MOSCOW: Russia’s controversial ban on adoptions of Russian children by American families came into force yesterday, days after its signing by President Vladimir Putin sparked an international outcry.
The ban is part of a law rushed through parliament to hit back at the United States over its passing of a law sanctioning Russian officials implicated in the death in jail of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. But opponents say it makes Russian orphans - many with physical or mental difficulties - the blameless victims of a diplomatic standoff between Washington and Moscow.
The law came into force as expected after being signed by Putin on December 28, Russian state media said. The blanket ban brings to an end a process that according to the US State Department has seen US families adopt more than 60,000 Russian children over the past 20 years. It also forbids US citizens who are deemed to have hurt the rights of Russians from entering Russia, and allows the authorities to shut down NGOs funded by the United States.
The ban on adoptions caused an unusual amount of dissent within the political establishment, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicating his discomfort and Deputy Prime Minister in charge of social policy Olga Golodets vehemently opposed.
The anti-Putin opposition is trying to play on the splits within the elite by holding a mass rally against the law on January 13 in central Moscow, which organisers hope will muster up to 20,000 people.
1,193 cars torched
on New Year’s eve
PARIS: A New Year’s Eve tradition for some in France of torching empty, parked cars has continued.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls said yesterday that 1,193 vehicles were burned overnight around the country, where the stunt began in the 1990s.
There was no way to compare this figure to recent ones because the conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy stopped making the numbers public while he was in office. But the rate of burned cars was apparently steady. On December 31, 2009, 1,147 vehicles were burned.
For some, the decision of France’s current Socialist government to resume making public figures of New Year’s Eve’s torched cars is unwise.
Bruno Beschizza, a security chief for Sarkozy’s UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes.
Migrant found dead after Italy boat landing
ROME: An immigrant’s body washed up on a beach in Sicily yesterday after two boat landings from North Africa in two days, including one in which dozens of migrants were forced to swim ashore by the crew.
The body was found near the seaside village of Tre Fontane, the same area where Italian border police said they had tracked down 48 undocumented migrants on Monday and yesterday after two separate landings.
Many of the migrants were drenched and told police that crew members had pushed them into the sea to make their way to the shore even though many could not swim, Italian news agency Ansa reported.
Deadly clashes erupt in Central African Republic
BANGUI: The death of a young Muslim man arrested for alleged links to rebels in the Central African Republic sparked clashes yesterday in the capital that killed a policeman, a police source said.
The unrest erupted as countries in the region sent reinforcements to protect the capital Bangui from rebels who control much of the country and are demanding the departure of President Francois Bozize.Agencies
