Rebels from the Free Syrian Army have arrived in Kobane to support Kurdish fighters defending the town against 6-week long assault by the Islamic State.

FSA commander Col Abdul Jabbar al-Oqaidi, told the BBC’s Arabic service that "around 200 fighters" had entered the Kobane to help the defenders.

The leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon said the UK cannot leave the European Union as the result of a referendum, unless each nation returns a majority vote in the proposed referendum on membership.

Sturgeon said in an interview with BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland, that if a referendum bill was proposed in the Commons, the SNP would table an amendment requiring that for the UK to leave the EU, it would need "not just a majority across the whole UK but a majority in each one of the four nations - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland".

"If you look at states like Australia and Canada there are some circumstances where changes to their constitution requires not just a majority across the country but in each of the provinces as well.

"The UK is not a unitary state it is a family of nations, it is made up of the four home nations.

"We were told during the referendum that each of these nations had equal status, that our voices mattered.

"If that is the case I think it is right that something that would have such significant consequences for jobs, for the economy, for our standing in the world, it should require the consent of not just the UK as a whole but that family of nations."

Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq set out towards the Syrian town of Kabani to help Kurdish militants fight against the advancing Islamic State militants on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

Chinese officials said on Tuesday that whistleblowers exposing corruption would receive legal protection, the latest move in the government’s crackdown on corruption, reported Reuters.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate, the country’s top prosecuting body, said in a statement that new regulations would clarify the rights of whistleblowers.

"The 'regulations governing the work of whistleblowers' require that when the prosecutor's office receives a whistleblowing report from someone giving their real name, it has to assess the risks from the whistleblowing and develop whistleblower protection plans when necessary to prevent and end acts of retaliation against the whistleblowers," the statement said.

Mexican authorities have discovered another suspected mass grave during their search for 43 students who disappeared after clashes with police.

Attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam said that suspects arrested last week provided information leading to the discovery.

Karam said police officers had confessed to handing over the students to drug gangs in the southern state of Guerrerro.

"We have the people who carried out the abduction of these individuals," Karam told reporters.

European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) in Kosovo has been accused graft, in documents leaked by a prosecutor to a national newspaper, Koha Ditore.

The leaked documents reportedly reveal an investigation is being carried out into allegations that senior EULEX officials dropped some criminal charges in Kosovo in exchange for money, reports Reuters.

Tunisia’s Ennahda party has conceded defeat by the secular Nidaa Tounes party in the country’s second election since the overthrow of dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Official results are yet to be announced, however Ennahda party officials congratulated the winners.

“We have accepted this result and congratulate the winner,” Ennahda’s Lotfi Zitoun, told Reuters.

Egypt’s President General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi has given increased powers to his military, authorising soldiers to protect state facilities, including power plants, gas pipelines, and oil fields.

The move comes after a deadly attack by militants, which left over 30 soldiers dead in the Sinai peninsula last Friday.

Iraqi Kurdistan will double its oil exporting capacity through Turkey industry sources said on Monday.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) confirmed plans to expand its oil pumping capacity from 280,000 bpd to 400,000 bpd, reports Reuters.

Both the pro-western ruling and opposition part are expected to win most of the votes in in Ukraine’s parliamentary elections reports the BBC.

President Petro Portoshenko’s party and Arseniy Yatseniuk’s opposition party are tied on votes with half the counting completed.