The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has called for reconciliation between militant groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, who have been fighting each other for control, claiming over 1,000 lives.

An audio message by ISIS leade Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said that the opposition groups should focus on fighting the Syrian regime.

Over 10,000 Buddhist monks gathered at a conference in Burma, passing a motion that will restrict marriage between Buddhist women and men of different faiths.

The motion will be submitted to Burma’s parliament in the hope that it will become law, alongside a motion that will restrict the right of Burma’s Rohingya Muslims to vote.

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, summoned a group of European ambassadors today, to complain about what he described as a ‘one-sided approach’ to Israel’s conflict with Palestine.

The California State Assembly Education Committee has unanimously adopted a bill to include education on the Armenian genocide into the state curriculum.

See below for extracts from report on human rights violations in West Papua by Gemima Harvey for The Diplomat.

See here for full article.

The people of West Papua have been calling for self-determination for half a century – a struggle for liberation from an Indonesian military occupation that has seen as many as 500,000 Papuans killed. A recent development in this long campaign is the suspicious death of a commander of the rebel Free Papua Movement (OPM), Danny Kogoya, on December 15. The cause of death, as described in the medical report, was liver failure, bought on by the presence of “unusual chemicals in his body,” raising concern that he was poisoned.

Following a fact finding mission late last year, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq is set to release a report on Wednesday, highlighting the region as a “major success story”.

The Egyptian people have voted in the first of two days in a referendum on a new constitution for the country.

The new constitution would overrule the charter put in place by the deposed President Mohammed Morsi.

With the year 2014 marking 20 years since the climax of the Rwandan genocide, the search for suspects accused of participating in the crimes of 1994, continues to this day.

The New York Times, in a piece for “The Saturday Profile” segment, met with Alain Gauthier and his wife Dafroza  Gauthier, who for 13 years have been tracking down fugitives from the country’s genocide.

Two 21 year old men were arrested on their return from Turkey on suspicion of partaking in “terrorist activities” in Syria.

The men, who are both from Birmingham, are believed to have gone to Syria in May last year.

Det Chief Supt Kenny Bell, head of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, said to media: