The Egyptian Army has issued a warning ahead of planned mass-protests against President Mohammed Morsi.

Army head General Abdel-Fatteh al-Sisi said the armed forces would "not remain silent as the country slides into uncontrollable conflict".

"There is a state of division in the society, and the continuation of it is a danger to the Egyptian state.

"There must be consensus," he said.

The head prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatour Bensouda, believes that Palestine qualifies to join the ICC after the UN general Assembly voted to admit the country as a non-member state in November.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed concerns over the planned peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, after a row over the group's office in Doha.

Mr Kerry told reporters in Doha: "We need to see if we can get back on track." adding that he was sunsure whether this was possible.

"We are waiting to find out whether the Taliban will respond," Kerry said.

"States who provide arms have responsibilities in terms of the eventual use of those arms to commit ... war crimes or crimes against humanity,"

"Those arms will contribute to the escalation of war crimes, we are very much worried that more arms will signify an increasing presence of those violations."

An independent Unite Nations expert expressed concerns about the specific situation across various states of Sudan, which have been littered with on-going clashes and hostilities.

Eight alleged members of an al-Qaeda linked network have been arrested in the Spanish territory of Ceuta.

Those detained, all Spanish citizens, are suspected to have been recruiting individuals to fight in Syria and other countries.

The arrests were made in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.

A senior Taliban spokesperson has said they are willing to swap a captive US soldier held since 2009 for 5 senior militants held at Guantanamo Bay.

In an exclusive telephone interview with the Associated Press from the Taliban office in Qatar, spokesman Shaheen Suhail said that army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl "is, as far as I know, in good condition".

"First has to be the release of detainees. Yes. It would be an exchange. Then step by step, we want to build bridges of confidence to go forward."