Weekly News Wrap: Monday, March 24, 2014

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• The Pentagon has reported that the Obama administration is sending about 150 Special Operations troops along with military aircraft to Uganda to help in the search for warlord Joseph Kony.
• Suspected Boko Haram fighters have detonated a bomb in a crowded marketplace in northeastern Nigeria killing at least 20 people.

Asia

• A Chinese court has handed an 18-month jail term to a man who applied to hold a protest on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings.
• North Korea has launched short-range rockets into the sea off its east coast for a second straight day, in what is believed to be Pyongyang’s way of protesting US-South Korean military drills.
• The US National Security Agency has secretly tapped into the networks of Chinese telecom and internet giant Huawei and China has demanded an explanation.

Americas

• The leaders of 15 Caribbean countries are calling for reparations from European countries relating to the slave trade that took place 200 years ago.
• The US embassy in Venezuela said it is suspending appointments for new tourist visas due to a lack of personnel following the expulsion of consular staff last month.

Middle East

• Israeli diplomats launched an unprecedented strike on Sunday, forcing the complete closure of embassies around the world as they escalated a dispute over pay, officials said.
• The UN accused Syria’s government and rebels of hindering aid access, suggesting both sides could be violating UN Security Council demands that emergency relief reach civilians caught in the crossfire of the three-year civil war.

Europe

• Charles Ble Goude, wanted by the International Criminal Court in connection with a wave of violence after Ivory Coast’s 2010 elections, is now in the court’s custody.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law the treaty formally making Crimea part of the Russian Federation, after it was approved by the parliament, on the same day Ukraine capped a landmark alliance with the European Union.
• Russian troops used stun grenades to force their way into a Ukrainian marine base in Crimea, overrunning one of the last symbols of resistance.
• NATO’s top military commander said Russia had built up a “very sizeable” force on its border with Ukraine and Moscow may have a region in another ex-Soviet republic, Moldova, in its sights after annexing Crimea.

UN

• Countries have approved a United Nations document to promote equality for women that reaffirms the sexual and reproductive rights of all women and endorses sex education for adolescents.
• About 140 cases of missing or unauthorized use of nuclear and radioactive material were reported to the U.N. atomic agency in 2013, highlighting the challenges facing world leaders at a nuclear security summit taking place today and tomorrow in The Hague.