NATO limits Belarusians' access to hub
BRUSSELS -- The NATO military alliance is restricting access to its headquarters for a group of Belarus officials in the wake of Minsk's decision to divert a Ryanair passenger plane to arrest a dissident journalist last month.
"We have decided to restrict the access of Belarusian personnel to the NATO headquarters based on our assessment of security measures at the headquarters," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Monday.
The move is expected to involve about five officials. They will still be able to enter NATO's sprawling complex in Brussels but only as visitors, not with their usual delegation badges, depriving them of access to some areas.
Belarus' international isolation has deepened since the May 23 incident, in which Belarusian flight controllers told the crew of a Ryanair jet of an alleged bomb threat and instructed them to land in Minsk, where journalist Raman Pratasevich was pulled off the plane by authorities.
NATO ambassadors said last week that the "unacceptable act seriously violated the norms governing civil aviation and endangered the lives of the passengers and crew."
Stoltenberg has branded Belarus' move "a state hijacking."
Putin critic objects to prison wake-ups
MOSCOW -- Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny asked a court Monday to halt the hourly nighttime checks he has been subjected to in his penal colony.
Speaking to the court in a video link from prison, Navalny charged that he has done nothing that would warrant the authorities' decision to designate him a flight risk.
"I just want them to stop coming to me and waking me up at nighttime," he told the judge in remarks broadcast by the independent Dozhd TV. "What did I do: Did I climb the fence? Did I dig up an underpass? Or was I wringing a pistol from someone? Just explain why they named me a flight risk!"
He argued that the hourly checks "effectively amount to torture," telling the judge that "you would go mad in a week" if subjected to such regular wake-ups.
The court later adjourned the hearing until Wednesday.
Navalny, a foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin -- an accusation that Russian officials reject.
In February, he was handed a 2½-year sentence for violating terms of a suspended sentence stemming from a 2014 embezzlement conviction, which he says was politically motivated.
China to let couples have 3 children
BEIJING -- China's ruling Communist Party said Monday that it will ease birth limits to allow all couples to have three children instead of two in hopes of slowing the rapid aging of its population, which is adding to strains on the economy and society.
The ruling party has enforced birth limits since 1980 to restrain population growth but worries the number of working-age people is falling too quickly while the share older than 65 is rising. That threatens to disrupt its ambitions to transform China into a prosperous consumer society and global technology leader.
A ruling-party meeting led by President Xi Jinping decided to introduce "measures to actively deal with the aging population," the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said leaders agreed "implementing the policy of one couple can have three children and supporting measures are conducive to improving China's population structure."
Leaders also agreed China needs to raise its retirement age to keep more people in the workforce and improve pension and health services for the elderly, Xinhua said.
Restrictions that limited most couples to one child were eased in 2015 to allow two, but the total number of births fell further, suggesting rule changes on their own have little impact on the trend.
Some couples say they are put off by the high costs of raising a child, disruption to their jobs and the need to look after elderly parents.
Britain to resettle more Afghans to U.K.
LONDON -- Britain said Monday that it will make it easier for Afghans who worked with British troops to settle in the U.K., amid rising fears for their safety as foreign forces leave Afghanistan.
More than 1,400 Afghan interpreters and their relatives have already moved to Britain under a resettlement scheme. The government says about 3,000 more are expected to come under new rules that broaden eligibility and make it easier for people to bring their families.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that "with Western powers leaving Afghanistan, the threat is increasing and has increased, including targeted attacks by the Taliban."
He told Sky News "it's absolutely right that we stand by" people who risked their lives to help British troops.
"They sacrificed a lot to look after us, and now we're going to do the same," he said.
About 750 British troops remain in the country to train Afghan forces.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
