Weekly News Wrap: Monday, August 29, 2016

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

Africa

• Nigeria would let Boko Haram choose a non-profit organization as an intermediary in any talks on the release of about 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern village of Chibok in 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Sunday.
• A landmine planted by Islamist group Boko Haram killed four Chadian soldiers on patrol near Chad’s border with Niger on Saturday, two security sources said.
• Japan will invest $30bn in Africa over the next three years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged at a summit in Kenya.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Almost a year and a half into Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-backed bombing campaign in Yemen, the humanitarian toll has become so extensive that the International Committee of the Red Cross has taken the unusual step of donating entire morgue units to Yemeni hospitals.
• Iraq has asked Saudi Arabia to replace its ambassador in Baghdad after he said that Iranian-backed Shia units are aggravating tensions with Sunni Muslims in Iraq.
• The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria called for all warring sides to agree by Sunday to allow the first safe delivery of relief supplies to the divided city of Aleppo.

Asia

• A knife-wielding Indonesian teen who tried to attack a priest at a church during a Sunday service was “obsessed” with extremist group Islamic State, a senior minister said on Monday.
• China is hoping to cement its standing as a global power when it hosts leaders from the world’s biggest economies this weekend, but suspects the West and its allies will try to deny Beijing what it sees as its rightful place on the international stage.

Europe

• A bomb exploded at the Brussels Institute of Criminology in the north of the Belgian capital on Monday but the building was empty and no one was wounded, broadcaster RTL said.
• About 1,100 migrants were rescued from boats in the Strait of Sicily on Sunday as they tried to reach Europe, Italy’s coastguard said.
• A law banning the full-body “burkini” swimsuit in France would stoke tensions between communities and would be both unconstitutional and ineffective, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in an interview published on Sunday; France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled on Friday against a decision to ban the burkini by the mayor of the resort town of Villeneuve-Loubet.
• Social media users have expressed anger after a video posted online appeared to show two Muslim women in France being told to leave a restaurant by a man, reportedly the eatery’s boss, who called all Muslims “terrorists”.
• Germany, Poland and France vowed on Sunday to reinvigorate the “Weimar Triangle” group first formed 25 years ago after the end of the Cold War to help deal with the many challenges now facing Europe, including Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Americas

• A ceasefire to end the 52-year-old war between the Colombian state and FARC fighters has gone into effect, with a full peace agreement expected to be signed in September.
• Eight Paraguayan soldiers have been killed by a roadside bombing, according to the government, in an attack blamed on a Marxist armed group.

Oceania

• An Australian aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan four months ago was freed following a raid by Afghan special forces near the eastern city of Jalalabad, officials said on Monday.
• Thousands of protesters across Australia have held rallies to demand the closure of the country’s overseas refugee detention centres.

UN/World

• Air pollution caused by war may be a major factor in the numbers of birth defects and cancers being reported in Iraq and other war zones, a study has suggested.
• French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was pressing members of the U.N. Security Council, including Russia, to condemn the Syrian government after a report found Syrian troops had used chemical weapons.
• Debates shine only a half-light on UN Secretary General selection process.