INTERNATIONAL

The Government in Sri Lanka will ban the wearing of the burqa and shut more than a thousand Islamic schools, media reports said. Minister for public security Sarath Weerasekera told a news conference he had signed a paper on Friday for cabinet approval to ban the full face covering worn by some Muslim women on “national security” grounds. “In our early days' Muslim women and girls never wore the burqa,” he said. “It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently. We are definitely going to ban it.” The wearing of the burqa in the majority-Buddhist nation was temporarily banned in 2019 after the bombing of churches and hotels by Islamic militants that killed more than 250. Later that year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, best known for crushing a decades-long insurgency in the no...

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a historic visit to the United States of Emirates yesterday, citing 'difficulties' in co - ordinating with Jordan over crossing its airspace.   The Prime Minister "was expected to visit the United Arab Emirates today," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.   On Wednesday, Prince Hussein bin Abdullah had planned to visit the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is part of the hilltop complex known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount and for which Jordan is the custodian.   But the royal delegation turned back at an Israeli-controlled border crossing as a dispute emerged about the number of armed bodyguards travelling with the prince, according to Israeli media.   T...

  Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe requires urgent psychiatric treatment as she suffers from PTSD after being a victim of torture, according to a charity which commissioned a detailed medical assessment of her. Human rights group Redress has called on the Government to recognize Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a victim of torture, having sent the Foreign Secretary the 77-page report on the mother-of-one it commissioned from the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, last week completed a five-year sentence in Tehran on spying charges levied by Iranian authorities, the last year of which was spent under house arrest due to the pandemic. However, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, whose husband Richard and six-year-old daughter Gabriella live in London, m...

  On Thursday, according to a letter seen by Reuters, the letter reads that China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and others are seeking support for a coalition to defend the United Nations Charter by pushing back the use or threat of force and unilateral sanction. The move by 16 countries and the Palestinians to create a group came after U.S. President Joe Biden’s new administration boosted its multilateral engagement with allies by reversing former President Donald Trump’s favored unilateral approach as Trump focused on an America First policy. Biden has pledged to take on China at the United Nations, where Beijing has been pushing for greater global influence in a challenge to traditional U.S. leadership. A concept note for the “Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of ...

  White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday at her daily press briefing told reporters that the issue of genocide against Uighur Muslims will directly raised with China by the Biden Administration. “Addressing the genocide against Uighur Muslims is something that will be a topic of discussion with the Chinese directly next week but certainly this conversation (Quad summit) tomorrow… I have invited National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to come and give you a readout of that meeting,” the press secretary said. Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, pressure on Taiwan, broader human rights abuses, the South China Sea, the Mekong, economic pressure arbitrary detentions, the origins of COVID-19 are various issues expected to come up in the talks.

The U.N. health agency and its partners have found in a new study that nearly one in three women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. The report released Tuesday from the World Health Organization, based on what the agency called the largest-ever study of the prevalence of violence against women, also found such violence starts early. It says a quarter of young women who have been in a relationship were found to have experienced violence by an intimate partner by the time they reach their mid-20s. The figures, which track a period from 2010 to 2018, don't cover the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Studies have shown an increase in domestic violence against women as governments in many places ordered lockdowns and other restrictions that led many ...

  United States of America, has presented an eight - page draft peace agreement to Afghanistan’s warring sides for review after being frustrated by stalled peace building process and escalating violence between the two countries. The U.S. told the parties to come to Turkey in the coming weeks ready to move on it, according to Afghans on both sides of the table. On Monday, the draft was obtained by The Associated Press on The document outlines the terms of a cease-fire and its enforcement, calls for the protection of the rights of women, children and minorities and envisions a truth and reconciliation commission aimed at healing 42 years of conflict. Ned Price, U.S. State Department spokesman would not confirm the draft, saying “It’s often important for our diplomatic efforts that ...

In what appears to be a severe blow to both factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), the Supreme Court (SC) has scrapped the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) registered in the name of KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, giving the party to little - known Rishi Kattel who had registered Nepal Communist Party at the Election Commission much before the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was registered in the names of Oli and Dahal in May 2018. Issuing a verdict on Sunday, a joint bench of justices Kumar Regmi and Bam Kumar Shrestha ruled that the Nepal Communist Party belonged to Kattel who had filed a writ petition claiming the name of the party. The verdict of the Supreme Court comes at  a time when both factions of the ruling party -- one led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and the ot...

The killing of three female journalists and one doctor this week have once again thrown the issue of violence against women in Afghanistan into sharp focus, even as peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government continue. ISIS in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for an attack on Tuesday in the city of Jalalabad, which saw journalists Mursal Waheedi, Saadia Sadat and Shahnaz Raufi, of the Enikas television station, shot dead. Then, on Thursday morning, a female gynecologist, Dr. Sadaf Elyas, was killed in another attack. According to Attaullah Khogianai, the spokesperson for the governor of Jalalabad, Elyas was on her way to the central hospital in Jalalabad when a sticky bomb was attached to the three-wheeler rickshaw she was riding in. The bomb exploded, and she was...

At least 20 people were killed and 30 wounded by a suicide car bomb just outside a restaurant near the port in Somalia's capital Mogadishu late on Friday, an emergency services official said. The blast sent plumes of smoke into the sky and triggered gunfire, witnesses and state-owned media reported. "So far we have carried 20 dead people and 30 injured from the blast scene," Dr. Abdulkadir Aden, founder of AAMIN Ambulance services told Reuters. The blast occurred at the Luul Yemeni restaurant near the port, witnesses said. "A speeding car exploded at Luul Yemeni restaurant. I was going to the restaurant but ran back when the blast shook and covered the area with smoke," resident Ahmed Abdullahi, who lives near the site, told Reuters. Somalia's state-controlled Radio Mogadish...