Hundreds of people who died during the civil war in Ivory Coast last year were summarily executed.

Fighters who backed the current president are accused of committing many of the killings, according to a report commissioned by the government.

Almost a year after Muammar Gadaffi was ousted, power has been handed over to a newly elected Assembly.

The National Transitional Council, formed as an interim body during Libya’s revolution, has now been dissolved.

The chief of the NTC, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, admitted the NTC’s failure in bringing stability to Libya, but said they governed in “exceptional times”.

The event is historically significant as Libya’s first peaceful transition of power in modern times.

The US has started a project to clean Agent Orange left over from the Vietnam War 40 years ago.

The £30 million joint project will clear a former US air force base, which was used to store and mix the chemical weapon.

Millions of gallons of the toxin were sprayed to defoliate vast swathes of jungle and rob Vietcong fighters of cover.

Sudan’s election to the UN Human Rights Council is all but certain, after it emerged that the Sudanese candidate has the full backing of the African Group in the UN.

Although Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, a war lord from his regime is set to take a seat on the panel.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, has compared it to putting “Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,”

The Geneva based NGO has called on High Commissioner Navi Pillay to denounce the near-inevitable election of Sudan to the council.

The United States has said it remains “deeply concerned” about the tensions in the western Burmese state of Rakhine, but rejected allegations of “ethnic cleansing” made by the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC).

Addressing the situation in the Rakhine state, a senior State Department official said, “we have obviously expressed our concern over the tension there,” but denied that the Burmese security forces were trying to annihilate the Rohingya population.

The Syrian army has attempted to wrest back control of Aleppo as rebels are reported to be withdrawing from their positions.

The army claims it has seized the Salaheddin district from rebel forces, but however human rights organisations have claimed that fighting is still ongoing.

"Fighting is still raging in the district of Salaheddin and there are initial reports of many dead. It is impossible to document the casualties because of the ferocity of the clashes," said the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ordered that victims of the Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, must receive reparations.

Commenting on the historic order for reparation, which includes a victim’s trust fund, an ICC spokesman said that “this is the first time the court has ordered reparations for victims”

The Trust Fun for Victims (TFV) will help those that suffered from Lubanga’s human rights violations of enlisting, conscripting and using children under the 15 years to fight.

An international security company formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to pay $7.5 million in order to settle charges of arms sales violations and other illegal activity.

The firm, now called Academi, reached the agreement to settle charges including possessing weapons in the US without proper registration, lying to federal regulators about weapons supplied to the King of Jordan, the unauthorised sale of satellite phones to Sudan, military training to foreign government forces, passing on secret information regarding armoured personal carriers to Sweden and Denmark and various other crimes.

An interview with a suspected Nazi-era war criminal is set to air on New Zealand television for the first time on Thursday, where he graphically described the slaughter of Jews during World War II.

Jonas Pukas, a member of the 12th Lithuanian Police Battalion, was accused of taking part in the massacres, and was recorded on tape describing how the murdered "screamed like geese" when shot.

Iran has sent the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, to Damascus in a show of support for Bashar al-Assad and his rule.

Aiding Assad’s survival, Iran has been providing the regime with funds, arms and expertise in its campaign to crush Syria’s expanding rebellion.

Referring to the Middle East’s anti-Western powers – Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas – as the “axis of resistance” Jalili said: