An Egyptian court sentenced more than 680 associated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood to death for an attack on a police station in a mass trial lasting only a few minutes. The court also issued its final verdict on 529 people who were sentenced to death in a similar trial one month ago, upholding 37 of the executions and commuting the others to 25 years in prison.
In Ukraine, pro-Russia and pro-Kiev groups clashed in Donetsk. The area was further destabilized after an assassination attempt by masked gunmen left the mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, seriously wounded. The US has announced sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including seven officials and 17 companies.
The landscape for journalists and political activists in the region has grown ever more dangerous. Over the weekend, pro-Russian groups paraded captives from both Ukrainian security forces and international observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in front of the world media.Some 1300 Muslims have been escorted out of Bangui, Central African Republic, by peacekeepers. The community had been under attack by Christian rebel-groups. Looting by Christians soon followed the evacuation, including at a mosque, further deepening the rift between the two communities. Elsewhere, 22 people were killed, including three aid workers for MSF, in an attack on a clinic.
Yesterday, US President Obama remarked that “Human Rights Watch probably has a list of things they think we [the US] should be doing as a government.” He’s right, and here it is.
In Syria’s savage war, it seems incongruous to single out the experiences of one group. Yet many gay men there face a double threat: They’re being persecuted by the Syrian army and by militant groups while their families often reject them, or worse.
