The National Assembly of Nicaragua has voted to dissolve the local branch of the Red Cross, a nonprofit humanitarian organization, as part of an ongoing clampdown on groups seen as hostile to the government of Daniel Ortega.

The attack on the Red Cross comes amid a widespread push to suppress perceived government critics and other organizations, including the Catholic Church.

Some Afghan women employed by the United Nations have been detained, harassed, and had restrictions placed on their movement since being banned by the Taliban from working for the world body, the UN says.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers informed the UN early last month that Afghan women employed with the UN mission could no longer report for work.

The Iranian government is executing 10 people every week on dubious charges such as drug trafficking, blasphemy and “national security concerns,” according to human rights groups.

The toll stands at 209 people executed as of early May in 2023, while the number for the whole of 2022 was put at over 500, putting Iran on course to execute more people this year than it did last.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have blamed each other for gunfire along their restive border, days in advance of EU-hosted talks aimed at resolving their 30-year-old territorial dispute.

The fighting came on Thursday as the two countries are in negotiations on a peace agreement to end a decades-long standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by Armenians.

The United Nation’s top human rights body adopted a resolution Thursday that drew attention to mounting civilian deaths and rights abuses in Sudan since a bloody conflict erupted between the African country’s two top generals last month.

A new report says that the killing of protesters amid widespread unrest may constitute “extrajudicial executions.”

A human rights commission has stated that the Peruvian government committed abuses as it cracked down on widespread unrest following the arrest of former President Pedro Castillo in December.

More than 115,600 children in Haiti are expected to suffer severe wasting from malnutrition this year, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Thursday, as an escalation of armed violence worsens food insecurity and a cholera outbreak. 

The Taliban has not been invited to a United Nations-organized conference on Afghanistan in Doha, with the Afghan group governing the South Asian country saying that the two-day meeting would be “ineffective” without its participation.

Israel launched targeted airstrikes in densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing three senior commanders of the Islamic Jihad militant group in their homes and at least 10 civilians, Palestinian health officials said. Two of the commanders’ wives, several of their children and civilian neighbors — including a hospital director, his wife and son — were among the dead.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are to meet next week in Brussels, the European Union said on Monday, the latest attempt to secure a durable peace accord and resolve longstanding differences over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.