Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, January 15, 2013

15 Jan Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, January 15, 2013

15.01.13 | 0 Comments

A top US diplomacy team has been sent to Japan and South-Korea to douse the simmering tensions between the two nations.
Facing strong electoral competition from EU skeptic parties, the Icelandic government has suspended negotiations on EU accession until after the elections in April.
Navi Pillay has called for an international inquiry into widespread human rights abuses in North Korea during the past decades.
Cuba has relaxed restrictions on Cuban’s freedom to travel overseas, including for known dissidents.
The French ambassador to the UN has said that his country launched a military intervention in Mali because it believed that the existence of the country was at stake. A meeting of the Security Council on Mali expressed unanimous “understanding and support” for the military intervention, according to the ambassador.
Despite intensive aerial bombardment by French warplanes, rebels have grabbed more territory in Mali, inching closer to the capital.
Colombia’s FARC rebel group will end a two-month ceasefire on Sunday, amid calls from both sides for quicker negotiations.
Yemeni security forces arrested two al Qaeda militants near the capital Sanaa, seizing explosives, suicide bomb vests, assassination manuals and lists of targets for attack.
The Russian State Duma rejected a petition yesterday challenging a recently passed bill that would prohibit US citizens from adopting Russian children.

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