The UN Security Council has asked the Secretary-General to study the role played by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in resolving conflict in Liberia.

The UN Mission in Liberia closed last month after nearly 15 years during which the country was at civil war for 14 years.

Earlier this year President George Weah succeeded Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in what is described as the first peaceful transfer of power between democratically elected leaders in 71 years.

A peace and national building plan submitted by the UN Secretary-General will continue to be implemented in partnership with the Liberian government.

The Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has backed a devolution document submitted by 18 local authorities in Yorkshire that outlined proposals for devolved powers to a collective administration, reports BBC.

The ‘One Yorkshire’ proposals called for the government to devolve responsibility and funding matters including transport budgets, franchised bus services and adult skills funding to create a Yorkshire Combined Authority.

In response to the proposals, Mr Corbyn said,

The European Union in a statement on Thursday threatened further sanctions on Venezuela if recently called elections were deemed unfair reports Reuters.

The EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro had called presidential elections without consensus on required “conditions for a credible and inclusive electoral process.”

The US ambassador at large for international religious freedom called on Myanmar to release journalists jailed for covering the plight of Rohingya Muslims, reports Reuters.

US envoy Sam Brownback, speaking in Bangladesh, said,

“The journalists should be released who are in jail in Myanmar.”

Brownback was speaking on whilst on a trip to see first hand the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have been detained in Myanmar since December.

The International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) has declared Myanmar’s state violence against Rohingya Muslims a genocide, in its latest report this week.

The ISCI, based in London, said in a press release that its latest report “presents irrefutable evidence of the final stages of genocide; mass annihilation and symbolic enactment, both of which remove the victim group from the country’s collective history”.

“The parallels between the situation in Myanmar and other genocides are stark,” said Professor Penny Green from Queen Mary’s School of Law and Director of ISCI. “The treatment of the Rohingya is reminiscent of that of the Jews in Germany in the 1930s”.

The exiled Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, met with over 30 representatives from his JuntsxCat party in Berlin to discuss future strategy, reports Deutsche Welle.

Following the state court’s refusal to grant Spain’s request for the extradition of Mr Puigdemont on the charge of rebellion, the Catalan leader met with 30 out of 34 of the party’s members of parliament.

Speaking to reporters, the JuntsxCat party spokeswoman, Anna Grabalosa said,

More than 20 years after the Rwandan genocide occurred, the bodies of more than 150 victims have been buried at a genocide memorial site in the country.

Thousands of people gathered as 157 victims were laid to rest at the Ruhango Episcopal Anglican Church. The church itself is the site of a massacre and has now been converted into a genocide memorial site.

The 157 bodies were only recovered recently from different areas across the Rusororo Sector.

“It was always a challenge that our people could not get a decent burial, we have been searching for them,” said Gerard Mudahemuka, whose family were killed in the church massacre.

China  has announced proposals to remove its limit on foreign ownership of automotive ventures by 2022, reports Reuters.

China imposed foreign ownership restrictions in 1994, limiting foreign carmakers to owning no more than a 50 percent share of any local venture. A decision that was designed allow its local automotive industry to compete and develop.

Israel has said it is sanctioning the owners of Gaza buses which transported Palestinian protestors to border demonstrators, reports the Associated Press.

The military body for Palestinian civilian affairs announced on Facebook that the owners of 14 bus companies and their families would be denied “extra privileges” and ties to Israel would be “cancelled” for ignoring warnings and transporting “violent” protestors.

Israeli forces have killed at least 28 Palestinians and injured over 1500 since protests began at the end of March.

The United Nations and Bangladesh questioned claims by Mynamar that the Rohingya refugee repatriation process had started, reports CNN.

A statement released on Saturday by Myanmar claiming that it had repatriated the first Rohingya family from refugees who fled to Bangladesh, was refuted by both the UN and Bangladesh.

Shortly after Myanmar’s statement, the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency said in a on Sunday that it had no direct knowledge of that case and was not consulted or involved in the alleged return.