The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has confirmed that he supports the initiative by President Rouhani to improve the relationship between Iran and the US.

"We support the diplomatic initiative of the government and attach importance to its activities in this trip," he said in a statement on his website.

But he also said that "some of what happened on the New York trip was not appropriate".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iranians that life under the regime could get worse and that they deserve better than the government they currently have.

Netanyahu said Rouhani did not "represent the Iranian people" in an interview with BBC Persia.

Thousands of supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood defied a government imposed curfew in a March through Cairo today.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad warned Turkey that they will ‘pay a heavy price’ for supporting ‘terrorism’, following Turkey’s continued support for Syria’s armed opposition.

Speaking in an interview on Turkish TV, Assad said,

"It is not possible to put terrorism in your pocket and use it as a card because it is like a scorpion which won't hesitate to sting you at the first opportunity,"

The Gambia has announced it has decided to withdraw from the Commonwealth in a statement on state television.

It said it had "decided that The Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism".

The British Foreign Office has said it “very much regrets” the African state’s decision to withdraw.

In a letter addressed to the United Nations Security Council  today, Human Rights Watch urged members to use their visit to the Great Lakes region of Central Africa to help end human rights abuses and impunity for the worst crimes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

An Ecuadorian judge has ordered the arrest of 3 senior retired police and army officers, in the country’s first ever trial for crimes against humanity.

A further 7 officers have been placed under house arrest, as the country investigates allegations of torture, kidnapping and sexual violence, that occurred in 1985, against three members of a banned leftist opposition group.

The crimes were alleged to have occurred during late President Leon Febres Cordero’s rule from 1984 to 1988.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, today called for video games to punish crimes committed in battle by applying real-life international war conventions to the gameplay.

In a statement released today, the Red Cross said,

An arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court for a Kenyan journalist who is suspected to have attempted to influence witnesses.

Walter Barasa is alleged to have offered bribes to prosecution witnesses at the trial of Deputy President William Ruto.

"I have not gotten in touch with any witnesses or anybody having any intention of asking them or bribing them to pull out of the case," Barasa said according to Reuters reports.

This is the first time the ICC has issued a warrant for such an offence.

A former minister in Côte d’Ivoire has been issues with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for allaeged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Charles Ble Goude is suspected of committing rape, murder, persecution and other inhumane acts during post-election violence that gripped the country between December 2010 and April 2011.

The warrant was issued in December 2011, but has only now been made public.