Iranian opposition website, Kaleme, has reported that at least 631 people have been killed in protests against the rise in fuel prices which began on 15 November. 

The actual figure of those who died during the protests has been disputed as Reuters has reported the death toll was closer to 1,500 and Amnesty International has estimated the figure closer to 1,800.

These reports have been denied by the Iranian authorities. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has claimed that these accusations are part of a ““very dangerous conspiracy” by foreign enemies.

Tehran said in December that some “rioters” were shot dead by security forces. Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denounced the unrest as a “very dangerous conspiracy” by Iran’s enemies.

Read Reuter’s account here.

US President Donald Trump was pictured with a former US Navy Seal who was granted clemency after being committed for war crimes.

Chief petty Officer Eddie Gallagher, who had initially been cleared by a military jury of murder but was convicted with posing with the body of a dead teenage Islamic State fighter, was pictured with Trump in Florida last week.

The New York Times published excerpts of video interviews that fellow soldiers had with military investigators, where they described Gallagher as “evil” and “toxic”. He was accused of killing civilians, including a small girl in Afghanistan.

“I think he just wants to kill anybody he can,” Corey Scott, a medic from the platoon, told investigators. “The guy is freaking evil,” special operator first class Craig Miller added.

US Navy secretary Richard Spencer was ousted by Trump in the aftermath of the case, after clemency was granted. Spencer wrote in the Washington Post that the president’s intervention as “shocking and unprecedented”.

Since clemency was granted Gallagher has gone on to appear on several conservative television shows and has been sponsored by various brands to promote their products. 

See more from the New York Times here and The Guardian here. 

Some 400 protestors were arrested by police in Hong Kong after hundreds of thousands of people reportedly attended a New Year’s Day march in the city, in the latest round of anti-government demonstrations.

Riot police were deployed and tear gas fired after police officials blamed radical protestors for “hijacking” the march, which was initially permitted by authorities before they attempted to shut it down.

“The government is not willing to back down at this moment,” protestor Grace Ng told the New York Times. “I want the government to compromise, but I think there isn’t enough international attention at the moment to make them bow down to the people.”  

The Civil Human Rights Front condemned the arrests, stating that the march was attended by a million people. “The government has shown its unwillingness to listen to the voices of the mass and it has infringed on their right to assembly,” it said in a statement. “Hong Kongers shall not back down and peace shall not resume with the ongoing police brutality.”

As of last week, 6,494 people have been arrested since protests began in June, reports The Guardian.

The latest demonstration came as China’s Premier Xi Jinping mentioned the protests in his New Year’s Day address, saying that “Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability is the wish of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation for the people of the motherland”.

See more from The Guardian here and the New York Times here.

A mother of a British woman who was convicted in Cyprus after authorities claimed she had lied about being raped, has called for a tourism boycott of the country.

Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office expressed “serious concern” over the case of the 19-year-old woman who has convinced of causing “public mischief” in a widely criticised trial. The woman had recanted a claim that she had been raped in a hotel room in Ayia Napa in July. Her lawyers state she had no legal representation or translators present when she recanted the claim, which was done during interrogation by police officers.

The teenager’s mother told the BBC that she had backed calls for a tourism boycott of the country, which had more than 1.3 million British visitors in 2019 alone

Cypriot government spokesman, Kyriakos Kousios, said public reaction to the case was “exaggerated”. “We are not happy with the extent of publicity and the reaction, which has been exaggerated,” he told The Guardian. “We would have wished that these [boycott] calls hadn’t happened.”

See more from the BBC here and The Guardian here.

Dozens of political prisoners have been released form Nicaragua, following the strengthening of US sanctions on the country and hunger strikes from the mothers of those being detained.

The Nicaraguan government said that at least 91 prisoners had been released, but the New York Times reported that it remained unclear whether their sentences have been converted to a form of house arrest or if the charges had been dropped.

Many of those arrested were detained after taking part in anti-government protests in the country in April 2018.

“I had been sentenced to five years for supposedly stealing a Sandinista Party member’s I.D. card, but the real reason was because I was against the government — and I am going to continue to be against the government,” said one prisoner Scannierth Merlo Lacayo, after his release.

“This is a great day for Nicaragua, because it proves what we had been saying all along: There are political prisoners in Nicaragua,” said Martha Alvarado, whose 30-year-old son, Melkissedex A. López Ferrey, was also released from detention. “We never lost faith, and we are not giving up until everyone is free.”

See more from the New York Times here.

The Indian government announced it will begin plans for a third lunar mission this year, named “Chandrayaan-3”.

The head of India’s space agency K Sivan made the announcement on Wednesday, stating the project “may spill over” into 2021.

Only Russia, the United States and China have managed to make soft moon landings, with India striving to be the fourth country to do so. The previous Indian attempt - Chandrayaan-2 - failed in September when the module crashed onto the lunar surface.

Sivan added that India plans to launch at least 25 space missions in 202 alone, as it looks to grow it’s standing as a space power.

See more from the BBC here.

A Sudanese court has sentenced 29 intelligence officers to death by hanging for torturing and killing a teacher.

Ahmad al-Khair, 36, was arrested and kept in custody due to taking part in the protests against former president Omar al-Bashir in February this year. His family were told by security officials that Ahmed al-Khair died from food poisoning but a state investigation later revealed he had died due to injuries sustained through beating.

Judge al-Sadik al-Amin al-Fek ruled that Ahmad al-Khair was beaten and tortured to death by detention centre officers in the Eastern state of Kassala reported Japan Times.

“His death was an inevitable consequence of the beating and torture,” the judge said.

Hundreds of people rallied outside the court in Omdurman, where the verdict was delivered on Monday. Many demonstrators hoisted national flags, banners and photos of Ahmad al-Khair and erupted into elation to celebrate the ruling.

Ahmed al-Khair’s brother Saad told reporters “This day is a victory for justice, a victory for all Sudanese and a victory for the revolution,” according to Reuters.

The ruling is welcomed by many parties as Sudan remains under international and national pressure to adopt transitional justice measures. Sudanese Professionals Associations (SPA), who were known to lead the uprising protests and currently hold a favourable relationship with the military, were among the many to applaud the ruling and insisted that it restored faith in the judiciary.  

“With this ruling, the revolution will have paid off its debt to the martyrs a first time, to be followed as many times as the number of martyrs,” it said.

Ahmad al-Khair’s case was recognised nationally in Sudan and his killing galvanised protests against Bashir’s rule, with it being a key point and symbol in the uprising that brought together the fragmented African nation. Bashir was finally defeated and overthrown by the military for his abuse of power, money laundering and corruption violations after 30 years of rule.

Bashir was sentenced to two years imprisonment but human rights groups such as Amnesty International have called for Bashir to face trial at the Hague for his charges of war crimes and genocide in the early 2000’s. 

<p>The UN has passed a non-binding resolution calling on Myanmar to stop the incitement of violence and hatred against Rohingya and other communities.</p> <p>During a brutal military crackdown in the northern state of Rakhine over 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee and thousands were killed in 2017.</p> <p>This resolution follows Aung San Suu Kyi’s denial of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague earlier this month.</p> <p>Read more here:</p> <p>The resolution called on Myanmar to provide protection to all ethnic groups. It was passed with 134 countries voting in favour of the measure out of 193, nine voted against and 28 abstained.</p> <p>Hau Do Suan, the UN ambassador for Myanmar, has accused the resolution of being; &nbsp;"another classic example of double-standards [and] selective and discriminatory application of human rights norms”.</p> <p>Ann Suu Kyi has defended the actions of the military maintaining that this is an ‘internal armed conflict’ but has admitted that excess force may have been used and claims that if soldiers committed war crimes ‘they will be prosecuted’.</p> <p>For more information read the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50931565">BBC’s reporting</a>.</p>

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Guam, which is a US territory, has filed an appeal against a court decision which denied the right of Guam to hold a vote on independence based on the principal of self-determination.

The court ruled that such a vote would violate the constitution as it is ‘race-based’ and contradicts the Fifteenth Amendment.

Guam specified that those eligible to vote be native inhabitants of Guam, which is defined as people who became U.S. citizens on Guam by the Organic Act, or their descendants. The Fifteenth amendment specifies that federal governments cannot deny citizens a right to vote based on “race, colour, or previous condition of servitude”.

In their appeal, Guam officials specify that the application of the Fifteenth Amendment;

“has no basis in history and destroys Guam's ability to ask its native inhabitants about important political-status issues."

Read more at Pacific Daily News.

Human Rights Watch has reported that human rights activist and lawyer, Gamal Eid, the executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANRHI), was attacked for the second time since October by what appears to be the Egyptian security force.

Eid had told Human Rights Watch that when he left his residence in Cairo Maadi, three cars without license plates awaited him. Around ten men came and beat him to the ground, threw paint on him and threatened him with pistols. When neighbours tried to intervene to stop the attack, the assailants threatened them.

Eid is 55-year-old Egyptian human rights activists who founded ANRHI in 2003 to support freedom of expression and to support the work of activists and journalists. The Egyptian government have imposed a travel ban on him and have frozen his assets.

On 10 October, he was attacked and left with cracked ribs and other injuries. A few weeks later he would receive threatening calls and messages demanding that he “behave”.

For more information, read Human Rights Watch.

Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and hardline Hindu priest within the BJP, has defended the use of excessive force against protesters.

Protests against India’s Citizenship amendment have persisted across the country. In Uttar Pradesh, there have been the most deaths. Since the bill passed in May at least 23 people have been killed.

The citizenship provides a pathway to citizenship for refugees of three Muslim majority countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh) except for Muslim groups who are fleeing persecution.

According to Reuters, human rights groups have criticised the government of Uttar Pradesh for the use of mass detention and excessive force. The police have arrested over 1,000 people.

A video has been released of a senior Uttar Pradesh police officer yelling at demonstrators to “go to Pakistan if you don’t want to live here”.

Yogi Adityanath said on Twitter in response to the protests;

“Every rioter is shocked. Every troublemaker is astonished. Looking at the strictness of the Yogi government, everyone is silent”.

He further stated;

“Do whatever you want to, but the damages will be paid by those who cause damages,” it added.

Uttar Pradesh government has said it will demand millions of rupees from the 200+ protests and has threatened the confiscate property if they are not compensated for damages.

Read Reuter’s piece here.

Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, has accused the UK of committing "crimes against humanity" for refusing to allow people to return to their former homes on the Chagos Islands.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Jugnauth said that he is considering bringing charges of crimes against humanity against individual British officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"It is a violation of the basic principle of human rights. I fail to understand why Britain, this government, is being so stubborn. Britain has been professing, for years, respect for the rule of law, respect for international law… but it is a pity the UK does not act fairly and reasonably and in accordance with international law on the issue of the Chagos archipelago," said Mr Jugnauth.

Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the Chagos Islands was to be handed over to Mauritius to complete its “decolonisation". Following this, The United Nations General Assembly voted on a six-month deadline for Britain to comply, to which they refused. 

In a statement, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said:

"The defence facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help protect people in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats and piracy. We stand by our commitment to cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius when it's no longer required fro defence purposes."

The UK retained sovereignty over the Islands after Mauritius gained its independence from Britain in 1968. Between 1967 and 1973, the entire Chagossian population was forcibly removed from the territory. The islands, referred to as the British Indian Ocean Territory by the UK, have since been used for defence purposes by the UK and the US.

The UK began to take smaller groups of Chagossians back to the archipelago for brief “heritage” visits, which has been perceived as attempts to “divide and rule” the Chagos community. 

Oliver Bancoult, head of the Chagos Refugees Group told the BBC: "I boycott those trips. The British are trying to buy our silence. That's why we say our dignity is not for sale."

The graves of many Chagossians in Port Louis, have headstones inscripted with messages grieving their inability to return to the islands. Mr Bancoult’s mother’s headstone reads: "I fear my wish will not come true before I die - to see my motherland again.”

The Indian government has approved plans for a census and population survey, despite continued protests in states across the country over a controversial citizenship law.

The cabinet-approved National Population Register (NPR) has been criticised amid fears it may be used to target Muslims in the country, though the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims the exercise will help to better formulate government policies.

Meanwhile, protests have continued in states across India, including in Delhi, despite Indian police imposing a law to prevent people from gathering in groups. Protests erupted after the Indian government passed a law allowing those who have entered India from certain neighbouring countries from obtaining citizenship, only if they are not Muslim. Eelam Tamils have also not been included in the current law.

At least 25 people have been killed in the unrest, as authorities have cracked down on protestors with Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), criticising the security forces “unnecessary deadly force”.

On Tuesday, Congress Party leaders also claimed that they had been turned away from visiting a town in Uttar Pradesh, where they were due to meet with the families of those killed in the protests. Senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi, the current president of the party, former party head Rahul Gandhi and former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh were also seen at rally against the citizenship law in Delhi this week.

Hundreds of thousands of protestors have attended rallies from Delhi to Chennai.

The protests come as the BJP lost a key state election in Jharkhand this week, ending five years of rule in the state.

See more from The Guardian here, Al Jazeera here, the BBC here and The Times here.
 

The United States has recalled its ambassador to Zambia, after a diplomatic row following the imprisonment of a gay couple in the country.

Zambia’s president had effectively declared US ambassador Daniel Foote a persona non grata after the diplomat said he was “horrified” at the prosecution of the couple. Zambian authorities claimed the men had been seen having sex in 2017 and were subsequently handed a 15-year jail sentence.

Foote said last month that he had expressed his "belief about a law and a harsh sentencing I don't agree with”. He went on to warn of a "decaying relationship" between the two governments, and said Zambia wanted diplomats "with open pocketbooks and closed mouths”. The diplomat also claimed that millions of dollars of donor aid had been misappropriated, but there had been no "assertive corruption prosecutions".

Zambia’s President Lungu snapped back at Foote’s statement, saying “We don't want such people in our midst”. “We want him gone," Lungu said.

An anonymous US government source told AFP that they had recalled the diplomat as "Lungu said he does not want to work with the man [Mr Foote] and so there was no point in him remaining here”.

"Remember that there are issues of security and so Washington want their man back,” the source added. “We do not expect a replacement soon."

See more from the BBC here.