For the first time since 1955, a UK foreign secretary visited Burma.

Following on from a visit by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the UK foreign secretary, William Hague, visited Burma on Thursday, holding talks with both the government and the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Stressing the importance of taking concrete steps towards reform, to his counterpart, Wunna Maung Lwi, Hague urged the release of political prisoners.

“I don’t think it’s been an impressive performance for the military justice system. It shouldn’t take this long.”

“You would be hard-pressed to find an Iraqi who was willing to say anything positive about the administration of justice in these cases.”

"After six years memories fade, and the relevance of evidence may even fade — certainly evidence may be lost."

"It's important because 24 people are dead. It's the greatest number of non-combat victims in a single incident that wasn't a bomb. All armed forces look to their officers to be the adults in the group. We look to them to make sure that things like Haditha don't happen."

The United States have agreed in principle to release several senior Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, in return for the Taliban’s agreement to open a political office in Qatar, The Guardian reports.

The individuals considered for release include the former interior minister of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Mullah Khair Khowa and Noorullah Noori, a former governor.

European Union diplomats have agreed on the "principle of an oil embargo", announced EU diplomats on Wednesday.

Following on from economic sanctions, the embargo aims to curtail Iran's alleged nuclear programme.

Member states are yet to agree on the implementation of the embargo.

One EU diplomat, speaking anonymously to Reuters, said,

The Hamas prime minister of Gaza Ismail Haniya has made his first official foreign trip since Hamas won control of the Gaza strip in 2007.

After visiting Sudan and Egypt, Mr Haniya has now arrived in Turkey, in the hope of strengthening ties with Muslim countries in the face of uprisings in the region.

Turkey’s diplomatic relations with Israel have declined to an all time low since the attack by Israeli forces on a Turkish aid flotilla in 2010, which left 9 turkish activists dead.

A Taliban spokesman announced on Tuesday that the organisation is willing to open an office in Qatar for negotiations with the ‘international community’.

Zabiullah Mujahid said an agreement had been reached with Doha and other ‘relevant parties’ but did not elaborate on when the political office would be opened.

Secret discussions between US and Taliban officials had been ongoing for months and it is thought that a release programme for Taliban prisoners of war has also been negotiated.

The first Palestinian-Israeli meeting in fifteen months, ended in a small token of progress, with peace negotiators, agreeing to continue the dialogue.

Gathering in Jordon's capital, Amman, on Tuesday, the meeting was overseen by the Middle-East 'Quartet' of the Unites States, Europian Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Tuesday's talks come after Israel and the US condemned the Palestinian's UN bid as a move against peace talks.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Sanaa in Yemen, demanding that the country's out-going president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, faces justice for ordering the deaths of protesters.

Holding posters of the president with a noose around his neck, protesters chanted, "We will not let you escape" and "Mr Saleh must stand in front of a judge".

The two main Syrian opposition forces - the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB) - came together to formally unite against the Assad regime.

Meeting at the Arab League's headquarters in Cairo Friday, the Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the SNC, whose members are mainly in exile, and Haytham Manna of the NCB, whose members are mainly based inside Syria, signed a draft agreement on the roadmap to democracy.

In a statement, the NCB said,