| Witness: Beaten for Being Gay in Russia – Andrey’s Story
Photo © 2014 Private
Despite Russia’s January cold, hundreds of people packed the central square in Voronezh, an eight hour drive south of Moscow, for the planned LGBT rights protest. When Andrey Nasonov arrived, he saw a bus of riot police and several police cars, and quickly realized most of the crowd likely didn’t support LGBT rights. Only a dozen were activists, like him. In short order, he heard a scream and saw a rainbow flag. Thinking he was late for the protest, he began running towards the flag while unfurling his poster that read, “Stop hate.”
Spotting Andrey, bystanders began pelting him with snowballs. He saw a group of people break free from the crowd and sprint towards the activists. Two rushed him, pushed him to the ground and began kicking him in the head, neck, and shoulders. He curled into the fetal position. When he felt the kicking stop, he tried to get up, but lost consciousness. His boyfriend, Igor, tried to revive him, and he briefly came to, thinking that he needed to open his second “Stop hate” poster, but it fell out of his hands. He fell down and began convulsing.
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| Dispatches: Uniting Against the Pakistan School Massacre
By Zama Coursen-Neff
The attack on a school in Peshwar in northwestern Pakistan that left at least 145 dead – almost all of them children – sets a new low of depravity for the Pakistani Taliban. Tragically, the attack, while horrific in scale, is but one of an all-too-frequent pattern of deliberate attacks on schools both in Pakistan and worldwide.
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| US/Cuba: Obama’s New Approach to Cuba
It’s been clear for years that US efforts to promote change in Cuba through bans on trade and travel have been a costly and misguided failure. Rather than isolating Cuba, the embargo has isolated the United States, alienating governments that might otherwise speak out about the human rights situation on the island.
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| | | VIDEO |  | |  | | | For 16 years, the Thai government has failed to clean lead from a stream, threatening hundreds of families with irreversible health problems. Watch Now » |
| REPORTS | | |  | | Toxic Water, Tainted Justice
Thailand’s Delays in Cleaning Up Klity Creek
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| TWEET of the WEEK |  | | On #MigrantsDay let's recognize our common humanity, and treat all people, regardless of legal status, with dignity. Follow Bill Frelick >> |
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