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UNSMIS staff in the Syrian village of Mazraat al-Qubeir conduct a fact-finding mission.

Making an unannounced visit to Kabul, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Thursday said the United States was "reaching the limits of our patience" with Pakistan for allowing militant groups to enjoy safe haven inside parts of the country.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (centre) flanked by Joint Special Envoy of the UN and the Arab League, Kofi Annan (left), and Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, speaks to press.

The US for the first time has announced millions of dollars in rewards in exchange for information that would lead to the arrest of top leaders of the Somali militant group Al Shabaab which has declared its allegiance to global terror network Al Qaeda.

Syria saw more violence as around 80 people, including women and children, were shot, hacked to death and burned in their homes in a village in Hama province, activists said. Meanwhile, UN monitors proceeding to the site of violence came under fire.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, an Asian bloc led by China and Russia, Thursday sought a bigger role for "peaceful reconstruction" of Afghanistan ahead of NATO's planned pullout by 2014 from the war-torn nation that was given observer status in the regional grouping.

Nigerian authorities have identified 52 of the bodies from the plane crash in Lagos that killed all 153 passengers on board and at least six people on the ground.

In a statement, NATO said the explosion had occurred "several kilometers" from where its troops were stationed.

The Syrian government has declared 17 diplomats from many Western countries as "personae non gratae", a reciprocal move that follows the expulsion of envoys of the conflict ridden nation from many countries last week.