The United Nations high commissioner for human rights has accused the Syrian regime’s shelling of cities and towns, causing the death of civilians as "crimes against humanity and possibly war crimes."

Addressing the opening of the 20th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Navi Pillay stated,

US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have urged an immediate end to violence in Syria in a joint statement released on Monday, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Los Cabos Mexico.

The statement read:

Early election results for Egypt's first democratically elected President, appeared to indicate that Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood defeated Ahmed Shafik, Hosni Mubarak’s former Prime Minister, by a margin of about 4 percentage points, or approximately one million votes.

Election results will only be confirmed later this week. However, a spokesperson for Shafik declared him the true winner and asserted that the Brotherhood had “terrorised voters” but offered no evidence for it.

Meanwhile, ruling generals have imposed martial law, as Brotherhood parliamentarians, refuting the authority of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) or the Supreme Court to dissolve the parliament on the eve of the election, vow to turn up to the chambers as scheduled on Tuesday.

Martial law grants the military power to detain and try civilians in military courts, and the ruling generals have suggested that this could be applied in the case that someone should try to enter the parliamentary building, which is currently guarded by soldiers and police to keep the lawmakers out.

In an interview with a Mexican newspaper, Reforma, the Chinese President Hu Jintao, urged G20 members to approach the European debt crisis in a "constructive and cooperative way, encourage and support efforts made by Europe to resolve it and send a signal of confidence to the market"

Hu said,

"In the current world economic environment, the G20 members should stick together in difficult times and pursue win-win cooperation."

The head of the United Nations observer mission to Syria has called on both sides to allow trapped civilians to leave the conflict zones.

In a statement issued on Sunday, General Robert Mood said:

The International Criminal Court has sworn in the new chief prosecutor,  Gambian lawyer Fatou Bensouda earlier this week, who vowed to seek justice for victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

51-year old Bensouda becomes not only the first woman, but also the first African to lead the ICC, at a time when all 15 cases present at the court are African.

Taking up her 9-year term, Bensouda stated,

The UN observer mission to Syria has been suspended due to increasing violence.

The head of the mission, General Robert Mood, said on Friday that the observers would stay in their current locations and cease all monitoring activities.

Nine Bahraini doctors were sentenced for upto five years on Friday, for supporting anti-government protests in the country last year.

Formally accused of 'conspiring to overthrow the Bahraini monarchy', prosecutors charged that the doctors had spilt blood over patients to exaggerate injuries, and used a hospital and ambulances to aid the armed rebellion.

21 years after she had been awarded the prize, Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at an awards ceremony in Oslo.

Accepting her award, Suu Kyi told the crowd,

Citing evidence of Assad forces killing civilians in over 20 locations, Amnesty International accused the regime of committing war crimes on Thursday.

Publishing its findings in a 70-page report, Amnesty repeated its call on the UN security Council to refer Syria to the ICC.

A bid by the African Union and ECOWAS, to pass a resolution sanctioning military intervention, has failed at the UN Security Council.

The Security Council said it needed more details before it could make a decision.

A Bosnian war crimes court has jailed four Bosnian Serb soldiers for executing Bosniak men and boys during the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.

The judge said the soldiers took part in the killing of over 800 Bosniaks, over a 5 hour period, even finding time for a lunch break.

Tunisia's former leader, Ben Ali, was sentenced last night in absentia to life imprisonment for presiding over the crack-down against anti-government protesters.

Ben Ali, who currently lives in exile in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced along side Tunisia's former Interior Minister, Rafik Belhaj Kacem and other members of his government.

A British MP has accused China of employing “bully-boy tactics” after reports that the country would pull its athletes out of an Olympic camp in the city of Leeds, following a visit there by the Dalai Lama.

Chinese officials allegedly called for the cancellation of business convention due to take place on Friday, after it was revealed that the Tibetan leader would be addressing the event.