"I am pleased to hear the developments we are making with establishing your Consulate General in Erbil, and I am confident that this presence will take this relationship further."

"There are many different fields we can build relations in, and the KRG is committed to enhancing this relationship."

A delegation made up of Cambodian and United Nations officials from the Khmer Rouge tribunal , will visit South-Asian countries in an attempt to address the court’s funding issues.

The delegation will visit five nations in the South-East Asia region, including Thailand and Singapore, to seek the $2.9 million shortfall in the Cambodian  government budgeting for the tribunal.

The tribunal is now proceeding in hearing it’s second case, in which two brothers are being tried for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has pledged to move away from “repeating slogans” in foreign diplomacy.

Speaking at the inauguration of the new foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, Rouhani said that he wanted to change Iranian foreign policy, but this does not mean that Iran would abandon its principles.

"Foreign policy is not carried out by repeating slogans," he said.

"One of the messages of the voters in the presidential election was that they wanted a change in foreign policy. That doesn't mean abandoning our principles but it does mean a change of method.

"We are going to strongly defend our national interests but that has to be done appropriately, precisely and rationally," the president said.

"The public will pay dearly for any foreign policy mistake."

Israel extradited a Bosnian Serb immigrant to Bosnia on Thursday to face charges over his alleged involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Israel’s Justice Ministry announced today.

An international arrest warrant was placed on the former army driver, Aleksandar Cvetkovic, after witnesses testified that he participated in the mass shootings of civilians.

Cvetkovic will be extradited to a court in the Bosnian capital, Sarajaevo, that was set up in 2005 to relieve the burden on the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

A bomb has exploded in a Hezbollah dominated neighbourhood in southern Beirut, killing at least 22 people.

It is thought the attack is related to Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian conflict, supporting the government.

Hezbollah politicians have condemned the blast as a “terrorist attack” and called on their supporters to remain calm.

A UN team is due to inspect sites of alleged chemical attacks in Syria after an agreement was reached with the government.

"The government of Syria has formally accepted the modalities essential for co-operation to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission," a spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Eduardo del Buey, said.

"The departure of the team is now imminent."

Both sides of the conflict have accused each other of using chemical weapons. The UN says it has received up to 13 reports about the use of chemical weapons in the country.

Scores of protestors were killed in Cairo as the Egyptian army cleared protest camps in the capital.

The protestors, there in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, have been in the camps since July.

The Egyptian security forces have now declared a month-long state of emergency in an attempt to quell the demonstrations.

The presidency said in a statement that the "security and order of the nation face danger due to deliberate sabotage, and attacks on public and private buildings and the loss of life by extremist groups."

Vice-President Mohammed El Baradei has handed in his resignation after the violence.

The government denied that the deaths were caused by live ammunition by the army.

"Security forces used only tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters though it was heavily fired at by armed elements from inside the two protest camps, causing the death of an officer and a conscript and the injury of four policemen and two conscripts," the interior ministry said in a statement.

A Sky News cameraman has also been reported killed in the violence.

Mick Deane was shot while he was covering the violence according to the head of Sky News John Ryley.

The first direct Israeli-Palestine peace talks in three years resumed today, according to Israeli officials.

Though few details about the agenda or location of the talks have been released, both sides confirmed that negotiations had begun.

Showing discontent over the increased Israeli settlement the Palestine Liberation Organisation(PLO) official, Yasser Abed Rabbo stated,

“The talks may collapse any time because of Israeli practices.”

“The closure of our activities is a direct result of extreme attacks on our staff, in an environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate or condone the killing, assaulting and abducting of humanitarian aid workers.”

Western officials and Syrian rebels have stated that the Sudanese government have been supplying arms through Qatar and Turkey to the rebels despite an international arms embargo in the area.

The spokesman for the Sudanese armed forces, denied such allegations, stating,

“We have no interest in supporting groups in Syria, especially if the outcome of the fighting is not clear. These allegations are meant to harm our relations with countries Sudan has good relations with.”

The president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan threatened to intervene to defend the Kurdis population caught up in the Syrian conflict.

 The president, Massoud Barzani, called for a delegation to be sent to Syria to check if the Kurds in the North-East of Syria were being targeted. Barzani outlined that evidence of attacks on Kurds would warrant  Iraqi Kurdistan to,

“make use of all its capabilities to defend the Kurdish women, children and citizens in western Kurdistan.”

UK aid worth £480,000 was seized by Somalian militants in November 2011.

Humanitarian aid supplies were taken from a warehouse during a raid by al-Shabab, revealed the Department for International Development.

DfID's annual accounts said the £480,000 was written off "following the theft between November 2011 and February 2012, by al-Shabab in southern Somalia, of DfID-funded humanitarian materials and supplies from the offices and warehouses of partner organisations, to which DfID had provided funding to deliver projects and programmes".

The accounts said DfID's partners had "no prior warning of the confiscations being carried out and therefore had no time to prevent the loss by relocating goods".

A DfID spokesperson said: "DfID works in some of the most dangerous places in the world, including Somalia, because tackling the root causes of poverty and instability there ensures a safer world and a safer UK.

"Working in conflict-affected and fragile states carries inherent risk."

He said DfID did all it could "to mitigate against this but, on occasion, losses will occur".

"We work with our partners to design programmes that protect our investment from misuse or theft."