French President Francois Hollande has said that his government is ready to stop rebels who are currently in control of the north Mali.

The rebels have been advancing southwards and captured more territory in recent weeks, prompting Mali’s President Diancounda Traore to send a letter to Paris and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, pleading for assistance.

"They (rebels) are trying to deliver a fatal blow to the very existence of this country," Mr Hollande said.

Rebels and government forces in the Central African Republic have agreed to a ceasefire after talks held in Gabon.

The ceasefire follows three days of negotiations after a month-long rebellion was sparked in early December. The deal states that President Francois Bozize can remain in power until 2016 and calls for the dissolution of the country’s National Assembly as well as the appointment of a Prime Minister.

Rebel spokesman Eric Massi told Reuters,

France’s President Francois Hollande has confirmed that French troops are supporting Mali’s army in clashes with rebels in the north.

He said the soldiers "have brought support this afternoon to Malian units to fight against terrorist elements".
Mr Hollande added that the military intervention would last "as long as necessary".

"Mali is facing an assault by terrorist elements coming from the north whose brutality and fanaticism is known across the world," he said.

After weeks of fighting with government forces, Syrian rebels have captured Tafatnaz military airport, a key base in the north of the country.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that the fighting at the airport ended at 9am GMT and that the base is now entirely in rebel hands, although government jets have been bombing the base in attempts to destroy it.

Tafatnaz is the largest base to be seized so far and is an important gain for the rebels who already control vast sections of the north and east of Syria.

Three Kurdish women activists - including a co-founder of the PKK - have been found shot dead in a Kurdish information centre in Paris, the BBC reports.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls called the killings "intolerable".

The three women had "undoubtedly" been executed, Mr Valls said, adding that the French authorities were determined to "shed light on this act".

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday called the UN-Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, "flagrantly biased" and accused him of being one of those "conspiring against Syria and its people."

The remarks were made in response to comments made by Brahimi earlier in the day when he asserted that President Assad could not have a role in a transitional government:

Amnesty International has released a statement urging for a full investigation into the murder of three Kurdish activists in Paris, calling for ‘no stone to be left unturned’.

The human rights group’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director John Dalhuisen said,

Condemning the deaths of two Indian soldiers in Kashmir, New Delhi summoned Pakistani envoy to lodge a "strong protest" against the incident on Wednesday.  

Accusing the Pakistani soldiers of crossing into the heavily militarised Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir, Indian officials described the mutilation of the soldiers bodies as "barbaric and inhuman".

In the first successful lawsuit against torture, an US defence contractor, Engility Holdings Inc, whose subsidiary body L-3 Services Inc. was accused in the torture of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison, has paid $5.28 million to the victims.

Another contractor, CACI is believed to be going to trial this summer over similiar allegations.

Japan has summoned China’s ambassador to the country this week, after Chinese vessels entered what Japan claims to be their territorial waters for over 13 hours.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said that strong protests were registered after four Chinese surveillance ships entered the area surrounding the disputed islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.