Palestinian protesters in Ramallah, protesting against the resumption of peace talks between the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel, were beaten up by Palestinian Authority police, and 5 arrested, states Human Rights Watch. In a statement, HRW condemned the police violence which left 10 protesters injured.

Tom Porteous, deputy program director at HRW said,

The police beat protesters and then arrested injured people, some even from the hospital

India’s ruling Congress-led coalition unanimously agreed on the formation of a new state in the Telangana region of the southern Andhra-Pradesh state, officials said today.

Supporters of the new state say that the area had been neglected by the Andhra Pradesh government.

The Syrian government has captured a key district in the strategically important city of Homs.

Syrian state media said the army has “restored security and stability to the neighbourhood of Khalidiya”, a former rebel stronghold.

Witnesses of police violence at peaceful protests in Tunis, Tunisia have told Human Rights Watch (HRW) of the use of excessive teargas and also that police dispersal efforts included beating and insulting protesters and journalists.

The violence occurred at a peaceful sit-in demonstration outside the National Constituent Assembly, to protest the assassination of opposition politican Mohamed Brahmi.

HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director, Nadim Houry said:

The global human rights organisation, Amnesty International, announced that it would open a new regional office in Kenya later this year, in an attempt to bolster its work in East Africa.

The organisation said in a statement,

Peace talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators are due to resume for the first time since 2010.

The US State Department announced that the talks will be held in Washington from Monday.

Spokesperson Jen Psaki said that Secretary of State John Kerry had called both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and agreed with the leaders that the discussions would "serve as an opportunity to develop a procedural work plan for how the parties can proceed with the negotiations in the coming months".

 A Kosovan Serb, Ivan Radiovojevic, was arrested in Kosovo Polje, regarding alleged responsibility for war crimes that were committed in March 1999.

In response to the arrest, the Head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, Aleksander Vulin, expressed concern over the lists of war crime indictments that they had not been given access to.

Sudan has said it will postpone the shut down of the oil pipeline between itself and South Sudan by two weeks, whilst talks between the two countries continue regarding the alleged support of rebels.

Last month, Khartoum pledged to close the pipelines by August 7th unless Juba stopped supporting border rebels - an accusation which South Sudan denies. 

The undersecretary in the foreign ministry, Rahmatullah Osman, told Reuters:

Over 100 supporters of Egypt’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, have been shot dead by security officials at mass street sit-in demonstrations in Cairo.

A spokesman for Morsi’s political party, the Muslim Brotherhood, Gehad El-Haddad said,

Around 1,200 inmates have esaped from a jail in the Libyan city of Benghazi, following reported riots inside the prison while a political assassination triggered protests in the city.

According to a security official most of the escapees face serious charges, although 'some' had been recaptured.

The then-US ambassador and three other Americans were killed last year in Benghazi, one of the most unstable parts of post-revolution Libya.

Buildings associated with the Muslim Brotherhood were also attacked by protesters following the assassination of Abdelsalam al-Mismari, a prominent political activist.