Millions of Egyptian voters took to the polls on Wednesday, to mark the country’s first Presidential elections since the emerging from 60 years of military-backed rule.

The elections have been hailed as a transition to democracy, since the overthrow of President Mubarak and the assumption of power by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Praising the event, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said,

A report, commissioned by the UN, has found that the Syrian Army is responsible for most of the human rights abuses committed since March.

The report, compiled by a commission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, looked into human rights violations committed between March and mid-May, and detailed abuses committed by both the government and the rebels.

In their annual human rights report, Amnesty International has slammed the United Nations Security Council, labelling it "tired, out of step and increasingly unfit for purpose".

The London-based human rights group, stated that world leadership has failed when action was needed, saying,

A doctor who helped the US secret service has been jailed for 30 years by a tribal court.

Dr Shakil Afridi ran a fake vaccination programme is Abottabad to gather information on its residents for the CIA.

The information gathered may have led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in a covert US operation in Abbottabad in 2011.

Islamabad reacted with anger at the operation, which it saw as a violation of its sovereignty.

The US senate has passed a bill approving the tightening of sanctions on Iran.

The sanctions are designed to put pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear programme.

The bill will make it mandatory for US firms to disclose any business related to Iran and will target the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its activities.

The Malaysian opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was charged on Tuesday for participating in an electoral reform rally last month.

Two fellow members of the People's Justice Party were also charged with violating a new law that overseas public gatherings.

The rally, held in Kuala Lumpur, was banned by court order.

 

Tunisia is to extradite the former Libyan prime minister, Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, who served under the Gaddafi regime, for trial in Libya, reports the Reuters news agency. 

See report here.

According to Noureddine Bouheiri, Tunisia's minister for justice, the extradition could take place in "days or weeks", making Ali al-Mahmoudi the first senior Gaddafi regime official to face trial.

Clashes between Sunni pro- and anti-Assad groups in the Lebanese capital Beirut have left at least two people dead and 18 injured.

On Sunday, two anti-Syrian sheikhs were shot dead at an army checkpoint while they were on their way to a rally, sparking the latest violence.

The Lebanese Army immediately took responsibility for the incident, saying it had formed a committee to investigate the killings.

The Army said in a statement that Abdul-Wahed and Mereb died of “fatal gunshot wounds in a regrettable incident near an Army checkpoint in the village of Kwaikhat.”

Bahraini officials have defended their human rights record during their Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council.

The human rights minister of the gulf kingdom, Salah bin Ali Mohammed Abdulrahman said the government is quickly improving their human rights record after the allegations of serious violations by Bahraini security forces.

“We reaffirm the importance of national dialogue,” he said.

The UN's high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has begun a five day trip to Zimbabwe at the invitation of the the president, Robert Mugabe.

Pillay said,

 "It is very, very important that the government has invited [the] U.N. commissioner for human rights. I am here to assess the human rights situation and to see how the United Nations can help to advance human protection here,"