The United States cut its long standing trade benefits with Bangladesh on Thursday in move said to be in response to the poor working conditions within the country's garment industry. 

The army captain who led the coup in Mali last year has apologised to the people of the country.

Captain Amadou Sanogo said he wanted "to ask for forgiveness from Malians as a whole" for the coup which overthrew the government, leading to conflict with Tuareg rebels and Islamists, who gained control of the north of the country, costing hundreds of lives.

After being refused entry to Syria, inspectors appointed by the United Nations, have entered Turkey to gather information about the possible use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war.

The United States military’s prosecution of Iraqi war crimes received a huge blow today, after the US military’s highest court overturned a murder conviction against a US marine.

The Sudanese ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has warned expelled foreign aid groups not to re-enter the country.

The outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, has said that the lack of action in relation to the Syrian conflict was “a stain” on the organisation.

Rice, who will become President Obama’s national security adviser, said that although her time as ambassador was “remarkable”, she regretted not more was done on Syria.

Bahraini activist Zainab al-Khawaja has been jailed for two months after she was found guilty of insulting the police.

Khawaja has already spent several months in prison and the latest sentence would mean she would be held until February next year.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Mali today.

The UN has announced that US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister will meet next week to discuss Syria.

UN, Russian and US diplomats held talks in Geneva, over organising an international conference to attempt to solve the Syrian conflict.