Human Rights

7 May 2020; MEMO: A network of European groups have called on the EU to impose sanctions on Israel in a letter addressed to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.

7 May 2020; MEMO: The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has condemned comments by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman urging the new Israeli government to expedite the annexation of the occupied West Bank. The PLO described Friedman’s words as “deliberate escalation and incitement to commit crimes” against the Palestinians.

7 May 2020; MEMO: US President Donald Trump has vetoed a bipartisan resolution seeking to limit his powers to wage war on Iran, calling it “very insulting”.

In a statement yesterday, Trump said the measure was “based on misunderstandings of facts and law.” He swept away the bipartisan aspect of the resolution, saying that it was “introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party.”

Mumbai, May 7 (PTI) The Maharashtra Congress said it has borne the travel expenses of 4,627 migrant labourers who wished to return to their home states amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced that the party's state unit had borne the travel cost of 4,627 migrant labourers, who wished to go to their home states from different parts of Maharashtra in the last two days, a release issued here on Thursday stated.

CARACAS, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuela will try two Americans allegedly captured during a failed raid by mercenaries, President Nicolas Maduro said as the US vowed to “use every tool available” to bring them home.

Venezuela announced on Monday that it had arrested the pair on suspicion of trying to topple Maduro in an operation supported by the US-backed opposition.

WASHINGTON, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — One hundred thirty-two civilians were killed last year in US global military operations, the army said, a number far lower than those published by NGOs.

The Department of Defense “assesses that there were approximately 132 civilians killed and approximately 91 civilians injured during 2019 as a result of US military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia,” the Pentagon said in an annual report mandated by the US Congress.

RAMALLAH, May 7 (NNN-WAFA) – The Palestinian justice minister, said, the Palestinian Authority intends to file lawsuits against the U.S., for supporting Israel’s plans to annex Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

“We are looking for legal mechanisms to hold the U.S. government accountable, in committing war crimes against the Palestinians together with Israel,” Mohammed al-Shalaldeh, said.

The U.S. support for Israel’s plan to annex Palestinian lands in the West Bank is one of these crimes, he noted.

Srinagar, May 06 (UMM): A top Kashmiri separatist commander Riyaz Naikoo was on Wednesday killed in an encounter with Indian security forces in his home village in Kashmir's Pulwama district, officials said.

According to PTI, Indian authorities in Jammu and Kasmir have snapped mobile internet services across the valley as a precautionary measure, in anticipation of a possible a law and order problem, police said, adding that there are strict restrictions on the movement of people.

6 May 2020; MEMO: A Finnish board member of Amnesty International has hit out at Germany’s decision to ban the political wing of Hezbollah by suggesting that the ideology of the Shia movement is no different to the racist views of political parties in Israel, including those in the current government.

Silvassa, May 6 (PTI) Seeking to return home amid the coronavirus lockdown, a group of over a 100 migrant workers turned violent near Silvassa town of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli on Tuesday night, police said.

One hundred workers, most of them from Uttar Pradesh, were arrested from the spot for rioting and stone-pelting, an official said on Wednesday.