Israel kills top Hezbollah figure in Beirut strike, Reuters sources say
Top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, two security sources told Reuters.
A leading international rights group appealed on Monday for the UN Human Rights Council to address the ongoing, "relentless abuses" by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, including severe restrictions on women and freedom of speech.
Despite initial promises for a more moderate stance, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since taking power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
The Taliban have banned women from public life and girls education beyond the sixth grade, carried out public executions after sentences before Taliban courts and cracked down on minority communities.
Amnesty International said the Taliban have also targeted women's rights defenders, academics, and activists in recent months and detained them unlawfully. The arrests are arbitrary and those detained have no legal recourse or access to their families.
The to establish an independent investigative mechanism in Afghanistan as soon as possible and for United Nations members to act toward ending impunity and ensuring justice for victims of Taliban abuses.
"The human rights situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly, and the Taliban's relentless abuses continue every single day," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general.
"It is clear that the Taliban are not willing nor able to investigate actions by their members that grossly violate the human rights of Afghanistan's population," she added.
The group also said that people who publicly criticize "abusive rules" of the Taliban have been arrested without any explanations while the crackdown on women's rights and public killings of minority ethnic Hazaras continue unchecked.
Among those detained are Narges Sadat, a women's rights defender; civil society activist Fardin Fedayee; author and activist Zekria Asoli and also Afghan-French journalist Mortaza Behboudi. Former Afghan lawmaker Qais Khan Wakili and journalist Muhammad Yar Majroh are also in custody, Amnesty said.
In many cases, no information was given for the arrest and whereabouts of those detained, amounting to enforced disappearance, the group said.
Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available to comment on Amnesty's report.
Separately, Amnesty reported Taliban abuses in northern Panjshir province, where their forces are fighting resistance members of the so-called National Resistance Front. The rights group said it authenticated photos and videos on social media posts of at least eight incidents between May and August 2022, showing arbitrary arrests and detentions of some 87 people in Panjshir.
Amnesty cited an unnamed witness as saying that in one of those incidents, the Taliban called residents in the village of Dan-i-Rivat in Panjshir from a mosque loudspeaker to a meeting, then tied some 50 men who showed up, hands behind their backs, and beat them with their rifle butts before taking them away.
Top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, two security sources told Reuters.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.
Israel’s military has struck the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, in a dramatic escalation in a year-long period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.
A paid passenger on an expedition to the Titanic with the company that owned the Titan submersible testified before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday that the mission he took part in was aborted due to an apparent mechanical failure.
Following the MIND diet for 10 years produced a small but significant decrease in the risk of developing thinking, concentration and memory problems, a new study found.
The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.