AMMAN (Reuters) - More than 5,000 people have been killed in nine months of unrest in Syria, the U.N. human rights chief said, as an insurgency begins to overshadow what had been mostly peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad. The latest figure reported to the U.N. Security Council by Navi Pillay is 1,000 higher than the one she announced just 10 days ago. The toll includes civilians, army defectors and those executed for refusing to shoot civilians, but not soldiers and other security personnel killed by opposition forces, she said. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of a U.S. House-Senate negotiating panel have agreed to freeze $700 million in U.S. aid to Pakistan until it offers to help in the fight against improvised explosive devices in the region, exerting more pressure on a troubled strategic ally. Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, and the cutback announced is only a small proportion of the billions in civil and military assistance it gets a year. ...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) filed fraud charges against five executives at Essar Group and Loop Telecom on Monday, as part of a sprawling probe into a multi-billion-dollar telecoms case that has rocked the country's political and business establishments. Alleged corruption in the sale of telecoms licences in 2007 and 2008 may have cost New Delhi up to $39 billion in lost revenue, and led to the arrest and sacking of a former telecoms minister and criminal charges against many top company executives. ...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - The gloves didn't have to come off on Monday night in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate between Republican rivals Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman, who found more agreement than strife on foreign policy issues. The debate pitted the current Republican front-runner against the former Utah governor who is trailing in the dead-last zone among the pack of candidates running to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in November 2012. ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi on Tuesday urged Europe to make further efforts to convince markets of its resolve to overcome the region's debt crisis and expressed caution about any potential Japan contribution to a rescue fund through the IMF. Azumi said Japan would cooperate where it can but only after Europe comes up with a thorough scheme and resources needed to build a fire wall and prevent contagion of the debt crisis. ...