Human Rights

GENEVA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 574,000 people in camps close to Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar face the coming cyclone seasons with only rotting bamboo and shredding plastic to protect them, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned here Monday.

IFRC said in a statement that a survey found that that 82 percent of the 700,000 people in sprawling camps there urgently need sturdier shelters to protect them from extreme temperatures, monsoon downpours and two cyclone seasons a year.

JERUSALEM, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Arab-Israeli women employees earn less than 50 percent of the national average wages, according to a report published Monday by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission at Israel's Ministry of Labor.

The report noted that Arab-Israeli women are the most discriminated in the state's employment market.

In the computer manufacturing industry, for example, Arab-Israeli women without an academic degree make only 37 percent of the average salary of Jewish-Israeli workers without a degree.

18 Feb 2019; DW: A gunbattle with militants in disputed Kashmir has left four Indian troops dead. It comes just days after the worst attack on government forces in the region's history, to which India promised a "jaw-dropping" response.

At least four Indian soldiers were killed in a shootout with rebels in India-administered Kashmir on Monday.

KANPUR: It was certainly an eye-opener for the Chief Superintendent Prof R K Maurya of Hallet Hospital who inspected the intensive care unit on Saturday morning. How have the poor patients been weeping blood in anguish at the prescription of the costly antibiotics injections? In rather factual findings he learnt of the exact fleecing of the poor money and fooling them in the name of treatment at the government hospital. It was also learnt that it costs from rupees ten to fifteen thousand per day at the expense of the hospital’s ICU.

MUNICH; 16 Feb 2019; AA: Russia will respect international humanitarian law in Syria’s Idlib, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.

Addressing the annual Munich Security Conference, Lavrov said efforts are currently underway in Idlib, to implement the memorandum signed last year between Moscow and Ankara to establish a demilitarized zone.

RAMALLAH, 17 Feb 2019; AA: Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat on Sunday accused Israel and the U.S. of seeking to destroy the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA).  

"Israel's intention to cut the PA tax funds is part of the Israeli-American plan that aims at destroying the Palestinian Authority,” Erekat told Palestine's radio in an interview.  

MUNICH (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister is blasting the United States’ “unhealthy fixation” with his country and condemning the Trump administration’s efforts to press European countries to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Mohammad Javad Zarif addressed the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, a day after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prodded European powers Germany, France and Britain to follow Washington in withdrawing from the deal and to “stop undermining U.S. sanctions.”

YAOUNDE, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 students and teachers of a private college in Northwest, one of the two war-torn English-speaking regions of Cameroon, were kidnapped on early Saturday, according to school authorities.

School officials earlier told Xinhua that only eleven students and three teachers had been kidnapped, but further investigations have revealed that more than 100 students and teachers have been kidnapped.

Ambala, Feb 16; PTI/GANASHAKTI:  A village panchayat here has asked villagers to evict Kashmiri students living in rented accommodation within 24 hours in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, according to a video that has surfaced on social media.

Half a dozen Kashmiri students have been shifted to the hostel of the MM University after the purported video appeared.

In the video, Mulana village sarpanch Naresh Rana could be heard asking villagers to evict Kashmiri tenants.

Srinagar, Feb 16; PTI/GANASHAKTI: CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami Saturday called for a meaningful and credible dialogue process for addressing the "legitimate concerns" of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Tarigami, a former MLA from Kulgam constituency of south Kashmir, said the attack on a CRPF convoy at Lethpora in Pulwama on Thursday has shaken all those who are concerned about human lives and peace in the region.