Israeli police evicted Palestinian activists protesting against a planned Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Hundreds of police together with bulldozers surrounded the protest camp, named Bab al-Shams after a Palestinian village that had existed near it previously, and evicted around 200 activists.

In a statement, protest organisers from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, said:

“This is not the end of the popular struggle and it will continue in its full strength.”

Bab al-Shams is located in the E1 area between Jerusalem and the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, and was the site earmarked for the new Jewish settlement vowed by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in response to Palestine becoming a non-member UN State in the General Assembly.

"I welcome the military assistance France has provided to the Malian government, at their request, to halt this advance."

"These developments show the need to make urgent progress in implementing UN Security Council resolutions on Mali, and ensure that military intervention is reinforced by an inclusive political process leading to elections and a return to full civilian rule."

"We may well, through a European Union mechanism, provide training and support for the Malian army to give them strength to bring back the integrity of the Malian country in totality. It's absolutely essential, as part of our obligations as a permanent member of the Security Council that we provide assistance when we are requested."

Britain will spend some of its budget training an Ethiopian paramilitary security force, which stands accused of numerous human rights abuses, according to an internal document of the Department For International Development (DFID).

Described as a 'peace-building mission', the document states that the funding is to be provided for the Ethiopian government’s counter insurgency campaign in Ogaden, in order to train security forces in the Somali region of Ogaden, despite noting the “reputational risks of working alongside actors frequently cited in human rights violation allegations.”

The document outlines a five year funding programme worth £15 million.

Expressing concern over British engagement with the paramilitary group, known as the 'special police', or 'Liyu police', Amnesty International’s Ethiopia researcher, Claire Beston, said:

“There have been repeated allegations against the Liyu police of extrajudicial killings, rape torture and other violations including destruction of villages and there is no doubt the special police have become a significant source of fear in the region.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have backed a United Nations proposal to deploy unmanned surveillance drones along Congo’s eastern border.

The head of the UN peacekeeping mission, Herve Ladsous, said he had asked for the drones after thousands of U.N peacekeepers failed to prevent rebels from capturing the strategic Congolese city of Goma.

Congo’s information Minister Lamber Mende, welcomed the proposition, suggesting,

“The deployment of three unarmed drones will allow international troops to refine their management of the problematic border which separates DRC and Rwanda.”

Uganda’s Defence Minister Crispus kiyonga, welcomed the decision with caution, stating,

“Drones can be used for two purposes: you can use them for intelligence or for fighting. If a drone is for intelligence and it respects sovereignty, it will be alright.”

The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan asserted that the killing of three PKK members in France this week could be due to an "internal feud", rather than a political assassination as has been widely reported.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Erdogan said:

"The place was protected not by one lock but many coded locks,"

"Those three people opened it (the door). I do not assume they would open it to people they didn't know,"

"The killings could be the result of an internal feud or steps aimed at disrupting the steps we are taking with good intentions."

A former Serbian police officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, after being found guilty by a Bosnian war crimes court.

Judge Jasmina Kosovic said that Bozidar Kuvelja "participated in the expulsion of the Srebrenica population, detention of men and execution of detainees", stating,

"He is found guilty for crimes against humanity and the court sentences him to 20 years imprisonment."

However, Kuvelja was acquitted of charges of genocide with the judge noting the prosecutor had failed to prove that there was intent on the part of the defendant to exterminate an ethnic group.

Twenty-nine police officers were injured on Saturday during the 40th day of protests over the removal of Union flag at the City Hall.

Loyalists and nationalists started rioting at the sectarian interface by Short Strand, in East Belfast.

After the rioting subsided in the evening, it erupted again after 9pm with loyalists attacking police with bricks, stones and missiles by Castlereagh Street.

Police used water cannon to push rioters away from interface.

French President Francois Hollande has said that his government is ready to stop rebels who are currently in control of the north Mali.

The rebels have been advancing southwards and captured more territory in recent weeks, prompting Mali’s President Diancounda Traore to send a letter to Paris and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, pleading for assistance.

"They (rebels) are trying to deliver a fatal blow to the very existence of this country," Mr Hollande said.

"France, like its African partners, cannot accept this. I have decided that France will respond, alongside our African partners, to the request from the Malian authorities.

"We will do it strictly within the framework of the United Nations Security Council resolution. We will be ready to stop the terrorists' offensive if it continues."

A UN approved plan to send African troops to support Malian forces is only due to commence in September.

Following an emergency summit on Thursday, the UN Security Council called for "rapid deployment" of the troops and expressed concern at the advances by "terrorists and extremists groups".

French minister Kader Arif appeared to dismiss a quick deployment of French troops to Mali.

"There is clearly an emergency but... there's no point in rushing in. At the same time, there can be no kind of engagement that could take place in this emergency without taking account of the international scale."

Rebels and government forces in the Central African Republic have agreed to a ceasefire after talks held in Gabon.

The ceasefire follows three days of negotiations after a month-long rebellion was sparked in early December. The deal states that President Francois Bozize can remain in power until 2016 and calls for the dissolution of the country’s National Assembly as well as the appointment of a Prime Minister.

Rebel spokesman Eric Massi told Reuters,

“This is a good deal to bring peace,"

"But the ceasefire is contingent on several of our demands being met and we will judge Mr. Bozize's sincerity in the coming days."

France’s President Francois Hollande has confirmed that French troops are supporting Mali’s army in clashes with rebels in the north.

He said the soldiers "have brought support this afternoon to Malian units to fight against terrorist elements".
Mr Hollande added that the military intervention would last "as long as necessary".

"Mali is facing an assault by terrorist elements coming from the north whose brutality and fanaticism is known across the world," he said.

A state of emergency has been declared in the country and President Dioncounda Traore called on his people to unite to "free every inch" of the country.

He said a "powerful and massive riposte” will be launched after he "called for and obtained France's air support within the framework of the international legality".

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed that the British government supports France’s intervention. The US and the African Union also expressed support.

After weeks of fighting with government forces, Syrian rebels have captured Tafatnaz military airport, a key base in the north of the country.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that the fighting at the airport ended at 9am GMT and that the base is now entirely in rebel hands, although government jets have been bombing the base in attempts to destroy it.

Tafatnaz is the largest base to be seized so far and is an important gain for the rebels who already control vast sections of the north and east of Syria.

Read more on Sky News here.

Three Kurdish women activists - including a co-founder of the PKK - have been found shot dead in a Kurdish information centre in Paris, the BBC reports.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls called the killings "intolerable".

The three women had "undoubtedly" been executed, Mr Valls said, adding that the French authorities were determined to "shed light on this act".

"In this neighbourhood, in this Kurdish information centre, in the 10th arrondissement [district] where many Kurds live, I also came to express my sympathy to the relatives and close friends of these three women," he said.

Turkey has recently begun talks with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, with the aim of persuading the group to disarm.

However, Turkey is continuing with the mass trial 46 Kurdish and Turkish lawyers for representing the PKK leader.

British lawyers observing the trial said that private conversations between the lawyers and their clients had been ‘routinely’ illegally recorded. See The Guardian’s report.

The PKK, which is fighting for Kurdish self-rule, is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.

The BBC described the three activists slain Thursday as:

Sakine Cansiz: Founding member of the PKK, and first senior female member of the organisation; while jailed, led Kurdish protest movement out of Diyarbakir prison in Turkey in 1980s; after being released, worked with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Syria; was a commander of the women's guerrilla movement in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq; later took a lower profile and became responsible for the PKK women's movement in Europe

Fidan Dogan: Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress (KNC) political group; responsible for lobbying the EU and diplomats on behalf the PKK via the KNC

Leyla Soylemez: Junior activist working on diplomatic relations and as a women's representative on behalf of the PKK

The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Thursday called the UN-Arab League envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, "flagrantly biased" and accused him of being one of those "conspiring against Syria and its people."

The remarks were made in response to comments made by Brahimi earlier in the day when he asserted that President Assad could not have a role in a transitional government:

"In Syria...what people are saying is that a family ruling for 40 years is a little bit too long,"

"President Assad could take the lead in responding to the aspiration of his people rather than resisting it." 

Amnesty International has released a statement urging for a full investigation into the murder of three Kurdish activists in Paris, calling for ‘no stone to be left unturned’.

The human rights group’s Europe and Central Asia Programme Director John Dalhuisen said,

“There must be justice for these apparently political killings – no stone must be left unturned in the investigation by the French authorities."

“The Turkish authorities must cooperate fully in the investigation to bring those responsible to justice."

“Both sides must ensure that the killings do not derail negotiations aimed at ending the decades long conflict and on-going human rights abuses.”

Amnesty went on to state that the investigation into the murder of the activists must be “prompt and thorough”.

See the statement here.