An Iraqi federal court has ordered the arrest of Kurdistan officials involved administering the region’s independence referendum last month.

The arrests warrants, issued by Baghdad’s Rusafa investigation court, apply to members of the Kurdistan Region’s electoral commission, reports the BBC.

The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill last week, calling for accountability for perpetrators of genocide in Iraq and Syria.

The bill, entitled the “Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act of 2017”, calls for greater action to tackle Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), accusing the group of committing genocide in the region. 

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution last week that will see the appointment of a panel to investigate reports of war crimes in Yemen.

The resolution, passed without a vote last week, will see a group of "eminent international and regional experts" appointed by the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein to investigate “all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights and other appropriate and applicable fields of international law".

Catalonia’s leader Carles Puigdemont delayed the official declaration of Catalonia’s independence to allow for an opportunity for talks and negations to reach a solution with Spain.

Addressing regional parliament in Barcelona on Tuesday, Mr Puigdemont said,

Iraq will reopen a crude oil pipeline to Turkey which bypasses one operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said the country’s oil ministry on Tuesday.

In a statement Iraq’s oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi asked state owned North Oil Co. to begin the restoring and reopening the Kirkuk Ceyhan pipeline reports Reuters.

Independence movements in Cameroon and Nigeria have been met by strong military crack downs in recent weeks reports the New York Times.

In Nigeria, the Biafra movement seeking independence in the southeast of the country saw Nigeria’s military storm the house of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra movement.

Iraq’s government will move to impose control over Kurdistan based mobile phone operators and move their headquarters to Bagdad it announced on Monday.

The announcement was made following a meeting of top security officials reports Reuters.

The Elders have expressed their “deep concern at the recent violent confrontation in Catalonia” and called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

In a statement released on Sunday, the group called for “both sides to pursue a peaceful resolution through dialogue”.

The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been accused of leaking sensitive information to a possible Libyan war crimes suspect, who was paying him for consultancy work.

Catalan ministers will be outlawed if they defy courts and declare independence warned Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ildefonso Castro.

Speaking in an interview with Sky News, Mr Castro said,

“You can disagree with the law, but you cannot disobey the law. If you disobey the law, you become an outlaw.”

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) warned that crimes against humanity may be underway in Myanmar, as the military continues its offensive against Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state.

Spain’s top court has ordered a halt to a planned meeting of the Catalan parliament next week, where a declaration of independence was being planned by the region’s lawmakers.

The Spanish Constitutional Court also warned Catalonia’s speaker of parliament that she and other political leaders could face prosecution if they went ahead with the parliamentary session.

The leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont said he was not afraid of being arrested for his involvement in leading the independence referendum, reports Reuters.

When asked about his possible arrest in a press conference on Thursday, Mr Puigdemont said,

“Personally I am not afraid of that.”

Turkey, Iran and Iraq will work together to formulate a sanctions strategy that will halt Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil exports reports the Financial Times.

Speaking after a one day trip to Iran, Turkeys president Tayyip Erdogan said that the three nations would act jointly to place sanctions on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).