British Prime Minister Theresa May held talks with Saudi officials on Tuesday, hoping to tap the oil-rich kingdom’s “immense potential” as she looks to secure post-Brexit investment and trade. May has come under harsh criticism over her Saudi visit, facing calls at home to raise rights issues with local leaders. The visit also comes less … Read more
The EU and China will attempt to deepen ties at a summit Thursday amid rising worry about the direction taken by US President Donald Trump on trade and climate change. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will meet EU president Donald Tusk and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker with hopes of forging an answer to Trump’s “America … Read more
Norway says it “regrets” Qatar’s expulsion of a Saudi Arabian human rights activist on his way to claim refugee status in the Nordic nation. Mohammed al-Otaibi, 49, fled to neighbouring Qatar in March facing trial in a Saudi anti-terrorism court over his human rights work, the Gulf Center for Human Rights said Monday. “It’s regrettable … Read more
A South Sudan military court on Tuesday opened the trial of 13 soldiers accused of raping foreign aid workers and murdering a local journalist during fighting in Juba last July. The chilling attack cast a spotlight on atrocities by government troops but also led to a damning probe into the failure of United Nations peacekeepers … Read more
Egypt’s president has signed into law a contentious new bill to regulate non-governmental organisations, the official gazette said on Monday, triggering fears of an intensified crackdown on civil society. Authorities have led a brutal crackdown on all forms of opposition, at times targeting human rights organisations directly, since then army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew … Read more
Qatar has deported a Saudi human rights activist who was on his way to Norway where he hoped to seek asylum, a watchdog said on Monday. Mohammed al-Otaibi, 49, fled to neighbouring Qatar in March after he had faced in Saudi Arabia charges related to his human rights work and was referred to an anti-terrorism … Read more
Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao gave staunch support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration on Monday, saying the country should be “grateful” for its strong leader. Duterte last week declared martial law in the southern Mindanao region to combat what he called a rising threat posed by the Islamic State group, after militants rampaged … Read more
Myanmar authorities must investigate a video showing men in military uniforms viciously beating handcuffed detainees suspected of being ethnic rebel fighters, rights groups said Sunday. The video’s emergence comes as negotiators from the civilian-led government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the military hold peace talks with more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups in … Read more
The president of the Philippines has come under fire for joking about rape in a speech to soldiers. While speaking at a military camp after imposing martial law across the south of the country, he said they were allowed to rape up to three women. This was the second rape joke Rodrigo Duterte has been … Read more
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came under fire Saturday for making a second joke about rape, with Chelsea Clinton leading online outrage and a rights group branding his sense of humour “sickening”. In a speech at a military camp on Friday aimed at lifting troops’ spirits after he imposed martial law across the southern Philippines, Duterte … Read more
Rights groups on Friday accused the Ugandan government of inaction over the deadly assault by security forces on a tribal king’s palace six months ago, renewing their call for an independent probe. Human Rights Watch (HRW) Africa Director, Maria Burnett told reporters in Kampala that although the government had dedicated significant resources to investigating alleged … Read more
Egypt’s Copts, targeted by gunmen Friday as they travelled in a bus to a monastery south of Cairo, are the Middle East’s largest Christian minority and one of the oldest. Making up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 90 million, the Coptic Orthodox form the largest Christian denomination in the Muslim-majority country. Here is … Read more
Forces led by Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar on Thursday seized control of the Tamenhant airbase in the south of the country from rival forces, a spokesman said. “Our forces… took full control of Tamenhant airbase in the south of Libya,” said Khalifa al-Obeidi, spokesman of Haftar’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army. An LNA officer, who … Read more
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas executed three people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday over the assassination of one of its military leaders allegedly on behalf of Israel. Two men were hanged to death in Gaza City over the killing of Mazen Faqha in March, while a third was executed by firing squad, said an … Read more
Myanmar authorities have detained a Turkish family and are trying to deport them to Turkey, where activists fear they will face persecution for alleged links to a preacher accused of trying to overthrow the government. Teacher Muhammed Furkan Sokmen, his wife and their two-year-old daughter were stopped at Yangon airport on Wednesday evening as they … Read more
A 14-year-old boy has been detained in a Thai army prison under a draconian and increasingly wielded royal defamation law, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, as it decried the secrecy surrounding the latest series of arrests. The law in Thailand forbids any criticism of the monarchy and punishes transgressors with up to 15-years in jail … Read more
Forces loyal to Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar have bombed rival forces in retaliation for a deadly attack on an airbase in the south of the country, media reported Sunday. “Warplanes launched air strikes overnight Saturday as part of the Martyrs of Brak al-Shati operation,” the LANA news agency said in reference to the airbase … Read more
A court in the Gaza Strip on Sunday sentenced three men to death over the assassination of a Hamas military commander that the Islamist movement accused Israel of masterminding. After a trial that lasted four days, two of the accused were sentenced to be hanged and one to be shot, the military court announced. The … Read more
There were emotional scenes Saturday as 82 kidnapped Chibok girls released by Boko Haram Islamists earlier this month were reunited with their parents. At the reunion held in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, fathers gripped their daughters in tight hugs, while mothers shrieked with joy, wiping away tears streaming from their eyes. One beaming father picked … Read more
Afghanistan’s embattled vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum has left for Turkey, officials said Saturday, in what could be another long exile for the former warlord following allegations that he raped and tortured a political rival. Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek warlord linked to a catalogue of war crimes, departed late Friday in the middle of … Read more