The US has decided to expand their military role in Afghanistan, enabling them to target Taliban fighters from 2015.

Under previous withdrawal plans, the 9,800 US soldiers remaining in the country, would only be training Afghan soldiers and fight remnants of Al Qaeda.

“The EU is our largest partner... Nobody is going to shoot himself in the foot and reject cooperation with Europe, but everyone understands that it won’t be business as usual anymore.

“But we don’t need the kind of business we had. [That] was like ‘Russia must do this and must do that,' and we want to cooperate as equals,” he added.

"As for the concept behind to the use of coercive measures, the West is making clear it does not want to force Russia to change policy but wants to secure regime change."

"Now public figures in Western countries say there is a need to impose sanctions that will destroy the economy and cause public protests."

The Thai Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said martial law will remain “indefinitely” as protests against the military’s rule increase.

General Paiboon told Reuters that martial law will remain "because the government and junta need it as the army's tool".

The Egyptian government is discussing the possibility of grating a pardon to two of the three Al Jazeera journalists detained in the country, said President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in an interview with France 24.

"Let us say that this matter is being discussed to solve the issue," Sisi said.

The United Nations General Assembly committee that oversees human rights issues has passed a resolution calling for the UN Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, as North Korea warned of further nuclear tests in response.

The resolution acknowledged findings from an earlier UN Commission of Inquiry into human rights abuses in the country, stating there were "reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed ... pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State for decades."

It goes on to call for a referral to the International Criminal Court “and consideration of the scope for effective targeted sanctions against those who appear to be most responsible" for the violations.

The non-binding vote was passed with 111 countries in favour and 19 against, with 55 abstentions.

Amongst those who voted against the resolution were North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.