The Chinese government has signed several agreements worth $46bn, focusing on building a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the two countries.

When completed, the superhighway will give China direct access to the Indian Ocean.

The Egyptian justice system was deemed ‘politicised’ after evidence used against 51 alleged Muslim Brotherhood supporters was criticised by Human Rights Watch as in sufficient in a statement released on Sunday.

As many as 700 migrants are feared to have died as the vessel they were travelling in sank off the Libyan coast on Sunday.

Italy’s interior ministry reported that only 28 survivors have been rescued, in one of the worst maritime disasters of its kind in the Mediterranean.  The vessel, which was reportedly carrying up to 900 migrants attempting to reach Europe, sank after the refugees on board attempted to catch the attention of a Portuguese merchant ship to rescue them. 

“They wanted to be rescued,” said Barbara Molinario, a spokeswoman for UNHCR. “They saw another ship. They were trying to make themselves known to it,” she added.

The disaster means that some 1,500 migrants have died so far in the Mediterranean in 2015 alone – a figure 30 times higher than in 2014. As many as 400 people drowned to death in a similar incident last week.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called people smuggling "a plague in our continent" and called for concerted European Union action to tackle the problem, whilst Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat accused “gangs of criminals” of being behind the rise in refugees attempting to reach Europe.

"Gangs of criminals are putting people on a boat, sometimes even at gunpoint… They're putting them on the road to death, really, and nothing else," said Mr Muscat.

He told CNN that it was "genocide - nothing less than genocide, really".

An attack on a UN convoy in northern Mali has left two civilian drivers dead.

The attack, which took place on Friday night near the city of Gao, according to the UN mission in the country Unisma, comes two days after a suicide attack in Ansongo, which killed three civiians.

At least 35 UN troops have been killed and over 140 have been wounded since July 2013.

Poland’s foreign ministry has summoned the United States' ambassador in Warsaw demanded an apology, after the head of the FBI suggested that Poles bore some responsibility for the Holocaust.

FBI director James Comey suggested in a Washington Post article that some Poles were accomplices to the murders of World War Two, stating that,

“In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn’t do something evil. They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do.”

“That’s what people do,” continued Mr Comey. “And that should truly frighten us.”

His comments angered Poland with Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz saying it was “unacceptable”.

“To those who are incapable of presenting the historic truth in an honest way, I want to say that Poland was not a perpetrator but a victim of world war two,” Ms Kopacz said. “I would expect full historical knowledge from officials who speak on the matter.”

The Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for an explosion at the Kabul Bank branch that has killed at least 35 people on Saturday.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack, stating “this nation does not bow to threats and dangers.” “We will fight them to the end,” he added.

Shahidullah Shahid, a former Taliban leader that joined IS claimed responsibility for the attack, identifying the suicide bomber as Abu Muhammed Khurasani. IS affiliated Twitter accounts later tweeted photographs of the attacker.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, passed on his “condolences on this tragic incident,” saying, “Terrorism is a common enemy of both the countries which are now taking joint steps to eradicate this menace.”

The top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, said the bombing “may amount to a war crime,” adding that “those responsible for this horrendous crime must be held accountable.”