The head of the European Commission today gave a stern warning to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to end the violence that has seen battles between protestors and police on the streets of Kiev, after the deaths of at least three people yesterday.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso warned Yanukovich that unless the crackdown against anti-government protestors ends, the European Union may be forced into action.

The authors of a newly released report on torture in Syria have compared the evidence they received to a “Nazi archive”, as talks between the Syrian opposition and the government are set to begin in Geneva.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, former lead prosecutor of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, said,

“It was like getting the keys to the Nazi archive”.

A newly released report by three eminent lawyers has documented new evidence that the Syrian state has been “systematically killing” approximately 11,000 prisoners.

The 31-page report, commissioned by Qatar who have been supportive of the Syrian opposition, examines thousands of images of dead prisoners which have been smuggled out of the country.

The bodies show “signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation and other forms of torture”, claimed the report.

The South Sudanese government has accused the UN peacekeeping mission in the country of hiding rebels and their arms at their camps, which are giving shelter to over 70,000 civilians.

The country’s president, Salva Kiir has hit out at the UN, saying it acted like a “parallel government” in South Sudan.

"We did not know that when the Unmiss was brought to South Sudan, they were brought as a parallel government with the government in South Sudan," Kiir said.

A United Nations official warned that the “seeds of genocide” were present in the Central African Republic, as the European Union looks set to deploy troops to the crisis hit region.

Speaking after a 5-day visit to the country, John Ging, director of operations for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in a press conference,

The invitation for Iran to participate in talks on the Syrian conflict has been withdrawn by the UN after the Syrian opposition said it would withdraw from the conference in protest.

The Syrian National Coalition said that without Iran accepting that Bashar al-Assad needed to step down in order for the conflict to be resolved, no negotiations could be held with the country, which is arming Syrian troops and participating in the fighting.

Large crowds of protestors faced riot police today, in Istanbul’s Taksim square to demand justice for the murder of a prominent Turkish Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink.

Thousands of protestors called for justice and progress on unanswered questions regarding the circumstances of the journalist’s death.

Tens of thousands of protestors clashed with riot police in the streets of Kiev today, after the Ukranian government passed a new law that restricted public protests last week.

The rally, attended by opposition politicians, herd disregard to the new law as riot police attempted to deal with swelling crowds.

The US and EU appealed for an end to the violence and urgent political talks, whilst criticising the new legislations.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has called for reconciliation between militant groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, who have been fighting each other for control, claiming over 1,000 lives.

An audio message by ISIS leade Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said that the opposition groups should focus on fighting the Syrian regime.