Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has left China on a flight to the United States according to news reports.

The blind activist was taken to Beijing airport along with his wife and two children and boarded a flight to Newark, New Jersey.

"Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Mr Chen told the Associated Press news agency from the terminal.

Mr Chen fled house arrest in a daring night time escape and sought refuge in the US embassy in Beijing.

A third Mexican general is being held by Mexican authorities over alleged link to drug smuggling cartels.

Gen Ricardo Escorcia Vargas, Gen Thomas Angeles Dauahara and Gen Roberto Dawe Gonzales are suspected of connections to the Beltran Leyva cartel.

President Felipe Calderon launched a war on drugs 6 years ago, with troops deployed all over the country.

The generals all occupied important posts in the government's anti-drugs effort.

The Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is due to address the British Parliament when she visits the country next month, marking the first time she will leave Burma in 24 years.

The historic trip by the Nobel peace prize winner follows British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Burma last month and the recent thaw in Burma’s international relations following its dramatic democratic reforms.

Syrian forces shot two protesters in southern district of Damascus, Tadamun, on Friday reported Reuters.

The incident occured, as Syrian forces fired into the air at the second day of large-scale protests in the city of Aleppo in an attempt to break up the protest. On Thursday, the Aleppo protest was reportedly witnessed by UN monitors, before the Syrian security forces moved them away.

Police in the southern Indian state of Kerala have charged two Italian marines with murder of two Indian fishermen.

The marines were guarding an Italian oil tanker off the coast of Kerala in February when they shot the fishermen, mistaking them for pirates.

Italy claims the incident took place in international waters and the men should be tried in an Italian court.

Rome has paid Rs 10m in compensation to each of the two fishermen’s families and in return the families withdrew civil cases against the marines.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed a travel ban on five of the leaders of the coup in April this year.

The council "demands that the Military Command takes immediate steps to restore and respect constitutional order, including a democratic electoral process, by ensuring that all soldiers return to the barracks, and that members of the 'Military Command' relinquish their positions of authority."

The 15-member council said it will consider further sanctions, "such as an embargo on arms and financial measures."

The UK is reluctant to host Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the London Olympics, reported the IRNA news agency on Thursday.

Ahmadinejad, who would reportedly like to be "beside the Iranian athletes", has faced increasing international isolation over the country's nuclear program, with an oil embargo, sanctions, and embassy closures.

Former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, on trial for genocide, has been confronted of video evidence that shows him entering the town of Srebenica in July 1995, where he stands accused of personally ordering the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

The 70-year old denies being at the town, claiming to have been attending a wedding in Belgrade instead. However, the video footage played to the court appears to demonstrate that Mladic was in Srebenica from July 11th to 14th, the time during which the massacre took place.

In the video Mladic tells an interviewer,

The US has announced the appointment of Derek Mitchell as the first ambassador to Burma in 22 years.

In a statement, President Obama hailed the beginning of a ‘new chapter’’ in US-Burmese relations.

The president told the US Congress the administration continues "to have concerns, including remaining political prisoners, ongoing conflict and serious human rights abuses in ethnic areas".

A court in Moscow has ordered police to "liquidate" the anti-Putin demonstration, known as 'Occupy Abai', at the central Chistiye Prudy park.

Currently in its second week following the re-election of Vladamir Putin as the Russian president, Occupy Abai has seen widespread support with thousands of protesters gathering in the evening after work.

Having set up camp, the protest movement has set up a makeshift kitchen, wifi for incessant social networking, and even itsvery  own Occupy Abai library, which issues books and an Abai newsletter.