Kurdish fighters have resumed their armed struggle in Iran after two decades of ceasefire.

The Times reports that scores have died as a result of cross-border artillery barrages, with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard threatening to strike at insurgent bases.

Chad's former president must compensate victims who suffered under his rule a court, set-up by Extraordinary African Chambers, in Dakar has ruled.

Hissène Habré was sentenced to life in prison in May after being convicted of war crimes, rape, sexual slavery and crimes against humanity, all committed during his rule between 1982 and 1990.

The Spanish government is seeking to bring criminal charges against Catalan leaders for allowing their assembly to vote for independence.

The Catalan parliament in Barcelona voted on Wednesday to continue plans to increase the community's self-determination.

The leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, a militant jihadist group in Syria, announced that the organisation will be breaking away from al-Qaeda and changing its name, in a move designed to halt attacks from the US-led coalition in Syria.

The group, also known as the al-Nusra Front, announced the decision in a video released on Thursday.

The Libyan government has summoned the French ambassador after Paris confirmed the deaths of three of its soldiers on a secret mission near Benghazi last week.

French president François Hollande confirmed the deaths last Wednesday, saying France was “carrying out dangerous intelligence operations there”. “Three of our soldiers who were taking part in those operations have lost their lives,” he said.

Thailand has charged three human rights activists with “criminal defamation” after the release of a report documenting torture by the Thai military in the south of the country.

The three activists Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Anchana Heemmina and Somchai Homlaor published their report based on 54 survivor accounts of torture whilst in military custody. They now face prison sentences.

Poland's parliament passed a resolution on Friday, determining that the massacre of over 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II was a genocide.

“The victims of the crimes committed in the 1940s by Ukrainian nationalists were not duly commemorated, and the mass murder was not defined as genocide in accordance with the historical truth," said the resolution, which was passed by a vote of 432-1.

The move immediately drew a reaction from Kiev, with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressing "regret" over the resolution. He went on to invoke Christian teachings, calling for people to “forgive and ask for forgiveness” whilst saying more was needed to be done in order to “determine all the facts of this tragic page of our joint history”.

The European Union (EU) has criticised the Turkish government's mass arrests in the wake of a failed coup last week, calling the moves “unacceptable”.

A statement by High Representative Federica Mogherini and Commissioner Johannes Hahn said the whilst the EU condemned the attempted coup, it was following developments in the country “very closely and with concern”.

More than 50,000 Turkish state employees have been arrested or sacked, including members of the judiciary, media and academia, as President Erdogan rounded up those he accused of being complicit with the coup plotters.

Turkey's parliament also approved a state of emergency bill, which deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmuş said will lead his government to “derogate the European convention on human rights insofar as it does not conflict with its international obligations”.