Matthew Hedges case A general from the United Arab Emirates who has been accused of complicity in torture has been elected as president of the global police agency Interpol. Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, inspector general of the UAE’s interior ministry, will serve a four-year term in the part-time and unpaid role. Human rights groups had […]
The BBC has learned that the UN has repeatedly ignored requests from bereaved families for information to help the official investigation into the Beirut port explosion which killed 219 people in August last year. The probe has been beset by delays, rows and recriminations, leaving families and survivors no closer to finding out who, if […]
Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced she is seeking to declare the whole of Palestinian militant group Hamas a terrorist organisation. The military wing of the group which controls Gaza is already proscribed a terrorist organisation by the UK. However, the change will also cover the Islamist movement’s political wing. It is a criminal offence […]
More than 100 high-profile figures, including musicians and authors, have pledged support for six Palestinian civil society groups that Israel has designated as terrorist organisations. A statement condemns what they call the “unprecedented and blanket attack on Palestinian human rights defenders”. Israel says the groups are a front for a militant faction, the Popular Front […]
The US military has defended as “legitimate” an air strike attack which killed dozens of people in Syria in 2019. The attack on so-called Islamic State fighters killed 80 people, as the group made their last stand. The US identified 16 of the dead as militants, and four as civilians. But officials could not conclude […]
By Doug Faulkner BBC News Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe case The husband of British-Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has ended his hunger strike after 21 days. Richard Ratcliffe has been protesting outside the Foreign Office, demanding the government does more to secure his wife’s release from Iran. He said he had promised her he would end the protest, […]
Iran nuclear deal The UK has urged Iran to back a deal that would revive the international agreement curbing the country’s nuclear activities, at a meeting in London. Under the original 2015 deal, Iran said it would curb its nuclear ambitions in return for other countries lifting economic sanctions. The agreement collapsed when the […]
Israeli police have arrested 65 Israeli Arabs on suspicion of illegal arms dealing in what they say was the biggest ever operation of its kind. The suspects were primarily from northern Israel but also from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. A former criminal recruited as an undercover agent bought dozens of weapons, including […]
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi says the perpetrators of Sunday’s failed assassination attempt at his home in Baghdad have been identified. Six of Mr Kadhimi’s guards were wounded in the pre-dawn attack by armed drones, which also damaged the building. “We will pursue those who committed the crime. We know them well,” he told a […]
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has said he escaped unhurt after a drone attack on his home inside Baghdad’s high-security Green Zone. A drone laden with explosives struck the building, injuring six of his bodyguards in an apparent assassination attempt, officials said. Mr Kadhimi called for “calm and restraint from everyone”. The attack, which comes […]
