<p>The UN Secretary General’s envoy for Western Sahara concluded talks between the the Polisario Front and Morocco, in what were the first political negotiations between the two sides in 6 years.</p> <p>Last week, two days of talks facilitated by UN envoy Horst Koehler, a former German president, ended with both sides agreeing to meet for a second round of negotiations in the first quarter of 2019.</p>

<p>Chengdu police in South Western China have arrested dozens of Protestant Church members, in a crackdown on unregistered religious groups.</p> <p>Police are believed to have detained over a hundred members of the Early Rain Covenant Church, making the arrests at their homes.&nbsp;</p> <p>Under China's constitution there is a right to religious freedom, but this has been under attack since President Xi Jinping came to office six years ago.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A US sponsored resolution condemning Hamas' firing of rockets failed to be adopted at the UN General Assembly today.&nbsp;</p> <p>The resolution required a two-thirds majority to be passed, however, only 87 states voted in favour of the resolution.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sri Lanka was one of 33 states which abstained, along side 57 voting against.&nbsp;</p>

Myanmar has engaged in crimes against humanity as well as fostering “long-standing discrimination against the Rohingya population” whilst “ensuring impunity for perpetrators”, a joint report by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide and Fortify Rights concluded.

The report details how the army and police alongside armed civilians “razed villages”, “killed men, women and children”, “raped and gang-raped Rohingya women and girls”, and illegally detained “masses of Rohingya men and boys”, many of whom remain missing.

The report also noted that within October and November 2016, the army alongside armed civilians engage in a “clearance operation” seemingly provoked by ARSA attacks on military outposts.

<p>The United Nations will host the first political talks between Morocco and separatist Polisario Front in 6 years, reports the <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/africa/un-to-host-peace-talks-on-the-f…">National.</a></p>

<p>Israel police have&nbsp;for the third time this year recommended that the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on charges including bribery and fraud.</p> <p>Netanyahu must now wait for the decision of the attorney general, whom he appointed, on whether he will be indicted on all three charges.</p> <p>In the latest case, police accuse the prime minister of trading regulatory favours for favourable media coverage.</p>

<p>Two imprisoned Catalan leaders began a hunger strike this week to protest against what they described as unfair treatment by Spain.&nbsp;</p> <p>Jordi Sanchez, the head of the grassroots independence movement Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC) and Jordi Turull, former minister in Catalan’s regional government, condemned the Spanish government's treatment of them.&nbsp;</p>

<p>An anti-Taliban Shia Hazara militant commander has been released by Afghanistan’s government after two days of violent protests, following his arrest earlier this month.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A senior Argentinian prosecutor is to launch a case against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia over war crimes committed by the country's military in Yemen.&nbsp;</p> <p>The decision comes as the Crown Prince arrived in Buenos Aires to attend the G20 summit and follows a petition by Human Rights Watch urging action.&nbsp;</p>

Canada imposed sanctions on 17 Saudi nationals today over the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi almost one month ago. 

The affected nationals will not be allowed entrance into Canada and will have any of their assets within Canada frozen. All of the nationals are at present imprisoned however, making travel not possible. 

<p>Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) MP Ian Blackford called for independence earlier this month, calling on Westminster to “show respect for Scotland”.</p> <p>“Scotland voted to remain in the EU,” Blackford tweeted.</p>

<p>Uganda police used tear gas and live rounds to break up a gathering of opposition supporters in the southwestern town of Rukungiri on Monday reports Reuters.</p> <p>Patrick Onyango, a spokesman for the police, reported that they had arrested 15 people from the Forum For Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda’s largest opposition party, for allegedly staging an illegal meeting.</p>

<p>Santos Lopez Alonzo, 66, a former soldier during the Guatemalan civil war has been tried and sentenced to 5,160 years in prison, more than three decades after the crimes he is accused of took place.</p> <p>The Guatemalan civil war came to an end on 2nd December 1996 after 36-years of a bloody conflict, with high civilian casualties, several counts of alleged human rights abuses and genocide. &nbsp;The conflict was between the Guatemalan government, which was receiving support from the US government against left-wing indigenous Mayan guerrillas, with estimates of up to 200,000 casualties during the conflict.</p> <p>Alonzo is accused of being a combatant in the US trained elite special forces group named ‘Kaibiles’ in the Guatemalan military during the war. He allegedly partook in a large civilian massacre in the village of Dos Erres in 1982, which saw over 200 fatal casualties – 171 of which have been attributed to Alonzo himself. The civilians in the village, which was sympathetic to the Mayan insurgency, are reported to have been unarmed and no combatants present.</p>

<p>Bermuda's top court ruled legislation banning same-sex marriage violated the 1968 constitution which included protection on freedom of conscience.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Bermuda’s Domestic Partnership Act which prohibited same-sex marriage in favour of domestic partnerships was passed in June of this year.&nbsp;</p> <p>Lawyers contesting the ban have argued the government had only passed it to appease a religious lobby in their small island.</p>