Weekly News Wrap: August 8, 2016

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

Africa

• The United States has recommended that the United Nations Security Council authorise a force of 4,000 peacekeepers for South Sudan’s capital Juba after a recent outbreak of violence.
• A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine in Mali’s restive north, the U.N. mission (MINUSMA) said.
• Somali Islamist group al Shabaab on Saturday shelled residential areas in the town of Baidoa, west of the capital Mogadishu, hitting a hospital and likely causing casualties, the African Union (AU) peace keeping force AMISOM said in a Twitter post.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Islamic State suicide bombers on Sunday attacked a military base for U.S.-backed fighters near the Syrian-Iraqi border, leaving several dead before blowing themselves up, rebel sources and the militants said on Sunday.
• Iran intends to purchase 20 regional jets from a unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, according to Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, deputy minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
• Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have warned the public that “criminal groups propagating radical ideologies” could spread violent ideas and rebellious behavior among young people through video gaming.

Asia

• Japan marked the 71st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Saturday as its mayor urged world leaders to follow in U.S. President Barack Obama’s footsteps and visit, and ultimately rid the world of nuclear arms.
• Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos on Monday departed on a five-day trip to Hong Kong to meet “old friends” and rekindle ties with China soured by a maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
• Indonesian authorities said on Monday that several suspected radicals arrested on Batam island last week were part of a group that has “dozens of members” and has been active for two years; anti-terror forces arrested six men on Friday on suspicion of planning a rocket attack on neighboring Singapore.
• A bomb blast at a Pakistani hospital killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens on Monday in Quetta, the capital of the violence-plagued southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.
• For the second time in two days, Japan has protested to Beijing over Chinese coastguard ships and fishing vessels sailing into waters close to disputed islands in the East China Sea.
• Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan.

Europe

• Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has threatened to block the expansion of negotiations with Turkey on its accession to the European Union, which could scupper a landmark migration deal between Brussels and Ankara.
• Most Germans think the European Union should scrap a landmark migration deal with Turkey and scupper negotiations on its accession to the bloc, according to a poll published on Sunday.
• Islamic State claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack by a machete-wielding man in Belgium that left two female police officers seriously injured, the group’s Amaq news agency said on Twitter.
• More than 100 migrants broke through police barriers at the Italian border town of Ventimiglia and made their way into France on Friday, the local Italian police chief said.

Americas

• Cuba has blamed the United States for encouraging illegal and unsafe immigration by tens of thousands of Cubans who have left the country in the past two years.
• The U.S. Coast Guard has repatriated 97 Cuban migrants picked up at sea, part of a surge in attempts to reach the United States from the Communist-run island, the service said on Saturday.
• A Philippine lawmaker is seeking to permanently ban U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from visiting the Southeast Asian nation after the billionaire called it one of the “terrorist nations.”

Oceania

• A member of an Australian anti-immigration group accused of planning an attack may face additional charges in what the government said was the first time federal terrorism laws had been used to target such right-wing groups.

UN/World

• Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres is still the front-runner to become the next United Nations Secretary-General after a second U.N. Security Council secret ballot on Friday, said diplomats.