Imprisonment of 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong elicits world condemnation
Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail, while Chow was sentenced to seven years and nine months; former journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, was sentenced to seven years.
Raped and impregnated by IS fighters, thousands of Yazidi women abandon children when rescued
Yazidi captives are often too afraid to seek help, four survivors said. Rafida Naif, a 26-year-old Yazidi woman, spent 20 months at al-Hol. She said she feared she would be killed if she identified herself to guards and wasn’t immediately removed from the IS family she was with. When the family would hear a vehicle approaching their tent, she said, they would hide her in a hole and cover it with cardboard or bedding.
Pakistani insurgents kill 24 as 40 others wounded in powerful bombing at Quetta rail station
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the bombing in a statement, saying those who orchestrated the attack “will pay a very heavy price for it,” adding that security forces were determined to eliminate “the menace of terrorism.”
Ambani’s Reliance lobbies for India satellite spectrum auction in new clash with Starlink
Reliance, which has dominated India’s telecom sector for years, is concerned that after spending $19 billion in airwave auctions it risks losing broadband customers to Musk, and potentially even data and voice clients later as technology advances, Reuters previously reported.
Interpol investigation exposes how transnational organised criminal gang Black Axe funds, fixes who rules Nigeria
Scrutiny is needed on governments in China and the United Arab Emirates that serve as major financial transfer hubs for Black Axe’s illicit transactions.
Taliban morality law: New code stipulates length of men’s facial hair, considers woman’s voice ‘intimate part of the body’
Without doubt, the part of the law that has received the most media attention is Article 13, which stipulates that a woman’s voice – when engaged in singing, reciting, and reading in public – is considered awrah, or an intimate part of the body. It goes on to say that a woman should “cover” her voice when out in public.
Taliban’s new morality law has sparked fears Afghanistan is returning to the repressive and abusive rule of the 1990s
The 35 amendments to the Law on Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice include prohibitions on everything from men’s haircuts that are deemed to be against shari’a to storing any visual representations of living beings on mobile phones.
Canada expels top India diplomats it accuses of organised crime and murder of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar
India said it had asked six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday. The ministry also said it had summoned Acting High Commissioner in India Stewart Wheeler, currently Canada’s top diplomat in the South Asian country.
Singapore opens first graft trial in half a century for minister who accepted 10 bottles of whisky, 12 bottles of wine gifts
Singapore ministers are among the most well-paid in the world. Although the amount involved in Iswaran’s case appeared to be relatively minor, his indictment is an embarrassment to the PAP, which prides itself on a clean image. The last cabinet minister charged with graft was Wee Toon Boon, who was found guilty in 1975 and jailed for accepting gifts in exchange for helping a businessperson. Another cabinet minister was investigated for graft in 1986, but died before charges were filed.
Cautious Pope Francis warns against religious extremism during first stop in Muslim-majority Indonesia
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told journalists that Francis and Widodo had not spoken specifically about the Israel-Gaza war in their meeting, but more generally about ongoing conflicts and “the importance of peace”.
