Sunday, August 19, 2018
Expand Mahmoud said he was hung in the “bazoona” position at least six times while in detention, for hours. He said that at least four of those times, he lost consciousness before being taken down. Sometimes officers threw water at him before beating his back with a metal cable, he said. © 2018 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch (Beirut) – Two former detainees and the father of a man who died in detention have provided details of ill-treatment, torture, and death in facilities run by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in the Mosul area, Human Rights Watch said today. A detainee held by the ministry’s…
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Expand Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and Farhad Meysami, a human rights defender, protest the suspension of Sotoudeh's law license in front of the Tehran bar association in Tehran, February 2015. © Private 2015 (Beirut) – A prominent human rights lawyer arrested in June 2018 to serve a previously unrevealed prison sentence faces new charges, apparently solely due to her human rights work, Human Rights Watch said today. The recent release of a verdict against Nasrin Sotoudeh in an earlier court case also reveals the grave degree the Iranian judiciary is criminalizing human rights activism.…
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
The Indonesian island of Lombok Sudnay suffered its third major quake in a month. The magnitude 6.3 quake jolted the island, causing landslides on Mount Rinjani and damaging buildings as the island tries to recover from a magnitude 6.9 quake earlier this month that killed 460 people, damaged tens of thousands of homes and displaced several hundred thousand people. The island suffered a magnitude 6.4 quake on July 28. There have been no reports of...
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Hours after a massive quake of magnitude 8.2 struck in the Pacific Ocean close to Fiji and Tonga Sunday, a major quake hit Indonesia. The magnitude 6.3 quake jolted the island of Lombok as it tries to recover from a quake earlier this month that killed 460 people. The U.S. Geological Survey said Indonesia’s Sunday quake, which was centered in the northeast of the island, hit at a depth of 7 kilometers (4 miles). There are no immediate reports of damage or...
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
A massive quake of magnitude 8.2 struck in the Pacific Ocean close to Fiji and Tonga on Sunday, but it was very deep and did not trigger a tsunami, the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Tsunami Warning Center said. The quake struck 347.7 miles (559.57 km) down. That depth would have dampened the shaking at the surface. “I would not expect any damage. People will feel it, but it’s so deep that I would not expect any damage,” USGS geophysicist Jana Pursley said by telephone. The U.S....
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Britain's Brexit minister Dominic Raab will travel to Brussels on Tuesday in a bid to pick up the pace of Brexit talks with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier, Prime Minister Theresa May's office said on Saturday. "On the agenda will be resolving the few remaining withdrawal issues related to the UK leaving the EU and pressing ahead with discussions on the future relationship," May's Downing Street office said. On Thursday, Britain will also publish the...
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Kofi Annan left the United Nations far more committed than it had been to combating poverty, promoting equality and fighting for human rights — and until his death Saturday he was speaking out about the turbulent world he saw moving from nations working together to solve problems, to growing nationalism. As secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006, Annan saw as his greatest achievements the programs and policies he put in place to reduce inequality within and between...
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
More than 2 million Muslims from around the world are beginning the five-day Hajj pilgrimage Sunday. They will circle Islam’s most sacred site, the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, and take part in a series of rituals intended to bring about greater humility and unity among Muslims. Here’s a look at the pilgrimage and what it means for Muslims: What is the purpose of the Hajj? The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all able-bodied Muslims are required...
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called on Europe to financially contribute to the reconstruction of Syria to allow millions of refugees to return home. "We need to strengthen the humanitarian effort in the Syrian conflict," he said ahead of a meeting with his German counterpart Angela Merkel at the government retreat of Meseberg castle 70kms (45 miles) north of Berlin. "By that, I mean above all humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, and help the regions...
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
When San Benito, Texas, school leaders learned of an influx of children to a migrant shelter in their small town near the U.S.-Mexico border, they felt obliged to help. The superintendent reached out and agreed to send 19 bilingual teachers, mobile classrooms and hundreds of computers to make the learning environment resemble one of his schools. While a government contractor bears responsibility for educating children at the highly guarded center, local officials say they...
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