Weekly News Wrap: Monday, March 30, 2015

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

Africa

• Kenya’s government said it was “shocked and concerned” over the latest travel warnings issued by the UK and others and said security conditions in the east African country were improving.
• Islamist Boko Haram insurgents launched two deadly attacks on voters in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, police and a security source said, killing six people in an election in which insecurity is a major issue.
• In Sudan, Reuters covers an unlikely path to jihad for students.
• The number of people in northern Cameroon who have fled their homes fearing the violence in neighboring Nigeria and cross-border raids by Islamist sect Boko Haram doubled in March to 117,000, a United Nations survey showed.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Warplanes struck Yemen’s capital Sanaa overnight and after daybreak on Monday, residents said, on the fifth day of a campaign by Saudi-led forces against Houthi forces opposed to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said in a US television interview that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has been gaining recruits since the start of US-led air strikes against the armed group.
• Jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has described in his first public remarks from prison how he “miraculously survived 50 lashes” as part of a conviction that sparked an international outcry, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

Asia

• Clashes between Afghan forces and the Taliban have cut off the main supply of power to Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces, according to residents and the chief of the national power company.
• Lawmakers from nine countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Paraguay and Turkey) vowed on Saturday to put aside politics and join forces to help protect children from being forced into manual labor or trafficked into slavery.
• Japan will likely extend its sanctions against North Korea because of Pyongyang’s delay in reporting into its abductions of Japanese citizens decades ago, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday without citing sources.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) urged India on Friday to further tighten its nuclear safety regulations by assuring the legal independence of its atomic watchdog and allowing more outside inspections.

Europe

• Turkish security forces have detained five Dutch citizens who were trying to cross the border illegally from Turkey into Syria, the Turkish military said in a statement on Sunday.
• Italy’s top court on Friday annulled the conviction of American Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of her British flatmate and fully acquitted her in a surprise verdict capping nearly a decade of courtroom drama.
• The European Union said on Friday it was a priority to open the first chapters in accession negotiations with Serbia by the end of the year, after a delay caused by foot-dragging in relations between Belgrade and its former Kosovo province.

Americas

• Cuba on Thursday proposed that a pending human rights dialogue with the United States begin on Tuesday in Washington, parallel to ongoing negotiations about restoring diplomatic ties that were severed in 1961.
• Costa Rica fired its ambassador in Venezuela after the diplomat gave an interview in which he defended the Venezuelan government, the Central American country said on Wednesday.
• The United States said on Wednesday it had information of “possible terrorist threats” to locations frequented by Westerners in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and warned that an attack could take place soon.

Oceania

• The Australian government imposed a requirement on Monday that its airlines have two crew members in the cockpit at all times as a safety precaution following the Germanwings crash that killed 150 passengers and crew last week.

UN/World

• France said on Friday it would push the United Nations Security Council to refer the Islamic State militant group to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• France also plans to start discussions with partners in the “coming weeks” on a United Nations Security Council resolution to lay out parameters for ending the Middle East conflict, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday.
• Israeli settlements on occupied land wanted by the Palestinians may have already killed a possible two-state solution, said the United Nations Middle East envoy on Thursday as he suggested the U.N. Security Council should take action on the peace process.
• Wars in Syria and Iraq drove the number of people requesting asylum in industrialized countries to a 22-year high last year, the United Nations said on Thursday, appealing for Western nations to open their doors to more refugees.