Nearly 600 EU personnel are deployed to train Mali’s security forces. Their headquarters in Bamako came under attack. “Gunmen on Monday attacked a hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, that had been converted into the headquarters of a European Union military training operation, but there no casualties among the mission’s personnel. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which began at around 6:30 p.m. local time (1830 GMT), but Mali and neighboring West African countries have increasingly been the target of Islamist militants, some of them affiliated with al Qaeda. One of the assailants was killed and two suspects were arrested and were being interrogated, the country’s internal security minister said. A witness said the attack targeted Bamako’s Nord-Sud Hotel, headquarters for the mission of nearly 600 EU personnel deployed to Mali to train its security forces.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/1Se6q9i)
A Landmark ICC Ruling…”War crimes judges Monday found former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of a deliberate campaign of widespread rapes and killings by his private army in Central African Republic over a decade ago. In a landmark verdict, the judges from the International Criminal Court (ICC) found Bemba guilty on five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, saying he had retained “effective command and control” over the forces sent in to CAR to quell an attempted coup against the then president. It was the first case before the ICC to focus on sexual violence as a weapon of war, as well as to find a military commander to blame for the atrocities carried out by his forces even though he did not order them.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/1pFCNoj)
EU deal not slowing down migrant flow…More than 1,600 migrants have landed in Greece since a landmark EU-Turkish deal on curbing the influx took effect, officials said Monday, highlighting the challenges still facing efforts to tackle the crisis. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1LBveZn) And Greece made an appeal for help dealing with migrant influx. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1LBvbwG)
Stat of the day: The rate of carbon emissions is higher than at any time in fossil records stretching back 66 million years to the age of the dinosaurs, according to a study on Monday that sounds an alarm about risks to nature from man-made global warming. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1LBrMOr)
Comings and Goings...Jonathan Fahey, a veteran business reporter and editor, has been named global health editor for The Associated Press, overseeing a team of journalists to cover medicine, public health, the health care business and consumer health issues. (ABC http://abcn.ws/1Se7Ro4)
Some SuperSunday Results
The pro-government “Yes” camp won a majority in Senegal’s constitutional referendum, according to partial results published Monday by the media after a vote seen as a test of the president’s popularity. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1LBrg37)
Cape Verde’ main opposition Movement for Democracy party won parliamentary elections, results showed overnight, taking back power after 15 years. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1o26mP5)
Benin Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou on Monday conceded defeat to businessman Patrice Talon in presidential elections. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1U1Lzt7)
Africa
Guinea’s Ebola coordination unit has traced an estimated 816 people who may have come into contact with victims of the disease or their corpses during a recent flare-up in a village in the country’s southeast, a health official said on Monday. (Reuters http://reut.rs/1Sedzq6)
The Islamist group al Shabaab attacked a Somali military base southwest of the capital Mogadishu on Sunday night, killing at least one person and seizing vehicles and other equipment, the government and the militants said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/21DI7Ux)
It has been a month since Ugandan police placed opposition leader Kizza Besigye under house arrest following the February 18 presidential election. Besigye has since been arrested about nine times – whenever he tries to leave his house. (VOA http://bit.ly/1U1LsO6)
South Africa’s ruling party said it had full confidence in President Jacob Zuma after a three-day party summit following mounting claims of political interference by the leader’s business friends. (Reuters http://bit.ly/21DIb6O)
MENA
Russia warned on Monday that it was prepared to act unilaterally in Syria against groups that it said were breaking the cease-fire there, injecting a volatile new element into a conflict that has been calmer in recent weeks. (WaPo http://wapo.st/1SedGSz)
Egypt’s state-run news agency says the top judicial disciplinary council has forced 14 judges into early retirement for allegedly supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. (AP http://yhoo.it/1o22ldA)
The United States on Monday rejected Russia’s call for an urgent meeting over violations of Syria’s three-week cessation of hostilities, saying that its concerns were already being handled in a constructive manner. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1o22LAK)
Medical treatment given to more than 2,100 Syrians in recent years is one of the reasons why Israel’s border with country has become so quiet. (VOA http://bit.ly/1o22aPv)
Asia
China said on Monday agreements like the one reached last week by the United States and the Philippines allowing for a U.S. military presence at five Philippine bases raised questions about militarization in the South China Sea. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1o22JJ8)
Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi will control the incoming government of her National League for Democracy through her position as party leader, a senior official said, indicating she was unlikely to take a formal post in the administration. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/21DIcHQ)
Drought in Southeast Asia is raising concerns in the Cambodian and Vietnamese countryside where salinity levels are rising in the Mekong River and people are skeptical about fresh promises from Laos that it will respect the rights of downstream countries in dam construction. (VOA http://bit.ly/21DI8b3)
Hope that the conditions will improve for the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar under Aung San Suu Kyi’s new government has contributed to a slowdown in the number fleeing to Thailand and beyond, the United Nations and European Union said on Monday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1pFzA89)
Almost 40 years after Indonesia banned the practice of shackling people with mental health conditions, nearly 19,000 are still living in chains, or are locked up in institutions where they are vulnerable to abuse, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1Rvgmy5)
The Asian Development Bank said on Monday it would lend $123.3 million to the Philippines to modernize water supply in the capital, Manila, to reduce the risk of shortages as demand for water rises in the megacity. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1U1Lvtj)
One month on from Tropical Cyclone Winston needs remain huge in Fiji. (ICRC http://bit.ly/1pFCLN2)
The Americas
Portuguese police arrested a suspect and carried out searches in Lisbon on Monday in connection with a major corruption investigation in Brazil that’s ensnared senior politicians. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Mjljrt)
Haiti’s lower chamber of parliament on Sunday rejected a program submitted by Prime Minister Fritz Jean, lawmakers said, throwing up a new hurdle as the politically volatile country struggles to meet deadlines to transfer power from an interim to an elected government. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1U1IVUg)
Members of Colombia’s Marxist FARC guerrillas will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Cuba, a spokeswoman for Colombia’s government peace negotiators said on Sunday, adding a twist to a historic visit to the island by U.S. President Barack Obama. (Reyters http://yhoo.it/1U1IY2o)
Visiting French far-right leader Marine Le Pen took aim at the Liberal Canadian government’s policies on immigration and citizenship in terror cases. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1U1J1LE)
…and the rest
An EU deal with Turkey may severely limit an influx of migrants to northern and central European countries, but could place fresh strain on the budget of Greece, the frontline state that is already struggling to rebuild its public finances. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1LBrI1c)
Paris attacks probe: what we know so far (AFP http://yhoo.it/1LBrHKM)
The humanitarian system requires radical reform says Degan Ali, head of Kenyan NGO Adeso. She argues it is time local NGOs demanded more power. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1LBrQOq)
Opinion/Blogs
The Global Dispatches Podcast interview: The NYT’s UN bureau chief Somini Sengupta has a new book about India’s “noonday children.” http://bit.ly/1pFbEBO
Three female judges just made international law history by convicting a commander for rapes committed by his troops. (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1WDdDRu)
Why are crowds protesting in Brazil? (CNN http://cnn.it/22zhMcS)
This Is Why Europe’s New Deal On Refugees Could Put Women At Risk (Buzzfeed http://bzfd.it/1U1Oimg)
Your White Savior Complex is detrimental to my development (TMS Ruge http://bit.ly/1pvDqQt)
Why The U.N. Is Being Sued Over Haiti’s Cholera Epidemic (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1LBrKpV)
Reaping the Gender Dividend (IPS http://bit.ly/1LBpwXH)
Visualising a better world: new UN icons refocus humanitarian values (Guardian http://bit.ly/1o22uh7)
EU trials new way to measure emissions but will it make a difference? (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Rve3v9)
Why U.S. should welcome Argentina, Cuba trips (CNN http://cnn.it/22sdDL9)
To end HIV in drug users, stop chasing the dream of a drug-free world (Guardian http://bit.ly/1o26mOZ)
Measurement Brings Action: The Need for a Global Sexual Corruption Index (Global Anticorruption Blog http://bit.ly/22zsdNs)
Lessons from the LGBT movement (Global Dashboard http://bit.ly/21DJZg4)