GENEVA (Reuters) – The Red Cross now views fighting in Syria as an internal armed conflict – a civil war in layman’s terms – crossing a threshold experts say can help lay the ground for future prosecutions for war crimes.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions setting down the rules of war, and as such is considered a reference in qualifying when violence has evolved into an armed conflict.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The Red Cross now views fighting in Syria as an internal armed conflict – a civil war in layman’s terms – crossing a threshold experts say can help lay the ground for future prosecutions for war crimes.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions setting down the rules of war, and as such is considered a reference in qualifying when violence has evolved into an armed conflict.

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) – Brazil’s Gilberto Gil showcased joyful African-inspired music despite being tinged with themes of poverty, slavery and painful reconciliation at the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tuesday night.

Teaming up with South African folk star Vusi Mahlasela also on guitar, Gil’s “Viramundo” concert offered a sneak preview of an upcoming documentary on his road trip rich in cross-cultural collaboration.

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) – Hugh Laurie, Dr. John and Trombone Shorty celebrated bluesy New Orleans music in a three-part show mixing new tracks and southern classics at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Laurie, star of the Emmy award-winning medical television drama “House”, opened the sold-out concert on Monday night with “Mellow Down”, singing and then moving to the piano.

GENEVA, July 6 (Reuters) – Thousands of families in Syria
have fled their homes in the past two weeks due to heavy
fighting between government forces and rebels and many face food
shortages, the United Nations said on Friday.

Food prices have tripled in parts of seven provinces where
the livelihoods of farmers and livestock herders are at risk of
collapse because the wheat harvest is being delayed by a
shortage of diesel, needed for machinery, it said.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations’ main human rights body has for the first time backed people’s right to freedom of expression on the Internet in the wake of the massive role that social media networks played in the Arab Spring.

In a landmark resolution, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 47 members states agreed on Thursday that this right should be protected by all states and access to the Internet should also be guaranteed.

MONTREUX, Switzerland, July 5 (Reuters) – Lana Del Rey gave
a Fourth of July concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival that left
fans wanting more of the American chanteuse, who swept to fame
last year on the back of her haunting ‘Video Games’ single.

The New York native, looking like a vintage-inspired bride
in a white lace mini dress and with large white flowers in her
hair, performed just nine songs in a tight 45-minute show that
fittingly finished with her “National Anthem” track.

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) – Quincy Jones brought the future to the famed Montreux stage as young musicians from Azerbaijan, Cuba, North America and Slovakia stole the show from veteran openers Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea.

“This is the future, the young ones, they’ve turned it around and taken it back up top….It’s all mixed up, Bebop and Hip Hop,” the legendary U.S. producer told a sell-out audience at Miles Davis Hall.

GENEVA (Reuters) – World powers struck an agreement that a transitional government should be set up in Syria to end the conflict there but they remained at odds over what part President Bashar al-Assad might play in the process.

Peace envoy Kofi Annan said after the talks in Geneva on Saturday the government should include members of Assad’s administration and the Syrian opposition and that it should arrange free elections.

GENEVA (Reuters) – International talks on a way to resolve the increasingly bloody conflict in Syria opened in Geneva on Saturday with foreign powers in dispute over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad.

Kofi Annan, the former U.N. chief who is special international envoy on Syria, has been hoping for consensus on a plan for a unity government that, by excluding from the leadership figures deemed too divisive, would effectively mean Assad stepping down.