Opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza has been sentenced to 25 years in jail in Russia for charges linked to his criticism of the war in Ukraine. He was found guilty of treason, spreading “false” information about the Russian army and being affiliated with an “undesirable organisation”. The Russian-British former journalist and politician is the latest of several Putin opponents to have been arrested or forced to flee Russia. He has denied all of the charges. Mr Kara-Murza, 41, has spent years speaking out against Russian President Vladimir Putin and, alongside the war in Ukraine, has also been critical of the government’s crackdown on dissent. Last week, he said in a statement: “I subscribe to every word that I have said… Not only do I not repent any of this, I am proud of it.” “I know that the day will come when the darkness engulfing our country will clear,” he added in remarks posted online. “Our society will open its eyes and shudder when it realises what crimes were committed in its name.”(BBC)…[+]

A court in France has cleared Air France and Airbus of charges of involuntary manslaughter over a deadly crash in 2009 which killed all 228 people on board. The Airbus A330 operated by Air France crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The court said that even if errors had been committed, it was not possible to prove a causal link between them and the disaster. The ruling follows a public trial brought by relatives of the victims. Relatives of the victims appeared stunned when the verdict was read out, standing up and then sitting down again, according to AFP news agency. It was the first trial for corporate involuntary manslaughter to be held in France. Air France and Airbus had always denied the charges, for which they were facing a maximum fine of €225,000 (£200,000; $247,000). The companies said pilot error was to blame for the crash. The investigation revealed that the plane had encountered a high-altitude thunderstorm hours after departing from Rio de Janeiro.(BBC)…[+]

At least 26 people searching for valuable truffles in the Syrian desert have been killed by the Islamic State group, state media and activists say. Civilians and pro-government fighters were among the victims of the attack on Sunday in Hama province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. IS militants have repeatedly preyed on those searching for the fungus, with more than 150 people killed this year. A kilogram (2.2lb) can fetch more than the country’s average monthly wage. Syria’s state-run Sana news agency cited a police source as saying that IS militants attacked a group of civilians in the village of Duwaizin, in the eastern countryside of Hama, killing 26 of them. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group that relies on a wide network of sources on the ground in Syria, put the death toll at 36 and said the victims included at least 17 fighters from the pro-government National Defence Forces.(BBC)…[+]