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The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother, aide says
The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mother, a top aide to Navalny said Saturday on his social media account.
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, made the announcement on his Telegram account and thanked “everyone” who had called on Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body to his mother.
Earlier on Saturday, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Christianity by trying to force his mother to agree to a secret funeral after his death in an Arctic penal colony.
“Thank you very much. Thanks to everyone who wrote and recorded video messages. You all did what you needed to do. Thank you. Alexei Navalny's body has been given to his mother,” Zhdanov wrote.
Navalny, 47, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died on Feb. 16 in an Arctic penal colony and his family have been fighting for more than a week to have his body returned to them. Prominent Russians released videos calling on authorities to release the body and Western nations have hit Russia with more sanctions as punishment for Navalny's death as well as for the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.
Alexei Navalny’s mother files lawsuit with a Russian court demanding release of her son’s body
Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, is still in Salekhard, Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter. Lyudmila Navalnaya has been in the Arctic region for more than a week, demanding that Russian authorities return the body of her son to her.
“The funeral is still pending," Yarmysh tweeted, questioning whether authorities will allow it to go ahead “as the family wants and as Alexei deserves.”
Earlier Saturday, Navalny's widow said in a video that Navalny's mother was being “literally tortured” by authorities who had threatened to bury Navalny in the Arctic prison. They, she said, suggested to his mother that she did not have much time to make a decision because the body is decomposing, Navalnaya said.
“Give us the body of my husband,” Navalnaya said earlier Saturday. “You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead."
Authorities have detained scores of people as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for Putin’s fiercest foe before the presidential election he is almost certain to win. Russians on social media say officials don't want to return Navalny's body to his family, because they fear a public show of support for him.
Death of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny provokes Western outrage but few concrete actions to stop Putin
Navalnaya accused Putin, an Orthodox Christian, of killing Navalny.
“No true Christian could ever do what Putin is now doing with the body of Alexei,” she said, asking, “What will you do with his corpse? How low will you sink to mock the man you murdered?”
Saturday marked nine days since the opposition leader’s death, a day when Orthodox Christians hold a memorial service.
People across Russia came out to mark the occasion and honor Navalny’s memory by gathering at Orthodox churches, leaving flowers at public monuments or holding one-person protests.
Muscovites lined up outside the city’s Christ the Savior Cathedral to pay their respects, according to photos and videos published by independent Russian news outlet SOTAvision. The video also shows Russian police stationed nearby and officers stopping several people for an ID check.
As of early Saturday afternoon, at least 27 people had been detained in nine Russian cities for showing support for Navalny, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests.
They included Elena Osipova, a 78-year-old artist from St. Petersburg who stood in a street with a poster showing Navalny with angel wings, and Sergei Karabatov, 64, who came to a Moscow monument to victims of political repression with flowers and a note saying “Don’t think this is the end.”
Navalny’s wife expresses skepticism over reports from Russian government sources
Also arrested was Aida Nuriyeva, from the city of Ufa near the Ural Mountains, who publicly held up a sign saying “Putin is Navalny’s murderer! I demand that the body be returned!”
Putin is often pictured at church, dunking himself in ice water to celebrate the Epiphany and visiting holy sites in Russia. He has promoted what he has called “traditional values” without which, he once said, “society degrades.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected allegations that Putin was involved in Navalny's death, calling them “absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state.”
Musician Nadya Tolokonnikova, who became widely known after spending nearly two years in prison for taking part in a 2012 protest with her band Pussy Riot inside Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, was one of many prominent Russians who released a video in which she accused Putin of hypocrisy and asked him to release Navalny's body.
“We were imprisoned for allegedly trampling on traditional values. But no one tramples on traditional Russian values more than you, Putin, your officials and your priests who pray for all the murder that you do, year after year, day after day,” said Tolokonnikova, who lives abroad. “Putin, have a conscience, give his mother the body of her son.”
Lyudmila Navalnaya said Thursday that investigators allowed her to see her son’s body in the morgue in the Arctic city of Salekhard. She had filed a lawsuit at a court in Salekhard contesting officials’ refusal to release the body. A closed-door hearing had been scheduled for March 4.
Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesman, said that Lyudmila Navalnaya was shown a medical certificate stating that her son died of “natural causes.”
Private US spacecraft is on its side on the moon with some antennas covered up, the company says
A private U.S. lunar lander tipped over at touchdown and ended up on its side near the moon’s south pole, hampering communications, company officials said Friday.
Intuitive Machines initially believed its six-footed lander, Odysseus, was upright after Thursday's touchdown. But CEO Steve Altemus said Friday the craft “caught a foot in the surface," falling onto its side and, quite possibly, leaning against a rock. He said it was coming in too fast and may have snapped a leg.
“So far, we have quite a bit of operational capability even though we’re tipped over," he told reporters.
Japan becomes the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon
But some antennas were pointed toward the surface, limiting flight controllers' ability to get data down, Altemus said. The antennas were stationed high on the 14-foot (4.3-meter) lander to facilitate communications at the hilly, cratered and shadowed south polar region.
Odysseus — the first U.S. lander in more than 50 years — is thought to be within a few miles (kilometers) of its intended landing site near the Malapert A crater, less than 200 miles (300 kilometers) from the south pole. NASA, the main customer, wanted to get as close as possible to the pole to scout out the area before astronauts show up later this decade.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will attempt to pinpoint the lander's location, as it flies overhead this weekend.
India launches spacecraft to study the sun after successful landing near the moon's south pole
With Thursday’s touchdown, Intuitive Machines became the first private business to pull off a moon landing, a feat previously achieved by only five countries. Japan was the latest country to score a landing, but its lander also ended up on its side last month.
Odysseus' mission was sponsored in large part by NASA, whose experiments were on board. NASA paid $118 million for the delivery under a program meant to jump-start the lunar economy.
One of the NASA experiments was pressed into service when the lander's navigation system did not kick in. Intuitive Machines caught the problem in advance when it tried to use its lasers to improve the lander's orbit. Otherwise, flight controllers would not have discovered the failure until it was too late, just five minutes before touchdown.
“Serendipity is absolutely the right word,” mission director Tim Crain said.
It turns out that a switch was not flipped before flight, preventing the system's activation in space.
Launched last week from Florida, Odysseus took an extra lap around the moon Thursday to allow time for the last-minute switch to NASA's laser system, which saved the day, officials noted.
Another experiment, a cube with four cameras, was supposed to pop off 30 seconds before touchdown to capture pictures of Odysseus’ landing. But Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s EagleCam was deliberately powered off during the final descent because of the navigation switch and stayed attached to the lander.
Embry-Riddle's Troy Henderson said his team will try to release EagleCam in the coming days, so it can photograph the lander from roughly 26 feet (8 meters) away.
"Getting that final picture of the lander on the surface is still an incredibly important task for us,” Henderson told The Associated Press.
Intuitive Machines anticipates just another week of operations on the moon for the solar-powered lander — nine or 10 days at most — before lunar nightfall hits.
The company was the second business to aim for the moon under NASA's commercial lunar services program. Last month, Pittsburgh's Astrobotic Technology gave it a shot, but a fuel leak on the lander cut the mission short and the craft ended up crashing back to Earth.
Until Thursday, the U.S. had not landed on the moon since Apollo 17's Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out NASA's famed moon-landing program in December 1972. NASA's new effort to return astronauts to the moon is named Artemis after Apollo's mythological twin sister. The first Artemis crew landing is planned for 2026 at the earliest.
US and EU pile new sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine war's 2nd anniversary and Navalny's death
The United States and European Union on Friday heaped hundreds of new sanctions on Russia in connection with the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony.
The U.S. government imposed roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single round of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
The EU, for its part, added sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations that they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in its war against Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc also targeted scores of Russian officials, including members of the judiciary, local politicians and people it said were "responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children.”
Ukraine’s PM makes stopover in Dhaka
President Joe Biden said the sanctions come in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal war of conquest” and to Navalny’s death, adding that “we in the United States are going to continue to ensure that Putin pays a price for his aggression abroad and repression at home."
But while previous sanctions have increased costs for Russia’s ability to fight in Ukraine, they appear to have done little so far to deter Putin and it was unclear that the latest big round would significantly alter that.
In specific response to Navalny’s death, the State Department targeted three Russian officials the U.S. says are connected to his death, including the deputy director of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, who was promoted by Putin to the rank of colonel general on Monday, three days after Navalny died.
Ukraine’s PM scheduled to have stopover in Dhaka tonight
The sanctions bar the officials from traveling to the U.S. and block access to U.S.-owned property. But they appear largely symbolic given that the officials are unlikely to travel to or have assets or family in the West.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said to “expect more” action later related to Navalny's death, adding that "today this just a start.”
The Biden administration is levying additional sanctions as House Republicans are blocking billions of dollars in additional aid to Ukraine. The war is becoming entangled in U.S. election-year politics, with former President Donald Trump voicing skepticism about the benefits of the NATO alliance and saying that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to countries that, in his view, are not pulling their weight in the alliance.
Biden on Friday called on Congress to pass Ukraine aid, which has stalled since House Speaker Mike Johnson blocked votes on aid passed by the Senate for Ukraine and other countries.
“Russia is taking Ukraine territory for the first time in many months,” Biden said. “But here in America, the speaker gave the house a two week vacation. They have to come back and get this done, because failure to support Ukraine in this critical moment will never be forgotten in history.”
Biden spoke later Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron about Russia’s recent actions and the need to support Ukraine. A White House readout said they also discussed developments in the Middle East.
Many of the new U.S. sanctions announced Friday target Russian firms that contribute to the Kremlin’s war effort — like drone and industrial chemical manufacturers and machine tool importers — as well as financial institutions, such as the state-owned operator of Russia’s Mir National Payment System.
The U.S. also will impose visa restrictions on Russian authorities it says are involved in the kidnapping and confinement of Ukrainian children. In addition, 26 third-country people and firms from across China, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, and Liechtenstein are listed for sanctions, for assisting Russia in evading existing financial penalties.
The Russian foreign ministry called the EU sanctions “illegal” and said they undermine “the international legal prerogatives of the UN Security Council.” In response, the ministry is banning some EU citizens from entering the country because they have provided military assistance to Ukraine. It did not immediately address the U.S. sanctions.
Overall, since the start of the war, the U.S. Treasury and State departments have targeted more than 4,000 officials, oligarchs, firms, banks and others under Russia-related sanctions authorities. The EU asset freezes and travel bans constitute its 13th package of measures imposed by the bloc against people and organizations it suspects of undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
“Today, we are further tightening the restrictive measures against Russia’s military and defense sector,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “We remain united in our determination to dent Russia’s war machine and help Ukraine win its legitimate fight for self-defense.”
In all, 106 more officials and 88 “entities” — often companies, banks, government agencies or other organizations — have been added to the bloc’s sanctions list, bringing the tally of those targeted to more than 2,000 people and entities, including Putin and his associates.
Companies making electronic components, which the EU believes could have military as well as civilian uses, were among 27 entities accused of “directly supporting Russia’s military and industrial complex in its war of aggression against Ukraine,” a statement said.
Those companies — some of them based in India, Sri Lanka, China, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Turkey — face tougher export restrictions.
Some of the measures are aimed at depriving Russia of parts for pilotless drones, which are seen by military experts as key to the war.
A $60 per barrel price cap has also been imposed on Russian oil by Group of Seven allies, intended to reduce Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels.
Critics of the sanctions, price cap and other measures meant to stop Russia’s invasion say they are not working fast enough.
Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that primarily sanctioning Russia’s defense industry and failing to cut meaningfully into Russia’s energy revenues will not be enough to halt the war.
“One way or another, they will have to eventually address Russia’s oil revenues and have to consider an oil embargo,” Snegovaya said. “The oil price cap has effectively stopped working.”
Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo, in previewing the new sanctions, told reporters that the U.S. and its allies will not lower the price cap; “rather what we’ll be doing is taking actions that will increase the cost” of Russia’s production of oil.
The Treasury Department says the current cap is working, with an agency analysis finding that Kremlin oil tax revenue was more than 40 percent lower in the first nine months of 2023 because of it.
Adeyemo added that “sanctions alone are not enough to carry Ukraine to victory.”
“We owe the Ukrainian people who have held on for so long the support and resources they desperately need to defend their homeland and prove Putin wrong once and for all time.”
Shamima Begum loses appeal over removal of her UK citizenship
A woman who traveled to Syria as a teenager to join the Islamic State group lost her appeal Friday against the British government's decision to revoke her U.K. citizenship, with judges saying that it wasn't for them to rule on whether it was “harsh” to do so.
Shamima Begum, who is now 24, was 15 when she and two other girls fled from London in February 2015 to marry IS fighters in Syria at a time when the group’s online recruitment program lured many impressionable young people to its self-proclaimed caliphate. Begum married a Dutch man fighting for IS and had three children, who all died.
Authorities withdrew her British citizenship soon after she surfaced in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019, where she has been ever since. Last year, Begum lost her appeal against the decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove British citizenship on national security grounds.
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Her lawyers brought a further bid to overturn that decision at the Court of Appeal, with Britain's Home Office opposing the challenge.
All three judges dismissed her case and argued she had made a “calculated” decision to join IS even though she may have been “influenced and manipulated by others.”
In relaying the ruling, Chief Justice Sue Carr said it wasn't the court's job to decide whether the decision to strip Begum of her British citizenship was “harsh" or whether she was the “author of her own misfortune.”
She said the court's sole task was to assess whether the decision to strip Begum of her citizenship was unlawful.
“Since it was not, Ms Begum’s appeal is dismissed,” the judge added.
Shamima's statelessness: Rushanara against revoking someone's UK citizenship
Carr said any arguments over the consequences of the unanimous judgment, which could include a bid to appeal at Britain's Supreme Court, will be adjourned for seven days.
Begum's lawyer indicated that a further challenge was on the cards.
“I think the only thing we can really say for certainty is that we are going to keep fighting," Daniel Furner said outside the Royal Courts of Justice.
“I want to say that I’m sorry to Shamima and to her family that after five years of fighting she still hasn’t received justice in a British court and to promise her and promise the government that we are not going to stop fighting until she does get justice and until she is safely back home," he added.
Begum's legal team argued that the decision by Britain's then interior minister Sajid Javid, left her stateless and that she should have been treated as a child trafficking victim, not a security risk.
Javid said he welcomed the ruling which “upheld” his decision.
“This is a complex case but home secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it,” he said.
ISIS bride Shamima Begum wins right to return to UK
Britain's Conservative government claimed she could seek a Bangladeshi passport based on family ties. But Begum’s family argued that she was from the U.K. and never held a Bangladeshi passport.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government will "always take the strongest possible action to protect our national security and we never take decisions around deprivation (of citizenship) lightly.”
A number of campaigners voiced their disappointment after the ruling and said the solution rests with the government shouldering its responsibility.
“ It is now a political problem, and the government holds the key to solving it,” said Maya Foa, director of the Reprieve humans right campaign group. "If the government thinks that Shamima Begum has committed a crime, she should be prosecuted in a British court. Citizenship stripping is not the answer.”
World Insights: Arab states condemn U.S. for vetoing UNSC resolution on Gaza ceasefire
Arab states have condemned the United States for vetoing another UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as looming Israeli attacks on the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah raise concerns that the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave may deepen.
During an emergency session of the UN Security Council held in New York on Tuesday, the draft resolution put forward on behalf of Arab states by Algeria won 13 votes in favor among the 15 members of the Security Council. The United States voted against it while Britain abstained.
MASSIVE OUTCRY
"The U.S. veto, which defies the will of the international community, will give an additional green light to Israel to continue its aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip, and to carry out its bloody attack on Rafah," the Palestinian presidency said in a statement carried by Palestine's official news agency WAFA on Wednesday.
Secretary-General of the Arab League (AL) Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday voiced his "deep regret" over the U.S. move, the third time since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October last year that the United States interfered to fail a draft resolution aimed to reach a ceasefire.
The U.S. positions undermined the credibility of the international system and contributed to the paralysis witnessed by the United Nations, Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying in an AL statement.
Egypt and Qatar, having been actively brokering deals between Israel and Hamas since their conflict began, have expressed their regret.
Egypt strongly denounced the "selectivity and double standards in dealing with wars and armed conflicts in various regions of the world," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry slammed the U.S. veto as "arbitrary and disgraceful," accusing the U.S. of being hypocritical, as it claimed to support human rights while allowing the Israeli "killing machine" to continue its attacks on Palestinian civilians.
Jordan, which borders Israel and has normalized ties with Israel, expressed on Tuesday its regret and disappointment at the failure of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
"All those impeding such calls should review their policies and calculations because wrong decisions today will have a cost on our region and our world tomorrow. This cost will be violence and instability, " Algeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Amar Bendjama was quoted by the UN news as saying on Tuesday.
DEEP CONCERN
The resolution was put forward at a time when Israel has signaled its intention to conduct a ground operation in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city that shelters about 1.4 million Palestinians, to "eliminate" Hamas and rescue Israeli hostages who were taken by Hamas militants in October last year.
While visiting the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops on Tuesday in southern Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed that his country will continue the fighting until all goals are achieved. "There is no pressure, none, that can change this," he said.
Israel's reported plan for an assault on Rafah has sounded alarm bells globally, with many countries urging restraint or cancellation of the operation.
Regional countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, voiced deep concern over the potential offensive on Monday.
Twenty-six EU member states called for an "immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire" in the besieged Gaza Strip, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in Brussels on Monday.
U.S. ADDING TO CRISIS
Despite the mounting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Biden administration is preparing to send a new package of weapons to Israel, which is estimated to be worth tens of millions of U.S. dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing anonymous U.S. officials.
"The Americans are not doing anything practical to stop the (Israel-Hamas) war," said Youssef Diab, a political analyst from the Lebanese University.
The repeated trips to Israel by U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as the U.S. financial and military support for Israel, have given Israel the green light to continue the war on Gaza and kill more children, he said. ■
New attempts at Gaza cease-fire are underway, Israel's Gantz says
New attempts are underway to reach a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war in Gaza, a member of Israel’s War Cabinet said late Wednesday.
“Initial signs indicate a possibility of moving forward,” said Benny Gantz, a former military chief and defense minister. It's the first Israeli indication of renewed cease-fire talks since negotiations stalled a week ago.
However, Gantz repeated his pledge that unless Hamas agrees to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, Israel will launch a ground offensive into the crowded southern city of Rafah during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A UN agency says it can’t deliver aid to northern Gaza because of chaos, and famine fears are rising
Israel's war in Gaza has driven some 80% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Most heeded Israeli orders to flee south and around 1.5 million are packed into Rafah near the border with Egypt.
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 67 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, including in areas where civilians have been told to seek refuge.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. About a fourth of some 130 captives still being held are believed to be dead. Israel has laid waste to much of the Palestinian territory in response. Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed.
US vetoes Arab-backed UN resolution demanding immediate cease-fire in Gaza
Iran accuses Israel of sabotage attack that saw explosions strike a natural gas pipeline
An Israeli sabotage attack on an Iranian natural gas pipeline last week caused multiple explosions on the line, Iran's oil minister alleged Wednesday, further raising tensions between the regional archenemies against the backdrop of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The accusations by Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji come as Israel has been blamed for a series of attacks targeting Tehran's nuclear program.
The “explosion of the gas pipeline was an Israeli plot,” Owji said, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency. “The enemy intended to disturb gas service in the provinces and put people’s gas distribution at risk.”
Blasts hit a natural gas pipeline in Iran that an official says was an act of sabotage
“The evil action and plot by the enemy was properly managed,” Owji added, without providing any evidence to support his claims.
Israel has not acknowledged carrying out the attack, though it rarely claims its espionage missions abroad. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime foe of Iran, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Feb. 14 blastshit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometer (790-mile) -long pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field.
Yemen's Houthi rebels fire missiles at ship bound for Iran, their main supporter
Owji earlier compared the attack to a series of mysterious and unclaimed assaults on gas pipelines in 2011 — including around the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Tehran marked the 45th anniversary of the revolution just days before the pipeline blasts.
Israel has carried out attacks in Iran that have predominantly targeted its nuclear program. Last week, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned that Iran is “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon “in our hands.”
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program comes as groups that Tehran is arming in the region — Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — have launched attacks targeting Israel over the war in Gaza. The Houthis continue to attack commercial shipping in the region, sparking repeated airstrikes from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, the Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks. This week, they seriously damaged a ship in a crucial strait and downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars.
On Wednesday, ships in the Red Sea off the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida in Yemen reported seeing an explosion, though all vessels in the area were said to be safe, according to the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centers. The UKMTO earlier reported heavy drone activity in the area.
The U.S. State Department criticized “the reckless and indiscriminate attacks on civilian cargo ships by the Houthis” that have delayed humanitarian aid including food and medicine bound for Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen. That includes the Sea Champion, a ship carrying corn and other aid to both Aden and Hodeida.
“Contrary to what the Houthis may attempt to claim, their attacks do nothing to help the Palestinians,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “Their actions are not bringing a single morsel of assistance or food to the Palestinian people.”
Meanwhile, a suspected Israeli strike killed two people a neighborhood in Syria's capital, Damascus, on Wednesday, an area where other likely Israeli strikes have targeted members of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Alexei Navalny’s mother files lawsuit with a Russian court demanding release of her son’s body
The mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has filed a lawsuit at a court in the Arctic city of Salekhard contesting officials’ refusal to release her son’s body, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported Wednesday.
A closed-door hearing has been scheduled for March 4, the report said, quoting court officials.
Lyudmila Navalnaya has been trying to retrieve her son’s body since Saturday, following his death in a penal colony in Russia’s far north a day earlier. She has been unable to find out where his body is being held, Navalny’s team reported.
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Navalnaya appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday to release her son’s remains so that she could bury him with dignity.
“For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him. They wouldn’t release his body to me. And they’re not even telling me where he is,” a black-clad Navalnaya, 69, said in the video, with the barbed wire of Penal Colony No. 3 in Kharp, about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
“I’m reaching out to you, Vladimir Putin. The resolution of this matter depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being,” she said in the video, which was posted to social media by Navalny’s team.
Death of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny provokes Western outrage but few concrete actions to stop Putin
Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny’s death is still unknown and refused to release his body for the next two weeks as the preliminary inquest continues, members of Navalny’s team said.
They accused the government of stalling to try to hide evidence. On Monday, Navalny’s widow, Yulia, released a video accusing Putin of killing her husband and alleged the refusal to release his body was part of a cover-up.
“They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably,” she said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations of a cover-up, telling reporters that “these are absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state.”
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Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its best-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power. Many Russians had seen Navalny as a rare hope for political change amid Putin’s unrelenting crackdown on the opposition.
Since Navalny’s death, about 400 people have been detained across in Russia as they tried to pay tribute to him with flowers and candles, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests. Authorities cordoned off some of the memorials to victims of Soviet repression across the country that were being used as sites to leave makeshift tributes to Navalny. Police removed the flowers at night, but more keep appearing.
Peskov said police were acting “in accordance with the law” by detaining people paying tribute to Navalny.
Over 60,000 people have submitted requests to the government asking for Navalny’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info said.
The UN Security Council is voting on a Gaza cease-fire on Tuesday, with the US certain to veto
Arab nations are putting to a vote a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, knowing it will be vetoed by the United States but hoping to show broad global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war.
The Security Council scheduled the vote on the resolution at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) Tuesday. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the Biden administration will veto the Arab-backed resolution because it may interfere with ongoing U.S. efforts to arrange a deal between the warring parties that would bring at least a six-week halt to hostilities and release all hostages taken during Hamas' surprise Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel.
In a surprise move ahead of the vote, the United States circulated a rival U.N. Security Council resolution that would support a temporary cease-fire in Gaza linked to the release of all hostages, and call for the lifting of all restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid. Both of these actions “would help to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” the draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press says.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told several reporters Monday that the Arab-backed resolution is not “an effective mechanism for trying to do the three things that we want to see happen — which is get hostages out, more aid in, and a lengthy pause to this conflict.”
Over 29,000 Palestinians killed in Israel-Hamas war: Gaza Health Ministry
With the U.S. draft, “what we’re looking at is another possible option, and we’ll be discussing this with friends going forward,” Wood said. “I don’t think you can expect anything to happen tomorrow.”
A senior U.S. official said later Monday that “We don’t believe in a rush to a vote.” The official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of council discussions on the U.S. draft, said, “We intend to engage in the coming days in intensive negotiation around it. … That’s why we’re not putting a timeline on a vote, but we do recognize the urgency of the situation.”
Arab nations, supported by many of the 193 U.N. member countries, have been demanding a cease-fire for months as Israel’s military offensive has intensified in response to the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage. The number of Palestinians killed has surpassed 29,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.
Tunisia’s U.N. Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, this month’s chair of the 22-nation Arab Group, told U.N. reporters last Wednesday that a cease-fire is urgently needed.
He pointed to some 1.5 million Palestinians who sought safety in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah and face a “catastrophic scenario” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with his announced plan to evacuate civilians from the city and move Israel’s military offensive to the area bordering Egypt where Israel says Hamas fighters are hiding.
In addition to a cease-fire now, the Arab-backed draft resolution demands the immediate release of all hostages, rejects the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians, calls for unhindered humanitarian access throughout Gaza, and reiterates council demands that Israel and Hamas “scrupulously comply” with international law, especially the protection of civilians. Without naming either party, it condemns “all acts of terrorism”
In a tough message to Israel, the U.S. draft resolution says Israel’s planned major ground offensive in Rafah “should not proceed under current circumstances.” And it warns that further displacement of civilians, “including potentially into neighboring countries,” a reference to Egypt, would have serious implications for regional peace and security.
Thomas-Greenfield, in a statement Sunday, explained that the United States has been working on a hostage deal for months. She said U.S. President Joe Biden has had multiple calls over the last week with Netanyahu and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to push the deal forward.
Do everything to prevent further military offensives, forge permanent ceasefire in Gaza: Joint Statement
“Though gaps remain, the key elements are on the table,” she said, and the deal remains the best opportunity to free the hostages and have a sustained pause that would enable lifesaving aid to get to needy Palestinians.
The 15 Security Council members have been negotiating on the Arab-backed resolution for three weeks. Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, delayed a vote at U.S. request while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was recently in the region, hoping to get a hostage deal. But Qatar said Saturday the talks “have not been progressing as expected.” And the Arab Group decided over the weekend that they had given the U.S. enough time and put their resolution in final form for a vote.
What will happen after the U.S. casts its veto remains to be seen. The Arab Group could take their resolution to the U.N. General Assembly, which includes all 193 U.N. member nations, where it is virtually certain to be approved. But unlike Security Council resolutions, assembly resolutions are not legally binding.
The Security Council will then likely start discussing the much-lengthier U.S. draft resolution, which would for the first time not only condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack but its hostage taking and killing, “murder, and sexual violence including rape.” Some council members blocked the condemnation of Hamas in two previous council resolutions on Gaza.
The U.S. draft doesn't name Israel, but in a clear reference the draft “condemns calls by government ministers for the resettlement of Gaza and rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in Gaza that would violate international law.”
Tragic Smile: Did a cosmetic surgery mishap kill a groom-to-be?
In a tragic incident in Hyderabad’s upscale Jubilee Hills, a man’s quest for a perfect smile ahead of his wedding ended in tragedy. Laxmi Narayana Vinjam, 28, lost his life during a “smile designing” procedure at a local dental clinic on February 16, police disclosed.
The bereaved father, Ramulu Vinjam, has pointed fingers at the clinic, alleging a fatal anesthesia overdose during the surgery. According to an NDTV report, the devastating turn of events unfolded when the clinic’s staff frantically contacted him after his son succumbed during the operation.
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“We rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival,” Ramulu recounted. The sudden loss was compounded by the fact that the family was unaware of Laxmi Narayana’s decision to undergo the procedure. “He had no health issues. The doctors are responsible for his death,” the grieving father asserted.
Following the family’s complaint, authorities have launched a negligence investigation against the clinic, with a meticulous review of hospital records and security footage underway. “We are checking the hospital records and security camera footage,” officials confirmed, signaling a thorough probe into the circumstances leading to the tragic incident.
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