Weekly News Wrap: January 13, 2014

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• Negotiators are still trying to reach a peace deal in South Sudan.

Asia

• China has destroyed more than 6 tonnes of illegal ivory in a bit to discourage poaching.
• China and Japan have resorted to naming each other Voldemort in the latest discussion over PM Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine. Abe has meanwhile offered South Korea and China to explain the intentions behind his visit.
• Japan and the US have condemned China’s unilateral declaration of fishing restrictions in the South China Sea.

Americas

• “Jihad Jane” has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for her involvement in a failed plot to kill a Swedish artist over an offensive depiction of the Prophet Mohammed.

Middle East

• Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon passed away on Saturday after eight years in coma. Haaretz has listed eight pieces to understand Sharon.
• Tunisia’s National Assembly has inserted gender equality in its draft constitution which will protect its existing laws on women’s rights that are liberal compared to its Arab neighbors.
• Qatar’s ambassador was summoned to Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs which considered an official Qatari press release critical of Egypt’s crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood as interference in Egypt’s internal affairs. A new Egyptian constitution is expected to pass by referendum this week.
• Iraq’s ambassador to the US has said that the Obama administration could do more to battle al-Qaeda in Iraq, and has praised George W. Bush’s administration.
• The Friends of Syria have urged Syrian opposition groups to attend peace talks in Geneva later this month.
• A first shipment of chemical weapons left Syria this week for destruction.
• The interim nuclear deal between Iran and the West will enter into force on January 20.
• Iran’s President Rouhani will be the first Iranian leader in a decade to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Europe

• William Hague, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, has criticized proposals from within his Tory party to renegotiate EU treaties to allow national parliaments the power to veto EU legislation.
• The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged torture by UK troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2008. The UK has rejected the complaint as unnecessary since they have investigated allegations.

Oceania

• Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has accused Japan of whaling in New Zealand’s territorial waters in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.