Bosnian and Serb police have made 15 arrests suspected of committing a war crime in 1993.

The incident during the Bosnian war saw Bosnian Serbs attack a train in the town of Strpci, near the Serbian border, killing 19 people, including 18 Bosniaks. The victims are reported to have been hauled of the train, tortured and shot, before their bodies were thrown into a river.

The Sudanese government has denied reports that a mass rape took place in Darfur and denied access to a United Nations convoy attempting to visit the town.

Over 200 women and girls were reportedly raped in the town of Tabit last month.

Having denied access to a convoy of UN and African Union officials as part of the UNAMID peacekeeping mission to the area, Sudan's government instead released the results of their own investigation.

The United States Congress has passed a bill stopping all social benefits to former Nazi soldiers now residing in the US, reports CNN.

"While the number of Nazis receiving Social Security is few, allowing payments to continue is an insult to those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis," the Republican Rep for Texas, Sam Johnson, was quoted as saying.

The bill, named the 'No Social Security for Nazis Act', was passed unanimously by the House on Tuesday.

Commenting on the unity of the House regarding the bill, the Democratic Rep of New York, Carolyn Maloney told CNN: "If we can't agree on this, my goodness what can we agree on?"

The Irish government has decided to ask the European Court of Human Rights to revise its judgment over one of the most harrowing torture cases during the Troubles.

Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan, will make the request in light of a recent RTÉ documentary which unearthed military documents that appear to show Britain accepted that interrogation techniques used on the men amounted to torture.

Fourteen Irish men were detained in 1971 after the introduction of internment without trial, and were subjected to torture at the Ballykelly army base. Many of the men were hooded and flown to the location, before being thrown from hovering helicopters. Testimonials suggest the men were told they were hundreds of feet in the air, despite being only a few feet from the ground

The ECHR admonished the UK in 1978 for its inhuman and degrading treatment of the detainees, but fell short of finding Britain guilty of torture.

A deadly attack on the Chechen capital Grozny has left at least 16 people dead.

Gunmen breached heavy security in the fortified town, driving and firing at a police checkpoint, a school and a publishing house, reported the BBC.

Video footage showed the publishing house in flames and there were heavy clashes before the gunmen were killed, with nine of the dead thought to be militants.

Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja has been sentenced to three years in prison for tearing up a picture of the king by a court in Bahrain. Judges gave her the option to pay a fine to avoid jail time until her appeal.

Human rights organisations have condemned the jailing of al-Khawaja, with Amnesty International saying they would consider her to be a "prisoner of conscience", if jailed.

"Tearing up a photo of the head of state should not be a criminal offence," Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Said Boumedouha said.

The US justice department has launched a federal investigation into “potential civic rights violations” relating to the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who was killed by a US police officer in July.

The announcement, made by US Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday evening, came after a day of protests across New York and the United States following the decision of a Staten Island grand jury not to indict police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, for the death of Garner.

In July, Garner, a father of six, was stopped by police on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes. One of the officers, Pantaleo, was then recorded on video placing Garner into an allegedly illegal chokehold and maintaining the chokehold even after Garner can be heard saying on the recording, “I can’t breathe”. An autopsy report established that Garner died as a result of the chokehold. The grand jury deliberated for less than a day before deciding that there was not enough evidence to go forward to trial.

President Barack Obama released a statement in response to the decision on Wednesday saying,

“When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem.”

Rights groups and activists have been organising and advocating via social media using the hashtag #blacklivesmatter.