Tunis, Tunisia (AFP): Tunisian President Kais Saied preached freedom of thought at a book fair on Friday, shortly before authorities confiscated a book comparing him to Frankenstein, its author and publisher said. “It is important to liberate thinking because we cannot accomplish anything with rigid thoughts,” Saied told reporters ...
ISTANBUL (AA) – The Yemeni government announced Tuesday its readiness to complete the prisoner swap deal with the Houthi group. “Regarding the deal for prisoners signed in Geneva with the other party (Houthi group) under the auspices of the United Nations, we announce that the Yemeni government team is ready to implement the deal at [&he...
Dhaka, Bangladesh (AFP): Bangladesh’s high court granted bail on Sunday to Matiur Rahman, one of the country’s most respected editors, after he was charged under a controversial digital law. Matiur Rahman, 78, the editor of the Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo, requested bail after a lawyer filed a case against him and a reporter...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – A Pakistani court on Thursday declared a colonial-era sedition law unconstitutional, calling it “inconsistent” with the country’s constitution, a lawyer and local media said. A single-judge bench of the Lahore High Court invalidated the controversial law – Section 124-A of the Pakistan Penal Code – wh...
LONDON (AA) – The British monarchy should apologize for its connections to the transatlantic slave trade if it “truly cared about beginning to rectify its role,” says an anti-monarchy campaigning organization. The transatlantic slave trade, which is viewed as one of the darkest chapters in history, lasted for more than 400 ye...
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladesh has rejected a US report on the country’s human rights issues, extrajudicial killings, and democracy, calling it one-sided and questioning American police’s excessive use of force and killings of ordinary citizens. Talking to reporters in Dhaka on Wednesday, Bangladesh Information and Broadcastin...
SRINAGAR, Jammu & Kashmir (AA) – A freelance journalist, Irfan Mehraj, in Indian-occupied Kashmir has been arrested by the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with an ongoing probe into alleged “NGO terror funding case,” said an official statement released on Tuesday. “Following comprehensive investig...
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (AFP): The motorcycles that buzz along the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, have a story to tell. Once the preserve of men and a sign of male status in this West African country, today they are used ubiquitously by women — and are a prized tool of emancipation. When […]
WASHINGTON (AA) – UN Special Representative for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva said Wednesday that under the Taliban, Afghanistan “remains the most repressive country in the world” when it comes to women’s rights. “The bans against women working, studying, traveling without a male companion, and even going to parks or bath...
Moscow, Russia (AFP): Russian President Vladimir Putin, who frequently decries Western libertarian and permissive values relating to gender fluidity and sexual liberty, has remarked that paedophilia has become the norm in the West. “Look at what they do to their own people: the destruction of families, of cultural and national identities...
