Weekday News Wrap: Friday, March 23, 2012

• The International Court of Justice issued two press releases about upcoming hearings in both the Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Niger), scheduled for October 8-17, 2012; and the Maritime Dispute (Peru v. Chile), scheduled for December 3-14, 2012.
• Reuters reports a three-way scramble for the upcoming World Bank presidential elections, with American economist Jeffrey Sachs registered as a candidate. African finance ministers have backed Nigerian, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the post, and officials have just confirmed her candidacy as well. Though his name has been pushed by Brazil, Colombia does not see former finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo’s candidacy as viable. We will keep you updated on the developments.
• More context on the IMF and World Bank job quota system provided by Washington Post here.
• Israel’s Foreign Minister is considering removal of Israel’s ambassador to the UN’s Human Rights Council over its establishing a fact-finding mission into the effects of settlements on Palestinian human rights.
• EU considers excluding foreign companies from public procurement bidding if their home countries are suspected of excluding bids from European firms.
• Despite a UN call for a ceasefire, clashes flare across Syria.
• International reaction to the coup in Mali condemns the rebels and calls it a setback for democracy in Africa; the World Bank and the African Development Bank cut off aid, and the UN and African Union voice concerns. Foreign Policy poses the question: are coups making a comeback?
• Following the foiling of another plot to bomb a tourist nightclub in Bali, where five suspected terrorists were killed, an analysis shows that terrorist plots are on the rise in Indonesia.
• Brazil considers duties permitted under the WTO as insufficient in the face of “currency dumping”
• The US soldier who allegedly carried out the massacre in Afghanistan, killing 17 civilians, will be charged. The Afghan Taliban, who have no faith in any judicial proceeding for the suspect, have vowed to take revenge for the killings.
• A referendum in Slovenia, scheduled for vote this Sunday, will decide whether to allow those in same-sex relationships seeking to adopt their partner’s children.
• An AP piece outlines why North Korea’s rocket launch matters.
• In other LGBT and children’s rights news, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that Chile was wrong to revoke child custody based on sexual orientation.
• Foreign policy reports on the continued brutality in the streets of Bahrain following protests linked to the Arab Spring.

That’s it for our first week of our new feature, the Weekday News Wrap. We hope you are enjoying it. If there’s an event you’d like to see in our coverage, let us know. Keep your eye on Opinio Juris for the Weekend Roundup, a recap of all that’s happened this week on the blog, coming tomorrow!