Three members of a Channel 4 televsion crew working in Bahrain were deported by the government on Monday.

Channel 4's foreign correspondent, Jonathan Miller, cameraman Joe Sheffer and producer David Fuller were detained by Bahraini authorities on suspicion of working without formal accreditation.

The European Union has announced the suspension of most sanctions on Burma for one year in recognition of ‘historic changes’.

The EU will suspend its restrictions against individuals and companies based in Burma and also withheld aid money. However its embargo on arms sales will remain.

The New Zealand government has approved the sale of 16 dairy farms to a Chinese investor, Shanghai Pengxin, despite facing strong criticism from local farmers and businessmen. 

The government's decision to allow a foreign investor to acquire land has proved contentious across New Zealand, where agriculture plays a significant role in export earnings.

Extracts from a fascinating article by The New York Times last on Syria’s Kurds.

As tens of thousands from Bahrain’s Shia community demonstrated against this weekend’s Formula 1 race being held amid ongoing violent repression by the ruling Sunni dynasty, how did Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa justify why the race should go ahead?

The UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of adopting a Russia-European resolution authorises the deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria, to be known as UNSMIS.

The move comes less than day after UN ceasefire monitors entered the city of Homs.

Israel fell silent on Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday, as the nation remembered six million Jews killed by Nazi during the course of the Second World War.

Official commemorations commenced late on Wednesday with a ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Israel.

The leader of the UK's opposition, Labour party, Ed Milliband, joined calls to cancel the Bahrain Grand Prix given the on-going reports of the state's violent crack down of legitimate protesters. 

Milliband said,

"I certainly think it is the case that, given the violence we have seen in Bahrain and given the human rights abuses, I don't believe the Grand Prix should go ahead."

"I hope that the Government will make its view clear and say the same."

His remarks add to those of several politicians and human rights activists, including the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, and the shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, who urged British Formula One driver, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamiliton to boycott the event.

European Union diplomats are said to have agreed to suspend sanctions on Burma for one year.

An unidentified official told AFP that the suspension would give the EU time to monitor political reform.

The agreement would still have to be formally approved by EU foreign ministers at a meeting on Monday.

Amid escalating clashes, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has declared war on South Sudan, vowing to retake the region which won its independence last year through an internationally-facilitated referendum.

The U.N Security Council is considering sanctions as a means to quell the fighting between South Sudan and Sudan and to prevent the escalation into a full-scale war.

Photographs of US military officers posing with the corpses of dead Afghan fighters have emerged once again.

The photographs, published in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, depict US paratroopers of the 82nd Airbourne Division grinning next to the mangled corpses of Afghan fighters.

A Libyan military commander is taking legal action against former British foreign secretary Jack Straw, over his rendition to Gaddafi’s Libya.

Formerly exiled rebel leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj says that he was kidnapped by CIA agents in Thailand, before being taken to Libya via the UK territory of Diego Garcia.

Australia has become the latest country to ease sanctions against Burma in recognition of efforts at democratic reforms.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr has announced the easing of travel and financial restrictions against around 260 Burmese nationals, including President Thein Sein.