International
At UN, Pakistani leader calls India a sponsor of Muslim hate
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday assailed India’s Hindu nationalist government and its moves to cement control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, calling India a state sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Islam.
Khan said at the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders that Islamophobia rules India and threatens the nearly 200 million Muslims who live there.
“They believe that India is exclusive to Hindus and others are not equal citizens,” he said in a prerecorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly, which is being held virtually amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Khan has frequently criticized the August 2019 decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strip Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrap its separate constitution and remove inherited protections on land and jobs.
India’s U.N. representative, T.S. Tirumurti, said on Twitter that Khan’s speech was “a new diplomatic low” full of “vicious falsehood.” He said India would offer a further rebuttal later Friday, when it will have an opportunity to reply under U.N. rules.
Belarus opposition lawyer fined, freed
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A lawyer representing a top opposition activist was freed after a court imposed a fine Friday, a day after she was detained by police, and three journalists who have covered weeks of mass protests against the country’s authoritarian president were sentenced to about two weeks in jail.
The lawyer, Lyudmila Kazak, went missing Thursday, with police confirming later in the day that she had been detained. On Friday, she was found guilty of failing to obey police and fined 675 rubles ($260).
Kazak has defended Maria Kolesnikova, a key member of a council Belarus’ political opposition set up to push for a new presidential election in the wake of the Aug. 9 vote that officials said gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office; opponents and some poll workers claim the results were manipulated.
Kolesnikova is facing charges of undermining state security that could bring a five-year prison term if she is convicted.