Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal upheld homosexual couples’ right to inheritance by dismissing on Tuesday an appeal from the Secretary for Justice. The appeal sought to establish that homosexual and heterosexual couples are not entitled to the same rights under Hong Kong’s inheritance laws. The case centered around Edgar Ng and Li Yik Ho’s concern [...]

Israel ordered more than 20,000 residents of the northern city of Kiryat Shmona to evacuate on Friday, according to The Jerusalem Post. This comes after Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah engaged in intense exchanges of fire at the Israeli-Lebanese border near Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday. Similar to Hamas, Hezbollah is a Lebanese Islamist political [...]

Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court granted on Thursday former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif protective bail, according to local media Pakistan Today. The protective bail restrains authorities from arresting Sharif until he appears before court on October 24. Sharif was removed from government and sentenced to 14 years prison over corruption charges in 2017 and 2018, [...]

Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts sentenced Hong Kong protester Tsang Chi-kin to three and a half years in prison Wednesday on charges of rioting and assaulting a police officer, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. Tsang previously pleaded guilty to both charges on September 28 after he was arrested in Sai Kung, Hong [...]

The Hong Kong Court of First Instance granted on Thursday leave to apply for judicial review to dismissed Hong Kong teacher Toffee Tam Yuk-fun. Tam was previously dismissed as a teacher by Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan in July over posting allegedly improper statements on Facebook during the 2019 anti-government protests. [...]

Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) said on Tuesday that the country’s ruling military junta orchestrated an attack on the Munglai Hkyet refugee camp in Kachin, Myanmar. The attack allegedly resulted in 30 fatalities and 57 injuries. The NUG stated that the deliberate attack employed heavy artillery and launched coordinated airstrikes. The parallel government condemned [...]

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged Niger authorities on Monday to immediately release Niger journalist Samira Sabou. Niger news outlet Air info confirmed with Sabou’s relatives that Niger authorities arrested Sabou at her home on September 30 for an unknown reason. Abdoul Kader Nouhou, Sabou’s husband, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that four unidentified men [...]

Thailand’s Central Criminal Court of Corruption and Misconduct acquitted on Thursday four forestry officials charged with the murder of Indigenous rights activist Pholachi Rakchongcharoen. Thai officials indicted the four forestry officials, including former chief of Kaeng Krachan National Park Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, with murder in August 2022 over suspicions that they killed Pholachi. Pholachi disappeared after [...]

The West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Monday sentenced the head of the Hong Kong Journalists Association Ronson Chan to five days in jail, according to the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP). As this decision is at the magisterial level, the official opinions will not be published until 2024. Chan was found guilty of obstructing a [...]

International civil society watchdog CIVICUS added Bangladesh on Thursday to its CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist and rated the civic space in Bangladesh as “repressed,” the watchdog’s second lowest rating. The CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist rates the civic space of jurisdictions based on expression, peaceful assembly and freedom of association. CIVICUS stated it added Bangladesh to its watchlist because [...]