An Amnesty International report stated that an increasing number of Chinese companies are supplying tools made for torture and fuelling human rights abuses across Africa and Asia.

More than 130 companies were involved in the manufacture and sale of devices such as restraints, electric shock batons and spiked metal batons, with such products being openly marketed.

China is the only country known to manufacture spiked batons, which Amnesty International said were "specifically designed as implements of torture".

Russian lawmakers have approved a preliminary bill to limit the number of media outlets owned by foreigners to 20 percent.

The move could potentially affect dozens of news outlets across Russia, including the country’s leading business daily Vedomosti, which is part owned by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. Under the bill, the publications would have to change ownership or close by 2017.

Leonid Bershidsky, the founding editor of Vedomosti, condemned the move, saying,

“Foreign ownership was the only thing that protected some Russian media outlets’ editorial integrity… If it’s not allowed, that last bit of protection is gone.”

The Yemeni government and separatist Shia Houthi militants signed an agreement aimed at ending unrest that has gripped the region for weeks.

The UN brokered deal, allows for a new government to be formed with the southern separatists nominating a new prime minister within three days, reports the BBC.

The deal came after the current prime minister quit in response to clashes between separatist militants and pro-government forces in the capital.

The separatist militants claimed to have taken over government headquarters, ministries and state broadcasters on Sunday.

Turkish authorities have begun to close the border between Syria and Turkey, after almost 100,000 Kurdish refugees entered the country as Islamic State (IS) militants surrounded a Kurdish enclave in Syria.

Turkey closed the Kucuk Kendirciler border crossing, in an attempt to stop Kurdish fighters from crossing over into Syria, following reports that hundreds of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) crossed to fight against IS.

The Afghan Taliban have rejected the unity deal reached by the government as a “sham”, planned by the US and said they would continue with their war, reported Reuters.

"Installing Ashraf Ghani and forming a bogus administration will never be acceptable to the Afghans," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Thousands of students in Hong Kong are boycotting classes for a week-long protest against China’s rejection of electoral reforms. Students from over two dozen institutions have gathered at the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus.

Beijing ruled in August that voters in Hong Kong would be able to choose their leader from a list of two or three candidates selected by a nominating committee, although it previously promised direct elections by 2017.

A former commander of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was arrested in Belgium last Wednesday, accused of committing war crimes during Liberia’s civil war, reports the BBC.

A complaint was made against Martina Johnson for her role in the Operation Octopus offensive, where she is accused of committing “mutilation and mass killing”.

The arrest has been welcomed by rights groups, who have long criticised the Liberian authorities' failure to investigate and prosecute individuals who committed crimes during the civil war.

Scotland’s independence was ”pretty certain” as it could declare itself independent without a referendum in the future said the Scottish First Minister.

Alex Salmond, who is due to stand down, suggested that there were other routes to independence. If Scottish Parliament was given more power a point would be reached where “you have a situation where you’re independent in all but name. Then Presumably, you declare yourself to be independent. Many countries have proceeded through that route," he said.

Chinese state media reported a series of blasts has killed 2 people and injured many more in the Xinjiang province on Sunday.

Multiple explosions were reported in the province, which has seen increasingly tight security as Chinese authorities cracked down on Uighur separatists. Hundreds of Uighurs have been detained, charged and or killed in the last year, reports the New York Times.