Weekly News Wrap: Monday, July 11, 2016

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

Africa

• Violent clashes in South Sudan claimed the lives of two Chinese U.N. peacekeepers, bringing to three the number of troops China has lost in the past two months as it ramps up its engagement in peacekeeping efforts.
• Al Shabaab Islamist militants rammed a car packed with explosives into a Somali army base southwest of the capital on Monday and stormed inside, killing at least 10 soldiers, the group and a military officer said on Monday.
• Four South Africans attempting to fly to Syria have been arrested in Johannesburg and will face charges related to terrorism, police said on Sunday.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• A suspected U.S. drone strike wounded four Al Qaeda fighters in Yemen’s central Marib province on Sunday, local tribesmen and media said, hours after the exiled Yemeni president flew in to meet Arab military leaders in his war against the Houthi rebels.
• NATO allies have agreed to provide increased military support, including surveillance planes, to Middle Eastern and North African countries whose governments are in conflict with hardline armed groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Asia

• North Korea’s military has threatened to take “physical action” after the US and South Korea announced that they would deploy a sophisticated missile defence system on the Korean peninsula.
• As the death toll rises to 19 in Indian-administered Kashmir following a bloody crackdown on mourners and protesters this weekend, Kashmiris are lamenting the lack of international condemnation for the violence meted out to them.
• Awaiting a finding from the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Filipino fisherman hope they can once again fish without fearing China.

Europe

• A British inquiry into the Iraq War (The Chilcot Inquiry) found that an aggressive purge of members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party led by the late, American-backed politician Ahmed Chalabi “had a significant and lasting negative impact on Iraq” that laid the groundwork for the deadly sectarian conflict ravaging the country today.
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a visiting group of European parliamentarians on Sunday that western governments’ support for opposition groups in Syria caused terrorism in Europe.

Americas

• A coalition of conservation and Alaska Native groups formally invoked Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell’s duties under a federal law to investigate six hard-rock mines in British Columbia, and their expected impacts on transboundary watersheds shared by the United States and Canada.
• Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have poured across into neighbouring Colombia to buy basic goods amid shortages at home, during a brief opening of the border that has been closed for almost a year.
• The United States said on Sunday it had transferred a Yemeni inmate from the Guantanamo Bay prison to Italy, bringing the number of detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba to 78.
• Colombian military and Marxist FARC guerrillas clashed over the weekend, in an incident just weeks after the government and rebel leadership agreed to a bilateral ceasefire as the two sides near a peace accord.
• The son of slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has threatened revenge against the United States for assassinating his father, according to an audio message posted online.

Oceania

• At least four countries (New Zealand, U.A.E., Bahrain and the Bahamas) have warned their citizens to stay on guard when visiting U.S. cities rocked by sometimes violent protests that erupted after a string of police shootings of black Americans.

UN/World

• The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) warned in a report that slow implementation of the U.N.’s global goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), would stall advances against rising global inequality.
• Candidates for the United Nation’s top job will for the first time in the organisation’s history hold a live debate, which will be broadcast live to audiences worldwide on television and digital platforms.