Russia has signed an agreement with Tajikistan that allows it to keep its military base in the Central Asian country for another 30 years.

Around 7,000 Russian soldiers are based on the border to Afghanistan.

Catalonians are preparing to use a football match - Barcelona v. Real Madrid - to assert the call for independence reports The Times.

As an estimated 400 million viewers watch the match worldwide, Barcelona football fans are planning to recreate an enormous Catalan flag, holding up red or yellow cards to form the stripes of the flag.

The US and Peru decided to discuss and renew a 60-year-old defence cooperation agreement, on Saturday.

The US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the updated agreement would "improve our ability to conduct joint activities, to do training and other exchanges."

The UN Security Council has condemned the Syrian attack of a Turkish village on Thursday, which killed five civilians, all of whom were women and children.

Outcry has erupted in the Philippines over a recently passed internet freedom law that exposes users to prosecution related to libel.

The new law deems that even posts on social networking sites that have been deemed libellous can be taken to court, curbing freedom of expression.

Peace talks between the Colombian government and Farc will commence in Oslo on 15th October, with a joint news conference on 17th October.

Last week, the Colombian President Juan Manueal Santos, said he was "cautiously optimistic" that a peace deal could be reached.

Four Nigerian peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in Darfur.

Eight more soldiers, from the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission Unamid, were injured when their convoy was attacked on Tuesday.

The number of Syrian refugees fleeing into neighboring countries has doubled since June to 300,000, said the UN Refugee Agency, warning that the number was likely to double again by the end of the year.

The spokesperson for UNHCR Adrian Edwards said,

A Chinese firm has initiated legal action against US President Barak Obama, after he issued a presidential order, blocking the construction of wind farms on land owned by the firm.

The US, Russia and the European Union, welcomed Georgia's election result on Monday, which has seen the country's first democratic transfer of power from the President Mikheil Saakashvili to the opposition leader, Bidzine Ivanishvili.