The United Nations insisted that Kazakhstan allow an international investigation into deadly riots in oil towns, which exposed human rights abuses and growing inequality in Central Asia’s largest economy.

U.N high Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay said that the December riots in Zhanaozen, during which police opened fire on protesters, should show Kazakhstan that economic prosperity must not be prioritised above human rights.

The ban on U.S investment in Burma has been formally lifted, allowing investment by American companies.

The act was one of the most substantial steps taken by the US on their path of normalising relations with Burma.

These steps come in the midst of calls for caution from human rights groups and Burmese activists.

US President Barack Obama said in a statement that the US remained concerned about the Burmese economy.

The US Treasury has announced a further tightening of sanction on Iran, over its controversial nuclear programme.

It said it had blacklisted several companies and individuals connected to the programme, including several companies and banks acting as front organisations to help Iran get around existing sanctions.

More than 200 Syrians, mostly civilians have been killed in a village in the rebel dominated region of Hama according to opposition activists.

Residents told activist that helicopter gunships and tanks had bombarded Taramseh, before militiamen stormed the village and executed several civilians.

The regional opposition group said in a statement:

"If you commit war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide you will not be able to rest easily in your bed: the reach of international justice is long and patient, and once set in train, it is inexorable.”

The Syrian ambassador to Iraq, Nawah al-Fares, has defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s government, declaring that he has joined “the ranks of the revolution of the Syrian people”.

Speaking on a video statement posted on Facebook, Fares is the first senior diplomat to quit the government.

The former Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for recruiting and using child soldiers.

Lubanga pleaded not guilty but was convicted unanimously by judges in the International Criminal Court in March this year.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo called for a "severe sentence" of 30 years.

Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, marked a new phase in the struggle to bring democracy to the land, by making her historic first appearance in parliament.

‘I will try my best for the country’ she told AFP, as she embarked on her first day.

Suu Kyi united with fellow members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), as both the party and its leader emerge as mainstream political players in the light of a landmark result in the April by-elections, in which the party won 43 out of 45 seats at stake.

The highest court in Egypt has ruled to overturn a parliament order by President Mursi to reconvene parliament, after a military council dissolved it last month.

Thousands of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square to protest against the decision.

MPs met shortly for the first time today before the speaker adjourned the sitting.