India signed 3 bi-lateral deals with Russia including the purchase of air defence missile systems, reports the Times of India.

Angela Merkel wants to other European Union members to agree to step up sanctions according to sources close to the German chancellor reported.

The issue of sanctions is due to be discussed at an European Union summit on Thursday and Friday.

German papers cited sources  as saying that Ms Merkel was considering further sanctions against the aviation industry or in sectors that affected the Russian Defence Ministry.

The former Catalan leader, Artur Mas is to be prosecuted over the 2014 independence referendum, facing charges of "serious disobedience" and "malfeasance". 

The decision, announced by Catalan's High Court on Thursday, accuses Mr Mas of organising the referendum despite Spain's Constitutional Court imposing an injuction on it. 

If found guilty, Mr Mas will be prohibited from holding public office for 10 years. 

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told her party’s Glasgow conference that an independence Referendum Bill would be published later next week.

Speaking at the Scottish National Party (SNP) conference in Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon, said,

The destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew has killed an estimated 1,000 people in Haiti, amidst fresh reports of cholera outbreaks in the country, as it ended 3 days of national mourning on Tuesday.

UN Secretary Genera Ban Ki Moon has reiterated calls for an international inquiry into a Saudi air strike on a funeral in Yemen that killed at least 140 people.

Burundi's government has barred three United Nations investigators from entering the country, after a report they released last month warned of the risk of genocide taking place.

Burundi's Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Aime Nyamitwe wrote to the investigators - Pablo de Greiff, Christof Heyns and Maya Sahli-Fadel of - stating that they were no longer welcome in the country.

Myanmar has stepped up military security in the Muslim –majority region of Rakhine, reports Reuters.

The move came after members of the Rohingya community seized ammunition from border police and launched an attack on the police, resulting in the death of nine police officers.

The Saudi-led coalition has been accused of carrying out a “genocide” in Yemen, after an airstrike on a funeral killed at least 140 people.

The Turkish government claimed that two suspected militants who detonated a suicide car bomb after a standoff with police, were members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Ankara’s Governor Erkan Topaca said that the man and woman were confronted by Turkish police, who were acting on a tip off. They refused to surrender, and instead detonated the bomb inside their vehicle. No member of the security forces were injured in the incident.

The United States deported a Rwandan professor last month, over his reported involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide after a long running legal battle.

The UN Security Council announced today that it has unanimously agreed that Portugal's former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, should be the next UN Secretary General. Guterres led the UN Refugee Agency for 10 years until last December and will now take on the Secretary-General position from Ban-Ki Moon. 

The Taliban have launched an assault on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz last night, as fighters broke a defensive perimeter

Afghan government officials claimed to have repelled the attack but admitted that Taliban militants had entered several homes, as they attacked from four different sides of the city at midnight.

In an unexpected result to Sunday's referendum on a peace deal agreed by the Colombian government and Farc, Colombians have rejected the agreement, with 50.24% voting against it. 

The peace agreement, which was signed by the president Juan Manuel Santos and the Farc leader, known as Timochenko last week, would allow an effective amnesty for war crimes and permit 10 unelected seats in congress for Farc at the next election.