Human Rights

Ahmedabad, May 12 (PTI) The wedding procession of a Dalit bridegroom at a village in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat had to be provided police cover Sunday after members of the Thakor community objected to him offering prayers at a local temple.

The procession, however, passed off peacefully, police said.

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (APP): The United Nations Sunday condemned the terrorists attack targeting a five-star hotel in the port city of Gwadar.

“We deplore all such attacks and reiterate that there can be no justification for terrorist acts,” Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesman, said in a statement.

Three heavily-armed militants on Saturday stormed the Pearl Continental (PC) Hotel in Gwadar and opened random firing, killing a guard, before all the attackers were killed by the security forces.

OTTAWA, May 12 (Xinhua): Two Canadian women who were jailed in self-declared republic Somaliland for two months after being accused of drinking alcohol arrived in Toronto on Sunday morning, according to CBC.

The two women were arrested in the city of Hargeisa after being accused of consuming alcohol, which is illegal in Somaliland, a breakaway region in northern Somalia.

According to their lawyer, the pair signed confessions "under duress," hoping to avoid being detained. They were sentenced to two and a half months in jail and 40 lashes.

CARACAS, May 12 (Xinhua): U.S. sanctions against the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) have caused the suspension of health programs and affected patients in vulnerable situations, according to executive secretary of Venezuela's National Council of Human Rights.

In an interview with Xinhua, Larry Devoe, who is also the state agent for the International Human Rights System, said that the health programs, supported by PDVSA in conjunction with institutions in Italy and Argentina, have been blocked by the sanction measures taken by the U.S. government.

Mumbai, May 12 (PTI) Two men were Sunday arrested for allegedly molesting a woman cyclist at Worli here, police said.

The incident had occurred in the wee hours of Saturday, when the woman was on her way to Haji Ali, an official said.

"The accused, who were going on a motorcycle, had touched the cyclist inappropriately and even went ahead smiling at her," he said.

RIYADH, May 12 (Xinhua): Saudi Arabia has offered a grant of 10 million U.S. dollars to Mauritius to help the hurricane victims in the African island nation, the Arab News daily reported Sunday.

The grant was handed in the capital Riyadh by Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor-general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) to Shaukat Ali Soudhan, the visiting president of the ruling party of Mauritius, in order to help establish a rapid response system against a natural disaster in Mauritius.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning says she’ll refuse to testify on Thursday before a second grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

But if a judge finds her in contempt of court again, she could wind up back in jail.

Manning spent seven years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. She walked free in May 2017 after President Barack Obama commuted her 35-year sentence.

JERUSALEM (AP) — As host of this year’s Eurovision, Israel has tried to use the hugely popular song contest to present itself as a tolerant and cosmopolitan country that is winning increased acceptance on the world stage. But despite Israel’s best branding efforts, the kitschy festival is clouded in political conflict and controversy.

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) — A North Korean cargo ship seized by the U.S. because of suspicion it was used to violate international sanctions arrived at the capital of this American territory, where it will undergo inspections.

The Wise Honest was slowly towed to the port of Pago Pago during a cloudy Saturday morning and docked at the main docking section of the port that afternoon.

12 May 2019; MEMO: Thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday to mark the seventy-first anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), which coincides this year with plans for a new deal that will liquidate the Palestinian issue. The demonstration was organised for by the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and Stop the War Campaign (STW).