The armed Rohingya organisation, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army declared a unilateral month long ceasefire on Saturday in order allow aid to be distributed. 

Violence in Myanmar between government troops and ARSA has dramatically escalated in recent weeks after Myanmar's troops launched a large scale operation in Rakhine purported to be in retaliation for coordinated attacks on police posts by ARSA. 

Over 270,000 Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee the region to Bangladesh, with numerous reports of government soldiers firing at fleeing refugees and burning their homes. 

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu condemned Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s silence on the “slow genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya community by Myanmar’s military forces.

In a letter to the fellow Nobel laureate he said,

The United States on Thursday called on Myanmar's government to allow humanitarian aid into the state of Rakhine as the fighting between Rohingya fighters and states troops heightened and tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled. 

"There has been a significant displacement of local populations following serious allegations of human rights abuses - including mass burnings of Rohingya villages and violence conducted by security forces and also armed civilians," the spokesperson for the State Department, Heather Nauert said on Thursday.    

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.