Human Rights

Srinagar, Jul 16 (PTI) The National Conference and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) Thursday asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to rescind a six month old order to merge or close several sick public sector undertakings in the union territory.

"The J&K government's decision to close many PSUs is shocking....This order is unfair and must be rescinded," National Conference tweeted on it official handle.

Kota, Jul 15 (PTI) A court awarded life imprisonment to a 24-year-old man in a dowry death case in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district on Wednesday.

The court convicted Shiv Puri, a resident of Chan Ka Kheda village in Dug area, in the dowry death case and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

According to Additional Public Prosecutor Lokesh Gupta, Puri got married to Maya Goswami (20), a native of Agar Malwa district in Madhya Pradesh, in February, 2016 and allegedly harassed her for dowry for around a year.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a seafarers welfare organization said Wednesday.

Satellite photos showed the vessel in Iranian waters on Tuesday and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital.

It wasn’t immediately clear what happened aboard the Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky, though its reported hijacking comes after months of tensions between Iran and the U.S.

LONDON (AP) — An artist has erected a statue of a Black Lives Matter protester atop the plinth in the English city of Bristol formerly occupied by a statue of a slave trader.

Marc Quinn created the life-size resin and steel likeness of Jen Reid, a protester photographed standing on the plinth after demonstrators pulled down the statue of Edward Colston and dumped it in Bristol’s harbor on June 7.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After hours of emotional public testimony and a middle-of-the-night vote by Berkeley leaders, the progressive California city is moving forward with a novel proposal to replace police with unarmed civilians during traffic stops in a bid to curtail racial profiling.

15 July 2020; MEMO: A Lebanese man accused of financing Hezbollah was freed from jail in the United States last month as a result of indirect contacts between Tehran and Washington that are expected to yield more releases, three senior Middle East officials told Reuters.

15 July 2020; MEMO: The closing session of the technical and legal committees of the Renaissance Dam negotiations ended without agreement.

According to Al Jazeera, Egyptian Foreign Minister said that his country regretted the failure to reach an agreement.

 “Egypt has provided a tremendous level of flexibility and understanding. However, the negotiations ended again without reaching an agreement.”

15 July 2020; MEMO: A member of the Israeli parliament for the Joint Arab List has slammed claims by police officers that there is a “lack of evidence” in the killing of a disabled Palestinian man in Jerusalem last month, Al-Quds Al-Araby has reported. Aida Touma-Suleiman MK cast doubts on the narrative coming out of the Ministry of Justice that there is no video footage of the killing of Eyad Hallaq, who was autistic.

Washington, Jul 15 (PTI) In a surprise U-turn, the Trump administration has dropped its controversial plan to deport hundreds and thousands of international students, including Indians, if their universities switch to online-only classes in this fall semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On July 6, the US immigration authority announced that foreign students will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only classes during the September to December semester.

Amaravati, Jul 14 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday announced Rs 15,000 for the final rites of those who died of COVID-19, a decision taken after the Opposition TDP criticised the government for alleged inhuman handling of bodies of coronavirus victims.

The Chief Minister also warned that the government would take strict action against COVID hospitals if they were found denying medical treatment to patients.