Thousands of Libyans have protested against moves by tribal and militant leaders to create a semi-autonomous region in the east of the country.

Tribal and militia leaders announced the move to create the semi-autonomous territory of Cyrenaica on Tuesday.

The move has significant support amongst the population of the east, however many Libyans denounced the move.

Large rallies calling for unity were held in both Tripoli and Benghazi after clerics warned the move could lead to the breakup of Libya.

Urging the people of Scotland to seize the chance of independence, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Alex Salmond told delegates at the party's conference on Saturday that "being independent is the most natural thing in this world".

Salmond went on,

"In devolved Scotland we can demand - in an independent Scotland, we can deliver."

Five senior members of the Taliban have agreed to a transfer to Qatar as part of a peace deal.

Afghan government officials announced the agreement after meeting the prisoners earlier this week on a visit to Guantanamo Bay.

The US has not yet approved the transfer but is considering it as part of ongoing attempts to engage in negotiations with the Taliban.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stated that he will eventually secure the adoption of a bill recognising the 1915 genocide of Armenians by Turkey, after it was deemed unconstitutional by France’s Constitutional Council.

Sarkozy, who is running for re-election in April, made the pledge whilst addressing a French Armenian community on Wednesday. Speaking at the p residential Elysee Palace in Paris, he said,

"Now we see it. The West, or shall we call it, “the international community”, is paralysed in the face of one of the most barbaric and systematic ethnic cleanings of the 21st Century. We are talking Syria, although it has uncanny similarities with Sri Lanka."

"So in the second decade of the 21st century we have devised the mechanisms for transmitting crude evidence of atrocity. Thanks to courage and the mobile phone, the world’s citizenry is better informed about the bloodletting in Syria than during any massacre at any time in history."

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has expressed outrage at the recent attack on war graves in two British cemeteries in Benghazi.

200 graves of British and Commonwealth nationals, most of who died in World War 2, were damaged in attacks by unknown individuals.

"It's horrific and wrong and we have expressed to the Libyan authorities our profound distress at what has happened on behalf of those who have loved ones there," Mr Burt told the BBC.

Expressing "deep disappointment" at the Assad regime's failure to allow Valerie Amos, UN's under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, into the country, and strongly urged that she be.

In a unanimously agreed statement, the UN Security Council said,

"[They] deplore the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Syria, where the United Nations says security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians during an 11 month government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters."

North Korea announced Wednesday that it would freeze nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and uranium enrichment at its Yongbyon plant, even as the US promised food aid to the country.

The North Koreans also agreed to the return of nuclear inspectors, who were kicked out of the country in 2009, though they are limited to the Yongbyon site.

At the same time, the US has offered 240,000 metric tonnes of nutritional assistance, a great part of it in the form of biscuits, as part of the ‘Leap-day deal’.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the Defence Minister of Sudan for crimes alleged to have been committed in Darfur.

The Defence Minister, Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, is alleged to be responsible for 20 counts of war crimes and 21 counts of crimes against humanity. At the time, Mr Hussein was Interior Minister and the Sudanese government’s representative in Darfur.