Spain has summoned 712 Catalan mayors for endorsing the independence referendum due to be held on October 1, reports Al Jazeera. 

The state prosecutor has called for the mayors to be arrested if they fail to comply with the summons. 

Myanmar’  leader Aung San Suu Kyi has cancelled a trip to the United Nations General Assembly due to the crisis in the Rakhine state, said her office on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference, the leader’s spokesperson Zaw Htay said Ms Suu Kyi was focusing on preventing any spread of communal violence, adding that “She is concentrating on establishing stability.”

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday reiterated the country's support for an independent state of Kurdistan ahead of the planned independence referendum on Septemeber 25. 

"[Israel] supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to achieve their own state,” Mr Netanyahu was quoted by Reuters as saying. 

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan said it will draw orders of a future Kurdish state if Baghdad refused to accept an independence referendum taking place later this month.

Speaking to the BBC Kurdish president Massoud Barzani, said he wanted to reach an agreement with the central government if the Kurdish people opted to secede.

^{Photograph @MBartalot09}

One million marched on Tuesday calling for independence to Catalonia, ahead of the plan independence referendum on October 1. 

The march, held on Catalonia's national day, La Diada de Catalunya, was in its sixth year running. 

Myanmar has rejected the Rohingya militant’s declaration of ceasefire amidst what the UN has described as movements of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya community.

Shortly after the Rohingya militants declared a ceasefire on Sunday, Myanmar’s government spokesperson Zaw Htay said it would not negotiate with terrorists, tweeting,

“We have no policy to negotiate with terrorists.”

Opening the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, High Commissioner Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein condemned Myanmar's violence against the Rohingya population, stating it was a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and called on the government to stop its “complete denial of reality”. 
 

The armed Rohingya organisation, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army declared a unilateral month long ceasefire on Saturday in order allow aid to be distributed. 

Violence in Myanmar between government troops and ARSA has dramatically escalated in recent weeks after Myanmar's troops launched a large scale operation in Rakhine purported to be in retaliation for coordinated attacks on police posts by ARSA. 

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu condemned Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence on the “slow genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya community by Myanmar’s military forces.

In a letter to the fellow Nobel laureate he said,

The United States on Thursday called on Myanmar's government to allow humanitarian aid into the state of Rakhine as the fighting between Rohingya fighters and states troops heightened and tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled. 

China has agreed for further UN Security Council sanctions to be placed North Korea in response to its latest nuclear tests.

The US is currently drafting a resolution for the UN Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea alongside a ban on exports of textiles reports Reuters.

Catalan’s parliament passed legislation approving the October 1^st independence referendum on Wednesday night amidst heavy opposition from Spanish government aligned MPs.

The legislation passed by 72 votes despite 52 opposition MPs staging a walk out of the Catalan parliament, reports abc news.

Syrian forces dropped chemical weapons on the rebel held town of Khan Sheikhun killing 80 civilians in April, confirmed a UN Commission of Inquiry On Syria on Wednesday.

Documenting a litany of rights abuses and violations of international law, the Commission’s press release, said,

Prominent Indian journalist and critic of Hindu nationalist politics, Gauri Lankesh, was shot and killed outside her home in Bangalore on Tuesday night.