The United States has slammed the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs, after dozens were reportedly killed in air strikes over Aleppo earlier this week.

In a written statement, US Secretary of State John Kerry lambasted the Syrian government, saying,

“Each and every day that the barrel-bombing of Aleppo continues, the Asad regime reminds the world of its true colors. It is the latest barbaric act of a regime that has committed organized, wholesale torture, used chemical weapons, and is starving whole communities by blocking delivery of food to Syrian civilians in urgent need.”

Barrel bombs, essentially crates crudely filled with explosives and dropped from helicopters, have been criticised by human rights groups for their indiscriminate nature, which has seen hundreds killed in the past few months.

Kerry went on to add in his statement,

“Now, with air raids killing dozens more civilians in just the past few days, destroying apartment buildings, and barrel bombs striking a mosque today, the staggering civilian toll dramatically climbs. Each and every barrel bomb filled with metal shrapnel and fuel launched against innocent Syrians underscores the barbarity of a regime that has turned its country into a super magnet for terror. Given this horrific legacy, the Syrian people would never accept as legitimate a government including Asad.”

The BBC earlier aired unverified footage of a barrel bomb being dropped and the devastating impact from it. See the video below.

In an unprecedented report the United Nations has condemned the Vatican for adopting policies which allowed members of the clergy to abuse thousands of children.

The body demanded that the Holy See immediately remove all priests known to be or suspected to be child abusers.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has confirmed that the British government advised India in advance of the Indian military’s assault on Sikhism’s holiest temple.

The attack on Sikh militants in the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984 could have left over 3,000 people dead, Hague said.

Around 90 people have been killed by crude “barrel bombs” dropped by Syrian government forces from helicopters, in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

An online statement by Al Qaeda has said that the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) was not a branch of Al Qaeda.

ISIS has been involved in heavy battles with other Syrian opposition groups, who are also fighting Assad’s troops.

The US has hit back at Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu slammed Secretary of State John Kerry over comments made at a security conference in Munich.

Kerry had criticised the slow progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and said that failure to reach an agreement could lead to more boycotts against Israel and would harm the country’s capacity to be a democratic state.

A former Bangladeshi minister, Syed Mohammad Qaisar was indicted by a special three-member International Crimes Tribunal.

Israeli troops have shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied territory of the West Bank.

22 year old Mohammed Mubarak was unarmed and had been harassed by the soldiers who forced him to remove his clothes, witnesses told AFP news agency.

The Palestinian Red Cross said Mubarak was found with three bullet wounds to his back.

Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson has courted controversy after advertising for an Israeli firm operating in a West Bank settlement, declared illegal under international law.