The PKK released eight Turkish soldiers on Wednesday who had been held hostage in Northern Iraq for two years.

The release comes after the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called for prisoners to be released on both sides. 

A Kurdish politician, Husamettin Zemberlioglu confirmed that that the freed hostages had been received safely. Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, Besir Atalay, welcomes their release as "a gesture of goodwill."

A member of the European Union's delegation to Syia has been killed in Darayya, South-West of Damascus on Wednesday. Ahmad Shihadeh, an EU policy officer was killed in a rocket attack.

The EU withdrew international staff in December last year, closing its Damascus office. However, local Syrian staff remained.

In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said:

"I have learned today with great sadness of the tragic death on 12 March of Ahmad Shihadeh, a policy officer at the EU Delegation in Syria. He was killed during a rocket attack on the Damascus suburb of Deraya, where he lived.

Falklanders voted unanimously to stay under British rule in an referendum, with the official count on Monday revealing 99.8% voting in favour of remaining a British Overseas Territory.

The poll which took place over two days and included 1694 Falklands born and long-term residents had a 92% turnout rate.

The referendum has been dismissed by Argentina as a meaningless publicity stunt.

Roger Edwards, one of the Falklands' assembly's eight elected members, said:

The United States condemned use of phosporus as a crowd control measure after a Burmese report found the toxic agent had been used to disperse a rally at a copper mine in November.

The parliamentary report led by opposition leader Suu Kyi claimed that dozens of people were injured in the clampdown and many suffered burns from the white phosphorus.

Spokesperson for the State Department, Victoria Nuland said:

An inquiry panel headed by Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has sparked anger after failing to punish police for injuring protesters and suggesting that a controversial copper mine be kept open.

Thein Than Oo of the Upper Burma Lawyers Network said:

“This commission result is not enough and we can’t rely on them,”

Seven hostages taken by Nigerian militants are thought to be dead.

The group Ansaru claimed responsibility for the killings as a response to reports of British warplanes in the area. The seven included one Briton, a Greek, an Italian and four Lebanese hostages.

The UK's Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the 'cold-blooded' murders saying:

The Syrian government is using local militia groups, known an Popular committees to carry out mass killings, said the UN Commission of Inquiry on Monday.

Presenting its findings to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Commission said:

"In a disturbing and dangerous trend, mass killings allegedly perpetrated by Popular Committees have at times taken on sectarian overtones."

"Some appear to have been trained and armed by the government."

After careful investigation, police have stated that the Bomb attack on officers in Northern Belfast last Saturday, was a “sophisticated device with the intent to kill.”

Though it is too early to assign responsibility for the attacks, Detective Chief Inspector, Karen Baxter, said they were treating it as a terrorist attack.

A case against a man accused of crimes against humanity, alongisde Kenya's Kenyatta, at the International Criminal Court collapsed on Monday.

Kenyatta and former civil servant Francis Mathaura were charged of perpetrating violence that led to the killing of 1200 and the displacement of over 100,000 following the 2007 election.

Prosecutors were forced to drop their charges against Mathaura after a key witness decided to recant their testimony.

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said:

Argentina’s ex-president Carlos Menem has been convicted by a court in Buenos Aires for selling arms to Croatia and Ecuador in the 90s.

He was found guilty of authorising shipments to the countries, although he denied knowing that the arms were destined for those countries.

The war in the Balkans saw Croatia placed under an arms embargo and during the war between Ecuador and Peru, Argentina was banned from selling weapons to either side, as one of the guarantors of the peace agreement.