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Cuba, China and Russia on Tuesday were elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council -- a move that the U.S. branded a “mockery” of the body's intended purpose and as proof that Washington was right to leave the council in 2018. The three countries, all with a history of authoritarianism and human rights abuses, were elected by the U.N. General Assembly, along with countries including Bolivia, France, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom. Saudi Arabia was on the ballot but failed to drum up enough support to win a seat.

China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan are tipped to finish top of Tuesday’s election for seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council, prompting disbelief from freedom campaigners and exiled dissidents alike. U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group, said allowing these countries anywhere near the council “is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade.”

Pakistan’s Supreme Court made the right call last week, ensuring that one of the killers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl won’t walk free — at least not for now. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheik’s been on death row since 2002 for orchestrating the kidnapping and beheading of Pearl. But a local court this year ruled he’s only guilty of the lesser charge of kidnapping and re-sentenced him to seven years, which would spring him now. Pearl’s family appealed the decision, and the high court has now agreed to delay any release while it considers the arguments, which will take...

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s telecom regulator blocked TikTok on Friday for failing to filter out “immoral and indecent� content, another blow to the social media app that has come under increasing scrutiny as its popularity has surged across the globe.The ban comes in view of “complaints from different segments of the society against immoral and indecent content on the video sharing application,� said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).Shortly after the ban, the app began to show a blank interface with no text or images loading.The PTA said it would review its ban, subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful...

'Waterboarding broke al Qaeda captive in 35 seconds,' says former CIA agent defending tortureUse of the interrogation technique known as "waterboarding" was approved by the White House and gets results, a former CIA agent admitted yesterday. The technique - which simulates drowning - was used against Al Qaeda captives with success, John Kiriakou told a U.S. TV network. The one-time CIA interrogator is the first to speak out about the "torture" methods that have earned President George Bush's administration worldwide condemnation. The White House has denied torture is used on terror suspects, but Mr Kiriakou said waterboarding "broke" one stubbornly...

Ali Hassan’s father, a young man who stabbed two people in a meat-cleaver attack outside the former Paris office of controversial Charlie Hebdo magazine last week, said to himself ” proud ”of his son. In an interview with online channel Naya Pakistan, the father, whose name is withheld, said his son had “done a great job” and was “very happy” with the attack. The French government condemned Friday’s stabbing in front of the former office of the satirical magazine as an act of “Islamist terrorism”. The man, previously identified as Ali Hassan, seriously injured two employees of the Premieres Ligne...

AIPEI (Taiwan News) — As tensions continue to simmer on the Sino-Indian border, a video surfaced on Sunday (Sept. 20) showing People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers crying as they are allegedly deployed to the border. On Sunday, Pakistani comedian Zaid Hamid uploaded a video showing several PLA recruits crying on a bus as they are allegedly "transferred to Ladakh Border to face Indian Army [sic]." Hamid then wrote that China's one-child policy is "seriously hurting the motivation level of our Chinese brothers." He then added, "We Pakistani support you China. Stay Brave." Although Pakistan is an ally of China, Hamid...

The Maldives government is now alarmed at the amount of debt it owes to China. With the coronavirus pandemic, the tourism-dependent islands are now finding it difficult to repay the Chinese debt that the previous government took. India and China have been trying to gain clout in the region. Under Former President Abdullah Yameen’s government, China invested millions of dollars in infrastructure projects under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, in 2018 Yameen faced election defeat. In an interview with BBC, the current Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed said that the Chinese debt amounts to...

Tens of thousands of people across Pakistan protested against French magazine Charlie Hebdo reprinting cartoons that mock the Prophet Mohammad. The cartoons were first published in 2005 and triggered outrage and unrest among Muslims around the world. Earlier this week, Charlie Hebdo - a satirical weekly - revived the cartoons to mark the start of the trial of suspected accomplices in an Islamist militant attack on its Paris office back in 2015. The protests in Pakistan were organized by the hardline Islamist TLP party and held across the country. Rallies paralyzed traffic in Karachi - the country's financial and business...

The president, who describes himself as the best friend ever of India and Indian Americans in the White House.The First Family of the United States is in love with India, US President Donald Trump indicated as he noted that both his daughter Ivanka and son Donald Trump Jr along with Kimberly Guilfoyle think a lot about India and so does he. “I know India and I understood those young people (Kimberly, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka) that you mentioned. They’re very good young people. And I know their relationship to India is very good and so is mine,” Trump told...

Pakistan: Christian teen flees after court returns her to custody of her Muslim abductor AUG 29, 2020 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER These “love jihad” incidents are motivated by supremacist assumptions. The idea is that the Muslim community will always grow at the expense of the non-Muslim community. In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the court shares the same assumptions. And so Maira Shahbaz has no chance at freedom except to flee. “Pakistani Christian Teen Flees into Hiding After Court Returns Her to Custody of Abductor,” International Christian Concern, August 27, 2020: 08/27/2020 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International...

About 39,000 Pakistanis have been deported from the Kingdom in the past four months for violating the rules of residence and work, according to informed security sources. The sources also said the involvement of a number of Pakistani nationals in some terrorist actions orchestrated by Daesh, the so called IS, is a cause of public and societal worry. They said a number of Pakistanis were held in the crimes of drug trafficking, thefts, forgery and physical assault. Against this backdrop, Abdullah Al-Sadoun, chairman of the security committee of the Shoura Council, called for thoroughly scrutinizing the Pakistanis before they are...

Since the Citizenship Amendment Act has come into effect, there has been a sudden spike in the number of Afghan Muslims and Rohingya Muslims, who are illegal immigrants in India, wanting to convert to Christianity so as to become eligible for Indian citizenship. According to a report by The Economic Times, the central agencies, aware of this development, have apprised the government that almost 25 such cases of Afghan Muslims converting to Christianity has come to the fore. Adib Ahmed Maxwell, who heads an Afghan church in south Delhi, told ET: “Post CAA, there has been a spurt in the...

Pakistan’s foreign policy has been incoherent and inconsistent since its inception. It has suffered from a chasm between policy and strategy, xenophobic tendencies, domestic politics interfering negatively with the foreign policy process, and vice versa – including the unsettling influence of the military on civilian politics and the outsize impact of religious groups. Policy-makers, rather than focusing on the policy process and the outcomes, serially succumb to socio-religious pressures, intensifying policy volatility, and that volatility, read as vulnerability, opens Pakistan up to manipulation by stronger world powers. The result is that on the issues that Pakistan flags as central to...

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis protested on Sunday against the normalisation deal signed between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, Anadolu reported. Mass rallies were held across Pakistan, including the capital, Islamabad, the port city of Karachi, northeastern city of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Multan and Hyderabad. The protests were organised by the Milli Yakjehti Council, a political-religious alliance which called on the Pakistani people to join the protests and denounce “the controversial deal between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv”. In the city of Rawalpindi, thousands of citizens marched through the city streets led by Senator Sirajul...

Naseem was charged with denigrating the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad. Two years later, awaiting his bail hearing surrounded by police and lawyers, he was gunned down. Faisal Khan, a 15-year-old Pakistani, beams for selfies with lawyers and police. Thousands hail him in the streets as a “holy warrior.” His claim to adulation? Allegedly gunning down in open court an American accused of blasphemy, a capital crime in this Islamic republic. Khan is charged with murder, which also carries a death sentence. But while lawyers line up to defend him, the attorney for Tahir Naseem, the U.S. citizen, has gone...

In the wake of the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, there are rumors that several other states could be next to sign an agreement with Israel. While there are hurdles to normalizing relations with some states in the Middle East, there are others who view the UAE decision as a trial balloon and will react positively based on how the next weeks and months play out between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. What follows is a list of some countries that reports suggest may be in line to normalize relations. Bahrain Bahrain was long thought to...

the genuinely privileged class in America’s big cities consists of radical progressives, who flout mask requirements at mass demonstrations, deface public property with graffiti, and riot and destroy while being called “mostly peaceful demonstrators.” ... The two rioters grabbed national attention when they were arrested because of their elite and privileged backgrounds. ... Colinford Mattis.. embodies elite credentials via affirmative action, “plucked” in Miller’s word, from East New York and educated at elite St. Andrew’s prep, Princeton (where he was a member of two elite eating clubs), and NYU Law. Urooj Rahman, born in Pakistan and brought to the USA...

This June, a giant cross was discovered in the remote mountain areas of northern Pakistan, overlooking the river Indus, by a team of researchers from the University of Baltistan in Skardu. Carved out of marble stone, weighing three or four tonnes, and approximately seven feet in height, the cross is believed to be the largest one of its kind found in the Subcontinent. The discovery has generated global interest since it sheds new light on the religious history of the Subcontinent. While the precise era to which the cross belonged is yet to be ascertained through carbon dating, initial...

The Hindus performed the prayer rituals awkwardly in supplication to their new, single god, as they prepared to leave their many deities behind them. Their lips stumbled over Arabic phrases that, once recited, would seal their conversion to Islam. The last words uttered, the men and boys were then circumcised. Dozens of Hindu families converted in June in the Badin district of Sindh Province in southern Pakistan. Video clips of the ceremony went viral across the country, delighting hard-line Muslims and weighing on Pakistan’s dwindling Hindu minority. The mass ceremony was the latest in what is a growing number of...