China and Britain must seek common ground while shelving differences Chinse President Xi Jinping told British Prime Minister Theresa on the side-lines of the G20 summit in Hamburg.

Following a meeting between Mr Xi Jinping and the British Prime Minister on Friday, China’s foreign ministry said discussions had been held on “consolidating strategic mutual trust,” adding that “both sides should uphold the principle of mutual respect and equality and respect each other’s core interests and major concerns. Both sides must seek common ground while shelving differences.”  

Israel cut its funding to the UN this week after UNESCO designated that a shrine in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank was a "Palestinian World Heritage Site in Danger". 

Slamming the move as "another delusional UNESCO decision", the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, instructed that $1 million be cut from UN funding and instead by used to build a museum examining Jewish heritage in Hebron. 

This is the latest in a series of Israeli cuts to UN funding made as a protest move against decisions which it says favours Palestine. 

Talks aimed at re-unifying Cyprus collapsed On Friday as both sides reported deadlock. 

One of the key issues that remain is what happens to the over 35,000 Turkish troops that remain in Turkish Cypriot region.  

The Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities have been separated by a UN buffer zone since the conflict in 1974.

"Despite the very strong commitment and engagement of all the delegations and the different parties... the Conference on Cyprus was closed without an agreement being reached," the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres told reporters. 

Iraq’s Kurdish leader said on Thursday that there was no turning back on a bid to achieve an independent Kurdish state, reports Reuters.

The President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Masoud Barzani told Reuters that the timetable for independence after a vote in September “was flexible but not open-ended.”

The referendum is thought to be a deciding factor in what happens with the status of the city of Kirkuk, which Kurdish Peshmerga defended from Islamic State in 2015.

A court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday convicted seven soldiers for shooting people at close range who they accused of being militia members. 

The massacre was filmed in a video that was broadcast widely earlier this year, clearly depicting the soldiers shooting people, including young women at very close range. 

The sentencing comes as last month the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish an international inquiry. The UN and human rights groups have long criticised the Congolese government for not holding perpetrators of such crimes to account. 

A former Serbian soldier accused of war crimes due to his alleged involvement in a massacre of over 100 Kosovo Albanians, has died before the conclusion of his trial in Belgrade.

Milojko Nikolic, one of the men on trial for allegedly murdering over 100 ethnic Albanian civilians in the Kosovo villages of Cuska, Ljubenic, Pavlan and Zahac during the spring of 1999, died on Wednesday in Belgrade.

Nikolic was one of 11 former members of the 177th Yugoslav Army Intervention Squad charged with war crimes in the case, and the process against him will now be suspended.

The Palestinian Authority expressed concern over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision not to meet President Mahmoud Abbas during his trip to Israel.

Modi was welcomed by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a 3 day visit to Israel.

Speaking to Aljazeera, Palestinian Deputy Foreign Minister Tasir Jaradat, said,

“We expected him [Modi] to visit both Israel and Palestine. To play an important role between two sides and to be able to spread the message of peace one should visit both.”

The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed that those suspected of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine will be tried under Dutch law.

The decision follows attempts by Russia to block an international court form being set up over the incident.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said that the Dutch–led investigative team will continue to operate during the “prosecution phase.”

 The investigation team, which includes Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, found that the plane was downed by a Russian made rocket fired from territory in Ukraine that was held by pro-Russia separatists

The United Nations Secretary-General has announced the appointment of a former French judge to lead a legal team in Geneva that will investigate evidence of war crimes being committed in Syria.

Catherine Marchi-Uhel was appointed by UN secretary general António Guterres to head the investigative body known as the “International Impartial and Independent Mechanism”.

Catalonia’s ruling coalition said the region would declare independence from Spain within 48 hours of a referendum to be held in October if voters backed secession, in a draft bill proposed on Tuesday.

Gabriela Serra, a member of the coalition that governs Catalonia told AFP that "if the majority of votes are for creating a Catalan republic, obviously independence will have to be declared immediately".