Human Rights

Minneapolis (US), May 24 (AP-PTI) Members of George Floyd's family, and others who lost loved ones to police encounters, joined activists and citizens in Minneapolis on Sunday for a march that was one of several events planned nationwide to mark the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death.

Hundreds of people gathered for the rally in front of the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis where the Chauvin trial concluded a month ago, many carrying signs with pictures of Floyd, Philando Castile and other Black men killed by police.

(Reuters) --- European leaders threatened to limit international air traffic over Belarus and possibly target its ground transport as well, after a Ryanair plane was forced to land in an incident denounced by Western countries as "state piracy".

Western leaders reached for the strongest language to condemn Sunday's incident, in which a Belarusian warplane intercepted a flight between Greece and Lithuania and forced it down in Minsk, where a dissident journalist was arrested.

Chandigarh, May 23 (PTI) The district authorities here stepped up security ahead of a farmers' protest on Monday.

Farmers had given a call for the protest after the state police booked over 300 of them in connection with a violent clash in the district last Sunday.

Police had lobbed tear gas shells and used force to disperse a group of farmers who had tried to march towards the venue where Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had gone to inaugurate a COVID hospital.

23 May 2021; MEMO: Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through London and other British cities on Saturday to protest against Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip during fighting with the Islamist group Hamas, reports Reuters.

Protesters called for sanctions on Israel during the march in London. Some were draped in Palestinian flags and set off green and red smoke flares. Others carried banners declaring "Free Palestine", "Stop bombing Gaza" and "Sanctions on Israel".

Chandigarh, May 22 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept with humility farmers' invitation of talks over the Centre's agriculture laws and resolve the issue.

In a letter to the PM, AAP MP Bhagwant Mann and the party's Punjab affairs co-incharge Raghav Chadha also claimed that 470 have died during the course of the agitation, which is unfortunate and painful.

21 May 2021; MEMO: Israel's artillery yesterday targeted, for the third time, Gaza Industrial City, with direct shells fired at six factories.

A statement issued by Gaza Industrial City, one of the PADICO investments, said that the Israeli artillery stationed near the Karni crossing fired several shells directly at the factories, which led to the destruction of six factories. This brings the number of destroyed factories in the industrial city during Israel's ten-day assault on Gaza to 15 factories.

22 May 2021; MEMO: More than a thousand Indonesian Muslims gathered after Friday prayers outside the US Embassy in Jakarta to denounce US support of the Zionist occupation.

The demonstrators organised rallies from several mosques after the prayers and went to the main street outside the US Embassy, ​​under heavy police presence, reported the Associated Press.

22 May 2021; MEMO: Israeli forces rounded up 50 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said on Saturday.

The NGO, however, did not give details about the accusations against the detainees.

On Wednesday, the NGO said more than 1,800 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Arab towns inside Israel since mid-April.

21 May 2021; MEMO: A German officer stands accused of plotting a terrorist attack on high-ranking politicians while posing as a Syrian refugee, in efforts to incriminate those who have sought asylum in Germany and in Europe.

21 May 2021; MEMO: At least 20 Palestinian worshippers have been injured after praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem today after Israeli occupation forces stormed the Muslim holy site and fired at them, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported.