Senior Biden administration officials on Tuesday announced new disciplinary measures to prevent further FBI abuses under a controversial surveillance program that will expire at year's end unless Congress renews it.

One of five men convicted of killing a Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin has been pardoned halfway through his 20-year sentence after a stint fighting in the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced in 2014 for his role as an accomplice in the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, 48, in 2006. The journalist worked for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and wrote stories critical of Kremlin policies during the early years of president Vladimir Putin’s term, the war in Chechnya and human rights. She was shot and killed in the elevator of her Moscow apartment block, triggering outrage at home and in the West. Her death on 7 October, which is Putin’s birthday, led to suggestions the shooting was done to please the president. It emphasised the dangers faced by independent journalists in Russia, though the Kremlin has always denied any involvement in the killing. Khadzhikurbanov, a former police detective, was released last year to fight in Ukraine and then signed a contract with the Russian defence ministry to continue serving after his pardon, according to his lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik. It is the most high profile case of Russia’s defence ministry hiring prisoners to fight in Ukraine on the promise of a presidential pardon. The tactic was widely employed by Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin last year. Footage from several prisons showed the warlord encouraging prisoners convicted of murder and sexual assault to join his mercenary group to atone for their crimes. They would be offered six-month contracts to fight in Ukraine, after which they would be pardoned. One of the first instances of pardoned mercenaries was published in January this year. Reports later emerged suggesting Russian civilians were anxious to be living among ex-convicts, many of whom were culpable of the most serious crimes and had also spent six months in frontline combat. Following the removal of Wagner from Ukraine and the subsequent death of Prigozhin on August 24, which was itself widely regarded as suspicious, the Russian defence ministry began more substantially recruiting from penal colonies. The prisoners are often said to be used as cannon fodder in what has become known as “human wave attacks” popularised by the Wagner Group; it involves using dozens of the convicts in a first line charge on Ukrainian positions ostensibly to soak up enemy fire, allowing soldiers behind to advance under less heavy resistance. But Khadzhikurbanov was offered a command position in the military, according to his lawyer Mikhalchik, because he was in the “special forces” in the late 1990s and was in “almost all the hot spots”, including in Chechnya. Following the pardon, Ms Politkovskaya children, Ilya and Vera Politkovsky, issued a joint statement with their mother’s former paper Novaya Gazeta in which they claimed they had “not been informed about the killer’s pardon”. Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, said the pardon was “not evidence of atonement and repentance of the killer” but a “monstrous fact of injustice”. “It is an outrage to the memory of a person killed for her beliefs and professional duty,” he said. Russian human rights advocate Alena Popova, who has been critical of previous pardons, including that of a man who murdered his girlfriend before fighting in Ukraine, also issued a statement decrying Khadzhikurbanov’s release. “How many more murderers and rapists will the war free?” she asked. Bill Browder, formerly one of the largest foreign investors in Russia before being removed by Vladimir Putin, described the pardon as a “cynical slap in the face of justice”. He added that the presidential pardon was doubly sinister given it was Putin who “ordered her killing”. “The pardoning of Anna Politkovskaya’s killer is a cynical slap in the face of justice and her family,” he told The Independent. “But we should not forget that the person who ordered her killing has remained free since her murder and sits as the head of state in Russia ordering many more murders and misery inside of Russia, in Ukraine and all over the world.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month that convicts recruited to fight in Ukraine are worthy of pardons. “Those sentenced, even on grave charges, shed their blood on the battlefield to atone for their crimes,” he said. “They redeem themselves by shedding blood in assault brigades, under bullet fire and shelling.” Read More European Commission lowers growth outlook and says economy has lost momentum during a difficult year UK inflation falls sharply to 4.6%, lowest level in 2 years China and the US pledge to step up climate efforts ahead of Biden-Xi summit and UN meeting Ukraine declares major breakthrough in southern counteroffensive ‘against all odds’ State-sponsored online spies likely to target Australian submarine program, spy agency says Biden aims for improved military relations with China when he meets with Xi

New Mexico oilfield and air quality regulators announced unprecedented fines against a Texas-based oil and natural gas producer on accusations that the company flouted local pollution reporting and control requirements as it burned off vast amounts of natural gas

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 28, 2023--

'Ezra wants the movie to open and the conversation to be about the movie and not about Ezra,' a source said

They are playing at home which could be an advantage but also a pressure point, writes Suresh Menon.

Kourtney Kardashian and husband Travis Barker held up the filming of their Hulu reality show while they went off for a sex session. The mid-production 20-minute romp caused filming of the family’s show The Kardashians and left sister Khloe and the rest of the crew waiting. Kardashian and Blink 182’s drummer Barker got married last year, having three separate celebrations to mark their nuptials – in Las Vegas, Palm Springs and Portofino, Italy. The couple has opened up about how they decided to quit IVF and let nature do its own thing. In the first episode of the show’s newest series, Kourtney confided in sister Khloe that she was “ovulating” and needed to go and do the deed with her husband. Kourtney said: “If you give us five minutes to go do something really fast…” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Her sister Khloe responded, asking if she was seriously ovulating. Kourtney replied, “Yes, I am” before going off with her husband Barker. Khloe proceeded to start a timer on her phone and joked, “Well, let’s see if it takes five minutes” and asked her sister to guess the time on the stopwatch when she returned from her escapade. When Kourtney complained of feeling tired later in the day, Khloe suggested: “Probably from having your 20-minute sex session downstairs.” The sisters spoke candidly about their sex lives, with Kournety replying: “Well, we had one this morning for like, an hour and a half, and I had one last night and the day before.” When Khloe asked how they had sex for an hour and a half, Kourtney simply stated: “You know, we’re just living our best lives.” In another part of the show, Kourtney, who has three children with former partner Scott Disick, revealed Barker “would love a baby more than anything but I just really believe in what God has in store for us”. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Jeopardy!’ executives have revealed that game show pro James Holzhaeur survived on just pizza and soda during his original winning streak in 2019

By Lananh Nguyen NEW YORK Paco Ybarra, the CEO of Citigroup's institutional clients group, will leave in the

Hungarian inflation slowed more than estimated in May as a deepening recession limited the room for further price

MLB Rumors: Cardinals are shopping Dylan Carlson to several teamsWith the St. Louis Cardinals having already traded away the likes of Jordan Hicks and Jordan Montgomery, could one of their outfielders be next?While Montgomery and Hicks were considered rentals, Dylan Carlson is not. St. Louis i...

'Tom Sandoval recently hung out with Karlee Hale because he happened to be in Austin performing with his band,' his representative said