Human Rights

28 Mar 2023; MEMO: Amnesty International has accused the West of double standards in its dealing with human rights abuses. The rights group makes the allegation in its Annual Report for 2022 released on Monday.

28 Mar 2023; MEMO: Israel's embassies and consulates around the world yesterday joined a general strike intended to force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to suspend his government's plan to overhaul the judicial system, Israel's national trade union Histadrut announced.

"The activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the country and abroad will be limited to emergency services," Histadrut said in a letter.

28 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Israeli occupation authorities today posted a demolition order for a mosque in the south Hebron Hills area, Wafa has reported.

According to Rateb Jabour of the Wall and Settlements Resistance Committees in Masafer Yatta, Palestinians living in the neighbourhood of Khashm Al-Daraj have to demolish the mosque but have two weeks to object to the order. The mosque, he added, serves several communities in Masafer Yatta and the South Hebron Hills.

28 Mar 2023; MEMO: The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Monday to advance legislation to repeal two decades-old authorisations for past wars in Iraq, as Congress pushed to reassert its role over deciding whether to send troops into combat, Reuters reports.

The vote was 65 to 28 to limit debate on the measure, more than the 60 votes required in the 100-member Senate, paving the way for a vote on passage later this week. All 28 "no" votes were from Republicans.

28 Mar 2023; MEMO: Israeli authorities demolished 953 Palestinian structures in the Occupied West Bank last year, according to the European Union on Tuesday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"In 2022, a total of 953 structures were demolished or seized throughout the West Bank, including Jerusalem," the EU Representative Office for the Palestinians said in a statement.

The number of demolitions constitutes "the highest number recorded since 2016", the office said.

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Upping the ante over Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha, the Congress will hold press conferences in 35 cities over the next two days on 'Democracy Dis'Qualified' while also highlighting other issues such as the Adani matter and the alleged "clean chit" to fugitives.

Gandhi was on Thursday sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his "why all thieves have Modi surname" remark. He was subsequently disqualified from Lok Sabha.

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Monday served a notice to vacate the government bungalow allotted to him by April 22 following his disqualification as a member of Lok Sabha after his conviction in a defamation case last week, official sources said.

The Housing Committee of the Lok Sabha took the decision following which the secretariat of the House served the notice on the former Congress president, a Z-plus protectee who has been living in the 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow since 2005.

Nashville; 28 March 2023 (UMMN): A 28-year-old female terrorist identified as Audrey Hale has killed three students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday. The terrorist was shot dead by police shortly after, bringing the death toll to seven.

26 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Iranian Foreign Ministry has spoken out against a US airstrike in the vicinity of Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zour region, which was in response to a suspected Iranian drone attack on Thursday killed a US contractor and wounded six others, including five soldiers.

26 Mar 2023; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today fired his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant after the latter criticised the planned judicial reforms, Netanyahu's office announced.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter is expected, Israeli media said, to replace Gallant, who is still a Knesset member.

Netanyahu said that he lost trust in Gallant after he "went behind the government's back," referring to his call to freeze the planned judicial overhaul.