News In Brief

Julian Assange
testifies in embassy spying case
AFP, Madrid
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday testified in his legal case against a Spanish private security firm that he claims spied on him while he was holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London.
Assange, who is currently serving time at a high-security prison in Britain, was to answer questions from a judge at Spain’s National Court in Madrid, testifying by video-conference from Westminster Magistrates Court in London, his legal team said.

UN experts call on Iran to release detained protesters
AP, Berlin
A group of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council called Friday for Iran to release all people detained during recent unrest. They said they are “shocked” by reports that suggest prisoners are being tortured or otherwise abused.
In a joint statement issued by more than a dozen of the human rights experts, the group said that of an estimated 200,000 people who took part in recent protests in Iran, some 7,000 are believed to have been arrested and that thousands remain in detention.

China, Pakistan on US watch list for religious freedom violations
AP, Washington
The United States has placed China, Pakistan and a few other countries on a special watch list for “severe violations of religious freedom,” saying that the protection of religious freedom has been a top foreign policy priority of the Trump administration.
“On December 18, 2019, the Department of State re-designated Burma (Myanmar), China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom,” the State Department said in a statement.