Rights Group: Iran Executed 142 People in May
WASHINGTON (VOA) — Iran carried out 142 executions in May, marking the highest number of people put to death in one month in the country since 2015, a rights group said Thursday. More than half of the executions were for drug-related crimes and the rest were given for...
BBC: Myanmar Coup: The Soldiers Refusing to Fight
The Myanmar military is suffering defections from its forces and is finding it hard to recruit. In exclusive interviews, newly-defected soldiers tell the BBC that the junta, who seized power in a coup two years ago, is struggling to suppress the armed pro-democracy...
Myanmar military has imported weaponry worth $1bn since coup
Myanmar’s military has imported arms worth at least $1bn since seizing power in February 2021, despite “overwhelming evidence of its responsibility for atrocity crimes”, a United Nations expert has said. Most of the weapons came from Russia, China and companies in...
Myanmar: Campaign of Terror
A ‘campaign of terror’ is how human rights groups are describing what’s happening in central Myanmar. In the Buddhist heartland, there are recurring reports of villages torched, people killed, homes destroyed and food sources charred. A scene that has played out since...
Indian scholars, activists criticize school hijab ban ruling
NEW DELHI (AP) — A recent court ruling upholding a ban on Muslim students wearing head coverings in schools has sparked criticism from constitutional scholars and rights activists who say that judicial overreach threatens religious freedoms in officially...
Iranian women and Selena Gomez express support for girls arrested in viral dancing video
Five Iranian girls who were arrested for a video of them dancing have publicly apologised, as Iranian women have shared support for the group by posting their own dancing videos. The five teenagers shared a TikTok on 8 March of them dancing to the Selena Gomez and...
Belarus jails senior staff at independent news site in crackdown on Lukashenko critics
Belarus has handed long jail terms to senior staff at the country’s largest independent news site, which was forced to close after historic demonstrations against strongman Alexander Lukashenko over two years ago. The verdicts are the latest in a crackdown on...
NPR: Women across Iran are refusing to wear headscarves, in open defiance of the regime
TEHRAN, Iran – You see it as soon as you land at the airport: posters telling women to keep their headscarves on. They're everywhere in Iran; in malls, restaurants, billboards above main highways, and even rest stops in between cities. The hijab remains the official...
Ales Bialiatski sentenced to 10 years in jail
A court in Belarus has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison. He was convicted of smuggling and financing "actions grossly violating public order", the Viasna human rights group said. Supporters of Mr Bialiatski, 60, say the...
Nobel laureate calls for tribunal to try Putin
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk has called for the swift creation of a special tribunal to try Vladimir Putin and his associates for the crime of aggression, arguing that it could have “a cooling effect” on atrocities committed by the Kremlin’s...