WORLD NEWS

World News

Latest news from and about the homeland

  Three United Nations (UN) experts called for a full and independent investigation into the killing of three Lebanese journalists by Israel last week, which they described as ‘another attack on press freedom by Israeli forces.’ On March 28, Israeli forces killed Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni, her brother and cameraman Mohamed Ftouni, and Al Manar TV reporter Ali Shoeib as they were…

Israel Foreign Minister ends alliance with Netanyahu over lack of military action against Hamas

Israel’s Foreign Minister, announced Monday that he was ending his party’s alliance with the ruling bloc after the Prime Minister refused to launch a full-scale attack on Gaza, reports The Times.

Bosnian Serb charged with crimes against humanity for running detention centres

A Bosnian Serb who ran illegal camps where prisoners were tortured and killed during the Bosnian Serb conflict, Friday, was charged for committing crimes against humanity, reports Agence France Presse.

Bosnia’s war crimes court sentenced Branko Vlaco to 15 years in prison for setting up and running four ‘detention centres’ in Sarajevo.

“Vlaco took part in expulsions and executions of civilians,” judge Minka Kreho said while reading the verdict. 

Arrests made over Palestinian murder

Israeli police have made several arrests in relation to the murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammad Abu Khdair.

The police said the suspects were Jewish, and told the BBC that Khdair was murdered “because of his nationality”.

A post-mortem suggested that the teenager was beaten and burned alive, following his abduction in East Jerusalem.

His death has caused an escalation of tension in the region, already high after the deaths of three Israeli teenagers.

Kurdistan officials discuss self-determination in Washington

The Kurdistan president’s chief of staff, Faud Hussein, briefed American diplomats on Washington on plans to hold an independence referendum last week.

“We spoke with Americans about self-determination, and self-determination that is done through a referendum, said Faud Hussein speaking to Rudaw on Thursday.

Faud Hussein was on an official visit to Washington with the Kurdistan Foreign Relations Minister Falah Mustafa to meet their American counterparts.

Former Argentine military officers sentenced to life in murder case

Two former senior military officers have been found guilty of the murder of Bishop Enrique Angelelli in 1976, shortly after the junta seized power in Argentina.

Former army General Luciano Benjamin Menendez and former Vice-Commodore Luis Fernando Estrella were sentenced to life in prison for the killing.

The bishop, who was an outspoken left-wing member of the church, died in a car crash, and officials at the time claimed it was a traffic accident.

Guatemala sentences former rebel leader for civil war killings

The former leader of a left-wing militant group in Guatemala has been sentenced to 90 years for his involvement in killings of government supporters.

Fermin Felipe Solano was found guilty of the killing of 22 pro-government farmers, the first time a civil war rebel leader has been convicted for crimes, reported the BBC.

The court said that Solano had ordered the killings, in the village of El Aguacate, when he was the leader of a rebel group belonging to the now extinct Revolutionary Organisation of the People in Arms (ORPA).

Organisers of pro-democracy protests in Hong-Kong arrested

Five members of a Hong-Kong based activist group that organised a mass pro-democracy rally last week, were arrested Friday reports The Independent.

The members of the Civil Human Rights Front, based in Hong-Kong, said that the charges, of violating traffic safety, they were arrested on were politically motivated.

"The government did not respond to the 510,000 people who took to the streets of Hong Kong and instead made political arrests of organizers," it said in a statement.

Hamas ‘ready’ for ceasefire

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Friday that it is ready for a ceasefire in Gaza, if Israeli air raids on the territory were stopped.

Dozens of rockets and mortar attacks have been directed at Israel from the Gaza strip, as tensions escalated after the discovery of three Israeli teenagers and a suspected revenge killing which left a Palestinian child dead.

Russian court charges Ukrainian officials of committing war crimes against separatists

A court in Moscow this week ordered Russian authorities to seek the arrest of a Ukrainian governor and billionaire for responsibility of war crimes committed against civilians during the unrest in southeast Ukraine.

See full report here.

Last month, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which is often compared to the United States’ FBI, announced criminal investigations against  Ihor Kolomoisky and Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakob.

Survivors launch genocide lawsuit against Paraguay

A tribe in South America is suing the government of Paraguay for an alleged genocide carried out against them in the 1960s, reports The Times.

The Ache tribe, say that their men were killed, their women and children sold into slavery and their land stolen by the farmers backed by the Paraguayan government which was run by the dictatorship of Gen