Monday, August 20, 2018
A convoy of buses carrying dozens elderly South Koreans crossed the border into North Korea to be reunited with family members living in the autocratic regime as part of the first round of reunions in more than three years. More than 57,000 South Koreans had registered for a chance to meet relatives in North Korea, but only 93 were chosen for the latest round of brief meetings, which are set to begin Monday in North Korea's Mount Kumgang tourist resort. Only 88 North Koreans...
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Foreign tourists looking to go off the beaten path in North Korea can now camp out on the country's biggest volcano. Hoping to open up a side of North Korea rarely seen by outsiders, a New Zealander who has extensive experience climbing the mountains of North and South Korea is leading the first group of foreign tourists allowed to trek off road and camp out under the stars on Mount Paektu, a huge volcano that straddles the border that separates China and North Korea. In 946 AD...
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Monday, August 20, 2018
(Beirut) Algeria’s judiciary sentenced an Amazigh activist to a suspended one-year prison term on August 7, 2018 for a Facebook post criticizing government discrimination against a minority group, Human Rights Watch said today. In the 2014 social media post, Salim Yezza criticized the authorities’ discriminatory policy against the Mozabites, an Amazig or Berber – ethnic minority in the Ghardaia region. Expand Amazigh activist Yezza Salim appears in photo from Wikipedia profile. © Adil Massil Yezza is a member of the Rally of Amazigh, a group based in France, where he has lived since 2011.…
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Expand A refugee woman from Imey, a town in the Gode zone of Ethiopia's Somali Region, stands outside her makeshift home in Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. She and her children fled to Kenya after her husband was killed by Ethiopian forces in December 2007. © Evelyn Hockstein The government of Ethiopia should commit to an in-depth, independent fact-finding mission into many years of rights abuses and violations of the laws of war in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali region, Human Rights Watch said today. This should include specific investigations into the responsibility of senior Somali region…
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Nearly 2 million Muslims from around the world have begun the yearly hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia at Mecca, Islam's holiest site. "We are very blessed by Allah to be in this place, and we pray to Allah to make the Islamic nations from the West to the East in a better situation," Essam-Eddin Afifi, a pilgrim from Egypt, told the Associated Press. "We pray for the Islamic nations to overcome their enemies." The faithful started the annual five-day ritual Sunday...
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Expand Kofi Annan © 2016 Reuters Human Rights Watch is deeply saddened by the passing of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose deep commitment to the promotion and defense of human rights around the world will be missed. “The international community has lost a courageous voice for collective action in the face of atrocity,” said Buno Stagno-Ugarte, deputy executive director for advocacy at Human Rights Watch. “Annan was never shy in challenging perpetrators, no matter the political cost. His transformative vision for human rights inspired so many and improved countless…
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
President Donald Trump is lashing out at The New York Times for Sunday's story reporting that White House lawyer Don McGahn has cooperated extensively with the special investigation into Russian election interference. According to the Times, McGahn shared detailed accounts on the question of whether Trump tried to obstruct justice, giving investigators information they may never have gotten otherwise. "The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White...
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Women are not just running for office in record numbers this year — they are winning. More women than ever before have won major party primaries for governor, U.S. Senate and House this year — setting a U.S. record and paving the way for November battles that could significantly increase the number of women in elected office and change the public debate on issues such as health care, immigration, abortion rights, education and gun control. Some of these candidates could also play a...
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Former CIA Director John Brennan is threatening to sue President Donald Trump to stop him from stripping security clearances from other officials who criticize him. "If my clearances -- and my reputation, as I'm being pulled through the mud now -- if that's the price we're going to pay to prevent Donald Trump from doing this against other people, to me, it's a small price to pay," Brennan told NBC television's Meet the Press Sunday. "I am going to do...
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his maiden speech to the nation Sunday night, promised wide-ranging reforms to combat corruption and cut government expenditures to tackle a crisis-ridden national economy. The 65-year-old cricketer-turned-political leader spoke a day after taking the oath of office and pledged his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government will adopt austerity measures to ease strains on the economy and tackle foreign debt of about...
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