The UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of adopting a Russia-European resolution authorises the deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria, to be known as UNSMIS.

The move comes less than day after UN ceasefire monitors entered the city of Homs.

Stating that the violence between government forces and opposition activists was "clearly incomplete", the resolution warned that "further steps" may be necessary if the agreement is not adhered to.

Israel fell silent on Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday, as the nation remembered six million Jews killed by Nazi during the course of the Second World War.

Official commemorations commenced late on Wednesday with a ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Israel.

At the ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared the Nazi Holocaust with Iran’s nuclear threat to Israel.

The leader of the UK's opposition, Labour party, Ed Milliband, joined calls to cancel the Bahrain Grand Prix given the on-going reports of the state's violent crack down of legitimate protesters. 

Milliband said,

"I certainly think it is the case that, given the violence we have seen in Bahrain and given the human rights abuses, I don't believe the Grand Prix should go ahead."

"I hope that the Government will make its view clear and say the same."

His remarks add to those of several politicians and human rights activists, including the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, and the shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, who urged British Formula One driver, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamiliton to boycott the event.

European Union diplomats are said to have agreed to suspend sanctions on Burma for one year.

An unidentified official told AFP that the suspension would give the EU time to monitor political reform.

The agreement would still have to be formally approved by EU foreign ministers at a meeting on Monday.

The only sanctions to remain would be the embargo on arms.

Amid escalating clashes, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has declared war on South Sudan, vowing to retake the region which won its independence last year through an internationally-facilitated referendum.

During a rally Wednesday, in a message to South Sudan, President Bashir said: “Either we end up in Juba and take everything, or you end up in Khartoum and take everything,” referring to the two countries’ capitals.

The U.N Security Council is considering sanctions as a means to quell the fighting between South Sudan and Sudan and to prevent the escalation into a full-scale war.

The Security Council has demanded that South Sudan pull its troop out of Sudan and called on Khartoum to end to aerial bombardments.

U.S Ambassador to the U.N Susan Rice said "Council members discussed ways to leverage the influence of the council to press the parties to take these steps and included in that a discussion potentially of sanctions."

Photographs of US military officers posing with the corpses of dead Afghan fighters have emerged once again.

The photographs, published in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, depict US paratroopers of the 82nd Airbourne Division grinning next to the mangled corpses of Afghan fighters.

The US army has launched a criminal investigation into the incident, reports the Los Angeles Times.

A Libyan military commander is taking legal action against former British foreign secretary Jack Straw, over his rendition to Gaddafi’s Libya.

Formerly exiled rebel leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj says that he was kidnapped by CIA agents in Thailand, before being taken to Libya via the UK territory of Diego Garcia.

The BBC revealed earlier this month that the UK allowed the rendition of Mr Belhadj and his wife. The Sunday Times has now reported that Jack Straw directly authorised the transfer.

Australia has become the latest country to ease sanctions against Burma in recognition of efforts at democratic reforms.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr has announced the easing of travel and financial restrictions against around 260 Burmese nationals, including President Thein Sein.

''We're easing sanctions after talking to Aung San Suu Kyi and others in the opposition, after talking to the government itself, (and) after talking to other nations," Mr Carr told reporters in London, ahead of a meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Iran is willing to resolve nuclear issues during the next round of talks with world powers if sanctions against it are lifted, said the country's foreign minister on Monday.

Iran held nuclear negotiations in Istanbul on Saturday with the USA, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

Israel’s Prime Minister however felt the talks had gave Iran more time to mature its nuclear program.