UK Chancellor George Osborne has announced that visa restrictions for Chinese nationals will be relaxed, in order to make it easier for visitors from China.

"These changes will streamline and simplify the visa application process for Chinese visitors, while ensuring the system is strong and secure," said Osborne.

Spain’s highest criminal court has agreed to hear a lawsuit against former Chinese President Hu Jintao, as part of an investigation into whether genocide was carried out in Tibet.

Leaders of African Union members are currently meeting to discuss a withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the court is treating Africans unfairly and that it is specifically targeting African nations.

The UK Ministry of Justice has confirmed that convicted war criminal and former president of Liberia Charles Taylor will serve his 50-year prison sentence in Britain.

Justice minister Jeremy Wright told parliament in a written statement that, "former President Taylor will now betransferred to a prison in the UK to serve [his] sentence".

The Obama administration has cut back on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military aid to Egypt, in what the US is describing as a “recalibration” of aid.

According to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, Washington has suspended the delivery of jets, tanks, missiles and helicopters to Egypt,

“pending credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government through free and fair elections”.

In a program that has lasted over 30 years, $1.3 billion of military aid has been annually sent to Egypt from the United States.

US Secretary of State John Kerry had said,

"by no means is this a withdrawal from our relationship or a severing of our serious commitment to helping the government".

A senior U.S. official had been quoted by Voice of America as saying,

"the United States will not support actions that run contrary to our interests and our principles."

Burmese authorities announced  today that they had signed a preliminary peace agreement with ethnic Kachin rebels in the north of Burma.

The US government has decided to suspend some parts of the aid it supplies to the Egyptian military.

Aid for counter-terrorism operations and border security will remain unaffected, but deliveries of tanks and aircraft will be stopped, due to the crackdown on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood after President Mohammed Morsi was overthrown in a coup.

In a rare television interview, the leader of the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban Paksitan (TTP), Hakimullah Mehsud, offered an invite to representatives of the government to meet in Taliban territory, to hold talks about bringing peace into the country.

The Libyan government has summoned the US envoy to the country after a raid saw an alleged al-Qaeda operative abducted by US special forces.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said ties between the two countries would remain unaffected but said that Libyan nationals must be tried in Libyan courts.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has praised Syria’s President Basahr Al-Assad for co-operating with international monitors in destroying the government’s stockpile of chemical weapons.