Weekly News Wrap: Monday, April 4, 2016

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo said late on Friday that it has received allegations of sexual abuse against Tanzanian peacekeepers based in Congo’s northeast, the latest in a series of such accusations against U.N. forces.
• The United Nations Security Council asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday to provide options for a police deployment to Burundi, where simmering political violence has stoked fears the small African state could spiral into ethnic conflict.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Aircraft from a U.S.-led coalition on Monday destroyed the Turkish consulate compound in Mosul in northern Iraq which has been occupied by Islamist State militants since June 2014, the Turkish foreign ministry said.
• Islamic State has killed 15 of its members in the largest execution of the militant group’s security services so far in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

Asia

• A Japanese submarine made a port call in the Philippines, the first in 15 years, on Sunday in a show of growing military cooperation amid tension triggered by China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
• In recent months, Bangladesh has seen a surge in attacks claimed by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
• China has put a hold on India’s request to add the head of the Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad to the United Nations’ al Qaeda-Islamic State blacklist, U.N. diplomats said on Friday, eliciting an angry reaction from the Indian government.

Europe

• Almost 30 percent of EU citizens who joined the fight in Syria have returned home, according to a new study (disclaimer: Jessica Dorsey is an author of this study).
• A Belgian national named only as Y.A. was charged on Saturday with participating in the activities of a terrorist group in connection with a joint Belgian-French investigation into an apparently foiled attack plot.
• Two passenger boats carrying 131 migrants being returned from Greece to Turkey under a landmark European Union deal set sail from the Greek island of Lesbos to the Turkish town of Dikili early on Monday, a Reuters witness said.

Americas

• The U.S. Navy plans to conduct another passage near disputed islands in the South China Sea in early April, a source familiar with the plan said on Friday, the third in a series of challenges that have drawn sharps rebukes from China.

Oceania

• The former British colony of Australia wants Britain to stay in the European Union, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, weeks before Britain holds a referendum on EU membership.

UN/World

• The United Nations’ internal investigations office has uncovered serious lapses and due-diligence failures in the world body’s interaction with organizations tied to an alleged bribery scheme involving a former U.N. General Assembly president.
• A huge leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panama law firm reveals how the world’s rich hide their money, Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said.