Russian activist Maria Butina, who was arrested in the US earlier this year on suspicion of acting as a foreign agent, has agreed to plead guilty and is planning to cooperate with federal, state and local authorities, ABC News TV channel reported.

According to a copy obtained by the TV channel, Butina admits that she acted in the United States "under the direction of Russian official." The report claims that the agreement, which Butina allegedly signed on Saturday, notes that the conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison. Butina could receive a lesser sentence "depending on the level of her cooperation" and is likely to be deported back to Russia.

On Monday, Butina’s attorneys and federal prosecutors filed a joint motion, requesting a change-of-plea hearing, and the court decided to schedule the hearing on December 12.

Butina case
Maria Butina, 30, was arrested in Washington D.C. on July 15, on the eve of the Helsinki summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. The Russian gun rights activist was charged with conspiracy for conducting activities in the interests of a foreign state. The investigators claim she engaged in these activities without registering as a foreign agent at the US Department of Justice.

The FBI said Butina entered the US in August 2016 on a student visa and took up studies at the American University. She received the master’s degree in international relations in May 2018, according to her lawyer.

Butina is a member of the board of the Russian public associations ‘The Right to Guns’. In this capacity, she attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February 2017 where President Donald Trump took part.

On July 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined in his telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that US actions against Russian citizen Maria Butina were inadmissible.

Over 70% of Russians surveyed, consider violence against women to be a serious issue, according to the findings released by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center on Tuesday.

Those polled said that most often violence occurs within the family and in poorly populated places.

"The problem of violence against women for most Russians (73%) is important. Women (79%) and young people aged 18 to 24 years old (83%) more often than others speak about the importance of this issue. However, based on the findings, 18% of the respondents do not think the issue is serious, according to mostly men (23%) and respondents between 45-59 years of age (22%). Every second respondent (49%) argues that for women the risk of becoming a victim of violence or attempted violence is higher in poorly populated, quiet places, while 38% see women becoming victims at home, and nearly half, 49% of those respondents are women."

One in five respondents (21%) believed that for women the risk of facing violence was higher on the Internet, and one in ten (11%) said that the risk of a similar situation was higher at work. Those surveyed less frequently mentioned educational institutions (8%), clubs, bars (4%), public transport and concerts (2% each). At the same time, 3% of those polled believed that women could face violence anywhere. According to the respondents, women in Russia most often endure indecent comments, remarks, rude jokes (49%) and offensive attitudes (47%). More than a third (36%) reported frequent violations of women's rights, 32% reported cases of physical violence, and another 25% reported cases of sexual violence, while 24% noted cases of sexual harassment. "The importance of the problem today is noted by the overwhelming majority of the respondents, the seriousness of the topic is difficult to exaggerate. Half of the women speak about the high chances of becoming a victim of domestic violence," stated Yulya Baskakova, head of the practice of social modeling and forecasting research department, who commented on the results of the survey.

The poll was conducted on December 4, 2018. The sample size was 1,600 respondents, with a margin of error having a probability of 95% that does not exceed 2.5%.

A jailed executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei will need to wait at least one more day to find out whether she will be released on bail, after her hearing in a Canada court continued through Monday.

Meng Wanzhou, who is Huawei's chief financial officer and the daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Vancouver earlier this month at the request of US authorities as she was transiting from Hong Kong en route to Mexico.

Meng, 46, could face extradition to the US over allegations she was involved in violating sanctions on Iran, with each charge carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Her bail hearing began in Vancouver on Friday, but as no decision was reached when it resumed Monday, the court was adjourned until the next day at 10 am (1800 GMT).

The prosecution said the US Justice Department has flagged her as a possible flight risk and asked the court to deny bail to Meng, citing the enormous financial resources at her disposal.

Meng’s lawyer has argued that given her high profile position in Huawei and in China, his client will never skip bail as doing so would be to "lose face."

He also argued that Meng, a former permanent resident of Canada, has strong connections to the country and will remain in Vancouver where she owns two multi-million-dollar houses along with her husband and her daughter, while her case proceeds.

The defence proposed putting Meng under round-the-clock electronic and physical surveillance to assuage fears that she might skip bail.

Scott Filer, chief executive of Lions Gate Risk Management Group, a private security firm, proposed "layering of technology combined with human element."

Filer told the court his company could provide electronic equipment, a dedicated driver and security team to make sure Meng abides by her bail conditions.

Meng’s husband, Liu Xiaozong, told the court he was ready to move to Canada and post a 15-million-Canadian-dollar (11.2-million-US-dollar) surety.

Meng’s arrest, which occurred on the same day that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met after the G20 summit in Buenos Aires to discuss their trade war, has escalated tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Xi and Trump had previously agreed to a 90-day truce in their trade war that erupted in July.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang slammed Ottawa's "inhumane treatment" of Meng in detention, saying she was needlessly handcuffed and shackled while in custody.

Court documents supplied by the defence show Meng suffers from hypertension and needs medical follow-up following recent thyroid surgery to remove a cancerous tumour.

China earlier summoned both the Canadian and US ambassadors in Beijing to discuss Meng's detention.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week Canada is "a country of a rule of law" and there has been no political interference in Meng's case.

A Russian former policeman was convicted on Monday of killing 55 women and one man, bringing the total number of women he is convicted of killing to 77, a court said.

Mikhail Popkov predominantly targeted women aged 18 to 50 in urban areas in the eastern Siberian region of Irkutsk from 1992 to 2007, the Irkutsk-based court said in a statement.

He would meet them casually and flirt with them, the statement said. "The victims ended up outside of the city ... in a forest, cemeteries, roadsides."

Many of the victims were residents of the cities of Irkutsk and Angarsk, and the town of Usolye-Sibirskoye, the statement said.

Known as the "Angarsk maniac," his victims included a fellow policeman, Russia's federal investigative agency said.

It took law enforcement officers rather thorough work analysing unsolved crimes to link Popkov to them, including questioning more than a thousand potential witnesses, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

As a police officer, Popkov would have had knowledge of forensic practices. Russian media has reported that many of his victims were mutilated.

"The identities of 17 of his victims have not been determined," the court said in its statement.

While tabloids have reported that Popkov targeted inebriated woman and prostitutes, the Investigative Committee said his victims were "women of various social status and position in society."

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Popkov was motivated by his wife supposedly being unfaithful.

Popkov was initially convicted three years ago for the murders of 22 women and sentenced to life in prison. He has been stripped of his rank of junior lieutenant.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the renowned Russian human rights activist and Kremlin critic, has died in a Moscow hospital at the age of 91 after a serious illness.

The Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights confirmed her death in a statement late Saturday.

"This is a terrible loss for the entire Russian human rights movement," council chairman Mikhail Fedotov said.

Alexeyeva was the country's best known rights activist and had been working to secure the release of imprisoned political activist Lev Ponomaryov until shortly before her death.

"She remained a human rights activist till the end," Fedotov said.

She joined the rights movement in 1966, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, when she began campaigning for the release of two dissident writers who had been jailed after publishing their work abroad to bypass Soviet censors.

Ten years later, together with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, she founded the Moscow Helsinki Group, which was committed to defending human rights. In 1977 Soviet authorities forced her into exile.

She settled in the United States but returned to Russia in 1993 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Her work was recognized with numerous awards throughout her career, including France's highest order of merit, the Legion of Honour, in 2004.

President Vladimir Putin, who had visited her in her Moscow flat on her 90th birthday, paid tribute to her on Saturday, according to his spokesman.

"The president appreciates Lyudmila Alexeyeva's contribution to the development of civil society in Russia," Dmitry Peskov told Interfax news agency on Saturday night.

The president highly respected her positions on many issues, he said. Putin had also sent a personal letter of condolence to her family.

The Interior Ministry said Alexeyeva would be remembered as an example of charity, wisdom and boundless dedication.

Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, called her the "world matriarch of human rights defenders" and said she would be "missed sorely by all of us."

Lithuania has imposed individual sanctions on Russian citizens, involved in the detention of three Ukrainian warships that had violated the rules established in the Kerch Strait, prohibiting them from entering the country, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Friday.

"Lithuania strongly supports Ukraine and has introduced sanctions on those responsible for aggression in the Kerch Strait and the Black Sea," the press center quoted her as saying.

Grybauskaite also told Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko that Vilnius would increase military assistance to Kiev. "We will additionally supply more ammunition, send more military instructors and cyber security experts to help repel hybrid attacks, especially during the elections," the Lithuanian leader stated.

Kerch Strait standoff
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on November 25 that the Ukrainian warships, the Berdyansk, the Nikopol and the Yany Kapu had breached the Russian state border on Sunday morning and attempted to carry out illegal maneuvers in Russia’s territorial waters later. The Ukrainian vessels ignored the legitimate demands of the Coast Guard of the FSB Border Service and the Black Sea Fleet to stop immediately and end their dangerous action. The Ukrainian warships carried on, blatantly disregarding these orders, which triggered a chase involving some gunfire to stop them. Consequently, the ships were detained in Russian territorial waters.

Moscow branded Kiev’s stunt in the Kerch Strait a dangerous provocation, while the European Union and NATO called for a de-escalation of tensions.

Ukraine in turn imposed martial law across the Vinnytsia, Lugansk, Nikolayev, Odessa, Sumy, Kharkov, Chernigov, Donetsk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson Regions along with the country’s territorial waters in the Azov-Kerch water zone.

Russian citizen Maria Butina, arrested in the US earlier this year on suspicion of acting as a foreign agent, is close to entering a plea deal with federal prosecutors, The Daily Caller news portal reported on Thursday.

The paper referred to a "flurry of court filings" submitted over the past few weeks.

"According to reporters present at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., Butina’s lawyers said that a status update scheduled for Dec. 19 will likely not be necessary," The Daily Caller said.

Besides, according to court records obtained by a TASS correspondent, federal public defender for the District of Columbia A.J. Kramer was appointed as advisory counsel to Butina.

When contacted by a TASS correspondent, A.J. Kramer refused to give any comments, citing a gagging order earlier issued by Judge Tanya Chutkan.

Maria Butina’s father Valery earlier told TASS that a team of attorneys currently working on her case only receive a symbolic payment for their job. "The attorneys work out of enthusiasm simply because they are good people, they understand that the case is unfair in legal terms, which is an opportunity for them, and they could win the case. They work for free now, but they are hired, and it is unclear for how long their employer will allow them to do their job free of charge," Butin said.

Butina case
Maria Butina, who studied at American University in Washington, had been arrested on July 15 ahead of the Helsinki summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. The Russian gun rights activist is facing charges of conspiracy for conducting activities in the interests of a foreign state. Investigators claim that she was engaged in these activities without registering as a foreign agent at the US Department of Justice.

During a July 21 phone conversation with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded a speedy release for Butina, having deemed the charges against her as fabricated.

First Palestinian-American Congresswoman in the US, Rashida Tlaib, announced that she will be leading the delegation group to visit the West Bank rather than the traditional trip to Israel.

Under usual circumstances, newly elected delegate members go on a trip to Israel, under the guidance of American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) to better understand the Middle Eastern political context and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

However, Tlaib says that these “lavish” week long trip with mostly Israeli-hosted events and tours turn a blind eye to what is really happening here, with AIPAC not providing a “real and fair lens” onto the situation on the ground.

With a focus of education, clean water and poverty, Tlaib hopes to shed light on the human cost of Israel’s segregation. Visiting her mother’s village, Beit Ur al-Foqa, in northern West Bank, she wants her delegation to “humanise Palestinians”.

This announcement was accompanied by Tlaib’s publicly-voiced support of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement: “I personally support the BDS movement,” as it is effective in addressing and tackling “issues like the racism and the international human rights violations by Israel right now.”

This comes following Ilhan Omar’s – one of the only other Muslim woman in US history to be elected to the US house – support for BDS, which recieved a lot of backlash and accusations of antisemitism.

Although unsure of who will join her delegates’ trip nor who she will partner with for funding of the trip, Tlaib tells The Intercept that her aim is to open a window into the contested situation so that her colleagues see “segregation and how that has really harmed us being able to achieve real peace in that region”.

A Rwandan court acquitted opposition figure Diane Rwigara on Thursday of all charges against her, including "inciting insurrection," in a case rights groups say was politically motivated.

The US-educated activist, 37, was facing a possible 22-year prison sentence for insurrection against the government and allegedly forging signatures of support so she could run for president.

She was barred from running against long-time leader Paul Kagame in 2017 elections and arrested shortly thereafter, along with her mother Adeline, who was also acquitted.

The judge at the court in the capital Kigali said there was not enough evidence against them.

Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty the King, and President of the Supreme Council of Women (SCW), praised the high performance of the Bahraini women during their participation in the elections, both as candidates and voters. 

Her Royal Highness praised the Bahraini women’s readiness to shoulder their national responsibilities as an indispensable partner in building Bahrain and the sustainability of its renaissance.

This came in an exclusive statement of Her Royal Highness after six women have won parliamentary seats and four other women emerged as municipal councillors.

 "We are honoured in the light of the plausible outcome of the participation of Bahraini women in the parliamentary and municipal elections, to offer our sincere congratulations and appreciation to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa who has been the principal supporter of Bahraini women in reaching advanced positions and assuming high-level national responsibilities," Her Royal Highness said.

HM the King’s approach has been based on his deep belief in the Bahraini women’s capability to safeguard Bahrain’s stability, protect its accomplishments and elevate its status, she added. 

"We are proud with the victory of our sisters as a harbinger of ‘goodness and joy’ from the leader of our glorious and prosperous progress, who personally informed us about their victory as soon as he learnt the result of the elections. He, in turn, took pride in their outstanding results."

Her Royal Highness expressed great delight at the unprecedented victory in the parliamentary and municipal elections which coincides with the Bahraini Women’s Day celebrated in honour of women as lawmakers and municipal councillors.

Her Royal Highness reiterated sincere congratulations to the winners and appreciation of all women candidates regardless of the polls’ final outcomes, in appreciation of their efforts, wishing them success in serving the nation to preserve and elevate its status.

Her Royal Highness concluded her statement by taking pride in the level of culture and political awareness of the Bahraini society in believing in the Bahraini women’s progress.

Princess Sumaya Bint Al-Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) and Chairman of the ESCWA Technology Center (ETC), highlighted the crucial role of collaboration and integration among countries to identify their needs and to meet them through cooperation of scientists, researchers and decision-makers, which is the core pillar of improving life quality in our societies.

The princess, who chaired ESCWA's 8th Meeting in Beirut, stressed the need to focus on the issue of cooperation and integration in addressing the challenges facing the Arab countries and the world at large.

The princess noted the launch of the Arab Science Forum, which is held every two years in one of the Arab countries, is one of the most important outcomes of the World Science Forum 2017, and would be the scientific platform for Arab countries and the voice of science for Arab societies and the Arab platform for regional and international cooperation.

The princess also called on all members to cooperate and coordinate in preparation for holding this Arab gathering and to participate in identifying the topics that will be discussed, adding :" the forum will be the first of its kind in the region and Jordan will host its first edition in the next two years."

On future steps, she said preparations are under way to draft a special ethics charter of scientific research in the Arab world to establish ethical criteria for scientific research and technological applications, which provides a stimulating and safe environment for Arab researchers, and would protect their research rights and set their social responsibilities and duties.

In turn, Raleh Majdalani, Deputy Executive Secretary of ESCWA Program Support, said for the past 45 years, the organization has been supporting its member states and backing regional Arab integration and has a long history of development effort at the economic, social and environmental levels.

Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is observed on the November 25 every year, the Shura Council stressed that the advanced legislation in Bahrain as well as the numerous systems and decisions have protected the rights of Bahraini women and contributed to protecting women from all forms of violence and discrimination.

The council took pride in the national achievements made by women thanks to the tremendous support of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the constant care of the government, led by His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and the support of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier.

The Shura Council lauded the great care given to Bahraini women by Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of HM the King and President of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), which contributed to their progress and participation to the kingdom’s development process. It hailed the role of SCW in achieving partnership and competitiveness in an advanced community by working out ambitious strategies.

The council pointed out that Bahrain has realized for decades the outstanding role of women in the growth of the community and its prosperity. Therefore, the kingdom has boosted women’s presence and participation in various fields by passing legislation and issuing resolutions and organizational by-laws which granted women all their rights.

An Australian woman released from a jail on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali after serving more than 13 years for drug smuggling arrived in Australia on Thursday.

Renae Lawrence, one of nine Australians who were caught trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005, was deported to her home country after being released from prison. 

Lawrence, 41, arrived at Brisbane airport, where she was met by local reporters and camera crews as well as her mother and step-brother.

"We don't want to comment. We've got nothing to say. Please, just leave us," her mother, Beverley Waterman, told reporters.

Waterman later told the Australian Associated Press that her daughter's return was "very overwhelming."

In her hometown of Newcastle, Lawrence is facing two arrest warrants, including one for a 2005 high-speed car chase.

She is the first member of the so-called Bali Nine to be released from prison. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison but received a series of reductions for good behaviour.

The two leaders of the "Bali Nine," Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were executed in 2015 after being on death row for 10 years, while five others are serving life sentences.

The other member, Tan Duc Thanh, died of stomach cancer in May.