The revised bill entitled “Fight Against Xenophobia,” adopted by parliament on Thursday, made the crime punishable by

A Chilean MP has been charged with the killing of three opponents of the military dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet in 1981.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk has condemned Russia as a “threat to global order”on Saturday, as Ukrainian troops claimed to have successfully defended Donetsk airport from an attack by pro-Russian separatists.

The Nigerian government claimed to have killed some 200 Boko Haram militants, including a leading commander from the organisation, as they repelled an attack on a key town in the North-East of the country.

Nigerian government forces claimed to have successfully defended the town of Konduga, approximately 35km from Borno state-capital Maiduguri, which was under attack by the Boko Haram militants.

New EU sanctions against Russia have come into force today, targeting large Russian oil and defence companies, over its role in the crisis in Ukraine, however other big sectors, such as Russian gas exports, the space industry and nuclear energy remain unaffected.

The sanctions block the export of services and technology to Russia’s oil sector, with state-owned Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom Neft, targeted by the EU.

The firms will be restricted in their acces to financial markets and state-owned banks will be barred from getting loans with a maturity longer than one month, and from getting other financial services in the EU.

A statement from the EU Council says the officials targeted are people "involved in actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity, including the new leadership in Donbass, the government of Crimea as well as Russian decision-makers and oligarchs".

A group of UN peacekeepers, who were captured by the Syrian opposition group, the al-Nusra Front, have been released.

According to a statement by the office of UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the 45 Fijian peacekeepers were handed to UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) personnel on Thursday and were “in good condition”.

Militants from Boko Haram have “completely surrounded” the city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in the northeast of Nigeria, reported the BBC.

The Israeli army are accused of committing war crimes during its offensive on Gaza in a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Barcelona city hall said that some 1.8 million people took to the streets earlier today, as part of a mass rally calling for a Catalonia region independent from Spain.

Dressed in red and yellow, demonstrators formed a giant “V” to represent their support for a planned independence vote on November 9th.

In a statement released this week, the non-governmental organisation said thousands of residents had fled their homes as fighting between militias from Misrata and Zintan continued for control of Tripoli.