Kenya's HC suspends media shutdown

AFP, Nairobi

Kenya’s High Court ordered authorities to allow three major broadcasters to temporarily resume service yesterday, after they were switched off for covering the opposition leader's mock inauguration, prompting outrage over press freedom violations. The three private stations are Citizen, NTV and KTN.

FSB kills IS member plotting polls attack AFP, Moscow

Russia's FSB security agency said yesterday it had killed an Islamic State jihadist in the provincial city of Nizhny Novgorod as he was plotting an attack during next month's presidential polls. The FSB said the man "was ready to carry out a sabotage and terrorist attack on the day of presidential elections' on March 18.

Jailed Catalan leaders appeal to UN panel AFP, London

Three Catalan leaders imprisoned in Spain over their role in their region's independence crisis will take their case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, their lawyers said yesterday. "Their detention by Spain is an affront to human rights, designed to prevent them from performing their role as political representatives" lawyer Emmerson said.

Japan fire kills 11 at home for the elderly AFP, Tokyo

Eleven people were killed in northern Japan after fire broke out at a home for elderly people with financial difficulties, police said yesterday. The victims -eight men and three women - were among 16 residents of the facility in Sapporo, Hokkaido.