News Round-Up - 27 December 2012

• At the ECCC, Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba of Zambia has been appointed as the sitting judge of the Supreme Court Chamber. She formerly served as a trial chamber judge at the ICTY and as an appeals chamber judge in the joint ICTY-ICTR appeals chamber. Phillip Rapoza of the USA, who served as a judge on the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in Timor-Leste, has been appointed as the Supreme Court Chamber's reserve judge. 

• In Syria, the Assad regime's military police chief has defected. Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Jassem al-Shallal was reported as saying that he decided to leave when the regime deviated from its mission to protect the country and turned into “a gang for killing and destruction.”

• Three people have been killed and six more injured in a suicide bomb attack outside a US Base in Khost in eastern Afghanistan. The base is known to host CIA operatives tracking terror suspects in Pakistan. The Taliban have claimed credit for the attack.

• In Pakistan, there have been attacks on police stations in the town of Darra Adam Khel in the north-western part of Pakistan, in which two policemen have been killed and a further 22 are missing. The Pakistani Taliban, who are believed to be responsible, also announced today their conditions for a ceasefire with the Pakistani government.

• It is reported that the European training mission to Mali, mandated by Security Council Resolution 2085, is to be headed up by General François Lecointre who has previously served served in Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Gabon and Bosnia.

• In the Central African Republic, the Seleka rebel coalition has seized at least 10 towns and is closing in on the capital city. In spite of demands for help, the French government is so far refusing to intervene.