• UN aid chief seeks greater access to Syria, stresses need for political solution

    Jul 28
    The United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien stressed the importance of “carving out space” to meet the humanitarian needs of people in Syria in an address to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
  • Israel approves further settlement construction in occupied territories

    Israel approved plans to build 300 new homes in Jewish settlements within the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, reports Reuters.

  • Turkey launches airstrikes against PKK

    Turkey launched its heaviest offensive on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, since the start of their military campaign in the region.

    The strikes hit shelters and depots belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), reports Reuters.

  • Coalition air strike in Yemen may be a war crime – HRW
    Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for a UN Commission of Inquiry into a Saudi-led coalition airstrikes that killed at least 65 civilians in Yemen last week.

    Visiting the targeted area approximately 36 hours after the attack, HRW said bombs struck the residential compounds of the Mokha Steam Power Plant which housed at least 200 families. At least 10 children were also killed in the attack.

    “The Saudi-led coalition repeatedly bombed company housing with fatal results for several dozen civilians,” said Ole Solvang, the organisation’s senior emergencies researcher. “With no evident military target, this attack appears to be a war crime,” he continued.
  • Forensic work begins at Colombian mass grave site
    Forensic experts have begun excavation work at a suspected mass grave site in Colombia, where up to 300 bodies are thought to be buried.

    The debris landfill site in Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, is reported to be one of the largest urban mass graves in the world, and is suspected to hold the remains of those who disappeared during a military operation in 2002. Then President Alvaro Uribe launched Operation Orion to crack down on left wing militants in the Comuna 13 district.

    As the excavation, which will see 20,000 tonnes of earth removed from the site, started on Monday a ceremony was held to honour the victims. Javier Giraldo, a Roman Catholic priest and human rights activist said, "This is the site of one of the most atrocious episodes that weigh down our history and is a stain on our national identity before the entire world".
  • Turkey, US to agree on support for Syrian rebels to create Islamic State buffer zone
    Turkey and the US will agree plans to provide air cover to Syrian rebels in an attempt to clear Islamic State militants from a strip of land on the Turkish border, reports Reuters.
  • US and African nations to discuss sanctions on South Sudan upon failure to reach peace agreement
    Barack Obama and African leaders will discuss options that could include sanctions or penalties on South Sudan’s conflicting parties should they fail to reach a peace agreement by mid-august, reports The Guardian.
  • Peace negotiators propose UN assisted independent tribunal for South Sudanese crimes
    Negotiators in South Sudan’s peace talks have proposed establishing a court to try those responsible for genocide and war crimes in South Sudan, in a power-sharing document that hopes to end the 19 month conflict.

    A draft agreement negotiated by eight East African nations of the IGAD block, convening in Ethiopia, proposes an independent hybr

  • Saudi led coalition announces humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen

    Saudi led coalition forces announced a five day humanitarian ceasefire to start on Sunday, reports Reuters.

    The announcement was made on Saturday, after Yemen’s exiled president Abd-Rabbu Monsaur Hadi, requested a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to Yemen’s war affected civilians.

  • Belgium recognises Armenian genocide
    The Belgium parliament on Thursday voted in favour of a resolution recognising the Armenian genocide.

    The decision was swiftly condemned by Turkey. In a statement issued on Friday, the Turkish foreign ministry said, Turkey had been “unfairly indicted, historical facts have been distorted and law has been ignored."

    "The grave picture that has emerged with the July 23 decision of the Chamber of Deputies [was] met with regret by the Belgian Turkish community and has deeply impacted our bilateral relations,” the statement added.

    "It should be understood that this and similar decisions that have been made do not serve the Turkish-Armenian conciliation in any way".

  • Romania sentences former Communist prison guard for crimes against humanity
    In a land mark case, Romania has convicted a former Communist-era prison guard of crimes against humanity for his role in the Ramnicu Sarat prison from 1956 to 1963 and the deaths of 12 inmates.

    The former guard, who is now aged 89, Alexandru Visinescu, was sentenced for 20 years. He is the first senior official in the country's former communist regime to face justice.

    The prosecution argued he had ran an "extermination regime" at the prison in Eastern Romania, which was notorious for the use of torture and starvation, targeting political prisoners.

  • Turkey conducts airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria

    Turkey’s air-force carried out attacks on Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time on Friday, as well as militant camps of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, reports Reuters.

  • Kerry defends Iran nuclear deal at US Congress
    US Secretary of State John Kerry staunchly defended the Iran nuclear deal telling skeptics warning his Senate that turning down the deal would allow to Iran to continue with its weapons program.
  • Italy's 1974 far-right bombers receive life sentence

    An Italian court has jailed two former far-right extremists for life, for their in a bomb attack 41 years ago.

    The 1974 bombing in Brescia killed eight people and injured over 100 at an anti-fascist rally in the city in northern Italy.

  • Pinochet-era student attack case reopened

    A Chilean judge has reopened a case investigating an attack on two students during a demonstration against the Pinochet-regime in 1986.

    Seven former military officers are being questioned about their involvement in the attack, which saw 19-year-old Rodrigo Rojas and 18-year-old Carmen Quintana doused in petrol and set on fire by soldiers, with Rodrigo dying days after, while Carmen survived severe burn injuries.

    The case was reopened after testimony provided by a military conscript, who broke the army's pact of silence on the prominent case.

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