The son of Libya’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, has appeared in a Libyan court earlier on Thursday, charged with plotting escape from detention in Libya.

The US has said it regrets Bolivia’s decision to move against USAID programmes in the country.

President Evo Morales had accused the organisation to conspire against Bolivia.

US state department spokesman Patrick Ventrell denied the accusations.

Bolivian President Evo Morales announced the expulsion of USAID representatives from the country, which he accused opf meddling in the country’s internal affairs and conspiring against him.

US President Barack Obama has said that the continuing existence of the prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay is a “recruitment tool” for extremists and not in the “best interest of the American people”.

The UK will end its aid programme in South Africa by 2015, said International Development Secretary Justine Greening.

The secretary will announce the move at a conference of African ministers and business leaders in London on Tuesday.

Hezbollah has declared its allegiance to Syria, vowing not to let it fall to the US or Israel.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese militant group is quoted as saying:

"A large number [of rebels] were preparing to capture villages inhabited by Lebanese... so it was normal to offer every possible and necessary aid to help the Syrian army,"

President Barack Obama indicated that military action against Syria would be considered if the reports of chemical weapons deployed by the Assad regime were substantiated.

Obama reiterated that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a “game changer” but noted that the United States did not fully know who used them or when they were used.

The trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt has resumed this week, after a 12-day suspension over procedural matters.

Earlier Rios Montt and his co-defendant Jose Rodriguez Sanchez were left without lawyers to represent their case after they argued the trial should be annulled. Meanwhile relatives of victims and other rights groups held several protests demanding the trial be resumed.

The Syrian Prime Minister has narrowly escaped a bomb attack in the capital Damascus on Monday.

Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi’s convoy was targeted by a car bomb at a busy intersection, reportedly leaving his bodyguard dead and several casualties.

In an interview broadcast by state media, purpotedly filmed after the attack, al-Halqi appeared shaken but unharmed.

Human rights groups have called on the UK government to end its policy of recruiting soldiers under 18.

In a report published last week, Child Soldiers International and ForcesWatch said the British army is wasting up to £94m a year training recruits under 18. The UK is the only member or the EU and the permanent member of the UN Security Council to allow its armed forces to recruit those under 18.

The head of Nepal at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned against the prospect of handing suspected war criminals amnesty, after a decade long civil war in the country.

The Israeli military has said it will stop using white phosphorus in artillery shells.

The government has been under severe criticism from human rights groups after it was used during the Gaza conflict, where an unknown number of civilians were killed and injured in attacks using the chemical.