Human Rights

Srinagar, Jun 22 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said on Saturday the situation in the valley had vastly improved over the past year and the Hurriyat Conference was willing to enter into a dialogue with the government.

"The Hurriyat Conference was not willing to talk. Ram Vilas Paswan was standing at their door (in 2016), but they were not ready to talk, Malik said at a funtion here. "Today, they are ready for talks and want to hold dialogue. There is a change in everyone."

New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI) India Sunday rejected a US religious freedom report, saying it sees no locus standi for a foreign government to pronounce on the state of its citizens' constitutionally protected rights.

In its annual 2018 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department alleged Friday that mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, particularly Muslims, continued in India in 2018, amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef.

22 June 2019; MEMO: The former chief of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, has said that Israel does not want peace and that, if it had, it would have made peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA) long ago.

Shavit gave his remarks to Israeli daily Maariv, reiterating that if Israel wanted peace it would have discussed it in economic and infrastructure terms that serve the interests of both parties, Arab 48 reported yesterday.

22 June 2019; DW: Chinese police rescued 1,100 Southeast Asian women in joint raids last year to crack down on human trafficking, authorities said on Friday.

Some 17 children were also saved in the operations, which were coordinated with police from Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

22 June 2019; DW: The foundation of American billionaire George Soros plans to expand operations in eastern Germany, where right-wing populists are strong, his Open Society Foundation said Friday.

22 June 2019; DW: US President Donald Trump on Friday denied an accusation by E. Jean Carroll, an advice columnist for Elle fashion magazine, that he raped her in a department store in the 1990s.

22 June 2019; DW: At the end of a three-day visit to Venezuela, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she had appointed two delegates to stay behind to advise the government and monitor abuses.

Her trip, at the invitation of embattled President Nicolas Maduro, came amid a deepening crisis that has caused crippling food and medicine shortages across the country. Rights groups say hundreds of political opponents have been jailed, while millions of people have fled abroad.

New Delhi, Jun 20; GANASHAKTI: The Left parties accused the Centre on Thursday of succumbing to the pressure exerted by the US government to further open India's economy, stating that they were opposed to the "US agenda".

In a joint statement, the Left parties said the stated purpose of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to India was to push the country to further open its economy, drop the trade barriers and sell US defence equipment to India.

GAZA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- At least 81 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon during clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Gaza Health Ministry, told reporters that 79 people as well as two paramedics had various injuries in the clashes with the Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Two Navy SEALs testified Friday that their platoon chief gunned down a young girl and an old man in Iraq in 2017 from his sniper’s perch, though neither witnessed him pulling the trigger.

The SEALs said shots came from the tower where Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was posted and they watched through their scopes as the civilians fell to the ground.