Human Rights

Banda (UP), Sep 18 (PTI) A 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a youth who was then severely beaten up by her family members in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district, police said on Friday.

According to the FIR lodged on Wednesday by the mother of the girl, the incident took place last Saturday when the minor was on her way to home after attending to nature's call, police said.

The girl's mother has also registered a case against the gram pradhan and some others for threatening her family.

Hamirpur (UP) Sep 18 (PTI) A 46-year-old farmer, who was under debt, allegedly hanged himself in Amireta Dera village in Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur district, officials said on Friday.

The farmer, Mahendra Verma, allegedly took the extreme step on Thursday, ADM Vinay Prakash Srivastava said.

The brother of the farmer told police that Verma had taken a loan of Rs 42,000 under the Kisan credit card from Aryavrat Bank and Rs 80,000 from Union Bank but had not been able to repay it.

17 Sep 2020; MEMO: Members of the Journalists’ Syndicate in Egypt have ignored the issue of the normalisation deals between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel, New Khaleej reported on Wednesday. This is, apparently, because the UAE has paid the union’s members not to cover the deals.

17 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, on Tuesday accused the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain of seeking to grant Israel bases in the Gulf region, warning that they should bear the consequences of their actions.

Rouhani described the Gulf countries’ normalisation agreements with Israel as a “violation of regional security and international resolutions”, saying, “we are surprised at how those who claim to be Arabs reach out to those who kill Palestinian Arabs every day”.

17 Sep 2020; MEMO: Britain’s largest trade union, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) , has passed a motion identifying Israel as a state practicing apartheid and called for the continued support of the Palestinian people.

Kochi, Sep 17 (PTI) Kerala Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel on Thursday appeared before the NIA teamprobing the sensational Kerala gold smuggling case.

Visuals aired by TV news channels showed the Minister, who is facing the Enforcement Directorate probe into allegedFCRA violation in accepting consignments of Holy Quran brought from UAE through diplomatic channel, arriving at the NIA office here at 6 am in a private car.

There was no official word either from the NIA or from the Minister's office about the development.

Srinagar, Sep 17 (PTI) PDP leader and former minister Naeem Akhtar on Thursday said he has been set free by Jammu and Kashmir authorities after 407 days in custody since the abrogation of Article 370 in August last year.

"After 407 days of detention am informed that I am free to move about. Thank you rulers for small mercies while you inflict larger tragedies on our land," the PDP leader said in a sarcastic tweet.

Srinagar, Sep 16 (PTI) A man detained by police in Sopore was found dead in a nearby area of Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.

Irfan Ahmad Dar (24), was detained by police in Sopore town on Tuesday in connection with an anti-terrorism case, the officials said.

His body was found at Charamundji falling under the jurisdiction of nearby Bomai Police Station on Tuesday evening, the officials said.

They said the body was brought to PCR Hospital at Srinagar on Wednesday for postmortem.

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said on Monday that the status of the city of Jerusalem should be “decided” by Israel and the Palestinians.

Answering a question during his daily briefing, Dujarric said:  “What is clear for us and for the Secretary‑General is that the status of Jerusalem is one that should be negotiated between the parties [Israel and Palestinians].”

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: Qatar has completely rejected normalising ties with Israel, stressing that this is not the core of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Monday, spokesperson of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater said: “We don’t think that normalization was the core of this conflict and hence it can’t be the answer.”