Burma's icon of democracy, Aung Sun Suu Kyi has been criticised by former colleagues, including freed deputy 83-year-old Win Tin, for being too compromising with the Burmese military government.

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“Some of us would like to push the military into the Bay of Bengal,” [Win Tin] said with a smile. “[Suu Kyi] only wants to push them into Kandawgyi Lake,”

“Although I am a free man, I feel my whole country is still in jail,” he said. “There are no great prison walls, but we are still in chains.”

The PKK released eight Turkish soldiers on Wednesday who had been held hostage in Northern Iraq for two years.

The release comes after the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called for prisoners to be released on both sides. 

A member of the European Union's delegation to Syia has been killed in Darayya, South-West of Damascus on Wednesday. Ahmad Shihadeh, an EU policy officer was killed in a rocket attack.

The EU withdrew international staff in December last year, closing its Damascus office. However, local Syrian staff remained.

In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said:

"I have learned today with great sadness of the tragic death on 12 March of Ahmad Shihadeh, a policy officer at the EU Delegation in Syria. He was killed during a rocket attack on the Damascus suburb of Deraya, where he lived.

Falklanders voted unanimously to stay under British rule in an referendum, with the official count on Monday revealing 99.8% voting in favour of remaining a British Overseas Territory.

The poll which took place over two days and included 1694 Falklands born and long-term residents had a 92% turnout rate.

The United States condemned use of phosporus as a crowd control measure after a Burmese report found the toxic agent had been used to disperse a rally at a copper mine in November.

The parliamentary report led by opposition leader Suu Kyi claimed that dozens of people were injured in the clampdown and many suffered burns from the white phosphorus.

An inquiry panel headed by Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has sparked anger after failing to punish police for injuring protesters and suggesting that a controversial copper mine be kept open.

Thein Than Oo of the Upper Burma Lawyers Network said:

Seven hostages taken by Nigerian militants are thought to be dead.

The group Ansaru claimed responsibility for the killings as a response to reports of British warplanes in the area. The seven included one Briton, a Greek, an Italian and four Lebanese hostages.

The UK's Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the 'cold-blooded' murders saying:

The Syrian government is using local militia groups, known an Popular committees to carry out mass killings, said the UN Commission of Inquiry on Monday.

Presenting its findings to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Commission said:

After careful investigation, police have stated that the Bomb attack on officers in Northern Belfast last Saturday, was a “sophisticated device with the intent to kill.”

A case against a man accused of crimes against humanity, alongisde Kenya's Kenyatta, at the International Criminal Court collapsed on Monday.

Kenyatta and former civil servant Francis Mathaura were charged of perpetrating violence that led to the killing of 1200 and the displacement of over 100,000 following the 2007 election.

Argentina’s ex-president Carlos Menem has been convicted by a court in Buenos Aires for selling arms to Croatia and Ecuador in the 90s.

He was found guilty of authorising shipments to the countries, although he denied knowing that the arms were destined for those countries.

Tibetans exiled across Asia have marked the 54th anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising against China with protests in India, Taiwan and Nepal.

The Prime Minister of the India-based Tibetan Government in Exile, Lobsang Sangay, stated that those who dare to speak out inside Tibet

A court in Saudi Arabia sentenced two well-known human rights activists to at least ten years in prison, finding them guilty of offences that included sedition and providing false information to foreign media.

"The British parliament last week formally recognised the genocide in Iraqi Kurdistan. We are pleased that the parliament took this decision and did so after an impassioned debate by several MPs, some of whom are old friends of Kurdistan, and with no opposition to the motion.

We appreciate that the British parliament also said it will encourage governments, the European Union and the United Nations to do the same. This underlines Britain’s role as a leading player in the international community and we hope that it will follow up on this decision. By doing so it will be sending a clear message to all dictators and oppressors.

Formal recognition is a step towards justice for all those who suffered in the decades-long campaign of death against the Kurdish people. It is acknowledgement of the suffering of the widows and the children left behind without knowing what happened to their loved ones or even where their remains lie. It took over two decades for some of the perpetrators to be brought to justice by the Iraqi courts.