Amnesty International has accused NATO forces of failing to investigate sufficiently civilian deaths caused by air strikes during attacks on Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.

"Nato officials repeatedly stressed their commitment to protecting civilians," said Donatella Rovera, a senior crisis adviser at Amnesty.

"They cannot now brush aside the deaths of scores of civilians with some vague statement of regret without properly investigating these deadly incidents."

Addressing his successors, Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, stressed the need for political reform, warning against a second Cultural revolution.

“Without successful political structural reform . . . new problems that have arisen in Chinese society will not be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again,” said Jiabao.

Drawing on recent events in the Arab Springs, Jiabao said,

A Brazilian judge has blocked attempts by prosecutors to try former army colonel Sebastiao de Moura for human rights abuses committed in the 1970s.

The judge ruled the move would go against Brazil’s amnesty laws.

Judge Matos, the federal judge in Maraba in the northern state of Para, said in his ruling:

"To try after more than three decades to dodge the amnesty law and reopen the debate on crimes committed during the military dictatorship is a mistake."

Twenty Kurdish activists in London began a four-day hunger strike Wednesday (14th) protesting against repression in Turkey. The event, staged by the Kurdish Federation UK, is taking place in parallel with similar actions within Turkey and across Europe.

Hundreds of prisoners in Turkish jails, including imprisoned members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party and other elected officials, have been on hunger strike since the end of February.

The Taliban have suspended talks with the US in Qatar, accusing the Americans of changing their position on the dialogue.

In a statement posted on their website the Taliban said,

"It was due to their alternating and ever-changing position that the Islamic Emirate was compelled to suspend all dialogue with the Americans,"

The head of the armed wing of the Union of Congolese Patriots, Thomas Lubanga, was charged Wednesday at the International Criminal Court (ICC), in the ICC's first conviction.

Lubanga was charged for his part in the killing of thousands during the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war (2002-2003).

Theo Boutrouche, DRC researcher at Amnesty International, said,

A former soldier has been sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his role in the massacre of Mayan villagers in Guatemala in the early 1980s during the country's civil war.

201 Mayans were killed by Guatemalan soldiers in the village of Dos Erres over 3 days in 1982, with men, women and children shot and beaten to death.

Pedro Pimentel Rios, 55, who is the fifth soldier to be convicted for his role in the massacre, lived in California until his arrest in 2010 and was extradited from the US the following year.

Speaking to the 15-member UN Security Council, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on all nations to come together on Syria, as she clashed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday.

Addressing the Security Council, Clinton said,

A US judge has ruled that the former Salvadoran Defence Minister, General Eugenio Vides Casanova, can be deported due to his alleged involvement in war crimes.

General Casanova is accused of taking part in the killing of 6 Americans and several Salvadorans during the civil war in the 1980s.

The US supported then Defence Minister Casanova’s forces against leftist rebels; he retired and moved to Florida in 1989.

The International Court of Justice has been requested by Belgium to extradite former Chadian President Hissene Habre.

Mr Habre denies accusation he committed crimes against humanities during his reign.

He is alleged to have killed and tortured tens of thousands of opposition activists between 1982 and 1990.

He has been living in Senegal since his ouster in 1990 and was arrested in 2005, however Senegalese authorities have refused four previous extradition requests by the Belgian government.