Category: INTERNATIONAL

North Korea has denounced US President Donald Trump’s administration as a “gross violator of human rights”, its state media reported Wednesday. The official Korean Central News Agency released its English-language report on Pyongyang’s annual white paper on US human rights violations as Trump began his State of the Union speech, in which he condemned the North. North Korea’s rights rights record is heavily criticised by both the United States and the United Nations, and it is estimated to have up to 120,000 political prisoners in its sprawling gulag system. Washington…

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PARIS: French police on Wednesday questioned pro­minent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan over allegations that he raped two women, who went public with their claims in the wake of the Harvey Weins­tein scandal. The Oxford professor was summoned to a Paris police station and taken into custody “as part of a preliminary inquiry in Paris into rape and assault allegations”, a police source said. Ramadan has furiously denied the complaints made by two Muslim women who said they were emboldened to break their silence after the revelations that toppled Hollywood mogul…

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WASHINGTON: The Trump administration’s South Asia strategy gives US commanders in the region the authority and resources they need to deal with “terrorist safe havens in both Afghanistan and Pakistan”, says the White House. The strategy that President Donald Trump announced in August last year underlines the US determination to defeat the Taliban in the battlefield in order to force them to accept the current administrative set-up in Kabul. As part of this strategy, the Trump administration recently increased drone strikes at alleged terrorist safe havens in the Federally Administered…

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A female Muslim religious scholar who led Friday prayers in the Indian state of Kerala last week is now facing death threats, Indian media has reported. The 34-year-old Jamida, the general secretary of Quran Sunnath Society, had led the congregational prayers in defiance of norms which allow only men to be Imams. “It’s written nowhere in Islam that women will be barred from leading prayers. We have to wean the religion from the hands of a patriarchal band of Imams and preachers,” she told the Hindustan Times. “Quran is not discriminatory against…

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An eight-month-old Indian girl was on Tuesday recovering in hospital after she was raped at her home in Delhi, the latest such case in a country notorious for high levels of sexual violence. The girl’s parents rushed her to hospital after discovering her bed covered in blood when they returned from work on Sunday. She later underwent a three-hour operation for her injuries. The Press Trust of India said the girl’s 27-year-old cousin had been arrested and charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, meaning he could face a…

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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has urged all nations to crack down on the Taliban group that orchestrated Saturday’s terrorist attack in Kabul, killing 95 people. In a similar message, also released on Saturday afternoon, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that those who support terrorists or offer sanctuaries to them will no longer be tolerated. As he often does, President Trump used a social media outlet, Twitter, to give his initial reaction, declaring: “We will not allow the Taliban to win!” Later, the White House issued another statement from…

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A protest demonstration was organized by Kashmir Council EU on the occasion of Indian Republic Day (26th January) in front of Indian Embassy in Brussels, the capital of Belgium Friday. It is important to mention that Kashmiris observe the Indian Republic Day falling on 26th January as black day every year. Protest in Brussels was attended by a large number of the people from different walks of life. Holding placards and banner with a number of slogans against India, the protesters called for immediate end of Indian atrocities in Indian Held Kashmir…

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Internet titans Google and Tencent on Friday signalled possible future collaboration on developing new technologies as the US and Chinese firms announced a long-term patent-sharing agreement. The companies gave no details on the scope or nature of the potential cooperation but said in a joint statement that they “are open to deeper collaboration in the future on innovative new technologies”. “By working together on agreements such as this, tech companies can focus on building better products and services for their users,” Google’s head of patents, Mike Lee, was quoted saying.…

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Billionaire investor George Soros launched a scathing attack on tech giants at the Davos summit on Thursday, calling them monopolies that could be manipulated by authoritarians to subvert democracy. During an annual dinner he hosts at the World Economic Forum, held this week in the Swiss alpine resort, Soros turned his sights on a host of subjects including US President Donald Trump and the speculation frenzy surrounding the bitcoin cryptocurrency. But much of the Hungarian-born financier’s ire was reserved for the tech giants of Silicon Valley who, he argued, needed…

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US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday unveiled a sweeping new immigration plan to Congress that offers 1.8 million young unauthorized immigrants known as “Dreamers” a path to citizenship over 10-12 years. In a comprehensive reform that will be formally presented next week, Trump has also asked Congress to eliminate the popular “green card lottery” program and severely restrict family immigration, steps analysts say could cut in half the more than one million foreign-born people moving to the country annually. And in the name of halting illegal immigration, he has…

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US diplomat Bill Richardson was accused on Thursday of a “personal attack” on Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi after an excoriating take down of the former darling of the global rights community as he resigned from a panel on the Rohingya crisis. Richardson, a one-time Suu Kyi ally, was one of five foreign members hand picked by Myanmar’s civilian leader to serve on the committee. But after a three-day visit to Myanmar, Richardson struck out at his hosts, saying he could not in “good conscience” sit on a panel he…

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PARIS: After long years of punishingly low oil prices, the global oil market is moving closer to reaching a healthy balance between supply and demand, Opec said on Thursday. In its monthly oil market report, the Opec said there were “growing indications that the oil market is heading smoothly toward rebalancing.” Prices were being buoyed by lower crude oil stocks, healthy demand and geopolitical tensions, the cartel said. Oil prices have risen in recent months, after Opec and a clutch of countries outside the cartel struck a landmark deal at…

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WASHINGTON: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) renewed its pledge on Thursday to catch four hijackers of the Pan Am Flight 73, almost 32 years after the failed attempt at Karachi airport. “No matter how much time has passed or the obstacles we encounter, we owe it to the victims and their families to never give up on them,” said the FBI case agent in a statement released to the media along with pictures of the four hijackers. The attack, which occurred aboard Pan Am Flight 73 during an…

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