The Afghan Taliban has condemned the attack on a military-run school in north-west Pakistan, which has killed at least 132 students.

"The intentional killing of innocent people, children and women are against the basics of Islam and this criteria has to be considered by every Islamic party and government," said Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. "Our thoughts are with the families of those who lost their love[d] ones."

At least 141 people, including 132 students have been reported dead so far. The death toll is set to rise.

The Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack saying it “selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females… we want them to feel the pain”.

Leaders across Pakistan condemned the attack with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saying,

"This is in retaliation of our military operation against the terrorists. The government together with the army has started Zarb-e-Azb and it will continue until the terrorism is rooted out from our land."

Zarb-e-Azb is the name of the military operation against TTP being carried out in North Waziristan. Soon after Pakistan’s army chief of staff, General Raheel Shariff, said that “massive air strikes” were being launched in retaliation.

At least 132 students and nine staff members were killed on Tuesday after Taliban gunmen opened fire in a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, reports Reuters.

The Kenya government has “deregistered” more than 500 non-governmental organisations (NGO) for allegedly not complying with the law, following the passing of a controversial security bill last week.

In a statement announcing the closing of the NGOs, the government said,

“Some NGOs have been and continue to be used for criminal activities, including as conduits of terrorism financing in Kenya and in the Horn of Africa.”

Although it did not name any groups, 15 of those deregistered were accused of being linked to terrorism. The organisations were identified “in collaboration with security agencies both locally and internationally,” said the government.

A German court has decided that there is enough evidence for a 93 year old former Nazi to stand trial for 300,000 separate counts of accessory to murder, over his involvement in the murder of Jews in Auschwitz.

A court in the city of Lüneburg ruled that former member of the Waffen-SS Oskar Groening, who worked as a guard in the Auschwitz concentration camp, will face trial for the killings, though a date is yet to be set.

Groening, who admits to being at the camp, says he was only involved in going through the luggage of those detained, searching for money and other valuables. Although Groening spent two years at the camp, the charges brought forward relate only from May 16 to July 11, 1944.

When Groening was first charged in September, the court had said in a statement,

“The accused knew that, as part of the selection process, those not chosen for work and told they were going to the showers were really going to the gas chambers where they would be put to death in an agonizing manner.”

Police officers cleared the last remaining site of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong on Monday. The last site in Causeway Bay was one of three main areas where protestors have been staging sit-ins over the last three months.

In a statement following the clearance on Monday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said,

Russia’s foreign minister urged Ukraine to carry out  constitutional reform that allowed greater autonomy to Russian-speaking eastern regions whilst remaining a part of Ukraine.

Australian security forces stormed a café in Sydney to release hostages that had been held for 16 hours by a gunman.

Two hostages, including the gunman were killed, reported Reuters. The New South Wales police announced the end of the siege at 15:00 (GMT).

The military operation began after the gunman was named as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee who had claimed political asylum. He was facing charges of sexual assault as well as being accessory to murder.

During the siege hostages were forced to display an Islamic flag displaying the Shahada that had also been used by Islamic state militants and Al-Qaeda.

The Israeli prime minister, rejected any talk of Israel withdrawing from west Jerusalem and the West Bank within two years, reports the Associated Press.

Responding to efforts at the UN to pass a resolution placing a two year time frame for withdrawal of Israel from land seized in the 1967 war with Palestine, Benjamin Netanyahu said,