Kenyan warships attacked the Somali port of Kismaya on Saturday night, despite al Shabaab rebels stating that they were abandoning the city, reported residents.
Kenya’s high court is scheduled to decide, on Monday, whether citizens living outside the country will be eligible to vote at next year’s elections.
An activist group, the Kenyan Diaspora Alliance, asked the jurisdiction to force the nation’s Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IBEC) to allow citizens abroad to register and vote in the election.
A Syrian rebel group has claimed to have captured Yemeni troops who were sent to the country to assist the Syrian government in putting down the uprising.
The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court has joined a United Nations investigative panel into war crimes in Syria, announced the UN Human Rights Council.
Carla del Ponte’s appointment to the commission came as the UN HRC also moved to extend the mission of the UN probe by a further 6 months.
The European Union froze an aid programme to Rwanda worth £140 million yesterday, over allegations that the Rwandan government was supporting M23 rebels. The UK meanwhile, will continue giving aid.
Jean-Michel Dumond, the EU’s Ambassador in Kinshasa, said:
Burmese president Thein Sein has told the BBC’s Hardtalk programme that he would accept Aung San Suu Kyi as president if she was elected by the people.
"Whether she will become a leader of the nation depends on the will of the people. If the people accept her, then I will have to accept her," he said.
Suspected war criminals have been arrested in Kosovo on Thursday, after a joint operation by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo and Kosovo Police.
The Friends of Syria, consisting of several countries, including the US, the EU and the Arab League urged the Syrian opposition to unite in their fight against Assad.
At a meeting in New York, the Syrian opposition has been promised $45 million in non-lethal aid by the US, of which $30 million will be humanitarian aid.
Three Commonwealth Nobel Peace prizewinners - the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace laureate Nadine Gordimer, and Nobel literature winner Wole Soyinka, have slammed the newly proposed Commonwealth charter as "repetitive rhetoric", and called on the UK and other countries not to sign it.
The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, has been subjected to a travel ban, preventing him from leaving the capital Male.
A court ruled that Nasheed needs to seek the court’s permission if he wants to leave the capital, a move which, according to the court, is standard procedure ahead of the several court cases he is facing.
