Osama bin Laden has allegedly said in a new audiotape that President Obama's Afghanistan strategy is "hopeless" and has called on the US to end the Afghanistan war and break its alliance with Israel.

A Sri Lankan reporter has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for writing articles critical of the government's military operations.

A controversial new law decriminalising the possession of small amounts of heroin, marijuana, cocaine and other illicit substances has quietly slipped on to the statute books in Mexico.