Russia's transportation minister found dead in what officials say was an apparent suicide
The Kremlin did not give a reason for the firing of Roman Starovoit, who served as transport minister since May 2024, and it was unclear when exactly he died and whether it was related to an alleged embezzlement case, as some Russian media suggested.
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Winnipeg Free Press
18 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Armenian lawmakers brawl as the government cracks down on its political opponents
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — A brawl broke out Tuesday in Armenia's National Assembly involving an opposition lawmaker who later was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and faces prosecution for calling for ousting President Nikol Pashinyan as political tensions flared in the South Caucasus country. Artur Sargsyan, who represents the opposition bloc Armenia, had finished a speech in which he said the case against him had been decided ahead of time and tried to leave the chamber. Other lawmakers then moved to stop him, and security guards flooded in, according to video from news outlets. In his speech, Sargsyan said Armenia had become 'a bastion of dictatorship' where 'everything is decided in advance, written down, approved.' Lawmakers later voted to strip Sargsyan of his parliamentary immunity, opening him up to prosecution. He turned himself in to Armenia's Investigative Committee, which had accused him and 15 others of plotting to overthrow the government. Pashinyan's government has been cracking down on political opponents he has said are trying to engineer a coup. Various members of the opposition, including the influential Armenian Apostolic Church, have been leading demonstrations urging Pashinyan's ouster after he agreed to territorial concessions in the country's decades-long battle with neighboring Azerbaijan for control of disputed regions. Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan and Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, both senior church leaders, are in pre-trial detention after being accused of taking part in the alleged plot. On June 28, crowds of supporters gathered at church headquarters outside the capital of Yerevan to prevent Ajapahyan's arrest. He later turned himself in to the authorities. The Investigative Committee said conspirators planned to carry out bombings and arson to disrupt power supplies and stage accidents on major roads to paralyze traffic. Both men rejected the charges against them. Ajapahyan and Galstanyan are members of the opposition group Sacred Struggle, which took a central role in anti-Pashinyan demonstrations last year. Although the territorial concessions were the movement's core issue, it has expanded to a wide array of complaints about Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018. It has also sparked increasing friction between the president and the church in recent weeks. In a social media post Monday, Pashinyan said he would liberate the Armenian Apostolic Church from its 'anti-Christian, adulterous, anti-national, anti-state' leadership. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Police on Monday raided one of the country's major energy providers, which is owned by another Pashinyan critic, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. Parliament adopted a law allowing for nationalizing the company on July 3, days after Karapetyan was arrested for calling for the ouster of the government. The raid began in the morning and it was unclear which branch of the government or security services was carrying it out, said company spokesperson Natalya Sarjanyan. 'We do not know which department these people are from, but we are not allowed into the office,' she said. Armenia and Azerbaijan were locked in territorial disputes since the early 1990s, as various parts of the Soviet Union pressed for independence from Moscow. After the USSR collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatist forces backed by the Armenian military won control of Azerbaijan's region of Karabakh and nearby territories. In 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured broad swaths of territory that were held for nearly three decades by Armenian forces. A swift military campaign in September 2023 saw Azerbaijan gain full control of Karabakh, and Armenia later handed over the border villages.
Winnipeg Free Press
21 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Rwandan opposition leader Ingabire appears in court on subversion charges
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire on Tuesday appeared in a courtroom in the capital, Kigali, for the first time since her arrest on subversion charges last month. A long-time critic of President Paul Kagame, Ingabire was previously jailed and has been at times the only government opponent to keep up her activism from inside Rwanda, while most of Kagame's opponents are in exile. Rwandan prosecutors accuse her of plotting to incite public unrest. The charges could send her back to prison for many years if convicted. Prosecutors say she was in contact with nine other suspects, including a journalist named Theoneste Nsengimana. The others are members of the DALFA-Umurinzi group, a party led by Ingabire that is not recognized by authorities. Ingabire has denied the charges, previously calling offenses against her politically motivated. Her bail hearing on Tuesday was postponed to July 15 after she refused a court-appointed local defense attorney and prefered her choice of a Kenyan team of lawyers. The court ruled that the case will be heard in a week whether or not she assembled a defense team of her choice. Ingabire had previously led the FDU-Inkingi group, a coalition of opposition parties that also was never permitted to register with the government. She spent 16 years in exile in the Netherlands and returned to Rwanda in 2010 to launch her political career. She was imprisoned before she could contest the presidential election. She was later found guilty of conspiracy to undermine the government and denying Rwanda's 1994 genocide, charges she denied. Sentenced to 15 years, she was freed in 2018 after obtaining a presidential pardon. Three decades after the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Kagame has won international praise for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery. But he also has faced criticism for what human rights groups say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition. He denies the accusations.
Toronto Star
27 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Yemen's Houthi rebels attack another ship in the Red Sea, killing 3
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea killed three mariners and wounded two others, a European Union naval force said Tuesday, highlighting the danger of the group's renewed campaign targeting a key maritime route for international trade. The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C follows the Iranian-backed Houthis attacking another vessel on Sunday in the Red Sea that they said subsequently sank. The assaults are the first Houthi attacks on shipping since late 2024 on the waterway that had begun to see more ships pass through in recent weeks.
