The Syrian government has demolished thousands of buildings and entire neighbourhoods in a series of reprisals against residents in rebel-held areas, Human Rights Watch (HRW) concluded in a report released today.

Using satellite images of the cities Damascus and Hama, HRW found that at least 7 residential neighbourhoods were either totally or partially destroyed.

Commenting on the findings, the emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, Ole Solvang, stated,

Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson has quit her role as an Oxfam ambassador, after facing criticism for her endorsement of an Israeli company based in settlements declared illegal under international law.

Oxfam International opposes all trade with companies based in the settlements and labelled Johansson’s endorsement of SodaStream “incompatible” with her role as Oxfam Global Ambassador. In a statement, Oxfam said,

Croatian prosecutors announced today the commencement a war crimes investigation into a suspected former guard of several Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

The suspect in question, Jakob Frank Denzinger, is alleged to have been a guard at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over one million Jews were killed within the space of 5 years.

Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson has courted controversy after advertising for an Israeli firm operating in a West Bank settlement, declared illegal under international law.

Johansson, who appears in a commercial for SodaStream, defended her role, but has come under fire from activists for her continued support of the company. In a statement Ms Johansson said last week that the company was “not only committed to the environment, but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine”.

The US State Department condemned the Assad regime's siege of Homs in order to exert leverage as peace talks take place in Geneva, reports the Washington Post.

Dismissing the regime's claims that it was rebel snipers and armed groups preventing World Food Program food convoys from reaching the people of Homs, the US State Department placed the blame at the Assam regime for deliberately halting the convoys.

The British government today, reached a compromise with the United Nations and agreed to provide refuge for 500 of the most vulnerable refugees from the Syrian conflict.

The deal ends weeks of an UN initiative to encourage Britain to sign up to the UN refugee quota programme for Syria.
The chief executive of the Refugee Council, Maurice Wren, welcomed the news, stating,

The Ukraine’s parliament overwhelmingly voted to repeal the anti-protest laws, that sparked the recent unrest and protests in Ukraine.

Speaking after the law was repealed, the Fatherland Party leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said,

“We have repealed the laws against which the entire country rose up.”

Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic refused to testify at The Hague earlier today, after he was called in to testify as a witness for former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Mladic was unusually called in for the defence of his former political leader before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where both men face numerous counts of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Oliver Ivanovic, a leading Kosovo Serb politician was arrested on Monday on suspicion of war crimes.

EU officials said that Ivanovic had been identified as a suspect in the war crimes investigation that took place after the 1990s Kosovo conflict ended.

Although details Ivanovic's crimes have not been made public, local newspapers claim that he is suspected of torturing and murdering ethnic Albanians and being one of the organisers of a violent, anti-Albanian vigilante group.

See more on BBC news.

12 people have been killed by explosions and gunshots in the Xinjiang province, stated Chinese officials, as they blamed the flare up in violence on “terrorists”.

The province, home to mainly Muslin ethnic Uigurs, saw 6 killed by explosions in a market and hairdressers, whilst 6 more were shot dead by police. 

Government investigations blamed the explosion on “organised, premeditated terrorist attacks” and have led to reports that China will now be seeking to clamp down on the region with thougher laws on religion.