Weekly News Wrap: Monday, June 2, 2014

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

Africa

• China and the African Development Bank jointly unveiled a US$2 billion multilateral investment fund last week, marking a symbolic shift in their partnership. 
• A bombing in a bar in Nigeria’s northeast has killed at least 14 people and injured another 14 in the second attack targeting football fans in a fortnight, likely carried out by Boko Haram.

Asia

• Australia has resettled more than 500 Afghans who helped the Australian military during its mission in the country, according to a government statement. 
• The US defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, has said China actions in the South China Sea are “destabilising” and “unilateral”, rubbishing Beijing’s description of the waters as a “sea of peace, friendship and cooperation”.

Europe

• The fifth round of negotiations for a bilateral US-EU trade and investment pact wrapped up on Friday, with continued progress reported.
• The WTO Appellate Body has found that the EU’s ban on imported seal products is justified under the right to protect public morals, specifically on the grounds of protecting animal welfare.
• NATO defense ministers will discuss temporarily reinforcing forces in Poland when they meet in Brussels this week, a spokesman for the German defense ministry said on Sunday, a move that would be aimed at reassuring countries nervous about Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.
• Ukraine and Russia are to enter crunch talks on Monday to settle a long-running dispute over the price of gas deliveries.
• Six Ukrainian rebels have been killed while trying to collect the bodies of comrades who died under Ukrainian army fire earlier this week near the Donetsk airport, Ukrainian separatist leader Denis Pushilin says.
• Italy’s navy says it has picked up nearly 3,000 people in the last 24 hours as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean by boat.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Heavy fighting is ongoing in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, apparently between the armed group Ansar al-Shariah and irregular forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a former army general.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday against any international rush to recognize a Palestinian government due to be announced under a unity pact between the Fatah and Hamas Islamist groups.
• About 200 migrants, mostly from Ethiopia and Eritrea, have been detained in Zawiya west of Tripoli as they tried to cross to Europe while hidden in vehicles, Libyan officials have said.

Americas

• The NSA is capturing “millions of images a day” of Americans and foreigners for use in facial recognition programs, documents leaked by the whistle-blower Edward Snowden show.
• The Obama administration is set to roll out a plan to cut earth-warming pollution from power plants by 30 percent by 2030, setting in motion one of the most significant actions to address global warming in US history.
• Five Taliban leaders have arrived in Qatar after being freed from Guantanamo Bay in a swap deal for a US soldier held in Afghanistan for nearly five years. Republicans questioned whether the deal freeing Bowe Bergdahl amounted to negotiation with terrorists. 

UN/Other

• Almost 800 people have been killed in violence across Iraq in May, the United Nations has said, making it the deadliest month for the country this year.