Carnage in Kabul: Daily Brief

Carnage in Kabul; New report on Sri Lanka's draconian security law; Day of protests in Russia; Settlements bulldozed in Somalia; Prison for Saudi rights activists; Macron’s mixed message in Calais; Espionage bill in Australia threatens democratic values; and Indonesia's abusive special forces.

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Kabul was the scene of carnage this weekend, as more than 100 people were murdered and many more injured in a suicide bombing. An ambulance packed with explosives detonated after extremists drove it past a police checkpoint in the capital of Afghanistan, to get to a crowded street in a district full of government buildings and embassies.
The government in Sri Lanka should finally fulfill its pledge and repeal a draconian security law, says Human Rights Watch in a new report and video, released today.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained on Sunday during during an anti-Putin protest in Moscow. Protesters in many cities took to the streets, calling for a boycot of the March presidential elections.
Security forces in Somalia have used bulldozers to demolish dozens of informal settlements in Mogadishu since late last year leaving thousands of people homeless. Satellite imagery shows that approximately 3,000 shelters were dismantled or destroyed.
Two leading human rights activists in Saudi Arabia have been convicted to long prison sentences, solely for their human rights advocacy...
Reports of abuses against migrants in Calais, France, by HRW and other organizations should be accepted in good faith and promptly investigated, says HRW's Michael Bochenek in a comment on French President Emmanuel Macron's visit of Calais.
A proposed Australian espionage law will put whistleblowers, journalists, and human rights activists at risk of prosecution, according to HRW's submission to Australia’s Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. The committee’s hearings are scheduled for Tuesday.
And why does the United States want to rehabilitate Indonesia’s abusive special forces? Read this comment by HRW's Indonesia-researcher Andreas Harsono.

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