Two drug dealers who allowed a four-year-old girl to eat heroin, diazepam, methadone and ketamine for months before her death have each been jailed for 13 years by a judge who said it was a case of “almost unremitting degradation”. Michala Pyke and John Rytting fed Pyke’s daughter, Poppy Widdison, sedatives to “subdue and sedate …
Netanyahu calls for pardon of convicted soldier Azaria
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a pardon of Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier found guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed a wounded Palestinian last year. “This is a difficult and painful day – first and foremost for Elor, his family, Israel’s soldiers, many citizens and parents of soldiers, among them …
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US forces ‘acted in self-defense’ in battle that killed 33 civilians in Afghanistan
A U.S. military investigation has cleared the U.S. forces of wrongdoing in fighting that left 33 civilians dead and 27 others wounded last year in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, saying that they acted in self-defense. “To defend themselves and Afghan forces, U.S. forces returned fire in self-defense at Taliban who were using civilian houses as firing …
Burmese government dismisses images of ‘Rohingya Alan Kurdi’ as propaganda
Images have emerged of the body of a baby boy, reported to be a Rohingya Muslim child who drowned while fleeing violence in Burma’s Rakhine state. Non-state media are banned from entering the north of Burma – making it difficult to verify the the photograph – and the government has dismissed the image as “propaganda”. …
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Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian at checkpoint
The footage shows a man standing next to a concrete barrier, several feet away from any Israeli soldiers. The man stands in place for several seconds, and remains standing as a group of soldiers shout at him to stop and sit on the ground and a first shot is fired. He then walks towards the …
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Israel sentences Palestinian U.N. worker for aiding Hamas in plea deal
An Israeli court sentenced a Palestinian U.N. worker to seven months in jail on Wednesday for aiding the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations agency that employed him said. Wahid Abdallah al Bursh was detained in July and said by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency to have confessed to being recruited …
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European counter-terrorism legislation ‘dangerously disproportionate,’ Amnesty reports
An Amnesty International report has highlighted expanded surveillance powers and search and detention laws as eroding basic freedoms. Ethnic and religious minorities in particular face discrimination. The human rights organization Amnesty International released a report Tuesday morning detailing the “draconian powers” many European nations have put in place as part of their efforts to combat …
Myanmar commission denies genocide of Rohingya Muslims
A commission probing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state said on Wednesday that there was no evidence of genocide or religious persecution against Rohingya Muslims. The interim report of the commission came days after a video emerged showing police beating civilians from the Muslim minority. The size of, what the report calls, the ‘Bengali’ population, mosques …
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Survivors claim Myanmar Army taking away young Rohingya women as sex slaves
Sexual violence has become an effective tool of oppression for the Myanmar security forces who continue to raid villages in the country’s Rakhine state in search of insurgents, allege locals and the Rohingyas who have taken refuge in Bangladesh. This correspondent spoke with several Rohingya women who claimed to have been picked up by the …
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Babies die as Israel blocks ambulances in Hebron
With renewed international attention on Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, a closer look at how these Jewish-only colonies affect Palestinians is necessary. Settlements are not just illegal, as the recently passed UN Security Council resolution confirms, but devastating to those they exclude. Settlements do not just consist of creating housing for one ethno-religious …
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