BELFAST (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday he was hopeful of reaching a resolution to a long-running dispute with the European Union on changing post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.

Technical talks resumed in October for the first time in seven months on the Northern Ireland Protocol, the part of the Brexit deal that mandated checks on some goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.

European Commision President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month she was “very confident” a positive conclusion was within reach, but there has so far been no breakthrough in the renewed negotiations.

“The way the protocol is being implemented is threatening Northern Ireland’s place in the union. I want to fix that and that’s what I’m getting engaged constructively with our European partners on and I’m hopeful that we can find resolution,” Sunak told the BBC on his first trip to Northern Ireland as premier.

“I want to make sure that we sit down with our European partners and allies find a way through this, make the reforms that we need to make and then get the (Northern Ireland) executive back up and running.”

The stalemate has held back a normalisation of relations between Britain and the EU and plunged Northern Irish politics into crisis, with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) blocking the functioning of the local assembly and devolved government until the checks are removed.

The Belfast Telegraph newspaper separately quoted Sunak as saying he will not be putting a deadline on the talks.

The protocol was designed to avoid politically contentious checks between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland, but many unionists argue the effective border created in the Irish Sea erases part of their British identity.

Both sides say they also want to protect the gains made by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that largely ended three decades of sectarian and political bloodshed during which 3,600 people were killed.

Ireland’s foreign minister said last week that the two sides have made progress on sharing real-time customs data relating to the protocol but are “not quite there yet” on an issue that could help unlock an agreement.

(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, writing by Padraic Halpin; editing by William James and Angus MacSwan)

By Stephanie van den Berg

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities, have been described as possible war crimes by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International.

On Friday, Russia launched dozens of missiles across Ukraine knocking out electricity in its second biggest city, hitting critical infrastructure in the south and causing explosions in the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.

Eight people were also killed and 23 injured by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine, the Russian-installed administrator of the region said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

WHAT DOES INTERNATIONAL LAW SAY?

The Geneva conventions and additional protocols shaped by international courts say that parties involved in a military conflict must distinguish between “civilian objects and military objectives” and that attacks on civilian objects are forbidden.

This prohibition is also codified in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which earlier this year opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine.

That seems clear-cut, but some infrastructure owned and used by civilians can also be a military objective. Military objectives are defined as “those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action” and whose destruction or capture “offers a definite military advantage”.

IS ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE MILITARY OR CIVILIAN?

Power infrastructure has long been considered a valid military objective as long as it supports an enemy army’s activities, even if the system also supports the civilian population, writes military law expert Michael Schmitt in the Articles of War blog run by the Lieber Institute for Law & Warfare at the United States Military Academy West Point.

As Russia’s strikes on the power infrastructure have intensified, it seems increasingly unlikely that its armed forces can name a “definite” military benefit for each attack.

“Simply put, Russian forces are almost certainly striking many targets that do not qualify as military objectives,” Schmitt argues.

Russia says it attacks military targets including energy infrastructure.

HOW ARE MILITARY NEEDS BALANCED AGAINST CIVILIAN?

Even if some of the targets could be considered military objectives, that is not the end of the story, says Katharine Fortin, associate professor of international law at Utrecht University.

    The military must consider whether the damage and loss incurred by civilians in such attacks are excessive compared to the concrete and direct military advantage, she said.

    “In this instance, the incidental loss of life and injury to civilians that can be expected seems very large given that power outages are making it impossible for surgeons to carry on their work, affecting people’s access to healthcare, and creating conditions in which vulnerable people are dying due to the cold or hunger,” she told Reuters.

HOW DO WAR CRIME PROSECUTORS CONSIDER THE CURRENT ATTACKS?

Nigel Povoas, lead prosecutor for a team of international experts assisting Kyiv war crimes investigators, told Reuters that Russian attacks in the past two months have “focused on eliminating infrastructure crucial to the means of civilian survival such as heat, water, power and medical facilities”.

Both Schmitt and Povoas say the scale and the intensity of the attacks can additionally amount to them being considered as “acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population”.

This is forbidden under international humanitarian law and was confirmed as a war crime by rulings of the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia relating to the siege of Sarajevo.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Gareth Jones)

By Ebrahim Harris and Rozanna Latiff

BATANG KALI, Malaysia (Reuters) -A landslide killed at least 21 people, including children, while they slept in their tents at an unlicensed campsite in Malaysia on Friday, officials said, as search teams scoured thick mud and downed trees for survivors.

The landslide in Selangor state bordering the capital, Kuala Lumpur, occurred before 3 a.m. (1900 GMT), tearing down a hillside into an organic farm that officials said was operating the campsite illegally.

Among the victims were five children and 12 women, according to the fire and rescue department.

The disaster struck about 50 km (30 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur in Batang Kali, just outside the popular hilltop area of Genting Highlands, known for its resorts, waterfalls and natural beauty.

The earth fell from an estimated height of 30 metres (100 ft) and covered an area of about an acre (0.4 hectares), according to the fire and rescue department’s state director.

The farm owners did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Two of its workers, who are Myanmar nationals, told Reuters they managed to escape with others after being roused by neighbours, just minutes before the farmhouse was destroyed.

“I have never seen such a horrible incident. I feel so shocked and terrified,” said 35-year-old Thawng Uk.

“We could bring nothing at all as we urgently ran … We are asking around where to get shelter and food.”

His colleague Kung Tuang, 31, said he was afraid they would lose their jobs now that the farm had been destroyed.

An initial investigation showed an embankment of about 450,000 cubic metres of earth had collapsed, according to minister of natural resources, environment and climate change, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

There were 94 people caught in the landslide but 61 were safe, with 12 missing, according to the Malaysia National Disaster Management Agency.

Seven people were injured, including a pregnant woman, while others had wounds ranging from minor cuts to a suspected spinal injury, health minister Zaliha Mustafa said.

Close to 400 personnel were involved in the rescue mission, police said.

Three Singaporeans were among those rescued, the Singapore government said in a statement.

Its prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, expressed condolences to Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim and offered assistance in the search and rescue effort.

UNLICENSED BUSINESS

Pictures posted on the Father’s Organic Farm Facebook page show a farmhouse in a small valley, with a large area where tents can be set up.

Its owners were allowed to operate organic farms, but had not applied for licences to run three campsites on the property, Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming told reporters.

If found guilty of violating the law, the owners can be jailed up to three years or fined up to 50,000 ringgit ($11,300), Nga said, adding he had ordered campsites near rivers, hillsides and other high-risk areas nationwide to close for seven days.

Local television footage showed the aftermath of a large landslide through a steep, forested area beside a road, while images on social media showed rescue workers clambering over thick mud, large trees and other debris.

“I pray that the missing victims can be found safely soon,” minister Nik Nazmi tweeted.

Selangor is the country’s most affluent state and has suffered landslides before, often attributed to forest and land clearance.

Landslides are common in Malaysia, but typically only after heavy rains. Flooding occurs often, with about 21,000 people displaced last year by torrential rain in seven states.

Leong Jim Meng, a camper, said he had not expected a landslide as there had been only light drizzle in recent days.

“My family and I were trapped when the soil covered our tent,” he told Malay-language daily Berita Harian. “We managed to run to the parking lot and called the authorities. They arrived quite quickly, about 30 minutes later.”

($1 = 4.4180 ringgit)

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff, Yantoultra Ngui, Hasnoor Hussein, Ebrahim Harris, Angie Teo and Xinghui Kok; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Ed Davies, Martin Petty, Gerry Doyle, Nick Macfie and Tomasz Janowski)