Turkey activists in Amnesty case to stand trial
AFP, Istanbul
Eleven human rights activists, including the two top figures with Amnesty International in Turkey, are due to go on trial Wednesday on contested terror charges, seen by the rights watchdog as a test case for the judiciary.
All bar two of the activists-who include two foreigners-have been behind bars since a police raid in July on a workshop run by Amnesty on a popular island off Istanbul.
Macron backs Sisi fight against terrorism
AFP, Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron backed visiting Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in his country’s fight against terrorism on Tuesday and brushed off calls to pressure him on human rights.
The 39-year-old French centrist had faced calls from rights groups to raise torture and political repression in Egypt publicly after the first face-to-face meeting between the pair. But Macron said he would not “give lessons” to a sovereign state.
Iran sentences ‘Mossad agent’ to death
Reuters, London
Iran has sentenced to death a person found guilty of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists, Tehran’s prosecutor said on Tuesday.
Dolatabadi did not identify the defendant, but Amnesty International said on Monday that Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian doctor who studied and taught in Sweden, had been sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges.
Duterte receives Russian assault rifles
AFP, Manila
Russia handed over army trucks and thousands of assault rifles to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday as the two nations celebrated their growing military ties.
Duterte accepted the weaponry during a visit to a Russian naval ship docked in Manila, the latest move to embrace Russia and China while distancing the Philippines from its longtime ally and mutual defence partner, the United States. Following a tour of the mammoth anti-submarine warship Admiral Panteleyev, Duterte personally handled some of the 5,000 donated Kalashnikov rifles along with ammunition and 20 trucks to the poorly-equipped Philippine military.