Ethiopia’s parliament is set to lift its six-month state of emergency two months early after the cabinet approved a draft law, asserting that tranquility has been restored to the country. Indeed, Fitsum Arega, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, stated in a post on Twitter on Saturday that “the Council
At 23:30 local time on Friday, North Korean clocks moved forward thirty minutes to midnight, in order to resynchronise its time zone with its Southern counterpart. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed and committed to the measure at a landmark summit last week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that
Japan activated its first marine unit since World War II on Saturday, trained to counter invaders occupying the disputed Japanese islands along of the edge of the East China Sea, which Tokyo fears are at risk of attack by China. In a ceremony held at a military base in Sasebo
Polish President Andrzj Duda apologized on Thursday to the victims of the country’s former communist regime, including Polish Jews, who faced persecution and were forced to leave the country in 1968. This March marks the 50th anniversary of an anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist campaign by the 1968 government. These campaigns accused
Speaking last Thursday at the annual state of the nation address, Vladmir Putin boasted that Russia now possesses unstoppable nuclear weapons that are capable of hitting almost any point in the world and evading traditional missile defences. In an effort to bolster his words, images and video clips of some
The Dutch parliament passed a motion on Thursday recognizing that the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I was a “genocide,” a move that is likely to further test ties between The Hague and Ankara. “The motion is accepted that parliament in no uncertain terms speak about
Concluding a yearlong graft investigation, Israeli police recommended on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be charged with alleged bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in two separate corruption cases. The first, known as Case 1000, relates to accusations that Netanyahu accepted almost $300,000 in gifts from two business
Over 300 child soldiers have been formally released by armed groups in South Sudan, according to the United Nations. The 311 children, which includes 87 girls, will now begin the process of reuniting and reintegrating with their communities. Agencies such as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in conjunction with local
In January 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released an assessment that concluded with “high confidence” that the Russian government, under the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, interfered in the United States’ 2016 presidential election. It stated that the goals of the influence campaign, which
Former Clinton administration cabinet member and veteran US diplomat, Bill Richardson, has resigned from the international panel established by Aung San Suu Kyi to advise on the Rohingya crisis. He quit as the ten-member advisory board was making its first visit to the western Rakhine State, from where over 650,000
After three days of heated discussion in parliament, last Thursday Ukraine passed a law declaring areas seized by pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east as being under “temporary occupation” by Russia. The “Donbass reintegration law” was submitted by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and adopted with the support of 280 lawmakers
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed that he will be visiting Tokyo this week for annual talks with his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe. The major focus of the trip will be bolstering regional security, as the two countries prepare to seal a defence agreement that will strengthen military ties
The decline of Venezuela from an oil-rich powerhouse to economic disaster has been extensively documented. However, in 2017, the magnitude of the crisis within Venezuela began to reveal itself. The country initially plunged into recession in December 2014, after oil prices dropped dramatically and the government was unable to manage
A South Korean government-appointed panel has concluded that a “final and irreversible” deal made with Japan in 2015 to compensate Korean women forced into sexual slavery during World War II fails to meet the needs of victims. The investigation determined that the decades-long dispute regarding what the Japanese euphemistically termed
The factions involved in the South Sudanese conflict signed a ceasefire deal on Thursday in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, in the most recent effort to end the country’s now four-year civil war. The agreement, expected to go into effect early on December 24th, serves as an attempt to recover the
According to a watchdog, refugees and migrants seeking to move from Serbia and into neighbouring European Union countries have been subjected to illegal deportations as well as systemic police brutality. A recent report by Rigardu, a German NGO and monitoring group, has detailed 857 instances of violence committed against people
