France has approved a pacific mission to investigate the unrest in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.

Veronique Roger-Lacan, the French Ambassador to the Pacific, told radio station RNZ Pacific that a high-level mission will lead work to find facts about the crisis that began in May.

His Majesty's Revenue & Customs, the UK's tax authority, had served a winding-up petition to the High Court against Lycamobile UK on Monday.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to officials in the enclave.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) said it had taken the strategic city of Lashio in northern Shan State, about 120 km (75 miles) from the Chinese border, after 23 days of fighting with government troops.

An internationally staffed court at The Hague has ruled that Pjeter Shala, former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member, committed war crimes during the 1998-1999 Kosovo uprising against Serbian troops, sentencing him to 18 years in prison.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pledged  to help France's overseas territories secure independence, 

Aliyev accuses France of interfering in its affairs over its contacts with Armenia, against which it has waged two wars in 30 years linked to disputes over Baku's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Britain said on Friday it would not proceed with efforts to question whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

In May, the ICC's prosecutor said he had requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes.