An Israeli-Arab MP, Haneen Zoabi, has been barred from re-election by Israel's electoral authority on Wednesday, citing her presence on the Gaza flotilla in May 2010.

Claiming that she was "negating Israel's existence as a Jewish state" and that her actions illustrate "support for an enemy state or terrorist organisation", Israel's Central Elections Committee voted 19 to 9 in favour of blocking Zoabi's candidacy for the general election in January 2013. One member abstained.

The UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has jailed one of the key organisers of the Rwandan genocide to 35 years behind bars.

The last trial by the ICTR saw Augustin Ngirabatware convicted of genocide, incitement to commit genocide and rape as a crime against humanity.

"For these crimes the court sentences you to 35 years in prison," Judge William Hussein Sekule told the former government minister.

Ngirabatware was put on trial at the court in Tanzania, after his arrest in Germany in 2007.

Over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during a hundred days of violence in 1994.

US soldier Robert Bales could face the death penalty, if he is found guilty of the murder of 16 Afghan civilians, the US Army says.

Sgt Bales is accused of committing the killings In Kandahar province on March 11 this year.

According to prosecutors, Sgt Bales left his base and went into a nearby village, entering a house and shooting 22 civilians, mostly women and children. A total of 16 were killed.

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday authorised a military intervention led by African states to help defeat Islamist militants in northern Mali.

The resolution, drafted by France, authorises the deployment of an African-led intervention force to be known as AFISMA, for an initial period of one year. The resolution also authorised the EU and other UN member states to help rebuild national security forces in Mali.

Up to 3300 troops are expected to make up AFISMA which will assist Malian security forces "in recovering the areas in the north of its territory under the control of terrorist, extremist and armed groups."

See here for full report on Reuters.

Russian President Vladmir Putin has warned of the conflict in Syria continuing “forever” and has insisted that Russia is not propping up the Syrian regime.

Speaking at a news conference, Putin said,

"We are not concerned about the fate of Assad's regime. We understand what is going on there and that the family has held power for 40 years,"

"We are worried about a different thing - what next? We simply don't want the current opposition, having become the authorities, to start fighting the people who are the current authorities ... and (we don't want) this to go on forever."

However, Putin did not directly call on Assad to step down, instead saying,

"What is our position? Not to leave Assad's regime in power at any price, but to first (let the Syrians) agree among themselves how they should live next,"

"We are for a solution being found to the problem that would save the region and the country from, firstly, falling apart, and from a never-ending civil war. Our position is not to keep Assad and his regime in power at any cost… Only then should we start looking at ways to change the existing order."

The Russian President went on to slam Western intervention in Libya, stating,

“No matter how they explained their position, the state is falling apart... Interethnic, inter-clan and intertribal conflicts continue. Moreover, it went as far as the murder of the United States ambassador.” He added, “I was asked here about mistakes: Isn’t it a mistake? And you want us to constantly repeat these mistakes in other countries?”

British Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that there is a ‘strategic imperative to act’ in Syria and called for wider support for the Syrian opposition, including supplying arms to Syrian rebels.

Speaking in the House of Commons Cameron said,

"A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Syria on our watch, with over 40,000 dead and millions in need of urgent assistance as a hard winter approaches."

"We continue to encourage political transition from the top and to support the opposition, which is attempting to force a transition from below"

 "This should include and will include looking at the arms embargo. We must now explore all options to support the opposition to enable greater support for the protection of civilians."

The Prime Minster’s comments come as he secured an EU deal to review an arms embargo to aid the Syrian opposition. He went on to say,

"Syria is attracting and empowering a new cohort of al-Qaeda-linked extremists... There is a growing risk on instability spreading to Syria's neighbours, and a risk of drawing regional powers into direct conflict."

"We cannot go on as we are. Assad's regime is illegitimate, the council committed to work for a future for Syria that is democratic and inclusive with full support for human rights and minorities."

"My concern is that if we, with others, aren't helping to shape and work with the opposition, it's much more difficult to get the transition we all want to see to a peaceful, democratic Syria that respects the rights of minorities."

Earlier this month the United States last week proscribed Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the largest Syrian rebel factions, as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Beijing has warned Australia against continuing the discrimination against Chinese companies seeking to invest in Australia, saying it could jeopardise Astralia's future role in China's growth.

Australia recently banned Chinese firm Huawei from working on the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Chen Yuming, said that Australia has nothing to fear from China’s rise and urged Canberra to allow more investment, reported The Australian Financial Review.

“We believe what Huawei has received in Australia does not equal fair treatment and the accusations against Huawei are unfounded,

“I would say like all investors from other countries Chinese companies investing in Australia all want a secure, open, transparent and non-discriminatory environment for their business investment.

"We call on the Australian side at the official level and of course the Australian public to adopt a more objective view on Chinese companies and Chinese investment coming to Australia and to more warmly welcome Chinese companies doing business in Australia.

“I believe the current stock of Chinese investment in Australia is not too much. We need more Chinese investment and co-operation ... and many Chinese companies have the positive desire to further pursue growth and development in Australia,

“But they want to invest in a country with a good environment for overseas investment and good conditions for overseas investors.” Chen said according to the AFR.

The European Court of Human Rights has told Russia to pay over 500,000 Euros to the families of eight men apparently abducted by security forces in Chechnya.

The men who disappeared between 2002 and 2004 are all presumed dead.

The judges at the EU court said that four human rights articles had been violated by Russia, and also highlighted many deficiencies in the authorities’ investigations.

In a press release on Tuesday’s judgement, the court mentioned "a systemic problem of non-investigation of such crimes" and said that "the court has regularly found violations of the same rights in similar cases in more than 120 judgments, resulting from the disappearances that have occurred in the Northern Caucasus since 1999".

See here for full report on BBC News.

The vice-president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BHCR), Sayed Yousif al-Muhafdha has been detained at a protest commemorating the death of two Bahraini protestors.

Prosecutors ordered that Muhafdha was to be detained for a week due to a pending investigation that claimed Muhafdha had broadcast false information on Twitter.

Muhafdha, who has campaigned for the release of the detained BCHR president, Nabeel Rajab, has also been detained on several occasions by Bahrani authorities.

A BCHR statement described the Bahraini authority’s arrest of Muhafdha as part of an systematic targeting, harassment and detention of human rights defenders in Bahrain, and in particular those associated with the BCHR.”

Last month, the Bahrain government banned all public gatherings and rallies. Government minister, Shekh Rashid Al Khalifah, defended the decision stating, “repeated abuse of the rights to freedom of speech and expression could no longer be accepted.”

The former leader of a Congolese militia has been acquitted By the International Criminal Court, who had charged him with 7 counts of war crimes and 3 counts of crimes against humanities.

Judge Bruno Cotte told the court that Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui will be acquitted of all charges, as the prosecution had "not proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui was responsible" for the massacre of 200 villagers in 2003.

He said the decision was unanimous, and that witness testimony had been "too contradictory and too hazy".

In a statement the ICC said that the judgement does not necessarily mean Mr Ngudjolo is innocent.

"The chamber also emphasised that the fact of deciding that an accused is not guilty does not necessarily mean that the chamber finds him innocent,

"Such a decision simply demonstrates that, given the standard of proof, the evidence presented to support his guilt has not allowed the chamber to form a conviction 'beyond reasonable doubt'," said the statement.

The international justice advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said that justice must be served, as the verdict "leaves the victims of Bogoro and other massacres by his forces without justice for their suffering".

"The ICC prosecutor needs to strengthen its investigations of those responsible for grave crimes in Ituri, including high-ranking officials in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda who supported the armed groups fighting there," said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner.

Two men convicted for their roles in the Rwandan genocide have been granted early release from their imprisonment in Mali by the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT).

The MICT was established in 2010 to handle assist both the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The decision to release the two convicts has drawn criticism from survivors, with Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu, President of Rwandan genocide survivors organisation Ibuka said,

"The international justice should be seen as an educative mechanism, which, should be teaching lessons to ensure that such heinous crimes are not repeated anywhere. Now on top of giving them short sentences, they do not even let them complete them."

Four other convicts have been granted early release by the MICT as of yet.

Leaders of Iraq and the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan warned that they were close to civil war, due to Exxon Mobil’s attempt to drill for oil, amidst negotiations between the two opposing armies. 

Commenting on the situation, a confidant of Iraqi Prime Minister, Sami Alaskary said,

“The prime minister has been clear: If Exxon lays a finger on this territory, they will face the Iraqi army. We don’t want war but we will go to war, for oil and for Iraqi sovereignty.”

The military stand of at the disputed borders is a result of the harassment of a Kurdish fuel seller by Iraqi forces. The Kurdish merchant asked Kurdish soldiers for protection.

Kurdistan President Massoud, promptly responded by ordering thousands of reinforcements to prevent a possible Iraqi invasion.

Military leaders from both sides have warned that fighting could commence with just a single misfire.

The Iraqi Kurds were subject to ethnic cleansing under Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime. The fall of Saddam saw the Kurds obtain significant autonomy in northern Iraq.

The Kurdistan regional government now provides all public services, controls its own police and security forces and flies its own flag.