Just a few months ago, he was an ordinary Chinese art teacher who posted his personal thoughts and paintings online.. Used to sharing his personal thoughts or art online, Li began venturing into social issues -- which, like politics, can be sensitive topics in China.
One person died Friday in a massive blaze the size of a football pitch which broke out overnight in a sprawling shopping and entertainment centre in a northern Moscow suburb.. Russian media later reported that one person had been killed in the fire at the Mega Khimki shopping centre, about seven kilometres (four miles) from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.
The two top leaders of Bangladesh's main opposition party were taken from their homes by police in the early hours Friday, a party spokesman said, a day before a planned rally was to call for the prime minister's resignation.. BNP spokesman Swapan said police had arrested "around 2,000" party activists and supporters in a bid to scuttle the December 10 rally.
Iran carried out its first known execution Thursday over the protests that have shaken the regime since September, sparking an international outcry and warnings from rights groups that more hangings are imminent.. At least a dozen other people are currently at risk of execution after being sentenced to hang in connection with the protests, human rights groups warned.
Lobbyists for pesticide and fertiliser producers are pushing "behind the scenes" against stronger protection for species and ecosystems at the COP15 biodiversity conference, research showed Thursday.. "We've tracked efforts from industry associations representing some of the world's biggest pesticide and fertiliser producers... strongly resisting global and EU targets for reducing the use of biodiversity-harming agrichemicals."
The EU on Thursday approved Croatia as the newest member of the border check-free Schengen zone from next month, but Austria and the Netherlands blocked Romania and Bulgaria from joining.. The outcome was bitter news for Bulgaria and Romania, the EU's two poorest nations ,which have been trying for a decade to join Schengen and whose bids were linked together, unlike Croatia's.
Former Soviet air force pilot Viktor Bout, who was swapped for US basketball star Brittney Griner on Thursday, fuelled some of the world's bloodiest conflicts by trafficking weapons across several continents.. Born in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe in 1967 when it was still under Soviet rule, Bout studied languages -- including English, French and Portuguese -- at Moscow's military institute for foreign languages before joining the air force.
A prominent French Holocaust denier, who fled the country after being convicted under anti-Nazi laws, does not consent to be extradited to France, an Edinburgh court heard Thursday.. "Mr Reynouard does not consent to extradition to France," his lawyer, who asked not to be named, told the court.
Basketball star Brittney Griner is "safe" and headed home to the United States after being freed from a Russian prison ordeal in a swap for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, the two countries announced on Thursday.. "On December 8, 2022, at the Abu Dhabi airport, the exchange of Russian citizen Viktor Bout for US citizen Brittney Griner... was successfully completed," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Kremlin said Thursday that the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula was vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks after officials said they had shot down a drone near a key naval base.. In the latest incident over Crimea on Thursday, Russia said it had shot down a drone over the Black Sea near Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean peninsula that hosts a key Russian naval base.
