Human Rights

MOSCOW, May 2 (Xinhua): Russia and the United States have "incompatible" positions on the Venezuelan affairs, but Moscow is ready to talk with Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

"Although U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and I agreed to continue contacts, I do not see how it is possible to combine our positions," Lavrov told reporters in Uzbekistan's capital city of Tashkent.

TASS, May 2: The Israeli military carried out a series of air attacks against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in response to the launch of air balloons containing flammable and explosive substances in the direction of the State of Israel, IDF (Israel Defense Forces) reported in its Twitter account on Thursday.

"In response to the explosive and arson balloons launched from Gaza to Israel earlier today, our Air Force recently struck a number of Hamas terror targets in Gaza. We hold Hamas responsible," the IDF Tweeted.

TASS, May 2:  Militants from extremist groups shelled the outskirts of the Jebla city in Syria’s Latakia province on Thursday, the SANA news agency reported.

One Syrian was killed and four others were wounded when a mortar shell exploded near Bakhdarma.

The shelling from multiple rocket launcher systems was carried out by armed groups based in the area close to Turkey in the de-escalation zone in the northwest of the Idlib province.

TASHKENT, May 2. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has denounced the statement of Russia’s role in the situation in Venezuela made by the US representatives as untrue.

"The enumeration all that official representatives for the American administration say about Venezuela leads to endless questions, and as a rule, diplomatically speaking, the answer to all these questions would be ‘wrong,’" the top diplomat said, answering a TASS question.

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Xinhua): Washington is working to identify the Muslim Brotherhood as a "foreign terrorist organization" (FTO), U.S. media reported on Tuesday, citing White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

Sanders acknowledged to media in a statement that U.S. President Donald Trump had consulted this issue with his national security team and regional leaders, and the designation "was working its way through the internal process."

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Xinhua): U.S. media reported on Wednesday that the U.S. military has stopped counting the land in Afghanistan still controlled by Taliban militants.

According to a report of The New York Times, the U.S. military command in Afghanistan "has halted regular assessments of how many people and districts the government and insurgents there control."

The report quoted the military as saying that the assessments had "limited decision-making value" for commanders.

2 May 2019; DW: Police in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China are using a mass surveillance app to target the Uighur Muslim population, a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday.

The tool profiles people by labeling "completely lawful" behavior as suspicious, in order to help authorities detain the religious minority, the report said.

May 1, 2019; GANASHAKTI: Millions of workers across the world poured into the streets Wednesday for International Workers’ Day, an annual working-class rebellion known as May Day.

Bus drivers and housekeepers in Hong Kong rallied for a 44-hour workweek. Garment workers in Bangladesh demanded paid maternity leave. In the Philippines, workers marched for a higher minimum wage.

ISLAMABAD, May 2 (Xinhua): Pakistan on Wednesday summoned Afghan envoy over a cross-border attack by militants from Afghan side of the border, which killed at least three soldiers and injured seven others, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

A group of 60 to 70 militants from across the border from bases in Afghanistan attacked troops undertaking fencing effort along Pak-Afghan border in Alwara area of North Waziristan tribal district, the Pakistani army said earlier the day.

LONDON, May 2. /TASS/: The next hearing on the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is scheduled for May 30, a TASS correspondent reported from the Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Presiding Judge Michael Snow also ruled that the expanded hearing on the Assange case will be held on June 12. The WikiLeaks founder said via a video link-up that he did not want to be extradited to the US.