INTERNATIONAL

The United States Rapporteurs have made public their communication concerning allegations of “arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance and torture and ill-treatment committed against the three Kashmiris including Waheed Para, Irfan Ahmad Dar, and Naseer Ahmad Wani.” In a communication, the five UN Rapporteurs said, “We have the honor to address you in our capacities as Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, pursuant to Human ...

Vietnam has discovered a new Covid-19 variant which is a hybrid of variants found in India and UK. This variant spreads quickly by air, health officials confirmed on Saturday. More than 6,800 Covid-19 cases and 47 deaths have been reported in Vietnam. The country is dealing with fresh outbreak across more than half of its area, including industrial areas and big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. "We have discovered a new hybrid variant from the strains first found in  Indian and the UK," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long told a national meeting on the pandemic Saturday, according to state media. "The characteristic of this strain is that it spreads quickly in the air. The concentration of virus in the throat fluid increases rapidly and spreads very strongly to the surroun...

As per a report published on Muslim Mirror hundreds of staffers of US President Joe Biden’s campaign, signed on a letter on Monday demanding their former boss “hold Israel accountable” for the disproportionate number of deaths incurred in Tel Aviv’s offensive on the Gaza Strip. “We commend your efforts to broker a ceasefire,” the staffers wrote. “Yet, we also cannot unseen the horrific violence that unfolded in recent weeks in Israel/Palestine, and we implore you to continue using the power of your office to hold Israel accountable for its actions and lay the groundwork for justice and lasting peace.” The letter signed by over 500 Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee staffers, is published on the medium website. “While we should never reduce the loss of human life to numb...

As India grapples with the deadly pandemic, the global community has united to support India and has been sending help in every possible way to the country that has been severely affected by the second wave of COVID-19. On Friday, Kenya donated 12 tonnes of food products to India, as part of its Covid-19 relief efforts. The east African country has sent 12 tonnes of tea, coffee and groundnut, produced locally, to the Indian Red Cross Society. Willy Bett, the High Commissioner of Kenya to India, said, “The Government of Kenya wishes to stand in solidarity with the people and Government of India during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic by donating consumable food stuffs." Mr. Bett, who came to Mumbai from New Delhi to hand over the food articles, dedicated the donation to the front...

In a statement on Kashmir, the visiting President of the United Nations General Assembly Volkan Bozkir encouraged Pakistan to take up the issue of Jammu Kashmir more robustly at the United Nations. Speaking at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the Foreign Office on Thursday, the visiting dignitary said, “I think it is the duty, especially Pakistan’s to bring this (Kashmir issue) to the United Nation platform more strongly.” Volkan Bozkir also emphasized that all parties should refrain from changing the status of Jammu Kashmir, and said a solution was to be found through peaceful means in accordance with the UN Charter and UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions as agreed in the Simla Agreement between Pakistan and India. He clearly pointed to th...

Dozens of fanatical Jews accompanied by Israeli police on Thursday stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. Some 120 Jews raided Haram al-Sharif from the Al-Maqaribe (Moroccans) Gate southwest of the flashpoint mosque, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf said in a statement. Protected by the Israeli police, the group left the sacred site after wandering in the courtyard of Haram al-Sharif. On May 23, over 250 fanatical Jews entered Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time in about three weeks. Such raids by fanatical Jews on Haram al-Sharif escalate tension in the region. The Israeli police had not allowed Jews to enter Haram al-Sharif due to Palestinian resistance since May 4, as tension was building over Israel’s continued mistreatment of Palestinians. The Palestinian Foreig...

On Thursday, at a special session of the UN Human Human Rights Council called at the request of Pakistan (on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation) and Palestine, the United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said that the constant bombing of Gaza by the Israeli forces might constitute 'war crimes.' Bachelet opened a special session of the UNHRC and raised her concern regarding the 'high level of civilian fatalities and injuries from the attacks which left 253 Palestinians dead. She said that she had seen no evidence to support that the civilian buildings, including the medical facilities and media houses destroyed by the Israeli forces in Gaza, were being used for military purposes. “Despite Israel’s claims that many of these buildings were hosting armed grou...

An alleged London-based company has come in the eye of a storm for waging a disinformation campaign in France via social media influencers to malign anti-COVID-19 Pfizer/BionTech vaccine. Several social media influencers with a large subscriber base revealed to have been contacted by a communication agency Fazze to make videos on Pfizer vaccine, projecting it as dangerous to public health. “It’s strange, I received a partnership proposal which consists of breaking down the Pfizer vaccine on video. Colossal budget, client who wants to remain incognito and you have to hide the sponsorship,” posted Leo Grasset on Twitter. His popular YouTube channel Dirty Biology with videos on science mysteries has a subscriber base of 1.17 million followers. Sami Ouladitto, a comedian with 401,000 ...

As per latest news reports emerging from the Middle East, Saudi Arabia had temporarily closed its airspace to Israeli flights for unknown reasons. On Tuesday, an Israel Airline flight got delayed for 5 hours at the Ben Gurion Airport before departing for Dubai. The flight was supposed to take off at 9 am local time, but it was delayed because Saudi Arabia refused to grant the necessary permits. Although, an El Al flight had taken off for Dubai, the same afternoon with permission to fly through Saudi airspace. Saudi Arabia had said earlier in November, that they would allow Israeli flights to use their airspace en route to Dubai. The flights from Israel to the UAE will take eight hours instead of three without permission to fly over Saudi Arabia. According to the i24NEWS, Commer...