Rohingya crisis: UN rights 💪 chief 'cannot rule out genocide' 😱​

The United Nations human rights chief has said an act of genocide against Rohingya Muslims by state forces in Myanmar cannot be ruled out.

He listed alleged abuses against the Rohingya, including "killing by random firing of bullets, use of grenades, shooting at close range, stabbings, beatings to death and the burning of houses with families inside".

The rights chief then asked: "Considering Rohingyas' self-identify as a distinct ethnic group with their own language and culture - and [that they] are also deemed by the perpetrators themselves as belonging to a different ethnic, national, racial or religious group - given all of this, can anyone rule out that elements of genocide may be present?"

The use of the term genocide increases international pressure on Myanmar (also called Burma) and reflects deep concern at what the UN describes as decades of discrimination and violence against the Rohingya.

Genocide - an attempt to wipe a group of people out of existence in whole or in part - is a legally specific term understood by most to be the gravest crime against humanity.

*ICPC To Arraign Former Aso Savings Boss On December 5*

A former Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans Limited, Mrs Maimuna Aliyu will now be arraigned on December 5, 2017, as the case was adjourned due to the absence of the judge.

The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) has accused Mrs Aliyu of allegedly selling three plots of land in Abuja, on behalf of Aso Savings and Loans Ltd at the cost of 57 million Naira without remitting same to the bank.

Mrs Aliyu had earlier been nominated to the ICPC board but was dropped when it was discovered that she was being investigated by the commission. She is to be arraigned at the FCT High Court Jabi, Abuja, the same court where her daughter is currently facing trial for allegedly stabbing her husband to death.

Lebanon's 🇱🇧 Saad Hariri withdraws resignation 👀​

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has officially withdrawn his resignation, a month after saying he was quitting in a shock announcement in Saudi Arabia.

In a statement, he said the situation had been resolved after all members of the government agreed to stay out of the affairs of other Arab states.

"All [the government's] political components decide to dissociate themselves from all conflicts, disputes, wars or the internal affairs of brother Arab countries, in order to preserve Lebanon's economic and political relations," Hariri said in the statement reversing the resignation on Tuesday.

Hariri originally announced his resignation in a televised address on 4 November from Riyadh, in which he accused Iran of sowing "discord, devastation and destruction" in the region. Hariri, a Sunni Muslim who became prime minister for the second time in late 2016 in a political compromise deal that also saw Mr Aoun elected president, has close ties to Saudi Arabia

Amnesty wants Shell probed over alleged complicity in murder, torture in Ogoniland​

Amnesty International on Tuesday called for Shell to be prosecuted for allegedly helping Nigeria’s military to commit human rights abuses in the oil-rich south in the 1990s. The London-based global rights watchdog said the oil giant should be tried in Nigeria, as well as Britain and Netherlands where it has its head office.

Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary strongly denied the charges, calling them “false and without merit”. Audrey Gaughran, director of global issues and research at Amnesty, said it was “indisputable that Shell played a key role” in events in Ogoniland in the 1990s. “But we now believe that there are grounds for a criminal investigation,” she added in a statement after publishing a cache of documents relating to the turbulent period. A criminal file will be prepared and submitted to the authorities “with a view to prosecution”, she said.

Amnesty alleged that the oil major “repeatedly encouraged” Nigeria’s military to deal with community protests in Ogoniland, which is part of the Niger Delta region.

Two kiwi species 👍 no longer endangered in new Red List 👏​

Conservation efforts in New Zealand to save the flightless kiwi bird have paid off, with two species -- the Northern brown and the rowi -- no longer at a high risk of extinction.

The latest update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species upgraded the status of the birds from "endangered" to "vulnerable" because of a steady increase in population.

"Other kiwi like the great spotted are still in serious trouble," said Kevin Hackwell, chief conservation officer at Forest and Bird, BirdLife International's partner in New Zealand.

Jim Reynolds, lecturer in ornithology and animal conservation at the University of Birmingham in England, was cautious in his optimism: "I worry when conservation status is ameliorated to a 'better outcome' because these birds are being re-categorized as being in less trouble-- this will mean people will take their eye off the ball a little bit.

Egypt jails 16 for 'debauchery' as LGBT crackdown continues​

Sixteen men arrested last month during a crackdown on homosexuality by the authorities in Egypt have been sentenced to three years in prison. A court in Cairo found 14 of them guilty of "inciting debauchery" and "abnormal sexual relations" on Sunday. The other two were convicted on Monday.

However, they have reportedly been freed on bail of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($282; £211) each pending an appeal. The verdict for the 17th man on trial in the same case has been delayed.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) says at least 75 people have been arrested since rainbow flags were raised at a concert in the capital on 22 September, provoking a public outcry in the socially conservative country. Only 10 of the arrests are believed to have been related to the flag-raising. Most of the others were entrapped through online dating apps, according to the EIPR. At least five men were subjected to anal examinations.