Human Rights

Toronto, Jan 24 (AP) Canada's ambassador to China said he thinks a top Chinese executive has a strong case to avoid extradition to the United States and said he hopes she will be released soon in remarks one of his predecessors called "mind-boggling."

Ambassador John McCallum told Chinese language media in Markham, Ontario, on Tuesday that Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has "quite good arguments," including "political involvement by comments from Donald Trump on her case."

New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) A fresh plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking court-monitored investigation into the murder of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya.

Pandya, a former minister of state for home in the then Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, was shot dead on March 26, 2003, in Ahmedabad near Law Garden area of the city during his morning walk.

The petition, filed by NGO CPIL, said that there was a need for the fresh probe in the case as some "startling information" has recently come to light which needs to be looked into.

NEW YORK (AP) — A white supremacist pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing a black man with a sword as part of an attack that authorities said was intended to incite a race war in the United States.

James Jackson admitted to fatally stabbing 66-year-old Timothy Caughman in March 2017 after stalking a number of black men in New York City.

Jackson, who is white, told police he traveled from Baltimore to carry out the attack because New York is the media capital of the world. He said the slaying was intended to be practice for further assaults on black people.

24 Jan 2019; AFP: China said Thursday that Chinese-Australian author and democracy advocate Yang Hengjun was detained on national security grounds, becoming the latest Western citizen to face such accusations from Beijing.

Yang's detention comes at a moment of heightened tension between Western countries and an increasingly muscular Beijing, prompting fears that he may be the victim of a dragnet by Chinese security services targeting foreigners.

23 Jan 2019; DW: Germany will not be sending any more ships to take part in the anti-people smuggling operation Sophia in the Mediterranean Sea, according to a senior military officer.

The decision means frigate Augsburg, currently stationed off the coast of Libya, will not be replaced early next month, Bundeswehr Inspector General Eberhard Zorn told members of the defense and foreign affairs committees in the German parliament.

24 Jan 2019; DW: The Italian government evicted over 500 people from the country's second-largest refugee center on Tuesday and Wednesday, taking people away in buses to undisclosed locations. The mayor of Castelnuovo di Porto, a small suburb north of Rome, said the migrants were removed from his town with little warning or further information.

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Israel’s practice of spontaneous strikes on Syria must be brought to an end, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday.

"The practice of spontaneous strikes on the territory of a sovereign state, in this case Syria, must end," the diplomat said, commenting on Israel’s recent strikes on the Arab Republic.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Developments in Venezuela show West's real attitude toward international law, Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday.

"The developments in Venezuela show very well how progressive Western society really treats international law, sovereignty and non-interference into internal affairs of other states, by manually changing the power there [in Venezuela]," Zakharova said.

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The Venezuelan authorities know that the US is trying to stage a Syrian scenario with "government in exile" in Caracas, Venezuela's Ambassador to Russia Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa told TASS on Thursday.

BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday said the U.S. plan to extradite Meng Wanzhou, Huawei chief financial officer, from Canada did not comply with international law or have legitimacy.

The remarks came as Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reiterated China's position on the Meng Wanzhou case at a press briefing.

Hua said the U.S. request for Meng's extradition was essentially related to U.S. sanctions against Iran.