Page 16 - Current Time News Today

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a December 22 statement urged Kyrgyz authorities to drop all charges against activist Aftandil Jorobekov and release him after he was arrested for openly protesting changes to Kyrgyzstan's national flag and charged with calls for mass disorder and civil disobedience.

More than 500 oil workers in Kazakhstan’s western region of Manghystau are continuing a strike launched almost two weeks ago despite two of their colleagues falling ill on December 21 with blood pressure problems.

The White House said on December 21 it is "very concerned" about reports that Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine convicted of espionage in Russia, feels physically threatened.

A South Korean man who was rumored in the past to have been engaged to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters has had a long career at Gazprombank, a large state-linked lender where two of Putin’s sons-in-law have also worked, a new RFE/RL investigation has found.

Two Russian soldiers have spoken to Current Time about their experiences fighting in Ukraine -- describing their disillusion with how they are treated. Both complained that they had indefinite terms of service, bad leadership, and poor conditions.

A gunman killed 14 people and wounded dozens of others at a university in downtown Prague, Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan and police chief Martin Vondrasek told reporters on December 21, describing the event as a “profound” tragedy that “will have many consequences.”

After a disappointing summer counteroffensive, Kyiv is again on the defensive as Russian forces grind forward in the Donetsk region. While Western financial support wavers, Ukrainian troops fighting near Bakhmut rely on low-cost DIY 'kamikaze' drones and a World War II field gun to push back Russian advances. Speaking with Current Time in a frontline dugout, one Ukrainian drone pilot described this stage of fighting as "a war of technologies."

A gunman opened fire at a university in downtown Prague on December 21, killing at least 14 people and wounding many others. The shooter was also reported dead following the attack, which authorities said was "unprecedented" in the Czech Republic. Professors and students described being caught in the midst of the violence to reporters from Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

More cities are experimenting with face biometrics in public transportation but the rollouts are proceeding at very different paces.

A defrocked Russian Orthodox priest in Kazakhstan says he'll build an autocephalous church that's not subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate and Russian propaganda. Iakov Vorontsov, forced out after joining hundreds of other clergy to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine, says he just wants peace.