The jailed leader of the PKK, Abudllah Ocalan, has reiterated his call on his fighters to lay down their arms in their fight against Turkey.

Pro-Kurdish politician Sirri Sureyya Onder, who visited Mr Ocalan in prison last week, read out a statement by the leader at an event marking the Kurdish Newroz festival.

Mr Ocalan called for a congress to decide on abandoning the armed struggle, in a message heard by hundreds of thousands of supporters at a rally in Diyarbakir.

US President Barack Obama, reiterating his belief that a two state solution was the best way to ensure the long term security of Israel, said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pre-election stance would make it “hard to find a path were people are seriously belieiving that negotiations are possible.

Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi called on the United Nations to dispatch “urgent intervention” to the country, as Houthi militants took over Yemen's third largest city.

At least 70 bodies have been found in a mass grave in a Nigerian town recaptured from Boko Haram.

Troops form Chad and Niger said they found the bodies in Damasak, which was under the control of the militants for months.

Some of the victims are reported to have had their throats slit and others were decapitated, according to reports.

Chadian army Col Azem Bermandoa Agouna told AFP that he had visited the grave and seen "about 100 bodies spread under a bridge just outside the town".

Explosions at mosques in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have killed dozens of worshippers and injured over 100 people, as people gathered for noon prayers on Friday.

At least 77 people were reported to have been killed in the blasts, after suicide bombers attacked the Badr and al-Hashoosh mosque, reports the BBC.

One witness told Reuters, "I was going to pray at the mosque then I heard the first explosion, and a second later I heard another one."

Mali’s government said it will not participate in further talks with rebels seeking autonomy for northern Mali, in a statement made on Wednesday.

The government spokesperson, Choguel Kokala Maiga, said,

“There is no question for us to resume negotiations again, otherwise it will never end.”

The government refusal comes only a day after the rebel coalition agreed to further rounds of talks.
Mediators from the United Nations, African Union, France, China, Russia and Algeria have flown to Mali in attempts to salvage the peace-talks.

The militant group ISIS may have committed genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq, according a new report by the UN.

The report said ISIS had "the intent... to destroy the Yazidi as a group."

"In some instances, villages were entirely emptied of their Yazidi population."

The report found “widespread abuses committed by ISIL include killings, torture, rape and sexual slavery, forced religious conversions and the conscription of children”.

A statement by the OHCHR said: "One witness described how two ISIL members sat laughing as two teenage girls were raped in the next room.

Senior Al Shabab leader Adan Garar was killed in a drone strike last Friday, the Pentagon confirmed.

Mr Gara, who was a key suspect in the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate mall in 2013, was targeted with Hellfire missiles in southern Somalia.

The US defence department said in a statement that Garar's death "has dealt another significant blow to the Al Shabab terrorist organisation in Somalia".

The Tunisian capital was hit by an attack on its most prestigious museum, leaving 19 people dead, including two Tunisians and 17 foreign tourists, and over 40 injured.

Gunmen stormed the Bardo Museum, world famous for its large collection of Roman mosaics, and started shooting at tourists, killing several. Two gunmen were killed by police.