Human Rights

Druze community members in Israel protest against the controversial "Jewish nation-state" law at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Aug. 4, 2018.

Israel passed a bill that defines the country as an "exclusively Jewish state" on July 19. (Xinhua/JINI/Tomer Neuberg)

Ahmedabad, Aug 4 (PTI) A special CBI court, hearing the discharge applications of former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin in Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case, is likely to pass its order on August 7.

Special CBI court Judge J K Pandya said the order, which was listed for today, will be passed on Tuesday.

The court had last month concluded hearing arguments of the two accused retired police officers, the CBI and Ishrat's mother Shamima Kauser, who had challenged Vanzara's discharge plea.

Mumbai, Aug 4 (PTI) Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today accused the BJP government of working hand in glove with global tech giants and turning Aadhaar into a surveillance tool.

The senior Congress leader also alleged that in 2016 the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIADI) had asked global tech companies to embed Aadhaar encryption into their technology.

"BJP Government working in cahoots with global tech giants and turning AADHAR into a surveillance tool. Government must come clean," Chavan said in a tweet.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Around 890,000 Syrian citizens can return to their home country in the coming months, Head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Friday.

"According to data provided by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, about 890,000 civilians are expected to return to Syria in the coming months," Mizintsev said at a meeting of the interdepartmental coordination headquarters supervising the return of refugees to Syria.

4 Aug 2018; AFP; A 28-year-old woman wearing a niqab on Friday became the first person in Denmark to be fined for violating a new controversial law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, media reported.

Police were called to a shopping centre in Horsholm, in the northeastern region of Nordsjaelland, where the woman had become involved in a scuffle with another woman who had tried to tear her niqab off, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency.

4 Aug 2018; AFP; The Israeli navy intercepted a Swedish-flagged activist boat bent on breaching its more than decade-long blockade of Gaza, the second in less than a week, the military said on Saturday.

"The ship was monitored and was intercepted in accordance with international law," the military said in a statement, before the vessel, named Freedom for Gaza and carrying 12 people, was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI; 3 Aug 2018; AA; In a first, Pakistan’s small yet unique communities such as the African origin Sheedi and the pagan worshippers Kalash have secured parliamentary representation, marking a major milestone in the country’s election history despite rigging allegations.

Tanzeela Qambrani is one such silver lining. The 39-year-old woman is the first ever member of the Sheedi community, which traces its roots in Africa, to get counted among lawmakers.

2 Aug 2018; AFP; Israel reimposed a blockade on fuel deliveries to Gaza on Thursday citing a resurgence in kites carrying firebombs over the border and signalling a brief pause in tensions may be ending.

After two deadly military flare-ups in the Gaza Strip and a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and UN officials last month, the number of firebombs being launched over the border to burn Israeli farmland had diminished.

London, Aug 1 (AFP) British former far-right leader Tommy Robinson was freed from prison today after winning a legal challenge in a case that has galvanised his supporters worldwide.

Robinson, who founded a street-level Islamophobic fringe group called the English Defence League, was serving a 13-month jail sentence.

He was jailed for contempt of court and breaching a previous suspended sentence, having used social media to live-stream outside a court in Leeds in northern England in breach of reporting restrictions around a trial.

31 July 2018; AA; BERLIN; German far-right groups have drawn up several “enemy lists” containing names and addresses of more than 35,000 people, a parliamentary question revealed on Tuesday.

The Interior Ministry said the lists were found in various police investigations and operations against far-right groups in the last seven years.

The neo-Nazi group (NSU) gathered addresses and telephone numbers of around 10,000 people, until it was detected in 2011, the ministry said in its written reply to the parliamentary question.