The National Rifle Association (NRA) Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre has said that what is needed to protect US school children is "a plan of absolute protection", including guns in schools. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is... a good guy with a gun," the head of the lobby group, which opposes tighter controls on weapons, told a news conference on Friday. LaPierre was speaking at the organisation's first news conference since a shooting one week ago at a Connecticut primary school that killed 20 young children and six adults. Protesters disrupted the event, brandishing banners. "NRA: blood on your hands," read one banner held up by a woman as LaPierre made a statement. "NRA is killing our kids," read another, brandished by a man as he was led away by security. | http://aje.me/TGPbPHSee More

Mario Monti is set to resign as Italy's prime minister and will hand in his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano after parliament approves the 2013 budget later on Friday, political and government sources say. Monti, who became prime... minister after Silvio Berlusconi lost his parliamentary majority in November 2011, is expected to reveal the extent of his future political ambitions during an end-of-year news conference, scheduled for Sunday at 10:00 GMT. | http://aje.me/TGJbqbSee More

The Syrian military has continued to fire Scud-type missiles against anti-government forces, NATO's top official said, describing the move as an act of desperation of a regime nearing its end. Although none of the Syrian rockets hit Turkish... territory, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday said the use of the medium-range ballistic rockets showed that NATO was justified in deploying six batteries of Patriot anti-missile systems in neighbouring Turkey. Syria's use of missiles is an act of "a desperate regime approaching collapse,"' Fogh Rasmussen said. | http://aje.me/XURzlBSee More

US President Barack Obama will nominate Senator John Kerry, a veteran foreign policy hand and former presidential candidate, as his next secretary of state. An official announcement on the appointment of the Vietnam war veteran who will suc...ceed Hillary Clinton as the top US diplomat was expected later on Friday, a senior US official said. Kerry, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to win easy confirmation from his colleagues in the chamber, and is a well known figure on the world stage. | http://aje.me/TGv83DSee More

Britain has paid out $22.7m to Iraqis who accused UK troops of illegally detaining and torturing them following the 2003 invasion. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Thursday confirmed a report in the Guardian newspaper which revealed that th...e government had given compensation to 205 complainants over the last five years, with more than 700 claims expected next year. Some $13.4m was paid to 162 Iraqis this year, with the average settlement being $113,500 plus costs. | http://aje.me/TGuZgKSee More

Russia's lower house of parliament has approved a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, in retaliation for US human rights legislation which President Vladimir Putin says is harming relations. The bill, passed on Friday in i...ts third and final reading by a vote of 420-7, now goes to the upper house of parliament for approval. The State Duma also backed a bill which outlaws US-funded "non-profit organisations that engage in political activity", extending what critics say is a clampdown on Putin's opponents since he returned to the presidency in May. | http://aje.me/XUDpB2See More

Syria's civil war is increasingly turning into a sectarian conflict pitting majority Sunni rebels against government forces supported by the country's religious and ethnic minorities, a new UN human rights report has said. Sergio Pinheiro, ...a Brazilian expert who heads an independent commission investigating abuses, said on Thursday the bulk of the victims of the nearly two-year war were civilians, and blamed both sides for abuses including torture and illegal executions.See More

Israel violated international laws by targeting media in Gaza during the November 2012 conflict, US-based non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has said. The four attacks on journalists and media facilities by Israel in Gaza "was... unlawful as violated the laws of war by targeting civilians and civilian objects that were making no apparent contribution to Palestinian military operations," the rights organisation said in a statement on Thursday. | http://aje.me/V8pv06See More