Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, currently serving a 19-year prison sentence, has been transferred to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. The IK-3 penal colony, located in Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets region about 1,900 km (1200 miles) northeast of Moscow, is considered to be one of the toughest prisons in Russia. Penal colonies are descendants of Soviet-era Gulags, the notorious Stalin-era labour camps where thousands of Russians lost their lives.
![‘Release my son’: Thai families plea for help for loved ones kidnapped in Israel](https://s.france24.com/media/display/07f645ec-6903-11ee-b43e-005056a90321/w:1280/p:16x9/m:{"brand":"FRANCE24","lang":"EN","program":"","cartouche":"ISRAEL%20-%20HAMAS%20WAR","hash":"ec7953fa999a94f81fe6e172c0f25eab6de8528fa5f77e865c2155962cffb4e3","title":"Families%20of%20Thai%20victims%20in%20anguish","id":"25aba80c-45fb-11ec-90e2-005056bf30b7"}/EN_20231012_141249_141457_CS.jpg "‘Release my son’: Thai families plea for help for loved ones kidnapped in Israel")