• Congolese president pledges to help UN forces disarm militants

    Jan 06
    The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, told the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, that his army would help peacekeepers fight Rwandan rebels in the eastern regions, reports Reuters.

    The United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo (MONUSCO) yesterday announced that it was preparing to fight, after rebel forces failed to meet a 6 month disarmament deadline.

  • Canada to accept 13,000 refugees displaced by Islamic State militants
    The Canadian government pledged to accept a further 10,000 Syrian refugees and 3,000 Iraqis in 2015 in attempts to help deal with the displacement caused by Islamic State militants.
  • UN confirms Palestinian ICC membership
    The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed that Palestinians will official become a member of the International Criminal Court on April 1, the UN press office said on Wednesday.

    Palestine’s membership at the ICC, allow the court, based in The Hague, to exercise jurisdiction over war crimes committed by anyone in Palestinian territory, without needing referral form the UN Security Council.

    Palestine signed up to the ICC a day after a resolution recognising Palestinian statehood failed at an UN Security Council vote last week.

  • Gunmen kill at least 12 at French magazine office
    Updated 23:00 GMT
    At least 12 people have been killed in Paris, after two armed gunmen attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

    The magazine's editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier and three other cartoonists are reportedly amongst the dead, with at least two police officers also reportedly killed. A further four people are seriously injured.

    The attack, carried out by at least two masked gunmen has drawn international condemnation.

    France's President Francois Hollande told reporters at the scene, "an act of exceptional barbarism has just been committed here in Paris against a newspaper, meaning (against) the expression of liberty."

  • Guatemalan genocide retrial suspended
    The retrial of Guatemala's former military ruler over charges of genocide has been suspended before proceedings had even started this week, after a motion to change judges was successfully passed.

    Rios Montt, Guatemala's 88-year-old former ruler, is accused of masterminding the massacre of 1,771 Ixil Maya Indians in the early 1980s. He was initially found guilty of genocide in 2013, after he became the first head of state to face genocide charges in his own country. However, the conviction was overturned just weeks later and a retrial scheduled for 2015.

    The retrial has been halted after Montt's lawyers argued judge Jeannette Valdez's master's thesis on genocide meant she was impartial. She had called it "a strategy to obstruct" the proceedings but the other two judges on the panel accepted the motion, causing the postponement.

  • US welcomes Cuba's releasing of political prisoners
    Cuba has freed some of the 53 people political prisoners that it agreed to release to the US, said the State Department on Tuesday.

    “They have already released some of the prisoners, we would like to see this completed in the near future, said the State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki.
  • Kurdish prime minister vows to work towards international recognition of Yezidi genocide
    The mass crimes against the Yezidis in Shingal last year by Islamic State militants can only be described as ‘genocide,’ said the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani.

    Vowing to secure international recognition for atrocities committed against the Yezidi people, Barzani said,
  • Kenyan ICC witness found dead
    A man who was a key witness at the International Criminal Court's (ICC) trial of Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has been found dead and badly mutilated.

    Meshack Yebei’s body was found in a river in western Kenya on Saturday after being abducted on the 28 December. His body had his eyes gouged out, genitals cut off, tongue cut out and a gunshot wound to the head.

    The 34 year old had been scheduled to testify at The Hague against Ruto, who stands accused of crimes against humanity, after post-election violence in Kenya saw at least 1,100 people killed in 2007.

  • UN raises concern over Lebanese refugee restrictions
    The United Nations expressed concern over Lebanese restrictions on Syrian refugees escaping civil war, reports the BBC.

    The UN wanted the Lebanese government to clarify if the new restrictions, aimed at slowing the influx of asylum seekers, would allow the “most vulnerable refugees” to gain access to Lebanon.

  • China protests Taiwan's de-facto embassy raising national flag in the US
    China protested to the United States, after Taiwan’s de-facto embassy in Washington, hosted a Taiwanese flag on New Year’s Day.

    Calling on the US to respect the “One China” policy, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, said “we resolutely oppose the so-called flag raising ceremony by Taiwan’s agency in the United States and have lodged solemn representations with the United States.”

    Stressing that the US respected the One China policy, a US State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, stressed that the US “did not know about the flag raising in advance,” adding that, “no US government personnel attended the event in any capacity.”

  • Palestine criticises Nigeria for last minute abstention at UN vote
    Palestinian officials criticised Nigeria’s alleged last minute decision to abstain from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution for recognition of Palestinian statehood last week.

    “Even half an hour before the vote, Nigeria indicated it was committed to voting for the resolution," said a Palestinian source to     The Guardian.

    According to the paper, a US State Department spokesperson said that the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, had called a number of senior foreign officials, including the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, before the vote.

  • Boko Haram captures multinational base
    The Nigerian army suffered a setback after Boko Haram seized a town and key multinational military base in Baga, north-eastern Nigeria.

    Villagers reported that the Nigerian military abandoned the base as militants began their assault on Saturday. The base hosted the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), made up of troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

    Baga was the last town under Nigerian government control in Borno North. Speaking to the BBC, Maina Maaji Lawan, senator for Borno North, said that communications with the town were cut off, making details of casualties unclear.

  • Israel vows to protect its soldiers from the ICC

    Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel "will not let Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague."

    The comments come in response to the Palestinian move to join the ICC, which Netanyahu said signified the Palestinian Authority's choosing "to take a path of confrontation with Israel."

  • US rejects reports of failed Special Ops ground raid in Syria
    The Pentagon and US military officials denied reports that the US led coalition  launched a Special Operations ground offensive on an Islamic State stronghold to free hostages on Friday.

    Activist groups that witnessed the event said, "the mission failed when the helicopters were met by ISIS fighters who directly opened fire at them forcing them to take off.”
  • Boko Haram blamed for kidnap of villagers

    Villagers have blamed Boko Haram for the kidnapping of 40 boys and young men in north-eastern Nigeria on New Year’s Eve.

    News of the kidnapping only emerged late on Friday after residents of Malari village in Borno state arrived in the state capital of Maiduguri, having fled the isolated region.

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