Syria rebels freeze negotiations, saying truce violated
Free Syrian Army and other groups pull out of discussions about Kazakhstan peace talks due to assault on Wadi Barada.
Syria's main rebel groups say they have frozen their participation in preliminary peace talks planned for Kazakhstan later this month due to several "violations" by the regime of a five-day-old truce.
Sources told Al Jazeera the groups were freezing their participation in negotiations being prepared by Russia due to a government-led assault on Wadi Barada, a rebel-held area near Damascus that is key to the capital's water supply.
The groups suspending their participation included the Free Syrian Army, one of the biggest coalitions fighting against President Bashar al-Assad, and the Army of Conquest, another coalition of anti-government groups.
A human rights activist, a secret prison and a tale from Xi Jinping's new China
Peter Dahlin spent 23 days in a ‘black prison’ in Beijing, where he says he was deprived of sleep and questioned with a ‘communication enhancement’ machine. Here he tells the story of his incarceration and expulsion from the People’s Republic
by Tom Phillips in Chiang Mai
Tuesday 3 January 2017 02.12 GMT
Some nights Peter Dahlin says he tucks a “big-ass knife” under his bed in case intruders come for him as he dozes; others he cannot sleep at all.
“They’ve kidnapped people several times here before,” says the 36-year-old Swedish human rights activist, chain-smoking Marlboro cigarettes as he remembers the 23 days he spent in secret detention in China.
It has been a year since Dahlin became one of the first foreign victims of President Xi Jinping’s war on dissent.
Israeli officials back shoot-to-kill policy of Palestinian suspects, says Human Rights Watch
'No attacker, male or female, should make it out of any attack alive,' says defence minister
Leading Israeli officials have been encouraging soldiers and police officers to kill Palestinians suspected of attacks regardless of whether lethal force is necessary, according to a new report by a leading human rights organisation.
Human Rights Watch has compiled numerous statements by senior members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration and the country’s police force, which appear to endorse using lethal force against suspects, irrespective of whether anyone is in danger.
International human rights law limits lethal force to circumstances in which it is necessary to protect life, and in which no other less extreme option is available.
Why is China 'protecting' the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group?
China blocked a recent Indian move to blacklist Jaish-e-Mohammad's chief Masood Azhar at the UN. In a DW interview, Siegfried O Wolf explains why China is protecting the Pakistan-based militant group's head.
On Friday, December 30, China vetoed India's request at the United Nations to designate the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad's (JeM) head Masood Azhar as terrorist. The UN Security Council has already blacklisted JeM, but not Azhar.
New Delhi accuses JeM and Azhar of masterminding several terrorist attacks on Indian soil, including a deadly assault on an Indian airbase in Pathankot in January 2016. Pakistani investigators say Azhar and his associates had no links with the attack.
At least 56 killed in Brazil prison riot over drug turf, officials say
Updated 0715 GMT (1515 HKT) January 3, 2017
A 17-hour uprising at a prison in Brazil claimed the lives of at least 56 prisoners over the weekend, state-run media agency Agencia Brasil reported Monday.
Bodies were thrown over the wall of the complex, and at least six people were decapitated, the news agency reported.
The revolt started Sunday afternoon as part of a rivalry between two criminal organizations at the Anisio Jobim Prison Complex in the city of Manaus, Agencia Brasil reported, citing Sergio Fontes, the public safety secretary for the state of Amazonas.
Japan eyes stricter labeling of genetically modified food
NATIONAL
Japan is considering expanding the scope of mandatory labeling of ingredients containing genetically modified crops from the current 33 food items, according to Consumer Affairs Agency sources.
The move is aimed at giving consumers a greater sense of security about the food they buy and eat amid growing imports of genetically modified crops and food products containing them.
In 2015, Japan imported 11.8 million tons of corn and 2.33 million tons of soy from the United States, and over 90% of them were believed to be genetically modified, according to the agriculture ministry.
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