Yemen Is A "Graveyard For Its Young": Daily Brief
Man-made famine threatens millions in Yemen; Lebanon court rules same-sex relations are not illegal; Spain wants to resurrect its universal jurisdiction laws; tributes to late DRC activist Luc Nkulula; Russia "did not properly investigate" murder of investigative journalist; 5 years of lives torn apart by Australia's offshore detention policy; Nicaragua killings; free Vietnam protestors; & tears of joy on first Ethiopia-Eritrea flight for 20 years.
Yemen remains in the grip of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with scores on the brink of starvation, 8 million people "not knowing where their next meal will come from", and a child under 5 dying of preventable causes every 10 minutes. A BBC reporter who saw children dying of malnutrition in Yemen says the country has become "a graveyard for its young".
A court of appeal in Lebanon has effectively "ordered the state to get out of people's bedrooms" by issuing a groundbreaking ruling that consensual sex between people of the same sex is not illegal.
Spain's government wants to re-establish the doctrine of universal jurisdiction to allow its courts to investigate serious crimes committed abroad. Justice Minister Dolores Delgado said the move will let Spain reestablish its "worthy position...at the vanguard of the defence of human rights and the protection of victims".
With the situation in DR Congo still extremely tense, tributes have been paid to the remarkable late activist Luc Nkulua, who died last month.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia failed to properly investigate the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006. In a separate ruling, the court also accused Russia of degrading treatment towards the political activists Pussy Riot, who stormed the pitch during the football World Cup final in Moscow last weekend.
People are marking the fact that it is five years since Australia began its cruel "offshore processing" system for refugees.
Three months after the government of President Daniel Ortega first "unleashed its lethal strategy of repression" in Nicaragua, around 300 people have been killed – the vast majority of them by police or pro-government armed groups, says Amnesty International.
Vietnamese authorities should drop criminal charges and release a US citizen and Vietnamese nationals arrested for their peaceful participation in protests in Ho Chi Minh City.
And finally in more cheerful news, the first direct commercial flight between Ethiopia and Eritrea has taken place, after the two countries officially ended a 20-year war.