The US Ambassador to Libya has been killed during an attack by protestors on the US embassy in Benghazi, according to government officials.

Al-Jazeera reported that the ambassador came under rocket fire whilst in a car and died from smoke inhalation with three other staff of the embassy.

An armed mob attacked the compound on Tuesday after a film critical of Islam was made in the US and released on YouTube.

Wanis al-Sharif, the Libyan deputy interior minister, confirmed the deaths to the AFP news agency.

Mustafa Abu Shagur, the Libyan deputy prime minister, condemned the "cowardly act of attacking the US consulate and the killing of [the ambassador] and the other diplomats".

The president of Libya’s national assembly Mohammed Magarief has apologised for the killing of the US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, which has drawn widespread condemnation, including from the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We apologise to the United States, the people and to the whole world for what happened," he told a news conference broadcast live on Al Jazeera television.

US President Obama has praised the courage of the Ambassador and while condemning the attacks, noted that it was Libyans who carried the ambassador to a hospital.

"While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants," Obama said in a White House statement.

Kosovo has gained “full sovereignty” after the International Steering Group (ISG) announced on September 10 that it will end its supervision of the country.

A former General in the Syrian Republican Guard, who defected to Turkey in July, has claimed that French secret agents helped him escape.

"The French [intelligence] services helped me get out of Syria and I thank them for that," said General Manaf Tlass to French TV Channel BFM.

A human rights report published today by the US rights group, Human Rights Watch, accused M23 rebels of carrying out war crimes that included summary executions, rape and forced recruitment of child soldiers, since breaking away from Congo’s army.

In the report, Human rights Watch argued the UN Security Council should already be considering sanctions on high ranking officials that were allegedly responsible for violations of an arms embargo as well as international criminal law.

Highlighting the Rwandan authorities’ potential liability for war crimes, Anneke van Woudenberg, senior Africa Researcher at Human Rights Watch said,

“From a legal perspective because Rwanda is directly involved in the conflict both in providing recruits and fighting, it could be made accountable for war crimes.”

Tariq al-Hashemi, the fugitive Iraqi vice-president has rejected the verdict and death sentence of a court in Baghdad, claiming it was politically motivated.

Talking at a press conference in Turkey, Hashemi said he was innocent and that the charges were ‘politically motivated’ against him.

The trial of Saif al-Islam, the son of Colonel Gaddafi, has been pushed back after Libyan authorities announced they would be seeking new information for his prosecution, following the arrest of Gaddafi's former spy chief.

A Russian proposal for a new Security Council resolution on Syria has been dismissed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Mrs Clinton said that it was pointless to pass a resolution with ‘no teeth’, whilst talking to reporters after holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Putin at the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi has been sentenced to death in absentia for running death squads targeting the country’s Shia majority.

The fugitive vice president was the most senior Sunni Muslim in the Iraqi government, dominated by Shias.