the incident started on February 14 when a group consisting of members of the district administration , prosecutors , and Interior Ministry officials came to the village of Xalqobod in the Altynsai district of the Surkhondaryo region .
Certain residents were told their homes were built illegally on territory designated as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to gather at a local farming homestead .
When the police tried to calm and reason with the local residents after telling them their homes would be torn down , some angry villagers attacked the officers with sticks , axes , and shovels , according to the news service of the regional police .
Video of the incident posted on social media showed what appeared to be police hitting unarmed residents and dragging them on the ground with one person bleeding from the face .
The conflict subsided at around 4 p.m. local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the scene and told the residents to disperse and retreat to their homes .
Six residents were arrested and one villager was slightly injured , as well as two police officers .
No homes were demolished .
In a February 16 statement , the Prosecutor-General ’ s Office blamed the incident on families who opposed the demolition of the `` illegally-built homes . ''
Six local residents have allegedly occupied 0.39 hectares of irrigated , agricultural land and built brick homes encompassing an area of 235.5 square meters , the statement said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their homes within two days from February 8 .
Police didn ’ t provide an update on the fate of the six arrested individuals .

Clashes between Uzbek police and residents of a village some 650 kilometers southwest of the capital, Tashkent, erupted and left three people injured on February 14, including two police officers, after local inhabitants were told their homes would be demolished.
Eyewitnesses told RFE/RL that the incident started on February 14 when a group consisting of members of the district administration, prosecutors, and Interior Ministry officials came to the village of Xalqobod in the Altynsai district of the Surkhondaryo region.
Certain residents were told their homes were built illegally on territory designated as farmland after which an angry crowd began to gather at a local farming homestead.
When the police tried to calm and reason with the local residents after telling them their homes would be torn down, some angry villagers attacked the officers with sticks, axes, and shovels, according to the news service of the regional police.
Video of the incident posted on social media showed what appeared to be police hitting unarmed residents and dragging them on the ground with one person bleeding from the face.
The conflict subsided at around 4 p.m. local time after a special police unit arrived on the scene and told the residents to disperse and retreat to their homes.
Six residents were arrested and one villager was slightly injured, as well as two police officers.
No homes were demolished.
In a February 16 statement, the Prosecutor-General’s Office blamed the incident on families who opposed the demolition of the "illegally-built homes."
Six local residents have allegedly occupied 0.39 hectares of irrigated, agricultural land and built brick homes encompassing an area of 235.5 square meters, the statement said.
They were given notice to demolish their homes within two days from February 8.
Police didn’t provide an update on the fate of the six arrested individuals.


rferl--2020-02-17--Pakistan Urged To Bring Journalist's Killers To Justice

International media freedom watchdogs are urging Pakistani authorities to ensure that the killing of a journalist whose body was found in an irrigation waterway does not go unpunished .
Aziz Memon ’ s body was found with wire tied around the neck on February 16 near his hometown of Mehrabpur , in the southwestern province of Sindh .
The initial investigation suggested he was strangled to death before his body was thrown into the canal .
In a statement on February 17 , the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists ( CPJ ) said the “ murder…deserves swift justice , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failed to deliver for journalists.
” A reporter for KTN TV and the newspaper Kawish , which are owned by Pakistan ’ s largest Sindhi-language media group , Memon is the first Pakistani journalist to be killed this year , according to Reporters Without Borders ( RSF ) .
It said four Pakistani journalists and a blogger were killed last year in connection with their reporting .
Memon was last seen when he set off on February 15 to do some reporting in the nearby locality of Behlani .
The Paris-based RSF quoted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both he and Memon ’ s wife believed he was targeted in connection with his reporting .
Months ago , Memon released a video message saying he was receiving threats for his coverage of a news story .
The threats seem to have been triggered by his coverage of the so-called Train March , a campaign of protests and rallies organized nearly a year ago by the opposition Pakistan Peoples ’ Party , according to RSF .
Daniel Bastard , the head of RSF ’ s Asia-Pacific desk , urged Sindh Chief Minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everything possible ” to ensure that those responsible for the killing are brought to justice .
Meanwhile , the federal government and parliament should “ quickly finalize a law protecting journalists and combatting impunity , in order to rein in the spiral of violence against media personnel , ” Bastard said .
“ Given the victim ’ s previous allegations of threats from local officials , it is essential that the investigation be free from political meddling , ” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler .
Pakistan ranked 8th on CPJ ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 16 unsolved killings of journalists in the past 10 years .
Of the 34 journalists who were murdered for their work since 1992 , partial justice has been achieved in only three cases , according to the watchdog .

International media freedom watchdogs are urging Pakistani authorities to ensure that the killing of a journalist whose body was found in an irrigation waterway does not go unpunished.
Aziz Memon’s body was found with wire tied around the neck on February 16 near his hometown of Mehrabpur, in the southwestern province of Sindh. The initial investigation suggested he was strangled to death before his body was thrown into the canal.
In a statement on February 17, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the “murder…deserves swift justice, which is something Pakistani authorities have repeatedly failed to deliver for journalists.”
A reporter for KTN TV and the newspaper Kawish, which are owned by Pakistan’s largest Sindhi-language media group, Memon is the first Pakistani journalist to be killed this year, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). It said four Pakistani journalists and a blogger were killed last year in connection with their reporting.
Memon was last seen when he set off on February 15 to do some reporting in the nearby locality of Behlani.
The Paris-based RSF quoted fellow journalist Akhlaiq Jokhiyo as saying that both he and Memon’s wife believed he was targeted in connection with his reporting.
Months ago, Memon released a video message saying he was receiving threats for his coverage of a news story.
The threats seem to have been triggered by his coverage of the so-called Train March, a campaign of protests and rallies organized nearly a year ago by the opposition Pakistan Peoples’ Party, according to RSF.
Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, urged Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to do “everything possible” to ensure that those responsible for the killing are brought to justice.
Meanwhile, the federal government and parliament should “quickly finalize a law protecting journalists and combatting impunity, in order to rein in the spiral of violence against media personnel,” Bastard said.
“Given the victim’s previous allegations of threats from local officials, it is essential that the investigation be free from political meddling,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler.
Pakistan ranked 8th on CPJ’s 2019 Global Impunity Index, with 16 unsolved killings of journalists in the past 10 years.
Of the 34 journalists who were murdered for their work since 1992, partial justice has been achieved in only three cases, according to the watchdog.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal


rferl--2020-02-17--Kyiv Airport Monument Unveiled In Memory Of Iran Plane Crash Victims

KYIV – Ukrainian officials have unveiled a monument at Kyiv 's international airport to commemorate the victims of a Ukrainian airliner that crash in Iran last month .
The Ukraine International Airlines ( UIA ) Boeing 737-800 crashed on January 8 after taking off from Tehran ’ s primary international airport , killing all 176 people aboard .
Three days after the tragedy , the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps ( IRGC ) admitted that Flight PS752 had been shot down `` unintentionally '' by the country ’ s air defenses , amid heightened tensions in the region .
A memorial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 08.01.2020 ” was unveiled on February 17 at the Boryspil International Airport outside the Ukrainian capital .
The ceremony was attended by relatives of the victims , as well as Ukraine 's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystayko , the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Service , Oleksiy Danilov , and UIA President Yevhen Dyhne .
Representatives of other countries which lost their citizens in the crash -- Afghanistan , Britain , Canada , Germany , Iran , and Sweden -- were also present .
Addressing reporters , Prystayko said the investigation into the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prosecutor-General 's office addressed the Iranian side with a request to create a joint investigation group which will result in punishing all those guilty -- not only the person who pressed the button , '' he said .
Prystayko said several options are being looked at on deciphering the flight recorder devices , which Iran has so far refused to hand over .
International agreements stipulate that Iran without delay and in the shortest time period release the flight recorders for deciphering , he added .
“ We believe , and all five @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Prystayko said .
“ We need to move as fast as possible.
” France , he noted , has the technical capability of deciphering the devices .
In an interview with NBC , Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif admitted Iran can not analyze the flight recorder data alone .

KYIV -- Ukrainian officials have unveiled a monument at Kyiv's international airport to commemorate the victims of a Ukrainian airliner that was shot down by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Tehran last month.
The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing 737-800 was shot down on January 8 just hours after Iran had launched a missile attack on U.S. forces in Iraq in response to the January 3 assassination of the IRGC's Quds Force commander, Major General Qasem Soleimani, by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.
All 176 people aboard the civilian airliner were killed.
Tehran initially claimed the plane had crashed, but the IRGC admitted three days after the tragedy that Flight PS752 had been shot down "unintentionally" by the country’s air defenses.
A memorial stone with the inscription “PS 752, 08.01.2020” was unveiled on February 17 at Boryspil International Airport outside the Ukrainian capital.
The ceremony was attended by relatives of the victims, as well as by Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystayko, the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Service, Oleksiy Danilov, and UIA President Yevhen Dyhne.
Representatives of other countries which lost their citizens in the crash -- Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, Germany, Iran, and Sweden -- were also present.
Addressing reporters, Prystayko said the investigation into the crash was still under way.
"The Prosecutor-General's Office addressed the Iranian side with a request to create a joint investigation group which will result in punishing all those guilty -- not only the person who pressed the button," he said.
Prystayko said several options are being looked at concerning the flight data recorders, which Iran has so far refused to hand over.
International agreements stipulate that Iran --without delay and in the shortest time period -- release the flight recorders for analysis, he added.
“We believe, and all five countries believe, this term has expired,” Prystayko said. “We need to move as fast as possible.”
France, he noted, has the technical capability to read the devices.
In an interview with NBC, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif admitted that Iran cannot analyze the flight recorder data alone.