Amnesty decries abuses against Myanmar Muslims

Myanmar security forces have committed serious rights abuses against Muslims in violence-hit western Rakhine state during six weeks of emergency rule, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Hundreds of people, mostly men and boys, have been detained in sweeps of areas heavily populated by the Muslim Rohingya group, with almost all held incommunicado and some ill-treated, it said.

“In six weeks, Myanmar has not only added to a long litany of human rights violations against the Rohingya, but has also done an about-turn on the situation of political imprisonment,” said Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki. While communal violence appears to have eased since the unrest erupted in early June, violations by the security forces have increased, he said.

Read More: The News International

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Clinton in Egypt: Egyptians pelt Clinton with tomatoes, chant ‘Monica’

Hillary Clinton has been welcomed in Egypt by locals greeting her motorcade with tomatoes, shoes and water bottles. Rallying protesters showed awareness with US domestic policy history, chanting “Monica, Monica”.

AFP Photo / Brendan Smialovsky

The two-day visit by the US secretary of state to Egypt ended in scandal when the convoy she was driving in from the newly-opened American consulate in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria was attacked by local citizens chanting anti-American slogans.

The protesting crowds hailed the motorcade with vegetables and other objects, reportedly hitting one of the Egyptian officials in the convoy in the face. The American armored motorcade suffered only superficial damage while Hillary Clinton’s car remained intact.

There have been reports of the protesters chanting "Leave, Clinton” and "Monica, Monica," presumably referring to the scandal with the secretary’s husband, former US President Bill Clinton’s extra-marital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. 

Read more / see photos: RT

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Israeli high court upholds controversial citizenship law

Israel's Supreme Court rules that Palestinians will not be able to acquire Israeli citizenship through marriage.

On Wednesday night, an expanded panel of 11 high-court jurists rejected a series of petitions against a provision in Israel's decades-old citizenship law that has been decried by many as a violation of the rights of the nation's Arab minority, many of whom are married to Palestinians.

Without citizenship, Palestinian spouses -- and often the children of those couples -- are rendered illegal, affecting a wide range of rights.

Read more: LA Times

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