Throughout the past several weeks, the Indian state of Kerala has been disturbed by heavy rain and immense flooding leaving at least 400 people dead.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced 500 crore rupees to the state for relief, but controversy has arisen over an offer from the United Arab Emirates of 700 crores for relief. The UAE, which has over 2 million Indian migrants with many from Kerala, made the offer last week, with Mr Modi, thanking the state for the “gracious offer".

However, a senior Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officer told NDTV, "as of now the centre is not accepting financial help from any foreign country, so the same applies to the offer made by UAE."

Sinn Fein has called for Northern Ireland's friendly international football match with Israel to be cancelled citing ongoing human rights concerns over the country's "slaughter" of Palestinians. 

"Sinn Fein continue to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel under which cultural, academic and sporting links fall," MLA Sinead Ennis said. 

El Salvador on Tuesday broke ties with Taiwan as it sought to establish diplomatic relations with China, becoming the third Latin American country in two years to do so. 

“Fundamentally, it’s an interest in betting on the growth of our country with one of the world’s most booming economies,” El Salvador's presidential spokesperson, Roberto Lorenzana said in an interview broadcast on Monday. 

“El Salvador can’t turn its back on international reality.”

Angola has asked the IMF for talks on a bailout, promising more structural reform to the sub-Saharan nation’s economy in return.

A statement from the IMF’s Deputy Managing Director confirmed that Angolan authorities had written to the organisation to initiate discussions on an economic program that could be supported by the IMF’s fund for countries experiencing serious payment imbalances or slow growth and weak balance of payments positions.

Police in Germany have arrested two Kurdish activists over the use of People’s Protection Units (YPG) flags in protests, reports Kurdistan 24.

The activists, identified as Munich Kurdish Society Center Co-chairs Azad Bingol and Hezwan Abdal, had their houses raided by the State Security branch of the Munich police on Tuesday.

An Algerian diaspora activist was handed a suspended prison term by an Algerian Court for a 2014 Facebook post criticising government discrimination against a minority group, Human Rights Watch reports.

Salim Yezza was arrested at the Biskra airport as he was about to return to Paris last month.

The Taliban have accepted an invitation from Russia to attend regional talks in Moscow, on Afghanistan’s future.

The talks are likely to exclude the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A Turkish airstrike has killed a senior Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader in Sinjar, a village in northern Iraq where Kurdish forces fought off Islamic State (IS) militants in 2014.

Zaki Shingali, a senior PKK leader who is highly regarded by many in the area, was killed in the strikes, which also left up to a reported dozen people dead.

Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, has died at the age of 80.

His family and the Kofi Annan foundation announced that he passed away today after a short illness.

Born in Ghana, Mr Annan was the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations and the first black African to take up the role.

The government of Maldives is cracking down on "any and all dissent" through the intimidation of political opponents and the media, Human Rights Watch said in a report published this week. 

“The Maldives government has cracked down on any and all dissent, from activists and journalists to Supreme Court judges,” HRW's Asia director, Brad Adams. 

The United States imposed sanctions on Myanmar's military and police on Friday over the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims. 

“Burmese security forces have engaged in violent campaigns against ethnic minority communities across Burma, including ethnic cleansing, massacres, sexual assault, extrajudicial killings, and other serious human rights abuses,” the US Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker was quoted by Reuters as saying. 

The United States has criticised attempts by the Republika Srpska Government to annul a report that acknowledged that Bosnian Serb troops were responsible for the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995.

“International courts have concluded that genocide occurred in Srebrenica in 1995,” said a US State department statement. “The August 14 session of the Republika Srpska National Assembly is a step in the wrong direction. Attempts to reject or amend the report on Srebrenica are part of wider efforts to revise the facts of the past war, to deny history, and to politicize tragedy.”

Over 700 schools run by the United Nations for Palestinian refugee children are set to open on schedule despite US funding cuts, the UN said on Thursday. 

Over half a million children attend the schools, which are situated in sites across the Palestinian territories, as well as Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. 

Earlier this year the Trump administation announced it would be stopping hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to the UN. 

A large Taliban offensive has killed at least 40 Afghan soldiers and police in Afghanistan's Baghlan province, reports Al Jazeera, as intense fighting continues between the two sides.

The attack on the military outpost, launched in the early hours of Wednesday, is the latest in a series of assaults launched by the Taliban across the country. It comes after the Taliban overran a military base in the northern Faryab province on Monday, killing at least 17 soldiers.