A bid by the African Union and ECOWAS, to pass a resolution sanctioning military intervention, has failed at the UN Security Council.

The Security Council said it needed more details before it could make a decision.

Northern Mali was taken over by Tuareg separatists and Islamists after a coup by Mali’s army toppled the president in March. A deal made by the coup leaders and other western African states saw the instalment of an interim president.

A Bosnian war crimes court has jailed four Bosnian Serb soldiers for executing Bosniak men and boys during the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.

The judge said the soldiers took part in the killing of over 800 Bosniaks, over a 5 hour period, even finding time for a lunch break.

Franc Kos and Zoran Goronja were jailed for 40 years, Stanko Kojic for 43 years, and Vlastimir Golijan for 19 years.

Tunisia's former leader, Ben Ali, was sentenced last night in absentia to life imprisonment for presiding over the crack-down against anti-government protesters.

Ben Ali, who currently lives in exile in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced along side Tunisia's former Interior Minister, Rafik Belhaj Kacem and other members of his government.

However, many Tunisians and families of the victims expressed anger at the sentencing and that the court dropped charges against 10 officials, and gathered outside the court room shouting "revenge, revenge."

A British MP has accused China of employing “bully-boy tactics” after reports that the country would pull its athletes out of an Olympic camp in the city of Leeds, following a visit there by the Dalai Lama.

Chinese officials allegedly called for the cancellation of business convention due to take place on Friday, after it was revealed that the Tibetan leader would be addressing the event.

Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds, stated,

Indonesian police have shot dead Maku Tabuni, a leader of the Papuan separatist movement.

Mr Tabuni is said to have been unarmed when he was killed after resisting arrest.

Human rights activists claim he was running from police when he was shot in the back of his head.

The police denies he was unarmed and said he fought back.

The United States has charged Russia with continuing to supply weapons to the Syrian government which have been used in the country’s ongoing conflict, with more weapons set to be delivered.

The Falklands Islands’ government has announced it will hold a referendum in 2013, to settle once and for all questions regarding its sovereignty.
The announcement comes a day before the 30th anniversary since the end of Argentine occupation of the British territory.

The Chairman of the islands' legislative assembly, Gavin Short, said they were going to hold the referendum "to show the world just how certain we are about it [our future]".

The International Criminal Court is seeking a 30-year jail term, for former Congolese war lord Thomas Lubanga, who was found guilty of recruiting and using child soldiers by the ICC in March this year.

Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said he demanded a "severe sentence".

"The prosecution will request a sentence in the name of each child recruited, in the name of the Ituri region,"

The leaders of Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Macedonia, boycotted the inauguration of Serbia's new president on Monday, Tomislav Nikolic, over his recent statement's denying the Srebrenica genocide.

Bosnia's presidency chairman Bakir Izetbegovic said,

Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb political leader has denied all charges against him at The Hague and called for a complete dismissal of his trial.

Karadzic, who faces 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for massacres at Srebenica and Bosnia stated,

"The prosecution hasn't proven my responsibility for the events in Srebrenica, nor that it was genocide."