CAR President And Prime Minister Resign

The president of the Central African Republic has resigned over violence that has killed more than 1,000 people in the country.

Michel Djotodia agreed to step down alongside his prime minister, Nicolas Tiengaye.

The country has seen spiralling violence between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels who brought him to power last year, and Christian militias.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the past month alone.

The resignations came as the two men met African leaders in Chad to try to find a solution to the crisis.

Protesters in Bangui urged the president to give up power

Thousands of protesters in the CAR capital, Bangui, took to the streets on Friday calling for Mr Djotodia to resign.

He was due to step down in a year's time, following a transitional period, but the bloodshed in the country intensified calls for him to go sooner.

Mr Djotodia forced his way to power in a March 2013 coup that saw him become the first Muslim leader of the Christian-majority country.

He set up a transitional council and promised open elections but unrest and sectarian fighting began within months.

Violence such as machete attacks and rapes are a "daily occurrence", says Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford, who is in the CAR.

Ex-Seleka fighters pass French troops on patrol in Bangui

She said: "There are a huge number of people being attacked: Djotodia's men - rebels who he's lost control of, and these Christian militia that have been set up in response ... There doesn't appear to be anyone in control."

More than one million people have fled their homes over fears of being attacked, while some 100,000 have sought protection from the French troops controlling Bangui airport.

Former colonial power France has 1,600 troops into the country and around 6,000 African Union forces are also helping peacekeeping efforts.

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Hollande 'Affair' Story Pulled From Website

A French magazine that published photos allegedly showing French President Francois Hollande having an affair with an actress has said it will remove the story from its website.

Closer printed seven pages of pictures taken outside a Paris apartment, including an image of a man it says is Mr Hollande arriving on the back of a scooter wearing a black helmet before leaving in the morning.

The gossip magazine also showed a woman, which it claims is 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet, arriving at the apartment at night.

"Around New Year's Day, a helmeted head of state joined the actress at her apartment, where he has got into the habit of spending the night," Closer said on its website.

Mr Hollande 'deplores' the invasion of privacy, said a presidential source

However, it later said it would remove the online report.

Managing Editor Laurence Pieau said: "At the request of the actress Julie Gayet, Closer will remove from its website information published today regarding her alleged affair with President François Hollande.

"Julie Gayet's lawyer contacted us to ask us to remove all references relating to this from the site and from Google searches.

"We will remove the news, probably tonight, because this is a very clear injunction. However, we have had no contact with the Elysée (Palace)," she added.

Julie Gayet previously complained about rumours of the affair

The editor said the magazine would not be pulled from newsstands.

It claimed that the person pictured driving the scooter in the photos is the president's bodyguard and Closer also published a picture allegedly showing him fetching croissants for the couple.

The magazine also claimed it was a security concern that the president is apparently being protected by only one bodyguard.

Mr Hollande, who has threatened legal action over the pictures, is not married but has a long-term partner, Valerie Trierweiler, who acts as France's first lady.

Valerie Trierweiler is Mr Hollande's long-term partner

The 59-year-old also has four children from a previous relationship with a senior member of his Socialist Party, Segolene Royal.

In a statement, Mr Hollande said he was "looking into possible action, including legal action".

A source from the president's office added that Mr Hollande "greatly deplores the invasion of his privacy, to which he has a right as any citizen does".

Gayet, a mother of two, is an established actress in France who also appeared in a 2012 election film for Mr Hollande.

In March, she made a complaint over rumours of the affair, which she said were a breach of privacy.

Opinion polls show that Mr Hollande is deeply unpopular in France, mainly because of his inability to revive the economy, but the effect of the allegations remains to be seen.

French voters have proved to be reasonably tolerant of the personal lives of their leaders.

Jacques Chirac, president from 1995 to 2007, is said to have had many affairs, while predecessor Francois Mitterrand had a daughter born to a mistress.

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Fidel Castro Makes Rare Public Appearance

Fidel Castro has appeared in public for the first time in nine months at the opening of an art gallery near his home.

The 87-year-old's public outing coincided with the 55th anniversary of his triumphal entry to Havana following the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Castro appears to have done away with the iconic army fatigues - instead opting for a more sedate dark jacket and trousers.

He has ditched the iconic army fatigues

"He greeted artists and residents who applauded the new arrival with emotion," the official Communist Party newspaper Granma said.

Using a walking stick, he chatted to other guests at the Kcho Estudio Romerillo.

"He seems well, though he's an old man and stooped," said Merlyn Smith, a 30-year-old cashier.

"We got used to a seeing a 'giant' Fidel. Now, even though he's stooping, he's still a giant."

His last public appearance was in April last year

The Cuban leader, who relinquished the presidency to his brother Raul in 2006 due to illness, last appeared in public in April when he opened a Havana school.

But he meets with visiting foreign leaders and writes newspaper columns, most recently hosting Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro in December.

Castro wearing his more recongnisable outfit

Also in December, Castro wrote an editorial praising the life of late South African President Nelson Mandela, while congratulating his brother Raul for his conduct at Mandela's memorial service where he shook the hand of US President Barack Obama.

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Argentina: Three Killed In Lightning Strike

Three people have been killed and 15 injured after a bolt of lightning hit a beach packed with holidaymakers.

"The lightning hit and then there were people lying all over the beach," one witness said.

"We ran with my father to help but it was ugly because all of them (the injured) were screaming and no one really knew what to do.

"We did what we could - it was the best that could be done."

Witnesses described the panic after the strike

Witness described panicked tourists running from the scene and rushing to check if loved ones were safe.

The incident happened at the Villa Gesell beach 200 miles (300km) south of Buenos Aires.

One lifeguard who saw the strike said: "Some people had pain in their feet, some people were in convulsions and some were under cardiac arrest."

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Suicide Vest Afghan Girl, 10, Asks For New Home

Afghan Army 'Will Lose Helmand'

Updated: 11:52am UK, Tuesday 07 January 2014

By Tim Marshall, Diplomatic Editor

The story of 10-year-old Spozhmai helps us to understand why the Taliban will take Helmand province when Nato troops leave Afghanistan at the end of the year.

The details are sketchy, nothing is proven, but the story still holds as a way of explaining why, after 10 years of training by Nato forces, the Afghan army will not be strong enough to hold on to the province.

It is claimed Spozhmai's brother, a Taliban commander, forced her to wear a suicide vest and ordered her to detonate it at a police checkpoint. Her story is that she became cold and frightened crossing a river and refused to carry out the mission.

Mao Tse Tung said that "the people are the stream in which revolutionaries swim". In this instance the girl appears to have been a very unwilling revolutionary, but she came from the people, and the people, her own family, are said to have ordered her to her death.

The majority of the population in southern Afghanistan are ethnically and linguistically Pashtun. However, most of the Afghan troops deployed to the south are from elsewhere and do not even speak Pashtun.

Afghanistan is not a nation state in the way most Western people understand the concept. Loyalty to country comes a long way down a list which includes family, tribe, and religion.

An Afghan soldier who is ethnically Tajik, or Uzbek, or a Persian speaking Hazara, may not be motivated in defending Pashtun Helmand from the predominantly Pashtun Taliban.

On the other hand the Taliban are operating on home territory, and crucially, are so fanatical they are willing to send children, even relatives, to their deaths as suicide bombers.

Faced with this degree of commitment, the Afghan army is unlikely to hold firm down south without the technical and physical back up of the Nato forces.

Helmand, and Kandahar, may not fall immediately, but within a couple of years it is quite possible the Afghan army will have retreated to defend Kabul and the north.

Nato commanders are fond of issuing statistics about how many tens of thousands of Afghan troops they have trained up to a decent standard and how increasingly "as we step back they will step forward". 

A statistic they are less likely to draw attention to is the one which suggests that each year about 25% of Afghan soldiers desert.

President Hamid Karzai is still threatening to ensure that every single American soldier goes home by December 31.

However, he will not be president after this spring's elections, and anyway, his mind may be concentrated by the fate of the president in charge when the Taliban last rode into Kabul in 1996.

His predecessor was dragged out of the Presidential Palace and hanged from a lamp post.

A few thousand Americans near the capital might come in useful in 2015/16.

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Ex-SS Soldier, 88, Charged Over Nazi Massacre

An 88-year-old former member of Hitler's elite Waffen SS has been charged with taking part in a World War Two massacre of hundreds of French villagers.

The village has been maintained as a permanent memorial and museum

It is nearly 70 years since one of the most infamous Nazi atrocities, in which SS soldiers took the small French village of Oradour-sur-Glane by surprise and killed nearly all of its inhabitants.

The death toll from the methodical slaughter in 1944 was 642 men, women and children.

The men were herded into barns and shot dead while the women and children were burned alive in the village church.

Achim Hengstenberg, court spokesman for Cologne, said: "The prosecution charges an 88-year-old pensioner from Cologne with (joining in) the destruction of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.

French president Francois Hollande at the site with a survivor (C) in 2013

"He and another shooter are said to have killed 25 men in a barn with his machine gun. He is also said to have aided the burning down of the village church."

The accused denies the charges, saying he did not fire a single shot in Oradour, according to his lawyer Rainer Pohlen.

He said he ever tried to save the lives of some.

Mr Pohlen said: "He could have fired. He says, however, 'I had the great luck of being deployed for something else.

"He said 'I heard shots, I saw people shouting, I saw the village burning. It was terrible. It was absolutely awful. But I was not myself involved in any of the action."

A memorial at Oradour-sur-Glane

Mr Hengstenberg said the charge lay with the young offenders chamber of the Cologne court because the suspect was only 19-years-old at the time of the crime.

He was not named in the statement. The young offenders chamber will decide whether or not to open proceedings against the accused.

The SS massacre was meant to be an example to French Resistance guerrillas after a vehicle carrying an SS doctor was ambushed on a road leading to the village and its occupants abducted.

Among those killed were 207 children, the youngest eight weeks old. Only five men and a woman survived the massacre.

Robert Hebras, one of the survivors, said: "It's important that we find someone even if it's 70 years afterwards."

More than 600 people died in the massacre

Oradour is an example of a post-war failure to punish the perpetrators.

Heinz Lammerding, the Waffen SS general in command of the unit that committed the massacre, was captured by Allied forces but never extradited to France and was sentenced to death in absentia by a Bordeaux military court in 1951. He died in his bed in Bavaria in 1971.

Mr Hengstenberg said the new charge resulted from a fresh look at a previous investigation into the events.

In 1953, 12 Alsatian soldiers who took part in the massacre while serving in the German army were sentenced to life in prison and one to death, but France's parliament immediately pardoned them in the name of "national reconciliation".

Their province of Alsace had been annexed by Germany in 1940 and Alsatians were deemed to have been forced to join the Nazi army, even though some clearly enlisted voluntarily.

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Syria: Chemical Weapons Shipment Leaves Port

The first shipment of chemical weapons has been removed from Syria under a deal to rid the country of its chemical arsenal.

The UN mission overseeing the disarmament has confirmed that a Danish vessel is en route to international waters carrying the material.

"A first quantity of priority chemical materials was moved from two sites to the port of Latakia for verification and was then loaded onto a Danish commercial vessel today," the UN said in a statement.

"This movement initiates the process of transfer of chemical materials from the Syrian Arab Republic to locations outside its territory for destruction."

Maritime security is being provided by naval escorts from China, Denmark, Norway and Russia.

The operation to remove Syria's chemical arsenal had been scheduled to take place before December 31.

It was delayed by the country's worsening civil war, and by poor weather and logistical problems.

A UN Security Council-backed deal arranged by the US and Russia aims to eliminate all of Syria's chemical arms by the middle of this year.

Under the plan, the chemicals will be taken from Latakia to a port in Italy where they will be transferred to a US Navy vessel fitted with equipment to destroy them at sea.

The deal was brokered to head off US military strikes against President Bashar al Assad's regime after hundreds of people were killed last August in a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus.

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Polar Vortex: Deep Freeze Strikes East And South

The record-breaking polar air blast affecting more than half the US population has spread to the East and South, sending the mercury plunging into the single digits.

The polar vortex that started in the Midwest over the weekend covered about half of the country by Tuesday.

In New York City, the temperature fell to -12C (11F), slightly cooler than Boston's -8C (18F).

Across the South, records were shattered.

Freezing passengers wait for trains in Chicago

Birmingham, Alabama, dipped to a low of -14C, breaking the record of -12C set in 1970.

Atlanta saw a record low of -14C and Nashville, Tennessee, got down to -17C.

It was just -17C at Washington Dulles International airport, eclipsing the 1988 mark of -13C.

The crippling cold continued to impact the Midwest as well, with the mercury dipping to -24C overnight in the Chicago area.

More than 500 Amtrak passengers were stranded overnight on three Chicago-bound trains that were stopped by blowing and drifting snow in Illinois.

The waterfall frozen oustide a museum in Washington

In Kentucky, a fugitive who escaped a minimum security facility on Sunday, surrendered to authorities on Monday because of the cold when temperatures plunged to -29C with the wind chill.

The weather also has been blamed for a number of deaths across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

They included a 48-year-old Chicago man who had a heart attack while shovelling snow on Sunday and an elderly woman who was found outside her Indianapolis home early on Monday.

The worst of the big freeze should be over in the next day or two.

A satellite image shows the polar vortex sweeping across the US. Pic: Nasa

Warmer weather - at least, near or above freezing - is in the forecast for much of the stricken part of the country.

On Tuesday, many schools and day care centres across the eastern half of the US were closed.

Officials opened shelters for the homeless and anyone else who needed a warm place.

With the bitter cold slowing baggage handling and aircraft refuelling, airlines cancelled more than 2,000 flights, bringing the four-day total to more than 11,000.

Pensacola, Florida - a Gulf Coast city better known for its white sand beaches than frost - saw its streets deserted as temperatures plummeted.

Nearly half of the US has been impacted by the freezing temperatures

Monica Anderson and Tommy Howard jumped up and down and blew on their hands while they waited for a bus.

"I'm not used to it. It is best just to stay inside until it gets better," said Ms Anderson, who added she could not recall it ever being so cold.

PJM Interconnection, which operates the power grid that serves more than 61 million people in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and South, asked users to conserve electricity because of the cold.

Across the South, the Tennessee Valley Authority said power demand in the morning reached the second-highest winter peak in the history of the Depression-era utility.

Temperatures averaged -15C across the utility's seven-state region.

In Chicago, it was too cold even for the polar bear at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Although polar bears can handle sub-zero temperatures in the wild, the zoo said Anana was kept inside on Monday because she does not have the thick layer of fat that bears typically get from feeding on seals and whale carcasses.

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Polar Vortex: Deep Freeze Moves Across US

A whirlpool of freezing, dense air known as a "polar vortex" has gripped the US Midwest and is making its way East and South, bringing record low temperatures.

Thermometers plunged to -32C (-25F) in Fargo, North Dakota, while Madison, Wisconsin, hit -28C (-19F) and even Chicago and Minneapolis saw temperatures reach -20F, with wind chills of -50F.

Forecasters say some 187 million people could feel the effects of the frigid blast by the time it spreads across the country on Monday night and Tuesday.

Nearly 3,200 flights - one out of every 10 domestic departures - were cancelled on Monday, following a weekend of travel disruption across the US.

Snow is removed from the tarmac as a plane lands at New York's JFK Airport

Airline officials said de-icing fluid was freezing and fuel was pumping sluggishly.

More than a foot of snow has been dumped on a large part of the nation's midsection, forcing officials to close schools in Chicago, St Louis and Milwaukee.

In Chicago, transit officials believe the frigid conditions caused a commuter train to strike a bumping post at a downtown station, injuring 14 passengers.

The polar vortex will hit temperatures in 48 US states by Tuesday

Authorities said six people were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the accident - the second such incident of the day.

By Tuesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) is predicting 48 US states will have wind chills of below zero - an area of 1.5 million square miles.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard upgraded the city's travel emergency level to "red" for a time, making it illegal for anyone to drive except for emergencies or to seek shelter.

The last time the city issued such a warning was in 1978.

The extreme weather is affecting area of 1.5 million square miles

Utility crews worked to restore power to more than 40,000 Indiana customers affected by the weekend storm and cautioned that some people could be in the cold and dark for days.

In New York City, the temperature was expected to drop sharply from about 11C (52F) to around -12C (10F) overnight as the arctic air moved in.

Missouri transport officials said it was too cold for rock salt to be effective and several roads in Illinois were closed because of drifting snow.

Government offices and courts in several states have also been closed.

Predicted temperatures across the US on Tuesday morning

In Newfoundland, Canada, around 30,000 customers remain without power because of rolling blackouts over the last few days.

The record cold temperatures are also affecting southern states.

Louisiana citrus farmers have been warned they could lose any fruit they cannot pick as two nights of freezing temperatures are forecast.

Packers fans watch the seventh coldest NFL game in history

Fans braved subzero temperatures to watch the Green Bay Packers lose 20-23 to the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field on Sunday night.

The game kicked off with temperatures of -15C (5F), making it the seventh coldest NFL game in history.

People in Canada have also been reporting hearing loud "booms" known as "frost quakes"

The phenomenon - or cryoseism - takes place when water underground freezes and then expands, forcing the ground to crack and creating the noise.

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Newborn Baby's Body Found Dumped In Rubbish

The body of a newborn girl has been found dumped in a biomedical waste disposal truck at a hospital in India.

The child died in the early hours of Monday morning and her family paid the privately-owned Mata Chanan Devi Hospital 1,500 rupees (£15) to keep her body in a mortuary overnight.

However it was missing when the family returned to collect it at around 10am.

Ashok Kumar, the newborn's uncle, said: "We asked for it and it wasn't there.

The child had been treated at the Mata Chanan Devi Hospital

"One of the hospital staff suddenly ran towards a truck collecting biomedical waste. He looked in the garbage bags and found her there."

The hospital has denied medical negligence, and the hospital's medical superintendent Dr Nidhi Sareen has promised to conduct an internal inquiry.

Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said: "Dumping a newborn's body into the garbage is cruel and inhuman. We'll investigate the matter and take action against the guilty."

The hospital's biomedical waste storage site

According to some reports, it is thought that the hospital staff mistook the newborn's body as an amputated limb and dumped it into the truck.

Rajesh Kumar Verma, the newborn's father, said his daughter was born prematurely at Khanna Nursing Home in Janakpuri at 1.30pm on Sunday.

The family said she had swelling in her head and the doctors advised them to take her to the hospital.

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Polar Vortex: NFL Fans Brave -26C Wind Chill

Diehard football fans braved freezing temperatures and a wind chill of -26C (-14F) to watch a crucial NFL match in Wisconsin.

San Francisco players wrapped up in thick red blankets during game breaks

The Green Bay Packers took on the San Francisco 49ers at their home field on Sunday night, in one of the coldest American football matches ever played.

A phenomenon described as a polar vortex has plunged states in the north and northwest US into a deep freeze, causing transport chaos and school closures.

Fans at the Packers' Lambeau Field swaddled themselves in multiple thick layers of clothing and covered themselves with blankets for the tie, which lasted around three hours.

Some Packers fans - affectionately known as cheeseheads - wore costumes

The 49ers' stars – used to balmy California temperatures – wrapped up on the touchline in signature colour red blankets.

Despite not being accustomed to the inclement weather, they won 23-20, putting them one step closer to February's Superbowl.

The weather phenomenon has seen super-chilled air from the Arctic sucked into North and South Dakota, the Great Lakes states and New England, sending temperatures plunging.

Thick layers were neccessary for the three-hour game

Washington DC has already seen its coldest temperatures for 20 years and several states in the Midwest have recorded their lowest mercury readings for more than a decade.

Icy weather is feared to have been a factor that led to a Delta Airways flight skidding off the runway at JFK Airport on Sunday.

None of the flight's 35 passengers were injured and the aircraft was safely towed to a gate.

Snow at JFK Airport in New York

The busy New York airport suspended operations for about two hours due to slick runways.

In Chicago, about 1,200 flights have been cancelled at the city's O'Hare and Midway international airports.

Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue described current weather conditions as a once in a generation event.

Scituate, Massachusetts, is among the places to have seen blizzards

"If you're under 40 (years old), you've not seen this stuff before," he said.

With much of the northeast of the country already under thick snow and well below zero, a newly emerging weather system is threatening to cause further misery.

The 'polar vortex' is an anti-clockwise rotating pool of cold, dense air that forms close to the North Pole, but typically hangs over Canada.

People enjoy Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro during a heatwave in Brazil

Meteorologists say that unusually, this year, it is heading south and moving towards the north and eastern United States.

Fargo in North Dakota is expected to dip to -31C (-25F), International Falls, Minnesota will fall to -35C (-31F) and Indianapolis, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois, will reach -26C (-15F).

The frigid forecast prompted Minnesota public school officials to announce a statewide closure for Monday, marking the first such mass closing in 17 years.

The Wisconsin cities of Milwaukee and Madison have also announced school closures to start the week.

At least 16 deaths have been blamed on a snow storm that swept across the eastern half of the US at the end of last week.

Only a few thousand people have been left without power in the US despite heavy snowfalls, but in Canada, which has seen unusually heavy snow in a country used to cold winters, nearly 90,000 are without power in Newfoundland.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, soaring temperatures in Rio de Janeiro set off fire sprinklers in shopping malls as the thermometer topped 40C (102F).

Thousands headed to the beach as temperatures rose to more than 50C in the sunshine.

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Aspen: Plane Crashes At Colorado Airport

A private jet has crashed and burst into flames while landing at an airport in the US state of Colorado.

One person was killed and two injured in the accident at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, which serves the famous Colorado skiing resort.

Photos and video from the scene show a fire engine spraying down the wreckage, and smoke billowing from the plane.

Aspen is a popular winter holiday destination for celebrities, and comedian Kevin Nealon and singer LeAnn Rimes posted tweets after witnessing the crash.

The incident happened at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport

"Horrible plane crash here at Aspen airport. Exploded into flames as it was landing. I think it was a private jet," wrote Nealon, best known for his role in TV black comedy Weeds.

"Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles still at scene. No word on survivors or who was on jet but I can't imagine there are survivors."

Rimes wrote: "So sad. Horrible plane crash we just saw happen at the Aspen airport."

Kevin Nealon posted tweets after seeing the crash

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Allen Kenitzer said: "The airplane appears to be a Bombardier Challenger 600, coming from Tucson to Aspen. It crashed while attempting to land."

It is not clear how many people were on board.

Aspen, nestled in the Rocky Mountains, is about 100 miles southwest of Denver.

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Iraq: Fallujah Shelled As Militants 'Take City'

Al Qaeda-linked fighters have reportedly taken control of Fallujah, as the Iraqi army shells the city to try and seize it back.

At least eight people have been killed and 30 others hurt in the latest violence, according to officials and medical sources.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been tightening its grip in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, near the Syrian border, as it tries to create an Islamic state across the Iraqi-Syrian borders.

Parts of Fallujah and Ramadi, the other main city in Anbar, have been held by Sunni Muslim militants for days.

The areas were both strongholds of Sunni insurgents during the US-led conflict that topped Saddam Hussein in 2003.

In Ramadi, tribesmen and the army have worked together to counter al Qaeda militants seeking to take control.

But in Fallujah, ISIL received a boost after being joined by tribesmen against the government.

Armed men pictured in Ramadi

The fighting began in Ramadi on Monday, when security forces broke up an anti-government camp demonstrating against what Sunnis see as the marginalisation of their community.

The violence then spread to Fallujah, and when security forces left both cities after fighting the militants, it cleared the way for ISIL to move in.

"Fallujah is under the control of ISIL," a senior security official in Anbar province told the AFP news agency, adding the outskirts were in the hands of local police.

Iraqi ground forces commander Staff General Ali Ghaidan Majeed said police and tribesmen were hunting for militants in Ramadi, with army support.

And he said authorities were working on "fixing the situation in Fallujah".

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Syria Rebels Battle Al Qaeda-Linked Group

A group of Syrian rebels has launched an offensive against 'extremist' insurgents they accuse of imposing a reign of terror on areas under their control, including kidnappings, torture and executions.

The newly formed Army of Mujahideen have begun what they call a second "revolution," against the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), nearly three years since the revolution against President Bashar al Assad.

Ibrahim al ldelbi, an activist in northwest Syria with close ties to the rebels, wrote on his Facebook page: "The revolution has returned to its true path, and the rays of the sun have started to shine on Syria."

Another rebel wrote: "January 3, 2014: The revolution against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant begins."

Battles have raged for two days across northern Syria since the Army of Mujahideen declared war on the ISIL.

Two other rebel alliances have also joined the battle against the ISIL. The Islamic Front and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, which bring together tens of thousands of opposition fighters, have both condemned the ISIL.

The offensive comes nearly three years since the 'first' Syrian revolution

The latest fighting appeared to have been ignited by the torture and murder of an opposition doctor, Dr Hussein al-Sleiman.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that relies on sources inside Syria, said the doctor belonged to the Ahrar al Sham rebel group and alleged "one of his ears was cut off before he was shot".

"His body was handed over on Tuesday as part of a prisoner exchange," the group said.

The group also said at least 36 ISIL members and supporters had been killed and another 100 captured by rebels.

The group's setbacks in Syria came as it advanced in neighbouring Iraq, seizing the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in the volatile Anbar province.

It has also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in a Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut that killed at least five people, describing the Shia Muslim group as the "Party of Satan".

The ISIL rebels have also advanced in Ramadi in neighbouring Iraq

Aron Lund, an expert on Syria's insurgency, said ISIL's vision of itself, not as a mere rebel group but as a burgeoning Islamic state governed by a harsh interpretation of sharia law, has alienated other rebel groups, including less radical Islamists.

"We see what the other groups say; that they've given ISIL one chance after another, but that they keep burning their bridges," said Mr Lund, editor of the Syria in Crisis website.

President Assad has insisted the rebels are foreign terrorists; but dissidents say his regime has largely ignored the ISIL while going after peaceful activists and more moderate rebels.

Ahmad al-Khatib, an activist in the Jabal al-Zawiya region in northwestern Idlib, says Islamic rebels have given ISIL members an ultimatum to surrender by Saturday afternoon.

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