A Syrian rebel group has claimed to have captured Yemeni troops who were sent to the country to assist the Syrian government in putting down the uprising.

A video posted by the al-Nusra Front, who are currently fighting government forces in Syria, showed five men, reportedly Yemeni military personnel, calling on the Yemeni government to cease assisting the Syrian government. One man said in the video,

The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court has joined a United Nations investigative panel into war crimes in Syria, announced the UN Human Rights Council.

Carla del Ponte’s appointment to the commission came as the UN HRC also moved to extend the mission of the UN probe by a further 6 months.

The appointment has been hailed as a strong show of the UN’s determination to bring perpetrators of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria to justice.

The European Union froze an aid programme to Rwanda worth £140 million yesterday, over allegations that the Rwandan government was supporting M23 rebels. The UK meanwhile, will continue giving aid.

Jean-Michel Dumond, the EU’s Ambassador in Kinshasa, said:

“It was agreed to freeze the programme of budgetary assistance and to not agree to any supplementary budgetary credit for Rwanda without them giving signs of co-operating.”

The United Nations Human Rights Council extended the mandate of its investigation into war crimes in Syria by another six months on Friday.

The UN condemned the widespread violations by the Syrian government forces in the 18 month old conflict.

The resolution, which was drawn up by the Arab states, won the support of 41 out of the 47 member states with 3 abstentions. China, Cuba and Russia made up the 3 states against the resolution.

The US ambassador, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, said:

Burmese president Thein Sein has told the BBC’s Hardtalk programme that he would accept Aung San Suu Kyi as president if she was elected by the people.

"Whether she will become a leader of the nation depends on the will of the people. If the people accept her, then I will have to accept her," he said.

"There isn't any problem between me and Aung San Suu Kyi. We are working together."

An Iranian diplomat was mobbed by protesters in New York, shortly after the President Ahmadinejad addressed the UN General Assembly.

Suspected war criminals have been arrested in Kosovo on Thursday, after a joint operation by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo and Kosovo Police.

The two suspects were held for alleged war crime rapes committed in 1999, marking the latest in a long series of arrests of suspected war criminals from the Kosovo War.

The Friends of Syria, consisting of several countries, including the US, the EU and the Arab League urged the Syrian opposition to unite in their fight against Assad.

At a meeting in New York, the Syrian opposition has been promised $45 million in non-lethal aid by the US, of which $30 million will be humanitarian aid.

“We are working to help them strengthen their networks, avoid regime persecution and document human rights abuses,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters.

Three Commonwealth Nobel Peace prizewinners - the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace laureate Nadine Gordimer, and Nobel literature winner Wole Soyinka, have slammed the newly proposed Commonwealth charter as "repetitive rhetoric", and called on the UK and other countries not to sign it.

In an open letter, the trio asserted that the charter fails to detail the consequences of member states violating such core principles, and said,

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the US will allow imports of Burmese goods.

The ban on the imports was one of the key sanctions that are still remaining against the Burmese government.

The latest move is a continuation of the normalisation of relations between the US and Burma. Speaking to the Burmese president during talks at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Clinton said: