UN approves global arms trade treaty

The 193-nation UN General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the 70 billion dollar business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful US pro-gun lobbying group that has opposed the treaty from the start, said it was a sad day for the United States, which joined the vast majority of UN member states by voting for the pact.

Syria says rebels set fire to oil wells

Syrian rebels have set three oil wells in the east of the country ablaze, causing a daily loss of nearly 5 000 barrels of oil and 52 000 cubic metres of gas, state media quoted an oil ministry official as saying on Sunday.

Bashir orders release of political prisoners

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Monday ordered the release of all political prisoners, a move cautiously welcomed by the opposition in the tightly-controlled African country.

The announcement comes after Sudan and South Sudan agreed in March to end hostilities and resume cross-border oil flows after coming close to war a year ago. Khartoum had accused its southern neighbor of supporting rebels trying to topple Bashir.

US Senate pass key deal to avoid tax rises

The US Senate late Monday approved a deal to avert general tax hikes and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff".

Peace restored in stronghold of Odinga

Calm returned to the western Kenyan stronghold of defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga on Monday after two days of running battles with police following the Supreme Court’s confirmation of his rival Uhuru Kenyatta as president-elect.

Two people were shot dead in the unrest, but the violence was on a much smaller scale than the nationwide bloodshed that followed the 2007 election when the western city of Kisumu was one of the places worst affected by deadly riots.

N. Korean leader seeks end to confrontation

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.

Assange for Australian Senate bid

Fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, holed up in London’s Ecuadorian embassy for nine months, has appointed a high-profile opponent of Britain’s monarchy to run his campaign for a seat in Australia’s upper house of parliament.

Former Australian Republican Movement head and lawyer Greg Barns said on Monday he would be campaign director for the WikiLeaks Party spearheading Assange’s rare absentee bid for a Senate seat in Australia’s September 14 election, which even if successful would not bring him any legal protection.

Pope washes offenders’ feet

Pope Francis is scheduled to kick off the holy week by washing the feet of prisoners in a youth detention centre near Rome on Thursday.

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists have arrived in Rome to attend ceremonies during the holy week.

The washing of feet on the Thursday before Easter is a Christian tradition commemorating Christ’s Last Supper.

South Korea vows fast response to North

South Korea will strike back quickly if the North stages any attack on its territory, the new president in Seoul warned on Monday, as tensions ratcheted higher on the Korean peninsula amid shrill rhetoric from Pyongyang and the US deployment of radar-evading fighter planes.

Shell faces new sanctions

Two Nigerian government agencies told a parliamentary hearing on Thursday that Royal Dutch Shell should pay $11.5 billion in compensation for damage caused by an oil spill at its offshore Bonga field in December 2011.

Shell has said that there is no legal basis for the proposed fines and the Nigerian government has never publicly charged foreign oil companies large sums for oil spills.