Guinea ex-dictator denies role in 2009 massacre

Guinea’s former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara denied responsibility when he took the stand Monday at a trial of officials implicated in a 2009 massacre. Camara and 10 other former military and government officials are accused of the killing of 156 people and the rape of at least 109 women by forces supporting the military government at a political rally in a Conakry stadium in September 2009. They face charges ranging from murder to sexual violence, kidnappings, arson and looting. Camara himself is charged with “personal criminal responsibility and command responsibility”. The United Nations...

Argentina court sentences VP Kirchner to six years in prison

A court in Argentina has sentenced Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in jail and have disqualified her from holding public office after being found guilty in a $1bn fraud case related to public works. Fernández de Kirchner, 69, was found guilty of "fraudulent administration" after arranging for 51 public work contracts to be awarded to a company belonging to Lázaro Báez. Báez is a friend and colleague of both Fernández and her husband Nestor Kirchner. According to prosecutors the Báez company was established to embezzle revenues via a false bidding process for...

Close to 300 villagers killed by rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The civilian death toll from what it calls a massacre by the March 23 movement, known as M23 rebel group, has risen to 272, said the Democratic Republic of Congo. The increased death toll was announced at a press briefing Monday in Kinshasa by Minister of Industry and former governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku. The Congolese army last week accused the March 23 movement rebels of killing at least 50 civilians in North Kivu’s Kishishe village. The rebel group rejected these accusations, and claimed that eight civilians were killed in the village by "stray bullets" on 29 November. The...

Al Jazeera takes the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh to the ICC

Al Jazeera Media Network has submitted a formal request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh . Abu Akleh, a television correspondent with Al Jazeera for 25 years, was killed by Israeli forces on May 11 as she was covering an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank. The request includes a dossier on a comprehensive six-month investigation by Al Jazeera that gathers all available eyewitness evidence and video footage, as well as...

Tigray commander says they have withdrawn 65% of fighters from front line

More than half of Tigrayan forces have been withdrawn from the frontlines, a month after a ceasefire agreement was signed. Following last month's ceasefire agreement which sought to bring an end to the two-year conflict, Tadesse Wereda commander-in-chief of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) has said, "We have accomplished 65% disengagement of our army" Reuters, report that he made the comments in a video posted late on Saturday on the groups official Facebook page. The fighting has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands facing famine. In a surprise...

Turkey arrest Kurdish man deported by Sweden

Sweden deported a Kurdish man with alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to Turkey. Mahamut Tat had sought asylum in Sweden in 2015 after being sentenced in Turkey for six years and 10 months for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). His final application was denied last year by the Swedish migration agency.

Court finds 2007 Dutch airstrike on Afghan compound unlawful 

On Wednesday, the District Court of The Hague concluded that the 2007 airstrike mounted by the Dutch armed forces on an Afghan residential compound violated international humanitarian law. The attack in question took place on the 17th of June, 2007, when twenty-eight guided bombs were dropped by Dutch fighter jets over the central Afghan province of Uruzgan. Twenty civilians were killed during this night-time attack. Four unnamed survivors of the attack brought a civil suit to the Dutch courts seeking compensation. Almost two years ago, a war veteran submitted a report calling into question...

World major asset managers and state pensions allegedly engaged in Uighur repression

Many of the world’s largest asset managers and state pension funds are passively investing in companies that have allegedly engaged in the repression of Uighur Muslims in China , according to a new report. The report, by UK-based group Hong Kong Watch and the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University, found that three major stock indexes provided by MSCI include at least 13 companies that have allegedly used forced labour or been involved in the construction of the surveillance state in China’s Xinjiang region. The report includes a list of major asset...

Supreme court rules against Scottish independence referendum

The supreme court has ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold an independence referendum without the UK government's consent. Nicola Sturgeon had planned to hold a referendum on 19 October 2023 but the supreme court ruled unanimously that she does not have the power to do so, stating that the issue is reserved to Westminister. Court president Lord Reed said the laws that created the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999 meant it did not have power over areas of the constitution including the union between Scotland and England. These issues are the responsibility of the UK Parliament, he...

Man detained at Manston centre dies

A man who arrived in the UK on a small boat a week ago and was being processed at Manston has died, the Home Office said on Saturday. He became ill while at the Kent detention site and was taken to hospital, but later died. t is understood that he arrived on 12 November and was taken ill on Friday evening. “We can confirm a person staying at Manston has died this morning [Saturday] in hospital after becoming unwell,” a Home Office spokesperson said. The facility provides basic temporary accommodation to small boat arrivals while they undergo processing and can hold 1,000 people, with a...

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