APRNEWS - Spyware crafted by an “advanced cyber actor” infected multiple targeted mobile phones through the popular WhatsApp communications program without any user intervention through in-app voice calls, the company said.

APRNEWS - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday condemned the silence of US President Donald Trump's administration on Saudi Arabia's mass execution of 37 people convicted of terrorism.

APRNEWS - The Philippines officially quit the International Criminal Court on Sunday, though the beleaguered UN-backed tribunal has pledged to pursue its examination of alleged extrajudicial killings in the government's controversial drug war.

APRNEWS - International human rights groups on Friday called on Saudi Arabia to allow independent investigators into the country to probe fresh accusations of torture and abuse of human rights activists.

APRNEWS - More than 800 protesters have been arrested from hundreds of anti-government demonstrations held across Sudan since last month, the interior minister said Monday.

"The total number of protesters arrested until now is 816," Ahmed Bilal Osman told parliament.

APRNEWS - Rights groups on Wednesday called for a "robust" response to a UN expert's allegations that people she met during a visit to Egypt faced harassment, intimidation and other reprisals afterwards.

A statement signed by six organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International urged an "independent UN investigation" into the accusations.

APRNEWS - Tanzania says that a plan to hunt down and arrest suspected homosexuals in the country's economic capital was not official policy, distancing itself from a citywide crackdown slammed by rights groups.

Dar es Salaam's powerful governor, Paul Makonda, urged citizens last Monday to begin reporting homosexuals for round-ups in a country where anti-gay rhetoric has soared in recent years.

 AFP - Thousands on death row for drug crimes in Iran will escape hanging as a new softened anti-narcotics law is enforced, local media reported on Wednesday.

Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani on Tuesday ordered judges to halt death sentences for concerned convicts and review their cases, the judiciary's Mizanonline news agency said.