A Sharia court in Indonesia’s Aceh province has sentenced two men to be caned in public for having gay sex. The men were found guilty of violating strict Islamic laws in conservative Aceh and will receive 85 lashes each. The pair, aged 20 and 23, were found in bed together by vigilantes in March. They … Read more
Ugandan troops deployed in eastern Central African Republic to fight Ugandan rebels have sexually abused local women and girls, Human Rights Watch reported Monday. “Ugandan soldiers … have sexually exploited at least 13 women and (three) girls since 2015, including at least one rape, and threatened some victims to remain silent,” the rights watchdog said … Read more
A group of refugees who sheltered fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong are facing deportation after the city’s authorities rejected their bid for protection, their lawyer said Monday. The impoverished Philippine and Sri Lankan refugees helped the former National Security Agency contractor evade authorities in 2013 by hiding him in their cramped homes after … Read more
China opens on Sunday a summit to promote its massive global trade infrastructure project, highlighting Beijing’s ambitions to spearhead a new era of globalisation as Washington shifts toward inward-looking policies. President Xi Jinping will host leaders from 29 nations in Beijing for a two-day forum on his signature foreign policy programme, a revival of the … Read more
Eight Arab princesses are on trial in Brussels for trafficking and abusing servants during a stay there. Sheikha Hamda al-Nahyan and her seven daughters hired a floor of rooms at a luxury hotel over eight months in 2008. They brought with them from the United Arab Emirates a retinue of more than 20 servants whom … Read more
Eighty-two Nigerian schoolgirls who were released from Boko Haram captivity after more than three years face a wait to be reunited with their families, a town elder said on Wednesday. Yakubu Nkeki, head of the Abducted Chibok Girls Parents’ group, said parents of the girls would only be able to see their daughters once government … Read more
Two gay men who were caught having sex by a vigilante mob will be caned 80 times for breaking Sharia law in a strict Indonesian province. The pair, both in their early 20s, were found in bed together by a group of thugs who raided a boarding house in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh … Read more
Chen Guiqiu fled China on foot with her two daughters, only to end up in a Thai prison until US officials helped them sneak out dramatically through a back door. Now Chen is safe in Texas with her daughters, hoping to obtain US asylum after her extraordinary caper across the world. But her husband, prominent … Read more
Jakarta’s Christian governor has been sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy, a harsher-than-expected ruling critics fear will embolden hardline Islamist forces to challenge secularism in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. Tuesday’s guilty verdict for Basuki Tjahaja Purnama comes amid concern about the growing influence of Islamist groups, who organized mass rallies during … Read more
Jakarta’s Christian governor was jailed for two years Tuesday after being found guilty of blasphemy, in a shock decision that has stoked concerns over rising religious intolerance in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Islamic hardliners outside the Jakarta court shouted “God is greatest!” as news came through that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama would be sent … Read more
Forces loyal to Libya’s military strongman Khalifa Haftar on Monday launched an offensive to oust jihadist from their last two strongholds in second city Benghazi, they said. Forces loyal to Haftar, who does not recognise a UN-backed unity government in Tripoli and backs a rival parliament, have retaken most of the coastal city since it … Read more
Countries across the world put the Philippines on notice over its deadly drug war on Monday, demanding an end to extrajudicial killings by President Rodrigo Duterte’s security services. Diplomats from all continents condemned the reported surge of deaths during so-called anti-drug operations, which have claimed thousands of lives since Duterte took office last year. The … Read more
Saudi women no longer need a man’s consent to carry out certain activities, local media reported on Friday, but activists said the royal order does not go far enough. Saudi Arabia has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women, and is the only country where they are not allowed to drive. Under the guardianship … Read more
A third Turkish national has been arrested in Malaysia, his lawyer said Friday, after two others were taken into custody this week on suspicion of funding the Islamic State group. Turkish academic Ismet Ozcelik was arrested Thursday, his lawyer Rosli Dahlan told AFP, adding that no official reasons were provided by authorities. Local media reported … Read more
The beach looks ready for war: in the sparse lakeshore shade hundreds wait, sweaty from the heat, weapons at their feet. In Kenya’s hot, dry and lawless north even the fishermen are armed, but guns will not save them. They live on Lake Turkana, the biggest desert lake on earth and a World Heritage Site, … Read more
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who returned to Kabul Thursday after more than 20 years, is one of Afghanistan’s most notorious warlords, chiefly remembered for his siege of the capital in the bloody civil war of the 1990s. A former prime minister, Hekmatyar was a prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s and stands accused of killing thousands of … Read more
Two Turkish nationals who went missing in Malaysia have been arrested as a security threat, the police chief announced on Wednesday, but a rights group raised concerns of possible pressure from Ankara for the detentions. National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar tweeted that Turgay Karaman and Ihsan Aslan were arrested “because they threatened the security … Read more
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday condemned the “illegal” detention of two Israeli citizens by Hamas, releasing new details about the men who are believed to be mentally ill. The Islamist movement which runs Gaza is believed to have held Hisham al-Sayed and Avraham Mengistu since April 2015 and September 2014 respectively, after they sneaked into … Read more
Armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) have killed at least 45 civilians in apparent reprisal strikes over the past three months, a human-rights watchdog says in a new report. The violence pitted armed groups against one another in the central province of Ouaka, which is at the border of the mainly Muslim north … Read more
Syrian government forces used deadly nerve gas in Khan Sheikhun and in three other recent attacks, Human Rights Watch said Monday, describing a “clear pattern” of chemical weapons use that could amount to crimes against humanity. President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are also stepping up chlorine gas attacks and have begun using surface-fired rockets filled with … Read more