by Jessica Dorsey
March 7th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died from cancer. Thousands of mourners took to the streets to pay their respects to their late president. World leader reactions: here.
- A trial on Operation Condor of the 1970s and 1980s in South America has started in Buenos Aires. It is expected that the proceedings could take up to two years to conclude.
- North Korea threatens to end its 1953 armistice agreement after the US, with Chinese backing, introduced a draft Security Council resolution to punish North Korea for its recent nuclear test. South Korea says it is ready to strike back, should the North attack.
- Two “Palestinian-only” buses were torched overnight by unknown assailants.
- The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees has canceled its annual fundraising marathon in Gaza after Hamas decided to ban women from participating in the event.
- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has condemned “abhorrent” attacks against Tanzania’s albino population.
- Two Pakistan officials have vehemently denied the New York Times’ story yesterday of two drone strikes being disavowed by the United States and purportedly carried out by Pakistan itself, calling the report a “distortion of the facts.”
- ISAF will stop reporting on Taliban attacks, though they will still collect the data; this move comes after admitting to an incorrect reporting last week of a 7% decline in attacks when there has been no decline at all.
- At least 70 have died and thousands have fled their homes in eastern Congo amid violence between rebels and government forces. According to a Russian envoy, the UN Security Council hopes to approve a special force to combat the rebels by the end of March.
- Syrian warplanes bombarded the fallen city of Raqqa yesterday in an attempt to reclaim the area from the rebels.
- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has announced the the number of Syrian refugees has grown strongly since the start of the year and now exceeds more than one million, putting pressure on neighboring states.
- The Obama administration has taken domestic steps to implement its 2010 commitments on IMF voting reform, but it is unclear at this stage whether the measure will be passed by Congress.
- Foreign Policy points out that momentum is building to declassify information related to the US’ secret detention program run by the CIA.
- FP also asks the blunt question: Has anybody noticed that Malaysia is at war? Though we can’t speak for others, we have definitely taken notice here at OJ and reported on it yesterday in our News Wrap.
March 6th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
March 5th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
March 4th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
March 1st, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
February 28th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
February 27th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
- The Associated Press has released a translation of a jihadist instruction manual (.pdf) of how to avoid being a victim of a drone strike found in a pile of garbage in Timbuktu, Mali.
- As thousands mourn the death of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail, fears of a revolt grow. The U.N. has called for an investigation into the death reportedly caused by torture.
- A rocket has been sent from the Gaza strip into Southern Israel.
- Syria’s Foreign Minister has said in Moscow that the Syrian government is willing to talk, even to armed opposition groups while the rebels meanwhile have reportedly changed their tune, and are now willing again to participate in talks in Rome.
- US Senators have written to Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the EU Council, asking to do more to prevent use of European Central Bank accounts by Iran’s regime to circumvent US and EU sanctions.
- If Iran will curb its nuclear program, major powers will offer reduced financial santions later this week in talks in Kazakhstan.
- The BBC reports that its English-language radio broadcasts are being jammed in China, suggesting the Chinese authorities are behind the disruption.
- Polish prosecutors dropped charges against the former Polish intelligence chief connected with allegaions of the CIA’s secret prison in Poland used for al-Qaeda suspects.
- The trial against BP and other companies connected with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began this week.
- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon reiterated his desire for a global moratorium on the death penalty yesterday.
- UK newspapers are challenging the decision of the government to invoke national security and international relations reasons when withholding evidence from the inquest into the 2006 polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.
- China’s new leader has promised to aim for peaceful relations between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
- Cuba’s President Raul Castro has been re-elected for his final term, and has appointed a political heir who will most likely become the first Cuban leader born after the revolution.
- Over at the Armed Groups and International Law blog, the authors have posted another Legal Roundup.
February 26th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
- South Korea has inaugurated its first female president, Park Guen-Hye, who now faces regional tensions amid North Korea’s nuclear testing. In one of her first moves as president, she demanded an end to nuclear ambitions by North Korea.
- Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, has expelled US special forces from the key battleground Wardak province, because, according to Karzai’s spokesperson, some US soldiers were found to have recently tortured or killed innocent people.
- African Union leaders signed a UN brokered agreement over the weekend aimed at peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- The Syrian opposition has decided to boycott international talks, saying that the world has turned its back on the war-torn nation and calling the lack of international action “shameful.”
- The US has sent 100 troops to Niger to construct a drone base from which Predator drones will operate.
- In other drone news, a recent study found that drone pilots are susceptible to the same bouts of depression, post-traumatic stress and anxiety as pilots of manned aircraft deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
- Dozens of people have been killed in renewed tribal battles in North Darfur.
- Palestinian officials have accused Israelis of torturing a Palestinian prisoner held in Hebron to death; Israeli officials have said the autopsy results were preliminary and inconclusive to tell. Around 3,000 Palestinian inmates have gone on a one-day hunger-strike in protest.
February 25th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
- The Syrian opposition, the Syrian National Coalition, is willing to negotiate a peace agreement, but they demand that President Al-Assad cannot be a part of any deal going forward.
- Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has blamed al-Qaeda affiliated groups for yesterday’s deadly blasts in Damascus, and called on the UN to do more to fight terrorism.
- Japan’s Prime Minister Abe is in the US for talks with President Obama during a time of heightened regional tension for the island nation.
- French and Malian troops battle in renewed clashes in the Malian city of Gao.
- Egypt will hold parliamentary elections in four stages, the first set to begin April 27th.
- For the first time, an American official–Senator Lindsey Graham–has divulged that 4,700 have been killed in the US’ secret drone wars.
- The EU wants Cambodia to come up with more money to fund the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, the war crimes tribunal trying former Khmer Rouge officials.
- Human Rights Watch urges The Netherlands to stop the deportation of Somalis until the security situation becomes more stable in the African country, as it would contravene various human rights obligations.
- China’s Ministry of Finance is planning to impose carbon taxes and emission limits on some of its most polluting industries.
- Three blasts in Hyderabad, India, have killed at least 15.
- A week before talks are due to start, a confidential IAEA report claims that Iran is installing advanced centrifuges that can speed up the process of uranium enrichment.
- Ethnic tensions are rising in Kenya with elections looming in less than two weeks.
February 22nd, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
February 21st, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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by Jessica Dorsey
February 20th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT |
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