A Syrian passenger plane that departed from Moscow has been forced to land in Ankara after Turkish fighter jets intercepted it and escorted the Syrian Air flight to Esenboga airport.

Turkish authorities stopped the plane over suspicions that it carried military equipment.

Officials claimed “illegal cargo” was discovered on the plane and it had been confiscated.

Syrian and Russian officials strongly denied the claims and said Turkey endangered the lives of the passengers and the crew.

“The unlawful killing by both Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces only grows worse; both sides need to halt this downward spiral. Nigeria’s government should swiftly bring to justice the Boko Haram members and security agents who have committed these serious crimes.”

An agreement on the rules for a referendum on Scottish independence is in its final stages and almost ready to be signed by Alex Salmond of the SNP and the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

A Scottish government spokesperson said:

“We are on track for the full agreement, including the terms of a section 30 order, to be presented to the First Minister and the Prime Minister over the next few days.”

Nato’s secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday that the alliance is ready to defend Turkey against any aggression from Syria, after a week of clashes between the neighbours.

Rasmussen spoke to reporters ahead of a Nato defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels, and said,

"Obviously Turkey can rely on Nato solidarity.

"We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary."

"Genocide did not take place in Srebrenica. This is about individual guilt of members of the Serb people. The Serbian parliament condemned this crime, but did not say it was genocide.

No Serb recognizes that genocide took place in Srebrenica, and I am no different."

"Europe can ask anything except that we renounce Kosovo... In case it was necessary to renounce Kosovo, then it's more acceptable to us to forget about Europe (EU).

According to an independent analysis of criminal justice in the European Union, carried out by the London based organisation Fair Trials International, the abuses of Human rights in EU based criminal trials has doubled in the past five years.

The analysis found that states on the eastern fringes of the EU habitually violated individual’s right to liberty and a fair trial. The figures, which were taken from a 5 year between 2007 and this summer, showed the number of right to a fair criminal trial violations increase by over a 100%.

The International Criminal Court is considering the venue of Saif al-Islam’s trial at a public hearing in The Hague.

Libya wants to try Gaddafi in the country and lawyer Ahmed al-Jehani told the hearing that patience was needed as it will take the authorities some time to organise a fair trial.

However, lawyers of the ICC argued that Gaddafi will not receive a fair trial in Libya and the hearing will hear evidence from ICC defence lawyer Melinda Taylor, who was arrested by Libyan authorities earlier this year while visiting Muammar Gaddafi’s son.

A 14-year-old Pakistani rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, was shot and injured in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

Malala rose to fame in 2009 for keeping a diary on BBC Urdu about life in the Swat Valley under Taliban rule. She was internationally recognised for criticising Taliban policies, especially the shutting of schools for girls, and was awarded the first National Peace Prize by the Pakistani government in 2011.