Weekly News Wrap: Monday, October 27, 2014

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

Africa

• Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed at least 17 people and abducted dozens in a series of attacks in the central region of Nigeria’s northeast Borno State, the head of a local administration said on Sunday.
• Three UN peacekeepers were injured in northern Mali on Saturday when a blast struck their convoy near the northern desert town of Kidal, the U.N. mission said.
• Gunmen have killed at least 30 people in fresh attacks this week in the strife-torn Central African Republic, UN peacekeepers said.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Kurdish forces have reportedly thwarted a new attempt by ISIL fighters to cut off the Syrian town of Kobane from the border with Turkey before Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements arrive.
• Heavy fighting flared on Sunday between Libya’s army and Islamist militias apparently trying retake one of their largest camps in the eastern city of Benghazi, military officials said.
• Jordan warned Israel on Sunday their peace treaty would be threatened by continued Jewish settlement building on occupied land sought by the Palestinians and any change to the religious status of a key Muslim shrine in Jerusalem.
• Sunni al Qaeda militants killed dozens of Yemeni Shi’ite rebels on Saturday in the city of Radda in central Yemen as they pushed back the rebels’ advance on the al Qaeda stronghold, tribal sources said. At least 10 suspected al-Qaeda fighters were killed in a US drone strike in southern Yemen.

Asia

• Taiwan is moving ahead with plans to build its own submarines, with an initial design to be completed by the year-end, after lengthy delays in getting eight vessels under a 2001 U.S. defense deal and as China’s navy expands rapidly.
• China is considering trimming nine crimes from its list of offenses punishable by death, state media said, as the ruling Communist Party considers broader reforms to the country’s legal system.
• China will also set up a national anti-terrorism intelligence system, state media said on Monday, reporting changes to an anti-terror law expected to be passed this week in the wake of an upsurge in violence in the far western region of Xinjiang.
• British troops have ended combat operations in Afghanistan as they and US troops handed over two huge adjacent bases to the Afghan military, 13 years after a US-led invasion to topple the Taliban.
• South Korean activists launched balloons on Saturday to send leaflets to North Korea with messages critical of its leader, ignoring threats of military action from Pyongyang and a plea by Seoul not to jeopardize efforts to improve ties with the North.
• Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli ordered a temporary shutdown of factories to ensure air quality during a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Beijing next month, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Friday.

Europe

• Pro-Europe parties secured a big win in an election in Ukraine, a partial vote count showed on Monday, with President Petro Poroshenko hailing people’s support for his plan to end a separatist war and pursue democratic reforms sought by the West.
• The European Central Bank has said that 25 of Europe’s 130 biggest banks have failed an in-depth review of their finances designed to check their financial health.
• A British man has become the second in three days to be charged with preparing acts of terrorism and will appear at a London court on Monday, police said.
• Prominent Swiss business leaders and politicians urged the country on Sunday to reject a referendum next month that aims to impose strict limits on immigration, warning that the measure would damage the economy.

Americas

• The United States and its allies conducted 22 air strikes against Islamic State forces in Iraq on Friday and Saturday, the U.S. Central Command said.
• A U.S. judge sentenced a former member of a Colombian rebel group to 27 years in prison on Friday for his role in keeping three Americans hostage in the Colombian jungle in the mid-2000s.

Oceania

• A group of asylum seekers in Australia who took the immigration department to court over the exposure of their personal details in a major data breach have won a federal court appeal, and the immigration minister has been ordered to pay their costs.

UN/World

• The ombudswoman for the United Nations’ al Qaeda blacklist on Thursday called for her oversight to be expanded to more than a dozen other U.N. Security Council sanctions regimes to ensure fair process for the individuals and entities targeted.
• The chief U.N. investigator into human rights cases in North Korea said on Wednesday he has appealed to China to support calls to refer Pyongyang’s actions to The Hague on suspicion of crimes against humanity.
• The death toll from the Ebola epidemic has risen to 4,922 out of 10,141 recorded infections, with three West African countries accounting for most of the cases through October 23, the World Health Organization said.