A senior politician has been shot dead in Karachi the evening before a partial re-run of the general election in Saturday. 

Zahra Shahid Hussain was the vice president of Imran Khan's Pakistan's Movement for Justice party. 

The man, reportedly in his 80s, is the father of Faisal Mekdad, regarded as one of the most powerful voices in the Syrian government, who has repeatedly defended the actions of the regime in numerous media interviews.

Ivorian officials have arrested Amade Oueremi, the leader of a militant group, suspected of carrying out massacres during violence after polls in 2011.

According to human rights groups, Oueremi and his fighters executed hundreds of supporters of the former president Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo himself is currently facing trial for crimes against humanity at The Hague.

The speaker at the Pan-African Parliament, Bethel Amadi, called for the need to secure the Saharawi people's right to self-determination.

Addressing the parliamentary session in South Africa on Tuesday, Amadi said:

“It is at the very least an unfortunate decision which will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering”.

“We haven’t concealed that we have been supplying weapons to Syria based on signed contracts without violating any international treaties or Russian legislation, one of the strictest in the world in terms of export control”.

“This weapons transfer is obviously disappointing and will set back efforts to promote the political transition that is in the best interests of the Syrian people and the region”.

“There is now greater urgency for the U.S. to step up assistance to the moderate opposition forces who can lead Syria after Assad.”

 The international rights group Human Rights Watch said proof of widespread, arbitrary detentions and torture by Assad’s regime had been found in recent visits to regions captured by the rebels.

Among the findings were the use of solitary confinement cells and a various torture devices.

The Australian parliament passed a controversial immigration bill on Thursday, allowing for all asylum seekers to have their applications processed off the mainland in Nauru and Manus Island.

The United States Treasury Department sanctioned four senior Syrian officials, including the Syrian Defence, Justice , Industry and Health ministers.

The state parliament of New South Wales has passed a motion recognising the killing of 1.5 million Armenians, 750,000 Assyrians and 500,000 Greeks between 1915 and 1922 as genocide, earlier this month.

The European Union has pledged to donate €520m to aid Mali’s reconstruction at an international donor’s conference in Brussels.

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the money would help Mali become "stable, democratic and prosperous".

A former political police chief has been arrested in Chad, after he accused of killing and torturing hundreds during the 1980s.

Iran will be the chair of a United Nations conference on nuclear disarmament in Geneva later this month.

The Conference on Disarmament will be attended by 65 countries and is the world’s most important forum to discuss disarmament.

The spokesperson to the US mission in Geneva, Erin Pelton, has said that his country will not be represented at the conference.

A preliminary investigation into the 2010 Israeli on the Gaza flotilla will be opened said the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

The flotilla, carrying humanitarian aid from Turkey was bound to the Gaza strip when Israeli forces raided it. Nine people died.