By AZM Anas DHAKA, Bangladesh, June 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - V eteran Bangladeshi academic-activist Anu Muhammad is no stranger to death threats, beatings, persecution and arrest so when the professor of economics received a chilling text message shortly after midnight, it barely registered."Death keeps no calendar, and Ansatullah knows no time!"But a few hours later, on that same October morning last year, a second SMS pinged - one he could not ignore."Say 'yes' to Rampal (a proposed coal-fured power plant) otherwise you will be hacked to death incredibly by us!"Reporting the threats to police, Muhammad learned that Ansatullah was probably a mistype and referred to Ansharulla or Ansar al Islam, an Islamic extremist group linked to al Quaeda.The group, implicated in a series of brutal attacks and murders against atheist and gay rights bloggers, had also claimed the murder of a Bangladeshi sociology lecturer in 2014.Now they seemed to have 60-year-old Muhammad in … [Read more...]

BEIRUT A U.S.-backed Syrian coalition of Kurdish and Arab groups advanced against Islamic State in the jihadists' Syrian capital of Raqqa on Sunday, taking the al-Qadisia district, they said. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began its assault on Raqqa earlier this month after a long campaign to isolate Islamic State inside the city. It took Qadisia, located in the west of Raqqa, after three days of intense fighting, it said in a statement on one of its official social media feeds. The SDF has pushed Islamic State from swathes of northern Syria over the past 18 months. Turkey-backed Syrian rebels have also taken territory from it and the Syrian army has this year advanced rapidly against it in desert areas. The U.S.-backed coalition has supported SDF advances against the jihadist group throughout the Raqqa campaign with artillery and air strikes, including some against Islamic State leaders. This month, the coalition … [Read more...]

By Riham Alkousaa and Lisa Fernandez | NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO Large crowds turned out for Pride marches on Sunday in New York City and San Francisco, the two U.S. places most associated with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights movement, with the East Coast city bringing a more political flavor to the event sparked by events there almost 50 years ago. A group of marchers heading down New York's Fifth Avenue carried photographs of Trump and his press secretary, Sean Spicer, as others waved banners bearing the word 'RESIST' and the rainbow flag of the Pride movement.In contrast, a smattering of anti-Trump signs in San Francisco was drowned out by a desire to let loose. "It's too good a day to be upset about Trump," said Richard Babb, 66, of San Francisco. In New York, Brad Hoylman, a Democratic lawmaker in the New York State Senate, said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were "under assault" by the Trump administration."He … [Read more...]

By Julia Harte and John Whitesides | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Conservative activists held a pair of rallies in Washington on Sunday to decry the handful of celebrities who have joked about violence against President Donald Trump and to protest efforts to stop contentious speakers at colleges.Both rallies attracted only a few dozen supporters, with nearly as many counterprotesters at one of the events on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. That contrasted with recent marches that have filled U.S. cities with hundreds of thousands of people protesting Trump policies they believe harm immigrants, women and other groups.Richard Spencer, an avowed white nationalist and founder of the so-called "alt-right" movement, drew about 100 supporters to the rally at the Lincoln Memorial, a monument to the president associated with the end of slavery in the United States.In remarks to reporters before his speech, Spencer said he was disappointed with Trump's presidency so far, and was … [Read more...]

“If the Home Office takes my son, I will throw myself under the car that takes my son to the station,” says refugee Jehad Hassan. His son, Yousef, has been ordered to attend an asylum reporting centre in Middlesbrough on Monday, when his family fear he will be detained for deportation to Italy. The 22-year-old Palestinian-Syrian asylum seeker was just 15 when the Syrian civil war broke out, fleeing his home country after he reached the age of military conscription and was recruited by Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Separated from his parents and siblings in the chaos of the conflict, he journeyed to Europe alone and arrived in the UK in a lorry from Calais in 2014. Now reunited, the Hassan family are rebuilding their lives in Middlesborough, where all members apart from Yousef have been granted refugee status. He has now lost a two-and-a-half year battle with the Home Office to stop his asylum claim bring transferred to Italy, and he along with it. Too old to … [Read more...]

Image copyright AFP Image caption Hoang denies he was trying to overthrow the government A French-Vietnamese dissident blogger has been deported to France after losing his nationality of birth.Pham Minh Hoang served a jail sentence after being convicted in 2011 over articles that "blackened the image of the country".Hoang, 62, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday after losing his appeal against deportation. It is rare for dual-nationals to lose the nationality of their country of origin. US-based Human Rights Watch called the move "unprecedented and shocking". Hoang had admitted having joined Viet Tan - a California-based pro-democracy group that Vietnam considers a terrorist organisation. But he denied his writings were aimed at overthrowing the government. After arriving in Paris on … [Read more...]

By Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on Monday in a closely watched religious rights case involving limits on public funding for churches and other religious entities as the justices issue the final rulings of their current term.The nine justices are due to rule in six cases, not including their decision expected in the coming days on whether to take up President Donald Trump's bid to revive his ban on travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries in which an emergency appeal is pending.Of the remaining cases argued during the court's current term, which began in October, the most eagerly awaited one concerns a Missouri church backed by a conservative Christian legal group. The ruling potentially could narrow the separation of church and state.A decision in favor of Trinity Lutheran Church, located in Columbia, Missouri, set the stage for more public money to go to religious entities. The church sued after being denied … [Read more...]

BEIRUT A car bomb killed 10 people in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Sunday. The attack occurred in a market in the town of al-Dana, located in the north of the province near the border with Turkey, according to the Observatory. Three people under 18 were among the dead and the blast also injured at least 30 other people, it said. Another bombing in the town after midnight on Friday killed two people, it added. Rebel groups in Idlib province have been sporadically fighting each other since early this year. Rebels have also accused the Islamic State militant group of carrying out attacks in the area. Idlib province is a major stronghold of rebels in Syria and is situated along the border with Turkey, one of the main backers of their rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. Large numbers of fighters, along with their … [Read more...]

Whenever Steve Fulcher is asked to explain his actions during four excruciatingly tense hours on Thursday 24 March 2011 – which he often is by former police colleagues, official enquiries and now journalists – he always turns the question round. “If you were in my position, what would you do?” he asks. It’s a decent point. Same situation, what would you do? Sian O’Callaghan, a popular 22-year-old from Swindon, had been reported missing the previous Saturday, five days earlier. She went out for the night and never came home. Fulcher, then a senior investigating officer for Wiltshire police, was put in charge. It would soon involve five force areas and 1,000 police officers, not to mention many hundreds of friends and locals who scoured the Savernake Forest, close to the last mast her mobile phone had pinged. Ultimately, suspicion fell on a 47-year-old taxi driver called Christopher Halliwell, who had picked up Sian during the early hours of Saturday … [Read more...]

MEXICO CITY Eleven people were killed in Mexico's Veracruz state by criminal gangs on Saturday, including four children and the head of the state's federal police and two other federal police officers, Governor Miguel Angel Yunes said.Veracruz is home to rival drug cartels including the Zetas and Jalisco New Generation, or CJNG, which are fighting over drug trafficking turf. Armed gunmen shot and killed the three police officers, including the head of the federal police in Veracruz, Camilo Juan Castagne, at a restaurant in the city of Cardel.In the port city of Coatzacoalcos, two adults and four children were killed, while two women were killed in the city of Orizaba. "We are not facing human beings, we are facing beasts, cowards, villains, people who are capable of killing children so as to have the citizens Veracruz living in fear," Yunes in a video posted online as he visited the crime scene in Cardel. … [Read more...]

By Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall | MANILA MANILA Launched a year ago, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs has resulted in thousands of deaths, yet the street price of crystal methamphetamine in Manila has fallen and surveys show Filipinos are as anxious as ever about crime.Duterte took power on June 30 last year, vowing to halt the drug abuse and lawlessness he saw as "symptoms of virulent social disease."Thanks to his campaign, government officials say, crime has dropped, thousands of drug dealers are behind bars, a million users have registered for treatment, and future generations of Filipinos are being protected from the scourge of drugs."There are thousands of people who are being killed, yes," said Oscar Albayalde, Metro Manila's police chief told Reuters. "But there are millions who live, see?"A growing chorus of critics, however, including human rights activists, lawyers and the country's influential Catholic Church, dispute the … [Read more...]

By Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall | MANILA MANILA Philippine police have arrested more than 80,000 people during President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal war on drugs, but few as prominent or defiant as Leila de Lima.A Philippine senator and Duterte's long-time foe, de Lima was arrested in February on drugs charges she says were trumped up as part of a presidential vendetta.Held at police detention facility in Manila that she shares with murder suspects and mangy cats, the 57-year-old lawyer remains implacably critical of the anti-narcotics campaign and Duterte, who will complete his first year in office this week."The promise of eradicating drugs has defined his presidency," she said. "It's actually a sham because they are targeting the wrong people."Duterte's drug war, she says, targets only small-time dealers and leaves drug lords untouched.Called a "prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty International, de Lima believes the real reason she has been locked up is to stop … [Read more...]

By Ian Simpson The American Civil Liberties Union asked a U.S. judge on Saturday to expand an order that temporarily blocks the deportation of 114 Iraqis in Michigan, to cover Iraqis nationwide, according to a court filing.The advocacy group filed an amended complaint seeking to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting Iraqis from anywhere in the United States while a federal judge weighs the case of the Iraqis in Michigan.U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith on Thursday ordered a stay in the Michigan Iraqis' deportation for at least two weeks while he decides whether he has jurisdiction.The ACLU, which had sued to block the Michigan deportations, asked Goldsmith to rule by Monday on expanding his order to cover the more than 1,400 Iraqis facing expulsion across the United States. The immigration agency has indicated it might start those deportations as soon as Tuesday, the ACLU said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement … [Read more...]

Editor: Angus MacSwan +44 207 542 7923Picture Desk: Singapore + 65 6870 3775Graphics queries: + 65 6870 3595(All times GMT/ET)TOP STORIES Iraqi forces free hundreds of civilians in Mosul Old City battles as death toll mountsMOSUL, Iraq - Iraqi forces open exit routes for hundreds of civilians to flee the Old City of Mosul as they battle to retake the quarter from Islamic State militants mounting a last stand in what was the de facto capital of their "caliphate". (MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-MOSUL (UPDATE 2, TV, PIX), moved, by Marius Bosch, 800 words)15 dead, scores missing hours after landslide buries Chinese villageBEIJING - Fifteen people were killed in a landslide in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Saturday and about 100 were believed to be still buried in the debris and feared dead, state media said. (CHINA-LANDSLIDE/ (UPDATE 4, PIX, TV), moved, by Christian Shepherd, 358 words)London tower blocks evacuated as 27 buildings fail fire testsLONDON - Britain says 27 … [Read more...]

BEURUT Israel said on Saturday it had targeted Syrian military installations after shells landed in the occupied Golan Height but a Syrian military source said the Israeli strikes killed some civilians. Rebels including hardline Islamist factions fought the Syrian army on Saturday in Quneitra province, bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syrian state media and a war monitor reported. Israel's military said 10 projectiles from inside Syria had hit Israel and it responded with an air strike on the position they were launched from, while the Israeli army targeted two Syrian army tanks.  In an earlier statement, the Israeli military described the shellfire into Israel as errant fire but it later called it an "unacceptable breach" of sovereignty.  The Syrian military source said Israeli rocket fire had hit a residential building, causing a number of deaths and damage. The source did not mention … [Read more...]

By Jason Szep and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON In a highly unusual intervention, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to remove Iraq and Myanmar from a U.S. list of the world's worst offenders in the use of child soldiers, disregarding the recommendations of State Department experts and senior U.S. diplomats, U.S. officials said.The decision, confirmed by three U.S. officials, would break with longstanding protocol at the State Department over how to identify offending countries and could prompt accusations the Trump administration is prioritising security and diplomatic interests ahead of human rights. Tillerson overruled his own staff’s assessments on the use of child soldiers in both countries and rejected the recommendation of senior diplomats in Asia and the Middle East who wanted to keep Iraq and Myanmar on the list, said the officials, who have knowledge of the internal deliberations.Tillerson also rejected an internal State Department proposal … [Read more...]

Crimean authorities may have breached international laws by ordering a Jehovah's Witness to prove he has abandoned his faith before being drafted into the occupying Russian army, according to a human rights monitor. Members of the Christian denomination, which is deeply opposed to military service, were previously allowed to sign up for alternative civilian service in Russia, where men have to complete a year's draft in the army between the ages of 18-27.  But there have been several reports of Jehovah's Witnesses being denied the right to serve as civilians after the religion was banned by the country's Supreme Court in April.  175,000 worshippers were criminalised when judges ruled that their religion violated an anti-extremism law, paving the way for 395 local chapters to be shut down. Russian military officials in Crimea have since told a Jehovah's Witness to provide evidence he has changed his faith before he is allowed to join their ranks, according to … [Read more...]

Innocent people, including human rights campaigners and a three-year-old girl, have been named on a blacklist of terrorists and criminals used by governments and major banks, it has been reported.  Greenpeace and Human Rights Watch were among the two million supposed “high risk” organisations and individuals on the database, which is compiled by media giant Thomson Reuters. The watchlist, which also includes people who have been charged and cleared of terror offences, was accidentally leaked on a public internet server in 2014 and discovered by a computer security researcher last year.  It has reportedly been sold to almost every major bank and is designed to help them identify individuals and groups who may be involved in money laundering.  Those named on the list could be at risk of being refused grants, contracts and financial services, according to The Times, which conducted the investigation in collaboration with media partners across … [Read more...]

BEIRUT Syria's government said on Saturday it released 672 prisoners who had promised to accept the state's authority, a move it said was aimed at bolstering a "reconciliation" process. Reconciliation is the term the government uses for local deals with rebels for them to either disarm and accept its rule or to leave with small arms for other insurgent areas. "They have been released after promising not to do anything against the nation's security or stability," Justice Minister Hisham al-Shaar was quoted as saying by the official SANA news agency. He said most of the prisoners were from Damascus but there were others from across Syria, indicating the release was not linked to a particular deal regarding one rebel-held area. SANA did not report what the freed detainees had been put in prison for, but some of those released told Reuters they were arrested for actions they took against the government. Syria's opposition … [Read more...]

Donald Trump has defied calls to appoint a special envoy to combat anti-Semitism across the world despite growing pressure from Jewish groups and Congress. The two remaining staffers in the US State Department's office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism are reportedly set to be reassigned next month, which will leave the branch completely unstaffed after 1 July. Officials are yet to comment on the reported move, but insist they remain committed to fighting discrimination against Jews. show all AP … [Read more...]