Syrian security forces may have committed crimes against humanity during a deadly siege in May, Amnesty International said Wednesday, citing witness accounts of deaths in custody, torture and arbitrary detention.

At the time of the operation, The Associated Press interviewed residents who told of a catastrophic scene in the town of about 70,000, including sectarian killings, gunmen carrying out execution-style slayings and the stench of decomposing bodies in the streets.

"Kenyan officials today welcomed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to a signing ceremony for Kenya's new constitution, in direct contravention of the state's legal obligations as an International Criminal Court signatory, to arrest the indicted sitting head of state. Bashir is wanted by the ICC for multiple counts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Royal Dutch Shell agreed to a $15.5 million settlement Monday to end a lawsuit alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria's former military regime.

A former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been deported from Canada for committing crimes against humanity, the Canada Border Services Agency said Monday.

Perhaps we've heard so little about them because the crimes are so unspeakable, the evil so profound.

Iraqi courts, at the behest of the Ministry of the Interior, have started sentencing homosexuals to death. So far, at least five men have been convicted of homosexuality and condemned to die.

There is "almost no comparable example" anywhere in today's world of a group that so systematically violates international agreements related to armed conflict, delineates Irwin Cotler - a former Canadian Justice Minister, MP and law professor at Montreal's McGill University.