UK refuses to grant Assange safe passage for medical check
AFP, QUITO: Britain has refused Ecuador’s request to give Julian Assange safe passage for a medical checkup after he had a sharp pain in his right shoulder, Quito’s top diplomat said Wednesday. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden. Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange about a rape claim, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations that expires in 2020. Assange, who faces arrest if he tries to leave the embassy, denies the allegation and insists the sexual encounter was consensual. “We did ask the British government for a safe passage for humanitarian reasons in coordination with Ecuador, so that Julian Assange can get an MRI,” Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told a briefing in Quito.
Lankan Tamil prisoners go on hunger strike
AFP, COLOMBO: More than 200 Tamil prisoners staged hunger strikes and other protests in jails across Sri Lanka this week against being incarcerated for years without trial, officials said Thursday. Eight inmates were taken to the prison hospital of Colombo’s main jail on Wednesday night, after refusing food for three days to push their demands for progress in their drawn-out cases, national prisons chief Rohana Pushpakumara said. Some of the 200 are refusing food while others are defying demands to return to their cells and follow orders, Justice Ministry spokesman Harsha Abeykoon said.

Pakistan hangs another 6 convicts in Punjab
AFP, ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday hanged six people convicted of murder in Punjab province, the third day in a row it has carried out a batch of executions and bringing the total toll since December to more than 240. The hangings come as Pakistan’s controversial lifting of a moratorium on executions last year is under growing scrutiny. The executions took place in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab on Thursday. Indian police kill two deserters in Kashmir
AFP, SRINAGAR: Government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday killed two former police officers in a gunbattle after the men deserted the force to join rebels in the restive territory. Inspector general of police Danish Rana said the two men had abandoned the force to join the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is banned in India. “We were on hot pursuit against them. Today we eliminated them in a joint operation with the army,” Rana told AFP. Both were former rebels who had been recruited as Special Police Officers (SPOs), one in 1999 and the other in 2006.