Unesco says the destruction of Palmyra's nearly 2,000 year old Baalshamin temple is a war crime.

The UN body said the destruction of the site by Islamic State militants was "an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity".

"The systematic destruction of cultural symbols embodying Syrian cultural diversity reveals the true intent of such attacks, which is to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history," Unesco Director-General Irina Bokova said.

World stock markets plummeted with a sharp drop in the US dollar and major commodities, as China failed to mitigate sliding confidence in its domestic stock market on Monday.

The UN's International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas has called upon India to suspend all legal proceedings against Italian marines, who stand accused of killing two Indian fishermen, pending international mediation.

The tribunal also rejected Italy's request to release the marines while the final ruling was decided.

Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone face murder charges for the killing of the two men off the coast of Kerala and are on bail awaiting trial. The Italians say they thought the fishermen were pirates.

The new head of Nigeria's army, General Tukur Buratei has survived an attack by Boko Haram militants on his convoy in Borno state, in the northeast of the country.

The ambush resulted in clashes in which 5 militants and one Nigerian soldier were killed.

The ambush in Borno came as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Nigeria to mark the fourth anniversary of a Boko Haram attack on the UN building in the capital, Abuja.

Negotiators from North Korea and South Korea spoke through Saturday night and into Sunday evening to ease tensions between the two nations after an exchange of artillery fire last week.

The Department of Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that the EU delegation office in Erbil aid the regions foreign policy and is being launched at a critical moment in Kurdish history.