Weekly News Wrap: Monday, November 10, 2014

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

Africa

• A suicide bomber dressed as a student killed at least 48 people, most of them students, and injured 79 others at a school assembly in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum on Monday, a hospital official said.
• Opposition parties, civil society groups and religious leaders adopted a plan on Sunday for a transitional authority to guide Burkina Faso to elections, after a popular uprising forced longtime president Blaise Compaore from power.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• An Iranian copy of a U.S. reconnaissance drone captured in 2011 has taken its first flight, state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.
• Egypt’s Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the country’s most active armed group, pledged its allegiance to IS, in a recording posted on its Twitter account.
• Iran, the United States and the European Union began an unscheduled second day of talks today over disagreements blocking the resolution of a confrontation over Tehran’s nuclear program, U.S. and Iranian officials said.
• Kuwaiti government has said that tens of thousands of stateless people in oil-rich Kuwait will be offered citizenship of the impoverished African nation of Comoros to end their decades-old problem.

Asia

• More than 200 boat people held in southern Thailand will be pushed back out to sea, police said on Monday, despite calls by rights group to stop a policy that puts would-be asylum seekers at risk.
• The leaders of China and Japan have held one-on-one talks for the first time since they took office, signalling willingness to put on the back burner a bitter row over disputed islands and Japan’s war-time aggression.
• Chinese and South Korean leaders on Monday signed a “substantial conclusion” of a free trade agreement that will sharply reduce barriers to commerce between the two trading giants, but leaves in place those on rice and automobiles.
• Asia Pacific countries agreed on Saturday to cooperate on the extradition of corrupt officials, enhance asset recovery efforts and establish an anti-corruption transparency network to share intelligence on graft.

Europe

• Britain wants Spain to stay united and any referendum to decide whether Catalonia becomes independent should be done through the proper constitutional framework, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday.
• East Ukraine’s rebel stronghold Donetsk was pummeled on Sunday by the heaviest shelling in a month, and the OSCE said it spotted an armored column of troops without insignia in rebel territory that Kiev said proved Moscow had sent reinforcements.
• The European Union’s new foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, has called for the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying the world “cannot afford” another war in Gaza.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the courageous citizens who peacefully brought down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, calling the historical day proof that “dreams can come true”.

Americas

• US President Barack Obama has said sending more US troops to Iraq signals a “new phase” in the fight against IS.
• Syrian activists shared a photo on social media on Friday of two children they said were killed in U.S. air strikes on Wednesday night which Washington said targeted an al Qaeda-linked militant faction.

Oceania

• Australia said on Saturday it was pleased with progress on a long-planned free trade agreement with China and that it would be happy to conclude it by next week when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits.

UN/World

• The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two allied rebel commanders for threatening the peace and stability of the country and obstructing the political process.