After weeks of fighting with government forces, Syrian rebels have captured Tafatnaz military airport, a key base in the north of the country.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that the fighting at the airport ended at 9am GMT and that the base is now entirely in rebel hands, although government jets have been bombing the base in attempts to destroy it.

Tafatnaz is the largest base to be seized so far and is an important gain for the rebels who already control vast sections of the north and east of Syria.

Three Kurdish women activists - including a co-founder of the PKK - have been found shot dead in a Kurdish information centre in Paris, the BBC reports.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls called the killings "intolerable".

The three women had "undoubtedly" been executed, Mr Valls said, adding that the French authorities were determined to "shed light on this act".

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday called the UN-Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, "flagrantly biased" and accused him of being one of those "conspiring against Syria and its people."

The remarks were made in response to comments made by Brahimi earlier in the day when he asserted that President Assad could not have a role in a transitional government:

Amnesty International has released a statement urging for a full investigation into the murder of three Kurdish activists in Paris, calling for ‘no stone to be left unturned’.

The human rights group’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director John Dalhuisen said,

Condemning the deaths of two Indian soldiers in Kashmir, New Delhi summoned Pakistani envoy to lodge a "strong protest" against the incident on Wednesday.  

Accusing the Pakistani soldiers of crossing into the heavily militarised Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir, Indian officials described the mutilation of the soldiers bodies as "barbaric and inhuman".

In the first successful lawsuit against torture, an US defence contractor, Engility Holdings Inc, whose subsidiary body L-3 Services Inc. was accused in the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison, has paid $5.28 million to the victims.

Another contractor, CACI is believed to be going to trial this summer over similiar allegations.

Japan has summoned China’s ambassador to the country this week, after Chinese vessels entered what Japan claims to be their territorial waters for over 13 hours.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said that strong protests were registered after four Chinese surveillance ships entered the area surrounding the disputed islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

2130 opposition prisoners were released by the Syrian government in exchange for 48 Iranians abducted in Damascus, while apparently on a pilgrimage five months ago.

The swap is the first major swap of the 21-month long civil war and was brokered by a Turkish humanitarian group and the Qatari government.

Syrian opposition fighters alleged that the 48 prisoners were members of the Iranian revolutionary guard corps which was assisting Assad to crush the rebellion.

Loyalist protests in Belfast have resulted in a fifth consecutive day of rioting in the city, as a dispute over the flying of the Union Jack flag at Belfast City Hall continues.

The M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a unilateral ceasefire.

The rebels are due to hold peace talks with the government soon and expressed hope that Kinshasa will reciprocate the move.

"We've been for peace... today we're declaring that we're in a ceasefire," M23 spokesman Francois Rucogoza told reporters in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

"Even if the government refuses to sign a ceasefire agreement we'll continue with the negotiations.”