British Foreign Secretary William Hague is to meet Syrian rebel leaders in London on Monday, the BBC reports, quoting the Foreign Office.

Mr Hague will meet members of the Syrian National Council and the National Co-ordination Committee for Democratic Change.

"We have been having regular contacts with a variety of figures in the Syrian opposition for several months. We are now intensifying these," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

The Libyan transational government announced Saturday that they have captured Saif al-Islam, the fugitive son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Three months after he was last seen in public, the NTC announced that Saif was "arrested in southern Libya" sparking of celebrations in Tripoli’s Martyr Square. It is thought the he was trying to escape to Algeria or Niger and there were reports that he was seeking to surrender to the ICC.

Members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have unanimously agreed on Burma as the next chair of the regional bloc.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the BBC, the 10 member states believed Burma had made significant progress towards democracy.

"It's not about the past, it's about the future, what leaders are doing now," he said.

"We're trying to ensure the process of change continues."

"We have called on Assad to change but the regime did not want to know, which is not acceptable. We are ready to strengthen the sanctions."

"It is not normal that the [United Nations] Security Council has not made any decision so far... I hope those blocking any resolution will be aware of the reality of the situation."

Sudanese rebel groups expressed surprise and regret at the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon's condemnation of the formation of a rebel alliance - the Sudanese Revolutionary Force - on the 11th November.
 
On Monday, Ban Ki Moon expressed concern at the growing tension between Khartoum and Juba, and argued that the establishment of the rebel alliance would only serve to further escalate the conflict in the region.
 
The groups, hailing from the Blue Nile, Darfur and South Kordofan regions, situated along the border between Sudan and South Sudan, and include Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Sudan Liberation Movement factions of Abdel Wahid Al-Nur (SLM-AW) and Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) and the SPLM-N (Sudan People's Liberation Movement - North).
 
Yasir Arman, the Secretary General of SPLM-N and the former presidential candidate of the SPLM last year, said he was "surprised" at Ban Ki Moon's statement and argued that it showed that Ban Ki Moon was supporting "the aggressors and war criminals" instead of "supporting the victims and the right of the Sudanese people to democracy and the respect for human rights and the rule of law".
 
The rebel groups asserted that the solution to the conflict, lay in a political and armed struggle to overthrow the government in Khartoum.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has handed down a sentence of 15 years to a former mayor, after he was found guilty on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Gregory Ndahimana was mayor of the Kivumu district in 1994 when a church was bulldozed by police, killing more than 2,000 people trapped inside.

Addressing the Australian parliament on Thursday, US President Barack Obama, lauded freedom, stating that "prosperity without freedom is just povery", and reiterated the US stands for "an international order in which the rights and responsibilities of all nations and people are upheld." 

Watch his address in full here.

Extracts reproduced below:

"History shows that over the long run democracy and economic growth go hand in hand. And prosperity without freedom is just poverty."

"Every nation will chart its own course, yet it also true that certain rights are universal.

"Among them - freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, the freedom of citizens to choose their own leaders."

"These are not American rights, or Australian rights, or Western rights."

"These are human rights. They stir in every soul, as we've seen in the democracies that have succeeded here in Asia."

"If this vast region [Asia-Pacific] and its people teach us anything, it is that the yearning for liberty and progress will not be denied."

"The currents of history may ebb and flow, but over time they are moving decidedly, decisively in one direction,"

"History is on the side of the free - free societies, free governments, free economies, free people.

"And the future belongs to those who stand firm for those ideals, in this region and around the world."

"This is the work we will carry on together for the security, prosperity and dignity of all people."

Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program sa