A round-up of other world news in brief
Anti-Kremlin opposition figure detained
MOSCOW – Police detained up to 100 anti-Kremlin protesters, including leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, in central Moscow yesterday, despite an appeal by rights group Amnesty International to let the rally go ahead.
Hundreds gathered to protest against what they say is a long-running Kremlin campaign to dismantle the constitutional right to peaceful protest, one of the few avenues open to Russia’s weak and fragmented opposition.
Mr Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, is leader of the opposition group Solidarity and one of the toughest critics of the Kremlin and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.
At a rally in December, police detained Soviet-era activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva (82), prompting a rebuke from the US. – (Reuters)
Kidnapped couple plea for help
LONDON – A desperate plea for help by a British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates emerged yesterday.
A gaunt-looking Rachel Chandler, who is being kept separate from her husband, Paul, said they were being treated “cruelly” by the pirates, who kidnapped the couple in the Indian Ocean more than three months ago.
She begged to be reunited with her husband and pleaded for help to secure their release in a new film broadcast by Sky News.
The couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured while sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania in their yacht, Lynn Rival, on October 23rd.
They have previously spoken of their fears that they will be killed as the pirates’ demands for money prove fruitless.
The British foreign office yesterday reiterated its stance that it would not pay a ransom for the couple. – (PA)
Yemen rejects ceasefire offer from rebels
SANAA – Yemen rejected a ceasefire offer from Shia rebels yesterday and said fighting was continuing, as neighbouring Saudi Arabia accused the insurgents of mounting sniper attacks inside its territory.
The conflict with the northern rebels, who complain of social, religious and economic discrimination in the southern Arabian state, has rumbled on since 2004, but intensified last year and drew in oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
Yemen is also struggling against al-Qaeda and southern secessionists, and western powers fear it could become a failed state.
The US state department’s counter-terrorism chief was visiting the country yesterday.
Yemeni soldiers clashed with rebels in the northern provinces of Malahidh and Saada, killing 20, state media reported. – (Reuters)