Seven people, including four soldiers were killed on Wednesday when a Taliban fighter detonated an explosive filled car by the police headquarters in Lashkar Gar, Afghanistan. 

Two women and a girl are also believed to have been amongst the dead. 

"A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-filled car in a car park near the main police headquarters in Lashkar Gah," a spokesperson for the governor of Helmand province told Al Jazeera. 

The president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Masoud Barzani met with the United States Defense Secretary James Mattis in Erbil this week, where he reiterated that an independence referendum due to be held later this year will still take place.

“President Barzani also stated that no forced union has ever worked,” a statement from the Kurdish presidency said. “We chose a union of willingness conditioned to partnership, but because partnership did not work and to prevent deeper problems, we want to live as two good neighbours,”

His comments come after Mr Mattis reportedly called for a delay on the vote.

The Pacific Conference of Churches expressed its public support for West Papuan self-determination, endorsing plans for a referendum to be held. 

The churches also backed the call for a UN investigation into human rights abuses by Indonesian authorities in West Papua, RadioNZ reported this month. 

See more here. 

In his first address since receiving medical treatment in London, Nigeria's president, Muhammadu Buhari reiterated his stance that unity was "not negotiable", reiterating his determination to defeat separatist fighters. 

“I was distressed to notice that some of the comments, especially in the social media, have crossed our national red lines by daring to question our collective existence as a nation,” Mr Buhari said in a televised address on Saturday. 

“Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable. We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble,” he said, stating that ethnic violence was “fuelled by political mischief makers."

Rwanda’s Justice Minister claimed the Britain is denying justice for victims of the 1994 genocide by hesitating to take action against fugitives sheltering in the UK.

“For the last 10 years, we’ve been trying to get 3 alleged perpetrators of the Genocide living in UK to stand trial in vain,” said Johnston Busingye, Rwanda’s Minister of Justice.

There are at least five individuals accused of having leading roles in the genocide, which saw the murder of 800,000 Tutsis.

A Rwandan genocide suspect was extradited from Germany to face charges for his involvement in the massacre of over 800,000 Tutsis in 1994. 

The suspect, identified as Jean Twagiramungu was handed over to Rwandan authorities on Friday at Kigali International airport, AP reported.  

He had tried to prevent the extradition arguing that he would not receive a fair trial in Rwanda. 

Catalan leaders said on Friday they would not be deterred by the attack at Barcelona, but would press on with plans for an independence referendum. 

Catalan's regional head, Carles Puigdemont dismissed calls for Catalan parties to 'return to reality', stating, the "roadmap" to independence would "not be derailed". 

"Mixing up our priority now, which is to respond to the terrorist threat and attend to victims, with anything seems just vile to me," Mr Puigdemont was quoted by Reuters as saying. 

The United Nations Secretary General is facing strong calls to include the Saudi-led coalitionon its annual black list report that names nations and armed groups for killing and maiming children during war.

A petition, with over 370,00 singatures, has been submitted to the UN Secretary General’s office calling for the blacklisting of the Saudi led coaltion for its indiscriminate bombing of Yemen.

Human rights advocates raised concerns last year when former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon admitted Saudi Arabia had been taken off the list after intense lobbying.

At least 13 people have died and dozens are injured from a terror attack in which a van was ploughed into crowds in a busy tourist area of Barcelona.

The vehicle sped along the pedestrian area of the famous Las Ramblas area, a touristic and commercial hotspot in the Catalan capital.

Two people have been arrested, but police say neither was the driver.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a brief statement carried by its Amaq news agency, however no further evidence or details were provided to verify the claim.

See more on BBC News.

The Iraqi Prime Minister’s office said a unit of its security forces had committed abuses against civilians during an offensive to oust Islamic State insurgents from the City of Mosul reports Reuters.

 The statement was in response to the conclusion of an investigation into a report by German newspaper Der Spiegel that documented evidence of torture taking place in the Iraqi Emergency Response Division (ERD).