Human Rights

NEW YORK, Nov 11 (APP): A report in a leading American newspaper has focused attention on how Indian singer Laxmi Dubey is currently promoting Hindutva pop music in India, especially violent songs that openly call for “harsher action against Pakistan and separatist Kashmiri militants, and for forced conversions and a Hindu settlement campaign in Kashmir.”

The report in The New York Times said that mixing dance tracks with calls for religious warfare, the Hindutva pop amplifies a wave of Hindu nationalism in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India.

Raipur, Nov 11 (PTI) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has ordered a probe by a three-member committee into the illegal surveillance of some individuals in the state through WhatsApp using an Israeli-made spyware, officials said on Monday.

Baghel has also asked the committee to investigate complaints that the Israeli company NSO, which developed spyware Pegasus used to snoop on people, made a presentation of the software before state police officials two-three years back, they said.

TEHRAN, Nov 10 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said that, the so-called U.S.-led coalitions in the world, have brought no achievements but “global insecurity,” official news reported.

Mousavi criticised recent U.S. move to create a naval coalition in the Gulf region, saying that, the United States uses other countries as tools, to legitimise its unilateral policies.

9 Nov 2019; MEMO: A coalition of US Jewish organisations sent a letter to leaders of Israeli political parties, warning them against full or partial annexation of occupied West Bank, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Thursday.

9 Nov 2019; MEMO: The prison conditions in Egypt may have directly led to the death of former President Mohamed Morsi, and may be placing the health and lives of thousands more prisoners at severe risk, UN independent experts said today.

“Dr. Morsi was held in conditions that can only be described as brutal, particularly during his five-year detention in the Tora prison complex,” the experts said. “Dr. Morsi’s death after enduring those conditions could amount to a State-sanctioned arbitrary killing.”

New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) Expressing dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court verdict that cleared the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Saturday said it was contemplating seeking a review of the judgment, even as it appealed to people to maintain peace and amity.

The apex court directed the Centre to allot a 5-acre plot at an alternative place to the Sunni Waqf Board, one of the parties in the decades long contentious dispute, for building a mosque.

New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Saturday paved the way for the construction of a Ram Temple by a Trust at the disputed site at Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh

LONDON, Nov 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — All 39 bodies found in a refrigerated truck outside London last month have now been identified as citizens of Vietnam, British police and Vietnamese officials said.

The Vietnamese embassy in London said it was “in deep sorrow” over the confirmation that the 31 men and eight women discovered dead in the back of a truck on Oct 23 were from the southeast Asian country.

“Once again, we would like to convey our profound condolences and sympathy to the bereaved families,” it said in a statement.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN General Assembly condemned the nearly 60-year-old US embargo on Cuba on Thursday for the 28th year in a row, calling for an end to it by a vote of 187 to three.

Only Israel and Brazil voted with the US against the resolution. Two other US allies – Ukraine and Colombia – abstained.

First imposed on Oct 19, 1960 in response to Havana’s nationalisation of US-owned oil refineries, and extended in 1962, the embargo is an enduring legacy of the Cold War hostilities between the two countries.

New Delhi, Nov 7 (PTI) The Ministry of Home Affairs has initiated disciplinary proceedings against IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan who had submitted his resignation in August protesting what he alleged was the "denial of freedom of expression" to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.