GERMANY: The Federal Constitutional Court rejected a bid yesterday by a former Auschwitz death camp guard to get a reprieve.
Oskar Groening was convicted in July 2015 of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 Jews and sentenced to four years in prison. A federal court rejected his appeal against the conviction last year. The court has now rejected a claim that the 96-year-old’s right to life and physical safety is being violated by his imprisonment.

RUSSIA: Green activist Andrei Rudomakha from the Caucasus has been brutally beaten by masked men, his deputy said yesterday.
Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus leader MrRudomakha was attacked in Krasnodar near the Black Sea. His group has exposed illegal landfills, contamination of rivers and land grabs by local officials and oligarchs. He had just returned from the Black Sea where his team were investigating the illegal construction of a luxury mansion.
Mr Rudomakha has a fractured skull and broken nose, but his life is not considered to be in danger.

PERU: Four people were arrested at Thursday’s Fujimori Never Again march, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.
On Christmas Eve President Pablo Kuczynski outraged the nation by pardoning former dictator Alberto Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity including murder.
Broad Front MP Marco Arana said: “We will march until the pardon is annulled and Kuczynski resigns.”

TURKEY: Hundreds of police officers were involved in simultaneous raids that saw 29 people arrested in Ankara yesterday.
The detainees are accused of being members of Isis and planning New Year terrorist attacks.