Kremlin critic freed from Moscow jail

MOSCOW • Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was released from a Moscow prison yesterday, his spokesman said, after completing a 25-day sentence for repeatedly violating the law on organising public meetings.

Mr Navalny, who has organised two big anti-government street protests in recent months, says he wants to run for the presidency in March next year, but the Central Election Commission has said he is ineligible due to an embezzlement conviction which Mr Navalny says was politically-motivated.

REUTERS

Turkey takes control of nearly 1,000 firms

ISTANBUL • Turkish authorities have seized or appointed an administrator to 965 companies with total annual sales of some 21.9 billion lira (S$8.3 billion) in the year since an attempted coup last July, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said yesterday.

Under the emergency rule imposed after the coup, the Turkish authorities took control of companies suspected of having links to followers of Mr Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric blamed by Ankara for the failed military takeover.

REUTERS

3 Swedes jailed over refugee camp bombs

STOCKHOLM • A Swedish court yesterday sentenced three neo-Nazi activists to up to 81/2 years in prison over bomb attacks against refugee shelters that left one person seriously injured.

"All three defendants have a common background in the Nordic Resistance Movement," said a district court in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg.

Founded in 1997, the movement is described as the most violent Nazi organisation in Sweden.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE