The family of Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian film director imprisoned in Russia who is on hunger strike, have called on President Vladimir Putin to release him before the World Cup, which kicks off on Thursday. “He says he’s going to carry his hunger strike through to the end, and Oleg is the kind of person who doesn’t go back on his word,” Sentsov’s cousin Natalia Kaplan told the Guardian. “We have very little time left and I really hope that Putin will take the decision to release him and all the Ukrainian political prisoners before the World Cup.”

Sentsov has been on hunger strike since 14 May, saying he will stop only if all Ukrainian political prisoners are released. His lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, who visited Sentsov in prison last week, said his client had lost 8kg since he began his hunger strike and was at risk of kidney failure. Prison officials have said they will begin force-feeding Sentsov if his health deteriorates to a critical point.Sentsov was jailed for 20 years by a Russian military court in 2015 on charges of terrorism. He was accused of deliberately setting fire to the offices of United Russia, a pro-Kremlin political party, in Crimea. He denied all charges and said he was being punished for organising peaceful resistance to the Russian takeover of the peninsula in 2014.(theguardian)…[+]

A South Korean hiker lost in dense Australian bushland for six days without food and in near-freezing temperatures has spoken about how dreams of a warm bed and her parents kept her alive. Joohee Han, 25, shared her tale of survival after she fell into a deep ravine while taking photographs from a mountaintop south of Cairns in northern Queensland state.

Rescuers had said her chances of staying alive in the rugged terrain, where temperatures dropped to 9C (48F), had been “near zero”. She disappeared on 1 June after telling friends she was going to climb Mount Tyson, but was only reported missing on Wednesday, with rescuers eventually finding her on Thursday.

Han told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Saturday she was knocked unconscious for several hours after falling, and woke up at night on the side of a steep slope. “I pretty much didn’t move from where I fell from because it was so steep. Even putting a foot wrong would’ve been instant death,” she said. “It still makes me teary thinking about that, thinking, ‘am I going to die?’ But there was so much I still wanted to do, food I wanted to eat, and people I wanted to see again. I thought of my parents so much.” Despite the fall from what she thought was about three storeys high, Han sustained only a broken tooth, bruises and cuts.(theguardian)…[+]

Grenada – The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) today announced that it will renew support for a programme designed to help countries in the Region strengthen their human and institutional capacity to design and implement policies which promote growth and reduce poverty. The Bank’s Board of Directors approved USD1 million (mn) towards the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) programme until 2022.

CARTAC is one of 10 regional technical assistance centres operated by IMF around the world. In the Caribbean Region, the Centre has supported capacity-building in public financial management, tax and customs policy and administration. Also, it has contributed to improving the quality of statistics in the real and external sectors to strengthen policymaking. “Since 2002, CDB has provided strong support to CARTAC’s operations, acknowledging the pressing need to foster sustainable growth and reduce poverty across our Borrowing Member Countries. The Bank is pleased to renew its support for the programme’s fifth phase, and looks forward to a continued partnership with IMF and other CARTAC development partners, who share a common goal of addressing skills gaps to improve institutional quality in our Region,” said Dr. Justin Ram, Director of Economics, CDB.

CARTAC has provided assistance with the implementation of Value Added Tax as a reliable and efficient revenue source in eight regional countries. Also, the Centre has supported the development of modern revenue administrations, including large taxpayers units; efforts to cross-match data to enhance tax compliance; and the implementation of the Automated System for Customs Data Acquisition, post-clearance audits, and trade facilitation. All of these initiatives contribute to improved fiscal resilience in the recipient countries.(CDB)…[+]