Opinio Juris weekday news wrap w30/13

Weekday News Wrap: Thursday, July 25, 2013

by Jessica Dorsey

Almost a quarter of a million Colombians have been killed in the country’s internal conflict since 1958, most of them civilians, according to a government-funded report.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 15 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in a rocket attack on a rebel-held refugee camp on the southern edge of Damascus.
The United States’ National Security Agency’s warrantless and wide-ranging spying program, Prism, is to continue after congressmen voted down an amendment aimed at limiting its surveillance activities.
Foreign Policy makes the claim that the US Supreme Court may be the best bet to stop the NSA’s surveillance dragnet.
At least 98 people have been killed in three days of ethnic violence in Guinea.

July 25th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT | Comments Off http://opiniojuris.org/2013/07/25/weekday-news-wrap-thursday-july-25-2013/ |

by Jessica Dorsey

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 newly elected president in Tehran next month to discuss restarting talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Also in the Russian media: Edward Snowden has checked out of a hotel in Moscow, defying reports he is holed up at the Moscow airport.

July 24th, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT | Comments Off http://opiniojuris.org/2013/07/24/weekday-news-wrap-wednesday-july-24-2013/ |

by Jessica Dorsey

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 officials have outlined a range of intervention option plans in Syria, from instituting no-fly zones to conducting limited attacks on military targets.
Iran condemned the EU’s decision to blacklist the armed faction of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and said the move was “contrary to all political and legal norms, surprising and unacceptable.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos agreed to turn the page on a diplomatic dispute triggered when Santos met with Venezuela’s main opposition leader in May.
Foreign Policy asks: Is the US ramping up a secret war in Somalia?

July 23rd, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT | Comments Off http://opiniojuris.org/2013/07/23/weekday-news-wrap-tuesday-july-23-2013/ |

by Jessica Dorsey

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 defended France’s ban on wearing full-face veils in public places after a police check on a veiled Muslim woman sparked riots in a Paris suburb over the weekend.
Panamanian investigators unloading the cargo of a seized North Korean ship that carried arms from Cuba have found the two MiG-21 fighter jets the Cuban government had said were on board, the government said on Sunday.
Belgium has sworn in Philippe as its new king after the abdication of his 79-year-old father Albert.
The ICRC is talking to Colombia’s FARC rebels about handing over a former U.S. marine seized by group in a jungle region after he set out on a solitary trek despite police warnings about its dangers.

July 22nd, 2013 - 8:00 AM EDT | Comments Off http://opiniojuris.org/2013/07/22/weekday-news-wrap-monday-july-22-2013/ |

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