Weekly News Wrap: Monday, December 21, 2015

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

Africa

• Four Nigerian farmers will have the chance to sue Shell, the multinational oil and gas company, in the Netherlands for pollution they blame on leaking pipelines, a Dutch appeals court has ruled.
• The AU is giving Burundi until Tuesday to agree to accept a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force – or it will send the soldiers anyway.
• The Africa Union has pledged not to allow a “genocide” to take place in Burundi, while a UN human rights assembly has approved a resolution calling for the immediate deployment of experts there to investigate abuses and rein in violence.
• Several people have been killed after armed men detonated a car bomb and opened fire on a busy road in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, police say.
• A new report has condemned the UN for failing to respond to allegations of child abuse against peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Syrian refugees who gave birth in Lebanon struggle to secure a legal identity for their children.
• Libya’s two rival factions have signed a UN-backed deal to form a unity government at a ceremony in Morocco.
• At least 43 people were killed on Sunday in air strikes carried out by suspected Russian warplanes in the rebel-held city of Idlib in northwestern Syria.
• The number of Kurdish fighters killed during a large-scale military offensive in Turkey’s restive southeast has jumped to 102, a security source said on Sunday as the operation entered its fifth day.
• The United States embassy in Tunisia has warned its citizens to avoid a major shopping mall in the capital Tunis on Sunday because of a reported threat of a potential militant attack there.
• Palestinian families hope for justice at the ICC.

Asia

• The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has launched a radio station in Afghanistan to recruit fighters and stir up anti-government sentiment.
• Afghanistan’s Helmand province is on the verge of falling to the Taliban with 90 soldiers killed in two days of fierce clashes, its deputy governor said.
• Indonesian counter-terrorism police said on Sunday they had arrested suspected Islamist militants in locations across the island of Java, foiling separate plots to bomb minority Shia communities and target Christmas and New Year celebrations.
• China has again warned residents in large parts of the north of the country to prepare for choking smog over the weekend, the worst of which is expected over Beijing, prompting the capital to issue its second ever “red alert”.

Europe

• Belgian police have searched a home in the centre of Brussels and made two arrests in connection with the investigation into last month’s attacks in Paris, federal prosecutors said.
• Legal experts at Germany’s lower house of parliament have serious doubts about the legality of introducing a cap on refugee numbers, according to a document obtained by German broadcaster ARD.
• The head of the European Union’s border agency has said the large number of refugees entering Europe poses a security risk, with civil war making it harder to check the authenticity of Syrian passports.

Americas

• As the United States negotiated this year’s nuclear pact with Iran, the State Department quietly agreed to spare the Gulf sultanate of Oman from an embarrassing public rebuke over its human rights record, rewarding a close Arab ally that helped broker the historic deal.
• An air strike by the US-led coalition countering the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group may have led to the death of Iraqi soldiers, the US military said in a statement.

Oceania

• Australia and Indonesia have signed an agreement to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts as part of bilateral meetings today.

UN/World

• Yemen’s warring parties have agreed on a broad framework for ending their war at talks in Switzerland but they first have to agree a permanent ceasefire, after a week-long truce was widely violated, the United Nations said on Sunday.
• As 2016 approaches, the ongoing El Nino shows no sign of relaxing its grip on the global climate.
• The UN Security Council has unanimously agreed on the text of a draft resolution for peace talks in January and a ceasefire aimed at ending the war in Syria.
• The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to cut off all sources of funding for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIL) and other groups it classifies as terrorist organisations.
• Millions of Swiss francs related to world football’s governing body FIFA have been frozen by the Swiss Justice Ministry, a spokesman has confirmed.