“We welcome the current ceasefire in Gaza and hope it will lead to a peaceful resolution. However, the UK government has not been able to clarify if the export licence criteria are being met. In light of that uncertainty we have taken the decision to suspend these existing export licences in the event of a resumption of significant hostilities.”

A petition for self-determination has been drawn up for two East Malaysian states, by a group of NGOs and politicians, reported the Borneo Post on Tuesday.

The petition, addressed to the UN Secretary General, seeks assistance from the UN to re-open the issue of self-determination of the two states, Sarawak and Sabah, which share the island of Borneo with Indonesia and Brunei.

“Whereas Brunei attained independence on 1st January 1984, Sarawak and Sabah have remained under ‘change of status’ stature without national independence up to today; documented as such in the United Nations Trusteeship Agreement listed by the General Assembly as Non-Self-Governing Territories,” the petition stated.

The killing of at least 1,150 unarmed protestors by security forces in Egypt last year was systematic and deliberate, and likely amounts to a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch says in a new report released on Tuesday.

The demonstration by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood was broken up by the military, headed by, now-president, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

HRW says that security forces “followed a plan” that envisioned several thousand deaths.

“In Rab'a Square, Egyptian security forces carried out one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Google and five other Asian firms are building a cable under the Pacific Ocean, delivering high-speed internet.

The $300mn cable, named ‘Faster’, will connect the US with Japan, according to the consortium.

State-owned Chinese companies China Mobile and China Telecom,Japan’s KDDI, Singapore’s SingTel and Malaysia’s Global Transit have teamed with Google, to lay the cable, which will be operational by 2016.

"Faster is one of a few hundred submarine telecommunications cables connecting various parts of the world," said Woohyong Choi, chairman of the consortium's executive committee.

“Deadlines keep passing and innocent people keep dying. The log-rolling and delay has to end... This is an outrage and an insult to the people of South Sudan. Their leaders are letting them down again and again.”

“We have a responsibility to take this to the United Nations and to the world, so that all countries involved take measures ahead of time to prevent the return of these fighters and the chaos and havoc that come with that.”

An Argentinean officer, accused of committing crimes against humanity during the country’s bloody “Dirty War”, has been extradited from Bolivia.

68-year old Jorge Horacio Paez Senestrari, who had been on the run since 2011, was detained on Friday in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Myanmar’s leaders on Sunday to continue with their programme of democratic reforms, amidst local criticism that he was “too soft” on the administration, led by former military leader Thein Sein.

Concerns regarding media freedom and constitutional reforms remain in the country, which had been under military rule for decades, before the recent moves to democratise the state and the resulting thawing in relations between the west and Myanmar.

“Is everything hunky-dory? No, not yet. Absolutely not,” Mr. Kerry said. “There are still things that need to be done.”

“Next year’s election will absolutely be a benchmark moment for the whole world to be able to assess the direction that Burma is moving in.”

While Myanmar’s state media praised Mr Kerry’s visit, privately owned media, which have only been able to operate freely since 2012, criticised the Secretary of State, reported the New York Times.

The US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in New Delhi, neither India nor the US need to choose between their own relationship and closer ties with “fellow trustee” China.

Mr Hagel said in a speech to the Observer Research Foundation in the Indian capital that the US has a "unique relationship" with India, and that both countries must seize opportunities to work together on defence issues, including jointly developing and producing arms.

“Just as America need not choose between its Asian alliances and a constructive relationship with China, India need not choose between closer partnership with America and improved ties with China. In our relations with Beijing, both Delhi and Washington seek to manage competition, but avoid the traps of rivalry,” the secretary said.

“We will continue to seek a stable and peaceful order in which China is a fellow trustee, working cooperatively with both our nations.”

Mr Hagel said that the US “strongly supports” India’s growing global influence and military capabilities and the two countries have “shared interests in maritime security across the region, including at the global crossroads of the South China Sea.”