The UN’s nuclear watchdog has praised ‘good’ talks with Iran during a visit to discuss its controversial nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have said the Iranians were determined to address all issues.

"But of course there is still a lot of work to be done and so we have planned another trip in the very near future," the IAEA’s deputy director, Hermann Nackaerts told reporters.

Speaking at the annual African Union summit, the secretary general of the UN, Ban Ki Moon, urged African countries to uphold the rights of civil, political, economic, social and cultural institutions, in order to boost stability and development.

From the summit, held in the capital of Ethopia, Addis Ababa, Ban Ki Moon said, 

Iran has threatened to hit back at EU sanctions with its own embargo.

The move would pre-empt the EU ban on oil imports due to take effect in July and would hit struggling EU economies hard.

Mohammad Karim Abedi, a member of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said a ban may last up to 15 years.

The prime minister of Norway has apologised for the arrest and deportation of Jews to Germany in 1942.

Speaking at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Oslo on Friday, prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg conveyed the nation's "deep regrets that this could have happened on Norwegian soil".

A special session was held at the UN on the 27th January, Holocaust Remembrance Day, or International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.

Speaking at the event, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon said,

Rights groups in Libya have claimed that torture of suspected Gaddafi loyalists by Libyan militias is widespread.

Medicins San Frontiers, a medical charity, has ceased all operations in the country after it was asked to treat torture victims, sometimes between instances of torture.

Calls for the secession of South Yemen have resurfaced and are on the increase as Yemen's political unrest continues.

Graffiti calling for secession, such as "Freedom for South. Aden Get Up", is cropping up across the south, along side prominent displays of the old flag of South Yemen.

Guatemala’s former dictator, Efrain Rios Montt, has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by Judge Carol Patricia Flores on Thursday.

Rios Montt ruled the country in 1982-83, after a military coup. A 36 -year civil war with leftist guerrillas, which ended in 1996, cost more than 200,000 lives, of which 93% were caused by state and paramilitary forces, according to a UN report.

Two presidential candidates for the 2013 elections, must face trial for war crimes committed after the marred election of 2007, ruled the International Criminal Court on Monday.

The former military leader of the Guatemalan army, Efrain Rios Montt, has been summoned to appear before a Guatemalan court on Thursday as the first step towards facing genocide charges for his role during the massacres committed by the army in the Mayan highlands during 1982-1983.

"Turkey is committed to taking all the necessary steps against this unjust disposition which reduces basic human values and public conscience to nothing."

"When I say total rupture I include things like I can leave definitively."

"You can also expect that now diplomatic relations will be at the level of charges d'affaires not ambassadors anymore."

"This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the history of the protection of human rights."