Rights organizations decried the four year prison sentence handed down to Zhang Zhan, a citizen-journalist, by a Chinese court on Monday. She was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” charges sometimes used by authorities to quell dissent. Zhang, a 37-year-old former lawyer, had reported on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan beginning in February. [...]

The Central African Republic (CAR) held presidential and legislative elections Sunday amid fears of unrest and controversy. Despite threats of violence by rebel groups, citizens turned out in significant numbers. The incumbent President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, seeking a second term, is favored to win. Touadéra has advocated demobilizing armed groups and incentivizing international investment. He has accused [...]

The government in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir issued an order Friday extending the suspension of high-speed 4G internet services until January 8 across the union territory excluding the districts of Ganderbal and Udhampur, citing post-election unrest and border infiltration. The government said it received credible reports concerning terrorists attempting to infiltrate [...]

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Saturday issued notices to Google and Wikipedia for “disseminating sacrilegious content” through their platforms. According to the authority, these websites are hosting misleading content about the present khalifa (spiritual head) of Islam. The searches on these platforms show the current leader of the Ahmadiyya community as the “present khalifa [...]

The Turkish Parliament passed a law Sunday aimed at controlling terrorism after two days of debate. Entitled the “Law on Preventing the Financing of the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction,” the new legislation includes controversial amendments to an existing law on aid collection. These amendments enable the government, led by President Tayyip Erdogan, to [...]

The European Commission Saturday published the proposed Brexit trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) that was announced Thursday. Since the UK officially left the EU on January 31, it has been in an 11-month transition period. During this period, the UK did not have representation in the European Parliament [...]

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday commended the Republic of Chad for adopting its first asylum law to enhance protection for close to 480,000 refugees currently hosted in the country. Chad has one of the largest refugee populations in Africa. At present, it hosts more than 915,000 refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced [...]

The cabinet of Indian state Madhya Pradesh approved the Dharma Swatantrya (Religious Freedom) Bill 2020 on Saturday, just days ahead of the state’s winter assembly session. It is the second Indian state to pass a law against religious conversion only for the sake of marriage. Indicating the intent behind the anti-conversion bill, Chief Minister Shivraj [...]

China will now hold children as young as 12 years old criminally liable for crimes deemed “abominable,” according to China Daily. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Saturday also introduced punishment for intellectual property infringement that could lead to 10 years in prison. The Standing Committee said an “abominable” crime would [...]

The Turkish Parliament Friday began debate on a controversial new law that would grant the government more power to regulate non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The title of the proposed law is “Preventing the Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction,” and it purports to help the government crack down on the financing of terrorist [...]