South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has fired Vice President Riek Machar Teny and all his cabinet ministers. Australia is to investigate reports that asylum seekers at one of its detention camps in Papua New Guinea are being raped and tortured. Syrian rebels claim they have captured the entire western area of Aleppo. Russian and Iranian media are reporting that Vladimir Putin will meet Iran's...
A top UN envoy, Leila Zerrougui, special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, has warned officials and anti-government fighters in Syria risk prosecution as war criminals for atrocities against children. The US House Intelligence Committee says it is now willing to supply weapons to Syrian rebels despite the risk of their ending up with al-Qaeda allies. Additionally, top US military...
The ICC's Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said that attacks on UN peacekeepers in the Darfur region of Sudan may constitute war crimes. European Union governments agreed today to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the EU terrorism blacklist in a reversal of past policy fuelled by concerns over the Lebanese militant movement's activities in Europe. French Interior Minister Manuel Valls...
The ABA Journal is seeking nominations for its annual list of the 100 best legal blogs. We can’t nominate Opinio Juris because you can't nominate your own blog, but if you like our blog, find it useful or otherwise would like to spread the word, we'd be happy if you nominate us! Readers interested in nominating a particular blog for the 7th annual...
The UN is reviewing support to Democratic Republic of the Congo's army units accused of desecrating the corpses of rebels and mistreating detainees. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will confer with key Palestinian leaders today about a possible resumption of peace negotiations with Israel after an almost three-year freeze. Steam or vapors appear to be coming from a damaged reactor building at Japan's tsunami-crippled...
The British House of Commons has passed a law legalizing gay marriage in the UK. According to a recent parliamentary report, Britain has issued more than 3,000 licences allowing the export of weapons to countries where the UK has human rights concerns. UN officials have said that the crisis in Syria is the worst since Rwanda, with more than 6,000 people fleeing...
A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has found top Islamist party leader, Ghulam Azam, guilty of masterminding atrocities during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Violent clashes occurred after the verdict was announced. Spain has apologized for its part in the events that led Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane to be delayed earlier this month during an international search for Edward Snowden. Bangladesh...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Iran is moving "closer and closer" to building a nuclear weapon and warned that his country may have to act. Netanyahu also phoned Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to try to resume peace talks, stalled now for three years. The Appeals Chamber of the ICTY has overturned a Trial Chamber decision acquiting Radovan Karadzic of...
Bosnia is set to bury the bodies of 409 newly discovered victims of the Srebrenica massacre, including a baby boy, on the 18th anniversary of the atrocity in which about 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered. The US Navy has tested a new kind of drone, an autonomous model that flew and landed on an aircraft carrier without human intervention. Japan's nuclear regulator says it...
Russia has presented evidence to the UN it says shows Syrian rebels attacked regime forces with sarin gas. Foreign Policy discusses a trend of European residents flocking to Syria to take up arms against Bashar al-Assad's regime. US spying whistleblower Edward Snowden is likely to accept asylum in Venezuela to escape prosecution in his home country, according to Glenn Greenwald. IntLawGrrls has...
China has banned its trawlers from fishing in waters off the eastern coast of North Korea, due to a dispute over fuel supplies. South Korea has "strongly" protested against a Japanese defense report for describing South Korea-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan as Japanese territory. Corruption has worsened in most Arab countries since their 2011 revolutions, even though anger with corrupt officials was a...
Brazil's foreign minister has said his government is worried by a report that the US has collected data on millions of telephone and email conversations in his country and promised to push for international protection of internet privacy. Bolivia offered asylum to former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, joining leftist allies Venezuela and Nicaragua in defiance of Washington, which is...
