The international rights group Human Rights Watch said proof of widespread, arbitrary detentions and torture by Assad’s regime had been found in recent visits to regions captured by the rebels.

Among the findings were the use of solitary confinement cells and a various torture devices.

The Australian parliament passed a controversial immigration bill on Thursday, allowing for all asylum seekers to have their applications processed off the mainland in Nauru and Manus Island.

The United States Treasury Department sanctioned four senior Syrian officials, including the Syrian Defence, Justice , Industry and Health ministers.

The state parliament of New South Wales has passed a motion recognising the killing of 1.5 million Armenians, 750,000 Assyrians and 500,000 Greeks between 1915 and 1922 as genocide, earlier this month.

The European Union has pledged to donate €520m to aid Mali’s reconstruction at an international donor’s conference in Brussels.

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the money would help Mali become "stable, democratic and prosperous".

A former political police chief has been arrested in Chad, after he accused of killing and torturing hundreds during the 1980s.

Iran will be the chair of a United Nations conference on nuclear disarmament in Geneva later this month.

The Conference on Disarmament will be attended by 65 countries and is the world’s most important forum to discuss disarmament.

The spokesperson to the US mission in Geneva, Erin Pelton, has said that his country will not be represented at the conference.

A preliminary investigation into the 2010 Israeli on the Gaza flotilla will be opened said the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

The flotilla, carrying humanitarian aid from Turkey was bound to the Gaza strip when Israeli forces raided it. Nine people died.

A anti-Assad fighter has defended a video of him purportedly cutting out and eating the organs of a dead Syrian soldier.

The video, which had surfaced earlier this week, was criticized by Human Rights Watch, who said,

The United Nations Human Rights Council, announcedlast week the appointment of a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged  “systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights” in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The UK and the US have pledged to help strengthen the moderate opposition in Syria and create a transitional body to replace President Bashar al-Assad.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in Washington that there was an "urgent window of opportunity before the worst fears are realised".

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, welcomed the conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt for crimes against humanity and genocide, for which he was sentenced to 80 years in prison earlier this week.

Speaking on the conviction, Pillay said,

“Guatemala has made history by becoming the first country in the world to convict a former head of state for genocide in its own national court,”

“I salute the victims, relatives and survivors whose courage and perseverance made this possible against all odds, as well as the lawyers, prosecutors and judges who carried out their duties under exceptionally difficult circumstances in the face of serious threats and intimidation.”

The High Commissioner added that,

“Despite all the obstacles, interruptions and numerous legal challenges which slowed down the trial, Guatemala has shown the world, and even more importantly its own people, that it is possible to address past crimes and bring justice,”

“This historic verdict shows that no one is above the law, and that Guatemala’s institutions have the strength and solidity to carry this through – provided there is the will to do so.”

“Guatemala can now truly begin to heal the wounds of the past, as the suffering of so many people has been formally recognised,”

The four peacekeepers from the Philippines who had been abducted by Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights have been released.

Filipino army spokesperson Brigadier General Domingo Tutaan told AFP said that the soldiers are in good health.

Over 3000 Serbs protested against on Friday in Belgrade against the deal normalising relations with Kosovo, reports the Sacremental Bee and RT.

See RT for photographs.