<p>The World Bank rescinded a $300 million loan to Tanzania on Thursday in response to a number of controversial laws passed by the legislature over recent months.</p> <p>Last month Tanzanian legislators passed amendments to Statistics Acts that criminalised public dissemination of statistical information contradicting official government figures. &nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;The European Union announced that it was reviewing its policies toward Tanzania, <a href="http://time.com/5456826/tanzania-anti-gay-world-bank/">stating</a></p>

<p>Two leaders of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia have been found guilty of genocide by a UN backed-tribunal, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).&nbsp;</p> <p>The genocide was conducted against the Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese population, who were subject to a litany of crimes including murder, extermination, enslavement and torture.&nbsp;</p> <p>The two men sentenced, Noun Chea, deputy of regime leader Pol Pot and head of state Khieu Samphan, 87, were already sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity.</p>

<p>The US treasury imposed fresh sanctions on 17 Saudi officials allegedly implicated with the murder of US resident and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.</p> <p>In a statement released on Thursday, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said,</p> <p>“The Saudi officials we are sanctioning were involved in the abhorrent killing of Jamal Kashoggi. These individuals who targeted and brutally killed a journalist who resided and worked in the United States must face consequences for their actions.”</p> <p>The statement further added:</p>

<p>Archeologists have begun excavating mass graves in Spain dating back to the dictatorship of General Franco in order to try and identify victimes.&nbsp;</p> <p>Over 2000 victims have been uncovered so far.&nbsp;</p> <p>The majority of the bodies currently being excavated are expected to be leftists who were sentenced to death by military judges between 1939-1956, the first half of General Franco’s military dictatorship.</p> <p>Despite over 4 decades since the death of Franco, there was no coordinated effort to identify victims.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Hamas and Israel have agreed to an Egyptian mediated ceasefire negotiation following two days of escalated violence.&nbsp;</p> <p>The proposed ceasefire agreement offers to reduce Israel’s blockade of Gaza and open entry points through which people may travel into Israel.&nbsp;</p> <p>The current escalation in the conflict was sparked after Israel attempted a military raid on Gaza on Sunday which resulted in the deaths of seven Hamas fighters and one of their Lieutenant Colonels.&nbsp;In retaliation Hamas launched 400 rockets into Israel, a hundred of which were blocked by Israeli’s Iron Dome missile defense system.&nbsp;</p> <p>Israel in return bombed 100 sites including those used for civilian purposes.&nbsp;These include civilian buildings, the Al-Aqsa TV channel, the Al-Amal hotel, a Hamas-run television building and a building Israel claimed was used for military purposes but Palestinians say housed a kindergarten. Three large residential buildings in Gaza were also destroyed.</p>

<p>A confidential briefing paper circulated within the UNHRC revealed that the United Nations is not willing to provide humanitarian assistance to the returning Rohingya Muslims, if they are interned in camps.&nbsp;</p> <p>Instead, the UN has said it will only support resettlement on the condition that returnees are resettled into the “places of refugees’ origin or choice”.&nbsp;</p>

<p>An outbreak of ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been described as the largest spread of the infection in the country, with 329 confirmed cases.&nbsp;</p> <p>Half of the reported cases are in Beni, a north-east city in the DRC.&nbsp;</p> <p>The outbreak comes as the DRC remains in the grip of conflict with militant groups in North Kivu, which has further bolstered the spread of the disease and hindered immunisation efforts.&nbsp;</p> <p>There is a further risk of the disease spreading to Uganda as the two nations share a porous border that many local farmers, merchants, traders, and refugees move across.</p>

<p>The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stated last week they are imposing sanctions on three individuals and nine entities backed by Russia.&nbsp;</p> <p>The individuals named, Andriy Volodymyrovych Sushkov, Aleksandr Basov, and Vladimir Nikolaevich Zaritsky are alleged to support Russia’s attempt to “reintegrate” Crimea through private investments and privatisation projects and by doing so have endorsed serious human rights abuses.&nbsp;</p>

<p>As many as 52&nbsp;people were killed when attackers detonated at least two bombs and stormed a hotel in Mogadishu near the headquarters of Somalia’s Criminal Investigation Department.</p> <p>The militant Al-Shabab organisation, which has been known for regular attacks on the capital, claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that they were targetting government officials who were staying at the hotel.</p> <p>Ali Nur, a police officer in the city, told Reuters that the attackers were “traveling in public vehicles at the scene when the blasts and gunfire occurred. The death toll is sure to rise”.</p>

<p>China's human rights record was criticised by western nations such as France, Germany and the United States this week during the country's Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council. &nbsp;</p> <p>Member states at the Counil called on China to close detention centres where an estimated million Uighur Muslims are said to be detained.&nbsp;</p> <p>Denying the reports, China’s vice foreign minister Le Yucheng, who was a delegate at the Council, argued that the accusations were "politically driven accusations from a few countries which are fraught with biases".<br> &nbsp;<br>