International envoy Kofi Annan today urged the UN Security Council to send a message to the Syrian government and the opposition that there will be “consequences” if they do not comply with demands for an immediate ceasefire, a UN diplomat said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has revealed three aid workers suffered minor injuries in Syria when an explosion hit their convoy.

The Syrian government has denied the country is in a state of civil war, saying it is facing “an armed conflict to uproot terrorism”.

UN observers have found another 13 bound corpses in eastern Syria, many of them seemingly shot execution- style, said the monitoring mission.

The UN peacekeeping chief said today there are strong suspicions that pro-regime fighters were responsible for some of the 108 victims of a massacre in Syria, along with heavy weapons illegally fired by government forces.

Sudan will withdraw all its troops from the disputed Abyei region at the same time as the United Nations fully deploys its 4,200-strong force, the country’s UN ambassador has said.

Two French journalists being held hostage in Iraq could be free within hours, an unofficial mediator said today.

The French foreign minister was today on standby return to the Middle East to help win the release of two hostages as experts analysed whether a ransom demand was authentic.