<p>A second round of internationally administered official talks between the Polisario Front and Morocco to solve the 43- year old political dispute on Western Sahara’s self-determination are set to&nbsp;take place next month, reports <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/talks-western-sahara-expected-ma…">Al Jazeera.</a></p> <p>The UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara, former German president Horst Koehler, told the United Nations that he planned to hold separate talks preliminary talks with all parties to prepare for a&nbsp;second around of official talks in March.</p> <p>Speaking after a meeting of the United Nations last week,&nbsp;German Ambasador Christoph Hesugen said,&nbsp;“I do see hope. The unity of the Security Council is a very important factor. This is a conflict we can resolve.</p>

Saudi Arabia has agreed to release seven Houthi rebel prisoners after a Saudi prisoner of war was released safely in Riyadh. 

The release of  Mousa Awaji, a Saudi soldier, was initiated by the Houthi rebels who stated they they did not have the adequate medical equipment to care for his ailments. The UN welcomed the transfer and hopes that this could lead to a ceasefire in Yemen. 

<p>The United Nations’ refugee agency warned of a rise in xenophobic rhetoric in Europe, despite migrant arrivals to Europe reaching a four year low in 2018&nbsp;</p> <p>The UN High Commission for Refugees said that populist European politicians had been upholding a harsh anti-immigration position despite numbers falling from the highest numbers since World War Two in 2015.</p> <p>Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of the UNHRC, added however that even if these politicians do gain power, they will likely be forced to make compromises after European Parliament elections in May.</p>

India has engaged in an increased crackdown on border crossings from Bangladesh leading to the arrest and deportation of dozens of Rohingya Muslims this year.

Yanghee Lee, a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, publicly called for Myanmar’s army chief to be prosecuted for the Rohingya genocide, stating that holding perpetrators to account is vital before Rohingya refugees can return to Myanmar.

<p>A French court has rejected Chile’s request of extradition for a leftist militant, who was previously imprisoned over the assassination of an ally of Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet.</p> <p>Paris’s Court of Appeals refused to extradite Ricardo Palma Salamanca in a decision made on Wednesday, following France’s Office for the Protection of Refugees (Ofpra) granting Ricardo Palma Salamanca political asylum last November, despite pleas from Chile for his extradition.</p>

A brutal crackdown continues in Zimbabwe this week after protests against the rise in the price of fuel and other basic commodities. 

An attack on a hotel complex, DusitD2, in Kenya’s capital, left 21 people dead, several injured and 50 unaccounted for last week, with a total of 700 people evacuated from the hotel complex.

<p>Israel has come under criticism for the opening of a new highway in the occupied West Bank, separating Palestinian and Israeli traffic between villages of Anata and Azzayim.</p> <p>The newly opened route 4370, which Palestinians have dubbed as the “apartheid road”, segregates the road into two separate two way lanes with a high wall in the middle, topped with fencing. The western side allows Palestinians in the West Bank to go around Jerusalem while the eastern side allows Israeli settlers to enter and leave Jerusalem. Palestinians cannot enter the city without an Israeli military-issued permit.</p>

<p>President Erdogan stated Turkey is ready to create a 32 km (20-mile) deep safe zone alongside its border with Kurdish-held Syria, running along the border from Afrin to the western bank of the River Euphrates.</p> <p>The announcement follows President Trump's threat that the US will "devastate Turkey economically” if they attacked the Kurdish separatist militia known as the People’s Protection Unit (YPG).&nbsp;</p> <p>The YPG has been a crucial ally for the US in their war in Syria. The US has announced its strategic withdrawal from the region which threatens to leave the YPG defenceless against Turkey.&nbsp;</p>