The United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay has said Sudanese air strikes on South Sudan may amount to war crimes. Mr. Pillay condemned what he described as deliberate attacks on civilian areas. South Sudan earlier this week accused Khartoum of bombing its territory in violation of a UN resolution. Khartoum says South Sudan sponsors rebel groups on its territory.

A writer of

crosswords

in Venezuela says he’s been questioned by intelligence agents after being accused of hiding a coded assassination message in a puzzle. Neptali Segovia who works for the newspaper Ultimas Noticias denies using his crosswords to inside the murder of President Hugo Chavez’s brother Adan. Sarah Granger reports from the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

Neptali Segovia had already published a statement in the newspaper saying his work had no political dimension. There was after a presenter on state television had accused him of copying the tactics of the French Resistance during World War Two by including code words as answers in a crosswords puzzle. But some couldn’t help but laugh this latest twist. The anti-government newspaper Tal Cual published a spoonful crossword in their Friday edition with the clue what officials do when they

misuse

public funds while the answer, corruption.

The defense team of the former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic has appealed to the Yugoslav war crime’s tribunal to replace the presiding judge in his trial. Mr. Mladic’s lawyers accuse Judge Alphons Orie of