At least 12 people have been killed in Paris, after two armed gunmen attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The magazine's editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier and three other cartoonists are reportedly amongst the dead, with at least two police officers also reportedly killed. A further four people are seriously injured.

The attack, carried out by at least two masked gunmen has drawn international condemnation.

France's President Francois Hollande told reporters at the scene, "an act of exceptional barbarism has just been committed here in Paris against a newspaper, meaning (against) the expression of liberty."

Cuba has freed some of the 53 people political prisoners that it agreed to release to the US, said the State Department on Tuesday.

“They have already released some of the prisoners, we would like to see this completed in the near future, said the State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki.

Psaki further noted that the release of the 53 prisoners, were not a pre-condition for holding talks and further normalising relations between the US and Cuba, which are scheduled to take place later this month, reports Reuters.

The mass crimes against the Yezidis in Shingal last year by Islamic State militants can only be described as ‘genocide,’ said the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani.

Vowing to secure international recognition for atrocities committed against the Yezidi people, Barzani said,

“We have already formed a governmental committee which consists of two minsters and a number of eyewitnesses, who will do whatever is in their power to formally recognise the atrocities in Shingal as genocide.”

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel "will not let Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague."

The comments come in response to the Palestinian move to join the ICC, which Netanyahu said signified the Palestinian Authority's choosing "to take a path of confrontation with Israel."