Pakistan to discuss Hindu marriage law
EVEN after 67 years, the minority Hindus in Pakistan are without a marriage law. But the wait for the minority community, which accounts for 1.6 percent of the country’s population, could end soon. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights, headed by Chaudhry Muhammad Bashir Virk is set to review a private members bill, namely the Hindu Marriage Act 2014, jointly moved last year by Ramesh Lal of PPP and Dr Darshan of PML-N, and a similar government bill that had been tabled by Law Minister Pervaiz Rashid in March, this year. The two bills will establish rules and regulation for the registration of marriage and divorce for Pakistani Hindus. Hindus in Pakistan do not even have a legal document as proof of marriage.
Singapore court releases teen blogger
A 16-year-old video blogger, Amos Yee, was released by a Singapore court after he spent a month in remand waiting for the judgment, according to The Straits Times. Yee was found guilty on May 12 of making derogatory remarks against Christians and Singapore’s late prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, in a video. He had uploaded an obscene image of Lee and former British premier Margaret Thatcher. Groups like The Human Rights Watch criticized Yee’s arrest. In a similar incident, the Supreme Court of Singapore fined blogger Alex Au in March for comments he had made about an ongoing challenge to the country’s anti-homosexuality laws.
China’s new security law
CHINA’S top legislature on July 8 adopted a sweeping new national security law touching on everything, from the military and economy to the environment, religion, the Internet, food safety and space exploration, saying the country needed to bolster legal measures in the face of “ever-growing security challenges”, LA Times reports. Critics fear the broadly worded law could be used to stifle dissent, reinforce censorship and impose new constraints on tech companies and other businesses.
24 Islamic State militants sentenced death.
AN Iraqi court sentenced 24 militants of the Islamic State (IS) group to death for killing Iraqi soldiers last year. The men were convicted for their role in the June 2014 massacre at Tikrit, in which 1,700 Iraqi soldiers died. However, all pleaded not guilty, insisting they had not taken part in the atrocities. They told the court that their confessions were coerced under torture by Iraqi officers. The Iraqi government arrested dozens of people suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack.
NOW scribe sentenced
Four years after a phone-hacking scandal sank the News of the World, the last of the tabloid’s journalists to face charges has been sentenced. A judge on July 6 gave ex-features editor, Jules Stenson, a four-month suspended sentence, 200 hours community service and a $7,800 fine for conspiring to hack phones, ABC News reports. The 49-year-old journalist broke down in tears as the judge told him he would not be going to prison. Judge John Saunders said Stenson was under intense pressure to get scoops when he turned to phone hacking, which was widespread at the newspaper. Stenson is the ninth journalist from NOW to be convicted.