Free Republic

British LGBT campaigner Peter Tatchell has been detained by Russian police in Moscow ahead of the opening ceremony of the World Cup. Mr Tatchell was detained for what Russian police described as an illegal protest. He had attempted to hold a solitary demonstration near the Red Square to draw attention to human rights abuses against gay men in Chechnya.A Reuters reporter saw a Russian policeman inform Mr Tatchell that it was illegal to hold such protests during the tournament. Mr Tatchell was holding a sign which said: "Putin fails to act against Chechnya torture of gay people." The policeman told...

China requests "serious investigation" into conflict between Russian police and Chinese workers China has requested that Russian authorities "seriously investigate" the conflict between Russian police and Chinese workers occurring Wednesday night and take measures to prevent such things from happening in the future, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday in a press release. Spokesman Kong Quan said the conflict occured when Irkutsk police conducted inspections on the Chinese workers. About 200 Chinese workers were involved in the incident. "Dozens were injured, and some were hospitalized," he said. "The issue has aroused great concern from the Chinese government," Kong said....