WORLD NEWS

World News

Latest news from and about the homeland

Rwandan genocide memorial in Nyamata (Fanny Schertzer) German prosecutors have arrested a German-Rwandan national on suspicion of complicity in genocide and 25 counts of murder during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda. The suspect, identified only as Innocent S. under German privacy rules, was arrested in the central German state of Hesse on Wednesday. According to Reuters,…

Cambodian PM tells foreign countries to stop interfering in domestic politics

International powers should stay out of Cambodian domestic politics warned Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen on Tuesday, as tensions run high between the Prime Minister's ruling party and the opposition.

Hun Sen's party is accused by foreign governments of intimidating and harassing his political opponents. Last month, the European Parliament threatened to review about a half billion dollars of aid to the country if such harassment continued.

36 confirmed dead in Istanbul airport attack

Thirty-six people have been confirmed dead in a bomb and gun attack on Istanbul's international airport on Tuesday.

Turkey's prime minister Binali Yildirim suggested that the attack may have been perpetrated by Islamic State. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up after opening fire.

Calling for the incident to be seen as a turning point in the world's fight against militancy, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "the bombs that exploded in Istanbul today could have gone off at any airport in any city around the world."

Over 140 people were injured in the attack.

Former UN Sec Gen calls on Africans to seek justice at ICC

Former UN Secretary Kofi Annan has defended the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid criticism from African leaders, urging Africans to seek justice from abroad if they cannot find it in domestic courts.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Annan said he wanted to “remind the Africans that it’s wrong for them to say that only African leaders are put into the dock”.

Stating that African civilians wanted to see perpetrators punished for crimes, he urged them to seek justice at the ICC if they could not gain it from courts within their country.

Kurdish fighters clash with Iranian troops

Fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran clashed with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, with both sides claiming to have inflicted casualties.

The fighting along Iran’s border with Iraq has raised ethnic tensions in the Kurdish region, an area that Kurdish separatists have been striving to make independent for decades, reports the New York Times.

US express concern at detention of Bahraini journalist for reporting on torture

Bahrain’s attempt to try an activist for tweets condemning the prison system as sparked criticism by the US State Department reports Reuters.

Bahraini rights activist Nabeel Rajab was arrested earlier this month on unspecified charges in what appears to be an escalating crackdown on dissent by the Sunni-led government, and is set to face over a decade in person.

In a statement released by the State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau, the US said,

US court finds former Chilean army officer liable for murder of activist

A former Chilean army officer who now resides in the United States has been found liable for the murder of a folk singer and political activist in 1973, by a Florida jury.

Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez, who now lives in Deltona, Florida, is alleged to have shot dead political activist Victor Jara, in September 1973 during a coup by Augusto Pinochet.

The jury awarded Mr Jara's family, who brought the civil action forward, $28m (£21m) in damages.

‘Time to put Welsh independence on the agenda’ – Plaid Cymru

The leader of Plaid Cymru said that her party would be outlining moves to “put independence on the agenda now in order to safeguard Wales’s future”, in light of last week’s European Union referendum.

Commenting on action ahead for Wales in light of the fallout from Britain voting to exit the European Union, Leanne Wood said:

“Even though this situation was not of our making, Plaid Cymru believes that redesigning the current UK is the only option. A new union of independent nations working together for the common good”.

“The Welsh economy and our constitution face unprecedented challenges,” she added. “We must explore options that haven’t been properly debated until now.”

“It’s time to put independence on the agenda now in order to safeguard Wales’s future,” the party leader continued. “This is about us beginning a national conversation rather than calling for a referendum, though that is where it will end up.”

German lawsuit accuses Turkish president of war crimes against Kurds

A group of German parliamentarians and civil society activists have filed a lawsuit against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials, accusing them of committing war crimes against the Kurdish population.

Lawyers for the group, Britta Eder and Petra Dervishaj said,

UK to retain access to EU single market, immigration not a major issue says Boris Johnson

The lead campaigner of Britain’s EU exit campaign Boris Johnson, said that the UK would continue to seek have access to the European Union’s single market despite voting to leave the body.

In a statement made on Sunday, Mr Johnson said Britain could now forge a relationship based on free trade and partnership rather than a federal system, whilst also fostering free trade deals with growing economies outside the EU.