---
title: "Russia tightens security in Sochi before Olympics, and other stories &#8211; our morning round-up"
date: "2014-01-07T08:47:41+00:00"
modified: "2014-01-07T08:47:41+00:00"
url: "https://rationalists.org.uk/2014/01/07/russia-tightens-security-in-sochi-before-olympics-and-other-stories-our-morning-round-up/"
post_id: 6094
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Russia tightens security in Sochi before Olympics, and other stories – our morning round-up

[Russia tightens security in Sochi before Olympics](http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/07/uk-olympics-russia-security-idUKBREA0607B20140107)

Russian forces went on combat alert in Sochi and tightened restrictions on access to the Black Sea resort on Tuesday as part of measures by President Vladimir Putin to ensure security at next month’s Winter Olympics. Aware that the success or failure of the Sochi Games will help shape his legacy, Putin has increased security in Russia following two suicide bomb attacks in the southern city of Volgograd which killed at least 34 people. (Reuters)

[Anti-immigrant feeling in Britain on the rise ](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/antiimmigrant-feeling-in-britain-is-on-the-rise-according-to-major-new-research-9042307.html)

Hostility to the current scale of immigration is increasing among the public, with more than half of the electorate wanting a heavy cut in numbers of foreigners allowed to settle in Britain, research disclosed last night. The British Social Attitudes survey found 77 per cent of people supported a reduction in immigration levels. That comprised 56 per cent who wanted it cut by “a lot” – the highest number on record – and another 21 per cent who wanted it reduced a little. (Independent)

[Hundreds of Turkish police officers ‘sacked’](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25634542)

The Turkish government has dismissed 350 police officers in the capital Ankara in connection with an anti-corruption operation, reports say. The prime minister has accused the police and judiciary of orchestrating a probe against his government. (BBC)

[Tunisia charter to uphold equality, freedom of opinion](http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gyR1VJVDmiByaJFFL2drxRmsVIIA?docId=abb09f07-9df2-4934-aad9-421b5171e21b)

Tunisia voted Monday to enshrine gender equality in its draft constitution, a key step towards safeguarding its relatively progressive laws on women’s rights, with the ruling Islamists under pressure to compromise. The Islamists also agreed in recent months to drop their insistence on Islam being the main source of legislation, or criminalising “attacks on the sacred”. (AFP)

[Second high-orbit launch for SpaceX](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25632432)

California’s SpaceX company has launched a second satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), high above the Earth. Its Falcon 9 rocket, flying out of Cape Canaveral in Florida, put up the 3-tonne TV and telecoms platform for the Asian operator Thaicom. SpaceX completed its first commercial GTO mission in December. (BBC)