Human Rights

By Yoshita Singh

United Nations, Sep 6 (PTI) Pakistan's focus for decades has been to undermine India's territorial integrity through the "explicit use of terrorism" as a state policy, New Delhi said in a stern response after Islamabad raked up the Kashmir issue at the UN.

Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi yet again raised the issue of Kashmir while addressing the High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace in the UN General Assembly Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for the demolition of a Bedouin village in the West Bank, rejecting a final appeal in a case that has drawn heavy international criticism and become a rallying cry for the Palestinians.

In its decision, the court rejected an appeal to block the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar. It said that a stay would expire in a week, and the encampment could then be legally torn down. There was no date immediately announced for the demolition.

MADRID, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell confirmed on Tuesday that Spain will double its aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the wake of the decision taken by the U.S. government to end its contributions to the organization which was created in 1949.

Borrell made his announcement after meeting Riyad al-Maliki, Palestinian foreign minister, who is currently visiting Spain.

Mumbai, Sep 4 (PTI) A PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court Tuesday, seeking action against senior IPS officer Parambir Singh and other police officials who briefed the media on their case against some prominent activists arrested over their alleged Maoist links.

Singh, state Additional Director General (Law and Order), along with the Pune police had addressed the media in Mumbai on the case on August 31.

Yangon, Sep 5 (AP) US Vice President Mike Pence called on Myanmar to immediately release two journalists who were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on charges of possessing state secrets in connection with their reporting on massacres against Rohingya Muslims.

JERUSALEM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that he decided to purchase weapons only from Israel because the country does not restrict their uses as other countries do, according to officials and local media.

The remarks were made during Duterte's meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on the third day of his four-day visit to Israel.

He thanked Rivlin for the military and security assistance and knowledge provided by Israel to the Philippines over the past years.

3 Sep 2018; DW: Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were convicted of collecting state secrets by a court in Yangon. They had been investigating a massacre of 10 Rohingya in Rakhine. The UN condemned the ruling, demanding the reporters' release.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were convicted of collecting state secrets by a court in Yangon. They had been investigating a massacre of 10 Rohingya in Rakhine. The UN condemned the ruling, demanding the reporters' release.

2 Sep 2018; DW: Almost 20,000 people have marched through Berlin and Hamburg demanding that Germany take in more migrants stranded at sea. Sunday's marches were organized in response to the violent anti-migrant protests in Chemnitz.

Up to 16,000 people marched through the northern German city of Hamburg on Sunday, urging officials to open up the city's ports to stranded migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean.

GENEVA; 3 Sep 2018; (AP) — A key opponent of high-tech, automated weapons known as “killer robots” is blaming countries like the U.S. and Russia for blocking consensus at a U.N.-backed conference, where most countries wanted to ensure that humans stay at the controls of lethal machines.

Coordinator Mary Wareham of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots spoke Monday after experts from dozens of countries agreed before dawn Saturday at the U.N. in Geneva on 10 “possible guiding principles” about such “Lethal Automated Weapons Systems.”

BETHLEHEM, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israeli occupation forces demolished Monday four houses that belong to Palestinians in the south Bethlehem town Al-Walaja in the West Bank.

Palestinian sources said that three homes were leveled to the ground by Israeli authorities, while they forced the owner of a fourth one to demolish her own home at her own expense to avoid a substantial fine imposed by the Israeli Jerusalem municipality.

The owner of the fourth home, Hanan Razem, stopped the process of her home demolition after neighbors intervened to help her.