West told to butt out of Putin foe's case
MOSCOW -- The Kremlin on Tuesday brushed aside calls from the West to release opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was arrested upon his return to Russia from Germany after treatment for poisoning with a nerve agent. Moscow called his case "an absolutely internal matter."
Navalny blames his poisoning on President Vladimir Putin's government, which has denied it. The condemnations of his arrest and the calls from abroad for his release have added to the tensions between Russia and the West. Some European Union countries are suggesting more sanctions against Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "we can't and are not going to take these statements into account."
"We are talking about a fact of noncompliance with the Russian law by a citizen of Russia. This is an absolutely internal matter and we will not allow anyone to interfere in it and do not intend to listen to such statements," Peskov said.
Navalny, 44, was detained Sunday evening at passport control at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after arriving from Berlin, where he was treated after the poisoning in August. On Monday, he was ordered to pretrial detention for 30 days during a court hearing that was hastily set up in a police precinct where Navalny was being held.
Russia's prison service maintains that Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition figure and anti-corruption campaigner, violated the probation terms of his suspended sentence on a 2014 money-laundering conviction, which was deemed "arbitrary" by the European Court of Human Rights.
Officials are seeking to send Navalny to prison to serve the 3½-year suspended sentence.
After Navalny was jailed Monday, his allies announced preparations for nationwide protests Saturday and released a video of Navalny urging people not to "be afraid" and "take to the streets."
Ranchers' dispute cited in 12 slayings
MEXICO CITY -- Authorities in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz said Monday that 12 men were killed and their bodies dumped on a roadside in what may have been a dispute between cattle ranchers.
The killings occurred in the rural town of La Choapas, near the border with the neighboring state of Tabasco.
Veracruz Gov. Cuitlahuac Garcia wrote in a statement that "initial investigations suggest a division between ranchers and helpers from La Choapas and Uxpanapa." He added that "abuses and threats between them led to this unfortunate outcome."
The region is south of the crime-ridden city of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.
Trapped workers request pickle delivery
BEIJING -- Workers trapped for more than a week in a Chinese gold mine asked for pickles and porridge to be dropped to them while they wait to be rescued, state media outlets reported Tuesday.
The website of the People's Daily said the request was made after a telephone line was dropped to the 11 people inside the mine's No. 6 chamber. Another survivor of the mine explosion is inside an adjoining chamber while the fate of 10 others remains unknown, according to officials in the city of Yantai in the eastern province of Shandong.
The People's Daily said two of the miners were recovering from exhaustion and another was injured by the explosion that ripped through the mine Jan. 10.
Medicine, food and liquids have twice been delivered to the workers, enough to last at least two days, Yantai Mayor Chen Fei said at a briefing Tuesday morning.
Mine managers have been detained for waiting more than 24 hours before reporting the accident, the cause of which has not been announced. The mine in Qixia, a jurisdiction under Yantai, had been under construction at the time of the blast.
Iran sanctions Trump, Pompeo, others
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran on Tuesday imposed sanctions on President Donald Trump and a number of members of his administration over their alleged role in support of "terrorism," according to Iran's Foreign Ministry website.
Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that besides Trump, sanctions were imposed on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, CIA chief Gina Haspel and six other ranking U.S. officials.
The Foreign Ministry did not say what kind of sanctions were imposed.
From time to time, Iran imposes symbolic sanctions on U.S. officials. Tuesday's announcement was on Trump's last full day in office.
Khatibzadeh said the sanctions were based on Iranian law. He said they were the result of the Trump administration's role in killing top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020 and its support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.
He also cited the U.S.' alleged role in the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in December and in the "criminal war" in Yemen.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
