Saudi Arabia’s refusal to take up its seat on theUnited Nations Security Council a day after it waselected for the first time has provoked a mixedresponse. The Gulf kingdom explained its decision bysaying that the council had failed in its duties towards both the Palestinians and Syria. NadaTawfik reports.
A United Nations investigator has called on the United States to publish details of the number ofcivilian casualties caused by US drone strikes. Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur onhuman rights and counter-terrorism, is assessing whether the strikes are legal andproportionate. Gordon Corera has more.
Ben Emmerson had spent a year travelling to countries which have seen drone strikes likePakistan as well as talking to officials in the US and elsewhere involved in carrying them out. InPakistan, he says he was told by the government that at least 400 civilians had been killed andpossibly many hundreds more. But he says the role of the CIA in carrying out the strikes hascreated an almost insurmountable obstacle to transparency with the US failing to reveal its owndata on civilian casualties. Mr Emmerson says he can see no security need to withhold thisinformation.
The International Criminal Court has announced that the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta canstay at home for large parts of his trial. Mr Kenyatta is accused of crimes against humanity,allegedly perpetrated during the violent aftermath of the disputed 2007 elections.
