It has become routine in much analysis of international affairs to position China as an opponent of the West (i.e. not just a competitor), and as prioritizing state sovereignty and non-interference in a state’s internal affairs above other international principles.

“In every state, without exception, there are people in state power who … assert that all the citizens of that state constitute a nation, one that has already determined its destiny. In the twenty-first century, [this] is in retreat in most countries.”

Four top Khmer Rouge leaders have had their appeals against the cases against them thrown out, paving the way for another major genocide trial later this year.
 
The four face charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and related crimes under Cambodian laws in connection with the deaths of up to two million people between 1975 and 1979 from starvation, overwork and execution.
 

“The historic vote is an exercise in self-determination long in the making.

“The international community was united in its belief that this referendum had to take place and that the will of the people of southern Sudan had to be respected, regardless of the outcome.

The African National Congress (ANC), Africa's oldest liberation movement, celebrates the 99th anniversary of its founding today.

“Such is India's footprint on so many transnational challenges - from climate change to pandemics to the international trade regime - that no table deciding on them would be complete without its presence. [This] may even explain India's rise far better than geopolitics ever will. India's and the world's growing awareness of this fact is expanding its presence in global governance structures, as seen in the endorsements for its bid for the UN Security Council.

Massoud Barazani, president of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region of Iraq, threw a bombshell at the opening session of the 13th general assembly of his party – the Kurdish Democratic Party – in the region’s capital Arbil.

According to the referendum commission, anyone who has a parent or ancestor from a southern tribe indigenous to the south can vote on January 9. Also anyone who has been permanently resident, or whose parents or grandparents have been in the south since the January 1, 1956 independence can vote.

Voting will occur not only in southern Sudan, but throughout Sudan for people of southern origin, and in eight countries that have large populations of southern Sudanese: Australia, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Palestinian leaders, determined to proclaim their state in the coming year, are readying an arsenal of diplomatic alternatives to frozen negotiations with Israel.

The Palestinians’ strategy centres on a proclamation of statehood in September 2011 - when the United Nations holds its next General Assembly.

An international convention aimed at preventing ‘disappearances’ - a fate affecting tens of thousands of people throughout the world - came into force last week.

The International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, first launched by the UN General Assembly in 2006, became law following its ratification last month by the minimum 20 states. Another sixty states have also signed the Convention.