China has agreed for further UN Security Council sanctions to be placed North Korea in response to its latest nuclear tests.

The US is currently drafting a resolution for the UN Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea alongside a ban on exports of textiles reports Reuters.

Speaking to reporters China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said,

Catalan’s parliament passed legislation approving the October 1^st independence referendum on Wednesday night amidst heavy opposition from Spanish government aligned MPs.

The legislation passed by 72 votes despite 52 opposition MPs staging a walk out of the Catalan parliament, reports abc news.

The passing of the legislation was denounced by the Spanish government, which has pledged to take legal action against the parliament to stop the independence referendum.

Syrian forces dropped chemical weapons on the rebel held town of Khan Sheikhun killing 80 civilians in April, confirmed a UN Commission of Inquiry On Syria on Wednesday.

Documenting a litany of rights abuses and violations of international law, the Commission’s press release, said,

Prominent Indian journalist and critic of Hindu nationalist politics, Gauri Lankesh, was shot and killed outside her home in Bangalore on Tuesday night.

Ms Lankesh, 55, had previously worked in New Delhi for leading English language newspapers, and was most recently editing her own local-language weekly in the Karnataka capital.

She was known for being critical of the BJP and the so-called Hindutva brigade and outspoken against the rise of violent Hindu fundamentalism in India.

Myanmar has blocked all UN aid agencies from delivering vital supplies to Rohingya caught up in the country’s genocidal campaign, reports the Guardian.

The office of the UN resident coordinator in Myanmar said deliveries to northern Rakhine state had been suspended “because the security situation and government field-visit restrictions rendered us unable to distribute assistance”.

Bell Pottinger, one of the City's leading PR firm, whose former clients include the Rajapaksa government has been expelled from its trade association after an investigation into the firm's secret campaign to stir up racial tensions in South Africa found it to be the worst breach of ethics in the association's history.

China's president, Xi Jingping on Tuesday called on fellow BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa to push for a more "just" international order by ensuring greater representation of developing countries within international bodies. 

“BRICS countries should push for a more just and reasonable international order,” Mr Xi Jinping told a BRICS conference, Reuters reported. 

“We should work together to address global challenges," he added. 

Catalonia’s pro-separatist government has set up its own tax agency that is ready for action if the Catalan people vote for independence on the October 1 referendum.

Speaking to reporters, the head of the Catalan regional government Carlos Puigdemont, said

“We have put in place the structures necessary for Catalonian to be ready to enforce the will Catalans express in the October 1 Referendum.”  

The International Criminal Court must hold Burundian officials at the highest level accountable for crimes against humanity concluded a United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Monday.

 “The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity are attributable primarily to state officials at the highest level and to senior officers and members of the National Intelligence Service, the police, the army and the Imbonerakure [youth league of the ruling party],” the report said.

Thousands of people joined protests across Argentina to demonstrate against the disappearance of a human rights activist last month.

Violent clashes took place between protestors and security forces, with reports of Molotov cocktails being thrown at police headquarters in the southern region of Patagonia, where 28 year old Santiago Maldonado disappeared on August 1.

At least 23 people were injured and 30 arrested.