• McDonalds receives $3 billion worth of local bids to expand in China

    The McDonald’s Corporation has received several bids for its plans to open up stores in China and Hong Kong, which could amount to a total sum of $3 billion reports Reuters.

    The US fast food corporation announced that it planned to reorganise its operations in Asia by seeking joint ventures with local partners who would own restaurants within a franchise business.
  • Former Bosnian Serb soldiers arrested under suspicion of mass killings and torture

    Bosnian police arrested six former Bosnian Serb soldiers under suspicion of being involved in the killings of 27 Muslim Bosnians during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

  • Eritrean refugees call for European action against government

    Around 2000 asylum seekers from Eritrea protested in Israel on Tuesday, calling for senior members of the Eritrean government to be tried for crimes against humanity.

    The protest, held outside the European Union office in Ramat Gan, follows the EU's decision to give economic support to Eritrea in order to prevent African refugees from arriving in Europe.

  • Bemba sentenced to 18 years for crimes against humanity

    The former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become the highest level political leader to be sentenced by the International Criminal Court, after he was jailed for 18 years for committing crimes against humanity.

    Jean-Pierre Bemba was found guilty in March of five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, a landmark ruling that marked the first time the court had found rape as a crime against humanity and that held commanders responsible for the actions of their troops.

    Judge Sylvia Steiner said Mr Bemba’s troops had carried out "sadistic" crimes of "particular cruelty". Prosecutors had called for a minimum 25 year sentence.

    ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told AFP,

    “I believe this is a very important day for international criminal justice, especially when it comes to sexual and gender-based crimes.”

    The sentencing was hailed by the ICC, with spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah saying the ruling shows "justice may take time but ends by being done".

    Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, international justice advocacy director at Human Rights Watch said the sentence offered "a measure of justice" for the victims.

    "Other commanders should take notice that they, too, can be held accountable for rapes and other serious abuses committed by troops under their control," she said.

  • Israel announces $15 million additional settlement budget for West Bank
    Israel’s government has approved an $18 million budged for further settlements in the West Bank, reports The Guardian. 

    The latest addition to Israel’s existing $88 million budget for new settlement projects in the West Bank, comes amidst calls from the US and European Union to halt all settlement building.
  • Former Congolese politician to be sentenced at The Hague
    The International Criminal Court is due to sentence Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba on Tuesday, after a landmark case that focussed on rape committed by troops under his command as a crime against humanity.
  • UN report finds Rohingya may be subject to crimes against humanity

    A newly released United Nations report on Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic groups in Myanmar found that they may have been subject to crimes against humanity.

    The report, released by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday found that the Rohingya are suffering from “arbitrary deprivation of nationality, severe restrictions on freedom of movement, threats to life and security, denial of rights to health and education, forced labour, sexual violence, and limitations to their political rights”.

    Following a spate of anti-Rohingya violence in 2012 in the Rakhine State, some 120,000 Rohingya and Kaman Muslims remain displaced living in camps for internally displaced people. The report also highlighted abuses faced by other ethnic groups, some of whom were in armed conflict with the government.

    “There has also been an alarming increase in incitement to hatred and religious intolerance by ultra-nationalist Buddhist organisations,” the report added, with a press release noting that the “pattern of violations against the Rohingya may amount to crimes against humanity”.

  • State Department officials protest White House policy on Syria
    Dozens of US State Department officials have signed an internal memo protesting against the White House’s policy on Syria and called for military strikes against President Bashar al-Assad, reports the BBC.

    A State Department official confirmed to the BBC that it has received the memo, reportedly signed by “51 mid-to-high level officials”, but declined to comment on its contents.
  • Aid agencies warn of looming humanitarian crisis in Fallujah

    Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah as government troops and militias continue their offensive against Islamic State fighters, sparking warnings of a humanitarian crisis from aid agencies.

    The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, stated that more than 80,000 people have fled the city since the government offensive began more than 4 weeks ago.

    "Agencies are scrambling to respond to the rapidly evolving situation and we are bracing ourselves for another large exodus in the next few days as we estimate that thousands more people remain trapped in Fallujah," said the UNHCR.

    Karl Schembri of the Norwegian Refugee Council told Al Jazeera that in the last three days alone, some 30,000 people have fled the city. "This comes after months of besiegement," he added.

  • Ongoing genocide of Yazidis in Syria and Iraq finds UN
    Islamic State fighters are committing genocide against the Yazidi community in Syria and Iraq through murder, sexual slavery gang rape, torture and humiliation concluded a UN report into the Islamic State crimes against the Yazidis.

    Speaking at the UN Security Council, the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry Paulo Pinheiro, stressed,
  • British MP, Jo Cox, killed in fatal shooting

    A British MP has died after being shot and stabbed in West Yorkshire on Thursday afternoon.

    Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley and Spen was fatally shot and stabbed while leaving her constituency surgery earlier today.

    A 52-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the attack.

    According to The Guardian, police are investigating claims that the suspect had shouted 'Britain First' before shooting, referencing the far-right nationalist group.

  • Kurdish political parties press ahead with plans to form autonomous federal region of Rojava in Syria

    Syrian Kurdish parties have pressed ahead with plans to set up an autonomous federal system of government in the northern Syria, as US backed militants continue to regain territory from the Islamic State.

  • Victims' families demand hybrid court in South Sudan as leaders call for 'truth not trials'
    Families of the victims reiterated their demand for a hybrid court to be established over alleged war crimes perpetrated during the civil war in South Sudan, after the country's president, Salva Kiir and his former opponent, the vice-president, Riek Machar, co-authored a piece in the New York Times yesterday stating South Sudan "needs truth, not trials."
  • 8 former military officers to face trial in Guatemala over mass graves
    A Guatemala court on Tuesday ordered either former members of the military to face trial for crimes against humanity and forced disappearances committed during the civil war which occurred during 1960 till 1996.

    The charges related to mass graves found in the western region of the country, believed to hold the remains of over 565 Mayan people who were held at the former military base of Creompaz.
  • Armenian genocide recognised by Germany
    German parliament has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution declaring the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide.

    Germany joins over 20 nations including France and Russia that recognise the killings as genocide.

    The passing of the bill sparked uproar in Turkey, with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announcing the immediate withdrawal of Turkey’s ambassador to Germany.
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