The UK and the US have pledged to help strengthen the moderate opposition in Syria and create a transitional body to replace President Bashar al-Assad.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in Washington that there was an "urgent window of opportunity before the worst fears are realised".

"There's no more urgent international task than this. We need to get Syrians to the table to agree a transitional government that can win the consent of all of the Syrian people," he said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, welcomed the conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt for crimes against humanity and genocide, for which he was sentenced to 80 years in prison earlier this week.

Speaking on the conviction, Pillay said,

“Guatemala has made history by becoming the first country in the world to convict a former head of state for genocide in its own national court,”

“I salute the victims, relatives and survivors whose courage and perseverance made this possible against all odds, as well as the lawyers, prosecutors and judges who carried out their duties under exceptionally difficult circumstances in the face of serious threats and intimidation.”

The High Commissioner added that,

“Despite all the obstacles, interruptions and numerous legal challenges which slowed down the trial, Guatemala has shown the world, and even more importantly its own people, that it is possible to address past crimes and bring justice,”

“This historic verdict shows that no one is above the law, and that Guatemala’s institutions have the strength and solidity to carry this through – provided there is the will to do so.”

“Guatemala can now truly begin to heal the wounds of the past, as the suffering of so many people has been formally recognised,”

The four peacekeepers from the Philippines who had been abducted by Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights have been released.

Filipino army spokesperson Brigadier General Domingo Tutaan told AFP said that the soldiers are in good health.

"They are fine, but as a matter of procedure they will have to undergo stress debriefing and a medical check-up," he said.

Over 3000 Serbs protested against on Friday in Belgrade against the deal normalising relations with Kosovo, reports the Sacremental Bee and RT.

See RT for photographs.

Carrying banners "No EU" and "Kosovo is Serbia", protesters accused the government of treason and vowed to support hardline Serbs who had also rejected the deal.

Supporters of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt protested outside the prison where he is being held, after he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide earlier this week.

At least 500 people dressed in white and some in military fatigues gathered outside the Matamoros prison, where they shouted slogans such as “Viva Rios Monnt!”

A record breaking turnout in Pakistan’s elections resulted in the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, topping the polls, to take power from the military that first ousted him in 1999.

Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League N party secured 125 of the 269 parliamentary seats.

"We are convinced that the acts the Ixil suffered constitute the crime of genocide… He had full knowledge of everything that was happening and did not stop it,"

"The Ixils were considered public enemies of the state and were also victims of racism, considered an inferior race,"

"The violent acts against the Ixils were not spontaneous. They were planned beforehand."

“sends a powerful message to Guatemala and the world that nobody, not even a former head of state, is above the law when it comes to committing genocide”.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has announced that he will no longer vote for the African National Congress.

"The ANC was very good at leading us in the struggle to be free from oppression," Archbishop Tutu wrote in an opinion for South Africa’s Mail & Guardian.

"But it doesn't seem to me now that a freedom-fighting unit can ¬easily make the transition to becoming a political party."

The initial phase of the United Nations intervention brigade arrived in eastern Congo today, following an United Nations Security Council resolution in March that called for a peacekeeping force.

A reporter with The New York Times was expelled from Pakistan by the country's Interior Ministry on Friday, said NYT.

According to the newspaper, without any detailed explanation, the reporter Declan Walsh was delivered a two sentence letter by police officers at 12:30 a.m. Thursday local time at his home.