The UN Secretary General's Personal Envoy to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, who is currently on tour of the region met with the Algerian Foreign minister on Monday.

The ousted president of the Central African Republic, Francois Bozize, has accused neighbouring Chad of supporting the rebels who led a coup against him.

French authorities have arrested a Rwandan fugitive in Toulose, who has been wanted by Rwandan authorities over his role in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

Among the charges that Tite Barahira will now face is conspiracy to commit genocide.

The UN chief Ban Ki Moon said the North Korea "crisis had gone too far" after Pyongyang announced plans to restart its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

Speaking at a news conference Ban said:

The United Nations General Assembly in New York has passed the world’s first global arms trade treaty, seeking to regulate the industry thought to be worth over $70 billion.

The treaty, passed earlier on Tuesday, regulates conventional weapons, ranging from small arms and light weapons to warships, missiles and combat aircraft. It prohibits sales of weapons in violation of arms embargoes or if those weapons were to be used for acts of terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity or genocide.

The resolution was approved by a vote of 154 to 3 with 23 abstentions.

The United States, the world’s largest arms supplier, voted for the resolution. Other major arms producers such as Russia and China abstained, along with other mainly Latin American countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

The 3 countries who voted against the resolution were Iran, Syria and North Korea.

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have rejected the decision by the UN to deploy a special attack force to dismantle armed groups in the east of the country.

The political leader of the M23 Bertrand Bisimwa said that the option taken by the UN is not promoting dialogue to end the conflict.

Thousands of people have rallied in Banda Aceh to support the adoption of the flag of the now defunct Free Aceh Movement (GAM) as the official flag of the Indonesian province.

The United States has expressed concern at the state of freedom of expression in Egypt, after the cuontry's top prosecutor recently issued an arrest warrant for a popular TV satirist.

The Lebanese state news agency has reported that shells from Syria have hit four Lebanese villages near the border with its neighbour.

Residents are said to have reported an “unpleasant smell” after the attacks. It is not clear whether the shells were fired by rebels or the government and whether there were any casualties.

Pope Francis in his Easter message, his first worldwide address, urged for peace in conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa and Korea.

See here for full text. Extracts below:

North Korea announced on Saturday that it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea.

North Korea's official KCNA news agency carried a statement saying:

Protests took place across the West Bank and Gaza strip, marking the 37th anniversary of "Land Day", with reports of a few injuries following clashes with Israeli security forces.

"Land Day" marks the 1976 killing of six Arab Israelis who were protesting against plans to confiscate Arab land, by the Israeli government.

Myanmar’s government rejected remarks by a United Nations human rights official that implied authorities could be held partially accountable for the recent mob attacks by Buddhists on minority Muslims that killed dozens of people.