The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said the Turkish army of endangering the group's peaceful pullout accusing the army of ongoing military activity.

In a statement, the PKK said:

"The constant reconnaissance activity of unmanned aerial vehicles is delaying the withdrawal process,"

Prominent British scientist Professor Stephen Hawking has withdrawn from a major Israeli conference to support the academic boycott of the country.

A statement by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine , released with Professor Hawking’s approval, said it was his own decision.

"This is his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there."

Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has issued an unofficial order to stop the approval of plans for new Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.

The Yesha Council, a group that promotes settlement construction, also stated that it had heard from Neatnyahu’s office that new settlement tenders were not being approved.

Russia and the USA have been praised by the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, after both states agreed to holding an international conference to help find a political solution to the conflict in Syria.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is due to meet Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity.

Kenyan rights groups have condemned the visit to the UK, saying the invitation is a betrayal.

Kenyatta is attending a conference on Somalia, held in London this week, with Kenya being an important stakeholder in the Horn of Africa, providing nearly 5,000 troops to the country.

Turkey has called on both Canada and France to weigh up their recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide against their trading relationships with the country in recent weeks, as they push for killings to not be labelled genocide.

Carla Del Ponte of the UN independent commission of inquiry on Syria confirmed on Sunday that testimonies collected from casualties and medical staff suggest that Syrian rebels have used the nerve agent sarin. See here.

Speaking in Italian to a Swiss-Italian TV network Del Ponte said: 

German police have arrested a man accused of being a guard at the notorious Auschwitz extermination camp during the Second World War.

Hans Lipschis, 93, claims he was only a cook but prosecutors concluded there was “compelling evidence” of his involvement in crimes.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre accused Lipschis of taking part in the mass murder of Jews between October 1941 and 1945.

The crimes against humanity trial of Kenya's new vice president William Ruto was postponed on Monday by International Criminal Court judges.

The trial date was initially set for May 28th but has been postponed due to a number of administrative issues.

Ruto faces trial for three counts of crimes against humanity for his contribution to the deadly post-election violence that erupted in 2007.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed Bashar al-Assad, labelling him a 'butcher' in his strongest attack on the besieged Syrian President.

Speaking in Ankara, Erdogan told a cheering crowd,

"If God permits, we will see this butcher, this murderer, receive judgement in this world... and we will praise (God) for it".

"You will pay a very, very heavy price for showing your courage to the babies in the cradle, the courage you cannot show others."