Human Rights

Kolkata, Jul 22 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed that the snooping on Supreme Court judges, journalists and political leaders among others using the Pegasus spyware, news of which broke earlier this week, was "worse than the Watergate scandal" which broke in the US during the NIxon presidency.

Firozabad (UP), Jul 21 (PTI) A professor, who allegedly made derogatory remarks against Union Minister Smriti Irani on Facebook, was sent to jail after he surrendered in a court here.

Shaharyar Ali surrendered to Additional Sessions Judge Anurag Kumar and moved an interim bail application on Tuesday.

The judge cancelled the bail plea after which the professor was sent to jail.

Tamluk, Jul 20 (PTI) Leader of Opposition in West Bengal and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, during a party meeting in Purba Midnapore, publicly advised the district police chief to refrain from doing something that would prompt his transfer to Kashmirs Anantnag or Baramulla.

Adhikari who is facing multiple police probes, including one related to alleged tarpaulin theft, asserted at a meeting held here on Monday that it would be wrong to assume that the BJP was weak as it has the central government by its side.

Banda (UP), Jul 20 (PTI) The body of a 50-year-old woman was found naked with hilt mark injuries in a village here, police said on Tuesday.

The family members of the woman have alleged rape before murder.

The victim had taken some goats for grazing in a forest on Monday, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mahendra Pratap Singh Chauhan said, adding her body was found in a pool of blood around midnight.

A case of murder was registered at Tindwari police station against unknown persons and the body was sent for postmortem.

20 July 2021; MEMO: German journalist associations on Monday demanded clarification and counter-measures in the wake of revelations about the use of an Israeli-made spying software against activists and reporters, says Anadolu Agency.

20 July 2021; MEMO: US President Joe Biden hosted Jordan's King Abdullah at the White House on Monday in a meeting that spanned a range of issues, including the coronavirus pandemic and the Middle East, reports Anadolu Agency.

Biden "was proud to announce the delivery of over" half a-million coronavirus vaccine doses, "underscoring the US commitment to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home," the White House said in a statement issued after the meeting concluded.

20 July 2021; MEMO: The Paris prosecutor's office opened a probe on Tuesday into allegations by investigative news website Mediapart and two of its journalists that they had been spied on by Morocco using the Pegasus spyware at the heart of a global scandal, reports Reuters.

20 July 2021; MEMO: Amazon.com Inc's cloud service, Amazon Web Services, has shut down infrastructure and accounts linked to Israeli surveillance vendor NSO Group, US media group Vice reported, says Reuters.

Mumbai, Jul 19 (PTI) The NCP on Monday sought a probe into the alleged phone tapping of certain individuals using Israeli software Pegasus and demanded action against those responsible for the act.

Party spokesman and Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik said only an inquiry will establish which agency of the central government allegedly hacked the phones of journalists, ministers and industrialists.

19 July 2021; MEMO: The EU border agency Frontex has failed to protect the human rights of asylum seekers, according to a European Parliament report, according to the Guardian.

The report's author, Tineke Strik told the Guardian that Frontex "did not fulfil its human rights obligations and therefore did not prevent future violations."

Strik, a Dutch Green MEP, wants the agency's Director Fabrice Leggeri to resign or be fired.