Five Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

[rpannier]

1. Relative Calm Reported At Prison In Southern Russia After Riot By Hundreds Of Inmates

Relative calm is being reported at a prison in the south of Russia on October 16, a day after a riot there by hundreds of prisoners.

The unrest was reported at the Correctional Colony No. 1 in Vladikavkaz, the regional capital of North Ossetia.

No one was injured in the riot, the human rights ombudsman in the Republic of South Ossetia, Tamerlan Tsgoyev, was quoted as saying by TASS on October 16. He added that prison authorities would meet with some of the prisoners to discuss their grievances.

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It’s still unclear what triggered the unrest.

https://www.rferl.org/a/31512310.html


2. Four Russians found dead at Albanian resort

Four Russian tourists have been found dead at a beach resort in western Albania, police have said.

Albanian police issued a statement on Saturday saying the tourists were found asphyxiated in a hotel sauna in the village of Qerret late on Friday.

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The Russian tourists, aged between 31 and 60 years old, were part of a group that had been staying for a week at the five-star resort.

Investigators think the people who died may be members of the same family because of their surnames.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/16/four-russian-tourists-found-dead-albanian-beach-resort


3. France pays tribute to beheaded teacher Samuel Paty one year on

France paid tribute on Saturday to slain history teacher Samuel Paty on the one year anniversary of his death.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said Paty was a "servant of the Republic" at a Saturday tribute to the teacher at the Ministry of Education in Paris.

The 47-year-old history and geography teacher was beheaded last year by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee who said the attack was revenge because the teacher had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Paty taught at a school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/16/france-pays-tribute-to-beheaded-teacher-samuel-paty-one-year-on


4. Source Of Russian Prison-Abuse Videos Flees To France To Seek Asylum

The source of a massive leak of information, including videos, of alleged torture and sexual assaults in Russia's penitentiary system has fled to France, where he plans to seek political asylum.

The news was confirmed on October 16 by Vladimir Osechkin, a prominent Russian human rights defender, who runs the anti-torture project Gulagu.net, which has released much of the video.

Osechkin had described his source for the massive leak only as a Belarusian IT engineer who had been incarcerated in a prison in Saratov where he faced abuse, calling him only "Syarhey."

According to Gulagu.net, Syarhey arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris on October 16 on a flight from an unspecified country in northern Africa. It said he had immediately turned to police at the airport in the French capital for help on seeking asylum.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-prison-torture-asylum/31513103.html


5. ‘Sensational’: skeleton buried in Vesuvius eruption found at Herculaneum

The partially mutilated remains of a man buried by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius at Herculaneum, the ancient Roman town close to Pompeii, have been discovered in what Italy’s culture minister described as a “sensational” find.

Archaeologists said the man, believed to have been aged between 40 and 45, was killed just steps away from the sea as he tried to flee the eruption.

His skeleton was found on what would have been the ancient town’s beach with the head pointing back in the direction of the sea, and surrounded by carbonised wood, including a roof beam, that might have crushed his skull, the Italian news agency, Ansa, reported.

“The last moments here were instantaneous, but terrible,” Francesco Sirano, the director of Herculaneum archaeological park, told Ansa.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/15/sensational-skeleton-buried-in-vesuvius-eruption-found-at-herculaneum