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“When I would fall, they would give me a break and then force me to stand up and continue for several more rounds,” he said of the beatings he received.
“When I was leaving Chechnya I could barely walk,” he said.
Human rights group say more than 100 gay men were arrested and subjected to beatings and torture during the spring, and some of them were killed. Other victims have spoken about the crackdown without revealing their identities.
The crackdown has drawn international opprobrium. Some foreign leaders have raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee against Torture, a Russian NGO that provided legal assistance to Lapunov, said the Russian investigative agency has dragged its feet on launching a probe based on his testimony even though Russia’s human rights commissioner followed the case.
Kadyrov and other officials in Chechnya have denied any crackdown on gay people.
The Kremlin has relied on Kadyrov to stabilize Chechnya after two devastating separatist wars, effectively allowing him to run the mostly Muslim region in the North Caucasus mountains like his personal fiefdom.
Kadyrov has enforced strict Islamic rules in Chechnya, relying on his feared security forces to stifle any dissent.
LGBT activists said Chechen authorities have handed over some detainees to relatives along with demands that they be punished. Homosexuality is taboo in Chechnya, and most people there are prejudiced against gay people.
Activist Igor Kochetkov said his group has collected information about 15 detainees who have been missing since they were handed over to relatives and been missing since then.
“They provoke people to kill their relatives,” Kochetkov said.
IT'S easy to see the bad in things and harder to see the good. Take Mr. Chow Tribeca. There are sane, prudent, well-intentioned people who will tell you why you should avoid this new outpost of a nutty empire, and they'll be indisputably correct. But with a slight adjustment of perspective, a certain generosity of spir...
Reason No. 1: You can participate in a strand of social history and mull over the eccentric genius of Michael Chow.
Almost four decades ago Mr. Chow, who fled Mao Zedong's China for England, had an inspiration. Why not take Chinese food, at that point still somewhat exotic in the West, and swathe it in exaggerated elegance? Tether it to exorbitant prices? Make it fabulous, simply by declaring it to be?
First came a Mr. Chow in London, then a Mr. Chow in Los Angeles, and then, in 1979, a Mr. Chow in New York, on East 57th Street. Like its forebears it proved that you didn't need great cooking to attract boldface names; you just needed other boldface names. And Mr. Chow, the Amy Sacco of an earlier era, got them in the...
Mr. Chow Tribeca stays true to the template. There are white tablecloths; waiters in white or black jackets and bow ties; a gleaming black bar in front; gleaming white lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant looks and feels like a slick parody of a suave Italian restaurant, like an oxymoronic experim...
Reason No. 2: Once you've visited Mr. Chow Tribeca, you will appreciate your favorite neighborhood Chinese takeout place like never before.
The menu at Mr. Chow, which supposedly fuses various Chinese regional traditions, advertises many familiar dishes: scallion pancakes, shark's fin soup, pot stickers, crispy beef, beef with oyster sauce, sweet-and-sour pork. What's unfamiliar is how much they cost.
For that pork, you pay $29. For crab meat soup, $13. Were there discernible crab in it, you'd understand. But there wasn't, so my companions and I didn't.
There are also less ubiquitous dishes, along with dishes that — as servers announce with inexplicable fanfare — are making their Mr. Chow debuts. One is "fiery buffalo," which wasn't fiery or, for that matter, particularly hot. Was it buffalo? The cubes of bland flesh could have come from any number of beasts or birds....
Most of the food was precisely that — mediocre, not bad — and some of it was quite good. Peking duck had dazzlingly crisp skin and an appealing measure of fat. Sliced pork with chili peppers had an appealing measure of heat. Fried rice was never oily or clumpy.
But almost none of the dishes improved significantly on cheaper analogues around town, and a few were unforgivable. Asked to steer us toward the best lamb dish, a server chose a minimally spiced shank. If I learned that it had been plucked from a freezer after the better part of a decade and then nuked in a microwave f...
Reason No. 3: You will encounter a kind of service so aggressive at certain times and incoherent at others that it becomes a divine comedy.
At the start of each meal, servers push expensive Champagne. ("For a toast! How about a toast? Don't you want to make a toast?") They do it even if you have a full martini in front of you. Even if you have already said no.
During two visits servers pitched desserts in the middle of a meal, not realizing that our table was empty because we were between appetizers and entrees. And they weren't daunted by not having much to pitch: some ice cream, some fruit, maybe two tarts, unless they run out of one. Of course they ran out of one — at abo...
On a slightly busier night, it took repeated pleas and 25 minutes to get a check. Once we were done with spending, our servers were done with us.
Reason No. 4: You can get excited about spotting a celebrity, though you may not actually lay eyes on one.
You know that the possibility exists, because Mr. Chow is the kind of restaurant whose opening is noted in Us magazine, not Saveur.
Reason No. 5: You may indeed lay eyes on Mr. Chow. On a Sunday night I watched him bop from table to table, peering through those owlish glasses. Like Sir Elton and Dame Edna, he gets a lot of iconic mileage out of eyewear.
His is made for him by Cutler & Gross in London. His prescription adjusts problems with near and far sight. I learned this because I called his Los Angeles offices for information about the restaurant and he insisted on getting on the phone. We had to talk about something. Food seemed beside the point.
But vision, well, that made sense. Mr. Chow, now 67, foresaw that salt-and-pepper prawns and squid in XO sauce could be vessels for an aura of clubby exclusivity. You just had to season them with enough amusing mannerisms. And regard them with the right kind of attitude.
121 Hudson Street (North Moore Street), TriBeCa; (212) 965-9500.
ATMOSPHERE A room with lacquered black and white surfaces and waiters in black and white jackets is the sleek stage set for less impressive food.
SOUND LEVEL Moderately painful when crowded.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Water dumplings; pot stickers; crispy beef; sliced pork with chili; Beijing duck; gamblers duck.
WINE LIST International, overpriced and not especially interesting.
PRICE RANGE Appetizers, $5.50 to $25. Entrees, $26 to $36. Desserts, $10.
HOURS Dinner 6 to 11:30 p.m. seven days a week. Lunch to be added in coming months.
RESERVATIONS For prime times, call about two weeks in advance.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS Separate entrance on North Moore Street and separate restroom.
Ratings reflect the reviewer's reaction to food ambience and service, with price taken into consideration. Menu listings and prices are subject to change.
Published: Dec. 16, 2018 at 05:08 p.m.
Published: Dec. 17, 2017 at 06:59 p.m.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo hits wide-open Celek for 41-yard gain.
Published: Dec. 17, 2017 at 05:32 p.m.
The Kona Crime Prevention Committee recognized Kona Patrol Officer Darren Cho as “Officer of the Month” for July in a luncheon ceremony Wednesday (July 1) at Huggo’s restaurant in Kailua-Kona.
Cho was honored for intervening when a known criminal suspect attempted to provide a false name to another officer.
Cho was familiar with the man from past investigations and knew him to carry firearms. He contacted the other officer and gave him the man’s real name.
He then investigated the man’s pickup truck because of the man’s prior alleged involvement with car thefts and other property crimes. Cho discovered that the truck’s front and rear license plates didn’t match. Further investigation revealed that the truck was stolen. Drugs and a sawed-off shotgun were found in the stol...
The suspect was arrested and taken to the Kona police station while Cho helped detectives continue the investigation, which led to seven felony charges and four misdemeanor charges.
Sergeant David Araki, who nominated Cho for the award, described him as a positive role model. “I believe that through the tireless efforts of Officer Darren Cho, police were able to get a potentially dangerous man and weapon off of the streets,” Cho wrote in nomination papers.
Tennessee State Sen. Sara Kyle of Memphis has introduced a bill that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Possessing less than one ounce of marijuana would be decriminalized in Tennessee under a new bill proposed by state Sen. Sara Kyle, D-Memphis.
"We have a lot of kids getting out of college who may have a criminal charge on their record," Kyle said on Wednesday. "We're losing a whole pool of talented people. These people may have made a mistake. Not only do we need them working, we need them participating in the community."
The bill would be another try at decriminalizing marijuana in Tennessee after Memphis and Nashville city councils passed ordinances in 2016 giving police the ability to give out lighter penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana.
A divided Memphis City Council voted 7-6 to allow police to issue penalties for possessing a half-ounce or less of marijuana of a $50 fine or community service.
Former Gov. Bill Haslam in 2017 signed a bill into law that repealed the Memphis and Nashville local laws giving police more latitude with small marijuana possession citations.
Memphis City Councilman Frank Colvett was among the six council members who voted against that Memphis marijuana decriminalization ordinance in 2016, and he has many of the same concerns today, he said.
"I would respectfully request that the Legislature be cautious of this," Colvett said. "We were given a lot of reasons by the police department why legalization would be a bad idea."
Tennessee is one of 17 states where marijuana remains illegal under state law. In recent years, 10 states, including California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Vermont, have legalized cannabis for recreational uses, despite the fact that it remains illegal under federal law, and other cannabis-derived products are gaining p...
The remainder of states allow medical marijuana and/or have decriminalized possession of marijuana under a specific amount.
"I think the more you talk about it, the more people will study it and contribute to the conversation," Kyle said. "I think we need to quit penalizing people for possession of marijuana when it's less than one ounce, and get them back to work."
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: Digital subscriptions to your local Tennessee publication for only $1 for 3 months.
Jamie Munks covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jamie.munks@commercialappeal.com. Follow her on Twitter @journo_jamie_.
The official announcement on the distribution deal we reported earlier today just came out. BBC News will provide about 40 on-demand reports a day for broadband and wireless distribution in North America; ABC News Digital Media Group will distribute. ABC News and the BBC have had a relationship since 1994.
Squish is a puzzle adventure game for Palm OS.
The goal is to guide Squish through each level using an assortment of blocks, lifts, fans, teleporters, springs and cannons. Make a path to the exit while avoiding hazardous traps like spikes, thunderclouds, and carnivorous plants.
As the game progresses, Squish will travel through lush forests, cross frozen wastelands, brave molten lava, and plumb the depths of the ocean.
The free demo comes with 10 levels and a limited set of graphics.
Fixed bug causing wrong block graphics to be used by a world (eg. Rock World would sometimes use Ice blocks by mistake, etc).
Game is now packaged as an installer.
NASA's budget woes are no secret. But news that the space giant is outsourcing rocket science work to design students – and compensating them with course credit – makes us wonder whether the situation is even worse than we'd imagined.
Okay, it's not exactly rocket science. This spring, eight MFA candidates at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco are at work creating a user interface for software that will allow an astronaut on the International Space Station to remotely control a four-wheeled K10 robot here on Earth.
This is the first time the space agency has worked with a design school.In summer 2013, an astronaut on board the space station will use the students' software — running on an IBM consumer laptop with its standard trackpad and joystick — to guide a robot on the ground at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, ...
NASA often partners with outside agencies and institutions of higher learning, but Terry Fong, director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames, said that to his knowledge this is the first time the space agency has worked with a design school.
The ultimate goal of the remote-control technology is to allow astronauts in space to use robots to do more of their heavy lifting.
"As humans head further into space, we find ways of using robots to help them live and work and do things on other planets," said Fong &#8212, conjuring images of astronauts carrying American couch-potato existence to the far corners of the galaxy, tweeting, noshing on freeze-dried snacks, and doing the breaststroke at...
While farming organic space vegetables is not necessarily on the horizon, Fong said he expects robots to help astronauts by performing tasks too dangerous, boring, repetitive, or lengthy to be optimal for humans, such as mounting antennas, setting up solar arrays, and mining for precious metals on the surface of the mo...
Yes, you read that right. There are appreciable amounts of "platinum-group metals" on our satellite, said Fong, and with robots to do the grunt work, "it might be economically viable to go to the moon and mine minerals, process them, and then return the end product to Earth."
The art school outreach program makes us happy on two counts: first, that NASA's doing some outside-the-gov thinking about how to refill its coffers, and second, for the sake of starving design students everywhere, that the agency might remember whom to thank, when the day comes, with some lunar-platinum bling.
If you crave a life in design, computer animation or game development, this is the one-stop career-defining package you need. Through more than 200 hours of expert instruction, you’ll learn all aspects of computer-aided design (CAD), animation, engineering, and more. Master industry-standard programs like DesignCAD, Un...
eduCBA is a leading global provider of skill-based education addressing the needs of 500,000+ members across 40+ countries. Our unique step-by-step, online learning model along with amazing 1,600+ courses prepared by top notch professionals from the Industry help participants achieve their goals successfully. Their 1,6...
The civil unrest in Los Angeles 25 years ago, sparked by the beating of Rodney King, represented a landmark moment not only for the city as a whole but also for the Jewish community. The riots that followed reshaped the city’s political discourse, shifting the traditional focus from a Black-white (Jewish) conversation ...
King was arrested by Los Angeles police officers on March 3, 1991, after leading police on a high-speed chase. (King had been convicted of robbery in 1989, sent to prison, and was out on parole.) During the course of his apprehension, he was kicked, hit multiple times and tased by the four officers at the scene. A vide...
Yet, even before our arrival at the church, the city was convulsing with the start of riots that peaked over the next two days. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed, and the deployment of the California Army National Guard enabled law enforcement to gain control over the situation.
By the end, there were 55 deaths, at least 2,000 injured, 11,000 arrested, $1 billion in property damage, 1,100 buildings destroyed and 3,800 fires.
Much of the property destroyed involved Korean-owned businesses in South Central Los Angeles. Some 3,500 stores and businesses owned by Korean merchants were attacked and nearly every building in Koreatown was damaged. As a result of the violence, tens of thousands of city residents lost their livelihoods. For Korean A...
In the aftermath of the riots, the Jewish community became a central resource and contact point for many of L.A.’s major ethnic and racial groups.
Rabbis joined their colleagues in the African-American, Latino and Asian communities, fostering an exchange of pulpits and congregational visits. Community relations agencies sought to expand their connections and contacts with key civic officials from within each of the city’s urban communities.
Working with leaders from Jewish social service, philanthropic and community relations organizations, Korean leaders set out to achieve their goals of rebuilding their community, which included the creation of the Koreatown Youth + Community Center, the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance and the National Korean Ameri...
Organizational connections emerged with other Asian-American communities and Latino groups. The civil unrest created a political consciousness among ethnic communities in how they perceived their roles in relation to the general culture. The Jewish community was seen as politically “connected” and socially “organized,”...
The late Rabbi Harvey Fields served as both chair of the Interreligious Council of Southern California and The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ Community Relations Committee. In response to the riots, he helped form the Interfaith Coalition to Heal L.A. Two months after the riots, he joined Rev. Cecil L. Murra...
Fields was instrumental in creating the Los Angeles African American/Jewish Leadership Connection, involving key clergy committed to strengthening relations between the two communities.
Bradley established Rebuild L.A., asking Peter Ueberroth to be its first chair, with a number of prominent Jews serving on its board. Rebuild L.A. continued its work for five years before it was dissolved amid questions over how much new investment it actually drew to South Central Los Angeles.
In the aftermath of the King beating, the city established the Christopher Commission, named for its chairman Warren Christopher, a prominent L.A. lawyer who later served as secretary of state under President Bill Clinton. Its final report called for a police commission, which led to Mayor Richard Riordan appointing fi...
What has changed since these events of 25 years ago? Latinos have emerged as the city’s dominant ethnic community. In turn, African-Americans have seen their political power diminish as the Black population has moved to other communities within and beyond Southern California. The Korean community has evolved into a mor...
The level of Jewish civic involvement within the inner city has shifted, from connections with urban leaders, civic organizations and religious institutions to more “ceremonial” sets of relationships with high-profile officials and politicians.
At the same time, a period during which the Jewish community leaders served as “connectors” to other civic groups and individuals has ended, and with it, valuable personal relationships and organizational connections.
As the community’s public advocacy institutions have diminished their presence from the local scene, a new generation of Jewish political elites and rabbinic figures has emerged to represent the community’s interests.
STEVEN WINDMUELLER is professor emeritus at the Jack H. Skirball Campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. From 1985-95, he was director of the Jewish Community Relations Committee of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

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