The provisional voting rolls for New Caledonia's referendum on independence from France, which is set to take place on November 4 this year, have been published across town halls. 

The voting registration has been restricted to only long-term residents of the Pacific archipelago, which at present remains a French overseas territory. 

Over nine months after the Kirkuk-Erbil road was closed following the Iraqi military take-over of Kirkuk, the Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have reached an agreement on its re-opening, Kurdistan 24 reports. 

The Kirkuk governor made a statement announcing the opening of the road on Sunday and added that the re-opening would be dependent on the establishment of a customs checkpoint.  

Thousands of Scots marched in Inverness yesterday to show their support for independence. 

The march was part of a series of pro-independence rallies across Scotland organised by 'All Under One Banner'. 

“Scotland will be free," protesters shouted. 

The Balochistan Awami Party garnered the most number of seats in Balochistan's assembly elections, which took place across four administrative provinces on Wednesday, and secured the support of three independent candidates, thereby becoming the region's largest parliamentary party. 

“As the largest parliamentary political party, we have to be allowed to form the government in Balochistan,” said the BAP leader, Jam Kamal said. 

A group of UN human rights experts has welcomed an announcement by the Spanish Government that it intends to set up a Truth Commission to investigate violations that occurred during the civil war and the era of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco that followed.

A high profile Serbian lawyer who served in the defending legal team at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic was shot dead in front of his home in Belgrade on Saturday.

Dragoslav Ognjanovic, 57, was gunned down in front of his apartment building and his 26-year-old son was wounded in the right arm, Serbia’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Serbia is stalling on prosecuting war crimes and seems to have set a strategy of “waiting for time to do its work”, the NGO Humanitarian Law Centre said in a report.

"Time is passing and victims, witnesses and culprits alike are passing away, while memories become less reliable," Jelena Krstic, from the HLC, said.

She added that Serbia seems to have decided on a strategy of "waiting for time to do its work", instead of implementing its own war-crimes prosecution strategy.

The UN Human Rights Council this week appointed a three member commission of inquiry “to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, in the context of the military assaults on the large-scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018.” 

The former cricket player, Imran Khan declared victory yesterday in Pakistan’s election, which has been marred by both violence and claims of election rigging.

On the day of the election a suicide bomber killed 31 people at a polling station. The human rights commission had previously warned of “blatant, aggressive and unabashed attempts to manipulate” the outcome of the election.

The United States has launched a Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Program, the country’s Vice President announced on Thursday.

Under the new program, which will begin in Iraq, the US State Department and USAID will partner with local faith and community leaders to rapidly deliver aid to persecuted communities, Vice President Mike Pence said.

Saudi Arabia and Kurdistan launched a joint economic cooperation committee this month, aimed at expanding investment between the two regions, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. 

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua is set to have seven new offices across the country, its chairman, Benny Wenda told Vanuatu Daily Post. 

Three offices have already been opened and another four are planned. 

Mr Wenda expressed concern that the new offices could be attacked by the Indonesian military. 

Offices in Wamena and Fak Fak have previously been attacked, he added. 
 

Both the Prime Minister of India and the President of China have paid tribute to the victims of the Rwanda genocide, in separate visits to the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda this week.

An aide to former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was jailed for life under accusations of selling 500kg of a key drug-making chemical on Saturday, just days before the country’s general election in which he was running as a candidate.

Hanif Abbasi is accused of supplying the chemical ephedrine to a smuggler.