Human Rights

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday that nuclear negotiations with the United States will never resume unless the Trump administration moves away from what Pyongyang described as unilateral demands for disarmament.

The statement by an unnamed North Korean foreign ministry spokesman published in state media was the country’s latest expression of displeasure over the stalled negotiations. It follows two separate launches of short-range missiles earlier this month that were apparently aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul.

Caracas, May 23; GANASHAKTI: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday ordered armed forces to be "vigilant" to deter a possible United States invasion.

"I have ordered all military branches to be vigilant and be ready to protect the peace, to make any attempt by the North American empire to try anything against our homeland impossible. Peace will be our victory!" Maduro tweeted in Spanish.

Washington, May 24 (PTI) India has stopped importing oil from Iran after American waivers granted to eight buyers expired early this month, New Delhi's envoy here has said, becoming the latest country to comply with the US sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme.

The US reimposed sanctions on Iran in November after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and six world powers. To reduce Iran's crude oil export to zero, the US ended on May 2 waivers that had allowed the top buyers of Iranian oil, including India, to continue their imports for six months.

Srinagar, May 23 (PTI) Mobile internet services were snapped across the Kashmir Valley on Thursday in the wake of an encounter between militants and security forces in Pulwama district, officials said.

They said the internet services on mobile phones were suspended as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order and stop rumour mongering.

The officials said BSNL's broadband service was working.

BOSTON (AP) — Celebrity chef Mario Batali is set to appear in court on a criminal charge that he forcibly kissed and groped a woman at a Boston restaurant in 2017.

Batali is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of indecent assault and battery.

The woman filed a civil lawsuit in August alleging that Batali offered to take a selfie with her and then groped and kissed her repeatedly without her consent.

Batali’s attorney says the chef denies the allegations.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Major law enforcement organizations dropped their opposition Thursday to California legislation that strengthens standards for when officers can use deadly force, a shift that followed changes to the measure.

The measure would bar police from using lethal force unless it is “necessary” to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to officers or bystanders. It was prompted by public outrage over fatal police shootings, including the killing of unarmed vandalism suspect Stephon Clark in Sacramento last year.

GENEVA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela will run out of vaccines in four months if current blockade led by the United States continues, the country's health minister said on Wednesday.

During the ongoing World Health Assembly in Geneva, Venezuela's Health Minister Carlos Alvarado cited rotavirus vaccines as an example, saying they could run out in four months if the United States insists on its blockade.

He said that since the United States started to impose sanctions against Venezuela in 2014, half of the operating pharmaceutical companies in the country have left.

MILAN (AP) — A banner emblazoned with the words “Honor to Mussolini,” unfurled just steps from the Milan piazza where the fascist dictator’s body was hung upside down after his 1945 execution. One-armed salutes and fascist slogans shouted at protests. Italy’s right-wing interior minister skipping commemorations for the 74th anniversary of the country’s liberation from Nazi occupation.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The man in the saffron robe sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, back to the wall of a cave framed by the Himalayas.

This was India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest production, traveling to a remote mountain temple with a preferred TV news crew to show the world India’s leader meditating days before the end of the country’s marathon general elections. As official results Thursday showed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party leading in the race for the lower house of Parliament, the party already declared victory.

23 May 2019; MEMO: Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has denounced the Trump administration’s approach to the peace process, saying that the White House seeks a “Palestinian declaration of surrender”.