Jewish star of Scandinavian BBC crime drama The Bridge reveals he quit the show because he was fed up with filming in ‘anti-Semitic’ Malmo

Jewish star of Scandinavian BBC crime drama The Bridge reveals he quit the show because he was fed up with filming in ‘anti-Semitic’ Malmo
Kim Bodnia quit The Bridge after two seasons as Martin Rohde
Dane says he had issues with script, but also rising anti-semitism
Bodnia says as a Jew he did not feel safe working in Malmo, Sweden
http://dollars-vedioonline.blogspot.com/2016/02/jewish-star-of-scandinavian-bbc-crime.html


Danish actor Kim Bodnia has revealed that one of the reasons why he quit hit show The Bridge was because as a Jew he did not feel safe working in Sweden.
Bodnia played detective Martin Rohde in two seasons of the Scandi-crime show, but after first signing up for a third, he later dropped out.
The 50-year-old had previously cited issues with the script, but has now said his departure was also caused by of the rise of anti-semitism in Sweden.

The Bridge is filmed on both sides of the Oresund - in Denmark and Sweden - and its first two seasons starred Bodnia as Rodhe, and Sofia Helin as the socially awkward Swedish detective Saga Noren.
Despite initially signing up to return as Rohde in season three, Bodnia later announced he was quitting the show in 2014.


Bodnia made the controversial comments during an interview for Israeli TV where he spoke about why he left The Bridge.
After initially explaining that the changes made to the script and lack of influence on it as an actor was the main reason, he is then asked about anti-Semitism in Scandinvia.
‘It [anti-Semitism] is growing, especially in Malmo where we shot the Bridge in Sweden,' he told Channel 10.

‘It’s not very nice, and not very comfortable to be there as a Jewish person.
'So of course this also had something to do with it [quitting The Bridge].
‘It's easy for me to say no to work in Sweden. Its very easy, when they didn't have the script right, I could say; "well, I don't feel safe there".'
Bodnia was born in Copenhagen to a Jewish family with Polish and Russian roots, and recently finished filming television show Hostages in Israel.
During the interview, he also indicated that there is a connection between the rise in anti-semitism in Sweden and Denmark and the influx of migrants and refugees in recent years.
'[Among] the young people that's living there now, who comes from outside into Denmark, this is growing too much.'

Record number of nations oppose US embargo of Cuba in UN vote

A session of the General Assembly at the United Nations (AFP Photo / Timothy A. Clary)

 

In an overwhelming UN vote, 188 countries have called on the US to lift its 53-year trade embargo on Cuba. Havana has slammed the financial sanctions as a flagrant violation of human rights and said they are tantamount to genocide.
The recording-breaking opposition to the embargo saw Israel isolated as the only country to vote in support of the US. Palau, the island nation that got behind the US last year, abstained in the 22nd UN annual vote, along with Micronesia and Marshall Islands.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla conveyed Havana’s disappointment at the Obama administration, stressing that the human cost of the embargo is “incalculable.” Upon assuming the presidency Barack Obama pledged to take steps to improve US-Cuban relations, but Rodriguez said the sanctions had actually tightened under Obama.

"Our small island poses no threat to the national security of the superpower," Rodriguez said. "The human damages caused by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba are incalculable.”

Rodriguez also stated that the sanctions had been classified as “genocide” under the Geneva Convention of 1948 and the total cost to the Cuban economy was estimated at $1.1 trillion dollars.

Several other nations spoke out against the US embargo at the UN vote. China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Wang Min urged the US “change its policy toward Cuba” as the “call of the international community is getting louder and louder.”

Moreover, Bolivia’s UN ambassador Sacha Llorenty Soliz decried the embargo as "sullying the history of mankind"

In the name of human rights?

The US mounted its defense in the face of overwhelming opposition and a barrage of criticism, claiming the sanctions were in place “urge respect for the civil and human rights."

Seeking to justify the financial penalties that have been held in place for 53 years, US diplomat Ronald Godard said the US was being used as a “scapegoat” for Cuba’s internal issues.

"The international community cannot in good conscience ignore the ease and frequency with which the Cuban regime silences critics, disrupts peaceful assembly [and], impedes independent journalism," Godard said to the assembled UN countries.

Moreover, Godard added that the US had sent $2 billion in remittances to Cuba in 2012 and underlined that the US provides a large portion of the food aid to the island.

The US began imposing economic penalties on Cuba when Fidel Castro seized power in 1959 and nationalized property owned by American individuals and corporations. The measures were ratcheted up three years later by the US government to a full embargo on Cuba.

Last year Washington took action to ease travel to and from Cuba, granting 16,767 visas to Cubans in the first half of 2013 - 80 percent more than were issued in the same period in 2012.

 

4 children among 5 stabbed to death in brutal NYC rampage

A New York Police Department (NYPD) vehicle is seen near the scene of a stabbing incident at a Brooklyn residence, in New York October 27, 2013. (Reuters / Eduardo Munoz)

 

 

New York police are investigating the brutal slaying of four children and a 37-year-old woman who were stabbed at a Brooklyn residence. Police say a person of interest has been taken into custody.
The victims included two boys, ages one and five, and two girls, ages seven and nine, police said. The infant boy and both girls were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders.

The five-year-old boy and woman were taken to two Brooklyn hospitals, where both were pronounced dead.

All five victims had stab wounds to their upper bodies, the NYPD said. Police are withholding the victims’ identities until their families have been notified.
The authorities responded to reports of a stabbing around 11 pm on Saturday at a home on 57th Street near Ninth Avenue, in Sunset Park, police said. The suspect was found bloody and barefoot and is currently in police custody. Authorities believe the suspect is related to several of the victims.
No motive thus far has been established for the attack. 

New York Police Department (NYPD) officers stand guard near the scene of a stabbing incident at a Brooklyn residence, in New York October 27, 2013. (Reuters / Eduardo Munoz)

  

FBI makes record $28 million Bitcoin bust

US authorities have reported their largest-ever Bitcoin bust amounting to $28 million of the digital currency. It was seized from the owner of the controversial Silk Road website, which was shut down three weeks ago.
A Friday statement by federal prosecutors in New York details the seizure of 144,336 bitcoins, which were discovered on the computer belonging to Silk Road founder Ross William Ulbricht, alias “Dread Pirate Roberts,” Reuters reports. Ulbricht was arrested Oct. 1 in San Francisco on several charges of conspiracy.
Ulbricht’s lawyer could not be reached for comment, but the accused earlier denied all the allegations.
Since its inception in 2011, the now closed website was an anonymous hub for anything from drug deals to weapons and computer hacking programs – even hiring assassins, the Justice Department said.
The digital currency itself has been around since 2008, but it was not until 2011 that authorities showed greater interest in it, following the discovery of the connection to Silk Road and the near to 1 million registered users regularly engaging in illegal activities.
The current bust was part of a joint civil action against Ulbricht and his website. He is expected to appear in court in a matter of weeks to face charges of conspiring to traffic narcotics, launder money and hack computer networks.
Ulbricht’s arrest and the bitcoin seizure followed a string of international arrests of Silk Road users by Swedish, British and US authorities, a testament to the scale of the international crackdown on the website. The director of Britain’s newly-founded National Crime Agency (NCA), Keith Bristow, warned Oct. 9 that the “latest arrests are just the start” and “there are many more to come."
Bristow added that bitcoin will also now be closely watched, after his agency seized millions of pounds of the electronic currency.
Together with the previous figure of 30,000 bitcoins, the new FBI bust puts the current value of seized currency at $33 million, the US Attorney General’s Office said. In the two years Ulbricht’s website was in operation, about $1.2 billion in bitcoins were traded. Silk Road charged between 8 and 15 percent in commissions.

George Frey/Getty Images/AFP

Following Ulbricht’s arrest and the seizure of 26,000 bitcoins from a public wallet, an FBI-linked public wallet was discovered by Reddit users the next day. The owner could not be identified for certain, but bitcoin users quickly seized the opportunity to use it as a platform for voicing their opinions about the FBI.
They made tiny donations to the wallet, dubbed ‘Silkroad Seized Coins’ on another website – Blockchain.info, which allowed them to post comments – the majority of them bashing the FBI for trying to “control” the bitcoin business instead of seeking justice.
But even now, weeks after Ulbricht’s arrest, it remains unclear what the FBI have actually “seized.” To use bitcoins someone must have a private password corresponding to each wallet.
The previous public wallet seizure was carried out easily because those bitcoins were at the less-protected escrow account of the website, Extreme Tech wrote at the time of Ulbricht’s arrest. Ulbricht’s estimated $80 million personal wealth in bitcoins has remained inaccessible to the FBI, and it also remains unclear what the FBI would do with the bitcoins if they did have access to them – as the US government refuses to recognize the currency as legal tender.
The authorities may be able to prevent Ulbricht from transferring the money, but without having the ability to access the bitcoins, seizing them is not much more than simply confiscating a computer.
The success of the Silk Road website was attributed to its operating on the encrypted Tor network, which made its dealings nearly impossible to trace. One transaction would also generate a vast number of fake ones with the purpose of masking the original buyer and seller – another effect of Bitcoin’s anonymous and decentralized nature.

Joint decision: Uruguay prepares to legalize sale of marijuana

AFP Photo/Pablo Porciuncula

 

 

Uruguay is set to become the first country in the world to legalize the sale of marijuana at a market price of US$1 a gram. The bill is expected to pass through the senate in November, bringing the $40 million industry under state control.
The legislation was passed through the lower house earlier this year in August and backed by President Jose Mujica’s government. The measure is part of an initiative to combat the illegal drugs trade in Latin America and curtail cartel violence, which has decimated parts of the region.

Lawmakers have agreed at an initial price of $1 per gram of the drug, a price that aims to compete with the illegal market value, which currently stands at around $1.40 for a gram.

National Drug Board chief Jose Calzada told Uruguayan newspaper El Pais that bringing the industry under state control “will provide a safe place to buy, a good quality product and moreover will sell at a standard price.”

He assured that one gram is enough for “one large joint and three slimmer ones,” stating the first legal marijuana crop should hit the market in the middle of 2014.

The legislation stipulates a number of conditions that will govern the sale of the drug. Uruguayan citizens will be required to register in a private database to be able to purchase marijuana and will be restricted to 40 grams each per month.

Moreover, citizens will legally be allowed to cultivate six marijuana plants per head or band together and organize a club of up to 45 members with the possibility of growing 99 plants.

The Uruguayan state will also offer advice to marijuana users on the drug’s consumption.

“As well as smoking marijuana in a cigarette, you can also vaporize it - which is much less harmful - or consume it in food like brownies,” said Calzada.  

There are still a number of details to finalize in the Uruguayan bill to legalize marijuana. At present no money has been allocated to finance the new director for the Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis.

The initiative has also hit upon opposition politicians who released a poll over the summer that claimed that 60 per cent of the country’s population was against the idea.

The National Drug Board estimates that there are around 120,000 marijuana users in Uruguay from a population of 3.3 million. Consumer groups estimate that the figure as higher, putting the number of users at around 200,000.

The board has also calculated that about 20 hectares will be needed in order to satisfy demand. As part of the initiative, the Uruguayan government will give licenses to private businesses, which will be allowed to cultivate on state-controlled land. 

UN torture investigator condemns California prison conditions

California Department of Corrections officer looks on as inmates at Chino State Prison exercise in the yard (AFP Photo)

 

The foremost torture investigator at the United Nations has expressed concern over worsening conditions in prisons throughout the US and hopes to visit California facilities, where a judge has granted state lawmakers more time to reduce overcrowding.
Juan Mendez, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, met with The Los Angeles Times editorial board, where he called for greater oversight into the California prison system. The California Department of Corrections has long been the target of human rights groups for its policy of housing inmates in solitary confinement indefinitely.
“We should have more justification” for putting inmates in isolation, Mendez said. While correctional officers are supposed to use solitary confinement as a last resort for delinquent prisoners, it has been commonly adopted as the preferred method of punishment.
“We should put the burden on the state that this is the proper way to do things, and we should all be more skeptical,” Mendez said Friday.
Mendez previously expressed interest in touring California prisons in May 2013. The request needs authorization from the US Department of Justice and California Governor Jerry Brown, yet Mendez said his requests have gone unacknowledged. A US State Department spokeswoman told The Times that officials are “open to continuing to discuss” a visit from Mendez.
“The conditions for visits to detention facilities in the United States are all determined on a case-by-case basis,” spokeswoman Laura Seal said.
Mendez said he would need the power to meet with any inmate he so chooses and would not accept an agreement granting him only partial access to a facility. He condemned any policy that keeps inmates in their cell for 22 hours a day and maintained that no mentally ill inmate should be locked up alone, an oft-voiced complaint from human rights groups.
“Sometimes you negotiate all the way to the cell door,” he said.
The conditions in California were marked earlier this year by a 60-day hunger strike that reverberated throughout the state. Thousands of inmates refused their daily meals to protest the state’s policy of isolating gang members for years - and sometimes decades.
As many as 10,000 inmates are thought to be held in solitary confinement, also known as the Secure Housing Unit (SHU), raising the possibility that thousands of convicts will be released into the public with serious socialization issues or a mental illness not present when they were first put behind bars.
Unfortunately, life within a prison’s general population may only be a marginal improvement because of vast overcrowding.
California prison facilities operated at 200 percent capacity for over a decade but authorities have slowly reduced that number after a federal judge deemed the conditions constituted “cruel and unusual punishment.” The California Department of Corrections was operating at 143.8 percent of capacity as of September 2013.  
Authorities have been slow in finding a way to reduce overcrowding, to the extent that a three-judge panel said in 2011 that the state would need to begin releasing thousands of inmates early. Over 1,000 prisoners were released early over the past year in preparation for the December 31, 2013 deadline. Yet that date has since been moved back twice - first to January 27, 2014, then again to February 24, 2014.
Much of the problem lies with inadequate medical treatment, according to defense attorneys.  
“Prisoners are getting injured and dying because of poor care,” Don Specter, a long time defense lawyer who has spent years petitioning the state, told The Los Angeles Times. “California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has never taken its obligation to provide basic healthcare seriously.”

 

Russia did not violate rights of Katyn victims’ relatives – ECHR

The Katyn Memorial in the Smolensk Region. (RIA Novosti/Iliya Pitalev)

 

 

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled Russia did not violate the rights of the relatives of the 1940 Katyn massacre victims. The court, however, criticized the country for refusing to hand over copies of classified documents for the proceedings.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) announced on Monday its final judgment in the case initiated by 15 relatives of the Katyn massacre victims, who accused Russia of conducting an inadequate investigation into the tragedy, dating back to WWII. In 1940, Soviet security services (NKVD) killed, without trial, about 22,000 Polish prisoners of war and buried them in mass graves. Most executions took place in the Katyn forest near the city of Smolensk. 
The ECHR ruled it has no competence in verifying the adequacy of the Russian investigation into events which had taken place ten years before the European Convention on human rights was adopted. 
Relatives of the Katyn victims accused Russia of “inhuman or degrading treatment” towards them, citing Article 3 of the Convention. For several decades Moscow refused to reveal the truth about the mass executions. The ECHR cleared Russia in this respect, saying that by the time Russia joined the Convention in 1998 it had already publicly acknowledged that the Soviet authorities were responsible for the massacre. 
What the Court found Russia guilty of is a breach of Article 38 of the Convention (obligation to furnish necessary facilities for examination of the case). Moscow refused to submit a copy of the 2004 decision to stop the Katyn investigation to the ECHR, explaining that it was a classified document and national legislation prohibited such papers to be shown to foreign individuals and organizations.
Poland was disappointed by the Court decision.
"The ruling does not take into account all the arguments of the Polish side that have here a great moral and historic right," the Polish Undersecretary of State, Artur Nowak-Far said in a statement.
It was not until 1990, 50 years after the Katyn massacre, that the Soviet Union recognized it was responsible for the deaths of the Polish prisoners. Before that the tragedy had been blamed on the Nazis. 
President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, apologized to the Polish people, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered some of the secret documents related to the Katyn case to be released to historians.
Nevertheless the tragedy has persisted in casting a shadow over the two countries’ relations. 
Many in Poland were dissatisfied with the fact that Russia shelved the Katyn massacre investigation in 2004. Moscow explained the move by saying all of the Soviet officials allegedly responsible for the executions were already dead. 
The decision to terminate the investigation was classified as “top secret”, together with 36 out of a total of 183 volumes of the Katyn case’s files. 
In November 2010, Russia’s State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, adopted a statement admitting that the executions of Polish citizens near Katyn in 1940 took place on the direct orders of Josef Stalin and other Soviet leaders. The statement titled “The Katyn Tragedy and its Victims” said that it was necessary to continue “verifying the lists of victims, restoring the good names of those who perished in Katyn and other places, and uncovering the circumstances of the tragedy". 

 

Banker Lebedev starts community service in Tula region

Banker Alexander Lebedev (RIA Novosti/Sergey Kuznecov)

 

Billionaire banker Aleksander Lebedev, who was sentenced to 150 hours community service for a brawl with real estate mogul Sergey Polonsky during a TV show, has arrived to his native Tula Region to serve his punishment.
53-year old Lebedev, whose personal wealth exceeded $1.1 billion in 2012 (according to the Forbes magazine), went to the Tula Region where he is officially registered as a resident after talking to officials from Moscow city directorate of the Federal Service of Execution of Punishment. Before leaving he was fingerprinted and signed the necessary papers, Russian news agencies reported.
Lebedev told the press that most likely he would work on a construction site, building a school or a kindergarten.
However, the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted some sources in the directorate as saying the banker could be sent to clear orchards, mow grass or do janitorial work.
The banker is known for his sponsorship of the popular Russian liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta (of which Mikhail Gorbachev is also a key shareholder) and for ownership of the British daily the London Evening Standard.
Lebedev was sentenced to compulsory works in July this year after a lengthy trial. The story started in September 2011 when Lebedev took part in a TV show aired by the popular NTV channel on the issue of social responsibility of businessmen. Another participant in the program was real estate developer Sergey Polonskiy – known for his controversial media statements.
 
After a heated row Lebedev jumped from his chair and attacked Polonskiy who fell on the floor and tore his jeans.
Shortly afterwards Polonskiy posted a photo of himself on social networks holding the remains of the jeans, and sued Lebedev for beating him up. Lebedev pleaded not guilty, insisting that he acted in self defense, protecting himself from Polonskiy’s dangerously fast moves and that he hit the developer only twice. A physical attack becomes a criminal offence only when three or more punches are delivered.
The court ruled in favor of the developer and sentenced the banker to 150 hours of community service.
During the court hearings Polonskiy went on vacation to Cambodia where he was arrested for beating up and illegally detaining local citizens. Polonskiy has spent three months in a Cambodian prison and is currently awaiting trial.
 

Terrorist blast kills 6, injures over 30 in Volgograd, central Russia

Six people were killed and 37 injured - some of them critically - after a female suicide bomber set off a bomb on a bus in Volgograd, central Russia. Local authorities have been put on high terror alert for the next 15 days.
“Today at 2:05pm Moscow time [10:05 GMT] in Volgograd inside a bus, as a result of an unknown explosive device going off, a blast happened, leading to casualties,” a national Anti-terrorist Committee representative said in the statement.
Forty passengers were on the bus. At least eight of them are in critical condition. A 20-month-old toddler is among those injured. His state is assessed as moderately severe.
Russia’s Health Ministry indicated that most of the victims in the explosion sustained mine explosive-type wounds, caused by the bus’s paneling and the shattered glass.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the Emergencies Ministry and the Ministry of Health to provide all the necessary help to the victims of the blast. An Emergencies Ministry plane has already brought four injured to Moscow for treatment.
A three-day mourning for the victims of the terrorist attack has been declared in Volgograd Oblast.

A young man named Ilya, an eyewitness of the terror act, who was in a different bus on the same route, described the scene of the blast to RT:
“First I saw a lot of pieces of broken glass scattered all over the driveway [road]… There definitely was an explosion in [the bus] as its windows burst outside sending glass to a considerable distance, but with no fire outbreak… There were a lot of police there and also people who had been just driving by and stopped to help the victims, they were bringing med kits with them. There were people from the emergency service at the scene helping the injured, but I saw a woman sitting inside the bus. She was covered with blood and I couldn’t make out whether she was alive or not. She was just sitting there.”
According to Ilya, lots of students use that bus route, as it stops at Volgograd State University, and there were apparently some students at the scene of the blast. The bus also passes the local Cardio Center, he said, adding that some heart patients might have been there too.

Photo from vk.com/club60039978

A relative of one of the surviving passengers told Echo of Moscow radio the explosion went off in the middle of the bus aisle. There were a lot of youngsters on the bus at the time of the blast, he said.

Witnesses reported that the front part of the vehicle was heavily damaged, and that the nearby cars had their windows broken.

Bomber identified

The Investigative Committee has identified the woman who was the suicide bomber behind the blast: it's allegedly Naida Asiyalova, from Dagestan.
The preliminary information indicates that “the female suicide bomber recently converted to Islam, and was the wife of a militant leader,” an Investigative Committee representative told the media.
Also, a grenade has been found under the vehicle and it's now being checked whether the explosive is live, a source in the security forces now at the scene told RIA Novosti.

Naida Asiyalova's passport scan (image from http://hackinferno.livejournal.com)

According to information obtained by LifeNews from security sources, the suicide bomber, Asiyalova, earlier recruited a young Muscovite, Dmitry Sokolov, who became a skilled bomber respected by Islamist militants. Sokolov, now known as Abdul Jabbar, is wanted in Dagestan for taking part in two terrorist explosions, in which at least 29 people were injured, the media added.

RIA Novosti/Kirill Braga

Following the blast, local police cordoned off the scene and ordered all movement of minivan buses in Volgograd to be halted. A kilometers-long traffic jam has formed in the area.
Bomb technicians and investigators thoroughly searched the scene. Criminal investigators from Moscow have also been called to Volgograd, according to Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin.
Volgograd authorities have also been put on high terror alert for the next 15 days.
Emergencies Ministry video from the scene:

 

#Волгоград,#автобус,#взрыв первые реальные фото pic.twitter.com/uxx2IFgBka
— Александр (@smetanoman) October 21, 2013

Earlier, the malfunction of gas equipment inside the bus was listed as one of the possible causes of the blast. However, investigators soon indicated a terrorist act was the preliminary cause.
The transport company which owned the bus said that the vehicle worked on diesel fuel, and there was no gas equipment on board, a statement on the local governor’s website later confirmed.

RIA Novosti/Press-service of Russian Emergen

Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad, is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd region. The city spans some 80 kilometers along the Volga River in the South of Russia.
At the present time more than 1 million people live in Volgograd.

Gunmen kill 3 in shooting spree at Egyptian Coptic church

At least three people were killed, including an eight-year-old girl, and around 12 others wounded after unknown gunmen opened fire on wedding guests outside a Coptic Christian church in a suburb of the Egyptian capital on Sunday night.
"There were two men on a motorbike and one of them opened fire," said Egypt's interior ministry.
Coptic priest Thomas Daoud Ibrahim told Reuters he rushed outside the temple after he heard gunfire and discovered a dead man, a dead woman, and "many injured.” 
The interior ministry confirmed that a man, a woman and an eight-year-old girl were killed in the assault in Warraq neighborhood.
Security sources added that it was not immediately clear whether the dead were Christians. 
Egypt has seen a rise in religious tensions since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, with violent attacks taking place against the country’s Coptic Christian minority.  

Egyptians gather around blood stains at the entrance of the Virgin Mary Coptic Christian church in Cairo after gunmen on a motorbike shot dead three people late on October 20, 2013, including an eight-year-old girl, in a shooting attack on a group standing outside the church in the Egyptian capital's Al-Warak neighbourhood following a wedding ceremony. (AFP Photo)

A report released by the human rights organization Amnesty International on October 9 outlines “an unprecedented wave of sectarian attacks on Coptic Christians” which began on 14 August 2013 “as the security forces violently dispersed protest camps set-up by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.”
The minority group has suffered mob violence and attacks on religious buildings.
“More than 200 Christian-owned properties were attacked and 43 churches were seriously damaged across the country in the aftermath of events on 14 August,” stated Amnesty.
“It is deeply disturbing that the Christian community across Egypt was singled out for revenge attacks over the events in Cairo by some supporters of the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
Copts make up 10 percent of Egypt’s 85 million population and are one of the world’s most ancient Christian communities. They have generally coexisted peacefully with Sunni Muslims for centuries.  

Egyptian women, some in tears, gather inside the Virgin Mary Coptic Christian church in Cairo after gunmen on a motorbike shot dead three people late on October 20, 2013, including an eight-year-old girl, in a shooting attack on a group standing outside the church in the Egyptian capital's Al-Warak neighbourhood following a wedding ceremony. (AFP Photo)

Georgia releases spy thriller featuring Russian agents

Georgia releases spy thriller featuring Russian agents


Georgia has released a film about a recently-detained alleged Russian spy network, which the Kremlin has called a political farce.

The film is the Georgian version of the last month's arrest of 15 people accused of being Russian spies.

In reality, however, the only evidence Tblisi has given to relatives is the apparent confession of one of those arrested. But this super agent is actually a Georgian spy, says his former chief at the Georgian intelligence.

"I personally enrolled him," David Bakuridze, a former Georgian state security officer, told RT. "He was my agent from 1992-94. After the Rose Revolution, he was recruited to work for Georgian intelligence. Also, his brother runs the security service of the whole Republic of Adzharia. I assert it officially: this man is a Georgian agent!"

Ruslan Skrylnikov has no taste for spy thrillers, but this one caught his eye: one of the supposed spies appears to be his father.

"In May this year, my dad went to Georgia to visit relatives. On the border he was thoroughly interrogated about where he was going to stay. They photographed him and took away sweets he was carrying to his nephews. Two days later he was arrested. He never contacted us afterwards. We found out about his arrest by chance, and were shocked," Ruslan says.

Six months ago, the 63-year-old was detained for crossing the border with a fake ID and trying to sell counterfeit dollars, which landed him 18 years in jail.

Now Skrylnikov is being accused of spying for Russia, but his family says espionage is beyond the capability of the ailing pensioner, who could not even send a text message from his cell-phone, let alone use the Internet.

Relatives are now appealing against the charges, and hope that their high-level lobbying of NATO and European countries will get them justice.

Fighting their corner is SOS Russia human rights group, which says it is the first time they have dealt with such a gross violation of human rights.

"This is a sanctioned provocation, a political action," said Anton Samoylenkov of SOS Russia.

"It's aimed to discredit Russia before the upcoming Russia-NATO summit and the OSCE meeting. Saakashvili wants to attract attention to himself and his super Secret Services. But we want to tell him 'You can't treat old men just like this. They are innocent. You can't jail them just because they're Russians!'"

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Viktor Bout extradited to USA

Viktor Bout extradited to USA


The alleged Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout has left Thailand after being handed over to US authorities.

After months of intense political pressure from both Washington and Moscow, the Thai government agreed with an earlier Appeals Court decision to extradite Bout to the United States early on Tuesday.