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Search: kony 2012

20 Aug

Julian Assange has thanked Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa for the “courage he has shown” in granting him political asylum in his first public appearance from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. While Britain still denies Assange safe passage from London, Correa chastised the UK for their threats to storm the embassy to remove Assange, calling them “vulgar, inconsiderate and intolerable.” He also called on other Latin American countries to rally behind Ecuador in this international “David versus Goliath” movement. Minister of UNASUR, the Union of South American Nations,...
20.08.12 | |

27 Nov

Australia will abstain in the upcoming UN vote on whether to grant non-member state status to Palestine. The body of Yasser Arafat will be exhumed in Ramallah today, to determine whether his death was the result of polonium poisoning. Ehud Barak, Israel’s Minister of Defence, has announced his retirement from politics. A map of China on new Chinese passports is controversial with its neighbours as it incorporates disputed areas in the South China Sea. Several neighbours are refusing to stamp the passports or are stamping them with...
27.11.12 | |

30 Jul

Participants from around the world failed to agree on a UN arms-trade treaty last Friday, eliciting disappointment from Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Foreign Policy has a post on Friday’s decision of the US to back away from supporting the Arms Trade Treaty. The landmark intellectual property case between global leaders in smartphone technology, Apple and Samsung, is slated to begin. Apple is demanding $2.5 billion in damages. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called for an investigation into the violence allegedly targeting Muslims...
30.07.12 | |

12 Apr

Dioncounde Traore will be sworn in as Mali’s interim president today and is tasked with pulling the nation in turmoil back on the right track. Syria has said it will comply with its truce deadlines today by halting military activity, but reserves its right to combat terrorist attacks. Kofi Annan says that Iran can be part of Syria’s solution. In the wake of the Arab Spring, start-up social media and networking companies are thriving in the Middle East. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu will propose direct talks with Palestinian...
12.04.12 | |

03 Jul

Syria’s President Assad has expressed regret at the downing of the Turkish jet last month and has vowed to apologize should it be established that the jet was shot down in international airspace. Human Rights Watch has released a report on arbitrary arrests, detention and torture in Syria since the beginning of the civil unrest in March 2011. A Reuters article discusses how the failing of diplomacy in Syria is pushing some states to get more actively involved in the dispute. UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay...
03.07.12 | |

12 Dec

Following the EU’s example yesterday, the US has recognized Syria’s opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and many more world powers are poised to do the same at the “Friends of the Syrian People” conference opens today in Morocco. Human Rights Watch has a report of the Syrian government using incendiary bombs on at least four occasions since mid-November in civilian areas. North Korea has successfully launched a rocket. The UN Secretary-General has condemned the test. The US has defended its low-key approach to...
12.12.12 | |

29 May

The current ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has been nominated by FIFA to head an ethics investigation into the organization’s match-fixing and corruption issues. Charles Taylor will be sentenced tomorrow in The Hague. You can watch the sentencing live with links provided on the Court’s website. Also in The Hague tomorrow, the ICC will release the judgment on the Prosecution’s appeal in the Mbarushimana case. As our own Deborah Pearlstein pointed out, the New York Times has an article detailing President Obama’s counterterrorism and targeting strategy in the...
29.05.12 | |

04 Jul

In an end to a 7 months standoff, Pakistan has reopened border crossings for US and NATO military supplies after US Secretary of State Clinton issued an apology of the November air strike that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Japan has protested against Russia’s Prime Minister Medvedev visit on Tuesday to the disputed Kuril Islands. A Chinese newspaper is accusing the Philippines of fomenting tension over the South China Sea ahead of an ASEAN meeting later this week. Iran has announced that it has successfully tested medium...
04.07.12 | |

27 Mar

Amnesty International reports that fewer nations are applying the death penalty, but that those who do are making more use of it. The increase is particularly noticeable in the Middle East. Amnesty International urges EU states to renew their commitment to examine their involvement in CIA secret flights Associated Press reports that the White House offered key concessions, such as advance notice and limits on the type of targets, to Pakistani intelligence officials to save the CIA’s drone programme The US and Australia are reportedly considering to...
27.03.12 | |

08 Sep

At the start of the US academic year, Peggy welcomed Stephen Walt’s recommendation, though not his reasons, that wannabe foreign policy wonks study international law, and Roger Alford posted about James Phillips and John Yoo’s analysis of international and comparative law all-stars at the top 16 US law schools. The Republican and Democratic conventions also caught our bloggers’ attention. Julian Ku posted about the strong language in the draft republican platform on protecting American sovereignty and opposing agreements such as UNCLOS, and Peter Spiro doubted whether the idea...
08.09.12 | |

07 Sep

The International Economic Law and Policy Blog is reporting on a case filed against the WTO in a US District Court seeking a declaration that the “ruling of the Appellate Body of the WTO concerning the Country of Origin Labeling Act is null and void in the United States and throughout the world” on the basis that US law prevails over the WTO Agreements, as stipulated in Section 102(a)(1) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. Asian and Pacific leaders are meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, this weekend for...
07.09.12 | |

01 Oct

The US Supreme Court begins its new term today and will hear re-argumentation in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. SCOTUS Blog offers insight into what is at stake and for whom in this case. After 10 years’ imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr was repatriated to Canada, where he will serve the rest of his sentence. At the UN General Assembly, several leaders of the Muslim world questioned the Western notion of freedom of speech in light of the recent film sparking protests and violence across the...
01.10.12 | |