Human Rights

NEW DELHI (AP) — Thousands of Indian farmers blocked a massive expressway on the edges of New Delhi on Saturday to mark the 100th day of protests against agricultural laws they say will devastate their income.

Farmers stood on tractors and waved colorful flags while their leaders chanted slogans via a loudspeaker atop a makeshift stage.

04 Mar 2021; MEMO: Amnesty International has welcomed the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision to open an investigation into serious crimes under international law alleged to have been committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Beijing, Mar 5 (AP-PTI) Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is being asked to rule on an ethics complaint filed against the International Olympic Committee by a human-rights group representing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China.

Ban is the chairman of the IOC's ethics commission.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As the trial approaches for a white Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, prosecutors are putting the time Derek Chauvin’s knee was on the Black man’s neck at about nine minutes.

The time has fluctuated before. It was recorded as 8 minutes, 46 seconds in an initial criminal complaint — a figure that became symbolic to many in the weeks after Floyd’s death — before a math error was corrected to make it 7:46. But filings since then, citing time-stamped police body-camera video, now make it at least nine minutes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration stepped up its condemnation of the coup in Myanmar on Thursday, demanding that military authorities stop their brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and release demonstrators and journalists who have been detained.

The White House called the situation, including the arrest of an Associated Press journalist, “troubling” and of “great concern.” The State Department said it’s working with other countries to send a unified message to the military that its actions are unacceptable and will be met with consequences.

04 Mar 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority (PA) yesterday condemned an attack by Israeli settlers on the Romanian Church in Jerusalem, Al-Watan Voice has reported.

03 Mar 2021; MEMO: Extremist Israeli settlers threw stones at homes and vehicles in two Palestinian villages south of Nablus yesterday, Wafa news agency has reported. According to the human rights group Yesh Din, a group of settlers entered Huwara and stoned vehicles, shattering the windows in two of them.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar security forces were seen firing slingshots at protesters, chasing them down and even brutally beating an ambulance crew in video showing a dramatic escalation of violence against opponents of last month’s military coup.

A U.N. official speaking from Switzerland said 38 people had been killed Wednesday, a figure consistent with other reports though accounts are difficult to confirm inside the country. The increasingly deadly violence could galvanize the international community, which has responded fitfully so far.

03 Mar 2021; Democracy Now: Reporters Without Borders has filed a criminal case against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the persecution and murder of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

The case was filed in a German court, days after the Biden administration declined to directly sanction the crown prince, even after releasing an intelligence report reaffirming bin Salman approved the killing.

03 Mar 2021; MEMO: Some 41 Egyptian opposition figures on Monday called on the Biden administration to take action against the Egyptian regime, saying it had committed "crimes that are worse than the [Jamal] Khashoggi murder."