The United Nations refugee agency stated that 13.6 million people have been left displaced by fighting in Iraq and Syria, and called for greater international action as winter approaches.

Amin Awad, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees's director for the Middle East and North Africa, said,

"Now when we talk about a million people displaced over two months, or 500,000 overnight, the world is just not responding."

Reuters reported, Awad going on to call for greater international action, stating,

"Other countries in the world, especially the Europeans and beyond, should open their borders and share the burden."

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.

At least 48 students have been killed in a blast at a high school in the northeast Nigerian city of Potiskum on Monday, according to latest reports.

Approximately 2,000 students were gathering for a morning assembly at the Government Technical Science College, when the explosion occured. According to a local morgue attendant, 48 bodies have been brought to the hospital so far, all of them appearing to be between the ages of 11 and 20 years old.

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.

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 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.

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”.