A UN team is due to inspect sites of alleged chemical attacks in Syria after an agreement was reached with the government.

"The government of Syria has formally accepted the modalities essential for co-operation to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission," a spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Eduardo del Buey, said.

"The departure of the team is now imminent."

The UN Security Council is due to meet in a closed emergency session to discuss the violence in Egypt, a day after over 600 people were killed by security forces closing in on Muslim Brotherhood protests.

Egypt is currently in a state of emergency with the interior ministry authorising police to use live ammunition in self-defence or when dealing with attacks on government buildings.

US President Barack Obama condemning the violence, announced the cancellation of joint military exercises with Egypt saying co-operation could not continue while civilians were being killed.

Scores of protestors were killed in Cairo as the Egyptian army cleared protest camps in the capital.

The protestors, there in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, have been in the camps since July.

The Egyptian security forces have now declared a month-long state of emergency in an attempt to quell the demonstrations.

The first direct Israeli-Palestine peace talks in three years resumed today, according to Israeli officials.

Though few details about the agenda or location of the talks have been released, both sides confirmed that negotiations had begun.

International medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders/MSF) announced that it would shut down all operations in Somalia after 22 years of working there.

The group's international president, Unni Karunakara said:

“The closure of our activities is a direct result of extreme attacks on our staff, in an environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate or condone the killing, assaulting and abducting of humanitarian aid workers.”

Western officials and Syrian rebels have stated that the Sudanese government have been supplying arms through Qatar and Turkey to the rebels despite an international arms embargo in the area.

The spokesman for the Sudanese armed forces, denied such allegations, stating,

The president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan threatened to intervene to defend the Kurdis population caught up in the Syrian conflict.

UK aid worth £480,000 was seized by Somalian militants in November 2011.

Humanitarian aid supplies were taken from a warehouse during a raid by al-Shabab, revealed the Department for International Development.