Former Liberian president Charles Taylor began his appeal in The Hague of his conviction and 50-year sentence for war crimes committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone.
With French troops fighting on the ground in Mali, jihadist militias advance on the capital, while Tuareg rebels pledge to re-establish a separatist state in the north.
France carried out air-strikes against Islamist rebels in Mali, helping government forces halt a drive southward by the militants who control the country’s desert north.
Military experts from Africa, the United Nations and Europe have drafted plans to retake control of northern Mali, as West African nations prepare a request for armed intervention.
Drug trafficking and violent crime in Central America and the Caribbean threaten the rule of law in those regions, according to a report by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime.
