The International Committee of the Red Cross has begun moving civilians including the wounded and children out of the Syrian city of Homs.

The UN's under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Valeria Amos, will be visiting Syria in order to negotiate access for aid workers to areas most affected by the conflict, announced the spokesperson to the UN Secretargy General Ban Ki Moon.

The UN has accused Syria of committing ‘crimes against humanity’ against its people, in a report released today after an inquiry by a UN panel.

The panel was refused entry into Syria and had to gather information from outside sources including regime defectors and human rights activists.

Republican, Dana Rohrabacher, introduced a bill recognising Baluchi nation's right to self-determination last week.

The bill stated that the Baluchi nation “have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country; and  they should be afforded the opportunity to choose their own status.”

Writing in the Huffington Post, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallstrom, condemned sexual violence as a weapon of war and pledged to "push for an end to impunity and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice".

A complaint against the British Government has been filed by legal charity Reprieve in regards to the failure of the government to secure the release of a Pakistani man, held in Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.

Yunus Rahmatullah was captured by British forces in 20054 and was then handed to the US military who have held him without charges ever since.

The Iranian oil ministry announced on Sunday it has stopped all sales of crude oil to British and French companies.

A spokesman was quoted on the ministry’s website as saying:

A Chinese envoy on a visit to Syria has called on all sides to end the violence.

Zhai Jun has expressed Chinese support for the government’s plan to hold a referendum on the constitution on February 26.

However, the opposition has called for a boycott of the referendum and rejected the plans for as long as violence was still ongoing.

The Australian parliament adopted a resolution Saturday, confirming the judgement of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, that the massacre of over 8000 Bosnian muslims in Srebenica in 1995, was a genocide.

The US, Canada, and European Union countries, have already adopted such a resolution.

The founder of France's far-right, National Front part, Le Pen, was found guilty of condoning war crimes on Thursday, and given a suspended jail sentence of three months and a fine.

In 2005, Le Pen had remarked that the Nazi occupation of France during the second world war, “not been particularly inhumane, even if there were blunders.”

A referendum by ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo have rejected rule by the Kosovo authority in Pristina.
Kosovo Serb election officials said 99.7% of voters rejected rule by the ethnic Albanian majority.

Serbs in the north of Kosovo have obstructed attempts by the Kosovo government to establish authority in the region and have rejected attempts by NATO forces to implement law and order.