The UN Security Council has placed sanctions on the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The sanctions, imposed on New Years’ Eve, mean that those connected to the rebels will face travel bans and the freezing of their assets.

Sanctions were also placed on Rwanda’s FDLR rebel movement.

Rwanda and Uganda are accused of supporting the M23 rebels by the UN, but both governments have denied the allegations.

Iran has slammed a new US law, intended to curb Iran's influence in Latin America.

President Obama signed the "Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act" last week, which gave the US State Department 180 days to develop a plan to "address Iran's growing hostile presence and activity".

Five female teachers and two aid workers were killed on Tuesday by gunmen on motorcycles in Swabi, Pakistan.

The victims had been working with an NGO, Support With Working Solution, on polio immunisation campaigns.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the shootings director of the NGO, Javed Akhtar, suspected that the attack was a part of a spree targeting anti-polio efforts in Pakistan.

The Colombian military has announced that 13 Farc rebels have been killed in an air strike.

Air force officials said they had hit a camp in the northwest of the country on New Years’ Eve and has found 13 bodies.

The government did not reciprocate a unilateral truce called by the rebels last year and has continued attacks, while peace talks are continuing in Cuba.

Bosnian prosecutors charge former members of their armed and police forces with war crimes allegedly committed against Serbian civilians during the Bosnian War which took place over a decade ago.

According to a statement from the national prosecutor’s office, eight people were charged with,

The UN is to end its peacekeeping mission in East Timor on Monday, after 13 years and over 1500 UN troops.

In a statement, the chief of the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste, Finn Reske-Nielson, said,

"The Timorese people and its leaders have shown courage and unswerving resolve to overcome great challenges,"

A bomb, considered to be "viable device", was found on Sunday in East Belfast, under the car of a police officer, after being discovered by an off-duty officer.

Blaming dissident republicans, the Northern Ireland Police Federation said,

“The device was underneath the passenger’s side of the vehicle which shows they were not worried if it killed the officer’s family. It is a really callous approach by the dissidents.”

A suspected Nazi war criminal has been stripped of his Canadian citizenship by the federal government, who are now seeking to deport him, according to reports.
88-year-old Helmut Oberlander is accused of being part of a Nazi killing squad who allegedly murdered thousands in the former Soviet Union, during World War II.

Oberlander maintains that he was merely a translator for the unit and was forced to join, and at no time was involved in any murders.

The president of the Catalan region in Spain, Artur Mas, has again expressed his determination to hold an independence referendum in 2013.

Mr Mas, currently leading a pro-independence coalition made up of right and left-wing parties, said that the majority of Catalans want to build a new country".

The president said he wanted "all the citizens to decide freely and peacefully our future as a nation".