European states are working together in an attempt to persuade the US administration to ease sanctions targeting Russia, due to concerns that the restrictions will impact manufacturing activity across the continent.

The initiative, led by Paris, outlines increasing concern over consequences that the US sanctions on Russia could have on key EU industries.

A Palestinian lecturer was shot dead in Malaysia’s capital on Saturday morning reports Reuters.

“Two men on a motorcycle fired ten shots at the victim killing him on the spot,” said Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim in a statement.

Speaking to Reuters Palestine’s ambassador to Malaysia Anwar Al Agha said, the victim was Palestinian lecturer Fadi al-Batsh but declined to say if he was a member of Hamas.

When contacted by Reuters, officials in Israel declined to comment.

Human Rights Watch has accused Iraqi officials of disposing of war crimes evidence.

In a statement released Thursday the rights group said on March 29 2018 government workers removed 80 bodies from a damaged house, raising suspicions of a cover-up of killings of possible Islamic State suspects. Days later, the house had been burned.

The UN Security Council has asked the Secretary-General to study the role played by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in resolving conflict in Liberia.

The UN Mission in Liberia closed last month after nearly 15 years during which the country was at civil war for 14 years.

Earlier this year President George Weah succeeded Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in what is described as the first peaceful transfer of power between democratically elected leaders in 71 years.

A peace and national building plan submitted by the UN Secretary-General will continue to be implemented in partnership with the Liberian government.

The Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has backed a devolution document submitted by 18 local authorities in Yorkshire that outlined proposals for devolved powers to a collective administration, reports BBC.

The ‘One Yorkshire’ proposals called for the government to devolve responsibility and funding matters including transport budgets, franchised bus services and adult skills funding to create a Yorkshire Combined Authority.

In response to the proposals, Mr Corbyn said,

The European Union in a statement on Thursday threatened further sanctions on Venezuela if recently called elections were deemed unfair reports Reuters.

The EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro had called presidential elections without consensus on required “conditions for a credible and inclusive electoral process.”

The US ambassador at large for international religious freedom called on Myanmar to release journalists jailed for covering the plight of Rohingya Muslims, reports Reuters.

US envoy Sam Brownback, speaking in Bangladesh, said,

“The journalists should be released who are in jail in Myanmar.”

Brownback was speaking on whilst on a trip to see first hand the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have been detained in Myanmar since December.

The International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) has declared Myanmar’s state violence against Rohingya Muslims a genocide, in its latest report this week.

The ISCI, based in London, said in a press release that its latest report “presents irrefutable evidence of the final stages of genocide; mass annihilation and symbolic enactment, both of which remove the victim group from the country’s collective history”.

“The parallels between the situation in Myanmar and other genocides are stark,” said Professor Penny Green from Queen Mary’s School of Law and Director of ISCI. “The treatment of the Rohingya is reminiscent of that of the Jews in Germany in the 1930s”.

The exiled Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, met with over 30 representatives from his JuntsxCat party in Berlin to discuss future strategy, reports Deutsche Welle.

Following the state court’s refusal to grant Spain’s request for the extradition of Mr Puigdemont on the charge of rebellion, the Catalan leader met with 30 out of 34 of the party’s members of parliament.

Speaking to reporters, the JuntsxCat party spokeswoman, Anna Grabalosa said,

More than 20 years after the Rwandan genocide occurred, the bodies of more than 150 victims have been buried at a genocide memorial site in the country.

Thousands of people gathered as 157 victims were laid to rest at the Ruhango Episcopal Anglican Church. The church itself is the site of a massacre and has now been converted into a genocide memorial site.

The 157 bodies were only recovered recently from different areas across the Rusororo Sector.

“It was always a challenge that our people could not get a decent burial, we have been searching for them,” said Gerard Mudahemuka, whose family were killed in the church massacre.