Moscow prosecutors sacked
Moscow: The head and deputy of the Moscow prosecutor’s office were sacked yesterday after it was found that thousands of crimes had gone unsolved or been covered up.
Vladimir Ustinov, Russia’s Prosecutor-General, dismissed Mikhail Avdyukov, his Moscow chief, and — in an unusual move — appointed him instead as his own personal adviser.
Mr Avdyukov’s deputy, Yury Sinelshikov, was also dismissed after a detailed check uncovered widescale corruption and inefficiency in the Mowscow office. Both prosecutors had appealed to President Putin to prevent the reshuffle and accused central authorities of seeking scapegoats, on the eve of elections, for the high levels of crime that have long plagued Russia. But a senior official said that Moscow police had failed to register 9,000 crimes and had invented fictional ones. (AFP)
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Fire protest
Gütersloh: A Turk facing deportation from Germany doused himself in lighter fluid and set himself ablaze at an immigration office near here. The 33-year-old man, who was not named, was taken to hospital with serious burns over most of his body. His five children had witnessed the horrific scene. (AFP)
Briton to be freed
Manjit Basuta, 48, formerly of Slough, who was jailed in California for killing a baby in her care, will get parole on Monday and be deported. She was jailed for 25 years in 1999, but had the term cut after she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, although she still maintains her innocence.