International
Russia becomes 2nd country ever kicked off UN Human Rights Council
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday voted to pass a resolution to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, in response to Russian forces’ alleged killings of civilians in Ukraine.
The vote passed with 93 countries voting in favor, 24 voting against and 58 abstaining from voting. Belarus, China, Iran, Russia and Syria were among the countries who voted against the resolution.
The vote came amid global outrage over the alleged killings of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, after Russian forces withdrew from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
The UNGA needed a two-thirds majority to suspend Russia, now the second country ever suspended after the UNGA voted to remove Libya from the Human Rights Council in 2011 in response to Moammar Gadhafi’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
In a speech before the vote, a Ukrainian representative urged the assembly to remove Russia from the council.
“Suspension of Russia from the human rights council is not an option, but a duty,” Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said.
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Speaking after the vote, Russia’s deputy permanent member Gennady Kuzmin called the UNGA’s decision “an illegitimate and politically motivated step with the aim of demonstratively punishing a sovereign member state of the U.N.,” even going as far as calling it “open blackmail of sovereign states.”
He also claimed the council is “monopolized by one group of states who use it for their short-term aims,” and that “such actions violate the mandate entrusted by the international community on the Human Rights Council and overall undermine trust in this body.”
After the vote was completed, Kuzmin said Russia made the decision to end its membership with the Human Rights Council on Thursday.
James Roscoe, a UK diplomat, then asked Russia to clarify, and said, “That sounds like someone who has just been fired, then tendering their resignation.” Kuzmin responded, “I think we made a very clear statement.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacted to the vote as he took the stage for a NATO press conference in Brussels.
“A country that’s perpetuating gross and systematic violations of human rights should not sit on a body whose job it is to protect those rights. Today a wrong was righted,” Blinken said during his opening statement.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told CNN on Wednesday that they “absolutely” have the votes to suspend Russia.
“We have been working very, very hard since this war started to build a coalition of countries who are prepared to condemn Russia. We got 141 votes, the first time we went into the General Assembly. The second time we got 140. And I have no doubt that we can defeat Russia here on the Human Rights Council,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
She added: “They don’t deserve to be on the Human Rights Council.”
ABC
International
Mother kills daughters, commits suicide amid in-laws’ torture for not bearing son
Mother kills daughters, commits suicide amid in-laws’ torture for not bearing son
Two minor girls lost their lives after their mother killed them and hanged herself to death on Tuesday, as her her in-laws tortured her mentally due to her inability to bear a son in Bhopal. Tragically, the woman and two of her daughters have succumbed to the ordeal, while her three-year-old daughter fights for her life in the hospital.
The woman, identified as Sangita Yadav, was 28 years old, her daughters Aradhya was 5 years old, and Shristi was 2. The incident occurred in Roadiya village, located 35 kilometers from Bhopal in the Gunaga police station area. The matter came to light on Tuesday afternoon. The bodies of the victims were taken to Hamidia Hospital. According to Gunaga police station in-charge Arun Sharma, initial investigations suggest that the woman committed suicide and murdered her three daughters. However, further investigation is underway to confirm the circumstances.
According to Dainik Bhaskar, the deceased woman’s brother, Neeraj Yadav, has accused the in-laws of harassing his sister. Neeraj revealed that Sangita had sent distressing messages to him at night. In one of the messages, she stated that she was feeling unwell. She mentioned that she was taking poison as nobody would survive, and everyone would die.
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“Neeraj said, “After that, I tried calling her on her mobile phone, but I didn’t get any response. I also called Sangita’s brother-in-law, but he didn’t pick up the phone twice. When he finally answered the third time, I asked him if everything was fine at home. He said yes, everything was fine. I didn’t trust him.” Then, he asked his relatives, who stayed nearby, to go and check once. Thet reached and confirmed, that the bodies of all three kept inside.
Neeraj revealed that his sister was troubled by her in-laws. Whenever she visited her maternal home, Sangita’s husband, Rajat Yadav, would threaten her, saying, ‘If you don’t come back, I will die in an accident. I will electrocute myself.’ On March 4th, there was a wedding in the family, where they drank alcohol and created a ruckus. They took his sister back with them that night. After the wedding, everyone collectively harassed her, which left her distraught, leading her to hang herself along with her daughters.
The authenticity of the suicide note is questionable. Relatives alleged that when Sangita was found hanging, there was a letter stuck to her back, presumed to be a suicide note. In it, she purportedly wrote about a lump in her stomach preventing her from bearing more children and not being able to give birth to a son for her family. However, some family members directly denied the existence of any such letter. Nevertheless, according to the present police officers, a letter has been recovered from the scene.”
Mother kills daughters, commits suicide amid in-laws’ torture for not bearing son
International
‘Fake pastor’ with at least 10 wives jailed for marrying two at same time
‘Fake pastor’ with at least 10 wives jailed for marrying two at same time
A fake pastor who had at least 10 wives has been thrown in jail after marrying two women.
Orlando Coleman trawled black churches across the US under the guise of a travelling bishop, collecting spouses as he went. The 51-year-old would introduce himself to new congregations as a member of the clergy, and was able to dupe at least 10 different women into exchanging vows with him.
Coleman from Houston had presented himself as the founder of several churches as well as a Pentecostal preacher on social media. Despite pleading guilty to bigamy in July 2023 and being placed on probation for marrying two women simultaneously, he wedded another woman two months later.
Now, he has been put behind bars for three years for marrying multiple women since 2019.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said: “At the heart of this repeat offender’s schemes was a plan to defraud women and take advantage of them for financial gain.
“This man used the church to camouflage his scams and hide from any accountability or responsibility.”
Coleman’s web of deceit started to unravel in 2021 when he married a woman in Houston, but his new wife saw he was receiving money from another woman in Virginia.
When his then current wife contacted the woman from Virginia it was revealed that she too was married to Coleman.
Coleman’s Houston wife then contacted the Harris County Sheriff’s Office with the revelation, who in turn launched an investigation and filed bigamy charges.
In July 2023, Coleman pleaded guilty to bigamy in exchange for three years of deferred adjudication probation.
However, just two months later, while still married to the woman in Virginia, Coleman tied the knot again with another woman in Kentucky, committing another offense of bigamy.
Upon learning about Coleman’s new marriage, prosecutors from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office moved to revoke his probation. In a hearing on March 11, a judge sentenced Coleman to three years in prison.
Prosecutors say Coleman married the women for housing and financial security.
After introducing himself as a Protestant pastor or bishop, Coleman would propose marriage.
If a woman accepted, he would move in with her and allow her to foot the cost of his housing and food.
“That’s the only thing he had to offer and to validate his word – the proposal to marry – that was something big,” Assistant District Attorney Vanessa Goussen told The New York Times.
“Getting proposed to was a big gesture for these women, and that corroborated his guise that he’s a godly person.”
Some of the women filed for divorce after Coleman fled to another state.
Coleman is currently being held at the Harris County Jail.
‘Fake pastor’ with at least 10 wives jailed for marrying two at same time
International
Ecuador’s youngest mayor, 27, assassinated along with aide
Ecuador’s youngest mayor, 27, assassinated along with aide
Ecuador’s youngest mayor and an aide were shot dead on Sunday, police in the South American country have said.
Brigitte Garcia, 27-year-old mayor of San Vicente, and her communications director Jairo Loor, were found dead in Manabi province, officers said.
Police added that the pair had both suffered gunshot wounds and that the gunfire had come from within the car, which was rented.
Ms Garcia – a member of former president Rafael Correa’s left-wing Citizen Revolution Movement party – is the latest political figure assassinated in Ecuador.
Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed last August while leaving a campaign event two weeks before the election. He was a vocal critic of corruption and organised crime.
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Mr Correa and Luisa Gonzalez, the party’s presidential candidate in the recent elections, called Ms Garcia’s killing an assassination on social media platform X.
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