Paris, France (AFP): Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has dismissed a pledge from US leader Joe Biden to “free Iran” as the country faces a new upsurge in protests seven weeks after the death of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested by the police for not fulfilling the requirements of the conservative dress code for women. Campaigning [...
U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk on Wednesday called for a moratorium on forced returns of refugees and migrants to Burma. His comments follow news that Malaysia deported two Burmese nationals who sought protection through the U.N. refugee agency on Oct. 6. More than 100 other nationals from Burma, some of whom had serious protection [&hel...
SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) – Moulana Muhammad Abbas Ansari, a religious leader and former chairman of Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of Kashmiri parties, passed away on Tuesday. The 86-year-old leader passed away at his residence in Srinagar. He had been ill for several years and was hospitalized for a few days recently. Hurriyat Confe...
TORONTO (AA) – Fourteen newly-elected lawmakers in the Canadian province of Quebec have rejected the constitutionally required oath of allegiance to the king of Great Britain, according to the Montreal Gazette. The lawmakers removed their allegiance to King Charles III on Friday in the text of the oath that is in the Canadian Constitutio...
PARIS (AA) – Tears of the Seine, an animated short film, has received attention in France and globally. The film has won a bronze medal at the Student Oscars in Los Angeles. It sheds light on the bloody police crackdown on the demonstration by Algerians in Paris on Oct. 17, 1961, in which hundreds of […]
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – A Palestinian source has denied reports about an agreement with Egypt and Israel to extract gas off the Gaza Strip. “These reports published by Israeli media are inaccurate,” the source told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said current talks on extracting gas off Gaza [&h...
ANKARA (AA) – The European Union has sanctioned 11 Iranian individuals and four entities, including the country’s Morality Police over their role in the death of Mahsa Amini and the violent response to the recent demonstrations. Iran’s Morality Police and two of its key figures Mohammad Rostami and Hajahmad Mirzaei, Iranian Law Enf...
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – The secretary-general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) has been released on bail after being arrested six days earlier on security-related charges. Abdalle Ahmed Mumin appeared before a court in the capital Mogadishu after the country’s attorney general’s office charged him with disobeying the law and “...
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AA) – Human rights group Amnesty International has urged the Lebanese authorities to stop their plan to return Syrian refugees to their country. “The Lebanese authorities are scaling up the so-called voluntary returns, a plan which has been in place for four years, when it is well established that Syrian refugees in Leba...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan on Wednesday demanded an investigation into the death in jail of Altaf Ahmed Shah, a prominent pro-freedom leader in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The demand was conveyed to the Indian charge d’affaires in Islamabad, who was summoned by the Foreign Ministry to protest Shah’s “inhumane custodial...
