“The permanent solution to the Pakistan problem … lies in 20th-century history. ... The answer to the current Pakistani train wreck is to continue this natural process [of Bangladesh gaining independence from Pakistan] by recognizing Baluchistan’s legitimate claim to independence.”

- M. Chris Mason, a retired diplomat and a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington DC.

“Kim Jong-il, the enigmatic North Korean leader, died on a train at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in his country. Forty-eight hours later, officials in South Korea still did not know anything about it — to say nothing of Washington, where the State Department acknowledged “press reporting” of Mr. Kim’s death well after North Korean state media had already announced it.”

The United States has extradited a Rwandan convicted in absentia for her role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

In 2009, she was sentenced for 19 years, the complicity in the murder of several children.

The woman, Marie-Claire Mukeshimana, was extradited to Kigali on Wednesday.

Rwanda's chief prosecutor, Martin Ngoga said,

The UN Tribunal for Rwanda has handed life sentences to two senior members of the ruling political party in the country at the time of the 1994 genocide.

The sentences were imposed upon Matthieu Ngirumpatse and Edouard Karemera, for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The United States extradited a former Bosnian soldier to face charges of war crimes in Bosnia.

Edin Dzeko, now a naturalised US citizen, is accused of taking part in the mass murder of Croatian civilians in the South of Bosnia, in 1993.

In a statement, the Bosnian prosecutor's office said,

"Defendant Edin Dzeko was deported from the United States and handed over to Bosnia-Herzegovina authorities on December 20."

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has warned France of ‘grave consequence if the proposed legislation to outlaw the Armenian Genocide is passed by the French lower house of parliament on Thursday.

"It is impossible for us to accept a draft law directed toward eliminating the freedom to reject unjust and groundless accusations against our country and our people," the Turkish president said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a worldwide press freedom group, called on the Egyptian military to end the violence against journalists and the censoring of media outlets.  

See CPJ statement -'In Egypt, press freedom abuses must be investigated' (19/12/11)

CPJ's Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator, Mohamed Abdel Dayem, said,