NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States will attend an International Criminal Court (ICC) meeting this week as an observer for the first time since the Hague court was set up in 2002, President Barack Obama's war crimes envoy said Monday.

Official says US to attend annual war crimes court meeting as observer for first time. The United States will attend an annual meeting of the International Criminal Court, a body it has so far refused to participate in, the U.S. envoy for war crimes said Monday.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States wants Kenya to hand over a Rwanda genocide suspect it believes the east African nation has been harboring for years, President Barack Obama's war crimes envoy said on Monday.

As a first step towards winding up its presence in Sierra Leone, the UN backed Special Court on Sierra Leone on Monday turned over its jail to the government, which will make it a women's prison.

Sudanese parties on Monday condemned abuses in voter registrations for the first multi-party elections in 24 years set for April, calling for the enrolment period to be extended.

US envoy Scott Gration will return to Khartoum and Darfur this week as part of US diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the region, the State Department said Monday.

The UN Security Council has "strongly condemned" the ongoing attacks and acts of violence of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

MAU FOREST, Kenya (Reuters) - Trudging out of the woods in a heavy downpour with a large sack roped to his back and two black chickens cradled in his arms, Eric arap Tuwei joins his wife and six children in a flimsy grass shelter.

A United States ambassador said Thursday that Washington was concerned about how aggression will be defined as an international crime.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues Stephen Rapp made a debut appearance for the United States at the world's war crimes court Thursday and said the U.S. remained wary of politically driven prosecutions.

Qatari-hosted talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels due to begin on Monday in Doha have again been postponed, a mediator said on Sunday, amid a lingering split in rebel ranks.

A peacekeeper with the joint United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was killed in an ambush in the western Sudanese region, a senior UNAMID official told AFP on Tuesday.

A Nigerian peacekeeper with the joint United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur was killed in an ambush in the western Sudanese region, UNAMID said on Tuesday.

A Nigerian peacekeeper with the joint United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur was killed in an ambush in the western Sudanese region, UNAMID officials said on Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States called on its close ally Israel on Tuesday to conduct credible investigations into allegations of war crimes committed by its forces in Gaza, saying it would help the Middle East peace process.

The judge who led a UN inquiry into Israel's assault on Gaza urged the United Nations Tuesday to refer the Jewish state and the Palestinians to the International Criminal Court if they failed to investigate alleged war crimes.

Israel is mulling setting up an inquiry into its troops' conduct in the Gaza war to ward off damage from a damning UN report that accused the Jewish state of war crimes.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will pursue those "most responsible" for violent crimes allegedly committed after 2007 elections in Kenya, his office said Wednesday.

Around 20 Sudanese political parties threatened on Wednesday to boycott next year's elections, the first in more than two decades, unless President Omar al-Beshir implements reforms.

Around 20 Sudanese political parties threatened on Wednesday to boycott next year's elections, the first in more than two decades, unless President Omar al-Beshir implements reforms.