The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan asserted that the killing of three PKK members in France this week could be due to an "internal feud", rather than a political assassination as has been widely reported.

A former Serbian police officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, after being found guilty by a Bosnian war crimes court.

Twenty-nine police officers were injured on Saturday during the 40th day of protests over the removal of Union flag at the City Hall.

Loyalists and nationalists started rioting at the sectarian interface by Short Strand, in East Belfast.

French President Francois Hollande has said that his government is ready to stop rebels who are currently in control of the north Mali.

The rebels have been advancing southwards and captured more territory in recent weeks, prompting Mali’s President Diancounda Traore to send a letter to Paris and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, pleading for assistance.

Rebels and government forces in the Central African Republic have agreed to a ceasefire after talks held in Gabon.

The ceasefire follows three days of negotiations after a month-long rebellion was sparked in early December. The deal states that President Francois Bozize can remain in power until 2016 and calls for the dissolution of the country’s National Assembly as well as the appointment of a Prime Minister.

France’s President Francois Hollande has confirmed that French troops are supporting Mali’s army in clashes with rebels in the north.

He said the soldiers "have brought support this afternoon to Malian units to fight against terrorist elements".
Mr Hollande added that the military intervention would last "as long as necessary".

After weeks of fighting with government forces, Syrian rebels have captured Tafatnaz military airport, a key base in the north of the country.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that the fighting at the airport ended at 9am GMT and that the base is now entirely in rebel hands, although government jets have been bombing the base in attempts to destroy it.

Three Kurdish women activists - including a co-founder of the PKK - have been found shot dead in a Kurdish information centre in Paris, the BBC reports.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls called the killings "intolerable".

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday called the UN-Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, "flagrantly biased" and accused him of being one of those "conspiring against Syria and its people."

Amnesty International has released a statement urging for a full investigation into the murder of three Kurdish activists in Paris, calling for ‘no stone to be left unturned’.

The human rights group’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director John Dalhuisen said,

Condemning the deaths of two Indian soldiers in Kashmir, New Delhi summoned Pakistani envoy to lodge a "strong protest" against the incident on Wednesday.  

Accusing the Pakistani soldiers of crossing into the heavily militarised Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir, Indian officials described the mutilation of the soldiers bodies as "barbaric and inhuman".

In the first successful lawsuit against torture, an US defence contractor, Engility Holdings Inc, whose subsidiary body L-3 Services Inc. was accused in the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison, has paid $5.28 million to the victims.

Another contractor, CACI is believed to be going to trial this summer over similiar allegations.

Japan has summoned China’s ambassador to the country this week, after Chinese vessels entered what Japan claims to be their territorial waters for over 13 hours.

2130 opposition prisoners were released by the Syrian government in exchange for 48 Iranians abducted in Damascus, while apparently on a pilgrimage five months ago.

The swap is the first major swap of the 21-month long civil war and was brokered by a Turkish humanitarian group and the Qatari government.