Iraq’s Shi’ite clerical leadership yesterday called on all Iraqis to defend the country from Sunni militants who have seized large swaths of territory, and a UN official expressed "extreme alarm" at reprisal killings in the offensive, citing reports of hundreds of dead and wounded.

Edward Snowden did the world a favour by revealing the scale of surveillance by governments, according to the inventor of the internet.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has deplored the use of chemical weapons in Syria and demanded that those responsible are held accountable.

Thousands of supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi took to the streets of Egyptian cities yesterday to demand the reinstatement of the Islamist leader.

Almost 93,000 people have been confirmed killed in the Syrian conflict, but the real number is likely to be far higher, the UN says.

Almost 93,000 people have been confirmed killed in the Syrian conflict, but the real number is likely to be far higher, the UN says.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the “right decision” had been reached after European Union foreign ministers agreed to end the embargo on supplying arms to opposition forces in Syria.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said that sanctions against Syria should continue.

The UN Security Council’s president has said the council is divided over whether to refer reports of war crimes in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

It is a characteristic of despots whose time as a supreme leader, unquestioned and all-powerful, nears an inevitable and bloody end that they grow ever more careless of the welfare of the people they once imagined loyal, happy citizens of their autocracy.

At least 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, with monthly casualty figures steadily increasing since the conflict began almost two years ago, according to a new analysis released by the UN.

At least 60,000 people have now been killed in Syria’s civil war, with monthly casualty figures steadily increasing since it began almost two years ago, according to a new analysis.

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi’s decree that put his decisions above legal challenge until a new parliament has been elected has caused fury amongst hisopponents who accused him of being the new Hosni Mubarak and hijacking the revolution.

The WikiLeaks website began publishing yesterday what it said were more than 100 US Defence Department files detailing military detention policies in camps in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay in the years after the Sept 11 attacks.

The UN’s top human rights official has urged nations to save Syria’s embattled and dying children and to rally behind a 14-year-old girl shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting female education.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the world's foremost human rights body to keep up the pressure on major powers to end the civil war and rights abuses in Syria.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is moving some of its foreign staff out of the Syrian capital to neighbouring Lebanon.

Syrian intelligence agencies are running torture centres across the country where detainees are beaten with batons and cables, burned with acid, sexually assaulted, and their fingernails torn out and later forced fed to them, Human Rights Watch said in a report.

The UN's top human rights official said today that there should be no amnesty for serious crimes committed in Syria, even if the threat of prosecution might motivate members of the regime to cling to power at all costs.

The UN’s top human rights body has voted to condemn Syria over the killing of more than 100 civilians last week.

The UN’s top human rights body has voted to condemn Syria over the killing of more than 100 civilians last week.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay arrived in Zimbabwe on the first mission to the troubled southern African nation by the world rights chief.

The UN’s human rights office has said three men recently sentenced to death in the Palestinian territory of Gaza were executed unlawfully.

Syrian security forces are advancing on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Baba Amr in the city of Homs, an official says.

Two wounded Western journalists escaped from Syria today after being trapped for days in the besieged central city of Homs, activist groups said.

The UN’s human rights chief said today the situation in Syria had deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks and demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

An oil pipeline has been attacked and left on fire in the central Syrian city of Homs, and regime troops have stormed several residential neighbourhoods in the nearby city of Hama, activists said.

Syria yesterday flatly rejected UN charges of crimes against humanity, even as monitors said troops killed dozens of civilians in the heaviest shelling of the protest city of Homs for days.

The failure of the UN Security Council to pass a resolution on Syria has encouraged Damascus to step up its assault on the opposition and launch an “indiscriminate attack” on Homs, the UN human rights chief said.

The Syrian government's violent crackdown on civilian protesters indicates crimes against humanity have taken place since last March and are continuing, the UN human rights chief said today.

Syria's President Bashar Assad appears to be pouring reinforcements into the battle against his opponents in Syria.

Fresh bloodshed swept Syria yesterday after Western powers and the Arab League demanded immediate UN action to stop the regime’s “killing machine”.

Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have been accused of massacring at least 30 people in renewed violence in Syria.

More than 5,000 people have died in the nine-month Syrian uprising, the UN’s human rights chief has said.

Fresh violence in Syria left 18 people dead today, most of them killed in a battle between security forces and anti-regime military defectors, activists said.

Hours of clashes across Syria killed at least four people today and wounded dozens more - including an 11-year-old girl who was struck by stray bullets that flew across the border into Lebanon, officials said.

Syria has entered a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people dead and an increasing number of soldiers defecting from the army to fight President Bashar Assad’s regime, the UN’s top human rights official has said.

SYRIA has entered a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people dead and an increasing number of soldiers defecting from the army to take up arms against President Bashar Assad’s regime, the UN’s top human rights official has warned.

Police and protesters demanding that Egypt’s ruling military council step down are observing a truce after five days of deadly street battles in which at least 40 people died.

International criticism of Egypt’s military rulers mounted today as police clashed for a fifth day with protesters demanding the generals relinquish power immediately.

THE world welcomed its symbolic “seven billionth” baby yesterday, but celebrations were tempered by worries over the strain that humanity’s population explosion is putting on a fragile planet.

The UN’s top human rights official has urged the international community to take “immediate measures” to protect civilians in Syria as the death toll from the anti-government unrest rose above 3,000.

SYRIAN dissidents are urging US President Barack Obama to call on Syria’s president to quit power immediately and to press for UN sanctions against Damascus.

An Irish ship has dropped out of the pro-Palestinian flotilla planning to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, citing sabotage, and a US ship declared it may set sail from a Greek port for Gaza without permission, activists said.