Comment by Dr Andrew Wallis, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, as published in The Guardian:

A French court has ruled it will block the extradition of a leading genocide suspect to face trial in Rwanda .

The Yemeni youth movement reported to be the driving force behind months of protests in the country, have delivered a letter to the UN, asking to ensure President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces trial at the International Criminal Court.

The letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon said,

Western countries are in talks to draft a UN resolution aimed at pressuring president Saleh to step down, Reuters reported.

"The international community has decided we need to up the pressure now, No decision has been taken yet over what type of resolution we might try ... But we do need to move beyond statements now." said a senior western diplomat in Sanaa.

Ethnic Serbs have constructed a new roadblock in northern Kosovo, after NATO peacekeepers removed a previous barricade.

Helicopters and heavily armed NATO troops removed the roadblock, amidst protest by Serb residents.

But a few hours after the peacekeepers cleared the roads, Serbs constructed a new barricade further down the road.

A Serbian-Australian citizen has again lost an appeal against an extradition that would see him face charges of war crimes in Croatia.

Dragan Vasiljkovic, nicknamed "Captain Dragan", was the founder of a paramilitary unit the “Knindze” also known as the “Knin Ninjas” or “Red Berets”. He is accused of torturing and killing Croatian civilians and prisoners of war during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s.

See report by The Australian here.

A group of defected soldiers have claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties on Syrian President Assad’s security forces, as an armed opposition to the regime has begun to emerge after months of peaceful protests.

US senator John McCain, currently leading a Republican delegation to Tripoli, asserted that the Libyan revolutionaries were 'an inspiration to the world', particularly to aspiring activists in Syria, Iran, China and Russia.

McCain said,

"The people of Libya today are inspiring the people in Tehran, in Damascus and even in Beijing and Moscow," 

Twenty Bahraini nurses and doctors were charged on Thursday with committing 'crimes against the state', after treating injured protesters during protests earlier this year and publicly denouncing the Bahraini government on international media.

The group, charged by a military court, received sentences ranging from ten to fifteen years.

The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, condemned the trial, stating,

"These are worrying developments that could undermine the Bahraini government's moves towards dialogue and the reform needed for long-term stability in Bahrain."

"I call on the Bahraini judicial authorities to follow due process carefully and transparently. Cases before the special tribunals should be transferred to regular civilian courts."