Syria’s opposition forces have formally established a united front for the first time at a meeting in Turkey on Sunday.

The formation of the Syrian National Council (SNC) represents a serious challenge to President Assad’s regime as it continues to crackdown on pro-democracy protests across the country.

Laurent Gbagbo was captured by Ouattara loyalists backed by French special forces (Photo: ZimDaily)

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has granted prosecutors permission to investigate alleged war crimes in the Ivory Coast.

A spokesperson for the ICC said an investigation into the atrocities will begin soon.

A war crimes tribunal set up to investigate war crimes committed during the independence struggle in Bangladesh has charged its first suspect.

Delawar Hossain Sayedee, a senior leader of the Jamat-e-Islami party, has been charged with war crimes including mass murder, rape, looting and forcibly converting Hindus.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague met pro-democracy Syrian activists in London on Thursday, describing them as exiles from a "brutal regime that has lost all legitimacy."

See AFP’s report here.

Comment by Dr Andrew Wallis, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, as published in The Guardian:

A French court has ruled it will block the extradition of a leading genocide suspect to face trial in Rwanda .

The Yemeni youth movement reported to be the driving force behind months of protests in the country, have delivered a letter to the UN, asking to ensure President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces trial at the International Criminal Court.

The letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon said,

Western countries are in talks to draft a UN resolution aimed at pressuring president Saleh to step down, Reuters reported.

"The international community has decided we need to up the pressure now, No decision has been taken yet over what type of resolution we might try ... But we do need to move beyond statements now." said a senior western diplomat in Sanaa.

Ethnic Serbs have constructed a new roadblock in northern Kosovo, after NATO peacekeepers removed a previous barricade.

Helicopters and heavily armed NATO troops removed the roadblock, amidst protest by Serb residents.

But a few hours after the peacekeepers cleared the roads, Serbs constructed a new barricade further down the road.

A Serbian-Australian citizen has again lost an appeal against an extradition that would see him face charges of war crimes in Croatia.

Dragan Vasiljkovic, nicknamed "Captain Dragan", was the founder of a paramilitary unit the “Knindze” also known as the “Knin Ninjas” or “Red Berets”. He is accused of torturing and killing Croatian civilians and prisoners of war during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s.

See report by The Australian here.