Human Rights

JERUSALEM (AP) — Facebook said Thursday it banned an Israeli company that ran an influence campaign aimed at disrupting elections in various countries and has canceled dozens of accounts engaged in spreading disinformation.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, told reporters that the tech giant had purged 65 Israeli accounts, 161 pages, dozens of groups and four Instagram accounts.

WASHINGTON, May 16. /TASS/: Russian national Maria Butina jailed in the United States has filed a petition with the United States Court of Appeals against the District of Columbia Circuit’s verdict, sentencing her to an 18-month prison term, according to her appeal.

"I, the above named appellant, hereby appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from the above-stated judgment," the document says.

The statement says that the Russian woman is currently held at Oklahoma’s Grady County Jail.

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and French Special Envoy for Libya Frederic Desagneaux have discussed the situation in Libya during a meeting on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry informed.

"During a detailed discussion, [the diplomats] have touched upon the current situation in Libya with special attention paid to the importance of putting an end to armed confrontation and establishing a stable inter-Libyan national dialogue in the interest of ending the prolonged crisis in the country," the ministry noted.

16 May 2019; DW: Inhabitants of Fürstenfeldbruck, a refugee processing center near Munich, told DW of overcrowding, filth and bureaucratic limbo, leading to at least one suicide attempt. Bavarian officials say conditions are adequate.

Asylum-seekers at one of Germany's refugee processing centers are spending months living in what they claim are inhumane conditions, struggling to get access to adequate health care while in bureaucratic limbo as they wait for their applications to be processed.

NEW YORK, May 15 (APP): U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, has warned that war with Iran would be “many times worse than the Iraq War,” in response to a report in The New York Times saying that the Trump administration is reviewing a plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East amid growing tensions with Tehran.

The idea was reportedly spearheaded by John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, who served in the George W. Bush administration at the height of the conflict in Iraq.

ISLAMABAD, May 16 (APP): As many as 572 Pakistani prisoners in various jails of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are set to be released during Ramazan under amnesty announced by the UAE president.

The Pakistanis were among the 3,005 prisoners who were pardoned by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan as an act of kindness during the blessed month of Ramazan, Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Faisal said at a weekly press briefing here at the Foreign Office (FO).

MADRID, May 16 (Xinhua): A former leader of armed Basque separatist militant group ETA has been arrested in France, the Spanish Interior Ministry confirmed on Thursday.

Jose Antonio Urrutikoetxea Bengoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera, 69, who has spent 17 years on the run, was arrested "in the early hours of the morning in Sallanches in the French Alps," said the ministry in a communique.

It is reported that Ternera was arrested on his way to a hospital appointment, and that he is seriously ill.

16 May 2019; DW: The United States claims militia with ties to Iran are planning attacks against its personnel in Iraq. Whether true or not, tensions between Iran and the US are putting Iraq in a tough position.

The United States on Wednesday ordered all non-essential American diplomatic personnel out of Iraq amid heightened tensions with Iran.

TEHRAN, May 16 (Xinhua): The United States will fail to crush Iranian resistance by imposing maximum pressure, the chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was quoted as saying Thursday.

"This is the most decisive moment for the Islamic revolution, because the enemy has come to the battlefield with all of its capacities at its disposal," the Press TV quoted Major General Hossein Salami as saying during a meeting with IRGC officers on Wednesday.

16 May 2019; DW: Austria has passed a law intended to ban Muslim girls from wearing a headscarf in primary schools. The Jewish yarmulke and Sikh patka are not included in the new measure.