The Israeli air force's attacks on four high rise buildings in the Gaza strip amounted to war crimes, a new report by Amnesty International says.

The report, which focused exclusively on these attacks in which no one died, says the destruction by Israel was extensive and “appeared to be wanton”, for no military reasons.

"All the evidence we have shows this large-scale destruction was carried out deliberately and with no military justification," said Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director, Philip Luther.

"Both the facts on the ground and statements made by Israeli military spokespeople at the time indicate that the attacks were a collective punishment against the people of Gaza and were designed to destroy their already precarious livelihoods."

The Chinese government has sentenced six people to death, for helping organise an attack on a market in its restive Uyghur province earlier this year, which left 39 people dead.

Two others were given death penalties for another attack on a railway station in the provincial capital Urumqi.

The exiled World Uyghur Congress has blamed the violence on the central government's policies, which the group says repress the local culture.

The Xinjiang province, originally inhabited by the Uyghur, a Turkic people following Islam, has seen violence escalate over recent months, with scores left dead in regular attacks, blamed by Beijing on terrorists, however experts say the violence is also rooted in the social and economic exclusion of Uyghur.

China has systematically settled Han Chinese in the region, in an effort to rebalance the ethnic makeup of the Xinjiang province. In November the government announced it would deploy thousands of former soldiers in Xinjiang, to counter the increasing violence.

The Canadian government has closed its embassy in the Egyptian capital Cairo over "security concerns", a day after the British mission in the city closed.

Israel has ordered investigations into eight "exceptional incidents" that happened during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year, which left over 2,000 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis dead.

The IDF spokesperson issued a 19-page statement announcing the probes, including one into an IDF air strike on the home of the Abu Jama family in Khan Yunis on July 20.  The 27 Palestinians deaths included 19 children and 2 pregnant women.

"The factual findings and materials collated by the Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism and presented to the MAG [Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni], indicated the existence of grounds for a reasonable suspicion that the incident involved a deviation from the rules and procedures applicable to IDF forces. As a result, the MAG has ordered a criminal investigation into the incident," the statement said.

Other incidents that will be probed include the killing of ambulance drivers and the use of human shields.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum, said in response that the new Israeli investigations were aimed at circumventing the UN inquiry. He called for "independent probes to bring Israeli war criminals to justice."

Human Rights Watch has called for the suspension of forcible deportations to Libya amid fears of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.

“The armed conflicts and lawlessness in Libya are giving rise to indiscriminate violence and widespread human rights abuses,” warned Human Rights Watch. It went on to say “anyone forcibly returned to any part of Libya would be exposed to a real risk of serious harm, which would constitute what is known as refoulement under international law.”

The non-governmental organisation’s statement comes as the European Union coordinator for anti-terrorism Gilles de Kerchove stated that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) could expand in to Libya. The north-eastern city of Derna is thought to be under the control of Islamist militias, some of whom have pledged allegiance to the group.

De Kerchove echoed fears raised by the commander of the US army’s Africa Command, who said that ISIS “has begun its efforts over in the east out there.” General David Rodriguez told reporters that “it’s mainly about people coming for training and logistics support right now.” 

“There are several reasons why we had to withdraw the charges in this case and one of them is lack of cooperation of the government of Kenya, [and] another one is intimidation of witnesses for them not to be able to come forward to give us their evidence.”

“The fact that we are confronted with these challenges is really the reason why the charges are being withdrawn and no other reason. Not because we do not want to do justice in this case.”

“We will not forget the victims. We will keep trying. I will be receiving information, we will be assessing that information, and we will know what further steps we are going to try based on the information that we will receive.”

Israel's president Reuven Rivlin has decided not to renew his signature on a petition calling on the Israeli government to officially recognise the killing of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide, reports the Times of Israel.

“One year ago the world lost a leader whose struggle and sacrifices inspired us to stand up for our fundamental principles, whose example reminded us of the enduring need for compassion, understanding, and reconciliation, and whose vision saw the promise of a better world.”