• Palestinian gunmen kill four inside Jerusalem synagogue

    Nov 17
    Four Israelis were killed inside a synagogue in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning local time, by two Palestinians armed with a gun and a meat clear, reports Reuters.

    Eight other people are believed to have been injured. The attackers, named as Ghassan Abu Jamal and Uday Abu Jamal, are reported to be members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were shot dead by police.

    According to The Guardian, the PFLP praised the killing however, did not claim responsibility for it.

    Israeli police said three of those killed held dual US and Israeli citizenship - Aryeh Kupinsky, Cary William Levine, and Mosheh Twersky. The fourth person held dual British and Israeli citizenship - Avraham Goldberg.

  • Bosnia arrests 12 Serbs for crimes against humanity

    Bosnian authorities have arrested 12 men suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, for their role in an attack on a Bosnian village that killed at least 150 Muslims in 1992.

    The men, former members of the Bosnian Serb army and police "are charged with murders, torture, rapes, as well as with looting and destroying the property of Bosniaks in the village of Zecovi as part of a bid to drive the Bosniaks from the village," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

    Prosecutors went on to say the crimes were part of a "wide and systematic attack of (Serb) army and police against the Muslim population of the village of Zecovi... in which more than 150 victims were killed."

  • Colombia suspends peace talks with Farc
    The Colombian government suspended peace talks with the Farc separatist group this weekend, over an alleged abduction of an army general.

    Peace talks between the two sides have been ongoing for over two years.

    According to the army, Brigadier General Ruben Dario Alzate Mora was kidnapped by Farc members on Sunday, in the northern province of Choco.
  • EU discusses further sanctions on Russia
    Foreign ministers from the European Union are discussing expanding sanctions against Russia, as clashes between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian military continued in eastern Ukraine.

    Speaking to reporters before the meeting on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that ministers would be discussing “relations with Russia and the dialogue with Russia to get to a solution of the crisis."

    The European Union would also start a mission to assist the Ukrainian authorities "on restructuring the civilian security of the country," continued Mogherini.

    The discussion of fresh sanctions comes as German chancellor Angela Merkel said that Russia "will not prevail," on Monday.

    Speaking after attending the G20 summit in Brisbane, where she held discussions with Russia's president Vladmir Putin, Merkel said Russia's annexation of Crimea in March "called the whole of the European peaceful order into question, and it has continued by Russia exporting its influence to destabilise eastern Ukraine."

    "Old thinking, thinking in terms of theories of influence, where international law is violated, this must not be allowed to prevail. I'm convinced it will not prevail," added Merkel.
  • Burkina Faso announces interim president

    Former foreign minister Michel Kafando, has been named as Burkina Faso's interim president by a committee of political, military, religious and traditional authorities, following a military takeover in the country last month.

    On announcement of the news, Kafando said that,

    “The committee has just designated me to guide temporarily the destiny of our country. This is more than an honour. It’s a true mission which I will take with the utmost seriousness.” 

    The appointment means Kafando will be barred from standing from elections, which have been planned for late next year. He will now be expected to appoint a prime minister and a 25-member government.

    The appointment of an interim president comes after the African Union warned Burkina Faso that it faces sanctions if civilian rule was not restored.

  • Nigerian military recaptures Chibok from Boko Haram
    The Nigerian military claimed to have recaptured the town of Chibok from Boko Haram, the site of the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls earlier this year.

    Local vigilante fighters reportedly joined the fight against Boko Haram alongside the Nigerian military. The Islamic militant group had overran Nigerian military defences in the town earlier last week.

    Nigeria's army claimed that “normalcy is restored” on its official Twitter account.
  • China to double investment in Iran
    China will be doubling its investment in Iranian energy projects to over $52 billion, announced Iran's deputy energy minister Esmail Mahsouli, ahead of a deadline for talks over the country's nuclear program.
  • Obama confirms beheading of US aid worker by IS
    US President Barack Obama confirmed Islamic State militants have executed US aid-worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, condemning the killing as "an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity."

    Kassig's execution, shown in a video which has been authenticated by the White House, is the fifth such killing of Western hostages by the Islamic State. The latest video by IS also shows the mass beheading of at least 14 Syrian soldiers captured by the Islamic militant group, who are paraded out before the camera.

    In a statement aboard Air Force One, Obama said,
    “Today we offer our prayers and condolences to the parents and family of Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known to us as Peter.”

    "Today we grieve together, yet we also recall that the indomitable spirit of goodness and perseverance that burned so brightly in Abdul-Rahman Kassig."
    British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was horrified by the "cold-blooded murder."
  • Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Government agree preliminary oil export deal
    The government of Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) came to an agreement over Kurdish oil exports and civil servants payments from Baghdad to ease tension last week.

    A statement by the KRG spokesperson in Arbil, confirmed that Baghdad would recommence payments for KRG civil servant salaries after they were stopped in protest of Iraqi Kurdistan’s independent oil exports.
  • Hong Kong protest leaders prevented from boarding flight to Beijing
    Student leaders of the Hong Kong protests have been prevented from boarding a flight to Beijing, where they hoped to meet with Chinese government officials in their push for greater democracy in Hong Kong.

    The three members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students – Alex Chow, Nathan Law and Eason Chung – were stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing at Hong Kong's main airport.
  • North Korea to send senior envoy to Russia
    North Korea announced that a special envoy has been appointed to visit Moscow, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

    Choe Ryong-hae, a high-ranking member of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and reported close associate of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, was appointed as the special envoy.
  • Sanctions on Russia will harm global economy - Putin

    The Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that sanctions imposed on his country by the EU and US will negatively affect the global economy.

  • Boko Haram capture symbolic town of Chibok

    Islamic militant group Boko Haram have captured Chibok, the town where they kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls earlier this year.

    On Thursday evening Boko Haram militants reportedly overran Nigerian army defences in the town, situated in the Borno state.

    Several vigilante groups attempted to defend the town, with one of the vigilantes Musa Ali, saying “you couldn't count them because there were so many.”

    "All the security and the soldiers, they ran away and left us on our own. They didn't shoot at them, they just ran,” he added. “All the ammunition we had was finished, so there was no way we could attempt to hold the area.”

    However, Pogo Bitrus, chairman of the Chibok elders' forum, told Voice of America that “the fight, I believe, is not finished yet."

    In April of this year Boko Haram kidnapped schoolgirls from the town, with 219 of them remaining missing.

  • Transition plan to civilian led rule agreed in Burkina Faso
    A plan to transition between military rule to a civilian led government in Burkina Faso was agreed on Thursday, by the army, opposition parties, civil society groups and religious leaders.

    The transition charter was "unanimously voted" for by all sides, said a spokesperson for the talks.

    The military took control of the country with Lt Col Isaac Zida declaring himself head of state, after mass protests forced the president, Blaise Compaore, to resign on October 31.

    According to the agreed charter, an interim president will be selected by military, political, civil society and religious leaders. The interim president will then appointed a prime minister, who in turn will form a 25 member government.

  • Islamic State militants should be prosecuted at ICC concludes UN report
    Commanders of Islamic State militants should be tried at the International Criminal Court for war crimes in northeast Syria concluded UN investigators on Friday.

    A report based on over 300 interviews with witnesses and victims found that mass killings that constituted of “egregious violations of binding international humanitarian law and the war crime of murder on a massive scale,” had been committed by Islamic State commanders.
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