Over 80% have voted in favour of independence for Catalonia, after an informal, non-binding referendum according to officials.

Catalan leader Artur Mas hailed the poll "a great success" that should now allow a formal referendum.

"We have earned the right to a referendum. Once again Catalonia has shown that it wants to rule itself. I ask the people in the world, I ask the media and I also ask the democratic governments in the world to help the Catalan people decide its political future," Mas said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkey's parliament that it is impossible for the country to recognise the “events that occurred in 1915” as a genocide, referring to the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenians.

“We stress this every time,” said Cavusoglu speaking to the parliament on Thursday.

North Korea freed two US citizens who were being held in detention, after the US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper flew to the country on a secret mission on Saturday.

US President Barack Obama hailed the release of the two men and praised Clapper, saying,

“I think it’s a wonderful day for them and their families, and obviously we are very grateful for their safe return and I appreciate director Clapper doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission.”

The release was also welcomed by US Secretary of State John Kerry who said,

"Their release has been our focus every single day and we've been working all the angles available to bring them home… We're pleased that this humanitarian gesture has taken place."

Matthew Todd Miller and Kenneth Bae were arrested by North Korean authorities in 2014 and 2012 respectively, both being sentenced to hard labour for “hostile acts”.

The UN says that the Gambian government has denied full access to two experts who were supposed to investigate reports of extrajudicial executions and torture of government opponents, journalists and activists.

The government had agreed to allow the experts into The Gambia after increased concerns over its human rights situation, however the UN investigators were prevented from visiting the death row of the Banjul prison.

India's military has issued an apology for the killing of two teenage boys, shot dead by soldiers in Kashmir earlier this week.

The army opened fire at a car the boys were travelling in, hitting the car 32 times.

"We take responsibility for the death of the two boys in Kashmir," the chief of the army's northern command, General DS Hooda, told reporters late on Friday.

A Congolese military court sentenced a top army general to 10 years imprisonment, after finding him guilty of war crimes on Friday.

General Jerome Kakwavu was found guilty on charges of rape, murder and torture. The crimes took place between 2003 and 2004, when he led the Armed Forces of the Congolese People (FAPC), a militia that was fighting in the northeastern region of the country.

Kakwavu was appointed into the military as an army general in December 2004 by presidential decree, but was arrest shortly after his appointment.

A former Serbian politician currently awaiting a verdict for a war crimes trial at The Hague has been released by the court, so that he can receive chemotherapy treatment for colon and liver cancer.

Vojislav Seselj, founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party, was released by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for “compelling humanitarian reasons.” The chemotherapy treatment is expected to last four to six months.

Ukraine has accused Russia of sending a convoy of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer cannons and 30 trucks of troops into eastern Ukraine.

A Ukrainian military spokesperson told reporters at a briefing in Kiev that the convoy was carrying ammunition and fighters into the Luhansk region on Thursday, heading towards the city of Krasnyi Luch.

Colonel Andriy Lysenko, told reporters “the deployment continues of military equipment and Russian mercenaries to the frontlines.”

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said that Israel will not face prosecution for an attack on a flotilla of ships attempting to deliver aid to Gaza four years ago, despite a “reasonable basis” that war crimes were committed.

Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that there would be no further investigation into the killing of 9 passengers on the ship, despite a report from her office describing Israeli forces as “intentionally directing an attack” against civilian targets.

"The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed on board the Comorian-registered vessel the Mavi Marmara during the interception of the flotilla," said Bensouda.

However she went on to add that the court would not be investigating the case further, saying, "after carefully assessing all relevant considerations, I have concluded that the potential case(s) likely arising from an investigation into this incident would not be of 'sufficient gravity' to justify further action by the ICC."