INTERNATIONAL LAW

Palestine became the 195th full member and will have a vote in the General Conference, which sets policy for UNESCO and elects members of its executive board. But the vote carried greater significance in the context of the Palestinian bid for full membership in the United Nations, something that the Security Council has yet to vote on.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to condemn Yemen’s bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters and endorsed an initiative aimed at securing President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s commitment to leave office.

China may be the first country to own land on the moon.

Bringing an end to an eight-month war backed by NATO, revolutionary fighters overran the hometown of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, 69, killing him and stripping his bloodied boy for display, Reuters reported.

The Turkish military has launched a series of brutal counter-attacks in northern Iraq, killing some 20 Kurdish rebels, after members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) killed 29 soldiers and five civilians along the Kurdish-Turkish border. President Obama has condemned the PKK's attacks, calling on the US and UN to support Turkey's assault, but PKK leader Duzdan Hammo insists reports of the attacks have been exaggerated and misconstrued.

164 Palestinian children are imprisoned in Israeli jails, some on charges as minor as throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.

The U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide if victims and their families can sue corporations or political organizations in America for human rights abuses in other countries.

An extradition treaty with the United States is not biased against British criminal suspects, a judge-led review said on Tuesday, dealing a blow to campaigners fighting to stop a computer hacker being sent to stand trial in America.

Iran demanded consular access Sunday to a man held in the United States over a suspected plot to kill the Saudi ambassador and vowed to respond robustly to any inappropriate measure by the West.

U.S. officials indicated that the Iranian operatives as well as members of Hezbollah were transported across the Middle East by Mahan.

The U.S. State Department issued a Worldwide Travel Alert on Tuesday due to the Iran terror plot.

The U.N. Mission in Afghanistan interviewed prisoners held by both the Afghan National Police and the National Directorate of Security, many of whom reported that they were tortured, beaten and subject to devices like electric shocks during interrogation sessions.

Now the Palestinian spring has arrived, asking for freedom and an end to the [Israeli] occupation. We deserve your support.

The killing of terrorist mastermind Anwar Al-Awlaki, in Yemen last week, by the United States has raised legal questions, with many international law experts saying that the ideal course of action would have been to bring Awlaki to a U.S. court.

President Barack Obama on Friday hailed the killing of American-born militant Anwar al-Awlaki as a tribute to years of counterterrorism cooperation with Yemen and proof that al Qaeda and its allies will find no safe haven anywhere in the world.

Israel has never confirmed nor denied the existence of a nuclear weapons program

New York appeals court has lifted a ban on the $18bn judgment against the oil giant, Chevron for environment damage in Ecuador.

A U.S. appeals court reversed an order freezing enforcement outside of Ecuador of an $18 billion damages award against Chevron Corp over pollution in the Amazonian rain forest.

Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a U.N. body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate U.N. probe into Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.

Israel has also refused to apologize for the killings.

An American has been kidnapped in Pakistan. Gunmen stormed his residence.