Watchdog

Rights activists and news reports say at least one home has been destroyed in Russia's Chechnya region despite President Vladimir Putin's warning against extrajudicial reprisals.

Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, drew condemnation from rights groups when he said after a December 4 attack on the regional capital that relatives of militants responsible for deadly attacks would be driven from Chechnya and their homes destroyed.

Several homes in the region were subsequently torched.

Asked about the issue at an annual press conference last week, Putin said that Kadyrov's "emotional" reaction was understandable, but that nobody has the right to mete out punishment without a court decision.

The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported on December 19 that a home in the village of Koshkeldy had been razed overnight.

A rights activist in Chechnya, Sergei Babinets, said on Facebook that he and a colleague went to the village, found an empty lot, and spoke to neighbors who said the home there had been destroyed by unknown individuals.

With reporting by Novaya Gazeta and RBC

Several independent news websites have been blocked in the former Soviet republic of Belarus, where the government exerts close control of news media.

The government did not say who was responsible for the blockages that began on December 21.

But a statement from the private news agency BelaPAN said "the decision to block IP addresses can be made only by the authorities."

Three of BelaPAN's websites were blocked, along with the news website Solidarnost and the website of the human rights organization Khartiya-97.

Parliament passed legislation last week allowing the state to close any Internet news site that receives two warnings about content in a year.

The law is not due to enter into force until January 1.

Authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is expected to run for reelection next autumn after 21 years in power.

Based on reporting by AP and BelaPAN