war crimes

Moments after judges confirmed Slobodan Praljaka's 20-year prison sentence for war crimes, he declared his innocence — then tilted back his head and consumed what he said was poison.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found the former Bosnian Serb general guilty of multiple counts of crimes against humanity and one count of genocide.

The scope of such a probe by the International Criminal Court isn't clear, but it could have the potential to involve U.S. troops.

"The states in the Security Council don't want justice," Carla Del Ponte told the Swiss publication Blick. "I can't any longer be part of this commission which simply doesn't do anything."

Dominic Ongwen, who was kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army when he was a boy, pleaded not guilty to 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Uganda. He was nicknamed the White Ant.

The announcement comes days after Burundi became the first country to withdraw from the war crimes court. The nations accuse the ICC of targeting African countries and calling for regime change.

"This is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi deliberately damaged buildings and ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu in 2012. It is believed to be the first time an act of cultural destruction has been treated as a war crime.

It is the first time the International Criminal Court has convicted someone based on his role as a military commander. It is also the first time rape has been prosecuted by this court as a war crime.