The former Congolese rebel leader Bosco ‘The Terminator’ Ntaganda has pleaded not guilty on the first day of his trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Mr Ntaganda faces 18 charges, 13 on war crimes and 5 on crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, sexual slavery of civilians, displacement of civilians, forcible transfer of population, and the enlistment and conscription of child soldiers under the age of fifteen years and using them to participate actively in hostilities.

Militants form the Al Shabab group have attacked an African Union base in the south of Somalia, the BBC reports.

The AU mission in Somalia said they made a tactical withdrawal from the Janale base, but are now back in control.

Al Shabab say they killed 70 soldiers of the AU contingent in the country.

Residents told the BBC Somali service that AU forces were seen leaving the base, which is run by the Ugandan troops.

Turkey has charged three journalists, working for Vice News, with "aiding a terrorist organisation".

Jake Hanrahan and cameraman Philip Pendlebury, who are British, and their Iraqi translator and a driver, who wished to be unnamed, were taken into custody on Thursday while working in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir where they were covering clashes between the Turkish army and the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, the youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

According to their lawyer, police were tipped off by an anonymous caller, who claimed the journalists were “working with the Islamic State”.

“This is an entirely baseless accusation,” lawyer Ahmet Ay said. “And none of the questions asked during their interrogation at the police station had anything to do with Isis. Nobody asked them about ties to the Islamist group.”

The UN will visit the UK to investigate whether recent welfare reforms by the British government have caused “grave or systematic violations” of disabled people’s human rights, “ reports The Independent.

A “de-centralisation” bill that was backed by President Petro Poroshenko’ political bloc and his government with over 39 more votes than the required majority.

Myanmar’s president signed of four bills that had been championed by radical Buddhist organisations and criticised by several rights groups as discriminatory to the Islamic community.

The last week saw the president sign bills on restricting polygamy, interfaith marriage and certain aspects of religious conversation reports Reuters.