The United States has violated Pakistan’s sovereignty and destroyed tribal structures with unmanned aerial drone strikes in its counterterrorism near the Afghan border, a UN human rights investigator has said.

Damascus warned Friday that it will strike Syrian opposition forces in Lebanon if the Lebanese army does not stop the rebels from entering the country.

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Syrian warplanes on Sunday bombed the Baba Amr district of Homs hours after insurgents attacked the former rebel stronghold that was devastated by an army siege last year, a watchdog said.

Armed fighters on Wednesday detained about 20 U.N. peacekeepers in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel, a U.N. spokesman said.

The United Nations refugee agency said the number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and were seeking assistance has now reached the one million mark since fighting broke out almost two years ago.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader’s 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro has said in a televised speech.

Syrian opposition forces took control Monday of the northeastern Syrian city of Raqqa, captured the head of the state securities there and brought down the statue of Hafez al-Assad, the late father of the current dictator.

Armed men from Syria carried out an ambush in western Iraq on Monday killing 48 unarmed Syrian soldiers being transferred to the border and nine Iraqi guards, the defence ministry said.

At least six people were killed after violence broke out on Monday afternoon between police and protesters near the security headquarters in Egypt’s canal city of Port Said.