Iceland has been elected to replace the USA on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The UN General Assembly elected Iceland as the replacement effective immediately until the end of next year.

The US announced its decision to withdraw from the UNHRC last month, citing anti-Israel bias and hypocrisy.

The US was a key partner in passing the Resolution 30/1 on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, which Sri Lanka co-sponsored.

Despite pulling out of the council, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka has stressed that the US government is still committed to holding Sri Lanka to its obligations under the resolution.

In Belfast, the homes of two prominent Sinn Féin members, former leader Gerry Adams, and Bobby Storey, were attacked with explosive devices last night.

Both men reported that no-one was hurt in the attacks, although Northern Ireland police said they discovered the remnants of large industrial firework-type devices, capable of causing serious injury, at both scenes.

Mr Adams was the leader of Sinn Féin from 1983 until earlier this year, and was a key figure in the resistance against British rule in Northern Ireland.

The attacks come amidst a resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland, with recent clashes in Derry and loyalist violence in Belfast.

On Friday the UN Security Council approved an arms embargo on South Sudan which will last until May 2019.

India's defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman dismissed the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report on Kashmir as "baseless", ANI reported. 

"The report was prepared while sitting somewhere else. The assessment made by UNHRC has no basis. They are not aware of the ground realities in Kashmir," Ms Sitharaman said. 

"The army is able to eliminate terrorists on the borders itself," she added. 

The United Kingdom will remain party to the European Convention on Human Rights after leaving the European Union, according to the Brexit white paper most recently published by the government.

Despite British Prime Minister, Theresa May, having previously backed leaving the ECHR, the white paper said, “the UK is committed to membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)” and that “the UK will remain a party to the ECHR after it has left the EU.”

Scotland's first minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon met with the Catalan president, Quim Torra on Wednesday during the newly elected leader's visit to Edinburgh this week. 

In a joint statement issued after the meeting the two leaders said "the way forward for Catalonia must be through peaceful and democratic solutions involving dialogue between the Spanish and Catalan authorities".

"In 21st century Europe, issues of self-determination must ultimately be addressed through democratic referendums", which should be "agreed between both parties and have corresponding international recognition," they added. 

Their meeting came as a Catalan minister, Clara Ponsati faces extradition from Scotland to Spain over Catalan's independence referendum. 

Bosnian Muslims marked 23 years since the Srebrenica genocide in a commemoration that saw the remains of 35 victims buried at the genocide’s memorial centre.

According to The Hague Tribunal and Bosnian state court, over 7000 Bosnian Muslims, mostly men and boys, were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

The forces then carried out operations to conceal the crimes by using secondary and tertiary mass graves.

A total of 6575 genocide victims have been reburied at the Memorial Centre in Potocari.

Cameroon’s government stated that it will open an investigation into a video that allegedly shows soldiers executing two women and their children, accusing them of being members of Boko Haram.

The mobile phone footage shows men in uniform similar to that of the Cameroonian military leading two women and their young children up a small hill, before they are blindfolded and murdered. The soldiers are heard telling them “You are going to die you BH,” referring to the Boko Haram Islamist group.

Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a declaration on Monday ending the war that existed between the two countries since the border conflict in 1998-2000. 

Despite a previous peace deal in 2000 the two countries remained in a state of no war no peace as the deal failed to be implemented. 

The declaration was signed at a meeting between Ethiopia's prime minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea's president Isaias Afewerki in Eritrea's capital, Asmara, when the two countries' leaders met for the first time in almost 20 years. 

Life sentences handed to two former Rwandan mayors for their part in the Rwandan genocide were upheld by a French court on Friday.

Octavien Ngenzi and Tito Barahira had appealed after they were found guilty of crimes of against humanity, genocide and summary executions in 2016.

"This decision is just and sends a message: no to impunity for all those who took part in the genocide and who thought they could find refuge in France," said Alain Gauthier, head of a group which has pushed for French investigations into the genocide.