The former spokesperson of Muammar Gaddafi, Moussa Ibrahim has been captured, said the office of Libya's Prime Minister. The office said he was arrest on Saturday in Tarhouna and was being transferred to Tripoli. In a statement, the office said : "Moussa Ibrahim has been arrested by forces belonging to the Libyan government in the town of Tarhouna and he is being transferred to Tripoli to begin interrogation." Previous reports of Ibrahim's arrest have been proven false.
Speaking after a two day visit to Afghanistan, NATO’s chief, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, urged the Afghan government to work towards a ‘free, fair and transparent’ elections in the presidential poll, which is due to take place in 2014. Noting the significance of a fair election process in orchestrating a smooth transition of power back to the Afghan forces, Rasmussen said , “I think it is essential for building trust and confidence between the Afghan people and the Afghan government that the presidential elections take place in a manner that is free fair, and transparent.”
A former Argentinean army general who led troops in the Falklands war has been arrested over his role in committing alleged crimes against humanity, during the country’s 1976-83 military dictatorship. 82-year-old Mario Menéndez was arrested from his home in Buenos Aires along with 15 others and will be transported to the northern province of Tucumán, where the alleged crimes took place. He stands accused of crimes against humanity whilst leading “Operation Independence” against left wing activists and militants during the country’s “Dirty War” The 1975 operation is thought to have killed over...
UN member states have voted Rwanda onto the Security Council, where they will serve for two years. The country will replace South Africa and occupy the African seat, which was uncontested, on January 1. On Monday, a leaked UN report accused the Rwandan defence minister of leading a rebel army in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC raised objections to the candidacy of Rwanda, but Kigali has rejected all allegations. Human Rights Watch also criticised Rwanda’s selection, saying the country can use its seat to block sanctions against itself. Philippe Bolopion, UN Directorfor...
The prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo met for the first time on Friday, in order to help improve relations and make progress on their respective bids for the European Union. The meeting was mediated by Catherine Aston, the EU foreign policy chief, in Brussels. Speaking afterwards, Aston said the talks had occurred in a "constructive atmosphere". Aston added , "We agreed to continue the dialogue for the normalisation of relations between the two sides and both committed to working together. We will meet again soon." Although Belarus refuses to recognise the sovereignty of Kosovo, in order...
The United Nations Security Council has drafted a statement that will see sanctions imposed on leaders of the rebel group M23 and those breaking arms embargoes to them, according to Reuters . A draft statement seen by Reuters said, "The Security Council expresses its intention to apply targeted sanctions against the leadership of the M23 and those acting in violation of the sanctions regime and the arms embargo," The council also went on to express “deep concern” at external support being provided to the rebels by neighbouring countries and called for an end to it. The reports of sanctions...
An independent tribunal in The Hague announced that it will examine the killings of at least 20,000 political prisoners, by Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime, in the 1980’s. The investigation aims to uncover the truth of what occurred in Iran’s jails, highlighting the selective nature of what the UN courts and special tribunals wish to act upon. A former prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) who will now work for the independent tribunal, Sir Geoffrey Nice, described the ICC as highly selective and fundamentally flawed. “The ICC suffers a further, significant and probably...
French President François Hollande has acknowledged that Algerian demonstrators were massacred during a pro-independence rally in Paris in 1961. The admission marks the first time a French leader has publicly accepted that the killings took place. "On 17 October 1961, Algerians who were protesting for independence were killed in a bloody repression. The Republic recognises these facts with lucidity," Hollande said in a statement on Wednesday. "I pay homage to victims 51 years later." Historians claim more than 200 people were killed, when police, under orders of former Nazi collaborator and...
Twitter blocked an account belonging to a banned neo-Nazi group on Thursday, preventing Germans receiving or viewing tweets from the account. The group Besseres Hannover, under the alias @hannoverticker now reveals only the following generic tweet: “Withheld account. @Hannover ticker’s account has been withheld in Germany.” The move is the first blanket censorship action taken by Twitter. “We announced the ability to withhold content back in Jan," tweeted Alex Macgillivray, Twitter’s general counsel. “We’re using it now for the first time re: a group deemed illegal in Germany.” In a fax sent...
The Philippines’ House of Representatives has ratified a bill which would criminalise enforced disappearances, which have been mostly sanctioned by the government. The new law will come into force Presdient Aquino signs the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, which would make the Philippines the first Asian country to enact such a law. "The occurrence of enforced or involuntary disappearance and the impunity of offenders who are agents of the State are now finally consigned to the past," Representative Edcel Lagman said, according to Interaksyon . "The same obtained Congressional approval on 20 September 2012, a day before the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law an era when enforced disappearance was an atrocious tool of the martial law regime to silence protesters and human rights madvocates," Lagman, one of the principal authors of the bill, said. Hundreds of Filipinos disappeared during the Martial Law period, with disappearances still occurring today. See below for some of the important features of the bill: