Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 30 October 2014

Fighters from the Islamic State have executed some 600 prisoners outside the Iraqi city of Mosul, mostly Shia, Kurd. Through the accounts of survivors of the massacre, Human Rights Watch has learned that members of ISIS kidnapped the prisoners from an Iraqi From earlier today: There's been an "abrupt and interesting" turn of events in North Korea, according to a UN human rights investigator. Marzuki Darusman told the UN that North Korean diplomats were prepared to invite him to visit the reclusive state - but only if efforts to try North Korean leaders for crimes against humanity are dropped. At least 60 people have reportedly been killed and scores injured after a Syrian government helicopter dropped two barrel bombs on a camp for people displaced by fighting. The bombs were dropped on a camp near al-Habeet in the northern province of Idlib on Wednesday, killing many women and children, say activists. The deteriorating human rights situation in Kazakhstan is alarming and UN member countries meeting today should urge the government there to adopt overdue rights reforms. In the past few years Kazakhstan has cracked down on free speech, imprisoned its critics and tightened controls over freedom of association and assembly. A Supreme Court in Singapore has ruled to uphold the country’s ban on same-sex relations between consenting men - effectively making homosexuality illegal. Human Rights Watch slammed the decision as a "terrible setback for homosexual people" who simply want to live their lives like everyone else. Tensions are running high in Jerusalem after a far right Jewish rabbi was shot and critically wounded by a Palestinian man yesterday. Israeli police later shot dead the suspected attacker while his victim, the prominent right-wing activist Yehuda Glick, remains in hospital. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has declared he is “deeply troubled” by the findings of a review into recent allegations that the UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region intentionally sought to cover up crimes against civilians and peacekeepers. Human Rights Watch says a thorough, independent and public enquiry is needed. Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through the Hungarian capital Budapest against plans to tax internet use. Critics of the scheme believe the tax could threaten political freedom. Earlier this year Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban publicly declared his intention to build “an illiberal new state" based on national values. The government of Burma has created a plan to expel the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority - one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Under the proposal, all Rohingya who refuse to identify themselves as “Bengalis” will be detained in camps before being driven out of the country.