The International Criminal Court has convicted Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba of war crimes and crimes against humanity this week. The court held him responsible for a devastating campaign of rape, murder and torture in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. 

The three-judge panel convicted Mr Bemba of murder and pillaging, and defined the large-scale rape by his soldiers as a crime against humanity and as a war crime.

US President Barack Obama has begun his visit to Cuba, becoming the first American president to do so in 88 years.

After meeting with the government and holding bilateral discussions, the President will meet with Cuban civil society, including human rights activists.

On human rights, the White House had previously written:

The UN Security Council has unanimously condemned the "unacceptable" ballistic missile launches by North Korea.

In a statement, the Security Council said the latest firings "constituted a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions".

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the launches were "deeply troubling" and urged the North Koreans to halt "these inflammatory and escalatory actions", according to his spokesperson.

A suicide bomb in Istanbul has killed at least four people, in the latest violence in Turkey's largest city.

According to Turkish media, the attack in a shopping district killed three Israelis and one Iranian citizen.

Recent bombing have been claimed by both Kurdish militants and Islamic State. Turkey has stepped up their bombing campaign against the PKK and the YPG in recent months, in light of the latter group's advances in Syria.

Following the United States’ declaration that the Islamic State is committing genocide in Iraq and Syria, the New York Times said the evidence against the militant group was “indisputable”.

“Since the Holocaust, the United States has designated wide-scale killing as genocide only four times: Cambodia in 1989, Bosnia in 1993, Rwanda in 1994 and Sudan in 2004,” said the New York Times in an editorial.

“To those it has now added the Islamic State’s rampage in Iraq and Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Thursday.”

Noting that “the term genocide, first specified in the 1948 United Nations Convention, refers to “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”,” the paper said “the evidence against the Islamic State is indisputable”.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Islamic State (IS) has been committing genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims in Syria and Iraq on Thursday.

In a televised address Mr Kerry said the militant group “is genocidal by self proclamation, by ideology and by actions”.

"The fact is Daesh kills Christians because they are Christians, Yazidis because they are Yazidis, Shias because they are Shias," he said, adding that "we will all we can to see that the perpetrators are held accountable."

Though State Department spokesman Mark Toner had already stated the usage of the term ‘genocide’ "would not necessarily result in any particular legal obligation for the United States," the move represents a significant moment nonetheless.

Mr Kerry’s declaration marks only the second time the executive branch of the US has used the term ‘genocide’ to describe atrocities committed during an ongoing conflict.

The US military has punished over a dozen of its personnel over the attack on an MSF-run hospital in Kunduz last year.

An air strike killed 42 people in the hospital and the Pentagon acknowledged that it was a mistake. However no troops will face criminal charges.

Some of the personnel will be suspended while others will receive formal reprimands.